Been whinging a lot lately abt my frustrations of not finding a cheap HDTV... Then it dawn on me that I don't need the TV part as I'm using computers for the tuning.

So after a quick check with my CC debt, I ended up with the VX2835WM. It's a 27.5" computer LCD monitor with a resolution of 1920x1200 that costs only $628 (+ a bit more CC surcharge.. )...

First of all it's not the best panel in the world (the price is a good hint), it's not a true 8 bit panel (6+2 interpolation), the contrast ratio is only 800:1, the brightness ain't fantastic and there's no remote control.

But it does have HDMI, and that's the main reason why I go for it really.. My setup is rather simple - components -> amp -> LCD (via HDMI).
The first 4 hrs or thereabouts is spent on un-sticking a stuck pixel...

So far, the

Pros:
1) featherweight at only 12 or so kg.
2) Great computer monitor and sharp text
3) resolution of 1920x1080@50 and 1920x1200@50 works straight out of the box for Linux
4) Uses only 71W of power (about 50W less than my LCD TV)
5) 1 component, 1 composite, 1 svideo, 1 vga and 1 HDMI... Alot of imputs but I only drive it with the HDMI.
6) Finally upscales my Wii to full 1080p@50 fugliness... Going to try my old Sega Saturn next.. lol...
7) Fast response... I can't vouch for certainty but I think it's pretty good, better than LCD TVs in fact...

Cons
1) Doesn't seem to go to power saving mode when I shut down my amp...
2) No remote control (not that I need it)
3) No TV (not important to me as I dun use the TV part)
4) The viewing angle seems to be narrower than usual (guess it's the limitations of a computer monitor)
5) Uneven backlight when I first turn it on (seems to be better now, maybe it needs some time to run in). A lot better than my 2nd gen LCD TV but the panel still leaks light, will try to adjust it somehow later)
6) No USB hub
7) Doesn't seem to upscale my DVD to 1080p, seems to be at 576p for some reason

I sit about 1.5-2m away from the monitor. For the money I'm paying, I have no complaints really, esp since it's only using about 71W (peak 124W) of power.

Did I mention it's RoHS compliant? If you discount the mercury in the CCFL, lead+toxins in the IC, the monitor has less than 0.1% of poisons...
What a joke....

Good for computer monitor, works well in a small room too.... At $628, not a bad deal I hope.....

I kinda like the Dell 24in Ultrasharp monitor here. A little more expensive than the Viewsonic though, and smaller..

http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/products/c...;l=en&s=dhs

Agreed. I think the Ultrasharp will be better, prob better colours too, more attractive now that one can probably buy it @ OfficeWorks....

After using this ViewSonic for about a day, as a computer desktop, I find 1920x1200 is prob not big enough for a screen this size... Something like 2560 x 1600 (the 30" Ultrasharp) will be good... But thats $2k, cough cough...

OTOH, this 27.5" is good for gaming (which is prob what it's designed for)...

I also picked one up on Monday, no dead/bright pixels & mine has a very even backlight, maybe a very, very tiny bit across the bottom, actually one of the best I've seen in a TN panel. I'm at about 1.1m and coming from a 24" with the same resolution, I like the larger pixel pitch for reading and real estate for DTV & games. The 24" is sill alot crisper & better for graphics work though

Another good thing is it has 1:1 & 16:9 options, PS3/360/STB owners can plug in via HDMI/VGA/component @ 1080 and it wont stretch it to 16:10, you do get small black bars (letterbox) but the PQ is a lot better & as sharp as you can get.

My con's:
Mine has the HDMI blue screen standby bug (not bsod), from what I understand Viewsonic have a new firmware to fix it, it needs to be done at a service center & they will pick up, & return it via courier (TNT), the turnaround can take between 4 days & 2 weeks (to your house).

Through HDMI/DVI there is an overscanning problem with some of the newer Nvidia video cards. It doesn't happen when Nvidia drivers are uninstalled & generic M$ ones used though. No-one seems to know whether its got to do with the cards, the drivers or monitor firmware. Viewsonic have recognised there is a problem, I dont know if they're working on it though. Nvidia have said it might be a vendor (vga manufacturer) problem. From my gathering on a few forums, the 8600GT, 8800GTX, 9800GX2 & GTX280 are confirmed to have the problem/symptom.

