Originally posted by: marinos
Thanks for your replies darkswordsman17 and Sadhu. Sadhu, let's say that you don't use that NEC-MITSUBISHI BRIGHTNESS CONTROL utility (which I will probably use) can you sit in front of the monitor for hours and still your eyes feel comfortable? Now, if you use the utility and control the brightness then everything is ok with your eyes? And what about the colours and contrast when you lower down brightness? Are they good?
..and something else. The monitor does not have its own utility to control the brightness as much as you want?
I hesitate to answer your first question with complete confidence, because I don't really know just "how sensitive" your eyes are. I don't have any problem sitting at the monitor for hours, and neither does my daughter ... who's the main user of this monitor (in my office I have two 2001FP monitors). But, I don't really have a problem with my eyes hurting, and neither does my daughter who primarily works in the late afternoon and most of the time, after dark. She doesn't use the Brightness Controller and I use it only slightly (I only use the fader just a tad).
I shoudl mention that I've already lowered the brightness all the way on the front of the monitor using the brightness adjustment available on the front of the monitor. To see the controls avaiable with the 2005FPW you can take a look at the User Manual which is up at the Dell site:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/monitors/2005FPW/
If you go the 2005 manual online, you'll see what you can adjust. Note that when press the (-) button, which is the third button in from the right hand side, a screen pops up that lets you adjust the brightness.
The reason for the utility becoming a topic of conversation here on the forum was because some people said that when it was turned all the way down, it still was too bright for them. I loaded the controller utility more or less out of curiousity rather than feeling it was REALLY necessary. I think it's fine without it. But I have it installed, and still have it turned down a hair using the controller.
But I could see a use for it for some. Not simply to turn the brightness down beyond what's capable using the Dell control, but for ease of use for turning the brightness up. In other words, during the day, when you feel you might benefit from more brightness, and even want a little more, say on bright sunny day, when the light is streaming in the windows, then you could use the Brightness controller. To do this, don't turn you monitor's brightness all the way down to Zero. Instead, leave the your Dell brightness setting at 10 or 20 or even 30 percent. When you've done that, use the =NEC-Mitsubishi brightness controller to get it where you like it during the mid-day or evening. In the day, simply reach for the fader on the brightness controller to TURN UP your brightness. It's faster than using the controls on the Dell. And I don't see any disadvantage to this practice.
Contrast also seems fine even though there is no adjustment for this in DVI mode. Contrast adjustment is only available in the Analog mode. Do I think this is a problem? No. I think the monitor looks great, with both color and contrast. You can tweak color settings using the Dell's front panel controls.
I'm not the only one who likes this monitor and think it's worth its price. There are a lot negative comments on the site, but then, if you read the entire thread (good luck), you'll see quite a lot of people think it looks great.
And so, yes, even with the brightness turned all the way down on the 2005, the color and contrast is great and the experience is very very nice, nicer than big expensive 21" CRT. Everybody around here likes it.
Do I like the 2001FP better. In some ways, yes I do. But then, I'm not a gamer - so the response time is not an issue for me, and I only watch films on large home theatre. I'm not one for watching video on a small screen, and I consider even 24" too small for me to watch DVDs. Call me old fashioned but I like my movies BIG.
Good luck with your purchase.