HP w2207 22" Widescreen Monitor

No one watches or plays test patterns for hours on end, so we had to move on to some real-world, multimedia performance testing. We downloaded a 1080p video clip from Microsoft's WMV HD Content Showcase site. Scaled to full screen, these clips really showcase the hardware that is processing and displaying the output. Additionally, we watched Frank Miller's '300' on DVD and played through the opening of mission of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl to get an idea of how well the w2207 performed in these scenarios. 

HP w2207: Subjective Tests DVD Playback, Gaming and General Use

HD Video/DVD Playback:

We first viewed Frank Miller's '300' using Cyberlink's PowerDVD 7 with and found that the image was good overall, but noticed that the sharpness that was apparent at lower resolutions was somewhat lessened when viewed full-screen. Colors seemed a bit more subdued as well, although that appears to be more the style of the movie than a shortcoming of the monitor or software.  There are plenty of scenes involving difficult lighting sequences, including the fog of war or clouds that were represnted correctly without any banding or streaking.  We also didn't notice any ghosting during the action scenes due to the quick response time of the w2207.

If we had any concern about the muting of the colors in '300', these were quickly allayed while watching the dolphin scenes from Microsoft's HD Content Showcase.  The screen captures above simply can't convey the feeling of watching it live on the w2207 - it's almost like actually being there, swimming alongside the camera.  Partly great color reproduction and partly a side-effect of the Briteview screen treatment, the blueness of the water ripples and sunlight streams through the water without any artifacting or other undesireable effects.  

Gaming Tests:

Our first step in testing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was to set all the graphical settings to their max settings and then put the in-game resolution to 1680x1085.  To accomplish this, it's necessary to have a video card with enough horsepower to render all of those graphics, and our 7950GT was just barely up to the challenge.  We played through a few screens with brighly lit skies, then a bit more cloudy as if a storm approached, and finally into the darkness of a tunnel.  In each scenario, we didn't notice any ghosting, especially during fast-paced action scenes and enjoyed the crisp graphics and definition - it was quite possible to make out each brick in a wall or each branch in a tree without any blurriness.  Playing games, especially shooters, at widescreen only helped further absorb us into the gameworld by giving us a larger field of vision.

General Usage:

Outside of any specific testing, we were able to sit and use the w2207 for everyday activites, such as writing our notes and surfing the web.  While we found the custom movie setting to be a bit bright for our eyes, using Text or our own customized setting was much more comfortable and didn't cause any undue eyestrain.  The glossy screen made colors much more vibrant and colorful while viewing webpages, although there is an issue with the glossiness allowing a bit of glare from rear-lit sources such as lamps or televisions that are distracting, especially with darker screens.  Scrolling, whether it be in Notepad or Firefox did not cause any motion blur with the text, and we found we had a wide angle to view the screen from without any loss in clarity.