$1230 Dell 1900FP LCD gamble

[Patrick2]

I've been shopping around for an LCD monitor recently and though I found that I liked the Sony M81 (18") based on how it looked at Frye's (primarily the clarity of text), I wanted something bigger. The Dell 1900FP (19") has good specs, 500:1 contrast, 250 CD/m^2 brightness, and 75Hz @ 1280X1024 native resolution, but I have never LOOKED at one, so this is a calculated gamble with a 15% restocking fee ($165) if I should decide to return it.

It comes with both an analog and DVI port with a button to select input. Since I have three computers with a KVM switch, having two inputs was a nice thing. I plan on driving it with a DVI capable graphics card from my primary system and using the analog port for the KVM switch to drive it analog with my other systems.

Anybody else have one of these (or the Dell 200FP) and if so, how do you like it?

[Patrick2]

The Dell 1900FP came in. I'm driving it with a Matrix G550 with DVI. The monitor is very bright, more so than any monitor I viewed in Fry's Electronics. I do have some minor complaints. The text is not as clear and sharp as the Sony MD81 (18") I looked at in Fry's. I do a lot of script editing and text is way more important to me than graphics. The contrast control does not work. I can adjust only the brightness. They seem to have wired the contrast control button to the brightness control. I'll keep it rather than pay a 15% re-stocking fee, but if it cost me nothing other than shipping to return it, I'd take it back.

One other thing I'd like to have is a color calibration kit. The color is obviously different than my 19" CRT. There are color controls, but I think it'll be pretty tough to dial it in without a calibration card. I do occassionaly create some simple web graphic images, but since I seldom do that, the color calibration isn't really very important to me.

[Rick]

If the Contrast Control doesn’t work.
It should be returned as a Defective product shouldn’t it?
With No restock fee. Just the RMA.

That LCD should have a color profile (icm or icc) file to adjust for variations in output
Also the G550 can load and use it.