HOT??? 18" LCD Monitor $398.97

[TheDon]

Originally posted by: joe123
i got the same Glow thing around it this morning after playing games on it last night
turned it off last night and this morning i turned the computer on , turn the monitor on and there was the line in the bottom

about adjusting the setting yourself!!!

"THEDON" what`s the best settings you got on it???

can u write them up here?

thank you i appreciate that

The problem has not returned save for that one time. These may not be my final settings, I have not had enough time to really tweak it the way I want, but it looks good to me. It would be nice to see what others are using after they have the settings where they want.

1280x1024
32Bit

Contrast
Red 54
Green 54
Blue 54

Balance
Red 95
Green 95
Blue 95

Phase 9

Color Temp
User

Brightness
44

EDIT: Like I said in my other post, when using Auto Adjust, the settings will change depending on what is being displayed on the screen at the time. For example, I tried the Auto Adjust with a MacBeth card and a 19% gray card and looked at the settings after each Auto Adjust and the settings changed. I did this with other screen patterns including a blank screen. I may need to tewak this further later, but what I have now looks pretty good for now. Overall, I quite happy with my purchase.

On a different note: If you have a Micro Center near you, they have had a Proview 18" in-store for awhile now for $500. It's very similar to the Microtek except that it has built-in speakers. Microcenter Proview

 

[Falloutboy]

ok I woke up this morn and I'm getting the halo effect. what have the rest of you done that have gotten this effect

 

[skywhr]

Still debating on taking mine back or not. I got home today and turned it on and had no problem at all. Whats the deal?

 

[spyordie007]

Originally posted by: Scyber
Native Resolution: 1280x1024(SXGA)?

Isn't that kinda low for an 18" display?

Not low for 18" LCDs but low for me, the 15.4" LCD on my laptop is native 1600x1200. The laptop LCD is a little hard to read sometimes because of it (so I ended up pumping up the text size) but on an 18" I would personally want to run 1600x1200.

1280x1024 is fairly common for 17" LCDs so it isnt that large of a strech...

-Spy

EDIT spelling sux

 

[JohnGer]

I dont understand the complaints about ghosting. I have tested this monitor with 3dmark and the dragon/lobby tests generate over 100+ fps and I don't see no ghosting. Maybe its time you replace that geforce2 or S3 64+ video card LOL.

cheers
JohnGer

 

[Mockmaw]

I believe that ghosting has nothing to do with frames per second, correct me if I'm wrong. Thank you JohnGer, we've already heard your opinion about.. well.. 6 or 7 times now? We know you love the monitor. But I think the people who are concerned with ghosting (myself included) are looking for the opinions of several people, not just one person. Besides, many folks have already invalidated your opinion based on how much of an ass you've been in this thread.

Any owners care to share any thoughts on ghosting (now that some of you have had the lcd for a couple of days?)

How much ghosting is exhibited in non-native resolutions (8x6, 10x7, etc) when compared to the native 12x9?

 

[ofaeon]

With these reports of ghosting not so sure I should pull the trigger on this monitor but as an update to my call a few days ago to 1-800-Wal-Mart, a rep called me today and said she was sorry but the UPC I supplied 79311180002 was not in the system and they could not locate the monitor so it wasn't available at WalMart. This is odd because I phoned the Gilroy California store and the person there was able to find it on the system with that UPC though it was not in stock in any Bay Area stores.

Anyway, I told her that it was a GO item and gave her another UPC # 079311180000 and that several people have purchased the monitor across the US. With the different UPC #, she was able to find it this time, she then said that she would be contacting the Walmart buyer department and see if one could be shipped to my area.

 

[awanSky]

got this from FW:

wentzel said:

<< Hello all... New here as a member... been lurking quite a bit though. I found the C893 at WalMart here in West Virginia. My local had 7. I bought one and am pleased with it. I did note that several people are having problems with the fringing and I beleive I have the solution/reason. I think that you will find that the fringing occurs if you switch the monitor off and let is set over night or several hours. It goes away after warmup of say 10 minutes or so. On the other hand if you let it go into power save mode by shutting the computer down and leaving the monitor on (the power led goes yellow) the fringing does not appear. I am guessing that with the monitor off, the power brick is still supplying power to the electronic and doing something to the LCD? By letting it go into sleep mode there is still some active electronics in a dim awareness state that loads the power brick up enough to keep it from happening. The proof to me is that if you unplug the monitor while off, the fringing does not appear either. I think I am going to get into the habit of pulling the plug or putting a decent power strip surge protector someplace close and just kill the power. That way I avoid fringing and am not leaving the monitor powered up. Please someone else try this and let us know if it fixes the problem.
greg >>

 

[TheDon]

Originally posted by: awanSky
got this from FW:

wentzel said:

