Monitor Reviews

The CTX PR906F 19" monitor is a good monitor with some positive and negative aspects.

Positives:

1. Built-in USB hub with 4 ports.

2. Only slightly larger footprint than my 17" monitor.

3. Nice large screen with good brightness.

4. Resolutions up to 1808x1440 at 71Hz and a wierd resolution of 1536x1152 at 91Hz, and standard resolution of 1280x1024 at 103Hz.

5. Supposed ability (I wasn't able to test it) to change screen size/height/width and other aspects via keyboard/mouse instead of with monitor buttons.

Negatives:

1. Although it has very high resolution, the text is not as clear as I think it should be. Black text on white background can also be difficult to read.

2. Monitor file does not include the 1808x1440 resolution and cannot select it through usual right click on desktop, properties, then settings, then screen area. Have to select it through the ELSA settings tabs on my erazor X video card.

3. CTX USB control file will not install on my Windows ME computer. Haven't found one specific for ME yet.

4. After the monitor would be it its powersaving mode, and it would come back on, the image size would not assume the proper size immediately. It would take several minutes. The taskbar at the bottom of the screen would only be partially visible, initially. Also, at the same instant, the USB scanner would go through its power on cycle again, even though it was already on. So I moved the scanner to a separate hub.

Still not sure if I will keep the monitor. Although it was received as a gift, for the price that was paid, I would expect the monitor to be better.

I received this product for Christmas, 2000. In general, it's an okay product with quite a few quirks.

First off, I have a PowerBook G3 Series which has no built-in serial port. The product doesn't include a USB adapter, but you can buy one from the Delorme website .... They say it will be available in "late December," but it is now December 30 and they're still saying that on their website. I ended up buying a couple different adapters off the web (one ... which doesn't say so but did include Mac drivers, and the Keyspan USB PDA Adapter), but neither one provides power to the GPS so you have to put 4 AAA batteries into the unit for it to work.

The Street Atlas software works okay. Its user interface is mostly standard -- the menus are set up like you would expect, but it has some pretty odd "features:" you have to "Command-click" to get the pop-up menu on the map, for instance (instead of "Control-clicking" as is standard in Macintosh OS 9). Its location search features are okay, but they rely heavily on knowing a zip code and some are [non-obviously] sensitive to the area of the map being viewed and even the current magnification level.

Integration between the software and the GPS is okay. I've been using it a while and still don't understand how the connection is maintained between the two. It seems that whenever you check the GPS status, it re-initializes itself. The software shows your current position and direction right on the map. The logging features are pretty poor, however -- all you can do is record your route then play it back at normal speed (yes, you can actually watch where you went in the same amount of time it took to do it the first time) or at 10 or 50 times normal speed. There appears to be no way to display your whole track, so you can't make your own maps of trails very easily.

The worst news of all is this the _only_ GPS solution I can find for the Macintosh. If you think you still need it, be sure to read through the help files and manual when you get it because of the quirks in the interface.

tHE SHIPPING COST FOR THIS ITEM IS TOO HIGH FOR A LITTLE ITEM.

Angel Alert is a great idea for monitoring your children. However, the 30 foot range is impractical for congested areas, such as airports, theme parks, or malls. As a parent of small children, I would never let my kids go beyond a 10-15 foot range in airports or theme parks. On a beach or at a public park, however, the angel alert would be of a more practical use because your children may travel 30+ feet from you and still be in full view. I would have liked the ability to adjust the range of alert for varying places of travel.

Here im going to give you the pros and cons on the Gateway 18" LCD Flat Panel TV (which is an subpar LCD TV)

Pros
- nice silver finnish
- pretty nice sound for size
- component input
- s-video

Cons
- why is this not 16:9
-its a Freaken GATEWAY people
- no HDsupport
- sort of blocky picture
- reds are alittle to deep

overall i give this LCD a 7.9 for good, perfect for a teen's room but i suggest going to www.dell.com to purchase there 17" 16:9 LCD which has HD support and the picture is of better quality.

