Monitor Reviews

I've got about 30 of them last year and after a year all of them are going blurry. Thankfully NEC has a good warranty program but it's a pain sending in and getting it replaced.

This is a very good monitor at a very reasonble price. This monitor family has been a mainstay for NEC for several years and it has developed into a good reliable monitor from slightly shakier beginings. It is not the best monitor for the price, but it is a very safe buy. The controls are fairly novice friendly and you won't have to worry about the quality of the product - NEC is first rate. Most people will be happiest setting the monitor to 1,024 x 768 were the 87Hz refresh rate will be very easy on the eyes. The .27 dot pitch is acceptable but I am disapointed NEC hasn't moved a better tube into this price range.

I would suggest looking at two other good canidates that usually are about the same price as this NEC:

Samsung 17" DynaFlat SyncMaster 753Df This monitor is the entry level for Samsung's new perfectly flat screens. Not eveyone likes the new super-flat monitors but personally I love them. This Samsung has superb resolution (.20 dot pitch!) and the usual refresh rate (85Hz at 1024x768). The controls aren't as easy to use at the NEC but most people won't mind. Samsung monitors are generally a great value when you compare price to performance.

Hitachi 17" CM615U-511 A good quality monitor (.23 dot pitch 1024x768 85Hz) the best selling point is the deep contrast - the best in this price range. A friend of mine bought one and I was very impressed. The controls are a little cryptic and pain to navigate. On the upside Hitachi just extended their U.S. warranty to 5 years (on monitors sold after 1/31/01)! Two years longer than most companies.

This monitor puts out a decent quality picture. Basically what you would expect from NEC. This is no trinitron, but it does the job. And the price is right.

This LCD screen is great eye candy, sure, and it doesn't take up as much room as your basic desktop monitor, and it's a good buy for a person who does nothing on their computer but, say, word processing and web-surfing. BUT, if you are a computer gamer of ANY kind, this is a very, very bad buy for you. It's not just this LCD monitor in particular, it's all LCD monitors- they become a blurry mess in almost any kind of computer game, primarily FPS (First Person Shooters), flight sims, RPGS (Role Playing Games) and just about any game where the action is remotely fast-paced- even in some strategy games, such as
Age of Empires II. Besides the fact that this [thing] costs mucho grando dinero, the blurry-factor is enough to dissuade the wise buyer. Ciao!

This monitor is amazing! You must see this to believe it. It's the most wonderful consumer level piece of electronics ever made!

I have to utterly disagree with the former review. I have *2* of these monitors, one at home and one at work, simply because it is such an enormous improvement ona CRT monitor. Your eyes will totally thanks you, believe me.

The picture quality is fantastic - sharp, easy on the eyes.

Overpriced? It's all relative. To me, it's worth every cent, and I am never going to work with a CRT monitor again.

I purchased a proscan 36" tv no more than 4 years ago. I spent close to $...Big Mistake!! the proscan tv that i bought has a picture tube problem that was not disclosed during manufacturing. proscan nor circuit city where i bought it would not help me out at all. my recomemdation....by a Sony tv,....at least they will honop you as a consumer and help you out.

Sorry Pro-scan,...you just did not want to help out the average consumer,....shame on you!

Hey - Drew Smith - They ask for a freaking review of the TV, not your opinion on HDTV adoption rates....

This model has a few more features (like Twin Tuner PIP) than its sibling RCA MM36100 which got high marks and a perfect picture on [the Cnet website]. This model supposedly does not support a progressive scan DVD. I intend to purchase a PROSCAN PSHD105 Digital HDTV Receiver which was considered a must by most owners. I bought this because of the low price and free shipping (very heavy, delivered to my living room, not curbside). I considered the Sony WEGA but it doesn't have the HDTV features.

The Image quality is very poor on this monitor, I suggest you purchase another brand, or at least, not this monitor. The image is fuzzy, and washed out compared to my old Tube Monitor, so I returned it and purchased another brand.

A very ugly monitor that gives below-average image quality. This is an old model and the contrast, which is difficult to adjust, really hurts your eyes after a few minutes. I think you'll need new glasses if you use this one. There are better products elsewhere (NEC, Kogi, etc.) for the same or better price.

I must confess...after I ordered this, I wondered if I should have just invested in a less expensive CRT, especially since I play a lot of computer games, and LCD's traditionally haven't had the best reputation for gaming, due mostly to technical limitations causing "ghosting" - sort of a temporary after-image. Once this thing arrived and I plugged it in, however, any such notion vanished from my mind.