<< Hello all... New here as a member... been lurking quite a bit though. I found the C893 at WalMart here in West Virginia. My local had 7. I bought one and am pleased with it. I did note that several people are having problems with the fringing and I beleive I have the solution/reason. I think that you will find that the fringing occurs if you switch the monitor off and let is set over night or several hours. It goes away after warmup of say 10 minutes or so. On the other hand if you let it go into power save mode by shutting the computer down and leaving the monitor on (the power led goes yellow) the fringing does not appear. I am guessing that with the monitor off, the power brick is still supplying power to the electronic and doing something to the LCD? By letting it go into sleep mode there is still some active electronics in a dim awareness state that loads the power brick up enough to keep it from happening. The proof to me is that if you unplug the monitor while off, the fringing does not appear either. I think I am going to get into the habit of pulling the plug or putting a decent power strip surge protector someplace close and just kill the power. That way I avoid fringing and am not leaving the monitor powered up. Please someone else try this and let us know if it fixes the problem.
greg >>

Well, I replied, either here or there that pulling the plug or being on standby did not affect mine. The halo has not returned either way, it was a one-time event. The only thing I can think of is that it was either a quirk, or that manually adjusting the parameters resolved the problem. I'm not sure, but things have been good so far (knock on head). I'm gonna try one more thing to make it return. If it does, I'll relay my findings.

 

[ozziegn]

I've had mine now for two days and I havent had any of these problems that so many are reporting.

however, I havent turned my monitor off either. I just let it go into power-saving mode (yellow light on power indicator) by itself. I figure the 1 watt of electricity its using isnt going to rack up my electric bill all that much.

as far as ghosting goes, either I'm too much of a softy when it comes to 3D gaming but I havent noticed jack when it comes to these complaints about ghosting. both games like UT2003 and MS Rallisport Challenge look great.

and even if there was the slightest bit of ghosting, then we all must remind ourselves of how much we actually paid for these 18" LCDs in the first place. surely one cant expect to ask for a perfect monitor at that cheap of a price.

 

[skywhr]

The ghosting isnt as much a problem for me as the halo & streaks. The halo is there everytime I turn on my monitor and then slowly fades as it "warms up" the streaks have yet to return. I am returening mine and Will continue to use my DELL 18.1 LCD that has none of the above mentioned problems.

 

[TheDon]

Okay, I am able to reproduce the dreaded halo effect. My first assessment was correct. For whatever reason, if I leave the computer powered on and power-off the monitor, the halo returns. If I power off the computer, the monitor can remain in standby or the plug can be pulled and there is no halo. It goes away after a few minutes, but I can repeat the condition by using the above procedure. I can only hypothesize that the video card is still supplying a voltage to the monitor and due to a build-up of voltage it causes a corona effect. This may not be the reason, but I think I have found the cause.

 

[bhess]

I have no ghosting or halos on mine.

I bought this only because it's local. I've been close to getting a LCD several times now but have chickened out for fear of not liking it. But since it's local I thought I could always return it. But I've decided to keep it I like it so much.

 

[sabrownfl]

Work all day, come home to my new LCD. Turn on PC, turn on LCD, AAAAAARRRRRGGGHHH! Dreaded halo effect. Even worse, now I have ghosting just surfing the web! I can still see the crucial ad from the top of this page in the white text box I am typing in.

Could all of this be temperature related? I live in Florida, but it was pretty cold (in Florida terms) today, and my heat was not on since I was not home all day. Will the ghosting and "burned in" images go away when this thing warms up? It is just a thought.

I was fairly happy last night, but I am thinking this $400 dollar hot deal is about to be a $400 dollar return to the Customer Service counter.

sabrownfl

 

[lupi]

Like I said several post ago, when I allow monitor to elapse into standby after shutting computer down I don't receive the halo.


For ghosting, it has nothing to do with FPS or refresh rates as you are normally used to. Ghosting will show to some degree when the screen changes very quickly from one color extreme to the other. Running a standard FPS type test will not 'show' anything.

 

[lzpoof]

Further info on the KDS LCDs,

I saw the 15" Rad5 (They actually had both a rad5 and rad5c at my walmart) for what appeared to be $280, so there apparently has been a $20 drop on these. This monitor is well worth $280 and for the non hardcore gamers, you can make a dual 15" LCD setup for about the same price as a namebrand 17-18".

