Customer Reviews

Viewsonic VP191B ThinEdge 19" LCD Monitor

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased the Viewsonic 19" ThinEdge as an external monitor for my Toshiba Satellite notebook computer. I do not currently have a digital port on the notebook computer, so I can only provide feedback on the analog video signal. I must say in analog mode that I am very impressed with the vivid colors. The 600:1 contrast ratio really makes a difference as you see contrasts in images that aren't noticable in older monitors. I never expected a monitor to be so great.

The monitor is not the biggest at 19", but the best value as the 20" is significantly higher in price. This is also one of the newest monitors from ViewSonic as it came out onto the market in April 2003, a month earlier than when this review was written.

The only issue so far is that with all notebook computers, the driver installation was not straight forward. I had to set up an additional hardware profile, one for home display and the other for the built in display for mobile use.

This monitor does not come with built in speakers, its functionality is in the monitor itself. You have to buy external speakers, which is probably good as we all complain about the quality of the built in speakers that come with most monitors.

(For some reason this review got put under the VP912b model, so I had to copy and paste it back under this model where it belongs.)

It took a long time for me to overcome my reluctance about spending over five hundred dollars for a monitor when my whole Dell PC cost about the same, but now that I have it I couldn't be any happier.

This Viewsonic is bright and sharp, text very clear, contrast is excellent but gentle on the eyes, photos are vibrant yet detailed.

Best of all, it pivots ninety degrees...allowing me to view entire Web and document pages without having to scroll. Mama mia, this feature is simply PRICELESS! Especially for someone like me who works with text docs, spreadsheets and web pages all the time. It makes me chuckle when I recall the days (just a couple of years ago) when I would've had to shell out well over twelve hundred dollars to get some massive vertical CRT tube to have that capability.

Setup was quick and painless out of the box, though I did have to manually install the monitor drivers---probably a quirk of Windows XP, but the instructions the installer wizard provided were excellent so that was a snap. The Pivot Point software which flips the display image was even easier to install, took all of about 3 minutes.

And look, Ma---no dead pixels either! Probably because of the nice beefy packaging it came in...I noticed during my shopping that the cheaper makes often come in smaller boxes for the same screen size.

Even though this monitor is listed as having only 250 cd/m brightness, one of the first things I did when I installed it was REDUCE the brightness setting, from the default 90% down to just over 30%! Strangely enough, when I was testing out different monitors in stores which also were rated for 250 cd/m (Samsung, Acer, NEC, Sony, Envision, Provision, etc.) the Viewsonic (and it was the lower end VX-910 model) had by far the brightest picture. Which to me suggests that a lot of LCD manfufacturers must be fudging their numbers big time!

I guess what people say about Viewsonics is pretty much dead on: these are beautiful monitors, very easy to use, and they easily blow away higher priced competitors like Sony.

I wasn't planning to buy a new monitor, but my Vivitron21 CRT finally gave out and I had to replace it. Friends who already have LCD monitors swear by them, so I checked around and eventually settled on the VP191B. I've had it about 2 weeks, and it has done everything well so far.

Because I do some editing of home video, I was a little concerned at setup because the monitor pivot software drivers are not Windows certified, at least for XP (the installation instructions tell you to agree to complete the install even if you get a warning saying it may not be safe-I'm docking one star for that). Happily, I have had no problems with Pinnacle Studio or Muvee AutoProducer - previewing and viewing seem to work fine.

One other minor complaint would be that the pivot software seems to slow the response time some when you right click the desktop to see the context menu - the various rotation options are now listed directly in that menu, which is convenient, but it takes a few extra seconds for the pop-up to appear (that doesn't sound like much until you're wondering why the cursor is stuck on the hourglass when it never was before).

Other comments would be in line with previous reviewers - bright clear picture, sweet spot in price vs. monitor size, convenient controls, etc. For viewing web pages and word processing documents, the rotating monitor works great. Of course it doesn't really help when you're editing widescreen video! And it can be confusing to the next person if you leave the monitor rotated - the last rotation setting is retained, but it doesn't take effect immediately at boot-up, so start-up images appear rotated.

Still, these seem like small quibbles with what has otherwise been a satisfying purchase. I would certainly recommend it for the performance and the size convenience if you're in the market for a new monitor and don't want to drop a grand or more on a larger monitor but are willing to spend the extra for the lighter weight and the small form factor.

These are excellent LCD monitors. Excellent picture quality.
I purchased them for use in a two monitor set-up for video editing. The "thin edge" design lends itself well to this configuration. You can really get them nice and close together...giving the set-up more of a seamless look. The monitors are fairly light and take up very little space. Coming from a much larger...and heavier CRT monitor this is a welcome change. Set up is quick with the included software. I did have an issue matching the two monitors...left one seemed sharper and more brilliant than the right...but Amazon quickly sent a replacement. I was very impressed at the customer service in this case.
Be sure to check settings in your video card as this will contain much more user settings than the ViewSonics onscreen display offers. This may help clear any issues for proper set-up.

Boy, does this monitor look good. In comparison to all the other LCDs I've seen, this one ranks at the top. There was no problem with set up or any aspect of operation, all the pixels work (no need for tech support), and the pre-set color temps are probably going to be adequate for all of my needs, so it seems great! The slim bezel, I feel, is a superior look too. I installed it on a win98 machine then upgraded to XP and the cleartype works best. In short, it works as advertised, a quality product.

(...) It is the best looking, clearest and sharpest flat panel I've seen.
My parents do a lot of digital photography and they were amazed at how their photos looked on the new screen.
I like this Viewsonic flat panel so much, I'm going to buy one for myself.

VERY nice monitor, but holy hell the price is WAY, way, way off. ViewSonics NEW VP930b is the upgrade to this model(huge upgrade btw) and its only $250.00-$300.00. Why in gods name is this 3yr. old monitor still going for so much?!?

I own this monitor and the Widescreen 19' that VS also makes, and they are both very good, reliable monitors.
I don't see much difference between the Viewsonic monitors, as they are all of generally very good quality. Compared to the sceptre and HP monitors, I think the V.S. is better. However, it appears the prices have actually gone up on these, so you may do well with another brand.

I work out of my home with my own business so imagine my "surprise" when my former 19 inch flat screen CRT went out on Monday morning. In these last few years I learned the hard way that with computers and add-ons it pays to buy good equipment. I needed a new monitor and FAST! Since I design graphics it had to be good. I ordered this with 24 hour delivery.
It came on time and it worked out of the box in less than 5 min. The color is fantastic...the monitor was expensive but I'm worth it.