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Viewsonic Vp201Mb 20" LCD Monitor (Black)

Viewsonic Vp201Mb 20" LCD Monitor (Black)

List Price: $1,825.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Great display, but a few things to be careful of
Review: Firstly, the image is beautiful. It's brighter than many LCDs. It's much more responsive -- no ghosting when you drag windows around, fast enough to play games on without smearing the way many LCDs do. The DVI-D display is rock solid when it's working. The analog VGA input is slightly substandard, however it's nice if you have a second system and would like to use the monitor buttons to switch between the VGA and DVI-D sources without a KVM. The built in speakers are pretty weak, but they're plenty for business use. The portrait display orientation feature is cute, but the rotation is all done in software you isntall on your PC, not in hardware. This means that display rotation comes at a signficant cost to performance, and video overlays simply don't work, or end up offset from the blue "genlocking" area much of the time. You simply won't enjoy watching DVDs or playing games with the display rotated. There's also a big bad side to the VP201M and VP201MB that you can't ignore: They have serious compatibility problems with many, many video cards. The VP201 monitors were produced before the 1600x1200 DVI-D display standard was ratified. And while some cards (most notably, Geforce 4 Tis, Geforce 3, some ATIs) have a compatibility mode for early release monitors like the VP201 series, many other cards (Geforce 3MX, 4MX, ATI 7500, some Mac Powerbook models) do not. You'll get green noise all over the display, or strange grey distortions. Do yourself a favor and write a note to Viewsonic support before buying. They won't give a full list of compatible cards, but they will generally tell you whether a given card works in 1600x1200 DVI-D mode or not. Keep future upgrades in mind as well. Viewsonic doesn't track the newest cards, and if you're like me, you may find yourself trying four new upgrades before finding one that works. This would be a five star monitor if it didn't restrict your ability to upgrade to new graphic cards without worry.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Compatible Only with Select Video Cards
Review: I got this monitor to use in digital mode with my Radeon video card. I used it in analog mode for a half hour or so, but noticed some color banding, so switched to digital right away. That fixed the problem. The color in digital mode seems very good, and of course the image is quite sharp (except I think there is a somewhat annoying unevenness to the anti-glare coating or front glass). However, this monitor is only fully compatible with a very select few (maybe about 3) video cards when used in digital mode. I see some "snow" on the screen -- especially in black areas or grayscale pictures, and it's very bad during the BIOS screens. Viewsonic has some recommendations for video cards to use in digital mode, but their actual test results are company confidential and they are not very forthcoming about which cards have been tested or not and which ones fail. If it were more compatible, I would be quite pleased, and the portrait mode is a plus, but I'm worried I'll be locked out of future video card upgrades.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Compatible Only with Select Video Cards
Review: I got this monitor to use in digital mode with my Radeon video card. I used it in analog mode for a half hour or so, but noticed some color banding, so switched to digital right away. That fixed the problem. The color in digital mode seems very good, and of course the image is quite sharp (except I think there is a somewhat annoying unevenness to the anti-glare coating or front glass). However, this monitor is only fully compatible with a very select few (maybe about 3) video cards when used in digital mode. I see some "snow" on the screen -- especially in black areas or grayscale pictures, and it's very bad during the BIOS screens. Viewsonic has some recommendations for video cards to use in digital mode, but their actual test results are company confidential and they are not very forthcoming about which cards have been tested or not and which ones fail. If it were more compatible, I would be quite pleased, and the portrait mode is a plus, but I'm worried I'll be locked out of future video card upgrades.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I love this monitor
Review: I read the other review that gave it three stars. I have not noticed any problems with the antiglare coating or picture at all. To my untrained eye, the picture is perfect. The best I've seen. Then again, this is my first LCD screen. The other person should consider returning theirs. Perhaps they got a faulty one.

As for the graphics card compatability problem, I imagine thats due to its landscape/portrait feature. Without installing the PerfectPortrait(R) Display Pivot Software that allows the Monitor to be used in portrait mode, I'm sure that this monitor would be just as compatible as any other monitor with video cards. I usee it with a GeForce4 Ti4200 myself.

I used this monitor at work where I can spend as much as 10 hours in front of it. It is easy on the eyes and has a nice sharp picture. The portrait mode is great when it comes to word processing or web surfing.

The only problems I have encountered are with the PerfectPortrait software. If I shut down Windows XP while in portrait mode, I get the blue screen of death when I boot up. I also get the BSoD when I use a 3d accelerated screen saver in portrait mode. However, Considering that most software is not written with changing screen dimentions in mind, I have no complaints.

I have used this monitor for 7 mounths and I highly recommend it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An outstanding monitor
Review: I too use this monitor at work, where I often spend long hours staring at the screen. It is the biggest, clearest, brightest and easiest on the eyes of any monitor I have used professionally or personally. I have no complaints about it whatsoever, except that it is just too expensive for me to justify buying one for my home computer. Of all the LCD monitors I have seen, used or played around with, this one has the best base with the most logical, sturdy and free-moving mechanism for making adjustements to angle, height and portrait vs. landscape view. It is actually difficult to acclimate to using another screen after using this one for any period of time, because this monitor improves the interface experience so much.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An outstanding monitor
Review: I too use this monitor at work, where I often spend long hours staring at the screen. It is the biggest, clearest, brightest and easiest on the eyes of any monitor I have used professionally or personally. I have no complaints about it whatsoever, except that it is just too expensive for me to justify buying one for my home computer. Of all the LCD monitors I have seen, used or played around with, this one has the best base with the most logical, sturdy and free-moving mechanism for making adjustements to angle, height and portrait vs. landscape view. It is actually difficult to acclimate to using another screen after using this one for any period of time, because this monitor improves the interface experience so much.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best product ever
Review: This monitor kicks some serious ... It's a viewsonic, so you really can't go wrong. While a little on the steap side, it offers a gigantic, high quality picture. if you can afford it, buy it!!! :)


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