Anand's 1907,2007 reviews

[Cygnus X1]

When will the reviews be out for these new dell lcd's?:clock:

 

[ElFenix]

why don't you ask them?

 

[darXoul]

Anandtech hasn't reviewed LCDs for ages, man. Or, to be more precise, it rarely reviews monitors in general. Look for the reviews on behardware.com and prad.de instead. Not that I recommend these sites over Anandtech

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: darXoul
Anandtech hasn't reviewed LCDs for ages, man. Or, to be more precise, it rarely reviews monitors in general. Look for the reviews on behardware.com and prad.de instead. Not that I recommend these sites over Anandtech

Correct, Kris did the LCD reviews, and he's working for DailyTech now.

 

[Ilmater]

OP is right... NOBODY has a review of the 1907 yet. Except for Cnet, but that review is about as useful as a paper mache cup in a jock strap.

 

[Zebo]

I would'nt trust anandtechs monitor reviews. They indicated the Dell 1905 did'nt have motion blur so i bought one with thier review in mind and the motion blur was just atrocious!! Worst blur from any monitor I've seen and I've seen a bunch.

Kris did re-cant later in a thread in hot deals but the damage was already done and I'm not the only to fall victim to thier review..

 

[blckgrffn]

Originally posted by: Zebo
I would'nt trust anandtechs monitor reviews. They indicated the Dell 1905 did'nt have motion blur so i bought one with thier review in mind and the motion blur was just atrocious!! Worst blur from any monitor I've seen and I've seen a bunch.

Kris did re-cant later in a thread in hot deals but the damage was already done and I'm not the only to fall victim to thier review..

No kidding. I bought one for myself and promptly resold it to my dad... felt kind of bad, but he needed the deskspace and does spend 70% of his time at the computer in 2D mode, where the 1905 is drop dead gorgeous.

lol, what was the last CRT the reviewed here at Anandtech, the cheapo Samsung 955DF that received a glowing review but really does suck for the most part?

Nat

 

[Ilmater]

OK, OK. So Anandtech sucks for monitor reviews. I got that. What about another site? NOBODY has a review on this monitor!

 

[darXoul]

prad.de will have it very soon.

lesnumeriques has its test pics (ghosting, angles, etc.).

cnet has a review.

extremetech.com also has one, incl. in the widescreen roundup.


So, it's not true that no one has a review.

 

[Ilmater]

Originally posted by: darXoul
prad.de will have it very soon.

lesnumeriques has its test pics (ghosting, angles, etc.).

cnet has a review.

extremetech.com also has one, incl. in the widescreen roundup.


So, it's not true that no one has a review.

The first two are in German and French. Cnet is completely worthless. Extremetech does have a 2007 review, but that's completely worthless in this case. As opposed to CRTs, just because they're in the same model line means squat. They could be completely different manufacturers. Heck, even the same monitor (1907FP) comes with one of two different panels (an AUO and a Samsung).

 

[darXoul]

No problem. I speak both German and French, just say what you wanna know As for lesnumeriques, as long as the full review is still unavailable, with all due respect, the pics are pretty self-explanatory.

 

[Ilmater]

Can you give a run-down of what they say when they're done then? I'll PM you when I see they're finished.

Edit: GAH! The Lesnumeriques site is the 2007 too! Let me rephrase: I am looking for a review of the 1907 ONLY! I have no interest in the 2007 as it's not in my price range.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: Zebo
I would'nt trust anandtechs monitor reviews. They indicated the Dell 1905 did'nt have motion blur so i bought one with thier review in mind and the motion blur was just atrocious!! Worst blur from any monitor I've seen and I've seen a bunch.

Kris did re-cant later in a thread in hot deals but the damage was already done and I'm not the only to fall victim to thier review..

Yup. 1905fp has annoying motion blur in games (check the Xbitlabs review for a graph of the response time). It's because some of the grey-to-grey transitions are in excess of 80ms. It behaves like an older LCD screen in terms of ghosting.

It's an 8-bit PVA screen though (same as in the Samsung 193P), so 2d and colours are absolutely gorgeous. I've got one and it's excellent for Windows usage. Just not so hot for intense FPS gaming.

Supposedly the 1907fp is a 6-bit screen, so it's colour precision is nowhere near as good as the 1905fp.

 

[xtknight]

1905FP is 6-bit too but higher contrast than the 1907FP.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: Ilmater
OP is right... NOBODY has a review of the 1907 yet. Except for Cnet, but that review is about as useful as a paper mache cup in a jock strap.

Agreed! I'll have to admit, while there are no decent review of the 1907 yet, this web board has been my saving grace!

The article I read on CNET was worthless! Specifically, the comment they made about the 1907FP being 'wobbly', and having to use two hands to adjust the angle and so forth, was totally off the mark!

Last week, I finally had enough of my old monitor -- a Sammy SyncMaster 763mb (which got excellent reviews here BTW). It worked great for a couple of years, but has convergence problems now, and I do web dev mostly, so... It's pretty sad when you can't tell the difference between a ' { ' and a ' ( ' when you're coding in PHP :roll:

Based on what I read here about the 1907FP, and having used a 1905FP at 'work' for quite some time, I ordered (2) 1907FPs from Dell last Wednesday -- arrived yesterday.

