regarding the sale, when I submitted my order on Sunday, I think I remember the confirmation page indicating it was good to the 25th. Though it also says somewhere that sale prices can be cancelled at any time.

regarding inventory, dell might keep only a day of parts on hand, but I would be pretty sure that their supplier has a warehouse across the street with something like a few weeks inventory.

I don't know when the sale started, but it certainly seems like they're trying to more this stock ASAP. If you like the price and are willing to take on certain risk or inconvenience, go for it. But don't be surprised if the price jumps back once they're confident about the product. In other words, it's hard to have your cake & eat it too

conspiracy sounds rather strong. I'd call it business.

Message Edited by aggreg8 on 05-22-200610:38 PM

I just received my monitor today... its a great monitor except that when viewing certain websites and watching dvd movies the color banding can be extremely bad.. any suggestion on what i should do?!

You should read the forum, and realize that there is nothing you can do. If you find it to be too big of a problem, return it to dell for either a refund or a replacement. But I warn you that your replacement will have the same banding. We will know on the 24th (hopefully) whether or not this situation is going to get rectified. I for one am probably going to order my monitor the 25th whether or not it's fixed. Anyone with experiance, does "offer ends 5/25" mean it's over the second the clock hits 12 midnight and the day becomes the 25th? or at the end of the business day on the 25th? There is some confliction on whether or not the LCD panels go back to regular price on the 24th or the 25th, but at the least the deals on computers w/LCD's goes off the 24th.

Bytor- What makes you thing they switched to a PVA panel? People are still getting the LG panels I believe, or atleast I haven't heard anyone say that they recieved a PVA panel. For me it's not really that huge of a deal, because as I understand it, the Viewsonic 20" and the Samsung 20" all have the same PVA panel. Really, I'm not sure what I can do, I NEED the hookups that this monitor provides. No other monitor in it's price range (I've got about 450 to spend) has the hook-ups. If this monitor doesn't work I'll check out the 2005 model at costco for.. 440 (Which would really, REALLY anger me..paying more for an OLDER model) or probably just order the 2007 (again) and hope for the best (100 dollars cheaper almost..hard to argue with that)

Message Edited by LCDPhreak on 05-22-200610:54 PM

Does anybody know when the 22% off sale ends? If it ends before I get my order in I'll be sick, but I don't want to risk ordering, just for them to ship it and then for Chris-M to come back with "It's being fixed, I'll tell you all when you can order". If that were to happen and I would have to go through RMA'ing it again, I'd be sick. But on the other hand, I desperately need this monitor (Moreso for it's numerous hookups than for it's picture quality. I mean, come on, like this monitor beats the HP, The Viewsonic, or the Samsung in picture quality. Maybe it beats BenQ's model, that's believeable)

Oh and before I forget, I just found this in the bowels of dell's website, it lists the manufacturing process. Notice how it says they do NOT keep a stock, so all improvements are immediatly made and sent to the customer. So if this is true (and not a load of bull) we should immediatly be able to get the functioning monitors IF they decide to fix them (and this also means that fixing them would be alot less of a financial burden, if any at all, since they can blame the factory and hold them liable for the mishap) We are currently on number 3, and we can pray that by the 24th, we will be on step 4 of this process.


1. Supplier relationships begin with factory visits and surveys, during which Dell performs a stringent quality audit and, upon approval, establishes tough manufacturing standards.

2. Dell collects extensive customer experience data to assess satisfaction and quality.

3.Customer feedback data is used to continually hone and improve the manufacturing process.

4. Dell does not maintain a product inventory, so product improvements are passed on to the customer immediately.

There will be other sales. As far as the answer on the 24th. That will be a political answer indicating there is nothing serious wrong, but you can send it back for a new monitor if you want to.

At best, if we are lucky they will at some point at least silently fix the issue.

I have put off my purchase for a while. Looking for a good deal on a Nec 2070NX, since even if they fix the problems with the 2007fp, they have switched to PVA panels which I don't like. The Nec 2070nx has extensive color controls and excellent color out of the box (no banding), and it is an LG S-IPS panel.

LCDPhreak - the post above yours reads that it will expire at 11:00AM (10:59:59)

Hey, I ordered this monitor in a bundle deal with a computer. I haven't recieved it yet, and I'm waiting just like the rest of you to hear what they say come Wednesday. In the meantime, I was wondering... if it ends up that this problem can't be solved for whatever reason, what are the pro's and con's of just exchanging the 2007wpf for the 2005wpf? What are the differences?

Need to confirm for US. There are alot of international users in here. (Aussies, Canadians, etc)

The 2005's stats are as follows

* Viewable Image Size: 20.1"
* Optimal Preset Resolution: WSXGA+ 1680 x 1050 @ 60Hz1
* Pixel Pitch: 0.255 mm
* Brightness: 300 nits
* Contrast Ratio: 600:1
* Viewing Angle: 88° H/88° V
* Response time: Typical 12ms grey to grey
* P-I-P (Picture-in-Picture) Support2

And the 2007's

# Display sharp and brilliant images with 1680x1050 Pixels resolution
# Wide viewing angle of 178º — horizontal and vertical
# 800:1 contrast ratio and 16 millisecond typical response time for distortion-free, sharp images

So, to me, it seems like the 2005 has a bit worse of a contrast ratio (600:1 as opposed to the 800:1 of the 2007) and other than that, it seems like the 2005 has a bit better response time (12ms compared to 16ms).

