WHOAguitarninja
Member
Just got my brand new Dell 2407WFP 24" widescreen monitor in the mail a couple hours ago. Here's a run down of my thoughts so far with pictures to come. I'll split it into PC and X360 thoughts.
PC - I'm running this in VGA mode off a 6600GT right now. Initial thoughts are a bit of a mix. (NOTE: Most of this is due to me receiving a faulty monitor from dell, which will be replaced, more on that in a bit). The sheer amount of space is quite striking coming from a 17 inch 1280x1024 monitor. I sit much farther back from the monitor now (partly due to necessity, as I had to move my keyboard due to the arrangement of my desk), and partly because I don't feel the need to sit super close now.
Heres what I like about the monitor so far.
-Colors and Black levels - The colors are much more vibrant than my old lcd (also a dell), and the monitor really does have pretty damn good blacks. I can make out all the little details in the bushes at dusk in Oblivion while looking into the sun. It's very good for that.
-The Stand- Quite adjustable, rotates on a 30 degree axis, and can be switched between portrait and landscape mode
-The design. It's sleek and stylish.
Here is what I don't like. Most, if not all of these will be fixed when I get the new monitor in with a new firmware.
-Fuzzy text - The text seems to be a bit hazy, as if the pixel phase were set wrong, but it's not. It's subtle but a bit distracting. It's difficult to show in pictures though with my digital camera. UPDATE - This was actually caused by the vga switcher I've been using to switch between PC and 360. It has since been decomissioned and this is no longer an issue.
-Color Banding - Not to bad in VGA mode, apparently it's much worse in DVI mode in the old (ie:my) firmware. Both of these issues are fixed in the newest firmware.
-It's Crooked- The stand holds the monitor SLIGHTLY crooked. I don't notice it unless I look for it, but it definitely is crooked by a bit.
As a X360 display.
This is also mixed...though none of these are really problematic for me for reasons I will explain in a bit.
The Good-
-It's big. I sit about 2 feet away and it really feels monstrous.
-The colors. The colors are deep, rich, and well defined through VGA.
-Image quality is SUPERB through VGA. The monitor is above 1080p(1920x1200), which is above the 360, but it doesn't matter, it looks wonderful. Most games have a very slightly soft look to them which isn't ugly at all.
-It's big. I know I already said this, but the immersion that comes from having this much larger of a screen is really something. Just great.
The Bad- All is not wonderful in 360 land. It has some fairly serious problems which may or may not be fixed with a firmware update.
-Component looks like ass. I'm not gonna beat around the bush...the component in just looks terrible. The colors are WAY oversatured, it's not very clear, it looks muddy, blurry, and unprecise. I plugged in component AFTER vga, and thought I had it set to 480p. I didn't, it was on 1080i. 1080i and 720p both look bad. 480p looks HORRID. I suppose it's a step up from composite, but after seeing how absolutely amazing it looked through VGA, I was simply not expecting component to look THIS much worse.
-Tearing at non filled screens. This could take some explaining. The monitor has 3 display modes for non native resolutions. 1:1, meaning it will center a picture of the exact resolution coming in with no stretching. 4:3 which will stretch an incoming image to fill up as much of the screen as possible without changing the aspect ratio...ie:a 16x9 image will fill up the whole screen except for a small bar on bottom and top, and the last mode is fill, which stretchs the input to fill the screen(duh). 1:1 is okay, but too small for most apps. 4:3 looks GREAT for static pictures, but as soon as things start moving you get a line through the center from some pretty bad tearing. This is extremely unfortunate because it would have been the optimal way to play 360 games to preserve the perfect aspect ratio. The other way is fill, which is what you end up having to do. This MAY change with the new bios but I've heard no word on it from dell.
That being said, the 360 doess offer a 1280x768 display mode which is SO close to the 16x10 aspect ratio of the monitor that I noticed no stretching looking at various circles in games. That's good.
Overall, assuming the blurry text and banding get fixed by the new firmware (giving dell the benefit of the doubt...they seem confident to have fixed the issue), this monitor really is something special so long as you plug your 360 in through VGA.
