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ViewSonic's VLED221wm has 12000:1 contrast ratio

Published on 10th January 2008 by Tim Smalley

ViewSonic's VLED221wm monitor features a 12,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio and a 118 percent NTSC colour gamut.

ViewSonic has announced its latest LCD monitor, which features all new RGB LED backlighting technology and the result is a claimed dynamic contrast ratio of 12,000:1.

During our chat with the company’s representatives, we were told that ViewSonic is focusing a lot of its efforts this year on colour quality – that’s music to our ears. Thanks to ViewSonic’s new OptiColor technology, the VLED221wm features a 118 percent NTSC colour gamut.

Like most 22 inch displays, ViewSonic’s soon-to-be-released LED-backlit display has a 1680x1050 resolution and this particular display boasts a 5ms response time. What was interesting though was the fact that ViewSonic is using a TN panel in the VLED221wm, which makes the display’s colour reproduction all the more impressive. Even though the display uses LED backlighting, this generation doesn’t use local dimming technology but ViewSonic said that it’s something it is currently researching.

In terms of connectivity, the display features dual analogue and digital connectors, along with integrated stereo speakers – though, going on every monitor we’ve seen with integrated speakers, don’t expect them to be any good. Sadly, one thing that lets the display down is the fact that there is no height adjustment – that’s something we would have liked to see on this display, but unfortunately it appears to only be limited to ViewSonic’s professional monitors.

ViewSonic says the VLED221wm will be available sometime in February at an estimated street price of £499 (inc. VAT). Yes, that’s expensive for a 22 inch widescreen monitor, but don’t forget that this is using LED backlighting technology and compared to other LED-backlit displays we’ve seen, that’s a pretty good price. And looking at the display first hand, the colour quality certainly seemed to live up to ViewSonic’s claims as the colours were vibrant and clear on the source material used for the demonstration.

Would you pay a higher price for a display with super-high colour gamut? Tell us in the forums.

16 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

C-Sniper 10th January 2008, 23:08

wow.... that contrast ratio is INSANE. quite expensive though so i wouldn't buy it until it became cheaper, and with OLED tech. getting cheaper i think this one might be a little late.

DXR_13KE 10th January 2008, 23:19

i am betting on OLED technology... but this one is interesting.... i hope samsung does another 226BW with dynamic contrast like the ones from "bright side" whose lamps turned on and off.

Mister_Tad 11th January 2008, 00:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by C-Sniper
wow.... that contrast ratio is INSANE. quite expensive though so i wouldn't buy it until it became cheaper, and with OLED tech. getting cheaper i think this one might be a little late.

dynamic contrast ratio though, so it means pretty much naff all.

I was getting excited thinking it had individual control of the LEDs, but it doesn't, so how is it really any better than a CCFL display?

Glider 11th January 2008, 00:47

Maybe a bit more even light distribution and less bleeding at the edges?

cpemma 11th January 2008, 00:59

If you use that monitor in normal room lighting the real contrast ratio is going to be well under 50:1

This guy's even more pessimistic;

Quote:

Contrast ratio refers to the ratio of intensities between the most intense (brightest) and least intense (darkest) elements of a scene, an image, or a display. A CRT in an office environment rarely achieves a contrast ratio better than 10 to 1. A ratio of 30:1 is typical of viewing television in a living room. A very good cinema can achieve a contrast ratio of 100:1.

Another good read here.

Quote:

Equally important here is the fact that the eye would not detect a 3 times improvement in contrast performance - rather, the perceived difference in image performance between these two devices is marginal and detectable only if the room is in total darkness.

will. 11th January 2008, 02:09

I read Gizmodo's guide to contrast ratio, and they basically said it was all bullshit now as it's become one of those marketing terms that people love hearing.

chrisb2e9 11th January 2008, 04:22

pretty much, I bought my monitor before all the articles about how to read the specs of monitors came out. I wish I had known more back then so i didn't get stuck with a 6 bit screen. I can really notice the dithering in some games. like crysis.

Awoken 11th January 2008, 06:36

The lack of local dimming is a disappointment as this is the benefit of LEDs from what I can see. Doesn't OLED tech degrade quicker than LCD tech?

Journeyer 11th January 2008, 06:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Awoken
The lack of local dimming is a disappointment as this is the benefit of LEDs from what I can see. Doesn't OLED tech degrade quicker than LCD tech?

Yes. At the time this is true; I don't have any numbers at the moment, but if memory serves me I think the average life expectancy of OLEDs is around the 3 year mark. Not quite sure though, however they do burn out a lot quicker than LCDs for the time being. I'm sure that when OLED technology matures further they will of course also be made more durable.

Just found this by the way;

"Novaled achieved significant improvements for white OLEDs for lighting applications. An efficiency of 35 lm/W and a lifetime of 100,000h were reached at a brightness of 1000 cd/m2."
http://www.oled-info.com/tags/lifetime_0

So, whilst these are primarily designed for illumination, I'm sure the technology can be adapted. Just a matter of time and patience I believe.

Also, whilst this technology certainly is very interesting, and very elegant, I do believe that PHOLEDs show more potential - at least efficiency wise.

:)

talladega 11th January 2008, 07:25

its the blue leds or whatever that have short life. the red and green were fine i think.

Cupboard 11th January 2008, 12:38

I am probably being a bit stupid here, but how can you have more than 100% of a range of colours?
And that is incredibly expensive, I can't see them selling many.

badders 11th January 2008, 15:07

I think in America (NTSC) they only have 12 colours?

Probably makes the advertising stand out more.

Tim S 11th January 2008, 18:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cupboard
I am probably being a bit stupid here, but how can you have more than 100% of a range of colours?
And that is incredibly expensive, I can't see them selling many.

Over time, the monitor dims and what ViewSonic is saying is that the screen will have a full colour gamut for its lifetime.

Corvyne 11th January 2008, 23:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cupboard
I am probably being a bit stupid here, but how can you have more than 100% of a range of colours?
And that is incredibly expensive, I can't see them selling many.

The NTSC colour gamut does not cover the full range of colours of the visible spectrum it just covers a fair chunk of them, therefore it is quite possible to have a gamut of colours larger than NTSC.
Have a look here; http://www.aim-dtp.net/aim/photoshop/v6/color-settings.htm
there are some pretty pictures showing a variety of gamuts and their relationship to the visible spectrum.

Quote:

I was getting excited thinking it had individual control of the LEDs, but it doesn't, so how is it really any better than a CCFL display?

The panel is using RGB LEDs not white ones this means that the LCD panel doesn't have to split the white light into RGB, this give better colour reproduction as pretty much all white light sources are biased towards one colour of the spectrum, i.e. white LEDs are biased towards blue.

Skill3d 14th January 2008, 08:52

Quote:

The panel is using RGB LEDs not white ones this means that the LCD panel doesn't have to split the white light into RGB, this give better colour reproduction as pretty much all white light sources are biased towards one colour of the spectrum, i.e. white LEDs are biased towards blue.

We've got a worked open Samsung LCD backlit tv on my work (which I found out the hard way, by checking the leds from 4 cm and then the thing went on x_x ) and it uses groups of three leds (red blue and green).

user0001 15th January 2008, 02:13

Not understanding this:

Quote:

What was interesting though was the fact that ViewSonic is using a TN panel in the VLED221wm, which makes the displays colour reproduction all the more impressive.

I thought it was commonly acknowledged that TN panels were among the worst in terms of color reproduction.