Well, my L90D+ arrived this morning, and I have been tinkering with it most of the day. First things first, it's a very aesthetically pleasing thing, and I love the extra space I now have available on my desk. But obviously, I was a little more concerned about something else before I got too attached to my new toy - dead pixels. Plugged everything in and switched on, noticed how crisp Windows was when it finally booted in, and proceeded to have a play with the contrast and brightness settings (going for 70b 75c, seems no more annoying than my CRT as some have suggested on this topic).
All set in that department, I loaded up DPB, and the good news is, no dead pixels whatsoever on any background to report, great stuff. However, as many people seem to have been experiencing with this particular display, the 'dark at the top, light at the bottom' syndrome seems to be present on my monitor - are we sure this isn't standard? Here is a picture of my monitor displaying orange (from my Motorola V620 so apologies for the slight lack of quality):
(to re-iterate, that's an orange)
As you can see, although the issue doesn't appear to be as bad as say vdubpsu's display, there is a definite change in colour. But am I going to send it back? No I'm not. This problem I feel is really picking at straws when taking into consideration how great this monitor is, and you'll only notice it if you're REALLY looking for it. I'm already used to the fact that my monitor is this way, and even a little tilt of the display can help to even things out. Perhaps if I was a graphics designer I'd be a little more concerned, but I'm not, I'm a gamer.
I'm extremely pleased at the image quality of this monitor in Digital mode, picture quality is crisp and the definition is high, although in Analogue you are sure to notice that the image quality takes a hit, particularly in 75hz mode. Which brings me swiftly onto my next point - refresh rates.
All morning I have been trying to get my games to run at 75hz in Analogue mode, but I'm having quite a bit of difficulty. When I game, I use a different resolution to that of my desktop, so in CS:S I currently use 800x600 (if you play CS or similar, you'll understand why keeping the res you're used to is important) and in World of Warcraft I'm using 1024x768, due to the hardware lag that a lot of people experience with the game. I have a Radeon 9800XT in my machine, using the latest Omega drivers, and no matter what I've tried - even using 800x600 as my desktop resolution which DOES register at 75hz until I get into a game of CS - I can't crack this particular problem. My profiles appear to be setup alright in the ATi control panel (max refresh rate 75hz, tried override options such as 75hz and 'same as desktop'), and I've even tried using an old 3rd party overrider I used a little while ago, which still doesn't work. If anybody can assist me with getting this sorted then I'd be more than grateful.
Despite my refresh rate problems, CS:S has been 'playable' at 60hz, with vsync on or off. I didn't notice any tearing on either setting. There does appear to be a small degree of ghosting, but whether this is because I can't currently bump up to 75hz or I'm just not used to using LCD yet is another matter. This isn't really affecting my play though, so it's not the end of the world.
Viewing angles are fine for me as I'm always parked in front of my PC, and although they are tight, it's not like you have to keep your head static for fear of picture distortion or anything. And yeah, the buttons are a little annoying, especially if you want to be changing between digital and analogue like I will be. It would be better if they simply had a button that did this, or some kind of keyboard shortcut if possible, rather than having to navigate through the menu every time.
At the end of the day, yes I do like this monitor, although I'll like it even more if I can get my refresh rate problems sorted. And although it does appear excellent for gaming, I'm not sure if we have a CRT beater on our hands... just yet. But rest assured, you will be pleased by the quality that this monitor displays (no pun intended).
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