If you have questions, fire away. I'll be uploading pictures from it shortly.
PC - I'm running this in VGA mode off a 6600GT right now. Initial thoughts are a bit of a mix. (NOTE: Most of this is due to me receiving a faulty monitor from dell, which will be replaced, more on that in a bit). The sheer amount of space is quite striking coming from a 17 inch 1280x1024 monitor. I sit much farther back from the monitor now (partly due to necessity, as I had to move my keyboard due to the arrangement of my desk), and partly because I don't feel the need to sit super close now.
Heres what I like about the monitor so far.
-Colors and Black levels - The colors are much more vibrant than my old lcd (also a dell), and the monitor really does have pretty damn good blacks. I can make out all the little details in the bushes at dusk in Oblivion while looking into the sun. It's very good for that.
-The Stand- Quite adjustable, rotates on a 30 degree axis, and can be switched between portrait and landscape mode
-The design. It's sleek and stylish.
Here is what I don't like. Most, if not all of these will be fixed when I get the new monitor in with a new firmware.
-Fuzzy text - The text seems to be a bit hazy, as if the pixel phase were set wrong, but it's not. It's subtle but a bit distracting. It's difficult to show in pictures though with my digital camera. UPDATE - This was actually caused by the vga switcher I've been using to switch between PC and 360. It has since been decomissioned and this is no longer an issue.
-Color Banding - Not to bad in VGA mode, apparently it's much worse in DVI mode in the old (ie:my) firmware. Both of these issues are fixed in the newest firmware.
-It's Crooked- The stand holds the monitor SLIGHTLY crooked. I don't notice it unless I look for it, but it definitely is crooked by a bit.
As a X360 display.
This is also mixed...though none of these are really problematic for me for reasons I will explain in a bit.
The Good-
-It's big. I sit about 2 feet away and it really feels monstrous.
-The colors. The colors are deep, rich, and well defined through VGA.
-Image quality is SUPERB through VGA. The monitor is above 1080p(1920x1200), which is above the 360, but it doesn't matter, it looks wonderful. Most games have a very slightly soft look to them which isn't ugly at all.
-It's big. I know I already said this, but the immersion that comes from having this much larger of a screen is really something. Just great.
The Bad- All is not wonderful in 360 land. It has some fairly serious problems which may or may not be fixed with a firmware update.
-Component looks like ass. I'm not gonna beat around the bush...the component in just looks terrible. The colors are WAY oversatured, it's not very clear, it looks muddy, blurry, and unprecise. I plugged in component AFTER vga, and thought I had it set to 480p. I didn't, it was on 1080i. 1080i and 720p both look bad. 480p looks HORRID. I suppose it's a step up from composite, but after seeing how absolutely amazing it looked through VGA, I was simply not expecting component to look THIS much worse.
-Tearing at non filled screens. This could take some explaining. The monitor has 3 display modes for non native resolutions. 1:1, meaning it will center a picture of the exact resolution coming in with no stretching. 4:3 which will stretch an incoming image to fill up as much of the screen as possible without changing the aspect ratio...ie:a 16x9 image will fill up the whole screen except for a small bar on bottom and top, and the last mode is fill, which stretchs the input to fill the screen(duh). 1:1 is okay, but too small for most apps. 4:3 looks GREAT for static pictures, but as soon as things start moving you get a line through the center from some pretty bad tearing. This is extremely unfortunate because it would have been the optimal way to play 360 games to preserve the perfect aspect ratio. The other way is fill, which is what you end up having to do. This MAY change with the new bios but I've heard no word on it from dell.
That being said, the 360 doess offer a 1280x768 display mode which is SO close to the 16x10 aspect ratio of the monitor that I noticed no stretching looking at various circles in games. That's good.
Overall, assuming the blurry text and banding get fixed by the new firmware (giving dell the benefit of the doubt...they seem confident to have fixed the issue), this monitor really is something special so long as you plug your 360 in through VGA.
If you have questions, fire away. I'll be uploading pictures from it shortly.
