Originally posted by: Gizmotion
Sadhu -
I am curious if you have the backlighting problem in either of your Dell 20" LCD monitors. I am new to this forum - I found it in my search for reviews on the 2005FPW. I am asking for your feedback and advice - in general - but more specifically in regard to backlighting and overall quality control expectations?
Thanks.
Attention: here's a LONG message from Sadhu. Please skip it unless you are still comparing the 2001FP and 2005FPw, or are otherwise against the idea of
1. improving your speed reading
2. improving your speed reading
3. improving your speed reading
4. all of the above
Well, you know, Gizmotion, I have recently gotten taken to task for many things I've said at this forum, so while I don't personally feel repressed and out of step with "the guys" here, even many of them feel I am, and even though I probably SHOULD, at the same time, I don't want to be a "troublemaker." Of course, as my daughter would say ... "Dad, what are you talking about! It's in your nature to be a troublemaker!"
So, anyway, most recently, it's been suggested that I out of step with forum members because ... of course EVERYONE wants to use the wide screen 2005FPw for "home theatre." Well, actually, you're the third person in just a week that's written to me or sent me a private message that isn't particulary interested in home theatre with their FPw, and the third person to have a some honest to goodness solid pc applications that demand a lot of real estate in order to WORK "productively" ("Work" - please imagine Manard G. Crebbs ... if you can).
I also use Photoshop, and usually have Dreamweaver open at the same time, and sometimes ... a live web site too and maybe a live Putty Telenet connection to the server, maybe an FTP window, and sometimes a task list, or a FREEDOM web site browser session. I work long hours, sadly, doing all this stuff, and having the larger screen ... aka roooom ... the extra tonage of real estate is a huge boon to getting further along in the course of a 14 to 17 hour day or work (again ... altogether now ... "WORK?!" ... people born in the late 50s and 60s ... and there after will look askance, and not get this comment at all, I know. Sorry but it was part of my youth and so drifts in moments like these.)
So here's the kicker. I, like you, also ordered several monitors from Dell at the same time, in order to find out for myself what would be good for ME, realizing that it was kind of nuts to ask other people in this forum, despite all their knowlege, and despite all their kindness and good intensions to help me decide ... (and there are lot of who wrote private messages in order to help ... thank you ... all) couldn't really tell me and my eyes what would be good for me. I had to find out for myself. So .. and I'm still getting to the "kicker," (sorry), and even though I'd planned to buy only one 20" monitor from the two I ordered to try, found that what I wanted and needed was two monitors. The EXTRA screen, which I hadn't been using until I got two Dell's side by side, turned out to reduce my work load by at least an hour or two per day (after I stopped staring and comparing the two of them all day long - grin), so that after not too long, it didn't seem EXTRA at all; it seemed kind of ... well ... essential.
So, I don't know what you will find, but I find that working in web development and programming, and having photoshop always running to grab an image and do something with it is not only easier with the bigger monitor ... it's easier with two monitors! Duh! What a revelation! I know many of you are really saying ... "Oh, this guy's a genious! What a brain!" Yes, I know. Kind of slow on the uptake, I am. But it's one thing to know it intellectually, and it's quite another to sit and use two monitors. It's really a lot LOT better, and spoils you VERY quickly. So, sadly, that's my BIG revelation, or one of them, after order two Dell monitors at the same time.
On the backlight issue, I'm in the dog house if I venture up an another opinion about this in the forum. I feel I have already kind of overstated my opinions here, which I think some people feel are invalid, and maybe, RIGHTLY so. After all, I don't have a real backlight problem as some have had. So I'm not in a position to say what I'd really do if I had one. I think I was one of the lucky ones. I have a fairly uniform screen. I'd say it's not as pitch black as it is on 19" Dell, but it is UNIFORM. I take it that many have no uniformity in the corners or left of center at the top and bottom. I don't have that. Also, I haven't any dead or stuck pixels (on the FPw). I got mine EARLY on, before the big wave started. I think it was on the 2nd or first day that they were offered. And mine came right away .. the very next day via Airborne.
If you want to hash it, or again ask me why I think the backlight issue is less important to me or you than it is to others in this forum, let's not do it here. Either send me a private message, or we can arrange to speak on the phone (a suprisingly economical way of getting down to it quickly).
I do have some opionions about what I prefer to work with. I tending to prefer two FP 2001s side by side rather than a mix of FP and FPw. I don't like dragging windows from the 2001FP and not having it fit in the FPw, which happened, surprisingly ... a lot. When people say they aren't the same the same size ... well, talk all you want about sq inch area and how it may not sound like a lot of difference, ... when you drag stuff from the 2001 to the 2005Fp ... it does NOT fit, and that's that. You have to resize.
Some of you are saying "Sadhu, hold on! You could just as easily use the wider screen as 'base camp' and take advantage of the WIDER screen to have more open on Photoshop at any one time ... side by side! In which case, Sadhu, my man, you'd be runnnig out of room on 2001FP which is skimpy on the width side of things. So what's the DIFF?" Right?
Well, now maybe it's me and my inablity to know exactly how to calibrate both of these two monitors, I don't know, but I haven't been able to feel that colors are true or as saturated as they should be on the FPw as they were on the FP. Colors are really nice on the FPw, don't get me wrong. And I know the contrast ration is supposed to be better on the FPw too. But I swear that color values ... when attempting to keep the whites ... well ... white on the FPw, are just not as true or as saturated as they are on the FP.
See what you think. Maybe you'll have more luck than me. If so, please write about it here, and let people know you think otherwise. Still, when I look at web site, and know what color brown the BG color is supposed to be, and I see that it's not saturated enough and too light, it propells me to work in Photoshop more on the FP rather than the FPw. It's probably just crazy 'ol me. It probably doesn't bother ANYBODY else. But again, that's exactly why I ordered BOTH monitors ... so that I could see what I preferred rather than just not knowing. Since I'm still feeling that the color saturation might be more trustworthy on the 2001, I'm still doing most of my main work on the 2001. When I do that, and when I drag stuff to the 2005 ... well the 2005 is too small, and the windows don't fit, and I have to resize. "And that's the story of how we flew over the Atlantic Ocean" (Night at the Opera, Marx Brothers).
Of course, if you cant' decide which you like better, consider keeping them both IF you can afford it. I know it may seem like a ton of money to some, but spent about that on my upgrade to MX Studio 2004 last time, and it seems like a better investment than many. Also, you can slowly write it off your taxes over time.
It's only $300 more than the Samsung 21 inch monitor, and it gives you a lot more space in which to work. If you get your FPs for a discount, the difference might even be less than that. Two monitors are really a lot better than one. When you work with them both, side by side, you'll see that's true. You might not want to go back to just haveing one. I sure didn't. It's probably for that reason that I would consider buying a 23 inch monitor just now. Good ones, like the HP, cost about $1700, and I'm much rather have either two 20" Dells side by side for the extra room to work in, then have the 23 inch monitor. I know that I'm in the minority here, because many want to play games and or watch movies. But for the non-Manard G. Crebbs folks, and I'm afraid, I'm one of them, two monitors really make work a lot easier. "Work!?"
- Sadhu.
But I only turn one on at a time when doing 3D.
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