Sony CPD-G520 21" FD Trinitron CRT Monitor

Rating:
Summary: SONY CPD G520 image stability and service commitment lacking
Review: After 3 different units, I have not been able to get one that doesn't have a slight shake. For three months I've sent units back to Sony 4 times, with no satisfaction.

I have three other monitors in the same room, a samsung, a princeton, and a smaller sony, and they are all rock-solid. What does it say about the quality of this...unit if it shakes, sometimes a lot, when these $[money] models from other manufacturers function perfectly.

Sony has told me they are "finished" with me, as it must be my problem, not their equipment. I feel that they should stand behind their stuff, as it didn't work correctly ou of the box. Some were worse than others, and the last one only shakes a little, but still, it's a $[money] piece of equipment!!!

I returned the first unit, one day after I got it, to their local [Boston] repair site, and got back a REFURBISHED unit, which was not only against their own stated policy, but illegal in Massachusetts, and probably other states.

After talking to innumerable people, Scott Lake, the supervisor, decided that Sony was not going to really stand behind their product, and informed me that they would not attempt to find the problem, replace the unit again, or refund my money, as I believe the law in Mass says they have to. I informed him that I was a totally disabled veteran, and this would be a terrible hardship for me, but I was told, basically, to buzz off.

I'm sure that many people are very satisified with SONY stuff, as I was with my GDM 2038...but when you are the unlucky one, you could end up with an eye-bender like this one, and an eye-opening service experience like this one too... almost 3 months of waiting, moving, repacking and reshipping... trying hard to solve the problem, and to be treated like this yeech.... SONY should be ashamed...

When I try to sell it, I'll take a $[money] hit off the top because it is "refurbished" rather than a new replacement.

This is just a word to the wise. The shine is off the SONY star for me.

I think that Small Claims Court is my next stop.

Rating:
Summary: Sweet Monitor
Review: Great Monitor, crystal clear, for drafting / gaming / multi-tasking its a must. Dual input is usefull if you are running two machines, such as a desktop and a server, you can switch back and forth by a simple switch, on the front of the monitor, unlike some other brands.

Rating:
Summary: Sony's 3 year warranty
Review: I have a Sony 21 inch monitor model 500PS. Since the G520 is the best selling 21 incher on Amazon I just wanted to throw in my 2 cents worth.

I have owned my Sony monitor for 2 years and 6 months. I have never had any problems with it then bang, about a week ago I got a blank screen while crusing the net. I took my monitor into a local shop and they called Sony about my monitor. Sony said to ship it to them at my cost which was on a Saturday and Sony fixed my monitor and sent it back (at Sony's cost) the following Saturday.

Sony's 3 year warranty, service and the company that stands behind its products, ROCKS.

Rating:
Summary: The greatest monitor in its price range !
Review: I have had this monitor for two weeks now. My first impression is its ease of setup. I had no sweat adjusting all the setup without even looking at the manual. The "Picture Effect" button on the front menu can help you choose the best display that suits your need. The On-Screen menu is really easy to navigate. I run the resolution at 1280x1024 85Mhz Refresh Rate. Text is crystal clear all the way to 1600x1200. Anything above is starting to degrade but still readable. Playing Quake3 is pretty impressive.

One other plus is that this monitor has 2 inputs so that you can run two systems with only one monitor by switching between each other using monitor's "Input" button.

The only thing that is negative about this monitor is its weight and size. I actually had to pull my desk 10" off the wall so that I can still have space for keyboard and mouse.

Overall, this monitor is the greatest within this price range. I can't think of any other monitor at this price that can compete with G520.

Rating:
Summary: got the shakes
Review: My Sony 520's have the shakes too. I've had four of them in my lab and they're terrible. Text and vertical lines appear to squirm, it is extremely unpleasant. I tried everything to cure the problem, I made sure there were no other electronics near the monitors, downloaded the latest drivers, ran on UPS, moved to another building, nothing worked.

I managed to return two of them before and Sony is working on a pro-rated buyback for me, so that's good. I don't understand how these monitors can have this problem!!! They're all used on brand new computers with four different video cards (the better the card, the worse the problem!). Including GeForce4Ti4600, GeForce4Ti4200 and Radeon9500pro.

I'm going to go to LCD's from now on, or another brand if I want the big screen for much lower price (20" LCD's are still cost prohibative).

Rating:
Summary: A solid performer, but...
Review: This monitor requires a solid graphics card/adapter driving it, and also might need a little tweaking once you get it set up.

When I took my monitor out of the box, the geometry was slightly off (at least I think it's the geometry) - there were some small problems in the upper corners of the image. Admittedly not being very knowledgeable in the area of monitor tweaking, I was still able to virtually eliminate the problem with the basic display menu option parameters.

I also had a problem with my graphics adapter not driving a sufficiently wide or strong horizontal sync signal, which caused the image to be wavy and unstable. I recognize that this is a problem with my graphics adapter, but even Sony admits that this monitor is sensitive to the quality of the sync signal from the graphics adapter (or graphics card). In my case, it was a new machine under warranty, and they are going to replace my graphics adapter. You might not be so lucky.

Otherwise, the quality of the display is excellent. (What else would you expect from a Sony FD Trinitron.) The 3 year warranty from Sony is also a bonus. And except for the few minor issues I had with it, it is a top notch monitor.