Any reason to get a Dell U2410 over U2412M?

[Lyian]

Ok, then it's odd, becuase my new GPU also calls it HDMI, but perhaps it is a display port instead, I need to go check the specs. so DVI is still going to be a better connection right?

Something you all need to consider about this monitor is the way in which things plug in it, because of the bulkiness of it, getting things plugged into the bottom are a bit tricky, once in of course it's great, but for example two of the usb ports on the bottom and two are on the side, I suppose whatever you plug into the usb should be more permananet such as a mouse or keyboard or camera or cellular phone plugs, which is what I plan to do, the two on teh side are useful for usb pens and other stuff...

Got a question for you guys, why is it that the text only looks normal at the 1920x1200 resolution setting? When I try to adjust the resolution down, in order to make the text bigger the text looks fuzzy, especially in outlook mail and desktop icons. right now I am using my old computer with the monitor, the spcs in blue below, with only a DVI connection, could this be the problem?

In addition can someone here give me an idea of a good display test software to check for dead pixels and other perforamace issues? I want to make sure everything is working great within the 14 day exchange period.

Thanks

Some video cards have HDMI, but more of the newer ones are putting on either Displayports, Mini-display ports, or both displayports and HDMI. Your video card, for being as old as it is, doesnt look like it has either one of them. But that would depend on the adapter they gave you. (it would be the round port if any). You could also get a DVI to HDMI converter, if you were so inclined. But most only do that to plug into a 1080p TV instead of using the D-sub (Vga) port.

The text looks blurry because of how LCD displays work. Even LCD TV's do this. 1920x1200 is your monitors Native resolution, which means it looks its best at that resolution. Setting it lower, just degrades the image. (more on this here)

So if it bothers you that badly, your choices are to get a display with a lower resolution, or go back to a CRT.

 

[techiemon]

Interpolation.

Edit: It's regular, and will always happen when running large native resolution LCDs below native.

My fav monitor site: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/
Info on the backlight bleed and interpolation are just below this: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/content/dell_u2412m.htm#uniformity

They even compare it to the 2410.

Well that just bites then... Ok, well I did solve the issue sort of by changing the settings in Nvida, which is my current card in the old machine and i had it increase everything to 125%, so when I reloaded everything was clear and crisp and still in teh 1920x1200 resolution settings, it looks great, no fuzzies. would recommend all to do the same unless they can read really tiny text.

 

[techiemon]

Some video cards have HDMI, but more of the newer ones are putting on either Displayports, Mini-display ports, or both displayports and HDMI. Your video card, for being as old as it is, doesnt look like it has either one of them. But that would depend on the adapter they gave you. (it would be the round port if any). You could also get a DVI to HDMI converter, if you were so inclined. But most only do that to plug into a 1080p TV instead of using the D-sub (Vga) port.

The text looks blurry because of how LCD displays work. Even LCD TV's do this. 1920x1200 is your monitors Native resolution, which means it looks its best at that resolution. Setting it lower, just degrades the image. (more on this here)

So if it bothers you that badly, your choices are to get a display with a lower resolution, or go back to a CRT.

Sorry for double post, our posts were at the same time so I am replying separately.

Thanks for the link will read up on that later.

I have no round port on the new pc, though I do have an S-video slot (I am guessing this is D-sub) on the old VGA card, but that is not really what you are referring to is it...

Anyway I found a much better solution to the resolution issue, as I said above I just had the video card or microsoft, cannot remember which one now, or the steps to get there, will have to go back and check if anyone really wants to know how to do it, and i set it to 125%, so now it looks great, no fuzzy, no blurry, text looks great, and the setting is still at the native setting. Not going back to a CRT, no way! and I love this monitor too much to change it to another, that extra 1200 really makes it look so much better than the narror monitors that dominate the market.

 

[techiemon]

Just in case people want to know how to do what I did to enlarge the text and remove the fuzzies and blurriness here are the instructions I just retraced my steps as I suspect some of you will want larger clearer text.

In MS Windows 7 Ultimate Version
Right Mouse Click on desk top ---> Personalize Tab ---> Display (at the bottom of the left hand side menu bar) -----> (new screen appears, then select medium 125% or larger 150% then click apply. You will need to log off and log back on in order for the settings to take effect. Seems like these are the only options available.

 

[Lyian]

Yea, very few CRT's can produce good image quality. I personally am using a re-branded Sony FW900 display. This is why im getting a U2410, because really anything else, even with LCD's would be a downgrade. The Sony is an awesome display, but it eats alot of power and weighs nearly 100lb's and im still Apartment hopping so its a pain to move.

That said, it is a 23" widescreen, able to go beyond 1920x1200 res and can go 100Htz refresh. So performance wise, its a bit hard to replace.

As per your video card, if i found the right one (here) then its not an S-video port. Its some kind of janky makeup port they crammed in there and use an adapter with just to have the connectivity.

