New NEC 20WMGX2!!! (Pics inside 56K)

Could you use amplified speakers with the tuner? I'd like to skip the detachable small speakers that come with it.
 
I purchased the 20WMGX2-bk from buy.com for $607.99 shipped. I got the free shipping option so it might be a while :( I'll post pics and write my first impressions when it arrives.
 
Just by curiosity, is there / will there be a way to differentiate the new firmare from the old one before purchasing the monitor?
 
I dont believe there is any new firmware coming with the 20WMGX2. I can double check with engineering but I work for NEC and they have not spoken of anything to this point.
 
trust_no1 said:
go back a page or two, it was mentioned earlier in this thread.

I realize this and I read it. Like I said i work at the North American Head quarters for NEC Displays and I am not aware of any sort of firmware update. I can check with engineering again and see but I dont think it will be coming with any new firmware. Maybe for download but thats about all I coudl imagine.
 
People with the white version, do you wish you had gotten the black version instead (or vice-versa)?
 
Well, I gave this thing a try.

Overall, its very nice. Not quite sure if I'd say worth the price, although about $600 shipped isn't bad, but when you can get several others for about half the price, I don't know.

For some reason, I was expecting the bezel to be all brushed aluminum, but its plastic, and in my opinion doesn't look that good (its not bad, but it would look better if it was just all black). I really don't like the buttons. Again they're not necessarily bad, I just don't like the look or feel of them and the tiny little joystick can get annoying at times.

Picture quality is bar none the best I've seen. Colors are excellent. Oddly enough I did not like the Advanced DV mode at all ever (desktop, movies, games). It just looks like it turned down the brightness to me, and I personally like a bright monitor. Speaking of which, this thing is very bright, and yet, even at full 100 level its not bothersome, although I imagine that a lot of people would turn it down.

In basically every way, its better than the 21" Gateway that I had earlier this year. I found that monitor suffered from bad balance between brightness, contrast, and colors, as well as suffering from some notiable banding. In fact, I wouldn't recommend the Gateway for even the lowest price that I've seen it go for.

Playing with different settings, I discovered that putting them (both on the monitor and drivers) at about the most neutral you can is the best, as the colors are truer, but you don't really lose any quality. I kinda personally tend towards a more saturated image, and while turning it up does appeal to me, I find myself still using the default because its vibrant enough and still keeps excellent detail. On images there there is black, at default you can get those to be black and everything else will look good. On most LCDs to get things to look properly black you have to adjust things, which causes detail to be lost. Another oddity here is that the Picture DV Mode actually oversaturates things and causes banding, which is counter-intuitive to me since I would expect it to mean the most neutral for photo editing. Personally, I found all but the Standard DV Modes to be not good.

Unfortunately I only had a laptop to hook it up to at the moment, so no DVI. I would strongly recommend DVI, as text can be blurry and inconsistent with differing text styles on the same page (some will look blurry while others fairly sharp). In fact, without ClearType, text is almost unbearable, and I used to never have a problem using LCDs without it. Well, I guess the Gateway needs DVI as well since there is a very noticable difference in sharpness. With the NEC its pretty much just text, not anything else as images are still sharp.

I also hooked up an Xbox 360 and modded Xbox to it, both through component. The 360 I was actually somewhat disappointed in the color, it seemed washed out and not as vibrant as the desktop no matter how I adjusted it. Its not bad, and I would probably say it'd be great for most people due to my aforementioned preference to saturated image. The clarity and sharpness are very good. The original Xbox looked surprisingly good in my opinion. For some reason, it actually looked more vibrant to my eyes (although since I didn't directly compare the same games it's hard to tell if perhaps it was just the games). Jaggies are noticable, but in my opinion not bad at all. The only real problem I had was I don't like the NEC's options for managing the different aspect ratios and resolutions.

I watched several movies, both through PowerDVD on the laptop and on the 360. Its definitely better to watch movies through the computer as the software does a much nicer job of managing the scaling and everything. I was concerned at first when I heard that there is twinkling with video. I didn't notice any at all, and was very pleased with the movie playback. Scaling doesn't seem to be too bad considering the difference in resolutions.

I didn't bother at all with the remote or the TV input, so I can't comment on those. The speaker is horrible sounding and much too loud even turned all the way down. I just unplugged it (didn't remove it altogether though since its not really in the way).

Backlight is uniform on mine and there aren't any pixel issues. There is something I noticed, though. If you have an all black screen, it will actually look grey like other LCDs do. I think this is due to the glossy screen reflecting, as if there's black with other colors it (the black parts) looks deeper and darker than just all black. The glossy screen wasn't a problem at all other than that, even with light sources. It was never bothersome to me, although I do have a penchant for glossy screens. It was less of an issue than the glossy screen on an Inspiron 9300 I had though, and in normal use, you'd be hard pressed to tell its glossy, at least to me. I don't think it looks really necessarily any better than a non glossy screen, but its not a dealbreaker if you're on the fence, in my opinion. Its a nice balance.

