Compaq TFT8030

[OlivierMDVY]

Have you read its specs ? I'm very impressed by the response time ! 20 ms !
Where's the catch ? is this response time corresponding to the rise+fall or only to the rise or the fall ?
Do you know who is the panel manufacturer ?

 

[Guest]

Here's the link:
http://www.compaq.com/products/monitors/flatpanel/tft8030.html
Personally I'm interested in the TFT5030 (15" version) because I can't afford the big one. The specs are good! It's from Sharp I think, and has a Pixelworks processor. I *really* want to see a review/comparison of these screens!

 

[OlivierMDVY]

Me too i really want to read a review...

 

[Guest]

As a very happy owner of the above mentioned monitor here's my personal limited experience using that panel for a week.
Well, in a word i can say wooooot ))) It's an item making you feel your wallet itching,,, A LOT)))
Seriously, the monitor is exceptional clear and bright, viewing angles is not a problem at all and is watchable from 3 persons in a row without serious lighting changes. Lighting across the panel is uniformed without brighter or darker areas. Blacks as every LCD panel it's not totaly black, but i don't think that's a problem due to minor diffrential from total black. Watching photos taken by a digital camera colours are very very close to an old 3-4 years ( HITACHI 753) crt monitor but to the lighter(common for LCD technology i think). Geometry is absolute, 100% wright, no distortions or any other defect known from CRT's. The responce time is not a problem for watching DVD's, movies showned crystal cleared.
For games just for curiosity i was played last weekend a demo of Ghost recon, NOT A PROBLEM, no viewable ghosting
or any other glitch knowing from other older LCD's (so i presume it's responce time must be 20ms rise+fall as they
state).
Having in mind that i was decrease gamma and brightness because the monitor is really tooo bright at default settings.In the begining you'll like the bright whites but after some minutes of working the surrounded area seems too dark )
Note that the panel is controled by a R8500 through DVI connection.

What i like? It's crystal clear, It's bright, It's big, It's relatively good in color reproduction,It's unifomed across the panel(lighting), It's 100% geometrically wright, It's fast and not a dead pixel so far.

What i dislike? No hardprinted user manual, for almost 1700 € ?

CORRECTION
For the scaling, i discover when the monitor scaling, into monitor's menu, a new submenu comes in.
To be specific when NOT scaling the menu item "image control" let you choose only "cancel", but when scaling then new items appeard, "custom scaling" and that submenu drives to a new one which have the following items "fill to screen", "fill to aspect ratio", "one to one", also when set to a scaling type then let you choose a sharpnes range.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by makosv on 01/19/02 10:43 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[OlivierMDVY]

Hello Makosv,

thanks for your short review, but (my poor english) i don't understand your last sentence about the auto resampling, did you mean that lower resolutions always cover the screen or never ? (black borders)
Thanks !

Olivier

 

[Guest]

Hi OlivierMDVY

Yes i was ment that lower resolutions always cover the screen.
It would be nice if that was user selectable, by menu : auto resising(resampling?)or not at all (like eizo's i think?)

 

[OlivierMDVY]

And how is the scaling ? Good, bad, ugly ?

I don't know ghost recon, is it a fast game ?

 

[Guest]

Hi OlivierMDVY

For the scaling, i discover when the monitor scaling, into monitor's menu, a new submenu comes in.
To be specific when NOT scaling the menu item "image control" let you choose only "cancel", but when scaling then new items appeard, "custom scaling" and that submenu drives to a new one which have the following items "fill to screen", "fill to aspect ratio", "one to one", also when set to a scaling type then let you choose a sharpnes range.
As for ghost recon i don't know how fast that game is compared to other games like simulations or f p shooters.
Maybe someone else can enlighten you here.


<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by makosv on 01/19/02 10:44 AM.</EM></FONT></P>