Sceptre x22wg-Gamer 22" LCD

Flipsta_G said:
When I try connect this monitor to my laptop via VGA (which is all the laptop has), it does not have the correct resolution (1680x1050) as an option, so I choose 1600x1200. Text on this set-up is blurry, with extra shadows (I think they are called overcast) on all the characters/images. Is there any way to fix this?
Click to expand...

can you get 1440x900, ? install the sceptre inf file, can the video card support custom resolution ? try using powerstrip.

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/ might help
 
mack_t said:
did you try the tigerdirect stores? i picked up the last one at the woodbine location. try the other one near sherway gardens...they might have some.

i actually bought it AFTER they took it off their site...i guess i was lucky then?
Click to expand...

I live in Montreal and I don't think there is any tigerdirect in this province. I will try to see if costco has it, but I was wondering if Costco.com will take orders from us canadians :rolleyes:
 
Can someone please verify that this monitor supports 1:1 pixel mapping? Thanks.

EDIT: If so, I will be able to play games that only support 4:3 resolutions with them centered, with black borders on the sides; NOT stretched, correct?
 
Flipsta_G said:
When I try connect this monitor to my laptop via VGA (which is all the laptop has), it does not have the correct resolution (1680x1050) as an option, so I choose 1600x1200. Text on this set-up is blurry, with extra shadows (I think they are called overcast) on all the characters/images. Is there any way to fix this?
Click to expand...
1600 x 1200 isn't going to work well no mater what. I don't know what kind of laptop you have or what kind of graphics card/chip set it uses for output, but you might try downloading the latest driver for it to see if it then can offer the Sceptre's native 1680 x 1050 resolution or a customizing feature to get you there. If it doesn't, you will have to go with something it can display without scaling like 1440 x 900 for a really sharp image. Test a different cable, too, if it is still not to your satisfaction.

I'm baffled by all the people (like several on NewEgg lately) who simply plug a Sceptre in out of the box and then send it back the next day because "it didn't look good". It has to work with whatever the graphics card is producing, through the cable being used, and one likely has to adjust some of the monitor's settings if the driver is not plug-n-play. Check this thread for example settings. (BTW: some cables shipped with certain batches of Sceptres WERE bad. They will send you a free replacement if you contact them.)
 
if costco does indeed change to shorter return period, does anyone know if they offer extended warranties you can purchase for the lcd? thanks.
 
NIVO said:
if costco does indeed change to shorter return period, does anyone know if they offer extended warranties you can purchase for the lcd? thanks.
Click to expand...

Wait, so if they change the return policy, will it affect both purchases made before and after the policy change?
 
I just got this monitor last night.

So far, I'm quite surprised by all the positve feedback. Hopefully somebody can help me or maybe I just got a bum screen. I have it sitting next to my 2001fp for comparison. Here are some of the problems I have found...although I only played with it for about an hour or so:

1. Off angle viewing is horrible vertically. Even if I move my head a few inches down from direct center, the top of the screen starts to go dark. Horizontal is better, but not great. I guess this is because of the type of LCD this is??

2. The blacks on this guy are terrible compared to my 2001fp's. I did some basic calibration with a reference black and reference white banding graph. The darkest blacks look pretty gray compared to my 2001fp. Also...the biggest problem is that for some reason, a black gradient shows up in bands instead of a smooth gradient. I'll post a picture tonight when I get home from work

3. On some of the gray colors that are real close to the darkest black, I get a lot of pixel's dancing around. Not sure of a better way to describe this...but if I look at a real dark gray solid color, I can see pixels changing slightly. It basically just looks like a bunch of noise. I've never seen this before on an LCD.

4. The whole image just looked a bit washed out compared to my 2001fp's. I guess this is just because of the bad black levels... If I turned the black level down on the monitor settings, the blacks start to get a little better, but I then start to lose the lower grays. Basically the standard setting of '8' is as low as you can go without starting to crush your black levels.
 
bobn4burton said:
1. Off angle viewing is horrible vertically. Even if I move my head a few inches down from direct center, the top of the screen starts to go dark. Horizontal is better, but not great. I guess this is because of the type of LCD this is??