After playing with this 1907 for a few minutes, I can confirm that everything I've read on Anandtech has been spot on! For instance, the first thing I had to do is go into my 'Catalyst Control Center' aka CCC, and turn the brightness completely 'off', e.g. -100. Heh! And this thing is still on the verge of being too bright!

Incidently, I'm using a DVI connection AND the 1907FP included a DVI cable in the package! That 20 bucks saved (or thereabouts) and a 'gold star' for Dell!

Back to the CNET review -- this monitor feels like it's glued to my desk. I don't know what kind of material they used on the bottom of the stand, neoprene I suppose, but my point is, this monitor is rock solid/stable -- more so than the 1905FP I use at 'work'.

So, anyway, thanks to everyone for your informative posts! Personally, I've frequented this site for years, but never had anything to say, until now. Now that I've finally signed-up, maybe I can contribute something of worth to the discussions here.

Latez!

 

[Heartbreaker]

You probably want to start with the monitor brightness control as that actually turn down the backlight. If you turn it down in your monitor settings first, you backlight is still running full tilt (burning more power) and it is dark by changing the amount of twist on the LCD crystals. Backlight will probably last longer if you turn it down as well.

Dell monitors are just too freaking bright. I blame the specification race. Look we have 300cd/m and 800:1 contrast, yeah because it is brighter than the sun...

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: guidryp
You probably want to start with the monitor brightness control as that actually turn down the backlight...

Thanks! I'll try that when I get home...

Sorry if this sounds self aggrandizing, but my web site is an excellent test for brightness/contrast settings. This wasn't on purpose -- it just turned out that way. I use a LOT of dark gradients in the design, especially in the header and footer. It's eye-popping on a properly setup high-dollar monitor, and horrible on a cheap one -- properly adjusted or not. When I was shopping for monitors in retail stores, using my web site as a test, I know every big-buck monitor I tried looked great, with no fiddling around!

I'll have to say, looking at my site on misadjusted Dell 1905FPs at work, and my misadjusted Dell 1907FP at home -- the 1905FP wins hands-down! Hopefully tweaking the 1907FP will make it right. I played with the brightness/contrast settings in CCC a little more, before going to 'work', and got the gradients looking good, but the white lettering was glaringly bright and harsh.

I think you're on the right track! I'll reset the vid card to default, turn down the brightness on the monitor, and go from there...

EDIT: Okay... got home and followed your advice. Reset the ATI CCC to default values. On the 1907FP, I ended up having to lower the brightness from '75' to '25' before it was liveable -- no kidding -- then it was back to CCC, where I played around with the gamma setting and contrast for the better part of an hour. BTW, small changes in gamma and contrast make a huge difference with this monitor!

Bottom line: This thing is drop-dead gorgeous now! Looks every bit as good as the 1905FPs at 'work', without all the ghosting when scrolling. Thanks again!

 

[VinDSL]

BTW, I haven't taken my other 1907FP out of the box yet, but I just went into the factory menu in this one, and it says the panel is a 'Smg LTM190EX V4TO5'. I assume it's this one:

http://www.samsung.com/Products/TFTLCD/Monitor/LTM190EX/LTM190EX.htm

So, it looks like I'm still using a Sammy monitor (with a Dell badge)...

According to the shipping box, it's made in China, which isn't too encouraging, but I guess that's what you get for 250 bones, yes?

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: VinDSL
On the 1907FP, I ended up having to lower the brightness from '75' to '25' before it was liveable -- no kidding...

Heh! Looks like I'm typing to myself, so I might as well quote myself...

Day 2: Well, I broke open my second 1907FP today. It's a 'Sammy' also. I wonder if anyone in America is getting anything other than a Samsung panel. Hard to tell without any reviews, so called, or word from Dell!

Since 'we' are doing our own 'review', I looked more closely at the base on 1907FP #2. The cushioning/padding/anti-scratch/anti-skid material on the bottom of the base looks like a regular ol' polycarbonate plastic to me (probably recycled Pepsi bottles). However, monitor #2 wasn't 'wobbly' either, so I would say 'the girls' at CNET got a bad base, or they were just looking for anything to complain about...

Having used this 1907 for 24 hours -- and having adjusting it for 24 hours -- I can happily report that I now have the brightness/backlight adjustment (on the monitor) turned all the way down to '10' (from the default setting of '75') -- and it's looking 'damn skippy'!

The default brightness setting, as many ppl have commented, is set WAY, WAY too high on these Dell 1907FPs. They'll give you a sunburn, headache, radiation burns, sore eyes, and more, if you don't turn 'em down -- guaranteed! I have two of them, and they're both setup the same way, from the factory, so it's not a fluke...

Anyway, with the brightness cranked down to '10' -- if you'll pardon the pun -- this thing is really starting to shine. There isn't one 1905FP at 'work', that I know of, that looks as good as this 1907FP, and we've got a ton of them,' and more coming every day!

