HP Flat Panel Monitor L2335

[xortam]

Is anyone familiar with the HP L2335 LCD? Its a 22" 1920x1200 LCD panel with DVI-I, VGA, component, composite, and S-Video inputs. I'm planning on using it for an interim HDTV (waiting on 1080p later this year for the big RPTV) and a computer display. Price is around $1700.

P.S. Here's another spec sheet. It confirms what HP told a caller ... it is a 16 ms response time panel.

Is anyone familiar with the Pixelworks PW172 Graphics Controller on this display?


What 3D card will drive this display nicely at 1920x1200 via DVI-I?

[borat]

that looks like a fantastic monitor from the specs, like you say though, im not sure what mainstream card can drive it DVI-I.

[Kurt]

1700$ is freaking cheap for that screen!

The Parhelia HR256 is what you're looking for to drive your screen.

[xortam]

Originally posted by Kurt
1700$ is freaking cheap for that screen!

The Parhelia HR256 is what you're looking for to drive your screen.

Isn't there anything more capable to drive 3D at 1920x1200 through DVI-I? Doesn't ATI have a card for me?

$1700 is the lowest price and they're starting to jack it up (just started shipping). Its about $1K less than a similar Samsung and LG and apparently uses the latest LG glass. Not a particularly attractive display but its discreteness may turn out to be a real benefit for me. I'll be using it as a interim HDTV in the HT (coffee table) though I still have my 17 y/o 45" Mits CRT RPTV. I'll be buying a 60" 1080p RPTV at the end of the year (if all goes to plan). I'll then use this display as a control panel/secondary screen in the HT. Both this LCD and the 1080p RPTV will show pixel perfect images through DVI for video and computer applications and I'll use a HTPC for HD PVR, 1080p scaled DVD, 1080p WM9, etc. Dual DVI computer monitors ... big time!!! I can also simply move this LCD to the office for my main computer display. The panel pivots and supports a VESA mount so I'll probably throw it on a wall sometime. Looking forward to finally getting into DTV.

[xortam]

Mods ... does this thread belong in the Digital Imaging forum? Not sure what the charter is for that forum.

[az]

Nope

DI is for digital photography, showing off, technical discussion about digicams, etc. - not very busy yet though

AZ

[xortam]

Originally posted by az
Nope

DI is for digital photography, showing off, technical discussion about digicams, etc. - not very busy yet though

AZ

So basically you're limiting it to the capture of digital images.

[xortam]

Went out to Fry's today to look for this monitor. They weren't aware of the model but they do sell a 17" HP LCD. I may just have to buy this on-line if I want it right away.

I guess no one here has heard/read anything about this display.

[Paddy]

sorry mate.

If want me to try it out for you, feel free to drop it over

[schmosef]

I've been more of a lurker than a murcer lately so this is my attempt at being helpful.

Originally posted by Kurt
1700$ is freaking cheap for that screen!

The Parhelia HR256 is what you're looking for to drive your screen.

The monitor in question isn't dual input; as would be intended for the HR256. The last I checked, the HR256 was something like $2,600 USD!

The DVI-I standard confuses me. From the HP manual for this monitor, it says to use the DVI-D to DVI-D cable (supplied) when used in DVI-I mode. I don't understand what the different DVI-* things mean. Matrox's stated highest rez is 1600x1200 for single input applications... Although the page for the HR256 mentions 1920x1200 as a standard LCD resolution. So maybe 1920x1200 is part of the DVI standard but Matrox doesn't support it? I suggest you post a question about compatibility on the Matrox forums (or try to get Haig to answer the question here).

From what I can tell, the ATI website only lists analog modes supported. Maybe if you download an ATI manual it will be more specific. I'll leave that for you to look into xortam. If that fails, try posting a question at Rage3D.com or using the 'contact us' feature of the ATI website to ask them about compatibility. And if you do the ATI direct route, don't be satisfied unless they answer your questions completely. From my personal experience, they'll first try to pass off a link to their product spec pages without even reading your question. Then when you reply that you would like further clarification, they try to stay as ambiguous as possible in their reply. Keep trying until you get the complete answer that you're looking for. I know I wouldn't be happy to spend this kind of money on a new LCD screen and high end video card only to find out that I couldn't use them to their best potential.

