GATEWAY FPD2485W 24" w/HDCP

Yea.... looks interesting.

Anyone played some video, etc on one of these yet? I'm especially interested if anyone has access to one of these, as well as the Dell or BenQ models, to hear how they compare.

Thanks,

-Steve

trying to find one at bestbuy locally... anyone know when they're arriving in stores? website says "available for pickup" and local stores via phone say "out of stock - got a few in and they go immediately".

any advice?

They are available at Gateway with $20 shipping. They have 1:1 pixel mapping and the Ultrabright anti-reflective screen. What good is HDMI if you don't have speakers integrated into the monitor (assuming no one wants the Gateway audio bar)? I prefer a nice robust DVI-D plug. Hmm, now that I think about it, the FPD2485W meets every one of my requirements - I'm off to order one right now!

They have a video review of this monitor over at Digital Trends. Here's the url
http://media.digitaltrends.com/

Looks Sweet. On my way now to the local best buy to check it out.

Hmmm wow, i purchased my 2407 for nothing i guess.

Yes... feature wise, and price wise, the Gateway looks like a winner. I'm still trying to get some comparisons on color, etc. between the Dell, Gateway, and BenQ though. And... Dell's price is REALLY close now on the 2407... and if you happen to find a great coupon....

I wish there was a place I could go and play with all 3 set up in one room.

-Steve

I got one at Best Buy - . So far looks great. Also has a pivot mode. Still tweaking colors.

One small problem - when playing Quake Online, everything runs very slow, and Quake shows a low frame rate. I assume there is an adjustment somewhere, but have no idea where. Anyone have a suggestion?

i stopped at BestBuy to price match a 360 wireless controller and they had one 2485 in stock... it's on my desk now BB said the got a shipment in last night, as the website said "out of stock" of all local stores. just got my moto 6412 (HD-DVR) hooked up but need to run audio and an IR extender (have one but need mini jack adapter) to use the remote (the box is behind my desk). first impressions of the monitor are very good though from PQ to ease of use, menu, PIP, etc.

Yes... I don't think the slow frame rate in Quake would have anything to do with the LCD. LCDs have a minimum pixel response time, but they know nothing of frame rate. That would be more a factor of your video card and CPU.

Did you come from a smaller monitor (resolution)? If so, you are now driving a lot more pixels, and maybe the GPU just can't keep up.

Since this LCD has a 6ms pixel response time, it should be able to refresh the typical screen as quickly as 166 times per second. Of course that is gray-to-gray... so not sure what the response time would be for the worst case... but certainly not over 12 ms. which would still be over 80 updates per second.


One thing I am curious about though... for the people here who have these...

Over at [H]ard|Forums, there is a big discussion going on about these LCDs, and many people are complaining about a lot of flickering and trails on fast moving objects. Does anyone here notice this? If so, does anyone have a reference point on how it compares to other 24" LCDs?

Thanks much,

-Steve

I purchased a FPD2185W earlier this year... it's a great display. The FPD2485W should look awesome.

Quake problem solved by replacing main engine with GLQuake - now it flies.

I have no flickering, banding, noises, trails or anything else except a big beautiful picture as far as I can see. I think some of those problems may be system problems, like I had with Quake - it is a lot of pixels!

I decided to buy it after reading the discussion at Hard Forums and the Video thread at Anandtech. Overall most people seem very pleased, and some of the complaints are because it has a DVI rather than an HDMI port, which to me means they have no idea what they are talking about.

OK.. that is really great to hear! I hope the BB stores get them near me soon... I'll run and try to take a look. I wonder if they would let me hook my laptop up and run some video and stuff... even though I'll be using it on a home HTPC... it might give me a better idea than store type stuff.


LOL... yea. I had that debate going on on the Hard Forums. DVI is a lot more convenient actually... as most people hook these things to computers... and the audio doesn't get used anyway. Also, even though HDMI is now technically superior (in the latest revisions)... none of these LCDs support any of its advancements anyway.

So, if it has HDMI... cool, but I'd rather have DVI if I only get one of the two.

-Steve

Yes... been following that thread. I just don't get the severe difference in opinion of this LCD though. There are some people that think it is excellent.... and then some that say it is so bad, it is almost unusable.

For example... I can make sense of the issues with Dell banding. A graphic artist is going to hate that... and probably be pretty vocal about it. But someone watching video or playing games on it probably won't care.