2. The blacks on this guy are terrible compared to my 2001fp's. I did some basic calibration with a reference black and reference white banding graph. The darkest blacks look pretty gray compared to my 2001fp. Also...the biggest problem is that for some reason, a black gradient shows up in bands instead of a smooth gradient. I'll post a picture tonight when I get home from work

3. On some of the gray colors that are real close to the darkest black, I get a lot of pixel's dancing around. Not sure of a better way to describe this...but if I look at a real dark gray solid color, I can see pixels changing slightly. It basically just looks like a bunch of noise. I've never seen this before on an LCD.
Click to expand...

So after a bit of quick research this morning...a lot of these problems might just be associated with all TN panels?

1. The TN panels apparently have bad viewing angles.
2. Still not sure aboout the black level gradient banding...possibly because TN panels only have 6 bit color instead of 8?
3. So this pixel dancing could just be FRC (Frame Rate Control)???? I read this is a method to similate some of the missing colors because of the 6-bit thing mentioned above.

Does anyone know what type of TFT panel the Dell 2001fp is? It has much better picture quality IMO. However...its response time is higher at 16ms. Is this the trade-off?
 
i have a question about this monitor

if a monitor has a dvi and vga connector, is it possible to connect a directv reciever to the dvi port and a vid card to the vga port, and then switch the source?
 
Spetsnaz201 said:
i have a question about this monitor

if a monitor has a dvi and vga connector, is it possible to connect a directv reciever to the dvi port and a vid card to the vga port, and then switch the source?
Click to expand...



Typically, yes. My Gateway has DVI, VGA, S-video, and Component input, I can hook up a different device to all 4 sources and swap between them, as well as use PiP between any two devices. My main rig is hooked to the DVI, my cable box is to the component input, and I can use the s-video for a gaming console or whatever, although I normally have a DVD player attached to it.
 
CoastalEddy - I have a computer desk that puts the Sceptre up pretty high with its included stand. Can you tell me how high the top of the Sceptre is off the desk if the Ergotron stand is at its lowest setting? Thanks in advance.
 
Jamfan16 said:
CoastalEddy - I have a computer desk that puts the Sceptre up pretty high with its included stand. Can you tell me how high the top of the Sceptre is off the desk if the Ergotron stand is at its lowest setting? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Sure. All the way down = 14.75". But as you begin to tilt it back the range of motion in the tilt head adds a little bit of height, up to a max of 15.65". With my preferred tilt it comes in about 15.2". So factor that in. BTW: All the way up = 20.25".
 
Heya,

It's my first post here! I'm interested in the Sceptre x22wg-Gamer 22" LCD but I was wondering how it compares to the Dell E228WFP 22" or X2GEN MW22U 22" LCD monitors? I know the Sceptre has HDMI (which really isn't an issue for me unless I plan on getting a PS3 one day...) and it has 1:1 Pixel Mapping but I don't know if the Dell or X2GEN do. I'll mainly use the 22 widescreen LCD for web surfing (my computer sucks for gaming) and my Xbox 360. My current monitor is a 21" Mitsubishi Diamond Plus 100E CRT that's dying (it turns itself on and off really fast sometimes :mad:)

Thanks!

Ryan
 
CoastalEddy said:
Sure. All the way down = 14.75". But as you begin to tilt it back the range of motion in the tilt head adds a little bit of height, up to a max of 15.65". With my preferred tilt it comes in about 15.2". So factor that in. BTW: All the way up = 20.25".
Click to expand...
Thanks, that helps a bunch. BTW, here's a link to pics of my setup if anyone's interested. As you can see, I need a recliner in order to view the Sceptre. :)
 
Hey all. I just wanted to share my experiences with this Sceptre x22wg-Gamer thus far.

