LG246WP first impressions.

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Dahz

Gawd
Joined
Mar 28, 2002
Messages
530
after humming and hawing over replacing my samsung 213t, i decided to take the widescreen plunge and pick up a new LG246WP.

obligatory (blurry) [H]ard shot
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gears of war 1080i
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monitor looks very nice, and these pictures dont do it justice. gears of war was quite smooth and looked very good to my eyes.

the OSD controls are a bit iritating being mounted on the bottom of the display. the power button is fine, but i keep finding myself hitting the wrong buttons for the rest of the controls. the direction buttons for moving through the menus are the worst cuplrates, i think the up and down should have been reversed. it feels 'wrong' having the up and down as they ae. reversed would have been better i feel.

at 1080i my 360 look great. though by default it streches the image to fill the screen. but theres a setting in the OSD that allows you to set the display to have the image 1080 high as it should be. my 360 via component looks very good(sure beats the non hd tv i had it connected to before).

this panel dosnt seem to have any bad pixels. ive spent a good bit of time scouring the display and cant see any abnormalities. the first two i brought home has bad pixels. huzzah for futureshops 14 day satisfaction garantee, and instore warranty that covers pixels. :D

there is a built in usb hub on the panel, its a 2 port, usb 2 hub, wich works just fine with my thumb drives. the hub is on the left hand side of the screen.

there is also an audio-out in the same location the hub is. i belive its for audio-out when using hdmi with an audio stream. however, the audio out is a simple 3.5mm plug, so id expect its just two channel. and as i dont have any hdmi devices to make sure, i cannot test this however. there is a mount, aswell as a dc out port, for a soundbar to mount under the panel. the setup sheet says that when using the soundbar with an hdmi decide you can connect the soundbar to the monitors audio-out terminal. if not connect the soundbar to the computer as normal. hence why i belive the oudio-out port is simply a 2 channel out.

the height adjustemnt is quite nice on this monitor, just pull up or push down, and it moves, and stays put where you stop it anywhere in its travel.

i spent a few hours running around lord of the rings online, aswell as world of warcraft, and though i dont think id say its 100% ghosting free, its head and shoulders above my old samsung. next test will be a dvd i belive. see how it handles that.

so far, im very pleased with this.
 
GoW screen :drool:

That looks nice. Im looking at the LG L206WT only 289 at frys. Getting it to play x360 also. Is there a button to switch VGA to DVI?
 
Thanks for the impressions, Dahz. If you run any more tests or have any other info you think would be useful, please let us know. I'm thinking of picking up this monitor myself.

I don't suppose you or anyone you know has a Wii you could test with this? I'd like to get a Wii at some point, and I've heard it's had problems displaying at 480p over component with some displays, so I'd really like to know if it works with this. So far though, I haven't come across anyone who owns both this display and a Wii. :(

Also, have you had the chance to test any other resolutions over component (e.g. 720p, 480i/p)? I don't believe Jim tested many in his showdown review, so it would be good to know if the aspect scaling works correctly at all resolutions, and not just at 1080i.
 
im sorry to say i dont have a wii, nor do any of my friends around here. neither my friends nor myself have had any luck obtaining one....

ill load up my 360 and see how the display deals wih 720p, and 480 settings. and get back to you on that.

as for switching inputs, theres one button marked input in the controls, and its as simple as selecting rgb, hdmi, and component, and pressing ok.

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hmm... wonder how much abuse a photobucket account wiltake...
 
depending on the input, the monitor uses different options for displaying whats on screen, either source, 1:1, full, etc to define how it shows whats on screen.

right after playing throught the same chckpoint in GoW..

480i was somewhat pixelated. not tooo horrible, but not that great either. monitor was set to original image.

for 480i widescreen, the image was about the same. but the monitor had to be set to expand the image to fill the dislay.

for both the weapon icon, and ammo bar in top right corrner was somewha unefined. not very sharp.

480p. looks better than 480i but not nearly as good as 720p. weapon icon/ammo bar still somewhat undefined and blury.

720p. looks very good. everythings sharp and in good focus.

1080i. also very good. abit better than 720p. but nothing like the jump from 480p to 720p.

1080p. selecting this in the console settings donsnt allow it to take. nothing appears on the display and the console reverts to 1080i settings.
 
