OK people, this it IT. Review is now fully completed. I have to give my credit to TFTcentral, for the very nice cooperation and help while compiling this review live:
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/nec_20wgx2.htm
It's first, exclusive review of this monitor around.
Review on TFTcentral is shorter,properly constructed, indexed and very easy to follow. Also, on TFTcentral you may find plenty of other information about the LCD monitors so I can warmly recommend this website to you.
Here, in the forums, I'm replacing my previous version of the review with the fully-blown and final draft version. When you have a time, patience and want to have fun reading it ... please do. It would be my pleasure as this is my gift to this great forum.
Take care.
---
INTRODUCTION
You know that old one "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" ? It's the perfect description of my mental state before I decided to "let it go" and start adventure with the LCD monitors. My good 5 year old trusty "Nec-Mitsubishi DiamondPro 740SB CRT" was the most beautiful monitor on the world for me and even tiny consideration of changing it was interpreted in my mind as one big scandal
But ... tempted I was. Soon, beauty started to fade and there was a new girl in the town. I tried to resist, but force was so strong with this one. I decided to venture ahead, apart from the fact that my inner thought was whispering that this would be probably the biggest mistake in my life. How wrong I was !
Now, you, my dear audience, may start to wonder what temptation is that and what temptation can fade 5 year old beauty with just one click of the "order now" mouse button
Well, here it is:
NEC LCD20WGX2 20" widescreen LCD monitor
Widescreen gaming is really expanding these day and we may expect more and more titles with the support for the native 16:10 aspect ratios. Also, many of you out there are planning the transition from CRT technology and some of you are probably still unsure what is the next logical step. This is the reason why I think that this review is important and what I'm trying to do here is the compile the review which is done by and for, you the user. I will not try to push you so that you immediately splash your money and buy this monitor NOW. It wouldn't be fair. This review is the guideline what you may expect from this monitor. For me, the monitor is vital part of the PC and I was always picky when choosing one. I knew people who are spending huge amount of money for the new & shiny graphics cards, just in order to gain few fps ... but still they are using the same old 17" CRT monitor and they are simply unaware that picture quality is just pure shock horror. They are simply unable to come to their senses and realise that no card is good for the bad monitor. At the end of the day, it's something you constantly look at and it has to be damn beautiful.
I was bit skeptical about this monitor, as no single "confirmed" spec of this monitor was available ... but I've always been impulsive about the new technologies. If the spec are nearly as good in practice as on the paper, I would be more than happy. Personally, I think that look of the monitor is fantastic; precise, uncluttered and uncomplicated. Contrast ratios are very good along with the response times. It has specially coated, glossy screen (TFT film) which should provide the rich contrasts and particularly high quality colour presentation. With Advanced DVM you can choose between four display modes optimised for text, gaming, playing videos or photos, and at the same there is support for the whooping 1600:1 contrast ratio. At the end, there is also support for NaviSet (monitor configuration via software). As I'm currently using NaviSet with my CRT, must admit that it's handy tool - I'm not big fan of configuring monitor via OSD anyway.
It would be rather pointless that I list the full spec here, as it's just copy & paste. So, don't be lazy my dear friends and download the full spec from the following page:
http://www.nec-display-solutions.co.uk/ ... nglish.pdf
It seems that US version of this monitor is HDCP enabled. However, Europe/UK version is not HDCP enabled, according to the response from Melanie (NEC UK). It seems that HDCP is not supported on their desktop range. What seems to me is that they are trying to separate then men from the boys, in other words LCD TV from the LCD desktop monitor. Obviously, sales policy between US and Europe is different. Same old story. It's just discrepancy in the market targeting. In US, HDTV is real and running already, HDCP is probably just around the corner ... so in some sense they wanted to include such video features as immediately available "extras". UK model is exactly the same, just without video features and much better looking (in my book). Also, Europe is preparing the new tax for the 20" LCD monitors and above. Not sure if such model diversion is related with this one or not. We just have speculations floating around. One thing that is puzzling me, and which is quite strange, is why on the earth monitor has to support this. Monitor is displaying device and not cryptic device. If we can have one simple "in-line" device, connected between the monitor and GPU card who will take care of the decoding process, it would be much more convenient Anyhow, I will not go into HDCP now. At the end of the day, real question which you have to ask yourself is: "Is HDCP important to you ?".
LG.Philips have recently introduced a new electronic control on their panel technologies which is marketed as being able to improve the contrast ratio from a typical level of 700:1 to a massive 1600:1! It is supposed to help colours look more vivid and bright, text look sharper and enhance the extremes ends of the colour scale, making blacks deeper and whites brighter. This is a great benefit to gamers who have issues seeing enemies lurking in the shadows and for photo / cinema users who want to improve colour quality. This technology is called the Digital Fine Contrast engine (DFC) and consists of 3 elements:
- Auto Contents Recognition (ACR) - detects the type of content being viewed and decides how to use the contrast adjustment engine to make the most of it. This is dependent on the mode selection in the monitor's OSD, choosing between settings like 'Movie', 'Text', 'Games' etc. For example, in 'Movie' mode, the DFC is enhanced for a maximum brightness and in 'Picture' mode colours are deepened.
- Digital Contrast Enhancer (DCE) - which reduces black luminance.
- Digital Contrast Mapper (DCM) - Displays the image while ensuring that the enhanced contrast is optimised.
This monitor is also using the new AS-IPS panel from LG.Philips which should provide the excellent response times and at the same time bring us the "historic" values of the IPS technology: colour balance, colour reproduction and viewing angles. Is this the perfect technology marriage ? Well, let's find out right now.
DAY 1 - INITIAL IMPRESSIONS
*** Is this thing pretty or what ? ***
Initial response, but so simple and effective question - addressed from my dear wife
Let's see.
