iiyama Vision Master Pro 450 for $399

[K-squared]

Why would Iiyama keep "a large supply" of an item they're closing-out? The monitor was discontinued last November, so I don't see them having any sizable inventory. And unless they have had a lot of problems with this specific monitor, why would they have any significant inventory of refurbished units?

Most manufacturers of good quality merchandise send out new items to replace warranty claims - then resell the refurbished items to recover their loss. Unless the item is specifically marked as a refurbished item, how would the manufacturer know the item is refurbished (except in cases where you purchase directly from the manufacturer), especially if you do not send in the registration/warranty card?

If this monitor came with a standard warranty (like many other manufacturers' do with their refurbished units), I wouldn't have any concerns. But buying a monitor that only carries a 90-day warranty seems like a considerable risk, especially given that the unit has had problems or already failed once.

"The ones for sale for $349 are refurbs. if you have a problem with one, Iiyama is the manufacterer, so I assume they have a large supply, but I don't think your going to get a new one if your refurb. goes bad, you will get another refurb."

 

[the FooL]

Sony's refurb's are also 90 day or 1 yr.
For the G400's, I it was 1 yr, but the G500's were 90 day.

My Iiyama had some capacitor problems near the end of it's 3rd yr, and I sent it in.

I'm not sure if they changed there warranty info, but for mine, they shipped me a box and a shipping label.
I sent the monitor back, and they gave me a newer model.

Turns out, I wasn't supposed to get the newer model, but they let me keep it until they repaired my other monitor.
Then they shipped my old monitor back, and I shipped the "loaner" back.

The warranty that Iiyama had then (this was in 1997) was if the monitor fails to produce a picture, they would replace it with a new one.
This would imply an upgrade if they cannot give you a replacement, as that has always been the case when I sent something in for warranty and it was no longer available.

My problem unfortunately was just a noticable shimmer in the screen, but it still produced a picture.

I would take the Iiyama as well, but more willing to pay the extra $150 for a new one, considering I've had good experience with their customer support.

 

[Midnight Rambler]

<< yama's customer service used to be good. I had to send my VisionMaster 450 in for repair recently and it was a nightmare. Even though my monitor's under warranty, I still had to pay shipping. >>

Iiyama is no different than any other monitor company, they ALL make you pay for return shipping, the one exception being KDS which will cover the cost for the first 90 days only, then after that it's your repsonsibility. Many monitor companies do offer extended service plans that will pick up the shipping costs for the full time period of 3 years, but you pay $50-100 for this. Iiyama, Viewsonic, Samsung, and others offer this.

K^2:

<< Does anyone that owns the iiyama Vision Master Pro 450 also own (or previously owned) a KDS Avitron AV-195TF? I'm interested in how much better the iiyama is over the KDS.... >>

I've owned all of these, although my Iiyama is a slightly different model but same CRT. Also, I got rid of/sold the KDS in favor of a Sony G400, I mainly bought the KDS because it was a hot deal ($308) and I wanted to see how the KDS stacked up against my Sony, since they use the same basic Trinitron CRT. Thus I can compare a Trinitron (Sony, KDS, IBM, etc.) vs. a DiamondTron (Iiyama, Samsung, Mitsubishi, etc.). IMHO, the Sony G400 is clearly the best, followed by the Iiyama. I've also at one time or another owned or worked with the IBM P96, Viewsonic PF790 and the Samsung 900NF. As such, my overall ranking would be Sony-IBM-Iiyama-Samsung-Viewsonic-KDS. The Sony's have better focus control and better color accuracy in my opinion. I'd highly recommend viewing your monitor candidates in person if possible, and hopefully side by side with the same video subsystem (ie video chip/card). Also, take along some images and a monitor setup/calibration utility (Nokia's web site has a small subset of DisplayMate that works fine) on a floppy to do so, this will really help. Finally, I know it's my own personal peeve, and I have mentioned this before in other monitor threads, but besides the better focus, the thing that really caught my eye with the Sony is the color orange. I don't know why, but this color does not display as well on any DiamondTron-CRT-based monitor, at least not as accurate as the Sony. Since this color is very prevalent, I think it makes a big difference.

 

[Maverick]

ordered one today...price is at $349 before shipping now.

I hope I get a good one!

 

[BigBadMunky]

I bought this monitor last summer and it is excellent. When I sit down at any other monitor, I immediately realize why I went for the iiyama. I get 1280x1024 @ 85 hz and 1600x1200 at 85 hz as well. Its a very attractive monitor especially with the flat screen as is guaranteed to get some comments about quality. I paid $480 for mine refurbished and it is worth every penny - no problems at all. Shipping was slightly around $25 but came 2nd day FedEx.

 

[Maverick]

how fast did they send it out after you guys ordered it?
I ordered mine yesterday around 4 PM via 2-day Fedex and I'd like to see it before the weekend.

 

[rich1er]

iiyama is a kickass company. I have the vision master 450, and it is still the best monitor i have seen so far.

 

[aliu79]

shiva... i'm not sure if you'll get it by this weekend... the website says it'll ship the monitor out after 3 days of processing... and you did order it kinda late in the day too, so i'm not sure if they counted tues as 1 day..