Bear in mind that I have not had a lot of experience with LCD monitors, as I'm sure most people haven't. I did a bit of research on various sites, including this one. I had it whittled down to a few different choices and I still wasn't entirely sure which monitor I wanted to get. The swing vote came when I stumbled across CNET's recent pick (January) as this as their number one buy for a 15 inch LCD.

The image is bright, it's crisp, and I can see textures that I never even knew were there on my old CRT. I have not one problem gaming with this. I have been playing Warcraft 3, Thief 2, and other games with this thing and they are running smoothly and better than I have ever seen them before. Actually, I should say that at fist, I thought I noticed a slight "ghosting" in Warcraft 3, but I see no such thing now, so make of that what you will; perhaps it was a case of seeing what you expect to see or something. Anyway, I have absolutely no problem playing Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, a somewhat obscure but good first-person shooter, and I notice no ghosting or anything of the sort. You can actually see extremely well in Thief 2, which is saying something since the game is quite dark by design. (I actually had problems with this darkness on my old Compaq CRT.)

Some people have said that text does not show up right or something to that effect. My best guess is that they do not have either the monitor or their computer's display settings set to the native resolution of 1024 x 768, because the text on mine is clearer than I would have ever hoped for, and causes less eye strain than on just about any CRT in my experience. There is also software included to help get the color settings just right.

You do need to have it adjusted to the proper angle in order to have uniform brightness from the top to the bottom of the screen, but I don't see why this should be a problem. Unless you are getting a monitor to watch DVD's on from your couch, you probably do not need a bigger LCD than this. I would even say that any bigger might be too much, unless you are planning on mounting it on a wall or something. Keep in mind that the 15 inches is the actual (diagonal) size of the viewing area, whereas when sizes are used to describe CRT's, the viewing area is less than the stated size...don't ask me why; that's just the way it is. So, if you want to know how big the screen is, get out a tape measurer and measure out 15". That is the distance from the top-left corner of the display area to the bottom-right. That is just the display area - NOT the whole monitor, which is actually slightly bigger. It's probably bigger than you would have thought.

It even comes with a 3 year warranty on parts and labor. Some other companies' warranties, such as NEC's (according to some of the reviews I have read), allow for so many "dead pixels". To the best of my knowledge, Samsung has no such "gotcha" policy.

All in all, I would say this is a great buy if you are in the market for a new monitor and want to jump into the twenty-first century. CRT's are still cheaper though, so it really depends on how much you want to spend.

I thought that the monitor was great when I purchased it. Ordered Sony DeluxePro SDM-X72/B on Jan 21 and on Feb 7 had to contact Sony because the monitor went bad. All I could see on the screen were tiny vertical lines. Sony had no problem replacing the monitor but it took them 2 weeks responding to my original inquiry. I called Sony every day for a 1 1/2 week. After 2 weeks, they informed me that they couldn't replace the exact model since this model is not in production any longer but offered me SDM-X73/B. It is identical to the originally purchased monitor except for the design of the case. I expect to receive the new monitor next week according to Sony Rep.

I didn't have any problems with this LCD,every thing is just Perfect,high contrast images,dual inputs provide multiple computer support and Integrated speakers deliver superb audio for multimedia, music and Internet content.The only problem I had is the universal voltage so I couldn't take it back home.

This is a very good product from Sony,I didn't have any problems with it.resolution and colors are just perfect also the integrated speakers gives you a good sound.the only problem I had that it's only 110v so i couldn't take it with me back home.

I guess you get what you pay for, I was not familiar with the brand name, but figued it was [inexpensive], and Amazon[.com] has a great return policy if not satisfied (Thank God) This thing is a total pile of [...] it looks, feels, and even smells cheap. So again back to you get what you pay for, I plugged it in and low and behold it had a black square about the size of a dime that would not go away, when I called Corn ea they told me they all LCD Monitors have some dead pixels, but mine was the size of a dime, and that most monitor and laptop companies will not let you return an item unless it has more than 12 dead pixels, again mine was the size of a dime and very noticable, and annoying. Needless to say, I returned the monitor to Amazon[.com], but I always hate re-packing the item up, and then having to go to the post office. But it went back, and I got a credit, I will ask the computer guy at work what he recomends and then come back and order a monitor from Amazon[.com] based on his recomendations.

Love this monitor, bought already 2 of them, am considering buying a 3rd. Since it is not such a well known brand name, you get a lot more for less money than with the big name brands.
The only critizism I have are the speakers. You have to invest in external speakers; the ones that come with the monitor are crappy. Other than that I give the monitor an A+.