Looked like a great buy so I ordered it through Newegg a few days before XMAS, and received it in a near D.O.A. state. I'm sure it's a nice monitor but I just was a lucky enough customer to hit on the defect lottery.:p

Upon powering on, the display would only show for a couple of seconds, then go black. If I shined a flashlight up to the screen I could just barely make out the picture. RMA'd it and I'm awaiting my replacement which should arrive sometime today. I'll post my impressions after I play with it.
 
I am having trouble installing the sceptre.inf driver. My laptop's graphics card is ATI Mobility Radeon 9200, and it has neither 1440x900 nor the native 1680x1050 resolution as a choice in Display settings. The choices are 1280x768, 1280x800, 1280x1024, 1600x1200, 1920x1200 and up. I downloaded the latest graphics card driver. I tried installing the sceptre.inf driver by writing it to a CD, then trying to tell Windows to search in that CD for a driver, but it did not find it, saying "the wizard could not find a better match for your hardware than the software you currently have installed." Except when I look at driver details, it says "no driver files are required or have been loaded for this device." Does anybody know what I should do?
 
Flipsta_G said:
I am having trouble installing the sceptre.inf driver. My laptop's graphics card is ATI Mobility Radeon 9200, and it has neither 1440x900 nor the native 1680x1050 resolution as a choice in Display settings. The choices are 1280x768, 1280x800, 1280x1024, 1600x1200, 1920x1200 and up. I downloaded the latest graphics card driver. I tried installing the sceptre.inf driver by writing it to a CD, then trying to tell Windows to search in that CD for a driver, but it did not find it, saying "the wizard could not find a better match for your hardware than the software you currently have installed." Except when I look at driver details, it says "no driver files are required or have been loaded for this device." Does anybody know what I should do?
Click to expand...


when you plug in the sceptre monitor and you go into display properties are there 2 monitors listed ?" does the laptop screen stay on?

you can manually install the sceptre.inf file if you have 2 monitors listed in the display properties/settings/advanced/monitor tab/properties/driver tab/update driver/choose no,not this time...next /choose....install from a list or a specific location.....next/ choose, don't search, i will choose the driver to install.........next/click have disk, browse to the inf file.....ok/ sceptre x22wg-gamer on the list. good luck
 
I just got the monitor AND a Mac Pro :) Out of the box it had an awful green tint. I reset everything and it went away so right off the bat I'm all anal that I got someone's return :)
 
Thanks, Sniviler. I installed the driver, but I don't think it really did anything. Is there any way to stop the overcast/shadows that fall the the right of all text/images while connecting to my laptop via VGA?
 
Now that I've had it a while I've found that there is a great deal of backlight bleed on the right bottom of the screen...it is significant at half an inch (yes thats a full half an inch) at the peak then it tappers down. I'm gonna screw around with turning up and down the backlight to see what I can do. Otherwise...I love the ergotron stands and everything else about the monitor. I've already played the PS3 on it for a while (and it looked great)...then realized I dislike everything about consoles.
 
This could be a "Mac thing" but I can't get a signal on this monitor using X1900XT via DVI or VGA. If I turn the Monitor on/off it displays video for a few seconds and blinks off. My Gateway 24" works perfectly on the same machine and the sceptre works perfectly using 7300GT so I'm a little stumped. It's not the cable....
 
Thade said:
This could be a "Mac thing" but I can't get a signal on this monitor using X1900XT via DVI or VGA. If I turn the Monitor on/off it displays video for a few seconds and blinks off. My Gateway 24" works perfectly on the same machine and the sceptre works perfectly using 7300GT so I'm a little stumped. It's not the cable....
Click to expand...

