NEC-Mitsubishi DiamondPro DP2070SB-BK 22" CRT Monitor (Black)

Rating:
Summary: Great Color and Clarity with Images and Type
Review: I chose this monitor to replace a wonderful Sony Trinitron that had experienced a premature death. I would have bought another Sony but word has it that they are getting out of the CRT market. This Mitsubishi was the best monitor for graphic editing I could afford and certainly all that I needed. With the help of Tim Grey's "Color Confidence" and Eye One Match 3 software, I calibrated the color and am now producing perfect prints. You can download a user's guide (do a google search for diamondpro2070sb-usersguide-english) and supportive software (necmitsubishi.com/naviset). Read Nec's advice on cleaning the monitor.

Rating:
Summary: The Very Best CRT on the market
Review: This is the very best CRT monitor you can buy. I watch full length movies and television on it daily and it's absolutely perfect...better than my regular tv! You can make so many adjustments I find it hard to believe that anyone could find fault with this product. I have a ATI 9800 Pro and everything is perfect...no defects whatsoever. No computer display, not even a LCD comes close to this monitor for viewing pleasure. One of the things I love are the Super Bright Modes...there are three levels of brightness making it better than a LCD. All the controls are a finger touch away at the bottom of the display and easy to use. If you don't like that you can download the NaviSet software which is great also. This monitor even has 4 USB connections on the side! The only other CRT that comes close to would be the 21" Sony Artisan and that costs $1795 with a smaller screen! The only downside to this CRT monitor is the size and weight but if you have the space you will be much happier with this monitor than with a flatpanel because in my opinion LCD and flatpanels have limitations relating to viewing angles, etc...which make them not perfected yet. This monitor may be large but it's also large in delivering a perfect picture and for the price (Amazon's price is the best) it's the best value on the market bar none.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This monitor was a huge disappointment. I believe there is either a manufacturing or design defect. To find out why, here's an exceprt from a letter that I sent to NEC-Mitsubishi.

Dear NEC-MITSUBISHI Engineering,

I'm writing you after I spoke with your customer support representatives over the phone, and they recommend me to write you about the issue which I'm going to describe here, because I believe it's a manufacturing defect in all DP2070SB-BK models manufactured in January and February 2004.

So far I have tested two brand new units. The first one I purchased from Amazon.com and it was manufactured in January 2004 (serial # 41101003YA). It had an incurable geometric distortion problem, and therefore I replaced it with another brand new unit from Amazon.com that was manufactured in February 2004 (serial # 42101534YA). The second unit suffers from exactly the same incurable geometric defect.

I have tested the units on different computers that have different video cards manufactured by different companies. The first computer has an NVIDIA Quadro 2 EX chipset and the second one has an NVIDIA GeForce Ultra FX 5700 chipset. I have moved the monitors to different locations, rotated them in all directions relative to the Earth's magnetic field, tried different power outlets, turned off all electrical equipment and lighting, tried different data cables with different thicknesses and qualities, in addition to the cables that come bundled with the units. All of these didn't eliminate the geometric defect.

Also note that I have tried two different DP2060u models on the same computers (the predecessors of the DP2070SB) and both of them don't have the geometric defect of the DP2070SB-BK.

I believe this eliminates the possibility that the defect is connected to my equipment or location.

Basically, both of the DP2070SB-BK units bend the center of horizontal lines downward in the upper half of the screen (the horizontal band around 2.5" to the top and 2.5" to the bottom of the upper aperture grill wire). Horizontal lines curve in the center downward in a flattened U-shape pattern, so if you have a horizontal line in the mentioned band area that extends from the far left to the far right of the screen, and hold a straight ruler against the screen that meets this line at the far left and the far right, you will clearly notice that the horizontal line curves downward in the center, and its distance from the bottom of the ruler at the center (actually about 0.5" to the right the center) is about 2.5 to 3.0 mm. You can also clearly see the curvature if you do the following.

1) Open a window and extend its right and left borders all the way to the left and right of the screen.

2) Open Notepad with a blank white document and maximize it, so that you can clearly see the upper aperture grill wire.

3) Bring the first window to the foreground, so that it's visible against Notepad's white background.

4) Align the top border of the window with the far left and far right of the upper aperture grill wire.

5) You will clearly see that the window border dips in the center about 2.5 to 3.0 mm below the wire.

This test obviously assumes that the aperture wire is perfectly straight, but as I mentioned above, you will also see the same defect if you placed a straight ruler against the screen.

Note that this curvature doesn't happen at the very top of the screen or its lower half. Only in the band around the upper aperture grill wire.

The defect is visible and very annoying to any discriminate graphics or CAD professional. In fact, I can't tolerate it at all!

I have tried every geometric adjustment using both the front buttons and NaviSet. I reset the geometry to the factory default at all applicable resolutions and refresh rates and used the "Auto" function on the recommended resolution and refresh rate (1600x1200@85Hz). Also note that the factory reset brings up an image that is rotated counter-clockwise on both units. This defect seems to be some kind of vertical pincushion pattern (push on the top), and the geometric controls can only adjust horizontal pincushion patterns (push on the sides).

The two units will be returned to you soon from Amazon.com, but I'm sure that all the DP2070SB-BK units manufactured during January and February 2004 (or may be before or after) have the same defect.