L2410NM now a TN panel?

[festus]

I was checking into the 399.99 deal at bestbuy for this 24 inch monitor. The website claims that its has an MVA panel, 1000:1 contrast ratio and 8ms response time.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/...22559&logon=&langid=EN

I checked the box in store and it says 700:1 contrast and 5ms response. The viewing angle is also 170/160 instead of the claimed 176/176.

I can't seem to find any info about the panel being changed. Anyone know?

 

[BernardP]

Would be nice to know what monitor you are talking about...

A link maybe?

 

[BernardP]

So you edited your first post, making me look blind for not seeing the link :evil:

You are talking about the Westinghouse. On the Westinghouse web site, they are still saying it is MVA with 176/176 viewing angles:

http://www.westinghousedigital...tails.aspx?itemnum=105

It would be dishonest to change panel from MVA to TN without changing model number. But $399 looks definitely like TN pricing.

Are sure sure the model number on the box is exactly the same? Have you seen the monitor in store? It's easy to look at the vertical viewing angle to see if it is TN or MVA

 

[festus]

Sorry about that.

The store didn't have a model on display, just the monitors in boxes. I'm basing my info on the box specifications as well as the info from the user manual found on the page that you linked.

http://www.westinghousedigital...df/105_User_Manual.pdf

Page 21 gives different specifications than those found on the Westinghouse website.

 

[BernardP]

I admit it looks suspicious.

Luckily, Best Buy Canada has a 14-day return policy with full refund

http://www.bestbuy.ca/helpsect...sID=1&logon=&langid=EN

Maybe a sales clerk would agree to take one out of a box and plug it in. You do know about the obvious blackening of TN panels when seen from below, n'est-ce-pas?

Worst case, you can always buy it and return it quickly if it is a TN panel and you don't like it. Still, $399 is a great price for a 24-inch monitor, even with TN panel, and an unbelievable price if it happens to have an MVA panel.

 

[festus]

Thanks, I'll check into this and probably pick one up so I can try it out.

I'll check out the blackening at the different viewing angles and see how it looks.

Also, I read someplace that one way you can tell the difference between a TN and MVA is by pressing lightly on the panel and looking at the temporary distortion left behind. A TN leaves circular shape while the MVA leaves behind more of a * shape. Any truth to that?

 

[BernardP]

I don't know about the circular vs star shape, but the viewing angles difference is not subtle at all. Have a look at this screenshot from digitalversus.com. A comparison between two 24-inch Samsung panels: TN on the left and PVA (similar to MVA) on the right:

TN vs PVA

See what I mean? The off-angle shots are 50 degrees up, down, and to the side. The TN screen becomes black with color inversion very quickly as you start looking at it from below, while the PVA/MVA simply washes out progressively.

 

[bigsnyder]

The monitor is no longer on sale, back at $549.

 

[BernardP]

It is still showing at $399 if you click the link in the OP. Being BestBuy/Futureshop, this should be good until Thursday evening.

 

[clickynext]

Oh my. If this is MVA rather than TN then it's an awesome deal! It'd make me regret buying a 2007wfp just recently.

 

[postmortemIA]

If it is MVA it wouldn't have 170/160 viewing angles.

 

[clickynext]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
If it is MVA it wouldn't have 170/160 viewing angles.

Which is not what Westinghouse claims.

 

[bigsnyder]

Originally posted by: BernardP
It is still showing at $399 if you click the link in the OP. Being BestBuy/Futureshop, this should be good until Thursday evening.

I should have been more specific, it is not on sale in the US.

 

[techgamer]

Its not on sale at bestbuy any more but the Egg still has it at $359 AR

 

[festus]

I picked one up last night, but haven't gotten to do any more than unpack the monitor and hook it up. I'll report back when I get the chance to play around with it. It's insanely bright though.

I had emailed Westing house customer support before purchasing to find out why there is a discrepancy. I haven't heard back from them yet though.