S-video, is not capable of delivering higher resolution images. (i believe it maxes out at 576i)

 

[Junglebizz]

unlikely youd be able to send it back to Dell for a replacement. If its still within the return policy of where you purchased it, they might take it make when you say you dont want it or something.

Just doing a quick scan on youtube, there do seem to be a fair bit of Ultrasharp's posted with LED backlighting with the black glow. I could really only find one vid showing the 2410's black glow. Tho its hard to see on video how bad it really is.

I bought it from the dell site so returning it is a bit tougher. I'm assuming returning it would be on my dime to ship it which, for the size, will cost a few dollars.

I like that dell sends you a replacement and you can send back the monitor with the dead/stuck pixel in the same box with a provided shipping label.

I'm trying to decide if I send it back, do I want to get a replacement or do I just want a refund? It's not like my other monitor is dead, but I'm not sure I want to take a chance getting another with such bad glow.

 

[johan851]

Got a question for you guys, why is it that the text only looks normal at the 1920x1200 resolution setting? When I try to adjust the resolution down, in order to make the text bigger the text looks fuzzy, especially in outlook mail and desktop icons. right now I am using my old computer with the monitor, the spcs in blue below, with only a DVI connection, could this be the problem?

This is because the monitor has to make rounding errors at resolutions below native. If you tell a monitor that's natively 100x100 (for example) to run at 90x90, it's going to have to spread 90 pixels across 100. That means 11% of the pixels in any direction will be shown as two pixels instead of one, and the rest will be only shown as one.

LCD monitors are meant to be run at native resolution always. The correct way to adjust text size is to change the DPI. In Windows 7, right click on the desktop, go to 'Screen Resolution' (poorly named, because it's much more than that) and click on 'make text and other items larger or smaller'.

 

[Mario1]

I wouldn't tell a difference between a monitor with 2ms and 20ms response time.
Monitors are all the same to me.
No matter how good it is there will always be a good ol' CRT that will be better.

 

[CompuTamer]

Hey, i'm poor. I'm glad to have two matching monitors.

I may pick up an Ultrasharp and an EyeFinity card in the near future though. One can never have too much screen...

 

[techiemon]

This is because the monitor has to make rounding errors at resolutions below native. If you tell a monitor that's natively 100x100 (for example) to run at 90x90, it's going to have to spread 90 pixels across 100. That means 11% of the pixels in any direction will be shown as two pixels instead of one, and the rest will be only shown as one.

LCD monitors are meant to be run at native resolution always. The correct way to adjust text size is to change the DPI. In Windows 7, right click on the desktop, go to 'Screen Resolution' (poorly named, because it's much more than that) and click on 'make text and other items larger or smaller'.

hi Johan, yep, you are right, but the screen resolution on the desktop does not work right, you have to go to personalize and then display, like I wrote above, you can actually change the size up to 125 or 150%, and it works really nice. Directions again are here:

In Windows 7 Ultimate Version
Right Mouse Click ---> Personalize Tab ---> Display (at the bottom of the left hand side menu bar) -----> (new screen appears select medium 125% or larger 150% then click apply. You will need to log off and log back on in order for the settings to take effect. Seems like these are the only options available.

Yea, very few CRT's can produce good image quality. I personally am using a re-branded Sony FW900 display. This is why im getting a U2410, because really anything else, even with LCD's would be a downgrade. The Sony is an awesome display, but it eats alot of power and weighs nearly 100lb's and im still Apartment hopping so its a pain to move.

That said, it is a 23" widescreen, able to go beyond 1920x1200 res and can go 100Htz refresh. So performance wise, its a bit hard to replace.

As per your video card, if i found the right one (here) then its not an S-video port. Its some kind of janky makeup port they crammed in there and use an adapter with just to have the connectivity.

S-video, is not capable of delivering higher resolution images. (i believe it maxes out at 576i)

Seems it is this one, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121021, seems like the same one you found. My new card does not have this round plug anymore, it only has the three you mentioned early. DVI, Displayport and VGA. I think the S-Video port on the old card is for use with a TV, like playing a moving on the pc's CD rom or dvd player and having ti transfered through the GPU to your TV. I don't have the old box and manual handy, but I am guessing that is what it was originally for.

I am curious though, is the higher the refresh frequency better? i.e. 100Mhz refresh is better than 60Mhz refresh? or is it vice versa?

Any reason you are going for the 2410 rather than the 2412? I know the 2410 has more ports, but honestly for the common user I don't think they need more than what this one is already offering.

 

[Lyian]

Seems it is this one, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121021, seems like the same one you found. My new card does not have this round plug anymore, it only has the three you mentioned early. DVI, Displayport and VGA. I think the S-Video port on the old card is for use with a TV, like playing a moving on the pc's CD rom or dvd player and having ti transfered through the GPU to your TV. I don't have the old box and manual handy, but I am guessing that is what it was originally for.

