Dell new 20" wide LCD 2005FPW. Has anyone seen this beast?

[dasgooch]

marinos-

I have EXTREMELY sensitive eyes, I have had nurmerous "High end" CRTs in tha past including Trinitrons and Viewsonics and I could not sit in front of these for more than a couple of hours in 2d and not more than 30 minutes in 3d. At one point I thought there might be something wrong and was about to go see a doctor because of the headaches I was getting but after getting my 2005fpw not one headache since. The brightness at first is a bit startling but your eyes will adjust to it and it is quite comfortable (for me at least) in all light conditions. If you have not ordered this LCD yet don't hesistate any longer, best LCD i have seen, a lot of people rave about the Apple Cinema displays and I have checked them out and they don't see to be as sharp as my 2005. So for people that are calling this a "Cheap LCD" that is simply not true, I would like to know what LCD they think is better at any pricepoint. A good friend of mine has a Sony LCD (forgot the model number) and he paid quite a bit more than I did and it doesn't look nearly as good as mine, granted im very biased but at a recent LAN party we put mine and this next to each other and everyone agreed mine was a sharper, cleaner, all around better picture than his.

 

[marinos]

Thank you guys for your valuable information. Now I have some other questions, and I would like to say sorry in the case these questions have already been discussed!

1. I am thinking about that strange resolution of 1600X1050. When I check the specifications of various cards I can't find such resolution. Is there a softare coming with the monitor that customizes the card resolution..and are all graphics cards customizable?
2. My computer is not powerful (2.8ghz celeron-gamers might laugh) on an intel chipset with an integrated graphics card of 64MB memory. I think I have two options: the first one is to buy a special ADD card (that is how the call it) so as to have a DVI output. the second option is to buy a new graphics card with dvi digital output (and analog maybe); this card must be powerful enough to do all the processing since I have a celeron processor. At least that is my opinion.
3. I am also thinking to buy a tv tuner, which will work without the pc, too. I have two in mind: the viewsonic nextvision N6 and the Avermedia TVBox 9. Any opinions?
Additionaly, I have seen in the 2005fpw manual that the monitor has not a 1280X768 (16:9) resolution. Is that true?
I am looking forward to hearing your suggestions and opinions.

 

[booq]

marinos

1) the resolution is 1680 x 1050. the Dell 2001 is 1600 x 1200.

2) I'd recommend ditching the onboard graphics for something else -- particularly if the onboard doesn't have DVI. If you're not much into gaming, you could get away with something like the ATI 9x00 series for not much $$$

3) It's not 16:9, it's 16:10. This is a fairly standard lcd ws aspect ratio

 

[dasgooch]

marinos-

Most manufactures don't list wide aspect ratios but most of them support it nowadays. If you are looking for a good value card to run the new monitor look into the Geforce 6600GT, this card can be had for around $200US and most come with D-Sub and DVI, the XFX brand has dual DVI. As far as TV tuner cards Hauppaggue (sorry I don't know how to spell it) makes good TV and HDTV input cards but I don't know any specific models off the top of my head.

 

[TekDemon]

*sigh* mine was dead pixel free (I tested it upon getting it) until today when I noticed that there is now a red-locked subpixel =(

Not *too* horribly placed, but if you've had 0 dead pixels they might actually start developing. I know my laptop's LCD went from 0, to 1, till like 10 dead pixels before the whole lcd went to hell anyway.

It just kinda sucks that such a sweet monitor has a dead pixel lol.

 

[imported_TheReaper]

I've been following this thread a while and decided to get the 2005fpw. I ordered it on Friday (1/21) and based on what I'd seen here I was counting on at least two weeks until I saw it. However, I just received an email indicating it had shipped, and the UPS tracking number shows I should get it tomorrow! Sweeeeet.

Now I just hope I don't get any dead pixels or backlighting issues...

 

[MrMiyagi]

Just opened mine from when I ordered it back in December (I decided to keep it.) It's an A0. Big time backlight issues on both top corners, small one in the lower left, no dead pixels. It's bad, but doesn't bother me too much...most people would be sending it back. Gonna keep it for a while, when fixed revisions come out in the next year I'll demand a *new* replacement from Dell.

Never played any games on an LCD before. I think those who say they don't see ghosting are on crack. It was obvious to me in the first five seconds of HL2 and Chronicles of Riddick.

