Monitor Reviews

This monitor, well, it sucks. It was a waste of the $600 I spent. The biggest problem is that it's very blurry above 1600x1200 making those modes almost useless (on XP). Attached to my PowerBook it can't handle rates greater than 60Hz above 1600x1200 and it so blurry even at lower resolutions it's unusable.

Second major complaint is the display is flat and lifeless. Colors are washed out and contrast is poor. Forget calibrating it for anything, you are lucky to just have it look decent.

It's a very poor quality 19" display in a 70 pound 21" box. Unless you want a monitor that's big because you have eyesight problems then this isn't the monitor for you.

Would I buy one again? Hell no.

I was hesitant getting this monitor because although I knew I wanted a 21" screen, I was afraid it would be too massive to fit on my desk (a corner unit). I was also torn between this and the comparable aperture-grill NEC FE2111 which appears to be used by a large number of top gaming PC manufacturers (Alienware, Falcon, etc.).

I've always wanted a Sony and kicked myself last time (6 years ago) I bought a non-aperture grill monitor, so I thought I'd never forgive myself if the NEC FE2111 turned out to be a dud, so I took the plunge.

As I brought the massive box into the house, I was kicking myself--what was I thinking that this huge monitor would fit?

But once I got the monitor on the desk, it fit much more nicely than I ever imagined. The back of the monitor is much more narrow than I ever imagined, allowing the monitor to sit way back into the corner of room--about the same depth as my old 17" monitor.

Wow! I love the image quality too. Bright, clean, crisp. I've only had it for 2 days, but so far I love it!

I am 15, and i use my pc alot. I used to have a 16' Sony Flat Screen Monitor, but i needed a bigger one for gaming and using the internet. This monitor helped tremendously, and the display is crisp, clear, and refresh rates are FAST! For Example, right now im using 1600 x 1200 and the refresh rate is 85 Hertz. If you use this Monitor, i recommend using 1600 x 1200 because it looks the best, although the monitor can display incredibly higher resolutions. I highly recomend this monitor for someone who wants a BIG monitor, a perfectly flat screen, but wants to avoid the unbearably high prices of LCD monitors the same size.

I have spent the last three days being frustrated by monitors because my KDS VS-19 blew (with smoke and everything) after just a few months of use. For about two weeks before it blew, it was having sync problems, jumping around a lot every few minutes, so I knew it was going to go.

Rather than try to send it in for repairs, I decided to go out and grab another budget 19" monitor, hopefully with a better lifespan. I've realized that I was actually quite spoiled by the image quality on the VS-19 -- compared to similarly-priced models from Futura and Envision (I've tried three of each in the last two days now), the picture quality of the KDS unit is spectacular.

The KDS had reasonably good geometry and convergence, excellent contrast/color fidelity and good pixel focus with minimal moire. It was a very nice image at high resolutions or high refresh rates. By comparison, the pictures on the Futura and Envision 19" monitors are truly HORRIBLE!

Unfortunately for KDS, their nice-picture product had a nice, short life span...

Both the KDS and AOC Shortneck monitors are a great value. The shortneck configuration takes up the spece of a 17" and the .25 dot pitch gives a great image. The controls are also easy to work with. One of the best 19" monitors for the money. Have installed and recommended about 15 of them with no complaints.

This product has brought me nearing 2 years of wonderful service. Can't beat the price for a good monitor.

This scale appears to be a chrome, silver finished scale, but it is really a cheap plastic white scale. It is very difficult to work and it came automaticly set and it will not allow you to make changes. I was VERY, VERY disappointed and disatisfied with this product.

i was able to put the input of only one person into the scale memory. i was not able to go back and change anything. this information needs to be accurate for correct bodyfat percentage.

When I received the bathroom scale, I was disappointed. The picture makes the scale seem that it's made of metal, and a silver finish. I got a white plastic scale that looks like it cost $20. It works great, I was able to easily input two people's information quite easily. I'm also upset because I ordered the scale two days ago, and NOW they decide to have a sale! Shipping irritated me too, I ordered next day. The bathroom scale I received next day, but the kitchen food scale I received two days later. <br /> <br /> Personally, this is not my choice product, I like my old WW glass scale a lot better, even if it didn't show the body fat and water percentages.

Overall not as high quality as I would expect from a high-end monitor targeted at graphics professionals, but if you want a Trinitron-quality picture without the damper wires and the geometry doesn't have to be "professional" quality, look no further.