With all that being said, I will be sending it back. First and foremost, is the fact that I'm no longer going to be building a computer. However, even if my plans had not changed, I do not think that I would keep it. For me personally, from the reviews and user experience, I think I would prefer to either have a lower end 20" (I think an A02 2007 would suit me fine) or go with a larger screen for not a whole lot more.

I did get an order for an XPS 700 and a 2407, although I will likely either cancel it or sell it to a friend (and/or possibly downgrade the monitor), so I don't know if I'll get to try it out. I won't be keeping that system at all though, so its not like it matters that much to me.

I do plan on buying one of the 37" 1080p LCD TVs at some point.

Here's a list of the displays that I've used, ranked in order of how good overall (picture quality, with pretty much totally discounting the extra features):
30" 16:9 CRT HDTV (unbeatable scaling, colors, and black levels, although some geometry issues)
NEC 20WMGX2 (very close to the CRT, although not quite up to par with better geometry)
Dell 2405FPW (good overall, but definitely could be improved)
Apple 23" Cinema Display (I honeslty didn't like the image quality as much as the 2405, might be better now though)
17" Dell TrueLife laptop screen (great looking but a little too dense in pixel pitch, and some other issues)
Dell 2005FPW (good, but also flawed)
Gateway FPD2185 (great feature set, but doesn't execute that well on it overall).

I might try to get some pictures comparing the HDTV to the NEC before I ship it back, but we'll see.
 
I got my 20WMGX2 in from Newegg yesterday. This is my first LCD.

Just whoa...

This thing is alive. When I loaded up Wow I felt like I was in the game! The image quality is incredible. My 60lb CRT can burn in hell lol.

There is 1 pixel that seems to display blue instead of black when it should, but that's the only flaw in the screen I can see. Pretty hard to notice.
 
BitchBreaker said:
I work with NEC on new hardware, review's, beta testing..and so on...im making us a better firmware based off there new firmware for these monitor's and ill show ya how to flash the firmware on your own :)


Just wondering if there is any news you can share about how that firmware update is going ? I am waiting to see if it will actually bring internal scaling to this monitor. ( The European version has it working great, but not the North American version).
I am ready to buy one, but being "stuck" with an ATI card, lacking this feature is a definite deal-breaker for me. :(

IIRC, this post was from a non-NEC employee who was working with them on this, and another poster working at NEC hadn't heard of this update at the time. ( Been a couple months or so now.) Is this still something in the works, or am I just wasting my time by waiting & hoping for this ? -Thanks !
 
Just received confirmation that mine arrived today, it is waiting for me as I speak. I read everyword I could find on this monitor before I made my choice

I plan on doing a comprehensive review of it so if anyone has any paticular questions or concerns let me know and I will check them out.
 
I'd love to hear what people think about the readability of text on this one, it "sounds" great, but I haven't been able to lay my eyes on it personally and would love to hear what you think about web browsing, text files, stuff like that.

I'm already pretty convinced it's good for gaming, as even monitors which I have not really liked in the past for text have been great for that.
 
alright, I will give you a 'text' reveiw tonight, I am prone to eye strain so it will be a very thorough review.

It goes without saying that I wll also do an indepth gaming review as that is paramount to me. :cool:
 
Iwould also like to hear about brightness. By specifications, it's really too high. I saw on tomshardware that the brightness is well calibrated for office applications, but i'd like to hear from some user who has it.

I have very sensitive eyes, and spend many hours a day in front of computer.

Please write how doeas the picture llok when you turn down the brightness. Is white still WHITE? IS the contrast good? How do your eyes react?

I just know it is great for gaming, but i'm scared to buy it because i feel it's not suitable for long time daily use....

I wish i am wrong, so please write everything you see....

Thanx guys..
 
GOT IT!!!!

I have hooked it up and I am typing this on it, and watching baseball w/ the picture-in-picture ability :cool:

I have played CS:S for about a half an hour to test it and all I can say is wow, NO GHOSTING, i was so scared of ghosting

in reply to you concern about brightness and text it has 4 modes and the ability to customized the picture in an excellently designed OSD, I think you will find something you like.

I am going to test it hard over the next couple of days then write out a full review.

PS, My conroe 6400 and Mobo are here, off I go to assemble the new beast 7950 GX2 as well :D
 
nice,

The one I currently have has 3 or 4 dead pixels bundled together, so its going back. I then ordered another one that had dead pixels also, so I got rid of it.