Wow, thanks for trying all these settings. Sorry if I'm misunderstanding your post, but what's the overall conclusion: do the scaling options work correctly at all resolutions? I.e. if you set the aspect mode to "original" does it correctly displays black bars at the top and bottom (or sides, if the image is 4:3) regardless of the resolution? I'm a little confused by what you mean when you say:
for 480i widescreen, the image was about the same. but the monitor had to be set to expand the image to fill the dislay.
Click to expand...
Can you clarify what you mean by this?

Thanks yet again!
 
with the 360 the cable that i got with my premium version is a combo composite/component cable, with a switch on it. for regular tv mode, 480i. and hd, 480p, 720p and up.

with the cable set to regular 480i the xbox could be set to a widescreen mode. but the image remained 4:3 on the display untill i set the display to take the image and fill it to the screen. the xbox was compressing a widescreen image into a 4:3 image, ad the monitor had to scale it out to widescreen.

the monitor for me and my 360 do scale out to the right ratios, aslong as you pay attention to how the monitor is set. each resolution change, i had to adjust the osd screen configuration setting. but it scaled out for everything. black bars on top, sides, or wherever it was needed to fit the screen right. round objects sill were round.

the image quality though at 480i and 480p were lacking and look better on a regular tv i feel.
 
Ah, that clears it up. Thanks again for taking the time to try this and answer all these questions. :)
 
glad i could help.

been watching casino royale in between bouts of gears of war. wmp11 wont fullscreen a normal dvd. ill have to dig out a copy of powerdvd from ym stack of cds... but through the 360 and over component, looks very good.
 
Where did you buy it? and how much ? How is input lag ? And oh yeah ! change or update the sig man,you got new gear,and it kicks ass :cool:
 
i bought this at futureshop in abbotsford. sticker was $750 cdn. and input lag? :confused:
 
Well, according to Jim's showdown between the LG, Dell, and BenQ, the LG actually had the least lag out of all of them:

http://www.bexox.com/showdown.htm

Of course, this is only one sample for each monitor, but of the other reviews I've seen of the LG no one mentioned input lag, so it seems OK in that department.
 
Tough choice between this and the BenQ fp241 series. The fp241 has 1:1 scaling for the PC, but it has the "black out" problem. The LG has lower lag, but doesn't scale properly. Tough choice.
 
WickedWeasel said:
Tough choice between this and the BenQ fp241 series. The fp241 has 1:1 scaling for the PC, but it has the "black out" problem. The LG has lower lag, but doesn't scale properly. Tough choice.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't say that the LG doesn't scale properly, it's just that it has a restricted set of scaling options depending on the input source. If the input is a video source (i.e. 480/576/720/1080), then you get the option to either stretch to fill the screen, or to fill the screen as much as possible while preserving aspect ratio. If the input is a "PC" source (any resolution except the above), then you only have options to stretch to fill the entire screen, or 1:1 mode, where the image is displayed at the original size.

So I agree that the aspect ratio control options on the LG leave something to be desired, but I was under the impression that the modes that are present do work as advertised, so depending on your needs, they may be sufficient. As for the BenQ, remember that even with the firmware fix, the aspect ratio control still has problems -- it seems to be cropping the picture on all four sides, leaving black borders on all four sides in 1:1 mode even at 1080p, and aspect mode takes this cropped image and stretches it (see the BenQ thread for more details).

So the choice seems to be the LG, which has limited options that (to the best of my knowledge) work correctly, or the BenQ, which has more options which all don't work properly. Other than this, the main differences are that the BenQ has more inputs, costs a little more, while the LG has the advantage of being available locally. They both use the same panel and the differences in lag seem to be minimal. I'm personally leaning towards the LG, as I don't need the extra inputs and the aspect controls are sufficient for what I would need (I'm also turned off by BenQ's apparently horrendous customer support, as well as the fact that I'd have to order it online). But I agree that it's a pretty tough call between these two.
 
ok, scaling. lets see what i can find. using compoent inputs, and my 360 ill be performing a "do round objects appear round at this resolution? test" using my trusty callibrated eyeballs to tell. ill also list the osd settings for the monitor, whats used, and whats avalible.


480i, 480i widescreen, 480p, 720p, an 1080i refer to what the xbox is set to display
subjective rating for each setting, rating is to ty and confer how round the icon appears. 0 = an M&M sideways, or a football. 5 = perfectly round.

480i : OSD settings Full, or Original.
Full: 4.5: streches out image to fill the display, leaving all images skewered in width. making round icons appear to be squished abit flat. not too bad but noticeable.