I bought one NEC LCD1760NX-BK-1 (black) from another online store, and two NEC LCD1760NX-1's (white) from Amazon, all in Dec-Feb. These have 16ms response times -- good for games and DVD movies -- a height-adjustable stand (nice), and interpolate fine to lower resolutions. The black one was perfect. The white ones have cuter looking frames. Panel-wise, the first white one from Amazon had no dead pixels -- however, there was a strange waviness in the film which you could see standing up (I don't think I've seen this before on an LCD). Otherwise, looking straight on, the picture was fine. The second white one had a bright-green always-on pixel. Considering my Windows background is black, and at boot up the BIOS screen is black, it's pretty obvious. Viewing web pages in IE, you don't notice as much. I e-mailed NEC support and they said a "faulty" monitor is defined as having at least 7 subpixel problems (pixels which are a color), 5 whole pixel problems (pixels that are always black or white), or 4 subpixel / 2 whole pixel problems in the same 5x5 pixel area (ha). Also, between all three LCDs, the one with the dead pixel is dimmer -- I need to turn up brightness to 100% to match 75% on the other LCDs (it's funny because, according to the serial number, the dimmer one is actually newer than the other white one -- 3ZJ00632GA instead of 3ZJ00590GA). I plan to keep the wavy white one, and return the dim, dead-pixel white one. I see many positive reviews for the black one on other sites, and they're cheaper -- I suspect NEC manufactures more of the black ones, and stores sell more of them, so you get the newer ones in all the time for black. It's also funny that I bought from NEC to avoid dead pixels and weird problems. Many 16ms panels (including this one I believe) are produced by AU Optronics, a Taiwanese company with factories in China probably, but I was hoping that QA would be better with NEC and they wouldn't ship the ones with defects. Always see user reviews on the Internet for the most informed choice (in my case, should have stuck with black).

SUMMARY:
I got two white ones from Amazon with defects -- I got one black one from another online store which was fine. The white ones have a cuter frame. These LCDs are good for games and LCDs, have a height-adjustable and tiltable stand, and interpolate fine to lower resolutions. Get a black one.

I used to have a Polar heart monitor but lost the watch. I decided to go with this model because it's less expensive. I have an average women's size body and the adjustable strap that goes around your chest is too big for me. Since the smallest that the strap adjusts to is too big, I have it adjusted with a bunch of the strap material flopping around on my back (I didn't have this problem with Polar). It's annoying and will require a sewing experiment some time soon. The heart monitor part works well though. Mine came with a neato bag and bike or exercise equipment holder for the transmitter (watch).

This works great. I actually have no problems with this heart rate monitor. I just used a friends heart rate monitor and it worked just as good for 1/3 the price.

I purchased this pair to replace my Panasonic RP-HT 710's after tripping on the cord and cracking them. I may still end up with another pair of 710's, which still strike me as providing the most sound for the least money.

The 660's employ a unique, well-designed, auto-retracting cord and even permit on-board storage of the 1/4" adapter. Moreover, they're quite light and comfortable, and the sound is extremely impressive both on the low and high ends of the frequency range. I'm hearing things in the treble that I never realized were there.

The downsides: First, they're a lot bigger than I had imagined. Catching a glimpse of yourself in a mirror is like seeing a patient in a halo head-brace. Second, the cord is extremely thin so that it can be stored and concealed in the left headphone. Third, despite the wide frequency coverage, mid-range sounds are lacking in presence. The sound of a piano, for example, is far too tinny to for my tastes.

All in all, interesting technology, reasonable price, and practical for some applications.

I saw this at a small local computer store for dirt cheap so I decided to pick it up. The fit on my Toshiba laptop is perfect. Looking right at it, you can clearly tell that it is there as it has a dark tint and you can see the thin lines in it, but everything on screen is still readable and enjoyable, except for the annoying, non-removable "3M PF15.0" logo near the bottom right of the filter that blocks off some of the text in the taskbar. It probably won't hinder daily use, but just the fact that it's there is annoying.
For the screen to actually appear black, one would have to stand at a rather extreme angle where the screen wouldn't even look all that clear to them in the first place. It will block somebody from reading any text, but for the most part they will still be able to tell what you are doing.
Also, once you get dust on the back side of the filter, forget about getting it all off. I can spray it with compressed air all day and wipe it with my microfiber dust clothe as much as I want, but there is still some dust on it.
In short, it does *NOT* make on-screen data visible only to the person directly in front of the monitor. I suggest that if you can, try one out first to see if it fits your needs. Maybe somebody at your local computer store will let you put one on a monitor and you can test out the angles to see if it is worth the price for you.