But, most of the people complaining of the flickering, say it happens whether gaming, or just using as a computer monitor doing office work. I just don't get it. It would make sense if it were only gamers playing high FPS games... (which I wouldn't care about)... but that seems not to be the case.

I really wish I could get my hands on one to look at. I might be able to get a Dell 2407 to play with for a bit... I'd love to get the Dell, BenQ, and Gateway all at once to do a good comparison.

-Steve

I'm not sure if we are still talking about Gateway FP LCD monitors... but I'm using a FPD2185W w/DVI --> ATI Radeon X1900 graphics card. The performance is solid... no banding or flickering issues. Presumably the PCs chip set, graphics card, connection and OS build are all factors that will play a role in what the user sees.

I'm not a gamer, but I've had the opportunity to run Futuremark's 3DMark® benchmark graphics software using this set up and the Gateway LCD monitor looks excellent.

The 2485 model. I'm not sure the 2185 has much relevance, but at least good to hear other models by the same company are doing well.


Yep, that is the trick. People just drop in the forums and go.... 'I love this LCD, it looks excellent.' or 'I hate this LCD, flickers... banding... etc.'.... and then we have to try and figure out if it is the LCD or the user. LOL

To really be a good review... it needs details like what port is being used; being sure it is run at native rez; what kind of computer / GPU; gaming, video, graphic artist, or plain desktop use; what 'mode' the LCD is in; etc.

I've been amazed at how many times someone is complaining that a monitor looks terrible, only to find that they are running at a non-native rez, over some low quality input, or complaining about some detail that they think is important (and might very well be), but that the average user wouldn't care about.

I've been really trying to figure that out for this monitor. Like I said earlier, the differences are extreme in what people are saying. Either there is a bit quality control issue going on here, or people are doing something wrong.

-Steve

I agree completely. It's been very frustrating hearing both the glowing reviews and the pans of this monitor. I've got one coming so I'll have to figure it out for myself. To help me put the reviews in perspective I did a search for the monitor I currently have (Samsung 204B) and found the same kind of thing. Some love it some hate it. I happen to think it's fantastic so without a concensus either way on the Gateway I'm going to check it out for myself. I've also got the new 26" Acer coming to compare against. One or both are going back but I figured it was worth the restocking fee to be sure I get the right one for me.

TP

If you're using an RGB connection to your 80286 platform... expect less than stellar results.

You following me around?

I have decided to come over here to ask questions about anybody who actually gets the monitor as I feel here, more then anyplace else, at least I know people will have their monitors properly Calibrated and give a review on the Monitor once this key aspect is done.

Whenever I ask questions about have you calibrated the monitor or left it at factory settings, 8:10 I get the response about leaving it factory settings, or people just begin fiddling around and eyeballing stuff not using any type of calibrtation DVD's, Software, or even hardware.

I just don't like the fact that people don't seem to understand the importance of Brightness and Contrast and how these are the two most important aspects in Picture Accuracy. It seems that some act as if Brightness and Contrast are quantities that don't matter in picture accuracy.

Of course Steve this is in reference to the whole "Crushed Black" issues the one guy over on Hard Forums brought up.

I'll look forward to that review.... I'd also be interested in a 26" if the price was right... but will probably go for a 24".

Since I posted this, there has been a lot more quality in the reviews over at Hard Forum. A few people who have more than one monitor, and some knowledge on how to set them up have reported... and it doesn't look so promising anymore to me.

So... this is either a huge QC problem... which I guess I could deal with at the local BB.... or this LCD has some serious issues. I'm going to get to look at Dell 2407 for a limited time, with limited resources... but I'll see what I can figure out from that. It is just so hard to compare without getting them side-by-side.

I'd love to do what you are doing... but I have a felling my wife would not like that idea at all (re: buying a few of them, and sending them all back but one.... that would be a LOT to charge.)

-Steve

LOL... small world, huh?


I still think I disagree about the crushed black thing. I think you SHOULD be able to see the lower several steps of the gradient bars... and should have been able to tell the difference between the couple photos the one person posted. But, I'm talking about on computer displays... not necessarily home theatre or THX, etc. Maybe for home theatre.... we want the blacks crushed? I'm a total newbie in that regard.

As a graphic artist... one would certainly not want to have the bottom 5 to 10% of their gray-scale all look the same.

-Steve

Well if you are a noobie when it comes to Calibration and don't understand its importance, then you have come to the right place to grasp an understanding of its importance.