 

[festus]

After playing around with this monitor, I'm pretty sure it isn't a TN panel. The viewing angles are pretty good and it seems way better than the TNs that I use at work.

I found another thread about this lcd over at hardforum. http://www.hardforum.com/showt...d.php?t=1226712&page=5

Apparently, Westinghouse is claiming that the lcds are all in line with the specs on their website, and that the boxes and manuals were misprinted. They didn't feel that it was worth the cost of a reprint so they shipped them anyways. Perhaps this could be the cause of the great price as they can get rid of the misprints asap.

Anyways, I'm pretty happy with the monitor so far. I'm still waiting to hear back Westinghouse myself for my own clarification though.

 

[Peter]

Misprints on box? Slap a sticker on. Wrong specs page in manual? Throw in an extra single sheet of paper.

Cost of doing that is less than $1 in mass production, certainly not justifying such a price reduction - particularly not when the product actually performs better than promised on/in the box.

 

[festus]

I finally got an update from Westinghouse about the panel on this Monitor.

Here it is:
----------------------------------------
The L2410NM uses a TN type panel at 1000:1 contrast ratio. The carton
and manual may indicate it was a MVA type panel, but that is not the
case. We changed the panel type and did not reprint the boxes and
manuals to reflect that, but the information on our website is correct.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Seems like an odd response since the box and manual seemed to indicate it was a TN panel but the website claims MVA. Kind of switched around...

 

[NoStateofMind]

Originally posted by: festus
I finally got an update from Westinghouse about the panel on this Monitor.

Here it is:
----------------------------------------
The L2410NM uses a TN type panel at 1000:1 contrast ratio. The carton
and manual may indicate it was a MVA type panel, but that is not the
case. We changed the panel type and did not reprint the boxes and
manuals to reflect that, but the information on our website is correct.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Seems like an odd response since the box and manual seemed to indicate it was a TN panel but the website claims MVA. Kind of switched around...

Damned glad I didn't get the westy then

 

[afunguy26]

WOW they might as well sell 22in monitor in 24 in box and says its 24in on there site and 22 when u finally get it!whats with with lcd's and the makers =switching the panels and lying about the panel models i never seen something more shady in a while. :S

 

[imported_nojoka]

That post by festus is definitely switched around. The original specs indicated a TN panel but that is not the case. It is a mva panel for sure. Just look at one in person at Best Buy.
From Hardforum:
"Talked to a supervisor at WH, he apparently owns the same monitor as all of us, so I told him the situation. He said to me "I'm sorry for the confusion but I promise you, what we say on our website is what you own. There is no difference at all except for the manual and the box, most of which are correct. The reason for the confusion and use of misinforming boxes and manuals is solely because we already had these boxes and manuals in production when the monitor was changed, and shipped out to stores in the U.S. There is 0 difference between the specifications of your monitor and the specs on our site. Westinghouse was just saving money instead of reprinting everything for the large chunk of boxes and manuals that are off."

 

[festus]

The CS response I received seemed switched around to me as well. I figured that they were probably confused so I set out to find one anyways.

Best Buy didn't have any floor models, but I managed to pick one up while it was still on sale (the box had the 700:1 contrast and 5ms response specs). I kept it for a week, but it had 6 or 7 stuck pixels and developed a green line from top to bottom about 5 inches from the left.

I swapped it for a different one that had the same specs as the website( 1000:0 and 176/176). I've had it for a week or so and I'm pretty impressed with it. There was no difference between the monitors.

The only issue I've had with it is how muddy the darks are, but this can be corrected by adjusting the gamma.

 

[mshan]

Anyone determined definitively whether this is an MVA or TN panel?

 

[ghost recon88]

Dang, I was gonna RMA mine for light lines running horizontal across it, now I don't think I will. Guess I should try a different pair of component cables. I got mine last September, and it is a MVA panel. I'm willing to bet any replacement they send would now be a TN :|