Finally, if you cannot get an acceptable answer from ATI, PM me or post in this thread and I'll see what I can do. I'm an HP / Compaq dealer so I can call my dealer relations contact and see if they can find me a compatible card.

Lastly, as far as price goes... None of my distributors have it in stock so my cost price isn't 100% solid but based on the prices I do have, I could definitely sell it for less than the HP.ca list price ($2,299 CDN). They have to sell it higher online otherwise regular dealers like me wouldn't be able to be competitive. In fact, if you buy something from HP.ca (not sure about HP.com) and you provide my dealer # during the online purchase, HP sends me a 4% commission. By now I'm sure that you've figured out that I'm in Canada. Unfortunately, I'm not setup to sell HP to the States so I can't help you directly. I will tell you that my cost is about $2225 CDN and from experience I can say that Canadian prices are always slightly higher than a direct USD conversion should be.

So given what I've told you about my cost and that HP always builds in a 4% commission, you should try to negotiate the price of the monitor to around $1650. It's only 50 bucks difference, by it's better in your pocket than someone else's.

Good luck.

[tangent]
About five years ago, when I first started selling flat panel monitors, I used to only sell models that came with video cards bundled; there were just too many digital standards (and custom proprietary implementations) to be safe buying separately. I remember calling matrox several times and getting really poor advice from their pre-sales team about product compatibility.

Luckily, Haig and his team are much better. Recently, I was able to get an answer on a tech question posted on the matrox forums almost right away. I've been emailing back and forth with ATI for the past 3 weeks with a similar question and I can tell by the quality of the responses I've received that whomever is answering my email know bubkas about graphics cards and is only answering the part of my question that they kind of understand and is completely ignoring the part that they don't. It's mega frustrating because the part that they are ignoring is the important part. Basically, I'm asking them about multi monitor config compatibility and they keep answering that they support my desired config in single monitor mode; completely avoiding my question. We've gone back and forth about 4 times now and I keep having to explain how they are not answering my question and try to restate it in simpler terms. They take days to respond and keep coming back with an ambiguous answer.
[/tangent]

[borat]

According to this,
parhelia will manage that and i quote "with reduced blankings"
whatever that means,

http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/comp_chart/gseries_pseries_parhelia.cfm

[borat]

From a little bit of searching, from my understanding you need a monitor which supports reduced blanking timing through the DVI interface, it has something to do with sacrificing timing information in order to get the resolution data down the DVI channel. Hope this helps.

[Wombat]

DVI is an interface, not much more than a connecctor. Usually when people say DVI they mean DVI-D though. That's the Digital version of the connection. There's also a DVI-A, Analog, though you'll almost never find monitors that support it. I think DVI-I is for Interchangable, like a video card that could output either.

[spadnos]

Originally posted by Wombat
DVI is an interface, not much more than a connecctor. Usually when people say DVI they mean DVI-D though. That's the Digital version of the connection. There's also a DVI-A, Analog, though you'll almost never find monitors that support it. I think DVI-I is for Interchangable, like a video card that could output either.

DVI-I is actually "Integrated". The DVI pinout has pins allocated for both analog and digital signaling. If you get a DVI-D cable, it doesn't have the analog wires. Those are the spade style ones. A DVI-I cable has all pins (including sideband stuff for ID and the like).
There were some NEC CRT monitors that had DVI connectors (Ambix was their trade name), which I think were DVI-A. (and yes, they were pretty rare)

If a video card didn't output both types of signal, there would be no possibility of connecting it to a standard VGA monitor (the adapters wouldn't work).

Here is some info.

- Steve

[xortam]

Thanks for all your help schmosef. I first want to audition this monitor for desktop and video PQ. I went into a local Fry's last night and they only had the pedestrian 17". I'm going to call around to some of the retail stores that the HP site informed me of. I'll start pestering Haig and digging in deeper on the graphics card choices after I get a chance to look at the display. Folks have just gotten this display since the 2nd so there's very little user feedback yet ... but its been very positive. I don't know of anyone that's driving this monitor to its full potential yet. Thanks also for the pricing info but I live in the States (Silicon Valley) so there's apparently little that we can do to help each other there. The HP site stated that I could order it for list and get it w/i nine days. I wonder if I can just head over to HP and buy it at a company store or something. I'll keep the forum posted if I get any more info.