Just now, I ordered 3 :eek: from samsclub.com, and will keep the best one out of the bunch and return the other two directly to the store for a refund.


But yea, its a nice monitor.
 
mine had no dead pixels and no defects that I can detect at all, I am simple in love with this monitor, makes going to work and using a 17 inch Flatron unbearable....
 
Decided to take a chance on this screen. 1 stuck blue pixel in the center that I see against dark images and I'm not sure how I feel on the gloss factor just yet. Anyone who has a dark desktop background or anyone who watches a lot of movies with dark scenes might see more of their reflection than the movie.

The main thing right now is that I am having issues with the speaker bar. The sound quality that comes from the speaker bar sounds horrible. The sounds from the speakers is not clear; it feels like the speakers are rumbling and sounds like the bass is turned up to 6721% when playing music (even though it's only at 50%.) I've reseated the cables and reset my sound settings (both in the OS and on the monitor) but it still sounds bad, especially when the volume is turned up. There is also a slight noise it makes even

Is the sound bar just not great quality or is there a way to get some decent quality sound from it? Before anyone says it's an issue with my sound card, to my knowledge the MacPro does not have one. Furthermore, my headphones and internal speaker sound fine.
 
Least said:
the soundbar is probably crap, as it is included with a monitor.

Its supposedly good enough to watch TV on. (Like most built in tv speakers)
 
si0dine said:
Its supposedly good enough to watch TV on. (Like most built in tv speakers)

yes, but you won't be getting any 'decent' quality sound coming from it. There is a possibility he got a dud, but it's more likely he simply won't be satisfied with their speakers (I don't know anyone who owns it that has kept it on rather than getting some other sound system.

In any case, it's hard to say if it's a dud without another one to compare to.
 
why dont you just connect the monitor to the speakers on your PC?

The monitor comes with a cord for this. Every sunday i watch football with PiP with the sound coming from my PC speakers
 
Just thought I'd leave my feedback on this monitor:

I picked up the NEC from Fry's a couple of days ago, and I have to say that it has the best image quality of any monitor I've used by far. I don't have any ghosting or input lag issues at all, or any dead pixels. I am WAY more happy with it than I was with the 215tw (which I just returned because of the HORRIBLE input lag). Basically, this monitor is perfect in every way...except that it's a little too small. Sometimes, reading text is a little hard to do at such a high resolution with a 20 inch screen. It was bothering me enough to go ahead and order an HP L2335 from eBay. I'm waiting until the HP arrives so I can do a side by side comparison. Has anyone here compared the NEC with the HP (or the Sony SDM-P234 for that matter)?
 
viralhumor said:
Just thought I'd leave my feedback on this monitor:

I picked up the NEC from Fry's a couple of days ago, and I have to say that it has the best image quality of any monitor I've used by far. I don't have any ghosting or input lag issues at all, or any dead pixels. I am WAY more happy with it than I was with the 215tw (which I just returned because of the HORRIBLE input lag). Basically, this monitor is perfect in every way...except that it's a little too small. Sometimes, reading text is a little hard to do at such a high resolution with a 20 inch screen. It was bothering me enough to go ahead and order an HP L2335 from eBay. I'm waiting until the HP arrives so I can do a side by side comparison. Has anyone here compared the NEC with the HP (or the Sony SDM-P234 for that matter)?

LOL, a HP L2335 is gonna be just as hard to read for you...
The NEC has a pixel pitch of .258 the HP has a pixel pitch of .258.
17" = .264
19" = .294
20.1" widescreen = .258
21" widescreen = .27
22" widescreen = .282
23" widescreen = .258
24" widescreen = .27

And if the text is too small, all you have to do is go to your display settings and change the DPI to 120..
 
viralhumor said:
Just thought I'd leave my feedback on this monitor:

I picked up the NEC from Fry's a couple of days ago, and I have to say that it has the best image quality of any monitor I've used by far. I don't have any ghosting or input lag issues at all, or any dead pixels. I am WAY more happy with it than I was with the 215tw (which I just returned because of the HORRIBLE input lag). Basically, this monitor is perfect in every way...except that it's a little too small. Sometimes, reading text is a little hard to do at such a high resolution with a 20 inch screen. It was bothering me enough to go ahead and order an HP L2335 from eBay. I'm waiting until the HP arrives so I can do a side by side comparison. Has anyone here compared the NEC with the HP (or the Sony SDM-P234 for that matter)?

. Coming from 19", which has one of the largest grainiest dot pitch around is quite a change.. Give it some time I bet you'll get used to dot pitch.