Pros:
-Good refresh rates in higher resolutions- rock-solid 85hz all the way up to 1600x1200.
-Slot-mask technology gives a brighter picture without the visible horizontal damper wires that all aperture grill (Trinitron/Diamondtron) monitors have.
-Jaw-droppingly good picture - sharp, bright, vibrant, accurate colors. Games look fantastic.
-Text in 1280x960 and 1600x1200 very sharp and black (10 point Arial and Windows 2000 default fonts)

Cons:
-Concave image takes some getting used to. Horizontal lines are bowed about 1/16" (it appears much worse than it measures) and there is no way to adjust it.
-The first unit I bought made me wonder if Viewsonic ever heard of QA- the non-glare coating stopped ½" from the corner of the screen. Fortunately I could return it for a replacement at no charge.
-The replacement unit displays a considerable convergence issue in the tests that will not adjust out, but I don't do any precise graphic work so I don't notice it. (first unit did not have this issue)
-Coming out of sleep mode, the picture takes about 10 minutes to come back to proper size.
-100hz refresh rate setting in 1280x mode is fuzzy and shimmers, use 85hz instead.
-Noticeable (but not severe) clicking when changing resolutions

P.S. If you find this review helpful please post one of your own on whatever HW you buy to keep the "system" working- thanks.

Ordering a monitor over the internet is a mixed bag: You can't see it for yourself before you buy it. You can't stop the shipping company from banging around the box. And you certainly must realize that a significant portion of these mass produced monitors come off the line as lemons.

I was a little worried when I put in my Internet order for this monitor: In addition to the factors above, there are some very negative one star reviews of the P90F.

When I first got the monitor hooked up, my first impression was good: Bright picture, no obvious blotches of discoloration, steady image.

Closer inspection of the image at my preferred resolution (1600x1200 @ 85 Hz) revealed some worrisome flaws:

• There were a couple vertical half-inch-wide bars of dimming along running the length of the left hand side of the screen.

• Text was blurring in the corners due to misconvergence, and the purity of the right top and right bottom corner was off.

• There were also noticeable screen geometry problems around the edges of the screen: It is not uncommon for P90F to have a 1mm to 3mm vertical "slant" along one of the horizontal edges of the screen. This I found to be annoying, but did not affect the image quality (I looked at several full screen geometric pictures to see if I could notice distortion, and my eye could not find any).

• The vertical edges of the screen are not perfectly straight. They are very close to straight though, and their straightness seems quite acceptable to me, especially for a monitor in this price class.

• I noticed the frequently mentioned problem with this monitor taking 15 minutes to "remember" its vertical / horizontal screen sizing after it has been in sleep mode or turned off for a while.

All these problems! But, I decided to stick with it for a couple days, and see what I could get fixed on my own. After three days I've decided to keep it. Read on for why.

The vertical bars of dimming slowly seemed to "get better" after using the monitor for a couple days. Also, I changed the video timing mode on my nVidia video card to "Fixed Ratio" mode, which seemed to help alleviate the problem immediately. They are still *BARELY* visible on a purely white background and this is acceptable to me.

I adjusted out the the text blurring (which was due to misconvergence) with the on-screen controls. This convergence adjusting took me about an hour of careful inspection of text and graphics in different applications and resolutions. The monitor still has a little misconvergance, but I have found a happy middle ground where everything in the corners is acceptable, and the convergence in the middle of the screen is quite crisp. All CRT monitors will be blurrier in the corner than they are in the centre. I am not entirely satisfied with the P90F's convergence however, and feel it is an area that ViewSonic could improve upon.

The purity was again adjustible with the onscreen controls, and I was able to fix the dimness on the right top and bottom corners. The right-hand side of the screen is almost imperceptibly darker than the left, but this is only noticeable on a purely white screen, and even then is barely so. I was happy with this adjustment.

The slanting along horizontal edge appears to be a common problem with this monitor. It can not be adjusted out -- I wish it wasn't there, but honestly I don't notice it at all when I'm using the monitor. However, serious graphics professionals who want uncompromizing geometry might do well to look to a higher quality CRT, or pay the premium on an LCD.

The problem with this monitor "remembering" its vertical sizing very slowly when first starting it after it has been powered down for a while is a bit frustrating. I believe it has to do with the type of Tension Mask used in this particular CRT. Let's say you have had the monitor powered on for a while (i.e., displaying images so that the Mask is warmed up), and you adjust the horizontal edges of the image to the VERY edges of the displayable regions. You then power down the monitor for the night. In the morning, when you turn on the screen, you will notice that the horizontal edges of the image are now "out of bounds" of the displayable region. If you leave the image be, you will notice that the horizontal edges slowly come drift back into the original settings (and into view) over the next 15 minutes. I believe this is the Tension Mask warming up and slightly changing shape.