As I already mentioned, visual appearance of the monitor is just stunning and build quality is really good (it's rather heavy). I personally liked the silver frame and black casing combination. Design is so simple and effective. I don't like the monitors which are "cluttered" with the things you would probably never use (like speakers). It's simple and effective design, just as I like:
It has more "depth" then other LCD monitors around, but it's not alarming. It's even less pronounced live (than in the picture). Not sure why additional depth, but maybe it's because of the new AS-ISP panel or simply because of the panel improvements, done by NEC. Unfortunately, I don't have a hart to open it and investigate. You also have the monitor look "above". Here you will see that actual depth increase is really not drastic. Also, in this picture you will notice slight reflection of the computer desk/keyboard on the screen (as ambient light was very intensive). This is because the TFT panel glossy coating (film). Screen has almost "monolithic" look, as it's so deep black.
Of course, we all know that it's impossible that I comment the monitor look in such way that I judge or discard your visual perceptions. Pictures are here, so you will exactly now what to expect and some pictures will show you how monitor will look when it's actually placed on computer desk.
Many people were concerned (and with every right) about the screen size, especially when they switch from the 17" or 19" CRT monitors versions. I think that 20" widescreen LCD will be roughly the same height as a 19" CRT vertically. Horizontally you will notice a big difference. I came from the 17" CRT ground and I'm very, very pleased with the screen size improvement. It's simply not comparable (in good sense). One user on the forums even measured the transition from 19" CRT to 20" LCD. Conclusion was that there is approx 16 % more viewing area, it's 18 % wider, and the only thing is that it's about 2 % shorter, which is nothing special. But maybe something which is more important to you is that "widescreen" appearance of the monitor is more appealing to the eye as the field of view is much more preferable with this monitor format. It's somehow more natural to the eye then 4:3 box. I was always fan of the widescreen format. It's more "movie like" and you are somewhat more involved in the scene and I don't mind the wide screen desktop also (it's should be cool hopefully).
Monitor doesn't have the height adjustment. Is this really necessary, what do you think ? Hey, at the end of the day adjustable height chair will do
Seriously, I can't comment on this one as it's the generally matter of personal taste. As soon as I placed the monitor on the desk, it was just in-line with my eyes and on the appropriate height. No complains. However, screen tilt & swivel is supported. The base may seems solid. but it's actually standing on the "swiveling" platform. And ... oh yes, control buttons on the bottom and blue illuminated "power on" light are so damn pretty. Very nice outfit
Take a look:
Desktop Appearance & Clarity
Black Levels
Font Clarity & Sharpness
Advanced DVM
Panel Backlight & Uniformity
NEC Expansion Modes
*** First encounter with the third kind ***
Monitor was connected to the my 7800GTX via DVI port. Powering on ... and tension is rising. WOW, have widescreen bios post screen. Amazing
Hmmmm. Wonder what will happen next.
When windows desktop appeared and I opened the web browser with the blank white page, shear brightness of this monitor literally hurt my CRT eyes (in positive way). Anyhow, I tuned down the brightness to 60% and start investigation.
Stock monitor configuration settings are:
- brightness 100%
- contrast 50%
- Advanced DVM: off
- Profile: normal (others are: text,photo,video,gaming)
I like the feature that I can switch quickly between the profiles by pushing the button "DV MODE" on the monitor (on the bottom).
- Sharpness: 16.6%
- Colour profile: native (sRGB/custom is supported also)
- Expansion: not used
What is Expansion ? Is this monitor alive and will it start to chase us in the house ? No, my dear friends.
Expansion is the NEC term for the resolution scaling (or pan & scan or however you would like to call it) so that picture can cover the whole screen when you are working in lower resolutions. Excellent for the people who have to run the games in lower resolutions. It's working for all resolutions of "1280x1024" and under, automatically. Of course, you may disabled it if you like. It's controllable via OSD. There are 3 expansion selection modes available via OSD:
- Full is stretching the image completely, so that whole screen is covered.
- Aspect is trying to simulate the monitor wide-screen aspect rate 16:10 on the selected resolution. It's stretched little bit, but there are still black bars left/right but not at the top (as far as I can see).
- Off is disabling any picture scaling processing. Resolution is natural as it should be. It's sharp and unaltered in any way. And, yes, there are tiny black bars on top/bottom and larger ones on left/right. Monitor is able to scale the picture for the resolutions of 1280x1024 and under.
Have to say that navigation and OSD are excellent. That small rounded button is actually "little joystick", used as the navigation tool. Options are logical and not complex, so the complete set-up and configuration is a breeze. I also installed the monitor driver and "NaviSet" software from the supplied CD. NaviSet is the tool which is integrating in the display properties and allows you to modify the monitor settings from the desktop in same fashion like using OSD:
For the beginning absolutely no dead pixels, backlight or colour bleeding problems ... perfect panel appearance. Even and uniform (lights off and on pictures):
Firstly, have to stress that colours are so vivid and picture so properly contrasted and balanced. This was way above my expectations. Not sure if glossy TFT film, new AS-IPS panel or combination of both are responsible, but results are really surprising. Also, have to say that because of the glossy (mirror) finish of the panel you will see the ambient reflections on the screen, but honestly it's not so noticeable nor drastic or annoying. Anyhow, I really think that this type of TFT film is improving the colours and display contrast drastically and it's so damn good looking.
I'm using the black background on my desktop (always like it that way). When comparing the black levels against the CRT one NEC is leading by huge margin. Even on my old CRT black was not so "black" and there was always slight brightness involved when black background was in place. Quite impressed. It looks so good that it's comparable and even better than what you can have with the best CRT screens around.
Now ... Advanced DVM (1600:1) is intriguing. You can simply turn off/on this feature from the monitor options and combine it with any profile available (text/photo/video/gaming). When it's on you will immediately notice nice improvement in the contrast levels and colour fidelity. It looks almost 3D however brightness is slightly lost (but you can always increase it manually). After further testing it seems that Advanced DVM is mostly suitable (and noticeable) during the dark or very rich and colourful scenes. When I opened the F.E.A.R web site:
it really looked almost 3D-ish, because of the improved contrast level, black "darkness" and colour depth. Still have to test the Advanced DVM properly. Remember that "black" I described before. Well, it's even more "black" now ... unbelievable. Also, I noticed that in Advanced DVM mode monitor is somewhat automatically adjusting the contrast levels according to the screen content, especially when you have huge area on the screen in black<->white or other major colours intensive transitions. Sounds bit strange, but from my initial experience it's always there when it's needed and it's not distracting.