Amazon delivered the monitor on schedule. The installation instuctions were simple and complete, basically plug and play. Resolution is excellent and as advertised. This is an attractive space saver over the old boxy monsters. [...]

I got screwed with 2 test packets that expired 10 days after I got them $35 bucks down the drain. Amazon sucks !!! Big Waste of my time and money.

I received 2 packages of test strips on April 26, 2004 and they expired on May 1st, 2004. I immediately returned them and requested replacements. However, they gave me a refund instead so I would assume they have a boatload of these sitting around in a warehouse which they are trying to get rid of.

I decided to order some of the test stripes despite the bad reviews since I've such good luck with Amazon. I received them yesterday and they had an expiration date of May 2006. This is much better than I have received from other sources.

I've had only NEC's for over 10 years. My last 2 CRT's suffered severe distortion within the first year. Replaced by NEC, the same thing happened with the reconditioned they gave me in return. Went to this LCD 3 months ago, and while the pic quality wasn't the best, I still hung on to the NEC quality of old. Well, this one has died too! I have now given up on NEC. It might just be bad luck, but so many performance issues has made me wary.

Picture quality was poor, the fonts were less readable than on our old monitors. I don't think it was the fault of the video cards, my monitor had higher resolution previously. Also, installation was difficult (had to download drivers from the NEC site) and de-installation (under Windows98) was disastrous; an inexperienced user would have needed tech support to restore the system.

The guy that wrote the review below must of had a lemon because I think the monitor is fine. Of course there are better LCD's out there but for most people this is a great value for the price and I would recommend it to anyone. Before I bought it I looked at many different LCDs in computer stores and made my decision that way. I have even been running Win98 + Mandrake Linux and the monitor was very clear and flicker free and did not pose any installation issues.

I have a couple complaints about this clock. I am a very light sleeper. I set the alarm to turn the radio on at a very low volume. However, there is a VERY loud internal switch that clicks just as the radio/alarm is being turned on. For me, it's like being awakened by someone slamming an encyclopedia on a tile floor. I actually contacted RCA's customer service about this. They told me "that's just the way it is". My second coplaint is about the large display. It has a dim control, but even on the low setting, it is way too bright. If you're a sound sleeper who doesn't mind having a bright light shining on your face, it could be the clock for you.

Though some reviewers had problems with this clock, I liked it. It works as advertized, and the numbers are easy to read, and in a pleasing color. The brightest setting is a little too bright , but at the dimmer setting, the numbers are readable without being overpowering. It's a good deal for the price.

I have this clock and it works great. I can see the time from 3 rooms away. The other guy who's clock broke must've got BCA brand from Chinatown.

I received the Tanita digital jumprope, battery was either not included or dead. I could not unscrew the battery cover, since the screw was some off the wall phillips thing that even my eyeglass repair screwdriver couldn't move. I plan on returning it unless I can find someone to open it.

Its true that the LCD never turns off and that the counter only goes one way. However, I havent encountered much tangling and the rope adjusts well. The rope also makes it easy to jump rope.

I had tried several times to develop facility with jumping rope, but I fatigued too easily and could never build stamina. I would jump for a minute or two or even three, but I would miss a jump and then feel like I had to start all over. Needless to say, I couldn't sustain a disciplined learning curve.

However, with this rope, I didn't have to worry about sustaining (or counting) a specific number of minutes of jumping...I could set myself a goal of xxx number of JUMPS, increasing that number each time, and thus develop the necessary stamina to make a jump rope workout as fun and effective as it should be. By setting a goal of JUMPS instead of TIME, it didn't matter how often I missed a jump...I could just start from where I stopped and the counter would keep clicking away. Even if every other jump was a miss (which wasn't actually the case), as long as I kept going, I could eventually reach my goal.

Well, not only was I able to build stamina and increase my jump goal each time, but the more regular attempts I was making (and persistence in going for my goal of xxx number of jumps) allowed me to develop the agility to jump longer with fewer misses. Before too long, I was actually a ROPE JUMPER!

I have bought other jump ropes--light "fast" ones, and heavier ones for more muscular development--and I enjoy each of them for the traits specific to them. But I never would have developed any jump roping skill at all if not for this terrific rope. I've had it now for a couple of years, and the battery has not run down, and I've never had any problem with rope tangling. Also, I am tall and it is hard to find jump ropes of sufficient length for me, but this one is comfortably long, (yet the length is adjustable and can be made shorter). I even bought one of these for another person and recommended it to still others.

All in all, a TERRIFIC jump rope! Viva Tanita!!