About six weeks ago, I finally accepted that my old Dell P991 had about reached the end of it's useful life...
The problem was that even at the lowest brightness setting, the screen was too bright. In addition, the letters was starting to look a bit fuzzy, and I was getting headaches after using it for extended periods.
It turns out that this brightness problem is well known. Google "Dell P991 brightness" and you'll find a number of hits. There are two well documented fixes for the issue. One is to solder a new resistor onto the controller board, the other is to make a software adjustment to the monitor using a special cable and software. Unfortunately, it appears that there are two different Sony chassis styles that were used in the P991, and the one that I have used a different controller board - for which I couldn't find a resistor fix - and didn't have the port to enable the software update.
So, I decided to break down and purchase a new wide screen LCD monitor.
After doing some research (online and dragging Jeanie across half of Jacksonville) I elected to purchase a 22" HP w2207h. I liked the fact that it used "glossy" glass rather than the non-reflective glass, as I believe that the glossy glass offers a brighter, more vibrant, sharper image. While in a high glare environment (like an office with florescent lights) a glossy screen might have so much glare as to be distracting, in my home office, this is not a factor. I also liked the highly adjustable base (tilt and height), that it had both analog VGA (15 pin) and HDMI ports, and I thought that the ability to rotate the screen 90 degrees to use the monitor in portrait mode was a neat feature. The fact that I could get it from the local Staples, and that it was on sale, sealed the deal.
It turned out that the local Staples was out of stock, but they were happy to order it for me. Two days later I received it and hooked it up.
I liked the monitor pretty well, but even though the native resolution (1680 x 1050) had the best sharpness, the text was just a bit too small for me. I tried a number of other resolutions, and while the text was larger, it also lost some of its sharpness due to the interpolation of the pixels.
Over the ensuring couple of weeks, as I have been known to do, I started second guessing my decision. There had also been a 24" monitor that not only was 2" larger, it had a DVI port in addition to the VGA and HDMI ports, was capable of true 1080p (1920 x 1200) resolution (in case I ever wanted to use it as an HD monitor for TV), and was $20 cheaper!
So, I packed up the HP w2207h and took it back to Staples (they were "no hassle") in giving me a refund, and purchased an Acer P241w.
Long story short, after two weeks, I decided that I liked the HP better (it was sharper, more vibrant, had better contrast and had more even back lighting), so I boxed up the Acer, took it back to Staples (I didn't feel quite so bad, as the Acer had been a floor sample), and ordered another HP w2207h.
Interestingly, after loading the drivers for the screen, as well as installing the "HP My Display" utility and running the wizard, the display looks even better than I had remembered. In fact, I am running the monitor in its native resolution and finding that I am no longer getting headaches (see below for caveat).
The HP also has built-in speakers and a 2 port USB hub, but I am not using either of these features, as my desktop speakers are much better than the speakers in the monitor and I already have a USB hub convenient to my desk.
The one problem I ran into was that my KVM can't drive the monitor at it's native resolution. The text looks fuzzy, and it wavers a bit. So, for the moment, I am running the keyboard and mouse through the KVM, but I am manually switch the VGA cable between my primary home PC and my work laptop. If I have to access my Linux server or the secondary home PC, I use the KVM and just deal with the issues - as I don't spend a lot of time viewing these systems.
All things considered, I am quite happy with the HP screen.
I'll be even happier after I break down and purchase a new KVM that can deal with the resolution...
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Posted by David at February 28, 2009 05:10 PM | Categorized under: A day in the life, Reference