If anyone else has this monitor, please post what graphics/OS combo your using & if you have the HDMI/DVI overscan. It would be a good reference for anyone thinking of this monitor or upgrading video card. My 8600GT/xp32sp3 has it, but I knew before buying & I'm still very happy with it through VGA (for the moment).
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I swaped mine for a new one as the backlight is so bad it seems like image retention .... The replacement is a lot better (no dead or stuck pixels this time round), backlight is more even (there are still some problems but you'd never notice it in real world situations)..

Too bad it's only a 6bit panel, but I guess that's why it's so cheap.. Pple playing games prolly will get over this.. Man, viewing source code on this screen is amazing, esp those idoits who insist on writing everything on a single line.. lol..


Any info on this? I want to get this fixed as it's a PITA that it doesn't go into power savings mode. This is my main gripe (and the limited viewing angles too).


I am using Linux (32bit Mandriva 2007.1 with NVIDIA 173.14.09 driver). I run the desktop at 1920x1200, but video is showed as 1920x1080 (a settable option in nvidia-settings)... I don't know what rate i'm running, I use a 50hz modeline, (xvidtune says it's 50hz), but nvidia-settings tell me it's 60hz, and the panel infomation gives me nothing. Under Windows it runs at 1920x1200@49hz (1 hz less?), but I didn't test any video.. Using a nvidia 6600GT (AGP)..

That said, I still like this panel a lot, if I have the money, i'd run two ... lol....

Edit: I think there are great deals on Dell monitors too.. People who are interested may go to their website look.. The 1920x1200 res for this viewsonic model might be too small for some...

I dig some more digging & found a workaround in another forum (post #12 down), a few, including me have got their 8600GT & 9800GX2 going well, as an added bonus, it has also fixed the HDMI blue screen standby bug on mine.

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?amp;sho...st&p=330319

You need to overide EDID by editing the nv4_display.inf file BEFORE installing the Nvidia drivers

The line you need to add for the VX2835WM in the [nv_SoftwareDeviceSettings] section is:

HKR,, OverrideEdidFlags0, %REG_BINARY%, 5A,63,1F,0F,00,00,FF,FF,04,00,00,00,7E,01,00

I now have pixel perfect 1920 x 1200 res via DVI/HDMI with my 8600gt & no overscan, using 175.19 drivers.

I uninstalled the original driver before adding the line to the newly extracted 175.19 driver.

It should work for the GTX280, & with the later Vista drivers too, not sure about linux though.
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Nice find... I've googled earlier today and your post came up..

Any linux solution?? I've googled and can't find any... Does that disable the HDCP of the panel? (I sort of need HDCP because without that my stupid Denon will refuse to do video up conversion)...

Sorry, not sure about linux. Further in that thread they have found a way to do the same thing via regedit (no driver reinstallation), I'd already uninstalled the nvidia drivers so just did the edit inf way & haven't tried it

Thats a good question about HDCP, I read that overiding the EDID makes the Nvidia drivers think its a high def display connected via DVI instead of HDMI, I think that means it doesn't send the audio bitstream through, I have the option box in Nvidia control panel to "Treat as HDTV", that might do something, the res is still perfect (no overscan) with that box checked also.
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Thanks.. I'd look that thread up in detail..
BTW, how much did you pay for your panel?


Hmm. did you hear any sound when you connect via HDMI??? I don't... I guess the newer cards have problems due to HDCP support, my 6600GT is before the HDCP era... Damn HDCP.... It's really causing more problems and not solving anything.

I'd try out the windows drivers and see if it solved the EDID issue.. sent a email to viewsonic but so far no replies yet.