Working in desktop was real pleasure. I really liked the widescreen desktop "expansion" from the old 4:3 format. Text was clear and crisp (even without the cleartype) and colour reproduction was really fantastic. Also, when you place bright white objects against the black background no visible shadowing or colour bleeding are visible and contrast was just great:
Colour intensive screens, with loads of details, are rendered perfectly:
I really wanted to visit all my favourite web sites again and enjoy them in full glory on this monitor, as colours are so vivid and real that it's simply amazing.Screen is really pleasant to the eye when working in desktop. Colours are vibrant and deep, contrast is exceptional, brightness is just crazy (but controllable) and glossy screen is giving additional "smoothness" to the eye. Don't know if I mentioned, but my office LCD screen 17" BenQ is very harsh to the eye, comparing to this one.
I have only one picture to show for the desktop font clarity:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/20WGX2/review/IMG_XT01.JPG
You will notice the blue luminance around the fonts. It's just the camera glow, nothing to worry about. But notice the contrast, black levels and fonts "smoothness". It's almost CRT-ish like. Interestingly enough, when I decrease the monitor sharpness to 6.2% or 8.3% ... I'm telling you (and this is no joke) it looks just like CRT This may work in a way to reduce the "texture sharpness" especially in the games, so it may be useful for the people who are not the fans of the "LCD" army knife sharpness (especially in games).
DAY 2 - GAMING
*** Let the games begin ***
Do you like to play games ? Can this monitor improve the gaming immersion ? What you, my dear gamers, can expect from this monitor ? Loads of questions, indeed. As I'm also the gamer in the heart, maybe I could help you here. Let's see.
Now, you may probably heard the terms "ghosting", "blurring", "tearing" and who-knows-what when owners of the LCD monitors describes the gaming performance. That sounds just ugly and scary isn't it ? I was very nervous that such terms will spoil my previous CRT-ish gaming immersion with the old monitor, that I even hesitated to start the gaming review at all. Nuts. However, my dear audience, I never looked back after my decision to try. This panel is so damn fast people, and I'm serious.
Tonight I played the games with the Advanced DVM + GAME/VIDEO profile settings. One thing is for sure my friends. Advanced DVM is doing wonders for the games and movies. Yes, you will loose the slight level of brightness, but as for the compensation monitor will smash you with excellent contrast levels during the "dark" scenes. Some users may prefer to disable it when playing "bright" games or movies in order to increase the brightness, but from my point of view it's not essential as it's looking good anyway.
I decided to take different approach tonight for capturing screen pictures with my digital camera. We all know that ambient light is "noisy" and it can easily distort the native screen output especially when using cameras. Also, it can easily add it's own "special effects". So ... I decided that ambient "darkness" or "lights off" is maybe preferable solution.
I used improvised tripod (pile of books and chair) in order to stabilise the camera as much as possible while obtaining the good camera distance and angle. Think it was worth the effort
All the pictures are in 1600x1200. Also, I may suggest that you also (after the inspection) "zoom out" them so that they can fit your screens and that you have full picture aspect. Not sure what average resolutions you are using out there, but if pictures are to big, please complain and I will rescale them.
Time is passing so quickly with the games. Let's see what I found out after 2 hours of gaming sessions:
We all know that F.E.A.R and QUAKE4 are very "dark" games and environment is focused mostly on dark and creepy tunnels, buildings and who knows what. This is the perfect candidate for the Advanced DVM + GAMES profile. Take a look:
F.E.A.R
QUAKE4
Now, let's focus on the "bright" side of life
AOE3
... and some tropical hedonism:
FAR CRY
I have relatively fast computer. I'm getting 9260 3DMARK05 / 5250 3DMARK06 with heavily overclocked 7800GTX & Athlon X2 3800 & 2GB OZC 4000EB Platinum RAM. In Far Cry & HL2 I have (constant) high number of FPS even @ 1680 x 1050/4X AA/Max Quality ... so game play was generally very smooth. Just in case, I decreased the quality levels, AA, AF, as the maximum possible FPS is preferable, so that I can push the monitor to the limits. I played with couple of games in full wide screen 1680x1050 glory. Don't know the FPS, but is was smooth as a silk. It was ridiculously good ! I can't get enough of this monitor.
No tearing, ghosting, latency or blurring whatsoever. It's probably directly influenced by panel fast response times. I tried FEAR, HL2, Far Cry ... everything was smooth and pleasure to play. Have to admit that widescreen field of view is amazing. Again, colour reproduction was perfect. When I opened the AOE3 menu screen (as illustrated in the pictures) level of details, contrast and colour richness were simply astonishing. Half Life 2 in 1680x1050 with HDR and 16:10 aspect ratio was real joy to play. Also, Call Of Duty 2 experience was superb.
(as illustrated in the pictures IMG_0033/35). It's almost impossible to give you the real "look" of those games with all brightness and contrast goodness, thanks to this monitor. I was so impressed, that I tried several times to record the screen pictures via my digital camera by using different ambient light, different technique and angles ... but no luck. Camera simply can't record such experience. Seeing is believing ...
You are probably already asking yourself now why I'm still not mentioning those scary terms (if I can say LCD gaming effects) and how they are affecting me during the game play. Well ... problem was that I had to find them at the first place
With the great help from the users on the forums, I tried to simulate something. Such effects are mostly visible when you strafe left and right or simply moving very fast around the objects in the games. For example, I have to keep my eye fixed on the certain part of the scenery (objects preferably), strafe left and right or simply moving fast around them and I should notice the loss of texture definition. Is that so ?
