Should I buy View Sonic PS790?

[A_BIT]

Hi all,

Were short one monitor at home so I'm thinking seriously about ordering a View Sonic PS790 today! Do any of you have any input good or bad regarding this model?

TIA-



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Anthony

Specs:

• Slot 1 Celeron 400, Asus P2B, 256MB PC-100
• AGP Marvel-TV 8MB
• Turtle Beach Montego PCI sound card (Y connector on audio out per Matrox tech support)
• C: IBM 10.1, 5400, Primary on 1, System, Swap, Software
• D: IBM 13.5, 5400, Primary on 2, Dedicated to video
• E: Memorex 48x CD, Secondary on 1
• F: Yamaha CD-RW 2x2x8, Secondary on 2
• Win98, FAT32 on C: & D:
• MediaStudio Pro 5.2

[kewlcat]

I have a PS970 running on my G400 DualHead 32 MB, before which it was powered by my trusty G200 8MB Mystique. Looks awesome with both boards. Currently using it with my old 15" monitor in DualHead mode, and no probs so far.

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Abit BH6, Celeron 300a@450, G400 32MB DualHead, 128MB RAM, WD26500 6.4GB, SBLive! Value.

[cjyo]

A friend recommended the PS790 to me, so I ordered one last year. The monitor I received had a noticable moire-like pattern (faint wavy lines) at all resolutions and refresh rates (and at all monitor Moire settings), tested on various video cards.

I exchanged it for another PS790 which had the same problem. Then my friend who recommended the monitor went home and looked at his own monitor - It turns out his monitor had the same patterns, but he never noticed them. I guess there was some defect in the short depth manufacturing.

I don't know if the problem has been solved. If you are really sensitive, you might want to reconsider the choice. On the other hand, my friend never noticed the problem until I pointed it out and he is still happy with the performance.

I ended up going with a PT775, which has been wonderful (especially with my G200). Great sharpness and color, with no defects so far(10 months). I wouldn't mind having a 19"er or the same quality though.

Just my two cents...

[A_BIT]

Oops! Too late, I already ordered it.

I was eyeballing these things at Buy.com but they ran out of them before I could order. In the mean time I read a good reveiw on it and someone at work has the same model at home & loves it, but I haven't seen one myself.

Onsale has 'em for $489 US, then there's a $100 manufacturers rebate. $389 for a 19" monitor with very high refresh rates! And the shipping is only $8.99

I appreciate your replies & hope my experience is more like kewlcat's then cjyo's.

Anthony

[MM]

I was planning on getting PS790 but apparently a big percentage of them has geometry problems that you can't fix with the controls. So I went for arguable the best 19" out there instead, Hitachi SuperScan 752. It's awesome. You can actually do usable 1600x1200 cause it can give you 80Hz.

Don't get 753 though as it uses a different chip from 751 and 752 and the image quality is not as high.

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P2c-300a/450, 192MB PC125 SDRAM, Quantum Fireball Plus KA 18.2GB 7200rpm, Panasonic 7502B x4/x8 Ultra SCSI CD-R, Tekram DC-390U2W Ultra2Wide SCSI controller, Diamond MX300 (Vortex2), Creative Labs AWE64 Gold Sound Blaster, A-Trend Voodoo II 12MB, Matrox Millennium G400Max, 19" Hitachi SuperScan 752, Logitech Cordless MouseMan Wheel and some other fancy stuff

[A_BIT]

I thought I would pass this on since other Video editors may be looking for a new monitor...

I received the monitor in less than 2 business days in a perfect, unopened box. There were no visible defects. The plug & play driver Win98 selected didn't produce a good image, but after I installed the Viewsonic driver from the accompanying CD - look out! It looks great

I tried all sorts of stuff at 1280x1024 85hz & 1600x1200 75hz. The images were rock solid, sharp, bright, well saturated and no geometry problems (after fiddling for a while).

Yes, there was some faint moire on the sides, but low-and-behold this beast is quite sensitive to magnetic interference (unlike the Sony 17 that used to occupy it's postion) and I have some Alesis Monitor One studio monitors quite close to the monitor. The moire adjustment on the menu all but completely eliminated the problem. Moving the speakers far enough took care of the moire.

This thing even has BNC connectors and you can switch the input via the front panel controls, so I quess you can connect two devices and select the one you want to watch.

The depth is identical to my 17 incher's

Not too shabby for $389-

Anthony

[A_BIT]

I have found this monitors flaw and I feel that since I submitted such a glowing report on it previously I should let you know in case you are thinking of getting one.

There is a distortion of horizontal lines such that they bow slightly towards the center. There is no distortion at the center, but the further from the center, the more obvious the bowing becomes.

This is perhaps the geometry problem MM was referring to and which others attribute to the short neck design.

-Anthony

[MM]

Yes, this is indeed the distortion I was talking about. It's all over PS790 line - really hard to find one that doesn't have it. My friend had to order 3 in a row before giving up and going for another monitor.

Short neck design has nothing to do with it - it's Viewsonic who screwed up here. Cause my Hitachi 752 is also short necked but there are no geometry issues. But then again, it costs way more, so you get what you pay for.

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P2c-300a/450, 192MB PC125 SDRAM, Quantum Fireball Plus KA 18.2GB 7200rpm, Panasonic 7502B x4/x8 Ultra SCSI CD-R, Tekram DC-390U2W Ultra2Wide SCSI controller, Diamond MX300 (Vortex2), Creative Labs AWE64 Gold Sound Blaster, A-Trend Voodoo II 12MB, Matrox Millennium G400Max, 19" Hitachi SuperScan 752, Logitech Cordless MouseMan Wheel and some other fancy stuff

[MM]

Just a note, Viewsonic produces some of the best monitors. It's only PS790 that has the problem. I myself have 17PS on another PC at home, and at work I've been using the 21" 815 series. They are all very good.

But better stay clear off PS790. They just didn't get this one right.

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P2c-300a/450, 192MB PC125 SDRAM, Quantum Fireball Plus KA 18.2GB 7200rpm, Panasonic 7502B x4/x8 Ultra SCSI CD-R, Tekram DC-390U2W Ultra2Wide SCSI controller, Diamond MX300 (Vortex2), Creative Labs AWE64 Gold Sound Blaster, A-Trend Voodoo II 12MB, Matrox Millennium G400Max, 19" Hitachi SuperScan 752, Logitech Cordless MouseMan Wheel and some other fancy stuff