Normally a problem like this would have me sending the monitor back right away. But -- I stopped to think for a bit: This particular CRT offers near Trinitron (read: great) brightness and color, but without aperture grille tension wire lines. However, it offers it at the cost of this slow "image size restoration" while warming up. Ask yourself: would you rather deal with a few millimeters of image shift when first powering on the monitor for the day, or would you rather have two distinctly visible horizontal black lines crossing your screen all day. I'll choose the former, and I have.

Now, with all my adjustments set I have what I feel is a fantastic mid-range 19" monitor. The case is stylish and looks good with my black hardware. The image is crisp and and the colors are true and bright. I can even run at reasonably flicker free at 1920 x 1440 @ 70Hz, and text is still readable! This I feel is due to the excellent .24 dot pitch. It switches resolutions fairly quickly and without much noise.

The only thing I wish ViewSonic had included was saveable monitor profiles for restoring certain settings for certain applications. However this is a "nice to have" and not a "must have."

Overall I feel that this is probably the best monitor in its class. It requires a lot of tweaking, but the end result is very satisfying. One of its best features is that it has no aperture grille lines due to its Tension Mask CRT design. The only other monitor in this class that could compete would probably be the NEC/Mitsubishi.

The P90f is truly excellent, with a sharp and even picture and very nice bright colors. Right now, I am running it at 1280x1024 32bit color under a 2 1/2 year-old video card (ATI All-in-Wonder 128 Pro) and it's clarity is better than my slightly scratched-up glasses will allow me to see!

Even more incredible to me is that, at the maximum resolution I can set (1920x1440), the picture is still as clear as my old monitor at 1024x768. 1600x1200 is just as clear to my eyes as my current 1280x1024. I can imagine this clarity would improve with higher quality video adaptors (I can't wait to get one).

This monitor's graphics are also quite stunning. Vivid, well-separated and crisp colors in all modes (16/32 bit 640x480 to 1280x1024 are what I tried).

The controls (on screen display) are the usually lot of brightness/contrast, color and geometry displays. Straight out of the box, the geometry only required a few minor tweaks to get to a very acceptable shape. Other monitors I've had required massive tuning. The controls are really average, and I admit I expected a bit more innovation in a product positioned as "professional" (perhaps in a higher-end P-series model).

The color is a bit limited in control, you do get a red and blue color temperature adjustment (green is fixed). the problem is that what looks right depends on the contrast and brightness settings - which mean exiting the color menu and adjusting them, then coming back to the color menu etc. Mode switching is average speed as well, but the picture snaps back fairly quickly, so it's not an issue.

No bit complaints here and, really, with a monitor like this, it's about the looks. I never believed I could own a monitor this nice for less than ... and I'm very glad to have been proven wrong.

There are two huge problems with these headphones:

1) They're EXTREMELY uncomfortable. I put them on for the first time and within 2 minutes, my ears hurt from the pressure of the supposed "pads", which aren't very forgiving and make noise against your ears whenever you move your head at all.

2) They seem to be made from the cheapest possible plastic materials sony could scrounge up. For the price and the sony name, I foolishly assumed that they would be decently manufactured. The earcups break off of their flimsy little hinges with any hint of a wrong twist of the them, and if you frequently flip the cups back for studio monitoring, don't count on them lasting for more than a month.

I gave them two stars, generously, because if for some reason you insist upon buying them, the sound is all right, though a little crackly throughout and a tad weak in big bass (but expected for cheaper headphones). If you want an amazing headphone for the same price, I am extremely happy with Sennheiser's HD 202. They're comparable in price and quality to many of the higher end sonys. Though they're not studio monitoring, the Sennheisers are by far the best headphones you can find for this little.

In conclusion, save yourself the hassle of a return. Don't buy these. Even if you think they're comfy and sound good when you get them, they'll break. I love sony stuff and i really wanted these to be consistent with what i have come to expect from sony, but they're really not up to snuff.

For four years I was a paper carrier. I delivered my newspapers in the morning, between 4:00 and 5:30 AM, back when I was in high school. I always had a portable CD player with me, and used these headphones to listen to music while I delivered. In those four years, I had gone through FOUR pairs of these. I loved their sound, and they were fairly comfortable, but after an hour and a half of wearing them, they did hurt my ears. I still use a pair (the last pair I bought). Be warned, both the 1/4 inch connector and the volume control are easily damaged, making either the left or right earphone, or sometimes both, stop working. I tried to repair them, but found very cheap wiring when I went to splice a new connector onto them, which may explain why they failed so easily. This last pair has held up fairly well, but even now, the connector is failing. Be warned, they're fragile and can be uncomfortable.

