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Dell 2407WFP

I broke down and bought a Dell 2407WFP monitor on Monday. It arrived this afternoon. I have read plenty of complaints and negative things about this monitor, and while some of them are true, it's still a gorgeous piece of equipment.

I have an A02 revision, which is the version that fixes the color banding and blurry text issues that have been widely reported. I've only been using it for a day, but I have not noticed a hint of banding or blurred text in my daily use. And no dead/stuck pixels to boot!

The problems that do exist are not deal-breakers for me. First, there appears to be a bug in the firmware that makes it impossible to display 1600x1200 mode without stretching to fill the screen. I'm not a PC big game player, and the monitor runs natively at 1920x1200, so I can't imagine this would affect me.

Secondly, the video display using the component inputs is pretty horrid. I hooked up my HD cable box via the component input, and it's ugly. Very ugly. However, I bought this to be a PC monitor using the DVI-D input, so again, I can't imagine this will affect me much, though it would be nice if it gave a nice, crisp image.

Finally, the monitor lacks an HDMI input, and there are conflicting reports as to whether it actually supports a 1080i and/or 1080p source. Again, since it's a PC monitor for me, and I'm not watching DVDs or any other HD content, it doesn't affect my decision.

The picture-in-picture rocks, the brightness is blinding, and overall I'm quite happy. If you're planning on using the display as a PC monitor and you can stay out of 1600x1200 or don't mind the stretching in that one resolution, go buy one.

Published Jul 14 2006, 04:30 AM by Brian Peek
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Comments

 

Dan Potter said:

Hmm.. the link seems busted.
July 14, 2006 12:04 PM
 

Brian Peek said:

Meh.  It worked last night.  New link posted...
July 14, 2006 12:57 PM
 

John Papa said:

I broke down as well and picked up 2 of them for dual use. I agree that watching movies on them is not a big deal for me either. I have a TV for that :)
July 18, 2006 10:30 AM
 

Quinton said:

I'm having trouble with 1080p out of my DVD player displaying anything on the 2407.  480p out of the DVD player works find.

Monitor works great with the computer.

So far I've not found someone at Dell that knows the "secret settings" - or well 'fess us the supported formats are not accurate.

December 12, 2007 4:25 PM

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About Brian Peek

Brian is a Microsoft C# MVP who has been actively developing in .NET since its early betas in 2000, and who has been developing solutions using Microsoft technologies and platforms for even longer. Along with .NET, Brian is particularly skilled in the languages of C, C++ and assembly language for a variety of CPUs. He is also well-versed in a wide variety of technologies including web development, document imaging, GIS, graphics, game development, and hardware interfacing. Brian has a strong background in developing applications for the health-care industry, as well as developing solutions for portable devices, such as tablet PCs and PDAs. Additionally, Brian has co-authored the book "Debugging ASP.NET" published by New Riders, and is currently co-authoring a book titled "10 Coding4Fun Projects with .NET for Programmers, Hobbyists, and Game Developers" to be published by O'Reilly in late 2008. Brian also writes for MSDN's Coding4Fun website, contributing articles on a monthly basis.
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