 

[skywhr]

Just got back from Wally World, they had 6 left not including the 1 I returned. I am rid of the HALO

 

[lzpoof]

This one appears knid of interesting

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?cat=3951&dept=3944&product_id=2042130&path=0%3A3944%3A3951%3A37802%3A37806

It's from norcent and has some good specs (150/150 H/V + 30ms total response). One of the weird things is that it has under specs svideo and composite out. Seems weird that those would randomly wind up there. I checked norcent's site and one of the things they list for the monitor is an optional tv tuner box (to avoid the taxes associated with LCD TV's according to website). I'm wondering if this has the tv tuner. Has anyone seen this especially or any other 15's or 17' BESIDES the KDS and the 18" ?

 

[dafatha00]

Originally posted by: JohnGer
I dont understand the complaints about ghosting. I have tested this monitor with 3dmark and the dragon/lobby tests generate over 100+ fps and I don't see no ghosting. Maybe its time you replace that geforce2 or S3 64+ video card LOL.

cheers
JohnGer

Are you 5? Why do you laugh everytime you say something? LOL LOL LOL!!!

 

[MasterG]

I never received a halo before with this monitor. So I decided to duplicated The Don's procedure and sure enough the halo appeared. I was wondering whether this halo is reason enough to return this otherwise good product. The halo goes away in like a couple minutes and I leave my monitor on all the time so usually it won't be a issue with me. I'm just worried about if I left the monitor off by acccident over a extended period of time instead of one night that permanent damage may occur.

Originally posted by: TheDon
Okay, I am able to reproduce the dreaded halo effect. My first assessment was correct. For whatever reason, if I leave the computer powered on and power-off the monitor, the halo returns. If I power off the computer, the monitor can remain in standby or the plug can be pulled and there is no halo. It goes away after a few minutes, but I can repeat the condition by using the above procedure. I can only hypothesize that the video card is still supplying a voltage to the monitor and due to a build-up of voltage it causes a corona effect. This may not be the reason, but I think I have found the cause.

 

[Yo2]

What is walmart's warranty/return policy on these things??

 

[CelticChrys]

I've had this monitor for about a week now. I'm not a high end gamer, but I'm no newbie either.
This is one of the best looking LCDs I've ever seen. It looks far better in all ways than the 17 inch KDS XFlat CRT I replaced with it. It looked clearer with sharper text than the Proview and especially the Phillips monitors that Circuit City, and Office Depot had. This monitor has a noticeably better viewing angle than the KDS Rad-5 I have used in the past. The Rad-5 is a great little monitor for text oriented tasks, but the Microtek is amazingly better looking on fast movement. Shocked me how much better. A lot better looking than the screens on the Sony, Compaq, and Thinkpad laptops I've seen, though I amdit those weren't the very newest models.
This was purchased at the Wal-Mart in the Bridgeport/Clarksburg area in West Virginia. I suggest you take the monitor out of the box in the store and examine it for damage from being dropped etc before you buy. I returned on that was cracked and busted on one side, from shipping incompetence I assume.
I'm running in native 1280x1024 @75 refresh. I only have a GeForce II so take this under consideration.
I don't play most high end 3d games on my comp, but on a console system, but I do spend a fair amount of time editing photos, and doing video/DVD playback and editing tasks. I ran a number of 3d screensavers, and all looked beautiful. There may be ghosting to better eyes than mine, but I couldn't see it!
DVD playback is Superb! It has me looking at my humble 19 inch TV in dismay now. Mpg and avi/divx files look grand, although if you fullscreen a VCD at this high of a resolution, it can get a little blocky.
I do have the dreaded gray/white halo effect, which only occurs if the monitor is powered off for at least, say an hour. It's there for the first 5 minutes or so after power on as it slowly fades back to normal. I would howle-heartedly recommend this monitor to anyone who wants an LCD and to anyone who's not a hard core/not to be converted gamer. Even the hardcore gamer I think would be surprised at how bright, clear, and responsive this thing is. I didn't think an LCD could make motion look so good. I've just done a manual adjust, as recommended by TheDon, and if it solves the gray edge I'll post back.
The gray edge at powerup is the only thing that keeps me from rating this monitor as perfect. For me of course.

 

[ozziegn]

Originally posted by: Yo2
What is walmart's warranty/return policy on these things??

normally its 90 days for anything in the store but its only 45 days when it pertains to computer related items.

 

[JohnGer]

The walmart supercenter where I Purchased my microtek was very explicit about informing me that I have 15 days to return the monitor.

cheers
JohnGer

 

[ozziegn]

Originally posted by: JohnGer
The walmart supercenter where I Purchased my microtek was very explicit about informing me that I have 15 days to return the monitor.

cheers
JohnGer

wow, I didnt know that.

they must have changed that recently because I returned a printer not too long ago and the girl from CS told me they changed their return policey from 90 days to 45 on computer stuff.

so I just went to Wally World's site and seen this on their return page:

"Computer Hardware and Components: Computer hardware and components must be returned by mail with any included software within 15 days of receipt."

I'm glad you said something about that.