A/V Gateway 21" Widescreen Flat-Panel LCD Monitor - Help

Hey guys, I recently went to Best Buy and was looking around the PC monitors and came across this in person. I was sooo shocked about its quality and performance, although I didnt have enough time to fully check it out because my friend was walking too fast, I decided to look it up on the internet for more information. The monitor Im talking about is:

Gateway 21" Widescreen Flat-Panel LCD Monitor

The reviews on it from Cnet (4 of them, users) all got 100% positive feedback on it, and it has a 8ms response time. Here is a link to the best buy site for it:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...d=1125466651583

Now, I have a few questions I couldnt get answered on the Gateway site and Best Buy site, because they didnt provide the answer I was looking for. The questions I had are:

I know on the Gateway.com site, it says it has High-Defintion picture quality, but does that mean it is HDTV?

Can someone please explain to me if this monitor will work with an Xbox 360?

On the Gateway site, it says accessories, and I dont know if they come with it, but Im doubting it because it lists prices next to them, but does anyone know if they do?

I need some help on how to make an Xbox 360 look good in HDTV, but isnt HDTV a broadcasting thing or something or is HDTV all about 1080i, 720i digital resolution stuff or something? I dont know much..

In the accessories category in the Gateway site, it has like a tv box thing where you can use the monitor as a tv, but I dont know if it comes with it or I have to buy one seperately or if I can just hook up something?

Also, please put what you think of this monitor.

Thank guys!!

 

Page is unavailable on the BB site. So I'm taking educated guesses for most answers here...

Assuming it's like other 20" WS, it runs at 1680x1050. Which allows for 720p HD content to be viewed. As it doesn't have a tuner in it (let alone an HD tuner), it's not an HDTV, but it's HD-capable. As a 21" it's possible it's high enough resolution for 1080i/p, but not knowing the specs I can't say for sure.

Yes, it should work with the 360. If it has component inputs, which I doubt, then it's really easy. If not, you'd need the VGA adaptor. Which I read has limted outputs, but I don't know much about that.

HDTV just means a video signal with either 720 or 1080 vertical lines of resolution in a 16:9 format, either progressive scan (60hz ntsc) or interlaced (30hz). To my limited X360 knowledge, all games are rendered in at least 720p (1280x720, 60hz) then passed through a scaling chip to either up it to 1080i (1920x1080 30hz) or 480i/p (either 720x480 or 640x480 I'd assume, as there are widescreen SDTVs)

Get a working link and I can say more, but I'd bet that the box you're talking about is an external TV tuner of sorts. I'd have to see it to know whether consoles would hook up easily.


Having said that, Dell definately make the best 20+" WS LCDs (as far as computer displays go anyways). The 24" 2405FPW has every video input you could need (DVI, VGA, Composite, S-video, Component) and accepts 1080i signal from the 360. The 20" 2005FPW that I'm using right now has the same inputs minus component, and thus would either need to hook up to consoles with either a VGA adaptor (a la 360) or S-video (anything else).

 

http://gateway.com/programs/lcd/?cmpid=index*home*products*21LCD*programs/21LCD/index~~shtml

That is the link to the Gateway monitor.

Thanks for the big help, but more would also be appreciated.

Thank you again guys!! Help out more please, lol!!

 

Looks like it does have component-inputs. I have no idea how it scales stuff, but in any case you can set an X360 to 720p output over component and it should look great. Says it's HDCP-ready which is the first display I've ever seen listed as such (though I still think there'll be a rebellion against it). Looks like a decent display and the price seems right. I have no idea about reliability though... the backlight on my gateway laptop has become extremely flaky (though, in their defense, it's fallen off my bunk bed more than once). Decent looking though probably fake carbon fibre trim is a nice touch, like that little strip on the classic Lian Li's probably. Specs look good anyways, in fact if I had found that one on sale for $450 or so I'd have probably taken that over my 2005FPW that I got for $400, mostly for the component input.

It appears that the external TV tuner box is... well... just that. Takes a coax cable with normal TV signal, does the tuning thing, and spits it out over a standard VGA. Effectively a cable box for a monitor.

 

Hows the tv-tuner box listed on the Gateway site for this monitor:

http://accessories.gateway.com/Acce...dy*ED*PROD_DETAILS:ACCESSORY:TV-VIDEO_ADAPTOR

Its about $100, and it has a tuner for tv on it, and I was wondering if it is worth it over my plain 20" flat-screen CRT Tube TV? Should I buy the box and watch tv on my monitor in the corner with the picture-in-picture feature while searching the web or backwards? Does that sound better than a regular flat-screen tube tv?

Is that tv tuner box better than buying a pci tv tuner at around $20-50? I think the $100 price range for the tv tuner box makes it sound better than a cheap pci slot tuner card. Whats your opinions.

Thanks for the opinions and help. Bit-tech fellows are the best.

 

Am I the only one who thinks that having the main DVI input on the side of the monitor, rather than the back, or the stand would make it look rubbish in use? Most monitor leads are big fat heavy things, and you'd have to plug it into the side of the panel itself... that would look truly awful.

 

I dont think you have seen it in person, I went to Best Buy and saw it in person, and within the 5-10 seconds I have seen of it, I hadnt noticed any cables hanging out the side of the monitor, the inputs are on the bottom, just above the edge where you cant see them, and it comes with a cable/zip tie to tie up any loose wires.

Unless someone says otherwise, this is what I truly believe, so I dont think it shows any wires or ports hanging out or such.

I have another question:

For my Xbox, what do I need to buy and use to connect my Xbox with this monitor? Can someone provide a link or explained in details what I need. Because all this component, composite, A/V, VGA box, and all is killing me. Can someone direct me with what is the best option to connect my Xbox to this monitor.

Thank you.