BTW: Anyone know how to make Win Media Player 10 play DVD's full screen on this thing? When I tell it to do FS it doesn't come anywhere near the edges and leaves at least 3 inches of black space on all four sides. Thanks.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: MrMiyagi
Never played any games on an LCD before. I think those who say they don't see ghosting are on crack. It was obvious to me in the first five seconds of HL2 and Chronicles of Riddick.

I don't know if I'd go so far as to say that people who don't notice it are on crack , but I agree basically. I can see some ghosting on my 2005FPW, but I've decided I can live with it. It's really not that bad, and the monitor is just so damn nice overall. Not to mention it's 50 pounds lighter than my last monitor (and I move/do LAN parties a lot).

BTW: Anyone know how to make Win Media Player 10 play DVD's full screen on this thing? When I tell it to do FS it doesn't come anywhere near the edges and leaves at least 3 inches of black space on all four sides. Thanks.

WMP10 automatically does that for me...no black space on the right and left sides. Maybe the movie you're trying to play was actually encoded with that space on the sides? I don't know.

 

[swells]

Here is an update from my original post. I said the backlight wasnt that bad. It was only in the top right corner. Well now it appears to be in all 4 corners. Its pretty bad. Im keeping it though. Everything else looks beautiful.

 

[jim1976]

I have both (2001FP) and (2005FPW) and both are amazing and dead pixel free.
Very minor backlighting in 2005FPW(A00 rev) but overall a great monitor
Both of them definately worth every penny I spent...

 

[DullesGuy]

Anyone recommend the 2001FP or 2005FP for gaming?

 

[jim1976]

They are identical in terms of ghosting IMHO. 2005FPW has slightly better image/display than 2001FP (the characteristics of each can verify that) but definately not that kind of difference that will make you choose it over 2001FP for this reason
Other than that it's a matter of preference... I mean do you like 4:3 or 16:10?
I have to be honest that I didn't believe 2005FPW can be so good. I wanted the extra height of 2001FP but once I got one by mistake(I had ordered a 2001FP and mistakenly they shipped a 2005) I decided to keep them both. They are great man either way you can't go wrong and be dissapointed

 

[DullesGuy]

Aspect ratio is so much a concern as image quality is. I want the crispest, cleanest image possible for gaming. My Dad has an NEC-Mitsubishi 2080UX and it's image quality is near perfect.

 

[imported_TheReaper]

I don't have experience with the 2001fp, but the 2005fpw works great for me. Of course, I went from an older 19" CRT (not even flat screen) to the 2005fpw, so it wasn't a really fair comparison.

It really seems to be a matter of personal preference. I've read this thread and have a good idea of what people like and don't like about the monitor. I didn't see any pixel problems or backlighting problem on mine (rev A01, Jan. 2005), and the brightness didn't bother me a bit at 100%. Everyone who's seen mine so far is really impressed by the image quality. And you haven't really played a game until you've experienced it in widescreen! There are good widescreen gaming tips here: http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/.

My vote is for the 2005fpw...

 

[DullesGuy]

I'm a little concerned about permanently running a widescreen monitor though because I know some older games (and even a few new ones) don't support widescreen. At this moment, though, it looks like I'm leaning towards the 2005FP.

Any other thoughts?

 

[Hikari]

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/

I play HL2, Neverinter Nights, Farcry, and Morrowind, and all of those run fine in widescreen (1680x1050) for me. Morrowind isn't even a new game.

Originally posted by: DullesGuy
I'm a little concerned about permanently running a widescreen monitor though because I know some older games (and even a few new ones) don't support widescreen. At this moment, though, it looks like I'm leaning towards the 2005FP.

Any other thoughts?

 

[imported_TheReaper]

Like Hikari said, many games have workarounds to support widescreen, as long as you don't mind taking some time to edit a config file, etc. I even saw a solution for Doom/Doom2! Gee, might have to dig them out from wherever they're hiding and try it out.

Plus, as a last resort you can always play a game in non-widescreen format and either have black bars or stretch it (I'd go for the bars, but that's personal preference).

Originally posted by: DullesGuy
I'm a little concerned about permanently running a widescreen monitor though because I know some older games (and even a few new ones) don't support widescreen. At this moment, though, it looks like I'm leaning towards the 2005FP.

Any other thoughts?

 

[Camus2]

Hey, I just got my 2005fpw from delivered from DHL this morning. (No small task since I'm in Boston and there is a thousand feet of snow outside right now.) I only tried to set it up quickly and so didn't get a chance to put it through its paces or anything, but I have a bunch of newbie questions that I will have to deal with before I can even judge it.