What I did for you is tried to spin/jump/move/strafe around like a mad man (until my head hurts). In HL2 my victim for testing was one big stone and in Far Cry one really nice tree. After I started to feel dizzy
I decided it's time to stop the testing and give you the opinion:
While focusing on those single objects and strafing there was noticeable loss of texture sharpness. It's not drastic at all and without the forum users hint,I doubt that I will notice this normally (while focusing on global scenery). Also, this is more visible when you are REALLY close to the object. When you are looking from the moderate distance, it's definitely almost unnoticeable. Somehow, it may sound strange, I liked this effect ?! It's like slight motion blur (if I can phrase it like that). Didn't notice any geometry loss, tearing or trailing of the textures. Also, such motion blur is happening (and it's noticeable) only during strafe. On the global (gaming) picture, I have to say that this is not something which is irritating, distracting or making discomfort. Also, I tried again the same ritual in DOOM 3. This time, strafe "motion blur" was even less noticeable. When I say "motion blur" it's not something like framing the fast movement with low speed camera shutter (and leaving the motion trail). It's just like that texture is little bit out of the focus (is this maybe the perfect term ? ). It's much less here maybe because the DOOM3 is dark game and textures are less pronounced, not sure. Oh yes, here are some screen shoots from the DOOM3 session. Gaming experience in DOOM3 was really superb. Monitor is rendering the dark scenes with great effect:
All in all ... amazing gaming experience. So relieved now
that no tearing, ghosting, latency or blurring is present. It's probably directly influenced by panel fast response times. I tried FEAR, HL2, Far Cry ... everything was smooth and pleasure to play. Have to admit that widescreen field of view is amazing. Again, colour reproduction was perfect. When I opened the AOE3 menu screen, level of details, contrast and colour richness were simply astonishing. Half Life 2 in 1680x1050 with HDR and 16:10 aspect ratio was real joy to play. Also, Call Of Duty 2 experience was superb. It's almost impossible to give you the real "look" of those games with all brightness and contrast goodness, thanks to this monitor. I was so impressed, that I tried several times to record the screen pictures via my digital camera by using different ambient light, different technique and angles ... but no luck. Camera simply can't record such experience. Seeing is believing ...
*** Can I watch the movies on this thing ? ****
Video playback observations
I somehow felt that it wouldn't be fair that I exclude the movie playback from this review. Generally, I don't use the LCD monitor for watching the the movies so much, as my other home cinema 32" LCD TV is dedicated for that purpose. Here is the movies playback "bonus pack":
Kung Fu Hustle
This movie is excellent test for the monitor response times, as it's packed with the fast action sequences. NEC digested everything without a single hitch. Didn't notice any blurring or tearing. Of course, I can't show the action sequences but here are some scenes as guideline about the contrast and colour richness of this monitor:
Secretary
Again, this one is excellent candidate for colour richness and semi-dark scenes.
Have to warn you that pixel pitch is visible when watching the movies. So my advice to you is that you watch your movies from the distance.
DAY 3 - FURTHER OBSERVATIONS
Colour Balance
Contrast
Photo Profile
Viewing Angles
*** After the storm is gone ***
Most of you out there probably know this feeling. When all excitement about the new gadget you have is gone and next day you feel somehow "more attached to the reality of the things around you". But no my friends, with this monitor it's still going on. Seriously.
One forum user asked me how is the balance between blacks/whites and colors? Are the blacks and whites dominating, or is the picture balance kept? IPS panel screens are famous for picture balance, and this is very important to people who work with graphics. I always appreciated the good colour reproduction on the monitor and it was very important factor to me. Excellent thing about this monitor is "tweak ability". It really can adapt to any demand. As mentioned in the review, first thing that shocked my old CRT eyes, as soon as I opened the desktop, is the the pure colour and contrast bliss. It's such a breath of fresh air. For the people who work with graphics, Advanced DVM + Photo profile is the solution. It's perfect, neutral, colour balance and colour depth is still there. Nothing is standing out of the crowd. Photo profile is tweaking the contrast in such way, that I never ever witnessed such dramatic colour depth. Some people may try just Photo profile (without Advanced DVM) but with reduced brightness. Of course. black levels were simply astonishing in this mode. I'm tempted to try this mode in other applications (gaming/video) with tweaked contrast & brightness levels. Who knows, maybe the results will be surprising.
When I say "tweak ability", you really can experiment with these monitor a lot. For example, you can combine the "Advanced DVM" + all monitor profiles (standard/gaming/video/photo) + contrast/brightness + sharpness.
What about the viewing angles ? We all know that this is important aspect of the LCD monitors. As soon as you slightly change the viewing angle from the monitor, picture is loosing the details, colours and it may look just ugly. Here, picture is probably worth more than thousand of words:
** EDIT
I managed to capture some top/bottom viewing angles of the monitor, as maybe this is important for some of you out there. Personally, I didn't take the camera shots of those viewing angles at first place, as I thought who the heck is locking at the monitor from those angles anyway
Viewing angles are just great. Actually, they exceed my initial expectations and worries by huge margin.
I was still bit skeptical how come that this monitor is so fast in games, especially because it's 20" WS panel and they are not known to be on the "speedy side". Well ... until now. You may or not know about the famous "I NEED MORE Socks" cartoon from the PixPerAn LCD testing application. Generally, PixPerAn is excellent LCD afterglow and ghosting effects testing and identification tool. With my camera tuned at fastest shutter speed, I tried to identify the ghosting effect on this monitor. Take a look:
Impressive. In fact, it's in-line with the fastest TN 2 ms panels around (like 2ms ViewSonic VX922). This is definitely confirming my theory from the review and from the gaming sessions that this is one exceptionally fast panel. Unfortunately, I couldn't take afterglow pictures with the camera as it was almost impossible to properly capture the fast moving text on the black/white background. Hopefully, afterglow is on the acceptable (or surprising) level too.
DAY 4 - FORUM QUESTIONS
Panel Uniformity
Colour Banding
Advanced DVM (Extended)
Gaming & Ghosting
*** It's questions time! ***
On this day, I have already received plenty of responses from the users on the forums who either owns this monitor or they simply just need the clarifications on some things. I selected few of them, and I think that they are important for you:
Question:
"
Can someone please explain more to me about advanced DMV. I do not understand how a button can change the contrast ration from 700:1 to 1600:1. Is this some sort of software trick built into the monitor? Does the actual contrast ratio change, or is your eye tricked into thinking it is better somehow? I just do not get it.
