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dreamshark... was my new computer monitor. The Viewsonic lasted 4 years, despite a loose connection somewhere inside that required periodic whacks on the back to get all the pixels firing. But it finally reached the point where I had to whack it every couple of minutes, and even that didn't work every time. So I ordered a nice new Samsung from Amazon. It got great user reviews, so I was hoping for best.
THE LOW POINT
Oh. My. God. I have never in my LIFE had so much trouble installing a monitor! Usually you just plug it in, connect the RGB cable and maybe fiddle with the buttons on the front to center the picture perfectly. This one took over two hours of constant frustration. It came right on when I connected it, but it looked like crap. The picture was washed out and text was almost too blurry to read. The setup instructions were useless and the menu buttons unusually difficult to use. Worst of all, the menu was full of grayed out items, stupid cutesy entries with "Magic" in the title, and Auto settings at multiple menu levels with little indication what they would do. The install disk supposedly had the driver on it, but gave errors when I tried to install the driver. If the promised user manual was on the disk I couldn't find it. I downloaded the driver from the Samsung site, installed, rebooted. No improvement.
I downloaded a little desktop widget called "Magic Tune Premium." (Are you tired of the "Magic" terminology yet? You will be.) Magic Tune does the same thing as the buttons on the monitor, but is way easier to use. The main thing I have set on monitors in the past is Brightness, but that setting was "not available." Instead, I had to make a choice from a menu labeled "Magic Angle" with settings like "Lean Back Mode 1" and "Standing Mode." I went with Standing Mode - just about the brightness and contrast level I like.
But the fuzzy text was intolerable. I tried setting after setting with no improvement. There's an Auto button on the monitor, but all it did was center the picture (something that could not be done using the position controls!) Finally, hidden on a tab called "Option," I found something called MagicWizard. Bingo! I launched that and the screen went crazy for a while - shrinking and expanding, going black and popping back on, and when it was done the picture was PERFECT. So... why didn't the Auto button on the monitor just do that in the first place??!!
THE HIGH POINT
Wow! The picture is perfect! I liked my old Viewsonic, but this is slightly better. Text is the sharpest I have ever seen on a monitor, and my photos look wonderful. I just want to sit and look at the screen.
THE LOW POINT
Oh. My. God. I have never in my LIFE had so much trouble installing a monitor! Usually you just plug it in, connect the RGB cable and maybe fiddle with the buttons on the front to center the picture perfectly. This one took over two hours of constant frustration. It came right on when I connected it, but it looked like crap. The picture was washed out and text was almost too blurry to read. The setup instructions were useless and the menu buttons unusually difficult to use. Worst of all, the menu was full of grayed out items, stupid cutesy entries with "Magic" in the title, and Auto settings at multiple menu levels with little indication what they would do. The install disk supposedly had the driver on it, but gave errors when I tried to install the driver. If the promised user manual was on the disk I couldn't find it. I downloaded the driver from the Samsung site, installed, rebooted. No improvement.
I downloaded a little desktop widget called "Magic Tune Premium." (Are you tired of the "Magic" terminology yet? You will be.) Magic Tune does the same thing as the buttons on the monitor, but is way easier to use. The main thing I have set on monitors in the past is Brightness, but that setting was "not available." Instead, I had to make a choice from a menu labeled "Magic Angle" with settings like "Lean Back Mode 1" and "Standing Mode." I went with Standing Mode - just about the brightness and contrast level I like.
But the fuzzy text was intolerable. I tried setting after setting with no improvement. There's an Auto button on the monitor, but all it did was center the picture (something that could not be done using the position controls!) Finally, hidden on a tab called "Option," I found something called MagicWizard. Bingo! I launched that and the screen went crazy for a while - shrinking and expanding, going black and popping back on, and when it was done the picture was PERFECT. So... why didn't the Auto button on the monitor just do that in the first place??!!
THE HIGH POINT
Wow! The picture is perfect! I liked my old Viewsonic, but this is slightly better. Text is the sharpest I have ever seen on a monitor, and my photos look wonderful. I just want to sit and look at the screen.
