wow 28'' for 400 not too bad...

anyone heard of this brand before?

Slimeyface said:wow 28'' for 400 not too bad...

anyone heard of this brand before?

Agreed. Thanks to the OP and green.

I see good and less good:

Good:

$380 (+ or -) is more than one hundred dollars less expensive than the same size Viewsonic I had been watching. That rough price is allowing $40 off for the live.com discount plus shipping. I am assuming NO state tax. If you're in one of the few states with tax, it's gonna cost more.

HDMI in tells you this is a more recent design. HDMI is great for stand-alone situations (no computer), including direct drive from a full HD DVD player and possibly also from some gaming consoles (not sure).

I checked and this monitor HAS the essential earphone jack, even though TigerDirect does not mention it. That earphone jack will carry the decoded HDMI sound, and allow you easily to bypass the built-in speakers if you wish, substituting your own. And you probably will wish. This facilitates a "one cable solution", that cable being the HDMI cable which carries both audio and video.

Less good:

It has a one year warranty. There's no sugar coating this. Buy it with the right credit card and you can extend that by a year. You would be NUTS not to do so.

As pointed out by the OP, the contrast ratio is not given. Based on comments posted in the reviews, I have to guess the CR is not that good. This is primarily a factor when viewing movies, not so much for computer use or when gaming. There is no contrast ratio enhancement feature. I could not even ferret out the contrast ratio from the manual, which is somewhat worrisome. The native contrast ratio of a monitor like this should be at least 1000:1.

My take:

If you're a gamer or plan primarily to use this as a large real estate computer monitor, I think this is a great deal.

If you're heavily into movies and are looking for a portable screen, be at least cautious. The HDMI input is great, but the lack of adequate contrast ratio is almost a deal killer, even at this low price.

EDIT

Hey one thing I forgot. I was figuring the live.com discount at $40. But in reality, the discount might be $54. I have seen it happen where live.com computes their percentage on the list price rather than the discounted price. I hope somebody who buys this will post and tell us which way this is going.

Also, if you are going for the live.com discount, be careful not to use PayPal. Just pay with your credit card and you'll be fine.

estpolis said:guardian44 said:Slimeyface said:
HDMI in tells you this is a more recent design. HDMI is great for stand-alone situations (no computer), including direct drive from a full HD DVD player and possibly also from some gaming consoles (not sure).


very possible.

i use a hdmi to dvi cable to connect my xbox360 to my 22" lcd and it works

Agreed. I'm not a gamer so I'm at a real disadvantage writing about this. But any gaming console with HDMI out will be complemented by this monitor. You end up with a "one cable solution" and implement your audio locally at the monitor, or just use the monitor's speakers if you can live with 'em. But there is only just one cable, the HDMI cable, which is very clean and simple.

It's the same situation when using a DVD player with HDMI out - just one cable.

fmodo2001 said:specs from I-Inc

Contrast ratio is 800:1. Thoughts?

I have a Vizio VX32L (32" LCD) with a 1200:1 contrast ratio -- brilliant picture in my opinion (especially for the price). And I think you can get away with lower contrast ratios in smaller screens, correct?

Good work on your part to find that CR!

I have to stand by what I've already written. I was a little worried the CR was not that great.

Repeating, for computer use or for gaming this looks like a winner. For movies, and especially movies with a lot of dark scenes, this monitor might not make you happy.

Any free shipping code to make the deal sweeter?

Pretty horrible reviews on Amazon and TigerDirect. Was seconds away from checking-out with this one.

DrummerJoe said:Pretty horrible reviews on Amazon and TigerDirect. Was seconds away from checking-out with this one.

You'd have to be pretty stupid to jump on this "deal" . The Amazon reviews alone are disturbing to say the least. The top review says the monitor died in 4 months - and the process of dealing with getting warranty service will be a nightmare (they don't pay shipping , and a courier for that size box will be $100) - 7 of 7 people agree with that review.

Run away as fast as you can.

Spend the money and get the Hanns-G that gets good reviews - Link