"
My Answer:
"
I was puzzled also.
Yesterday, I discovered that "Advanced DVM technology" is also capable of automatic brightness adaptation of the content in real time (according to Nec). This is definitely confirming my theory from the review that ";in Advanced DVM mode monitor is somewhat automatically adjusting the contrast levels according to the screen content". Didn't know that I have this feature until now. I agree, it's definitely confusing without the proper specification of this technology.
In practice, results are really good ... as already advised in the review. For example, when there is explicitly dark scene in the game, Advanced DVM will automatically slightly adjust the screen brightness so that you don't loose those "fine" details in the dark, which is essentially important for gaming. At the same time, contrast is improved and brightness is
still on the excellent level.
Yes, 1600:1 it's just flick on the switch and there you have it Now, I personally think that this is the maximum "obtainable" rate and it's closely related to the way how monitor is dynamically adapting to the screen content.
"
As it seems, many people are confused about the Advanced DVM. Now, it's really almost impossible to explain this, until you see it live. However, as I'm utterly stubborn I decided to arm with the camera again and try to illustrate what I'm saying. Take a look at FEAR and DOOM3 pictures (upper pictures are with Advanced DVM off):
As you may notice, with Advanced DVM scene is even more dramatic, colours are more real & balanced, black is even more black and contrast is improved. Also, brightness is neutral and it's somehow more pleasant to the eye. What is maybe most important is that you are not loosing those fine details from the dark scene. Everything is there as it should be, but picture is much more improved.
Question:
"
Ok, so I finally got mine home last night and all hooked up. Brightness on this thing is ridiculous, but easy to turn down. Very pretty pictures here, except...This is my first LCD, coming from a 21" Viewsonic Professional CRT. All of the daytime/bright games look great. Then I fired up FEAR and BF2:SF. Not so good. In FEAR I see a ton of banding when I transition from light to dark, or vice versa.
.
etc
.
To be honest, I have to go back and hook up the CRT again to compare. Anyone else seeing this? Is it just LCDs in general, or maybe the games?
"
My answer:
"
Hi,
I think that I have found solution for your banding problem !!!
Just flick the standard monitor profile + Advanced DVM and all banding is magically gone, like it never existed before It would be exactly the same as on your old CRT and, of course, much much better. You will be happy camper again
So ... you, my dear audience, you may ask now what's going on and what your crazy reviewer is talking about ???
As I described in my previous review update, monitor is capable of "Digital Fine Contrast engine (DFC)" and what I think that is causing this slight colour banding is: "Auto Contents Recognition (ACR)" (I would not go now in details what is ACR as you have the spec of this in the latest review update). Such slight colour banding is generally visible when there is intensive transition from light to dark, or vice versa and some people may find it annoying. As I described above, solution is simply that you switch to standard monitor profile + Advanced DVM ... everything looks equally good and no more colour banding. It just came to my mind today, after I read more about the monitor DFC spec.
As I said before, you can play (tweak) with this monitor a lot and I personally think that this is a great advantage.
"
Question:
"
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/ ... 80side.jpg
The image posted was the reason I did not purchase the Gateway (I have been wanting and waiting to get a new LCD for awhile). As far as I know, there are 2 important problems with the image that reveal issues with the Gateway monitor.
1) Look at the gradient in the upper left. Notice how the transitions are not smooth, instead you can see a stair-stepping like effect as the image transitions from black to gray.
2) This next problem is even worse, and I noticed this effect in person at best-buy. The image of the innards of a computer is replicated in the bottom-left corner and the top-right corner. In the bottom-left corner, you can clearly make out the CPU heatsink fan and other components. In the top-right field, you completely lose the detail in the CPU heatsink fan and other components. The image in the top-right corner should be identical in brightness and contrast to the image in the bottom-left. Less noticble in this photo (but I have seen this in person), is that color hues will actually change as well. The Gateway is an extremely inconsistent monitor. Colors and black levels change as you move your head around and depending on where they are on the monitor.
So basically, we want to know if the NEC has these same problems.
"
My answer:
"
I did exactly what you asked me to do and captured the results with my camera. I used Adobe Photoshop in order to produce the proper black->white gradient and arranged the pictures as you recommended. You will be surprised. Take a look:
Lights off picture:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/20WGX2/review/IMG_0060.JPG
Camera night light on picture:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/20WGX2/review/IMG_0077.JPG
Fully exposed & zoomed gradient:
http://62.204.32.7:10973/20WGX2/review/IMG_0071.JPG
You may notice the noise in the pictures and maybe some yellowish colours around. It's just my camera in combination with the glossy screen. Nothing to worry about. In reality, colours are uniformed, bright and everything is smooth as baby bum (especially colour gradients).
Panel uniformity is simply fantastic.
"
I received the responses from the people who are worried about the glossy screen and light reflections. Something like this:
Question:
"My room is dark most of the time, so I wont get light reflections because of the glossy screen ?"
My answer:
"
Well ... UK is dark country ... isn't it (at least weather wise)
Seriously now, people should not get impression that they can use this monitor only if they have dark rooms Moderate ambient light or just desk lamp (behind the monitor) is doing the job just fine. After 4 days of looking at the monitor, can't complain really.
Generally, I like my games (and movies) in dark or semi dark environment as the immersion level is much higher.
"
SUMMARY
Some of you out there my ask me if I can put the strengths of this monitor in one easy to read spec ? Sure, I can:
- Rich, natural, vibrant colours representation and deep blacks
- Crazy brightness (by luminosity spec), but controllable
- Excellent contrast (also thankfully to the TFT film)
- Exceptional gaming performance (for 20" WS panel)
- Excellent viewing angles
- Advanced DVM is doing the job
- Great design & appearance
- Tweak ability and monitor can adapt to any demand
- Happy marriage between the the IPS panel "historic" advantages (picture balance/colours/viewing angles especially)
and incredibly fast response times.
