I finally decided to get an HP W2207 yesterday because of the features it has over the 22" LG and Samsung, and also because of the panel lottery issue with Samsung. All of the units on display were manufactured in April 2007 and had LM220WE1 panels (LG/Philips?). When I asked the salesperson to bring out boxed units, there were also a couple manufactured in July 2007. I thought these must be better because they're newer, and any problems with previous releases must have been addressed with more recent releases, right? Checked out the July 2007 unit, it had LTM220M1-L01 Panel Version STMD1.2. Isn't this the "desired" Samsung panel, same one in the 226BW "S" units? The unit was ok, no dead pixels and I couldn't appreciate any backlight bleed in the store (I even asked them to turn off ceiling lights). But when I got home, I found out that it had some bleeding along the vertical sides, almost none on top or bottom. I think I can live with it but I couldn't help wonder if I had gotten the April 2007 unit with the Philips panel, would the backlight bleed have been less? Or more? Guess I just want to make myself feel better, or worse, depending on what other users know about the comparison of the 2 panels. I might try to find a way to have it exchanged if the Philips is really superior. It's just that I have no basis for comparison so I'm relying on input from others. Comments pls.
Also, I'd like to ask how scaling is usually managed with this monitor. I'm using an X1800XT and choosing "Centered Timings" in ATI CCC doesn't do anything, but Prey scales well (with black bars at sides when playing at 1280x1024) when I choose "Fit to Aspect Ratio" in the monitor OSD.
Questions:
1: Do I still need to select "Centered Timings" in CCC aside from the OSD, or just the OSD setting?
2: Will I need to do this only whenever I play a game at non-native resolution, or can I leave it at this setting for all types of usage?
Thanks in Advance for replies