Other than all that, the 2005 suffered from backlight bleed, which means that when watching a dark screen, in a dark room, you can see the backlight bleeding out of the monitor (think a cracked door, with a hall light on, in your dark bedroom)

Honestly, if I can't get the 2007, the 2005 won't be that terrible of an alternative for me at least

LCDPhreak, the 2007 line first started using LG.Philips' S-IPS panels. After the banding issue began, the 2007FPs miraculously switched to Samsung PVA panels. Anyone who gets a 2007FP now that's not refurbished (like that one guy got... pretty sad) will get a Samsung-made PVA panel.

PVA is by far inferior to S-IPS in color reproduction (S-IPS is the closest you come to CRT color-quality). On the other hand, PVA usually boasts a better response time and exponentially better contrast, from both stats and experience. Also, no matter what viewing angles they tout, S-IPS with the same viewing angles than PVA will always give you a better and more widely-viewable picture. Always.

The 2007WFP, contrariwise to the FP model, has always been S-IPS and continues to be, so far as I know. I've been through three so far, and each one has been the same panel with slightly different degrees of color banding.

I'd say the 2x07 line's problems are far greater than the 2x05 line's. Reasoning: Dell is actually making an effor, clandestine or otherwise, to fix the issue. They flat out denied the 2005 models had backlight bleeding, which is why some people (one of my former roommates included) went through half a dozen before reaching some sort of settlement with Dell.

- snatch3r

So, essentially, it would be a sufficient replacement. I'm just trying to think worse case scenario and how to rectify the problem as painlessly as possible. Hopefully, if it comes to that, Dell will cooperate. I don't want to have to send the whole system back...

Let's get this straight, once and for all. PVA panels, are made by samsung, feature somewhat worse (Though, I've seen some samsung panels..and the color looked fine) colors, but better response time, and worse viewing angles. So in other words, the PVA panel is only a bad monitor if you are a graphics professional and need the viewing angle, or the near-perfect color reproduction? It sounds to me like the PVA panel would be better for gaming aswell. And one last thing to make sure of; New FP (That is, the 2007, 20" LCD that is non-widescreen with a 1600x1200 resolution) is fixed? There is no more banding even over DVI because of the new panel? Are you positive? If so, to heck (censorship...bahh) with the widescreen model. The 1600x1200 monitor is able to display widescreen format movies with black bars, (Or no bars if you stretch it) and it offers more screen real-estate, more pixels...and it's about the same price.. if I had known all of this in advance I would probably have just saved myself the grief and bought the FP. It has all the hook-ups that the widescreen model has, so that is a major plus over the Samsung 20" that doesn't (For about the same price, that I assume has the same PVA panel).

So in review, I need you (Soulsnatcher, sorry for not using l33t) to confirm the following

A. the 20" FP (Non-Widescreen) is fixed and no longer has any banding or flickering issues


I'd rather have the good response time, Slightly-off color reproduction/Good response time monitor than the Near-Perfect Color/Terrible response time/banding monster of doom monitor.

---

@LCDPhreak wrote:
New FP (That is, the 2007, 20" LCD that is non-widescreen with a 1600x1200 resolution) is fixed? There is no more banding even over DVI because of the new panel? Are you positive? If so, to heck (censorship...bahh) with the widescreen model. The 1600x1200 monitor is able to display widescreen format movies with black bars, (Or no bars if you stretch it) and it offers more screen real-estate, more pixels...and it's about the same price.. if I had known all of this in advance I would probably have just saved myself the grief and bought the FP. It has all the hook-ups that the widescreen model has, so that is a major plus over the Samsung 20" that doesn't (For about the same price, that I assume has the same PVA panel).

So in review, I need you (Soulsnatcher, sorry for not using l33t) to confirm the following

A. the 20" FP (Non-Widescreen) is fixed and no longer has any banding or flickering issues

---

Either you're misreading what I wrote, (pulling a Photoshopping all-nighter because what I did on one monitor came out absoultely horribly... this is ridiculous), or at 4 in the morning I'm misreading what I wrote. In no way did I even imply that the 2007FP's banding issues ever disappeared - they're as bad now as they've ever been. I'm sorry if what I said could be miscontrued as such.

Dell's switch of the 2007FP to the Samsung PVA panel (S-IPS >> PVA in every way, at least to me) did no good because it wasn't the panel that was problematic, but (far more likely) the firmware or internal circuitry. The S-IPS panel is used also in Apple's Cinema Displays, and those seem to not have this problem, or anywhere near as bad anyway.

To sum it up: to the best of my knowledge, the 2007FP still has the same color banding issues it always did. The switch to the PVA panel did no good - in fact, you can browse a dozen or two pages back and read posts from people who received that panel as a replacement for their S-IPS panel.

Edit:

Oh, and in regards to response time - I game a lot in my free time and have gamed on quite a few LCD panels. Just having an allegedly-fast response time does no good if you can't see without having to crane your neck (because of the shoddy viewing angles) or can tell what color something is but have to wonder why it doesn't look like it should. For the non-picky, either panel is fine. If you need the color reproduction, though, then the S-IPS is the best panel out there in this price range.

And judging from the general lack of blurring and ghosting in games and movies, this panel is more than good enough at keeping up with things marketed with "better" response times.

- snatch3r

Message Edited by s0u1snatch3r on 05-23-200604:08 AM