Original : 3: black bars present on both sides. image is still skewered. round icons are squished sideways, making them appear taller than hey are wide.

480i widescreen: OSD settings Full, Original.
Full: 3.5: image streched out to fill display, round icns. skewered in witch, appearing taller than they are wide.

Original: 2.5: black bars present on sides. image highly skewered round icons signifigantly taller than wide. xbox 360 seems to be sending a widescreen image i a 4:3 ratio sream and simply letting the display pick how it appears.

480p: OSD settings: Full, Original
Full: 4: image fills screen. round icons slightly skewered in height. appearing taller than wide.

original: 3.5: black bars present on sides image more skewed than with full. roun icons appear taller than wider.

720p: OSD settings: Full, original
Full: 4.5: no bars present, round icons slightly skewered in height appearing taller than wider.

Original: 5: black bars top and bottom, round icons appear round.

1080i: OSD settings: full, original
Full: 4.5: again, same as 720p, no bars, image slightly skewerwed in height, round icons appear taller than wider.

Original: 5: same as 720p, bars top and bottom, round icons appear round.

how badly does it skewer? well it depends. on 480p original looks worse than full, but 720p and 1080i, original is the way to go. i was looking for the distortion and on some it was bad others not so noticeable.

does this help?

woot, i got promoted!
 
That GoW screen looks *awesome*. I wish the CRT I am using looked that good. I am definitely looking at getting this monitor in a couple months. Hopefully it drops in price a bit. Do you have any other games you could post some pictures of?
 
WickedWeasel said:
Tough choice between this and the BenQ fp241 series. The fp241 has 1:1 scaling for the PC, but it has the "black out" problem. The LG has lower lag, but doesn't scale properly. Tough choice.
Click to expand...

My understanding was that the black out problem is strictly related to the low quality DVI cable that BENQ supply....change that, and the problem disappears apparently.
 
Heya all,

I have the European version, the LG245WP. It is the same just with the controls on the right side. I mainly play Call of Duty 2, and more than I should. At first, I tried the monitor out with my 7800GT, fps was around 30 max ( average 20fps when the going got tough ) so I was not shooting as good as I did before. A friend let me borrow his 8800GTX and wow, the card gave my monitor life! I could not detect input lag with the higher end graphics card as the fps was much faster. I will borrow my in-laws CRT to have a second test for input lag, but that will probably take me til next week to complete as I have a busy schedule for this week. I do not use console games so I have no way to test them. I have watched movies though and they looked great. I watched Spiderman and Alien, both good to test action movies in bright and in dark scenes. I will make an update as soon as I can about the input lag. And for those in Germany, I got mine at MediaOnline for nearly 200 Euros less than what the local stores wanted.
 
Dogmapog said:
My understanding was that the black out problem is strictly related to the low quality DVI cable that BENQ supply....change that, and the problem disappears apparently.
Click to expand...

wrong... It a driver related issue or a monitor bug. But since it happens mostly on ATI, i suppose it's driver related(had one)

Digital cable that you buy 5$ is the same thing than a 130$ monster cable. Digital cable doesn't half work, it works or not..
 
Dahz said:
480i : OSD settings Full, or Original.
Full: 4.5: streches out image to fill the display, leaving all images skewered in width. making round icons appear to be squished abit flat. not too bad but noticeable.

Original : 3: black bars present on both sides. image is still skewered. round icons are squished sideways, making them appear taller than hey are wide.

480i widescreen: OSD settings Full, Original.
Full: 3.5: image streched out to fill display, round icns. skewered in witch, appearing taller than they are wide.

Original: 2.5: black bars present on sides. image highly skewered round icons signifigantly taller than wide. xbox 360 seems to be sending a widescreen image i a 4:3 ratio sream and simply letting the display pick how it appears.

480p: OSD settings: Full, Original
Full: 4: image fills screen. round icons slightly skewered in height. appearing taller than wide.

original: 3.5: black bars present on sides image more skewed than with full. roun icons appear taller than wider.
Click to expand...
Hmmm, I guess I have to take back my earlier post where I said it appears scaling works correctly at all resolutions. :( Pretty disappointing that you can't display a 480p signal at the 16:9 ratio correctly, since this is what the Wii outputs.
 
to be fair i was only able to test this with my 360, a wii may output differently than a 360 does. as all the resolution changes were done on the console in the display settings. wish i had a wii to try for you.....
 
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