(PS: EDIT: Also, is it worth my time and money to go out an order a DVI cable for this monitor to attach to my DVI port in my video card? Is it worth it over the VGA? Is there a really good brand worth getting? Thanks)

 

If gateway is such a pos company as to not include a DVI cable with a 21" flat panel, then just gloss over this product anyways.

I have no idea what consoles have what standard connections, but here's the gist of it:
Coaxial - what cable TV comes over, combines video and audio signal. Huge bandwidth but limited quality unless you're on one of the digital frequencies
--monitor has these--
composite - yellow RCA, lowest video-only image quality
S-video - black 4-pin, medium video quality
Component - red, green, blue RCA lines, best analog image quality
VGA - 15-pin D-sub, same as component as far as picture quality, but is much more flexible as far as resolutions, etc
DVI - 24(?)-pin usually white connector, digital picture, very sharp
--end monitor has these--
HDMI - no idea on specs, thin rectangular connector, I think it's basically DVI + audio, only found on very very expensive components (plasma screens, top-end high-def-upsampling DVD players, etc)

You will want to use DVI with the computer. Consoles will use any of the first three, I dunno what comes stock with each one but component will give the best video quality. So if the console has native component, use it. If it has something else, try that but know that picture quality should improve by upgrading. It also depends hugely on the upsampling quality of the monitor for any given TV-type input.

Pookey- they show the monitor in the 90* rotated mode (10x16 AR, rather than 16x10) in that pic on the gateway page. When viewed normally, the cables will be out the bottom.

 

I would use the component cable that comes with the standard Xbox 360 pack. As that screen has a 16:9 ratio you can set the Xbox to output in 720p and it will look very nice. That is a resolution of 1280x720.

If you want to try out a DVI cable for your PC then get just get one on ebay for a couple of Dollars. I don't think you will notice much difference between a VGA cable and a DVI cable for that, especially over short distances.

There is loads of info on the net about HDTV standards. http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=hdtv+explained&btnG=Search&meta=

 

Does anyone know if I can use composite (yellow cable) with this monitor to connect my regular Xbox or PS2 to it?

Is there a good brand of DVI cable? What kind of DVI cable am I looking for? DVI to DVI and both males?

Thanks.

 

Yes, you can. But as it'll output in 480p (if that) over a composite yellow cable, the upscaling will make it pretty ugly relative to component. Use S-video if it's available to you, but if not then it'll be fine. I had my playstation (1) hooked up to my 20" WS over S-video and all things considered it was pretty good. I'd test with composite but I can't find that cable.

 

So a component Xbox 1 cable would be alot better than a composite cable? Thanks for all the help guys.

 

Ok guys, never mind all those old questions I had, lol. I have a new one:

Will my eVGA e-Geforce 6600GT AGP 8x video card work with this widescreen LCD just fine? I need to know, bc if it does, and I have good enough resource or tips/opinions, I am seriously going to consider buying this $600+ monitor.

Thanks.

 

Please help me out real fast and answer if the 6600GT will work on this 21" Gateway widescreen monitor. Thanks.

 

YES. IT WILL TAKE PRETTY MUCH EVERY VIDEO INPUT, EVER.

 

IM NOT TALKING ABOUT INPUTS! lol

Im asking if the 6600GT will work in terms of RESOLUTIONS with the monitor, if anyone can help me with that, I'd appreciate it.

 

yes. that's what i meant. it will drive it at that res but don't expect amazing frame rates. fine for older games though. besides you don't have to run it at native for gaming anyway.

 

Should I just upgrade to a 6800 AGP card or save up about $1400 give or take to buy a new 7800gtx, mobo, cpu, psu and this monitor or should I buy this monitor and save up for a $150-300 agp videocard? Decisions decisions, what do you think? I think most likely of going with the 6800 or something equivalent of it.

 

Buying any new card on AGP is a waste of money right now, unless it's a "output only" type of thing, in which case you'd still be better off with just plain PCI, just because new boards still have PCI slots. 6600GT->6800 is almost no performance difference at all, and to 6800GT/U still isn't worth the price.

Any card from the last couple generations should output up to 2048x1526 over VGA, and DVI is very standardized and will be able to put out the required 1680x1050 (though may possibly need a patch of sorts, as it's an obscure resolution, but I didn't anyways). AFAIK the only monitor that requires dual-link DVI is the Apple 30" monster, but in any case any DVI port-toting card will be able to do this resolution.

Framerates will be iffy on a 6600GT for really new games, with HL2 and older/less intense, you should be OK (at least, so went my experience). A decent amount of the new games won't let you (easily) run at the 16:10 widescreem anyways. Of the games I've tested, Source-based games, Far Cry, and UT2004 do, Q4 and FEAR do not (and FC is really just stretched to a degree anyways). In either case, Q4 and FEAR would be utterly unplayable at that resolution on a 6600GT, FEAR on just about any card (however it's strictly 4:3 only). SC:Chaos Theory was iffy as well, it showed up and ran fine at 1680x1050, but reset back to 1280x1024 after every launch.

 

Well, thanks for the great indepth talk Firehed, maybe I shouldve been more clear, lol.

What I meant was like, for internet browsing, photoshop, etc, is the native resolution on the 21" widescreen monitor fine for running on a 6600gt card? And during games, I will run in 800x600 or 1024x768, is that fine for this monitor also?

But my main question is, since Ill be gaming in 800x600 most likely, is this monitor fine in it NATIVE resolution with a 6600gt?

Firehed, if you said yeah, I didnt quite get it, after all, it was a intelligent speech, but you know me, Im dumb, lol. A simple, shorter answer would be best, and I need a honest answer, and make sure I get the details and stuff, lol.

Thanks guys. Please answer these last questions and Ill be on my way to buy a new 21" Gateway Widescreen LCD!!!