Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP lcd monitor

[ScifiNut]

HELP

Will this LCD panel accept HDTV and display it correctly? if so, what would be the best tuner to go for ? (Sky, NTL or terrestrial) currently with NTL.
LCD Spec is
1920 x 1200 WUXGA
DVI-D with HDCP support
Analogue input
S-video input
Composite input

Any help or advice greatly appreciated.
Thank you

Scifinut

[cerebros]

Originally Posted by ScifiNut

HELP
Will this LCD panel accept HDTV and display it correctly? if so, what would be the best tuner to go for ? (Sky, NTL or terrestrial) currently with NTL.
LCD Spec is
1920 x 1200 WUXGA
DVI-D with HDCP support
Analogue input
S-video input
Composite input
Any help or advice greatly appreciated.
Thank you

Well your options are really only Sky or Telewest, as there's no Freeview HD yet (possibly ever), and AFAIAA, HD over cable is only available in former Telewest areas

[Stephen Neal]

Though if you live in London and have a fast enough PC you could watch the BBC and ITV/C4/Five |Freeview" HD tests using a DVB-T card and a DVI connection. These are only fixed-term trials though - and will end at some point I believe. (ISR that ITV/C4/Five are doing 6 months and the BBC 12 months - though this could be my memory playing tricks, or dodgy information to begin with)

[cerebros]

Originally Posted by Stephen Neal

Though if you live in London and have a fast enough PC you could watch the BBC and ITV/C4/Five |Freeview" HD tests using a DVB-T card and a DVI connection. These are only fixed-term trials though - and will end at some point I believe. (ISR that ITV/C4/Five are doing 6 months and the BBC 12 months - though this could be my memory playing tricks, or dodgy information to begin with)

Yeah, but London is a long way from Swansea (where SciFiNut is from according to their profile)

[rauer]

Can't give you definite answers, but before buying one, really make sure it'll display video signal correctly.

I was very close to buying either this monitor or the BenQ FP241W with an HDMI connector. Both have the 16:10 and not 16:9 aspect ratio. It turned out that BenQ stretches every video signal from the HDMI input to 16:10. There may be a new firmware in Dec or Jan to correct this problem, but that remains to be seen. Some evidence hints the Dell may do the same stretching. Then again, it may not.

Just something to be sure of before hitting the ORDER cion.

[Oldalez]

http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=3425

http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=3041

[ScifiNut]

Thanks for the advice everyone, I'm assuming from the replies that it will accept HDTV (rightly or wrongly?) but can anyone give an AV dummie like me an idea of what kit/cables I'd need please.

Thanks

Scifinut

[chaparral]

Your going to need a scart to Composite cable with the audio phono plugs,
If your NTL box has a s-video output.then use this..

Or maybe a RGB scart to VGA cable may work..(this should give you a much better picture)

You could try one of these.. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SCART-to-VGA-C...QQcmdZViewItem

[ScifiNut]

Hi Chaparral (no pun intended)
thanks for the advice.
The s-video option is out as my set top box (Samsung SMT2100c) only has one scart out, the magic vga box only goes upto 1024 x 768; so that's out as well.
The only viable option it seems is the rgb scart to vga lead but will this setup enable me to view proper (1900 x 1200) HDTV on my monitor ?
Does anyone know of an NTL set top box that has an s-video port?

I digress a little here just to show how thick I am when it comes to AV mysticism,I know absolutely nothing about AV apart from turning on the telly and working the remote. I bought a projector (Phillips LC4345) hoping that would cure all, wrong, so that will be on fleabay soon.
Any help would be greatly appreciated before I spend vast amounts of money and going in ever decreasing circles.

Thanks.

[ScifiNut]

Disaster.
Managed to get a scart to s-video, pugged it into the output scart on set top box and got a picture, whey hay !!!!!!!!!!!!!! not, it was terrible.
I could see little diamond shapes all over the screen and it was flickering / flashing all the time. Tried going from output scart on DVD player via s-video but no picture at all.
Is there a reason why the picture was so terrible? is the screen cr*p.........

[cerebros]

Originally Posted by ScifiNut

Disaster.
Managed to get a scart to s-video, pugged it into the output scart on set top box and got a picture, whey hay !!!!!!!!!!!!!! not, it was terrible.
I could see little diamond shapes all over the screen and it was flickering / flashing all the time. Tried going from output scart on DVD player via s-video but no picture at all.
Is there a reason why the picture was so terrible? is the screen cr*p.........

Has the STB actually been set to output S-Video from that SCART socket? If not that could be the cause

[sinizterguy]

I have a 2407 and a friend has the 2007. Both of them work with our freeview boxes. We use Scart->S-Video adapters and they work fine. On the 2007, the quality is fine. On the 2407, the quality of the freeview is not too good, but OK if you sit away from the screen. At normal computer monitor usage distance, its not nice from the freeview box.

Both our s-video adapters have a switch to select direction of signal (in or out) and had to mess with that a little bit and the aspect ratios on the freeview box itself to get it all displayed correctly.

[Eiffel]

Unless you're using an HTPC, I would not recommend the Dell FPW 2407 as it has some serious flaws.

For signals up to 720p there is really no issue (besides potential colour banding). It is possible to feed the monitor an HDCP compliant signal, and to display a bit perfect, full screen 16:9 or 16:10 image (i.e a distorted picture).

1080i only works with the component inputs, which is not very interesting or future proof (I didn't bother testing this setting, but confirmed that 1080i doesn't work over VGA or DVI).

When fed a 1080p signal, it is unclear if the monitor is still HDCP compliant at this stage (I don't have such a source, but I read that the EDID information tells the source that the maximum supported resolution is 1080i... which is not encouraging with most AV gear, as there is no way to override the monitor information). Worse, there is no way to display a pixel perfect image, as it is stretched to fill the whole panel (16:10)

With an HTPC set to output 1920x1200 at either 50 or 60Hz, the display is pixel perfect and it is possible to let the HTPC show HDTV the way it should be (with a small black bar above and below the picture, or at least one of the two, which is to be expected). I've tried US (ATSC) and Freeview signals with good success.

It seems the BenQ is slightly better (HDCP compliance at 1080p, support for 1080i input, both HDMI and DVI inputs...), but I read that this monitor also stretches HDTV to the wrong 16:10 ratio... which is most disappointing.

Eiffel (owner of said monitor, Rev A03)

[nick8571]

Originally Posted by Eiffel

It seems the BenQ is slightly better (HDCP compliance at 1080p, support for 1080i input, both HDMI and DVI inputs...), but I read that this monitor also stretches HDTV to the wrong 16:10 ratio... which is most disappointing.

Eiffel (owner of said monitor, Rev A03)

I'm afraid that's true, but according to the long thread on the BenQ FP241W at HardForum, BenQ have indicated there will be a firmware fix sometime in December.

When we could expect to see the revised version in the UK is another matter, as even the first release seems to be subject to repeated delays...

[ScifiNut]

Thanks for all the help gentlemen, I now have a better understanding of the type of monitor I have, unfortunately I bought it before talking with you guys.
Won't make that mistake again................anyone want a gorgeous 24" monitor or a Phillips lc 4345 projector ?