Refine search for Displays

  Leave a comment      Email this to a friend TrustedReviews Newsletters

As for the colour specific tests, the colour ramps were smooth and linear too with only a hint of compression at the dim ends of the scales. This just goes to show that it is possible to achieve good results with a 6-bit + 2-bit FRC (Frame Rate Control) panel to dither up to a full colour gamut. Colour purity was also very clean and vibrant although I should add that this particular model showed a three centimetre wide lighter vertical band in the dark screen test. It’s difficult to say what had caused this but I would attribute it to being an anomaly in this specific unit as it was not apparent in another I had a look at.

The only real difference when using an analogue signal and a digital one was of overall luminance and a cleaner picture, with the digital signal over DVI giving that extra bit of punch. In both cases I was impressed with the image quality results, but in order to get the optimum quality I’d recommend using the DVI interface, if your graphics card supports one.

In addition, our test photos looked well-balanced and natural, and those notoriously difficult skin tones were rendered well. However, I would reiterate here that a certain amount of colour, brightness and contrast tweaking was needed to get the balance right. In this respect the VP171b is rather like a motor engine - finely tune it and it will deliver the goods.

Now despite my introduction the 8ms response time was a feature that I couldn’t help but try to assess. For this I fired up Displaymate’s motion script on our test PC that features a Matrox Millenium G550 graphics card and Windows 98SE – yes I did say 98SE but both of these are needed for the motion engine to work properly. Briefly, this works by moving all of the programs test patterns in a perfectly smooth and uniform motion over the full screen at the full video frame rate without any jumps, skips or stops. For comparison, I also hooked this setup to a 16ms monitor and looked for signs of any motion smearing. The result was not one of a conclusive difference between the monitors, but it was interesting to note that I could pick out more smearing on test screens where a grey area was surrounded by black in comparison to a white area surrounded by black. This would indicate that the response time is slower when the pixels are twisting from a grey shade to black as opposed to white to black. In our real world tests, however, our test DVD's (Kill Bill 2) action sequences looked very smooth, whereas I couldn’t really notice any problems with frenzied gameplay.

During use there was one other point that shouldn’t go unmentioned and that’s the viewing angles. These are relatively narrow and although the stated horizontal viewing angles cover an arc of 140 degrees before the contrast and brightness drop off, the up and down viewing angles are even narrower. In fact, the vertical viewing angles are narrow enough that when you pivot the screen for a portrait mode the screen can be seen to darken a little on the right (or the top portion of the screen in the standard landscape orientation). In this portrait mode, it only takes a small shift of your head to the left before you notice the fall in illumination down the right.

So in essence, I’d ask myself whether or not the response time of an LCD is as big an issue as many would like to have you think, especially when it’s so dependant on how it’s measured. Of course, this is a factor that plagues LCD technology especially when compared to the trusty ol’ CRT, but if you’re looking for a good all-round LCD I’d place more emphasis on colour accuracy, smooth illumination, functionality and of course price. In the VP171b’s case, it gets most of those spot on, with the only real negatives being the narrow viewing angles and the extra out-of-the-box fine-tuning.

Verdict

The VP171b's overall image quality is very good, but you’ll have to spend a little time getting it to that point. As for that fast response time, I’m sure it’ll please a number of potential users, but as a display for general use whether it be at home or in the office, the added bonus of good connectivity, a lovely design and a decent price tag should see it gain a wider following.

Add your comment