- 0 backlight & colour bleed
- Honestly priced
What about the possible downsides ?
- Video
Some people may be disappointed with the video playback, as pixel pitch is present and glossy screen is problematic when there is intensive ambient light. I tried several titles and it was great (colour reproduction especially). Of course, such "effects" are noticeable mostly when you are very close to the screen. I prefer my movies in the dark or semi dark room and from the moderate distance. Maybe this is the reason why my video experience was OK. Actually, picture quality was overall better than on my home cinema 32" LCD TV. At the end, have you ever tried to watch your large screen LCD TV from the close proximity ? It's quite bad, honestly.
- Glossy Screen ( is this downside at all ?! )
Yes, glossy screen is maybe problematic when there is a presence of the bright ambient light in front of the screen ... but again it's just matter of personal taste. I don't find it very distractive. As this is the subjective matter, maybe this doesn't deserve the global minus. At the end, it's improving the smoothness of the screen and colour & contrast balance. As the general guideline, I would not recommend serious "dark" gaming or "dark" movie playback VERY close to this monitor and in the very bright ambient light (in front of the screen). As gaming/video immersion factor is much more higher in dark or semi-dark environments, I think that glossy screen shouldn't represent the problem for most of you out there. At the end, from the NEC point of view such screen is simply advantage.
Working in desktop is generally OK in any environment, as in this mode screen is noisy and bright.
- No height adjustment for the monitor ( is it really necessary ?! )
Other disadvantages ? Well ... not for now. Seriously. 5 stars from me.
IPS is definitely back and it's back with the vengeance! and Welcome Back NEC! It was about time. They were among the best monitor manufactures in the past. Is this almost perfect LCD panel ? I would leave this question to you my friends.
You may find all the pictures from the review at the following page (IMG* files are pictures in highres):
http://62.204.32.7:10973/20WGX2/review/
THE END
Is it possible that I conclude the review with just one thought ? Hmmm ... it is actually:
New beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Well ... until the next temptation
See you then, my dear audience.
Take care
---
*** REVIEW UPDATE 31/10/2006 ***
Long time no see
I didn't updated the main review thread for many months. Somehow, I feel that we collected many interesting points from this review thread and this is the reason why I decided to include this update. I hope that you will find it interesting and helpful. Oh yes, I rearranged the review thread a bit, so that you now have in-line pictures
It's looking pretty now and it's really massive. Plenty of good information here.
Custom DV modes and monitor gradient tests
Custom DV modes (gaming/movie/photo) are not the best case scenario for the any type of colour gradients tests. Reason why I'm telling this is because when you activate them DFC (digital fine contrast) engine is kicking in and because the monitor software is dynamically controlling the contrast, gamma and backlight according to the screen content, you may notice the colour banding and generally it's not related to the colour depth on the screen. For the desktop (or any other "static" usage) you really don't have to use them. They go very well in pair with the games or movie playback. As the general guideline, colour gradients (or any other colour tests) require that monitor operate in "native" mode, unaffected by dynamic picture control or any other post-processing software, integrated in the panel control circuit. For the DFC, screen have to be textured,dynamic and with the "moving" pictures. In that sense, for the gaming,video or any other task when the screen is "noisy" DV monitor profiles are actually working very well. If the matter is distracting, solution is simple. Just flick the monitor to standard DV mode with or without Advanced DVM. This is native monitor profile. Even with the standard DV mode + Advanced DV monitor will still deliver exceptional performance. Picture should be equally good and you may further tweak the brightness and contrast. Monitor is tweaking friendly, so I guess that everyone can adapt the screen to their needs or simply fine tune the options in order to expose the excellent screen characteristics.
Digital Fine Contrast engine (DFC) consists of 3 elements:
Auto Contents Recognition (ACR) - detects the type of content being viewed and decides how to use the contrast adjustment engine to make the most of it. This is dependent on the mode selection in the monitor's OSD, choosing between settings like 'Movie', 'Text', 'Games' etc. For example, in 'Movie' mode, the DFC is enhanced for a maximum brightness and in 'Picture' mode colours are deepened.
Digital Contrast Enhancer (DCE) - which reduces black luminance.
Digital Contrast Mapper (DCM) - Displays the image while ensuring that the enhanced contrast is optimised.
As it's evident from the above ... loads of post-processing is going on and this is the reason why people shouldn't test their monitors (and colour gradients especially) when using custom DV modes.
Here is my test from NaviSet (warning for other thread readers: if your monitor is 6-bit or not fully colour capable - you will see the banding in this picture).
http://62.204.32.7:10973/TEMP/20wgx2_gradient_test.jpg
Initial monitor adjustments
When playing with the contrast and brightness settings, you have to be careful not to damage the colour shades and gradients (typically darker midtones). Here is the good guidance for you:
http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/Cali ... adient.htm
While playing with your contrast/brightness and/or colour temperature settings and at the same time observing the gradient from the page above, you will see how the gradient is reacting to the changes and you can easily find the sweet spot which will produce the less banding (if visible at all) and colour cast. Please note that only really expensive (colour critical) monitors can display the spotless gradients with the maximum number of exposed darkest shades from the colour gamut.
I think that 50% contrast is optimal and brightness should not be less then 25%. Try the "Monitor Grayscale Test Image" (first) link and you will see what I'm talking about. Values outside of those boundaries are definitely messing up the gradients and dark midtone shades. You may also try the "colour, gray and moire patterns" from the NaviSet testing patterns. Also, please note that if you change the monitor colour temperature, you have to adjust the contrast/brightness again to the optimal values by using test screens. Optimal values are not the equivalent between each colour temperature mode. When you set up your contrast/brightness, colour temperature and RGB balance properly, you should have same really nice, balanced and accurate colours. Also, your colour shades will not suffer and that will bring additional benefits.