As i said, the round port on that card isnt an S-video. It looks similar until you look at the pin configuration. (S-video has less pins on its connector)

I am curious though, is the higher the refresh frequency better? i.e. 100Mhz refresh is better than 60Mhz refresh? or is it vice versa?

Eh, not really for everyday use. My friend (who had it before me) used the higher refresh rate for 3d (eDimensional) gaming. Now i haven't tried tuning it for the higher refresh-rate, but from my own experiences, it actually made the picture quality a little worse. So its sitting at 60 atm. Ive not been much for 3d gaming myself. But i liked the display because it was a CRT widescreen, and none of the LCD's that look as good (ie Ultrasharps) were in my price range.

Any reason you are going for the 2410 rather than the 2412? I know the 2410 has more ports, but honestly for the common user I don't think they need more than what this one is already offering.

A few reasons. One, the 2410 looks better (albeit slightly) than the 2412. Has less ghosting, has PnP (picture in Picture) so i can use my 2nd computer with it at the same time (instead of switching between them), has both Displayport And HDMI (so i can plug in a blu-ray player directly) and has component (so i can plug in my Nintendo). It also has a SD card-reader so i dont have to purchase one separately.

Those are the main reasons.

 

[techiemon]

PnP sounds very nice!!! Especially at a time like this when I am trying to transfer over from one pc to another, but feel paying the extra 200 bucks for the better monitor is not worth it for once every 3 years, haha. hmmm.. It sounds better, but most of those functions I don't need, so now I know why the 2412 is mostly considered for the consumer market while the 2410 is used for the higher end market. Thanks for the explanation.

 

[Lyian]

PnP sounds very nice!!! Especially at a time like this when I am trying to transfer over from one pc to another, but feel paying the extra 200 bucks for the better monitor is not worth it for once every 3 years, haha. hmmm.. It sounds better, but most of those functions I don't need, so now I know why the 2412 is mostly considered for the consumer market while the 2410 is used for the higher end market. Thanks for the explanation.

Np, and yea, if your not going to use that stuff, then the 2412 is the way to go. Its exactly made for people who dont need that big feature list.

My roommate pawned off our TV so my Wii has been sitting dormant, and for some reason i cannot get it to work with my older TV tuner card, so the the 2410 with its component hookups will work perfectly for it.

I also plan to use my laptop and will be transferring things between it and the PC fairly regularly, and dont have the room to keep it on my desk in front of me, so plugging it into the display is a great alternative. ( i also have a 3rd PC i use as a server.. curious if i can have 3 inputs showing in the PnP at once ) tho the 3rd pc has its own dual display next to me, it would be great if i could eliminate that desk entirely and have everything run off the single display.

If i go for an Eyefinity setup down the road tho, the 2nd and 3rd displays will very likely be 2412's (the two LCD's i have now are utter crap, they work 'ok' checking email and browsing, but for anything graphical they look like ***. but thats what you get when you pay $119 per.. one even came shipped with 2 dead pixels :|)

 

[techiemon]

Then I feel confident I made the right choise for my needs.

What software can be used to test for dead pixels and other problems with this monitor? I still have a week left that I can exchange it if I find nay problems.

 

[MattNo5ss]

I just put in a request for two U2412M monitors at work, so hopefully that gets pushed through quickly. I use the U2410 as my personal monitor at home, so I'll be able to see differences first hand.

 

[Junglebizz]

Just thought I would show some pictures of what my 2312HM looked like.

Here's a shot of the off center IPS Glow:

And here are two pictures of the backlight bleed from normal viewing distance. Notice the white in the bottom right corner.

Lower ISO: http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x236/Sinyk/Computer Related/IMG_2045.jpg

Higher ISO:

I have read many complaints about these monitors having issues with white wash in the bottom right corner. Why the bottom right all the time, I don't know.

If this is what all LED backlit monitors are like, I'm going to be sticking with my old LG until it dies.

I just received my return authorization from Dell.

 

[techiemon]

Did you take these pictures when the monitor was off? I am curious how you took them so I can try to see if I have the same issues or not...

 

[Junglebizz]

Did you take these pictures when the monitor was off? I am curious how you took them so I can try to see if I have the same issues or not...

These are with the monitor on using a completely black screen and taken in a completely dark room.

I used my canon sx210IS on a tripod placed roughly where my head would be if I were sitting behind it. Set the iso to 200 for darker pictures or 400 for lighter ones. if you want, set a timer for a couple seconds so you don't shake the camera when you press the button and cause it to blur (I didn't do this but it's a good idea since the exposure time is so long due to there being almost no light.)

and of course, don't use the flash.

 

[techiemon]

Where did you get the black screen? Just use a paint file with black paint or..? Can you attach the file you used for us to use?

 

[Junglebizz]

Where did you get the black screen? Just use a paint file with black paint or..? Can you attach the file you used for us to use?

I used UDPixel and you can set the screen to a bunch of different colors to help detect stuck pixels. Just set it to black and take pictures!

http://udpix.free.fr/

ps: it's a free download.