I just bought these headphones and theyre awsome (...). theyr comfortable and have really good spond quality go buy yours today!!!

I am not happy with this product at all. The instructions indicate that there is no need to fast before the test, but I noticed what I ate day to day significantly affected the readings I'd gotten. My range had been anywhere from 160 to 210. And the strips are very tricky to apply blood to, unless you have a gushing wound, it is hard to gauge whether the hanging drop will "completely" cover the pad. On average I had wasted 1 out of 3 strips because the drop didn't cover enough of the pad for a reading. Sorry, but I can't believe this monitor is accurate based on my experiences.

Checker did not work.I am having to send it to the company for repair...

i own this product and was surprised to see that Amazon even has it. it is very easy to use, small and portable and you get results quickly. you don't have to go back to the doctor 20 times to get a good baseline for your Cholesterol or to see if it's going up or down. Test yourself as often as you like and find out if a change in diet, exercise, and/or the use of newer Cholesterol-lowering drugs such as Lipitor are actually helping. This and things like those home blood pressure monitors are pretty nifty things to have. With the poor eating habits, the health of America in general and with heart disease still being the #1 killer (with no end in sight), I imagine the Lifestream monitor is a no-brainer for any of us (I guess at any age - 60 minutes just did a report that even kids are having heart attacks and dying in increased numbers). Oh ya, yes the product does actually work.

I just got my TV tuner yesterday. After I installed the software, it asked my to switch off the stand by mode. After I turned it off, I left my laptop on for 5 hours. When I wanted to work on my laptop, I realized that my computer became extremely hot, which never happened to my computer. I tried to chat with my friend through webcamera, but the computer told me that my webcamera's driver was not installed. I used my webcamera for six months already and I never had any problem with its driver after I installed it. Then I tried to check whether my TV tuner works, the computer asked my to install my TV tuner driver. After I reinstalled all of my drivers, I tried to use them, but the computer just kept asking me to install them.
In order to fix these problems all at once, I decided to format my computer and reinstall it. After reinstallation, everything seemed to be fine. I open my TV tuner and scanned for channel.I found the channels but there was no sound. I did plug the audio cable on both the tv tuner audio out port and my computer's microphone port. If I plug my headphone into the TV tuners' audio out it works. So this means that you need to have an amplifier or a headphone in order to watch tv, which is very painful and it only allows one person to watch tv.

Great Quality, Easy Setup, I used it wil 98,ME,2000 worked great. Also hooked it up through VCR, no problem. The 16 Channel Preview is great.

I don't agree with the other reviews. This works well on my Dell Inspiron 600m laptop that runs XP. I d/l'ed the driver from aver.com and didn't try to install from the CD at all. The only thing I suggest for you laptop people is to make sure you have a line in connector on your sound card. I have to connect external speakers to the device in order to hear audio. Plus, I can't record audio with TV programs or VCR either because of that. The picture quality is great, especially considering its a USB connector. I'd recommend it.

Im sure the other guys were impressed with this unit .Im not.If you can manage to get the picture bright enough be prepared to hear a nice loud humming sound!!Ive used it with all connections tried.Even with the 17 pin connect to my comp it was dissapointing and the sound from any white background is disgraceful!Forget about burn in as well.Its going to happen..Youd better spend the extra money and not cheap out as I did..I kept Myself to spending under 10 thousand bucks to redo my room ,this is just for electronics.I use it for my bedroom cause of lack o space.My SONY bigscreen is best pic Ive seen so far.Ill save my cash and get a sony plasma next..Oh and the heat is insane,No one mantioned this so I doubt if they truly even bought one.I wish I wasnt first to get this TV no reviews were out back then...

misarable? ha. a fuzzy plasma t.v.??????? Maybe you should have got grandma to help. that way you wouldn't have dropped it. maybe that's why it's fuzzy

