Customer Reviews

shark shk840 8 inch Desktop TFT LCD Monitor w Touch Screen + VGA

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

 

 

I purchased this LCD monitor as part of upgrading the sound system for my Church. The monitor will be used at the podium, so that our Pastor can see what slides are being displayed.

At first I was put off by the touch-screen features, thinking that this was going to overcomplicate the installation. But, once I learned that we could control the remote PC from the touchscreen, and that anyone speaking could easily advance their own slides, I took a greater liking to it.

The resolution is OK. For the money, it's actually fine. Reviewing slides/pictures, the screen looks great. But in testing, as I look over to the right on my normal LCD montitor, I see that it's not as sharp. Then again, I'm comparing a 16-inch LCD to an 8-inch, and of course, the smaller monitor can't compare.

The stand is quite functional, adjustable, and sturdy, and I don't anticipate any problems mounting it to the podium, as it's pre-drilled for two screws.

I followed the directions for installing the touchscreen drivers and rebooted as directed. Being my first time with a touchscreen, I was a bit anxious, but it worked out fine - almost automatically.

Even without the 4-point calibration the touchscreen worked fine. With the included stylus, I was able to navigate through my email, open/close files and back up slides in PowerPoint, with no troubles. I performed the 4-point calibration, in some 5-seconds, but didn't really notice any improvement over the as-shipped calibration; that is, there didn't seem to be any issue from the start.

The panel has a small speaker, the "beeps" every time you activate the touch panel, but you can mute that under the settings quite easily.

At first I didn't like the VGA and USB cables being hard-wired into the bottom of the panel, but the USB cable is adequately long and the package comes with a VGA extension cable.

The AC adaptor works fine, and its cord is about 30-inches long or so; therefore, I may need a small extension to make it to an outlet at the floor, but that's an inexpensive add-on.

Separately I purchased USB/RJ45 (no driver required) extension adaptors, and will have this touch screen run a remote PC that's app. 130-feet away (by a Cat5e Ethernet cable).

In all, when shopping for this I found some that were in the $300+ range. This one seemed very reasonable, and functional for my specific application.

I bought this as a second monitor for my home flight simulator setup. I needed a smaller monitor (8 to 12 inches) that would fit in my setup to be used for displaying a simulated Garmin aviation GPS unit. I did some research and found that this was the only affordable monitor in this size range. It also had touch-screen which I thought would be cool if I could get it to work. So, I went ahead and ordered the Shark 8" SHK840 from [...] via Amazon.

I was pleasantly surprised to receive the unit the very next day. I did pay for expedited shipping, but I live 45 minutes away from the Canadian border in New York and gooddeals18 is in NYC. So far so good. I wasn't able to set up the monitor until a few days later. The unit looked good and the stand was good enough for my application. I was able to get the monitor to function right away with the included VGA and power cables. The quality of the image was not bad considering I had paid $138 for the unit itself. Unfortunately, I noticed that there was a vertical row of dead pixels that went from the bottom of the monitor to the center. I spotted another, smaller line to the left of the center. Since I'm really compulsive about the quality and care of my computer equipment, I decided not to remove the protective mylar covering from the screen and to contact gooddeals18 about the dead pixels.

Since the unit was connected, I tried setting up the touch screen using the supplied CD and USB cables. Unfortunately, the CD that came in the box was unlabeled and wouldn't load on my PC (or on another that I tried...it actually couldn't be read by either of the CD/DVD drives I have installed). I wasn't too upset figuring that I felt that the touchscreen would be a luxury, and the monitor itself was a good enough value for my application. I did try to set up the touch screen using the built-in Windows 7 touch utilities, but it didn't work. So, I decided to do a little research on the net and found the website for the LCD manufacturer. I went to [...]and clicked on the Touch Drivers text line. I was presented with a list of operating systems with the latest touch screen drivers. I downloaded and installed the Windows 7 drivers, figured out the touch application, and, presto, the touch screen functions worked perfectly. Okay, now that's cool.

Next, I tried the monitor with Microsoft Flight Simulator FSX. I moved the GPS screen to the Shark 8" monitor and I had a functioning GPS with touch screen controls! It worked perfectly. I just had to contact gooddeals18 and let them know about the defective pixels and request a new monitor. However, I was so impressed with the 8" monitor, that I did some research on the 10" model. I decided to ask gooddeals about swapping out the 8" for the 10" and paying the difference.

I sent the gooddeals18.com people a detailed e-mail the next day. Since I was eager to take care of the return as soon as possible, I left a voice mail for them the next afternoon. I immediately received a personal e-mail from them with directions on how to return the defective SHK840. And, after trading a few e-mails with them, I decided to send back the 8" and order the 10" version. I was very pleased with the customer service.

So, if you are looking for an 8" LCD monitor with touch screen capability, this is one you should strongly consider. You should check the monitor carefully when you get it to make sure that it works just right. I say don't remove the mylar screen cover until you check for dead pixels, and if you do find some, just get in touch with the gooddeals18.com people. Also, be sure to go to [...] for the latest drivers (still blown away by how well the touch screen worked). Finally, I would even suggest you look at the 10" monitor because it has more real estate for not much more money. Okay, thanks for reading and good luck.

We purchased this to use as a church pulpit monitor display so the minister/speaker would know what is on the media screens behind them. This is a high quality product with superb resolution. For us, it's been well worth the price.

We purchased both this and the new 10.4 Desktop TFT LCD Monitor w Touch Screen + VGA as we found the value to be excellent. It turns out, the quality is just as good as the price. We appreciate the amplified volume built in that eliminates the need for a separate amplifier. We use this in a product demo and use the larger one in a dual product demo that we sponsor at various events. We need customer interaction and the touch screen enables our customers to pick and choose from the various options without the need to have a keyboard right there. A bonus is that keyboard challenged users have much better access to touch-screen technology. This monitor is extremely accurate to the touch with false positives being virtually non-existent. The screen quality is excellent. The functioning and calibration setup are easy and straightforward.

I ordered this item from Gooddeals 18 and received what appears to be a used item. It will not power on at all.

Other problems: This claims to be built for a car pc but the design is anything but friendly for a flush mount.

Looks like I got the same unit as Peabody. DOA out of the box. Plugged it into wall and nothing. The manual is so poorly translated into English that you might as well not have one. For example: "Don't watch the movie to avoid the traffic accident for being detracted attention when driving." With instructions like that, how could I go wrong! WRONG!