i just bought this monitor and have had it set up for like a week. compared to my 1703fp (i have them each set up in dual monitor) i think the 03 is better. the 04 is good but the image isnt as bright and the contrast is not as good as the 03. plus the screen displays everything almost too blue. meaning if your looking at a grey it will appear to have a slight blusih hue to it. im not sure if all of them are like that or if i just have a bad monitor.
that being said does anyone know if the 04FPT has some sort of anti-glare coating? i think that might be the problem
Besides that (major, for me) issue, I have been impressed with the quality of static images displayed on the monitor, with a few exceptions. Out of the box, through a DVI hookup, the monitor was entirely too bright, giving the display a washed out look. The monitor can be adjusted via the on screen display, on a sliding scale from 0-100, however even putting it down to 0 (it was on 100 out of the box) had little impact. To get a decent brightness level, I had to adjust the brightness level through my Nvidia card's own control panel.
Additionally, this monitor has a definate "sweet spot" when it comes to viewing. By this, I mean that if you are seated straight in front of the monitor, the image and colors look good. Moving off to the left or right causes the image to dim and lose clarity dramatically. I use a 1704FPV where I work, and image quality remains fairly steady regardless of the viewers position, where the FPT really only seems to look good from one angle.
For gaming though, this monitor shines. Once you've got a brightness level you are happy with, and found a good angle to view it at, games play very nicely, with no real ghosting (short of the problem I linked to above) to speak of. Additionally, still 2D images like photos, with the above considerations on brightness & position, look very crisp as well.
If it were up to me to do over again however, I probably would have not gone with this display. The quick response in gaming is really offset by the problems I've detailed above. Still, there's a chance some of these problems are specific to a handful of systems/monitors, and it may not be an issue for you. Regardless, good luck in whatever display you choose.
Thanks for the comments, they were very useful. I decided to go ahead and buy it after being assured by a sales rep that I could return it within 7 days if I wasn't happy. I've been using it for a couple of days now, so I'll add my own opinions...
I am very impressed by the image quality! Images are bright, sharp and detailed and colours are vivid. It actually looks better than my Ultrasharp CRT, which surprised me. I can't see any evidence of the lower colour range compared to CRT (this being a 6 bit TN monitor). Digital photos look very good. Changing the resolution to something other than the native 1280x1024 resulted in a noticeable drop in quality, however (not a concern for me).
For me, no picture adjustment was needed. The picture and brightness looked perfect out of the box (using the DVI cable). Text looks fine to me even without turning on ClearType.
Viewing angles took a bit of getting used to. The backlighting seemed a little uneven to start with, darker towards the top than the bottom, but once I'd adjusted the monitor to a height I was happy with all was fine. I have to be sitting at my desk to be in the correct position to see the colours correctly. Moving my head around makes no difference, but standing up and moving off to the side makes the colours look slightly wrong - white starts to take on a yellowish tinge for instance. For some reason this seems to be less noticeable when playing games or watching videos than it is when using Windows. It also becomes less noticeable the further away I stand from the monitor. At any angle, the picture looks perfectly clear and viewable even though the colours have changed.
As for playing games, the reason I chose this monitor over the FPV version, they look perfect. I can't see any ghosting whatsoever. The same goes for watching DVDs.
The built-in USB hub seems to work only intermittently. It works fine until I reboot the PC, after which Windows seems unable to detect it (when the USB cable is connected, device manager continually refreshes as if it is trying and failing to recognise the device). From then on it won't work at all until the power is disconnected from the monitor and reconnected, and then only until the next reboot. Looking at other threads in this forum (do a search for "USB") this seems to be a common problem. The USB ports weren't that important to me so I've decided to live with it.
Overall, I'm very pleased with this monitor. The viewing angles and USB problem aren't an issue for me personally and everything else about it makes my old CRT look rather old fashioned!
It seems to me that It's really down to the users preferences etc. I'm not in to gaming to much so I may well go with the FPV. Ideally you would want the two screens side by side using identical graphic cards, settings and also looking at the same images, text etc.
shaxl
104 Posts
0
July 6th, 2005 17:00
that being said does anyone know if the 04FPT has some sort of anti-glare coating? i think that might be the problem
dklofton
9 Posts
0
July 6th, 2005 18:00
Greetings Ant2005,
My feelings on the 1704FPT are somewhat mixed at the moment. To see a breakdown of my main problem with the display, please read my post here:
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_monitor&message.id=46371
Besides that (major, for me) issue, I have been impressed with the quality of static images displayed on the monitor, with a few exceptions. Out of the box, through a DVI hookup, the monitor was entirely too bright, giving the display a washed out look. The monitor can be adjusted via the on screen display, on a sliding scale from 0-100, however even putting it down to 0 (it was on 100 out of the box) had little impact. To get a decent brightness level, I had to adjust the brightness level through my Nvidia card's own control panel.
Additionally, this monitor has a definate "sweet spot" when it comes to viewing. By this, I mean that if you are seated straight in front of the monitor, the image and colors look good. Moving off to the left or right causes the image to dim and lose clarity dramatically. I use a 1704FPV where I work, and image quality remains fairly steady regardless of the viewers position, where the FPT really only seems to look good from one angle.
For gaming though, this monitor shines. Once you've got a brightness level you are happy with, and found a good angle to view it at, games play very nicely, with no real ghosting (short of the problem I linked to above) to speak of. Additionally, still 2D images like photos, with the above considerations on brightness & position, look very crisp as well.
If it were up to me to do over again however, I probably would have not gone with this display. The quick response in gaming is really offset by the problems I've detailed above. Still, there's a chance some of these problems are specific to a handful of systems/monitors, and it may not be an issue for you. Regardless, good luck in whatever display you choose.
Ant2005
11 Posts
0
July 16th, 2005 11:00
meanjd
15 Posts
0
July 26th, 2005 11:00
Ant,
Thanks for info.
It seems to me that It's really down to the users preferences etc. I'm not in to gaming to much so I may well go with the FPV. Ideally you would want the two screens side by side using identical graphic cards, settings and also looking at the same images, text etc.
Unfortunatley we can't try before we buy.
Regards,
Meanjd.