Originally posted by: brikis98
I use it as a computer monitor and the screen is incredibly sharp, the colors are good, and games, movies and text all look wonderful on it. The only downside is that the black levels are kind of crappy, but you really can't get a better 1080p set at this price point and size.
+1.
I jumped on one of these for work...I already have a 37W3 at home that I paid ~$1200 for, including a 4 year in-home warranty. Since I originally spotted this deal on HardForums, I'll provide a copy and paste of my post there:
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I've been using my 37W3 (non-SE) for websurfing, PC gaming, XBOX 360, and PS3. I've owned it for more than a year now, and upgrading from my 2001FP to this was the best decision I've made since I've been using computers.
I had a chance to compare this directly with the Sharp AQUOS 32" unit, and I ended up selling the Sharp. The Westy was honestly better for everything besides watching TV because, well...it doesn't have a tuner.
I really can't say enough good things about it. Text is very sharp, considering the size of this behemoth. I was halfway expecting text to be a bit blurry due to the larger pixel pitch, but it's not. Color reproduction is very good, and so are viewing angles (man it would suck if it was a TN panel). I haven't found ghosting or input lag to be a problem, though professional gamers might prefer one of the 2ms TNs.
If I had to pick on anything, it would be the black levels and lack of 1:1. However, with some calibration you can get very satisfactory black levels from this monitor without losing much detail. You WILL want to turn the backlight down, and it probably wouldn't hurt to play with the contrast and brightness settings. You can tweak it even further using your graphics card control panel. The lack of 1:1 can be remedied through the graphics card drivers as well, but of course that won't help you with other sources such as older game consoles. But XBOX 360 and PS3 look
fantastic at 1080p on this display.
One other minor gripe is that the monitor doesn't always go to sleep. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. It's not really a big deal as you can always simply turn it off when you are away from the PC, though. This occurs with both XP and Vista. Note that I am using an nVidia card, so it may be different for ATI...but I have no idea if it's a driver issue or something in the monitor's firmware.
But let me say this...I think I paid around $1200 for my 37W3 over a year ago including a 4 year in-home warranty, and it has been worth every penny. For $579 shipped, I am probably going to hit the Buy button on one or even two more of these. I can't tell you how immersing gaming is on this. It's pretty bad when a 24" or even 28" monitor seems small, but this thing will absolutely spoil you. I recently brought my 2001FP to work because I was having to leave the 37" at home and go to work and use a Dell 17" 4:3 display. Talk about a stark contrast! My co-worker just purchased the 28" Hanns-G and has been showing it off to everyone that comes into the office. It was starting to get on my nerves since it would be kinda impractical to bring my 37W3 in just to shut him up, so I have spent all weekend looking at 26-28" monitors. But I might just have to bite on this. He will absolutely sh!t his pants...it's almost worth spending the $600 just for the look on his face and to make his 28" look puny, LOL!
In short, the Westy isn't perfect. But I hate to tell you guys...I've been reading reviews all weekend and NO monitor is perfect. Even the almighty Dell 3008WFP has its flaws...maybe not very many, but yep, it has issues as well. The expensive NEC and Eizo monitors are a heck of a lot better than many of the mid-level consumer monitors that most members here own, but they cost a lot more than the Westy for a lot less size. I'm not saying that this monitor is the best for graphics pros, but for gaming and general PC use it's hard to beat. I've seen TN panels that are much smaller approach this price for Pete's sake!
My only worry is getting one with a dead pixel or uneven backlighting. I was very fortunate because my non-SE arrived in perfect shape with no dead pixels. I would really rather not have to deal with Westinghouse, as I hear their warranty service takes forever. I need to take a look at my credit cards because I know some of them offer warranties on anything that you purchase...I'd feel a bit better knowing that I had another avenue of getting satisfaction in the event of a problem.
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Originally posted by: ghost recon88
37" 1080p is a joke. At only 37", 720p will look just as good as 1080p. If you really want to see what 1080p looks like, get a 42" or bigger. That said, there are plenty of good 37" 720p screens you can get for this price ($599) that will be a lot better then this Westinghouse.
I was going to ask for a link, until I remembered that this display is intended and marketed as a
monitor, which makes your post irrelevant for many people here who intend to use it as a PC monitor or output device for XBOX 360 / PS3. In those cases, especially PC use, why would you want 720p? Games look much better at 1080p, and on a display this large I'd certainly rather have a desktop resolution of 1900x1080 vs. 1366x768.
I'm not saying that Westinghouse is the Honda of electronics. Yeah, there may be more problems and quality control issues than with LG or Samsung. But my 37W3 has been going strong for well over a year and I don't regret that purchase one bit. In fact, it's the best upgrade I've ever purchased for my PC. I have nearly 3 years of warranty remaining on it, and thanks to my credit card I have 2 full years on my newly-purchased 37W3SE.
If you want to spend hundreds of dollars more for a "better" brand name so that you can sleep at night, be my guest. After a search at Buy.com, many of the larger units (32/37/42/47") do not even have a DVI input...just VGA. This thing is designed to be a monitor, and that's what I intend to use it for since I don't need to watch TV on it...I purchased a second Westinghouse display based on my own experience with the brand, which has been very positive (although I don't really want to deal with their support as I heard it takes forever).
Additionally, during a recent vacation to a popular beach resort I noticed that the two large LCD televisions in the suite were Westinghouse units. Keep in mind the resort not a no-frills budget hotel, so I was by no means staying in a Motel 6, Ramada, Best Western, etc. Both TVs had great image quality functioned fine throughout the duration of my stay.