OptiClear review
OptiClear is simply bonus for me. It's improving the colour vibrancy, image focus, purity and overall quality. It's maybe not measurable (and this is normal), but it's there and it's pleasant. Apart from this, something that was rarely mentioned in the reviews (if at all) is that with the OptiClear you really just see the image and not LCD surface (something that was always distracting for me) and it will nicely remove all possible screendoor effects, grainy and crystallised surface of the usual LCD panel coatings. I've always missed the overall smoothness of the CRT screens as it's much more easier & pleasant to the eye. When you look at the "OptiClear picture", all you see is the image and no surface. Image is just floating there, with a great sense that panel is just the window to the another world outside. It's more immersive for gaming (even for video watching) and it's really introducing that extra vibrance to the spectrum. Sometimes, is really like there is no barrier between you and the liquid crystal.
One interesting point about the NEC brigthness. Yes, 20WGX2 is very bright ... but I would say that brightness is not unpleasant, even when monitor is tuned at very high (let's say 60% - 70%) brightness. OptiClear is probably contributing factor for this, as any other panel coating (or the panel itself) will make such brightness simply overwhelming, unpleasant and unbearable. With NEC, it's going very well ... especially in pair with gaming and video.
Regarding reflections, I would say that any nearby window, with the "controllable" ambient light (blinds or curtains) shouldn't be a problem. Some users also reported that side window was not problem for them. Also, you may have more reflections with the opposite window directly facing the monitor during the very bright and sunny day ... but again if it's controllable you shouldn't have much problems. Also, if you have the desk lamp, just behind the monitor you shouldn't have problems also.I think that OptiClear is probably around 20% - 25% more reflective than traditional "glass" coating of the CRT monitors and TV screens. It's hard to tell. In may example, I have a window just opposite the screen and can't say that it was distracting for me to the annoying extent. Even during the very bright and sunny day - when window blinds were properly adjusted - I could finish my work without major issues. Also, after reading many responses from the users around, honestly I can't remember that someone seriously complained about the reflections. In that sense, we may possibly conclude that for the majority of users out there it's pretty much OK. Over bright room or intensive ambient light can be problematic for any screen, including the ones with AR (anti reflective) coating - you may have big and bright white spots. Picture is loosing the fine details, deep black, contrast ... and it can be quite distractive too. A bit like, watching the movie in cinema with the lights on.
Also, when the screen is off it's much more reflective. When you power on the screen, panel illumination is also dimming the reflections. All reviews around are showing the powered off screen, and that is definitely misleading to some extent.
So, you see ... I tried to elaborate this issue slightly more than what you may find in the reviews around about the famous glossy factor. Such epidemic glossy factor reservation in the reviews around is disturbing, to say at least. They are either ignorant or simply involving their personal preference. It's definitely not the problem for the majority of users out there and to kill the monitor review score just because of the coating ... is just nuts, as there are many positive things too. It's simply exaggerated and not elaborated properly. It seems that we (especially other reviews) forgot the days of a CRT monitors so that glossy/reflection factor is like new phenomenon now. I wonder how could they live with the CRT at all in the past ... so that OptiClear is now globally bashed and suddenly AR (anti reflective coating) is the new "standard". Some people (including myself) don't prefer AR coating and especially if it's lower grade quality. It's hazy, grainy, crystallized surface and screen door effect is much more pronounced. Even if you have the intensive light source behind the AR coating, you will have one big messy white spot because of the way how the light is "reflected". On the other hand, OptiClear for example is actually absorbing the portion of light hitting the screen and at the same time allowing the screen image to be displayed without distortion.
Colour quality and calibration review
Maybe it's time that I post my mini report about the 20WGX2 colour quality and calibration. Firstly, here are the Eye-One Display2 (EOD in the further text) device pics:
Very simple packaging. No fuss. It seems that they scaled down the packaging costs and EOD calibration device itself had few changes and that includes the surface finish and 2 colour print only. Essentially, if that will keep the costs down compared to original Gretag, I don't mind really. Apart from the visual changes, technical functionality of the EOD device is completely the same. On the pics, you may see the packaging and the packaging content itself. That includes the EOD device (top/bottom side), ambient light measurement (attachment), counter weight attachment (for the LCD), software CD and manual itself.
On the device bottom side picture you may see small suction cups and they are used to attach the EOD device securely to the monitor itself. Manual itself is stating that this attachment method is not recommended for the LCD monitors (because of the suction pressure on the LCD panel itself) and that counter weight is recommended method, so that device is just resting on the LCD panel. However, as 20WGX2 panel surface is hardened with OptiClear, I didn't have problems to use the little suction cups
as this attachment method is much better and flexible imho.
Here is the EOD device in action:
I included the first picture (my desktop) so that you have an idea about my ambient light. Measured ambient light luminance was around 12 lux (2470K) which is half way to the recommended D50 (5000K/less then 32 lux) ... but as I'm not using this monitor for colour critical work, it doesn't matter that much. Solution for this is that you have special desk lamps which are emulating the daylight and/or optimal ambient light for the colour critical work. Anyhow, as you may see, my ambient light is pretty much dimmed and just look at that 20WGX2 black uniformity! I have to remind you that monitor is actually "ON"
and that black desktop background is in place. Just give the 20WGX2 tiny amount of the ambient light and OptiClear will greet you with some impressive blacks and more importantly fantastic picture contrast and depth to play with. That small enlightened area at the top of the screen (on the first picture) is StartDock ObjectDock. I like my desktop clean and black with occasional menu pop-up. At the same time, this is healthy for the monitor too as liquid crystals are properly "resting"
Finally, let's see the colour readings and calibration results. Few things I would like to mentioned about the testing methodology:
- For the stock set-up and measurement I was using the default 20WGX2 monitor driver with the included and activated nl20wgx2.icm colour profile.
- Measurement and calibration was done in total darkness and without any ambient light. This is my preferable set-up so that we can avoid possible errors because of the screen reflections or the influence of the ambient light. Yes, EOD device (especially suction cups method) when attached plane to the monitor is sealing off the part of the screen where it's resting ... but that again you can't be 100% sure that just tiny portion of ambient light may get in. Sometimes, it's even recommended that you cover the monitor during the calibration process.
- Sufficient warm up time is allowed. In my case ~ 2 hours.