Thade, did you read my post above? Your problem sounds a lot like what happened with my first x22wg. I had to RMA it, and received my replacement last night and it works fine. But if it's working ok on another machine possibly it is a driver issue with the ATi.
 
yep, read your post and that's exactly what happened to me. I swapped cards around again and it's working fine with the ATI card although I didn't do anything different. If a replacement solved the issue for you, that's an indicator that it was the monitor after all. I'm on eggshells now just waiting for it to blink out again on the next reboot. One thing I noticed is that when it displays video, I think it the OSD says "digital" as apposed to "dvi" so the monitor may be confused about what input is actually being used....
 
Thade--yeah it was definitely a bad monitor in my case. I tried it on three different computers, all the same result, and the replacement monitor worked on the first try. Maybe in your case it was a bad/loose connection with the cable? Or maybe the card wasnt seated good enough in the slot on the motherboard. I'm just taking uneducated guesses here. Anyways I hope it's all sorted for you now.

As for me, I only had about 45 minutes to play with my new toy last night. I'd say overall, for a first time LCD owner, it's a good monitor for the price and features it supports. I got it pretty well calibrated with a little help from some settings posted in this thread (thanks). I'm happy with the colors and how black looks on it compared to other LCD displays I've looked at. I wouldnt say it;s the best out there, but like I said for the price it's good.

My DVI cable was faulty like many others, so I'm on VGA at the moment. I plan to pick up a better quality DVI tonight after work. I'll also try to contact Newgg or Sceptre about a free replacement cable.

I'm going to stop by Staples to see if they have any of those Neo-Flex stands. Main reason I want the better stand is because of the issue with the top of the screen looking darker as your point of view lowers. If I could adjust the height of the display I think could remedy this for my personal point of view.

The backlight bleed at the top and bottom of the screen is also present on my monitor. But it's only noticible when those parts of the screen are totally black, for example when viewing something in widescreen format with the black bars at the top and bottom. It's there, but it's not bad enough to wish I didnt buy the monitor. After a little while I was already starting to not even notice it. Also as far as I can see I got no dead or stuck pixels and there's no noticible ghosting while gaming.

So in limited use so far so good.
 
If it were the card or the cable I would imagine I'd have the same probs with the Gateway 24" monitor. I used 2 different tested dvi cables and didn't even bother with the included cable. I think it may be a bad monitor and right now I'm just getting lucky. I hesitate to send it back because backlight bleed is not bad (lanp at zero) at all and zero dead pixels. The Gateway monitor has worse backlight bleed although it is in all 4 corners as apposed to top & bottom. I'm using a monitor arm so the crappy stand doesn't bother me
 
Thade said:
This could be a "Mac thing" but I can't get a signal on this monitor using X1900XT via DVI or VGA. If I turn the Monitor on/off it displays video for a few seconds and blinks off. My Gateway 24" works perfectly on the same machine and the sceptre works perfectly using 7300GT so I'm a little stumped. It's not the cable....
Click to expand...

Ive noticed a weird thing with these monitors... if the screws for the dvi cable arn't touching on the ati card and the monitor it wont display video. It happends on my ATI x1900XTX so it might be the same problem your having. Just be sure to have the screws touching on both ends of the dvi cable and let me know. I want to see if its just my monitor.
 
v0idm33h said:
Ive noticed a weird thing with these monitors... if the screws for the dvi cable arn't touching on the ati card and the monitor it wont display video. It happends on my ATI x1900XTX so it might be the same problem your having. Just be sure to have the screws touching on both ends of the dvi cable and let me know. I want to see if its just my monitor.
Click to expand...

I'll give that a shot later for sure. At least I'll know it wasn't the monitor if I can reproduce the problem. That would also explain why the Gateway monitor never had an issue during testing. It's very possible that I didn't have the screws touching because I was in test mode.
 
If anyone could possibly post screenshots of any PS3 games running on this Sceptre 22" monitor it would be appreciated. If possible post shots running in 1080p off the HDMI port. Thanks Again.
 