TIP: How can you tell if the brightness is set too high on a 1907? The colors look great, but the text is jagged and horrible -- you can actually see the individual pixels, e.g. the text looks like dotted lines instead of lettering!!! Once you get the brightness/backlight turned down, and all the jaggies disappear, text looks GREAT on the 1907 -- equal to, or better than, text on the much heralded 1905FPs. And, I'm not just blowing smoke! I started off, yesterday, thinking the 1905s at 'work' looked better -- and they DID, but that was yesterday...

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: xtknight
1905FP is 6-bit too but higher contrast than the 1907FP.

NO the 1905FP is 8-bit unless they changed panels. http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=2332 "We profoundly appreciate Dell's decision to stick with an 8-bit LCD for their flagship 19" LCD panel even though the current industry trend seems to lean more towards cheaper, "faster" 6-bit panels instead."

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: toyota

Originally posted by: xtknight
1905FP is 6-bit too but higher contrast than the 1907FP.

NO the 1905FP is 8-bit unless they changed panels.

Then again, according to another page on AnandTech (LCD Buyer's Guide)...

4. 19": Dell UltraSharp 1905FP 1280x1024 (5:4)

Panel: Samsung LTM190E4-L02 (PVA 6-bit+2x2 dither) or AUO M190EN03 V0 (P-MVA 6-bit+FRC)
Response time (bwb): 20 ms. or 8 ms.
Specs: Dell UltraSharp 1905FP
Notes: 1905FP discontinued and 1907FP not recommended (inferior).
Price: ~$300 USD

Source: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=1745344

 

[VinDSL]

Hrm... well...

Day 3: You aren't gonna believe this -- I don't! After 48 hours of reading everything I could on the web concerning ppl's experiences with the Dell 1907FP, and incessantly playing around with this thing, I finally got it!

Reading through the threads, I found out ATI had just released CCC version 6.4, so I downloaded it.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=31&threadid=1841565&enterthread=y

During the installation process, while waiting for the files to load, and so forth, I decided to 'up' the brightness on the monitor to '15'.

After ATI CCC 6.4 was installed, I rebooted the computer, and low n' behold, I didn't have to touch anything in the control panel, e.g. everything is sitting at the default values. The only thing that has been tweaked is the brightness setting on the monitor, which was lowered from '75' to '15'. And, everything looks perfect -- text, graphics, backgrounds -- you name it.


Woo hoo! NO dithering patterns now either!!!

http://www.home.no/t-o-k/Colour_Gradients/


Amazing!!!

Dude, this thing looks bad a$$ now! I think I'm going to quit while I'm ahead...

 

[VinDSL]

Day 4: Here's an interesting development -- haven't read it in any reviews that I can remember -- and I've been doing this a long time...

I came home tonight, jiggled my mouse (to wake up the computer) and everything looked really dark, so I boosted the 'brightness' a little bit. After an hour or so, everything looked really bright again, so I lowered the 'brightness'. Then, it struck me...

The reason you have to mess with these LCDs so much is because it's a 'moving target'. When the monitor comes first comes on, the backlight is dim, but after a while it's brighter than *cough* feces! It's, like, the backlight has to warm up for a while before it stabilizes.

Pardon me if everyone already knows this. These Dell 1907FPs are the first LCD monitors I've 'lived with' at the house. At 'work', the 1905s are on 24/7, so they never have a chance to 'cool down', so to speak.

I guess the trick is to never turn these things off, i.e. don't let them go into 'sleep mode' -- otherwise you'll be adjusting them until the cows come home. Either that, or put up with them being too dark for the first hour of usage. Whatever...

Is this something particular to the 1907FP, or have you noticed the same affect with your LCD monitor?

 

[darkswordsman17]

That doesn't sound right. One of the things that CRT owners noticed when first switching to LCDs is that they don't need to warm up like a good CRT does. I've seen numerous people say how their old Trinitron or Diamondtron took an hour before it really started to look good like it should, whereas their new LCD was immediately at full image quality.

I don't believe CCFLs should have warm-up time. Over time they will dim, but I don't believe that fresh ones should have a warm-up time.

Could it be just that your eyes are adjusting to the screen? Do you happen to have the lights on when you start it up and then off later?

 

[VinDSL]

Heh! Funny you should mention Diamondtron monitors! I'm at 'work' right now, on a 22" NEC MultiSync FE2111SB. It has a SuperBright Diamondtron tube. In a perfect world, this is what I'd be using at home too. I love these things, but they're rather expen$ive -- and subject to burn-in.

Anyway, yes, the ambient lighting in my house may be making the difference, and tricking my eyes, but I never noticed this with any CRT I've used in the very same room, under identical conditions.

I'm running the 1907FP at around 10-20% brightness. That's what looks best to me. If I had it set to the default (75% brightness), I'm sure I wouldn't tell a difference. However, where I have it set, I *think* the backlight is getting brighter during the first hour, before stabilizing. I suppose I could tape a light meter to it, to find out for sure...

LoL! Maybe I'm trying too hard to make my 1907FP look like a SuperBright Diamondtron!

Anyway, I'll try to pay more attention to the room lighting and see if there is a correlation...

Thanks for the reply!