Personally I find even .258 too big too grainy but luckily the NEC 20WMGX2 is the only monitor I've seen remedy that problem with opticlear coating making it less noticable.

Congrats on the best LCD monitor:)
 
elvn said:
That Acer 24" is said to have the input lag problem and is suggested in other thread to be avoided.
I just got my Acer AL2423w on Wedensday and on Monday I am calling Newegg to see about a refund. This was my first LCD, and while I knew there were going to be "some" issues, this monitor is simply terrible for gaming. The motion blur on it is so bad that I actually feel nauseated after an hour of WoW. And while the colors are extremely vibrant, it has very very bad viewing angles. If you barely move at all the screen dithers/shimmers, (goes from light to dark with the slightest of head movement...). The lighting is not equal on all sections of the screen either.

Reading this thread really makes me want to go down from a 24 inch to a 20 if it will increase response time and the other issues I am having. The panel in this monitor was supposed to be good, yet it seems like it has the worst viewing angles, input lag and pixle response of any panel type. Yet, being that this was my first LCD, I really couldn't say for sure that it's much better or worse than any other.
 
I havent chimed in my experience so here I am :-p. I got a 20WMGX2 as a LCD to replace my samsung 244T for gaming. Well after a few days of using it i've taken my 244T down completely and will most likely be selling it. Even going from 24" to 20" should be extremely painful, the 20wmgx2 is just too damned good to make me feel any pain :p Its just the best LCD i've used so far. I'll be using it until the 24wmgx3 is released in april. The screen is beautiful, no dead pixels or backlight bleed. Also the opticlear coating makes everything sharper and i can barely see the dot pitch but it isnt as glossy as other coatings like sony's or acers, just enough to make a difference but not enough to cause massive amounts of reflections and such, in my experience at least and best of all, no input lag that i could feel. The cable management is good, colors are great (just calibrated it with a eye-one), viewing angles are top notch, and the remote control is awesome since u can change every setting with it. All-in-all it was worth the 600 dollars and would buy another if I had to. Cant wait to see what NEC has in store for the 24wmgx3.
 
Nice review Ricey... the 24wmgx2 will definity be the shit..

Couple improvments NEC needs to make before I'll upgrade ..purly cosmetic..

-Height adjustment.. WTF 20" $700 monitor and no height adjustments??? Cheap Dells all got it for half price and just about everyone else....24" better change that...
-Clean up the ergonomics. The 20WMGX2 looks like a freken brick from the side and lose ugly ass speakers which no one uses anyway. Hell, lose the M entirely as far as 70% of us are concerned..we want a monitor not a multimedia machine. Saves on costs which they couold put into a real stand with height and pivot.
-Need all black
 
tightline said:
Nice review Ricey... the 24wmgx2 will definity be the shit..

Couple improvments NEC needs to make before I'll upgrade ..purly cosmetic..

-Height adjustment.. WTF 20" $700 monitor and no height adjustments??? Cheap Dells all got it for half price and just about everyone else....24" better change that...
-Clean up the ergonomics. The 20WMGX2 looks like a freken brick from the side and lose ugly ass speakers which no one uses anyway. Hell, lose the M entirely as far as 70% of us are concerned..we want a monitor not a multimedia machine. Saves on costs which they couold put into a real stand with height and pivot.
-Need all black

I have to disagree on a few points:

1) I love the NEC shape; it looks cool. Although Acer got it right with the ferrari
2) I found the speakers to be useful, because of the fact that they are removable. When I go to lan games I don't want to drag my whole stereo with me. You can easily remove them and they'd still look good
3) I think the silver color is way better than black.

But you are right about the height adjustment. What a load of @#$#@ !
 
HAHA yah forgot about the height adjustment. When i took it out and tried to tug the stand to make it higher and it wouldnt i was like, WTF?! I CANT MAKE IT HIGHER!. Was disappointed with that part but it went away after i turned it on, still it would be a nice feature and was expecting it for how much it cost. Also took off the speakers before i even put it on my desk :p

-I got the silver + black front frame one, looks nice :)
 
Since it's not adjustable height wise, how high is the bottom of the screen from the desk? I'm sure it would be easy enough to find something to set the monitor on top of for better height, but still pretty annoying.
 
Guys I have a question about this monitor. I play lots of games and Iam curious what resolution options will I have playing BattleField 2 since it doesnt support wide screen format. So anyone out there with this monitor and who has bf2 please let me know, thanks.
 
ButterFlyEffect78 said:
Guys I have a question about this monitor. I play lots of games and Iam curious what resolution options will I have playing BattleField 2 since it doesnt support wide screen format. So anyone out there with this monitor and who has bf2 please let me know, thanks.


What video card you have?
 
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