O.K.----I think our man Steve from CA. might have been better served if he had read the owner's manual first, and then had professional installation. THIS IS NOT A HDTV! It will take the signal, but will have to "dumb it down" to display. But that display is absolutely gorgeous: sharp colors, wide viewing angle and NO artifacts.
As for using the display as a computer monitor, I would be hard pressed to recommend it any higher. As with all viewsonic monitors I have owned in the past, apps from word processing to the newest games are just perfect. I connected my cable to a media center computer I built, and now use a nifty program called Snapstream that puts the old TIVO to shame! Now my wife can tape her soaps, easily burn her favorites to DVD, check her E-Mail, surf the web, video chat with her mom, play Tetris (O.K.---she's a little behind the times in her gaming!), find that song she has been looking for, etc----all from the comfort of our bed. She's now happy as a clam, which any guy will tell you pays the ol' hubby dividends far greater than the sub 3K cost of the unit. And I must admit, I can't wait for Halflife II on a big monitor with the display settings jacked to the max!
Two caveats: Again, no HDTV. Perhaps more importantly, if you are going to set this unit up yourself, you ought be an enthusiast. Trying the many input choices enabled me to decide on the best option for myself, which proved to be the DVI for the computer, and the S-Video for all TV functionality except for DVD playback, which benefits with progressive scan connections (you know, that red blue yellow thingy). If you rely on the manual alone, you are apt to be left confused, as it is far too brief and poorly written.
If you feel, as I do, that the PC is the future engine to drive home entertainment, this unit is an excellent partner!

We tried to get this to work for almost 6 months and finally gave up. With fresh batteries, sensetivity set to high and receiver close to transmitter it worked only about 50% of the time.

This unit is confusing. It ignores the UPS truck. It ignores small (Tacoma) sized pickups. It always picksup my larger Tundra truck or my wife's Dodge Van. Still, it is better than nothing but it is also disappointing and NOT worth the $90 price... Cheaper technology from other vendors would also prove to be as unreliable as this one!

I have spent several hundred wasted dollars and many trial-and-error hours over the past few years trying to get a reliable driveway monitor. Problems encountered in past have included short-range/unreliable wireless transmitter function, many false alarms caused by animals, wasps, wind moving tree branches, even fast moving clouds causing rapid sun heating changes, etc. Finally, got one that works satisfactorily. This specific unit (don't know about their other models which ARE different), the DesignTech "Deluxe Driveway Monitor model 33370," is excellent. Well designed, well constructed, very simple/easy/quick installation, unique patented technology (different from all other motion sensors I've tried); and most impressive, it really does what it is advertised to do. Plenty of reliable range between the transmitter and receiver, zero false alarms, and always detects cars in the driveway. I could not be more pleased. I plan on buying a couple more to give as gifts. Some suggestions for anyone purchasing one of these: 1) If possible, install the transmitter/motion sensing unit on the side of the driveway nearest your house so that the passing car will not tend to block the path between the receiver and transmitter. 2) Don't unfairly judge the unit by testing it inside the house; nearby indoor metal (stove, conduit in walls, overhead lights, nails, steel springs in sofa, etc.) will distort the magnetic field, and result in a negative (false) impression that it is not as sensitive as it should be. Just install it per the manufacturer's instructions, and it will detect passing vehicles as advertised. 3) The outdoor sensor is waterproof, but just to be safe I put a zip-lock bag over mine. The only question still open is battery life. I'll update this report if that (or anything else) proves to be a negative in the future.

We are having the same problem as many others -- the set won't stay turned off. It seems to get worse over time. It was a mere occasional annoyance at first, but now is a real problem. Plus Panasonic requires us to travel about 20 miles to a repair facility (in a major metro area - Wash DC!). Hardly seems worth it! We will try a different remote as suggested by another reviewer, but if that doesn't work I think we'll have to buy a new set.

I haven't had the picture quality problems others have described with this TV, but I have had the turn-itself-back-on-after-turning-it-off problem happen. A combination of a different remote control (the one that Panasonic includes is really not that great) and adhering paper cutout devil horns (seriously, it works!) keeps the TV off when it's supposed to stay off. Generally, most people experience that problem when turning the TV off from the remote, so it's really the remote's fault. Otherwise, it's a decent, relatively lightweight, good looking TV with nice features. Admittedly, I wish I had bought a Sony, but this is a great runner-up for a very decent price.

I needed a tv for my dorm room. Something that sounded good and had stereo audio video inputs. This tv has it all. Its not very heavy, and it doesn't take up that much room. The model above this one is 30 dollars more, however, its the same tv, but with a better remote. This is the best deal. It can be had cheaper in stores. Awesome television, great picture, sound, and audio. The FM tuner is also very good, it works with an internal attenna which is very cool. I recommend this tv to anyone who is looking for a nice tv, at a decent price, and doesn't have room for a large television. With Panasonic's quality I'm not worried about it breaking anytime soon either. 5 Stars ++!