 

[Maverick]

yah I noticed that 3 days thing too. I bet most of the time they get it within 1 day though. I'd just like to know how long it took for people who went ahead with the deal.

 

[Maverick]

well I got it today and its GORGEOUS! Such a difference from my old Viewsonic 17GA. The colors are more vibrant and the screen is perfectly flat.

THere's a little scratch on the side, but its not too bad...anyone know how to mask it? Otherwise its a topnotch monitor and I'm very pleased with my purchase.

 

[Midnight Rambler]

Do you mean a scratch on the plastic housing of the monitor? If so, I have found that a certain auto polish/scratch remover will work, if you are careful using it. Meguiar's &quot;Swirl Mark Remover&quot; is for removing fine paint scratches and swirls, and is great for your car, esp. on clear coat finishes. For plastic stuff, like a monitor housing, a case front panel, a scanner body, etc., it can be used to remove scratches by placing a small amount of the Meguiar's on a rag and polishing out the scratch in the plastic (may take some rubbing effort). You must be very careful to not get any of the polishing compound on anything else besides the plastic, esp. not on glass, and worse of all, do not get any on the display glass of a monitor, the solvent(s) in the polishing compound will strip the anti-glare coating in a heartbeat. After carefully polishing the scratch out of the plastic with this compound, I take another clean rag and wet it with warm, slightly soapy water, wring it out good, and then clean off any traces of compound from the area just polished. Then, I repeat this step, only just use warm water (no soap) to get a final cleaning of the area. Do not get the rags soaking wet, esp. when working on a monitor, as you could drip some moisture in to sensitive areas that you would regret.

This has worked pretty well for me. It won't remove a real deep scratch, but it will get out most others.

 

[Maverick]

actually its a scratch on the screen itself.

 

[RobHW]

I ordered mine on Thursday, 2/8 and it arrived on Monday, 2/12. It's still available as of today, 2/13, for $349. Shipping to my house was $29 and change.

It looks perfect! No scratches or blemishes of any kind. It was mailed in the original box (no box-in-box). It did not include a manual, but I don't see one at their web-site either - maybe it just doesn't have a manual. I'm not sure one's needed anyway.

No doubt about it - the picture is sharper-clearer-brighter-crisper than my 6 year old Samsung 17&quot; monitor. The screen looks flat to me! The first thing my wife said when she saw it was &quot;It looks concave&quot;, which is exactly the impression frequently expressed when first viewing a flat-screen monitor! This is quite a nice anecdote, because she had no previous knowledge about flat-screen monitors or what to expect!

So far I've only used it at 800x600 so I've still got some experimenting to do. It's big enough that I think the next level of resolution would be more comfortable. Does anyone know any good freeware or shareware for testing and setting up monitors? Post here or let me know at &quot;rhwnaw&quot; located on yahoo.com. Thanks!

 

[d33pt]

800x600 on a 19&quot;?!?!?!?! I think that's a sin...you need to be running at LEAST 1280x1024... unless yer 65 or something and can't see..

 

[AnimeKnight]

I ordered mine on Thursday, 2/15 and it arrived on Monday, 2/12. It's still available as of today, 2/13, for $349. Shipping to my house was $29 and change.

back to the future part IIII

 

[RobHW]

Doh! Corrected the date on my original reply. Thanks, AnimeKnight!

 

NICE monitor.
Only thing better is the 21&quot; verison, or the Mitsu 2040u.
The diamond Pro tube is sick!
I would jack the res. up to 1600x1200 right away.

 

[RobHW]

I upped the resolution to 1024x768. It's definitely more comfortable than 800x600. I tried higher resolutions, but I found the 1024x768 the most comfortable. I guess my eyes are a little bad!

The nice thing about the higher resolutions (I used to use 640x480 on my old 17&quot is how much scrolling is reduced!

I tested the monitor at 1600x1200 for 30 minutes or so and it worked fine. I found a product called DisplayMate at this site, http://www.displaymate.com/select.html, for testing monitors. It includes a demo version that you can try for free. I'll give it a try and report the results!

By the way, another nice thing about the monitor is that my Cambridge Soundworks speakers fit very nicely underneath the monitor! At each bottom corner, the monitor has a little square shaped cut-out and the speakers slide right into this space! The monitor must have been designed with this in mind because otherwise it's just too great a coincidence!

 

[RobHW]

As promised, I checked out the DisplayMate Free Demo. It's a great little demo! Very helpful and easy to follow! I highly recommend you grab it and check out your own monitor! My iiYama Vision Master Pro 450 checks out perfectly! The demo version helped me get the horizontal and vertical boundaries just right, and pointed out a slight out of sync with the red-blue making magenta that I was able to tune perfectly with the monitor color controls. I think the full-feature pay-version of DisplayMate is about $79 - yikes!

And I just checked and you can still get the iiYama Vision Master Pro 450 for $349! Your hunt for the primo monitor at a great price is over!

By the way, I checked and the ergonomic recommendation for a 19? monitor is 1024 x 768.

 

[Kujaku]

I personally prefer to run it at 1600x1200 with large font (x125%).