I tried dvi cables with the screws NOT touching and it continued to work fine so I have no idea why it stopped working or why it suddenly started working. I have also noticed an interference that can be seen on shades of grey. These forums have the perfect colors. If I get up close I can see the entire background "buzzing around". Again, I only have this problem with the X1900XTand not the 7300GT. I switched back to the Gateway 24" monitor to see if it was my video card & I made 2 observations: 1) no interference=video card is fine 2) The Gateway monitor blows away the Sceptre. After not using the Gateway for some period of time, the difference in color, brightness is pretty dramatic. I suppose that's to be expected given the difference in cost. I tried to like the Sceptre but it just doesn't like me so I gotta send it back. Dunno if I'll keep the Gateway, it IS too huge for my setup but otherwise it's pretty awesome
 
Thade said:
I tried dvi cables with the screws NOT touching and it continued to work fine so I have no idea why it stopped working or why it suddenly started working. I have also noticed an interference that can be seen on shades of grey. These forums have the perfect colors. If I get up close I can see the entire background "buzzing around". Again, I only have this problem with the X1900XTand not the 7300GT. I switched back to the Gateway 24" monitor to see if it was my video card & I made 2 observations: 1) no interference=video card is fine 2) The Gateway monitor blows away the Sceptre. After not using the Gateway for some period of time, the difference in color, brightness is pretty dramatic. I suppose that's to be expected given the difference in cost. I tried to like the Sceptre but it just doesn't like me so I gotta send it back. Dunno if I'll keep the Gateway, it IS too huge for my setup but otherwise it's pretty awesome
Click to expand...
If I were you, I wouldn't give up just yet. Have you downloaded a new driver for your graphics card? I know NVidia has a new one out because I downloaded it and my x22wg now runs awesome. I read somewhere that ATI released a new driver on January 5th. Also, have you checked out Sceptre's FAQ's on their website or e-mailed customer service?
 
I havent tested 1080p with the x22wg yet but I'm sure it would be an upgrade over that AOC Monitor, judging from that monitor's ms response time alone.

This Sceptre's pretty nice, but it's nice for a budget LCD. I am happy with it though.
 
dsr1205 said:
Is this monitor a good value for what you get? i currently have the AOC 17" and would be upgrading to the scepter from costco for 300. Will it be worth it to buy the new monitor? is the 1080p like crappy? because of the 1050 display? i want it for xbox 360 so i hope its good.
Click to expand...
No, 1080 is not crappy - here's some 22" Sceptre 1080 screen shots from elsewhere on this forum - and also some other screen shots posted on another forum. I got one of the first 22" Sceptre LCDs when they came out last October. There's been a firmware update since that improves the 1080p to eliminate artifacts not seen in 1080i. I ordered a second x22wg at Christmas and it has the update. (I could send my first unit back for the upgrade, too, but don't feel like parting with it....) I've read that many upsampling DVD players cannot do 1080p, so be warned - even if your new 22" Sceptre is up to it, your player may not be....

BTW: the Sceptre x22wg will most DEFINITELY be a step up from your 17" AOC.
 
CoastalEddy said:
No, 1080 is not crappy - here's some 22" Sceptre 1080 screen shots from elsewhere on this forum - and also some other screen shots posted on another forum. I got one of the first 22" Sceptre LCDs when they came out last October. There's been a firmware update since that improves the 1080p to eliminate artifacts not seen in 1080i. I ordered a second x22wg at Christmas and it has the update. (I could send my first unit back for the upgrade, too, but don't feel like parting with it....) I've read that many upsampling DVD players cannot do 1080p, so be warned - even if your new 22" Sceptre is up to it, your player may not be....

BTW: the Sceptre x22wg will most DEFINITELY be a step up from your 17" AOC.
Click to expand...

Do you think if i order one form costco it will have the frimware update?
 
dsr1205 said:
Do you think if i order one form costco it will have the frimware update?
Click to expand...
Yes, I would think it would. And if for some reason you still aren't happy, you can take it back to any Costco warehouse for a full refund (including your shipping).
BTW: Why don't you ask Sceptre these questions? Their e-mail is: [email protected].
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top