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Cornea MP704 17" LCD Screen |
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Specifications and Usage
Nothing special with the connection to the video card, just a standard VGA connection and we're ready to power up. But before we do that lets look at the specs:
Cornea MP704 17" LCD- Display Colours: 16.7 million
- Contrast Ratio: 400:1
- Brightness: 250cd/m2
- Response times: 25ms rise/fall (15ms rise, 10ms fall)
- Recommended Res: 1280x1024 @ 75Hz
- Refresh options: 75Hz and 60Hz
- Warranty: 3 year parts, 3 year labour, 3 years backlight.
The specs are identical to the more expensive Samsung 171N (350:1 contrast though). Its also the same specs as the Sony SMDS71 (also 350:1 contrast) though the MP704 is around $600 cheaper.
The screen will be connected to an Intel P4 2GHz system & Gainward GF4 4200 card running on Windows XP using nVidia drivers 40.72. Booting the PC, Windows detects the screen as a Plug & Play Monitor and totally screws the resolution up. A quick adjustment to 1280x1024@75z, and I'm shocked to see a totally blurry picture. After a quick look at the flimsy manual I notice that if I change resolutions I need to press the 'Auto' button located on the front. A quick flick and it's perfect.
Checking the CD I can find drivers for Windows 98 but no other Operating Systems. The very small manual says that Windows 2000 and XP dont require dedicated drivers. I could always force it to use the 98 ones but I'd rather play tennis with Nitro Glycerine.
Visual Tests
Monitors are hard to test. It's 90% personal preference, but in the attempt to give real test results I'm using the Nokia Monitor Testing software.
Basically all I can say is each test appears to be perfect. I did notice a refresh line going through the picture when looking at a totally red screen. This was corrected by dropping the brightness down, which was set to 100%. I found 50% brightness and contrast to be the best setting. I did also find one dead pixel on the screen when doing the red test. It sits almost in the middle around 3 lines from the bottom. It’s completely dead and I'm lucky enough not to see it unless I go looking for it.
Nokia tests aside, boy LCD looks nice. There's something about them that make the colours so bright, crisp and fresh. Not even a high quality Sony CRT can compete with a budget LCD display IMHO.
Now on to the the real tests! Counter Strike and Q3 Arena. Please understand that I'm only able to provide my personal feedback here.
Before I do this I launch NVRefreshFix and change the default refresh values for all colour levels over to 75Hz to match the LCD's abilities. After a quick reboot I kick in Counter Strike and change the default resolution over to 1280x960 (HL doesn't support 1280x1024) which doesn't match the native resolution of the screen but never the less I fire it up.
I jump into spectator mode and look around at the other players. Amazing! In de_dust I can see clearly below the underpass with great definition of sniping players waiting for runners. If I turn the brightness up to 100% again I can see perfectly in all dark corners of the map. The muzzle flash from the guns looks great and I'm not seeing any tearing here at all. Time to jump in and see for myself. Quick movements produce only the slightest blurring. My refresh rate is dictating the FPS, which is a solid 75 due to vsync being on. Running around on de_dust I can see everything clearly and I'm not getting any ghosting or tearing at all in normal play.
Q3a give the same results. Q3 being a very fast paced game I can see a little more ghosting then CS but nothing that I'm worried about. In fact after a while I don't see it at all, and it almost looks normal, like a little blurring you'd expect to see. The colours in Q3a are amazing and the LCD really does show them off.
DVD's are as expected, awesome. The Matrix probably isn't the best to use for visual clarity due to its normally grainy look but never the less it looks very impressive. The Rock and Black Hawk Down also impress my. The desktop size is just right for my liking. I have a DVD playing in one corner while mIRC sits happily below, the Width is excellent too.
If I take Photoshop and draw a perfect circle I don't see any distorting or ovaling if there is such a word. Even with a dot in the center it looks perfectly round.
Conclusions:
For $1,045 including shipping I'm completely impressed with Cornea's MP704 17" LCD display. LCD's are coming down in price. It must be noted that this $999 price tag was a special deal offered to the public by Computer Disposals (whom I am in no way associated with) so it may be a few more months yet until we see prices drop below $1,000 but they are getting there.
Its light, bright and has a quick refresh for those First Person Shooter people. After a few days of use I can't flaw the actual display at all. It's a shame that you cant adjust the hight of the stand or rotate it at all but that doesn't really cause concern. It does have a limited vertical display angle but horizontal is rather good. Its not so large that you when you focus of the top of the screen you need to lower your head to see the bottom, what I mean here is that it doesn't look washed out when you sit a little too high or low.
Pros:- Quick response time.
- Perfect display picture, bright colours and crisp display.
- W*nk factor (I need that to help me in other areas).
Cons:- Limited vertical viewing angle but nothing that affects you in a normal sitting position.
- Limited base movement.
- Too bright out of the box, contrast and brightness needed to be dropped by 50%.
Arie "Roscoe" Upton
roscoe[at]sanctuarie.org
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