- I didn't changed the monitor OSD brightness from the default 50%. This may sound strange, but after further consultation with calibration software developer and few people around, I decided not to bother with contrast adaptation. As contrast control (OSD) of an LCD monitor works completely differently and it's used in a different context for CRT's and LCD's, there is no need to change the contrast settings. Contrast should be preset to the default (factory) value before the LCD calibration process. In that sense, I just fine tuned the desired luminance and RGB balance from the monitor OSD and contrast was left at 50% (default value) ... and I still had great calibration results and PQ.
- I decided to make 3-D gamut-compressed icm colour profiles. Essentially, such profiles are not clipping out the colours outside of the saturation gamut range, resulting in very good colour simulation. It will let you seeing colours in correct hue even if they are outside of the monitor's saturation gamut. From early tests, I can tell that gamut-compressed monitor profiles really do make a difference and such difference is not just pronounced on out-of-gamut colours, but also on boundary colours that are very near or just approached the limits of monitor saturation.
- All icm calibration profiles are V4, LUT based with 16-bit depth and CAT02 chromatic adaptation. This is more (far more) then enough for 20WGX2 and strictly speaking such profiles are probably perfect match for the monitors who are supporting the larger internal gamma lookup table (like NEC 90 series with the 12-bit support).
- "L*" (L-star) calibration gamma curve is used to give the smoothest results (especially tonal gradations from black to white) ... and you can tell
because gradation smothness, black and shadow details are also excelent, even after calibration. With L* curve, a gamma preset doesn't makes sense, because this curve changes between gamma 1.5 and 2.6!
- I decided to use CIELAB dE94 as it's more accurately adapted to our visual system and it's somewhat more common these days.
- All tests on 20WGX2 are done in standard DV mode
Few notes about the charts. They include the dE94 numeric and graphical representation, reference and achieved Lab colour space (with dE94 numbers for each colour sample). Additionally, you have maximum achievable white point (with delta values when compared to the target settings), minimum black point and contrast ratio with the desired calibration option or just with the default measurement (without the calibration).
50/50 brightness/contrast, native white point
ICM profile
HighRes
Out-of-the-box colour accuracy is really acceptable! and post calibration graph is pretty much fantastic. As you may notice, at 50% brightness you have ~ 280 cd/m2 white luminance, and ~ 0.45 cd/m2 black luminance. This is probably preferred set-up for the people who appreciate more brightness but at the same time would like to keep the native colour profile and stock configuration settings. Interestingly enough, at 100% brightness/50% contrast/native white point, min measured black luminance was 0.68 cd/m2 and max measurable white point was 460.2 cd/m2.
50/50 brightness/contrast, native white point, advancedDV ON
ICM profile
HighRes
This one is very interesting! It seems that with AdvancedDV mode, stock colours are more accurate! Look how nicely monitor is calibrated with AdvancedDV and "LCD recommended" 120cd/m2 brightness. Overall colour balance is very good. That 0.18cd/m2 black luminance is fanstastic too! followed by achieved 654:1 contrast ratio. Now, what is interesting here is that as soon as you activate the AdvancedDV mode, brightness is going to the very pleasant (my favourite) 100-120 cd/m2 levels. Even if you calibrate the monitor without AdvancedDV and at 120cd/m2 luminance with 6500k white point (as shown in the next chart) black luminance is still around 0.3 cd/m2. In that sense, only AdvancedDV will give you those deep and velvety blacks. This is my favorite calibration profile for games, video and multimedia.
25% brightness, 50% contrast, 6500K white point, 120cd/m2, Advanced DV Off
ICM profile
HighRes
Here is my second preferred calibraton profile for desktop sessions, photographic and colour work. Target 120cd/m2 brightness and 6500K white point. As I mentioned above, even at this white luminance you can't reach the AdvancedDV mode black depth. Despite of this fact, perceptive black depth is still excellent. First (starting) chart on the left is the default sRGB (6500K) monitor colour profile @ 50% brightness. As you may notice, very good stock colour accuracy (again) and this time even better then with the native white point. When properly calibrated, this mode is probably perfect for the photographic work. Colours are still extremely deep, accurate and nicely saturated & balanced, despite the low luminance factor. I could easily spot and differentiate the RGB 3,3,3 and 4,4,4 black point ... and this is already very good for 20WGX2. Apart from the OSD 25% brightness, calibrated RGB balance via monitor OSD is: Red: 84.7, Green:79.2, Blue: 86.2
Gamma tracking (for each profile)
Obviously, there are slight deviations from the ideal (theoretical) curve, but for such multitasking monitor and in this price range I think that results are excellent! It's nice that NEC is giving us the good colours, even for this monitor which essentially is not part of the colour professional 90 series. I don't see any reason why (after proper calibration) people shouldn't use this monitor for semi professional colour work.
Colour gamut before and after calibration
After proper calibration, 20WGX2 is even crossing the sRGB boundaries. For your reference, I included the NTSC, Adobe RGB and sRGB colour space.
---
That's all for now. Hopefully, some of you will find this colour report useful. If any of you would like to see some other tests and that includes different colour temperature, white point or even monitor settings ... please don't hesitate to ask. I will happily do this for you.
Few words about the monitor stability. Even now, after 9 months of usage, colours on my 20WGX2 are still excellent - including the white point which is usually the first sign if monitor is loosing the characteristics. Also, dE94 is still within surprisingly good range. This is probably indication that NEC is using higher grade components for their monitors, as colours are not deteriorating that easy. Apart from that, proper monitor calibration resulted in very nice colours neutrality with "natural" signature. Combined with already high PQ standards of the 20WGX2 series, this injected new life in my digital photos and reviewing them again was really a pleasure
Improvements are noticeable on other fronts too, including the ordinary web browsing and even games.
Even if you don't have the high quality digital photos, I would suggest that you download them from some public sources (for example
InterFaceLift). Either viewed calibrated or not, they will fully expose your 20WGX2 capabilities, that's for sure
Login
Register
Search
I have been looking forward to seeing the new gen IPS and how they perform! 