Paid $635 at MSY, they will now replace with 1 dead/bright pixel (previously was under 3)



I never got any sound through DVI/HDMI before, my 8600GT is HDMI capable, but I didn't get the spdif pass-through cable (m/b to card) with it. I made my own but wasn't sure of pin orientation, I tried both ways around but never got sound working on my Pana plasma, in the 8600gt manual it does say wrong cable orientation/placement may damage VGA card, who knows, I might have stuffed the card or I just dont know how to s/w enable it. Doesn't really matter anyway atm as the HDMI fix above disable's the audio bitstream. I have worked around it by sending 2ch analogue to the plasma & optical to the Yammy. Will try HDMI + analogue sound on the lcd later.

I posted a question about HDCP in the thread with the fix, I hope Nvidia find a better way before HDCP becomes more critical.
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Cool price.. These have really come down in price, havn't they?? You should at least bargain with them and see if they can match $628... The price totally make the 6bit panel worth it. hahaha. In 2 months time they'd probably drop to $400... It will be a steal then... I like feather weight, so tempting to get a 2nd one...

Isn't there a 0 pixel policy?? I have 1 stuck pixel (which I fixed but can easily get stucked again) and the co I bought from swapped it without a hasssle...


HDCP is really crap.. U have any BD player with 24p support??? While reading it's specs it said this panel is capable of doing 24p, which I find wierd.. can you verify that?

It's pretty hard for me to start Windows on my machine, can you somehow provide me a EDID bin file for your setup and PM it to me? I think that will work on my linux setup. So when your computer blanks it screen, does it get the monitor to go into DPMS/power save mode (i.e. orange light)?

Yeah was a pretty good price, was thinking of getting it last christmas but alot of shop's (well the much cheaper one's) had the <3 dead/bright pixel policy, wasn't worth the risk back then imo. It IS now a 0 pixel policy, that's what I meant by "replace if 1". 



No BD player atm, & I can't see anything about 24p in the specs, where is it?



There is a screen of the 2835 EDID here (bottom pic): http://www.spotty-dog.com/garage.html

And yes it goes to "DPMS/power save" orange light when I shutdown & standby, & awakens much faster than my 24" Acer.

Btw analogue sound works with HDMI via the provided 3.5mm patch lead.
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Cool on viewsonic on setting a new low... lol...


in viewsonic's website, it says:


Does that mean it can do native 24p I wonder?? The scaler is pretty good too, I wonder what it's using... Really other than the silly HDMI problem this DFP is practically flawless..


Nice cars you have there... And your cars can prob pay for my mortgage, lol.....
Can you send the inf file to junk.destroyer@gmail.com? thanks.

Somewhere in the Nvidia control panel should have an option for you to export the EDID file.. I know it's there in the linux equivalent - Nvidia settings. I will try to find out how tonight when i get back.


Hmm. I wonder if i can write that new EDID info back to the monitor using PowerStrip somehow... Is that all there is to the EDID file?? I might be able to create the BIN file from there and try to feed it into Linux and see what happens.

Will try that tonight and see if it works in Linux or not.. The thing is so bloody light i don't mind carry it back if it's spoiled somehow (it's still under warranty anyways)...

Yes it is a surprisingly good scaler for the price, & not sure what ClearMotiv™ really means


Wish they were mine , that page is someone's from that thread I linked to.


Done.


I can't find anything about exporting EDID in nvidia control panel & I haven't installed Powerstrip. Phoenix EDID Designer just gives me that same 128 byte table on the webpage when I exported the EDID.

No idea too.. i hate marketing departments.. Even Wikipedia didn't turn up anything uselful, just know it's RTC based.


Lol.. Wish they were mine too... I can sell them and prob pay off my mortgage...


Thanks... if that work i'd try and see if I can write it back to the monitor, without destroying HDCP that is...

Will get back to u soon..

Update, the two EDID files doesn't seem to do anything.... Will try to get Windows working 100% this weekend and then see if that works, might finally compile MythTV in Win32 mode then and go over to the darkside.

Why worry about HDCP when u can just get Any DVD. Doesn't that fix the HDCP problem?

without HDCP, I will lose the fancy GUI OSD from my amp.. But that AnyDVD HD product is interesting.. ...... Does it work? Does it playback "on-the-fly" or do I have to rip if off a a file first?