1. How do I get it to display it native weirdo resolution? I actually have an old graphics card (ATI 7000), but it has a DVI output so I was hoping just to use that for the time being. If I download the latest drivers from the ATI site will the have a way to support this? That seems unlikely to me since this resolution isn't listed in the card's specifications. If not, is there any way to get oit to run at this resolution?

2. How do I get the pivot function. This also involves some sort of updates not included with the monitor according to the sketchy documentation that came in the package.

I'm still running 98se, but I might try switching to XP if all of this is just impossible otherwise. Somewhere down the line I'm going to start upgrading my system startingt with a graphics card, but I was hoping to hold off on that for at least a little while. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Camus2]

Also, annoyingly, when I tried to go to the set up features of the monitor the vast majority of them were unavailable. For instance, the "self-adjust" function was just greyed out in the menu options along with all the other options, but one. I'm not sure what the limiting factor is here.

 

[Sadhu]

Originally posted by: Camus2
Also, annoyingly, when I tried to go to the set up features of the monitor the vast majority of them were unavailable. For instance, the "self-adjust" function was just greyed out in the menu options along with all the other options, but one. I'm not sure what the limiting factor is here.

Answers are in the users manual, and you actually have to read the manual to understand why some things are available and some not. How annoying is that?!


Anyway, some functions are only available when you are Analog mode. In DVI mode, some of the functions are not available. Self Adjust and Contrast are two such functions.

 

[Camus2]

Thanks for the reply. I breezed through that cd manual fairly quickly, but I didn't happen to catch anything that had to do with that. I'm still wondering if I can some how force my old graphics card to display in this monitor's native resolution. On the Dell site they just say "picture may be blurry if not in native resolution. Some old graphics cards may not support this." and that's it.

 

[Sadhu]

Originally posted by: Camus2
Thanks for the reply. I breezed through that cd manual fairly quickly, but I didn't happen to catch anything that had to do with that. I'm still wondering if I can some how force my old graphics card to display in this monitor's native resolution. On the Dell site they just say "picture may be blurry if not in native resolution. Some old graphics cards may not support this." and that's it.

Yes, you will certainly get the best results at native resolution. There's no question about that, and no debate will you probably find anywhere on this subject. To support it, your card needs to have have a driver for it, which basically means that card must support . You should check with your video card manufacturer and see if there is an updated driver that supports 1680x1050. If not, it's worth buying a new card for it. Some people say that the low end ATI card supports it and is very inexpensive under $50. I'm sure plenty of people here can chime in and give you their 2 cents on what card to get. But be specific about your budget. What's the most you can afford? Post that, and I'm sure you'll get a lot of opinions put forth. Let people know what you do at your computer.

 

[Camus2]

Thanks again! Oddly enough I've seen searched through several threads where people have asked about specific recomondations, but others seem reluctant to head them. I think its just because in these kinds of threads most people are ficxated on the latest and the greatest, wehich I can understand. Maybe I will do some searching for new video cards. I also so some refrences to a program called powerstip, which allows you to directly manipulate settings on your hardware like resolution settings. I would imagine that this program is only effective if your video card is capable of accepting custom settings, but I'm thinking of giving it a try anyway.

 

[Sadhu]

To get more people in on the discussion, you might have to give up what you will plan to do with your card and monitor (games, photoshop ... that kind of thing), and mention what your budget is. You can't expect people to make a recommendation with a completely open-ended question. Just mention a few details and see if people have any opinion. I wouldn't necessarily think this particular thread would be good for you. You might go specifically to thread which is about video cards.

For reference, you could go someplace like Tom's Hardware, or PC MAGAZINE, and start your research there.

I wouldn't try to mess to much with making an old card work. Remember, one of the weirdest can of worms you can open is trying to get video to do things in Windows. Experimenting with video and drivers usually ends up in disaster (unexpected Windows crashes). In the end, getting a solution that you know NOT to cause any Windows issues is the best one.

 

[imported_TheReaper]

Camus2, if you want a recommendation, I'd look into either an ATI 9800 pro or NVidia 6600 GT video card. Depends on the money you want to spend, but both are solid performers and priced around the same right now (~$180 to ~$200). There are a lot of factors to consider, such as primary usage (games? business apps?). The base model of both of those cards are decent as well, and less money (around $115 and up).

If it were me, I'd also upgrade to Windows XP - it seems to do a much better job at playing well with new hardware, etc. Plus it's more stable (if any Windows can be called stable).