Watchdog15 - 37 = 42
Posted 09/18/08 at 02:00:00 PM by The Maximum PC Staff
I purchased a 37-inch Westinghouse LVM-37W3SE LCD 1080p HDTV monitor in June 2007. A few months later, I found out that this particular model has faulty firmware that prevents it from working properly with many devices. For example, the Nvidia driver recognizes it as a different model Westinghouse 1080i monitor and refuses to set it in 1080p mode. I contacted customer support and received permission to return it. The monitor was returned in November, and it was received by Westinghouse two days later. I hadn’t heard anything from them until about a month ago, when I finally made a call to find out about the RMA status. (I’ve been out of the country on a business trip.)
I was promised a follow-up by several people, but no one would commit to when the monitor would be sent. They basically asked me to wait until I received my product. It has now been more than seven months, and I believe I have waited long enough! Thank God my trusty 15-inch LCD is still working fine.
—Jeong Lee
FeaturesThe New Wave of LCDs
Posted 09/05/08 at 11:00:00 AM by David Murphy
Buying a new monitor can be tricky. First, you must decipher the manufacturer doublespeak. Not all specifications are created equal, nor are they measured fairly: You truly can’t tell a book by its cover, nor a monitor by its box copy. And then there are the displays themselves. A monitor by itself might look good to you, but you won’t know what you’re missing unless you compare it against the competition.
We’re going to walk you through the basics of today’s LCD monitor technology and what it means to you, a consumer who wants the best picture for your pennies. But we’re not going to leave you hanging: We’re also going to review 10 monitors across a wide swath of sizes and prices to give you a head start on your purchasing decision.
Hit the jump to find out more!
NewsThe World's Slimmest LCD Television is Only 28mm Thin
Posted 09/02/08 at 02:39:17 PM by Paul Lilly
Sony just announced a new LCD television so thin that it makes even sickly looking Hollywood stars appear chunky by comparison. The 40-inch LCD TV in Bravia's ZX1 series measures just 28mm thick, and that's at its fattest portion. The thinnest portion measures a scant 9.9mm.
In order to build a chassis so thin, the new display utilizes an edge LED backlight. White LEDs come arranged on four sides of a light guide plate, boasting a contrast ratio of 3,000:1. A wireless connection to bridges the separate display and tuner components. To go with the ultra-skinny television, the company developed a dedicated wall-mounting unit 19.5mm thick. When hung on the wall, the distance between the front surface of the TV and wall is less than 50mm.
The KDL-40ZX1 will launch in Japan in October for about ¥490,000 (roughly $4,507 USD).
FeaturesHow We Test: Displays
Read on to see exactly how we test monitors!
Posted 08/26/08 at 12:54:21 PM by David Murphy
Testing a display is two parts science, one part art. It's difficult to measure the performance of a display the same way Maximum PC evaluates other products. There is no benchmark that we can just fire up and then report a score from. Nor can we even test displays in their out-of-box condition. A fair amount of tweaking and visual analysis is necessary to ensure fair display benchmarking. And at the end of the day, determining which monitor reigns supreme is a mix of qualitative testing and the editor's expertise.
Read on to see exactly how we test monitors!
ReviewsPlanar PL2210MW
Posted 08/21/08 at 11:00:00 AM by David Murphy
Planar’s PL2210MW display is a classic representation of your average 22-inch display—a 6-bit TN panel that bears the mediocre image quality of that class. In DisplayMate, the 1680x1050 display’s grayscale range was acceptable, although it fell apart at the light end in both the grayscale test and when the screen was tasked with producing very light colors against a white background.
Full review after the jump! Or the bump. Possibly the bjump.
ReviewsNEC 24WMCX
Posted 08/06/08 at 09:00:58 AM by David Murphy
It’s a shame to test an LCD monitor that’s able to create sharp whites and rich blacks, only to watch it struggle to display common color gradients. And it’s downright frustrating given our benchmarking process. We first test a display’s ability to produce detail in blacks and whites. And in that race, NEC’s 24WMCX finishes toward the front—a noteworthy start.
NewsDell Introduces its First 16:9 24-Inch Monitor, Priced at $379
Posted 07/31/08 at 10:44:01 AM by Paul Lilly
While Dell stays busy jazzing up its Studio line of laptops and desktops with various color schemes, the OEM let loose another product but without all the fanfare. Available now is Dell's S2409 24-inch widescreen LCD panel, representing the company's first 16:9 aspect ratio display. That puts the screen resolution at 1920x1080 (as opposed to 1920x1200 for 16:10), matching the 1080p output of most high definition content including Blu-ray movies. Other notables include:
- HDMI with HDCP
- 1000:1 contrast ratio
- 0.276 mm pixel pitch
- 5 ms response time (gray-to-gray)
- 16.7 million colors
NewsMatsushita Sets Goal of 40-Inch OLED Display by 2011
Posted 07/29/08 at 12:59:10 PM by Paul Lilly
In just two more years, your swank high definition television might be obsolete, or at least the technology behind it. That's the time frame Matsushita has given for when it plans to start selling an OLED television with a screen size of 40 inches.
If you haven't been following the HDTV landscape, OLED technology promises thinner displays, a better looking picture, and lower power consumption, making it the frontrunner to succeed both LCD and plasma. Cost continues to be a prohibiting factor in the here and now, but Matsushita hopes to tackle that problem by investing several dozen billion yen into a prototype production line for 20-inch OLED panels, while also doubling the personnel involved in developing larger screen OLED displays.
While Matsushita's 2011 deadline might appear to be overly ambitious, the company already has a head start on the technology. Earlier this month a report from Japan's Nikkei BP said Matsushita and Toshiba were ready to begin mass-producing 2.5-inch organic screens by the fall of 2009. Meanwhile new breakthroughs continue to drive down the manufacturing cost of OLEDs, so if even we don't see OLED televisions by 2011, the writing will at least be on the wall.
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