As far as the gray scale and the pictures the guy had posted over on Hard Forums. As I stated over there, I was able to see everything with the brightness and contrast turned all the way up on my Monitor. Yet when this is done, you run into the following two problems.

The first is the banding of whites, this is whites and grays beginning to mesh into one another. These should be very distinct and seperated. The other issue that you will run into with Brightness turned all the way is that colors actually become more washed out and less distinct by having a white flim look effect over them.

Also as far, as the whole well this is good for movie watching or this and that. It is more then that, when you are calibrating a display, regardless if it is TV or PC Monitor, the purpose of calibrating is to ensure an accurate picture is being displayed for every aspect of a picture.

What gets me is that the character who was talking about crushed blacks did state that he was some sort of video person or the other and was able to tell 6500k color tempeture accuracy this and that by eye balling it. Yet, he never said he ran any type of calibration for the monitor.

I only found out about actually setting proper calibration in the past year myself. It is funny because who knows for how many years, people have been watching Television, playing games, and everything else that deals with any type of display at the wrong settings.

Also as far as that picture that goes.

The way I see it is that since it was of a prison, the upper row of cells should have been bathed in light, while the lower part of the cells should have been in the shadows and the dark, and thus the details down below shouldn't have been seen regardless.

Though of course, who know he could have been correct and I could be wrong. Yet, as I said, I trust my own settings of my Brightness and Contrast.

Well, I'm certainly a color calibration noobie. I have used color calibrated displays, but I don't know much about calibrating them.

However, I think you might be missing the simplicity of my point. If you are presented 2 images that are clearly different.... and you can't see the difference... then I think there is a calibration problem, or deficiency of equipment present.



I could easily see the difference between the two images... and see all the steps both on the black end, and white end of the grayscale steps. And, I'm just using the LCD built into my several year old PowerBook. I guess these things are built with graphic artists in mind... but I really doubt they are better than $500+ LCDs... maybe.



Yea... I'm sure he created it specifically to get his point across. The real life image would probably be somewhere in the middle. With my eyes... I'm sure I'd not have seen the detail in the lower part.... but I have horrible low light vision.

But... I still think something is wrong if you can't see the difference. I would think a graphic artist would need to see the whole range of colors (or grays) as evenly as possible.

-Steve

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...0&page=1&pp=30

Here goes a suggestion, why don't you attempt an actual calibration and get back to me on this?

Until then basically you aren't going to be changing my mind with whatever it is you believe should and shouldn't be.

take this monitor and an avg CRT monitor. Look at the green start button (default theme) and you will see on the LCD it is shiny light green while on the CRT its a darker, less tinted and richer green. Sames goes for any color out there. You are going to get great Blues, Greens, Blacks, Grays etc... With the LCD the colors will not be true. They all will show the tinted light on its colors. I have the fpd2185 and essentially they are a like. If you havethe eye to notice the lack in rich colors then you wont besatisfied with the monitor, if you dont then go at it. The text is clear and the pictures are sharp. Now while I speak of the 2185 and not 2485, Im guessing they suffer from the same issue. After all its an LCD from the same company in the same model (just larger). Also watching HDTV broadcast on this monitor is ok butnot great.

to sum it up

Pros: Shart text and images. Decent HD picture at 720P w/ component (have yet to use HDMI to DVI D).

Cons: Not a true 1080i monitor. The 2485 is 1080i however as well as 1080P. Picture with HDTV is slightly smudgy (like using the smudge tool in photoshop). Lacks proper brightness in hdtv component. Screen seems a little grainy but not enough to notice it unless you focus on it. Colors have light tint to them.

Overall I do not like the monitor. I was a CRT user before but my viewsonic a90f+ became sooo blury and run down that I bought this. The reveiws out there have been good. For an LCD, its above average in performance and good in features. Overall as a monitor out of 10 it gets a 6.

oh and i didnt even mention the issues this LCD has in FEAR. It kills the experience of the game. It really does!

pictures are awesome. we use the monitor for computor work and games, directv, playstation, dvd's. It aint a sony 1080p but good enough for a 24" monitor.

the screen is 16:10 not 16:9 so you will see banding of about 3/4" top and bottom on hd sources. use dvi, component with no problems.

I must have a recessive gene cause I cant see alot of the crap you are talking about.

otherwise not too bad for my spoiled brat son.

2185 or 2485? also whats the settings on yours?