X-bit labs

19" LCD Monitors Roundup. Part VIII. (page 13)

Category: Other

by Aleksey Meyev

[ 10/11/2007 | 09:24 AM ]

The monitor has 90% brightness and 80% contrast by default. To achieve a 100nit white I reduced them both to 57%. The brightness is regulated by backlight modulation at a frequency of 300Hz.

Color gradients are reproduced correctly, without banding. Both darks and lights are reproduced normally at any brightness/contrast combination.

The gamma curves aren’t quite good at the default settings: the blue curve differs from the other two, which are not ideal by themselves.

The lowering of the contrast setting solves the problem somewhat, making the gamma curves look all alike. Unfortunately, their gamma value is lower than necessary, producing a faded image.

The color temperature setup isn’t quite accurate, but acceptable. The temperature dispersion amounts to 1000K in the 6500K and sRGB modes and to 1500K in the User and 9300 modes. Easy to see, the temperature of darker grays is higher, making them characteristically bluish.

The color gamut is standard and does not differ from that of most other monitors we have tested in our labs.

With an average response of 6.9 milliseconds and a maximum of 14.5 milliseconds, the HP LP1965 is one of the fastest monitors with a *VA matrix to ever visit our labs. That’s a superb result proving that *VA matrixes can have a high speed, too.

The Response Time Compensation mechanism not only makes the monitor fast but also has a low error. The error average is a very satisfactory 4.3%. The maximum error amounting to 25% is only observed on transitions from black to dark grays, and you will only notice such errors if you are specifically looking for them. Overall, the RTC mechanism works very well in the HP LP1965.

The monitor’s contrast ratio is acceptable, but rather low in comparison with other *VA matrixes.

So, the HP LP1965 is indeed a superb monitor for office work. Moreover, its fast matrix, good ergonomics with full adjustment options and wide viewing angles you can rarely find among 19” monitors are going to attract those people who need a good home monitor for watching movies and playing games. The single serious drawback of this model – its rather sloppy color reproduction setup – can be corrected by means of a calibrator if you have one.