Ergonomics, color quality

Ergonomics

The VP191b still features the same bezel as the previous generations. It is still as easy to use: the screen is vertically adjustable, and, in pivot mode, it can be turned to another user. Cables are guided from behind and three interfaces are available (two analogical and one DVI) with the change from one to another from the OSD.


As this design has remained identical, it has also tended to age a little. The base could be a little bit slimmer and the cable guide a little more esthetical.
Let’s hope that the V4 will feature a new design…

Conclusion: ergonomics, very good!

Color quality

Like all other VA monitors, the VP191b produces a rather deep black and accurate colors. We say rather because, as you will see later on, we noticed a couple of problems during the video tests.
For now, we are talking of fixed images and in that it is doing just fine. At 6500K the white is at 250 cd/m², the black at 0.35 cd/m² and the contrast ratio is close to 700:1.



>How to interpret the graph?

The X axis is 0 to 100, 0 is black and 100 is white.
When Delta E > 3 the desired colors is noticeably different from the one on the screen.
When 1 < Delta E < 2 colors are accurate. When Delta E < 1, the result is perfect.


At 5000 K, the white is at 201 cd/m², the black at 0.28 cd/m² (contrast ratio = 717:1).


Conclusion: image editing, perfect !

Viewing angles

Like all VA monitors, this monitor’s viewing angles are very wide. For horizontal viewing angles, we feel that the image is perfect up to 100° (50° from the centre of the image) and very good up to 160°. Beyond this range, exterior lights reduce the visibility of the image displayed by reflecting on the panel.


Vertical viewing angles are comparable. The image darkens over 100° but is still completely visible and of good quality until 160°.

Conclusion: very good viewing angles!

Interpolation


We have already seen so many awful results in this test. This one provides better results than average for games and under Windows. But it is still a rough resizing without any particular effect on the image. We can still clearly see scales on the outlines of the objects, and as soon as we leave the native mode, there is a lack of sharpness and accuracy.
You can play with another mode than the 1280x1024 pixels but we don’t advise you to do it.

Conclusion: interpolation perfectible.

Games, video

Games

For once I didn’t want to keep you waiting for the result. You already know that this monitor breaks with the mediocre past of VA panel results as regards games.

However, in the beginning we didn’t have a good feeling about this type of panel. Our money wasn’t on a 8ms VA overdrive panel manufactured by AU Optronics.

This explains why we are so very surprised. Placed in clone mode with the Belinea 10 17 35, one of the monitors on the market with the fastest reaction time, we were really seeking out the tiniest detail to say that the TN was the fastest. This VA is excellent. It is possible to play any FPS, even the fastest ones. We have made so many tests with CRTS and LCDS that we know this scene by heart and we jump all over the place to see if there are any smudges or disturbing blur effect. And lo and behold: there is not a single thing! It isn’t as fast as a CRT monitor but you really need to have a good eye and some training to realize it.

For any other games: World of Warcraft, Sims..., not only will you be impressed by the color quality but also by its contrast (the opposition of colors with the depth of the black).

Conclusion: perfect for games.

Video

Video tests were made with several sequences. There were DVDs and HD WMV scenes (1920 x 1080 pixels) and others in MPEG2. Each time we checked out the pixel reactivity level, and the monitor’s capacity to accurately display colors on wide-scale coloured areas or details.

Our first test was quite scary. The quality of our favourite scene of Matrix was horrible because of a strong twinkling effect. We believe that the Overdrive technology isn’t yet completely controlled, and that this trick also means a reduction in the number of colors displayed. The scene is the one when Trinity is on the phone just in the beginning of the first episode. She is in front of a dark beige wall, a real nightmare for monitors. With this LCD we are in front of a twinkling wall where the color scales are replaced by uniform colored areas. It was disappointing.

The next tests fortunately produced better results, on the same usual level as VA monitors did. Blue color scales are very good, the same goes for the red. Reactivity is still as good as the best TN monitors, and better still, depths of black and wide viewing angles, without the twinkling effect (except for some unusually dark shades). All in all, the videos were very handsome.

Conclusion: video very good.

Conclusion

Conclusion

This monitor and panel are a new step in the LCD History. Like some of those announced in 2001 (and we have to admit that it was ViewSonic), out of the three existing technologies IPS, TN and VA only one will survive, the VA. This test also shows that this technology is now seriously in the lead. Its gap with other technologies is so large that we can’t imagine going back to TN or IPS monitors.

Just as a reminder, TN monitors provide very good reactivity, a little bit better than the VP191b if we compare it to the best monitors (Samsung SM 913N, Hyundaï L90D+...). This reactivity could still be improved by the end of this year with the release of the 6, 5 and 4 ms response time monitors. Although these monitors are faster, they nevertheless suffer from reduced viewing angles and their incapacity to display 16.7 million colors. Do not trust manufacturers’ announcement, a TN isn’t a real 16.7 million colors monitor. All of them use dithering and "only" displays 16.2 millions of colors. The result in movies is a rather strong twinkling effect.

IPS monitors struggled to find their place between the very fast TN and the very wide viewing angles of the VA. IPS monitors were halfway between the two of them, with yet another problem: the lack of depth for blacks. The release of new VA panels like the one in the VP191b is going to be a huge problem. Compared to this new monitor generation, IPS monitors have nothing going for them. Video quality is less good and the reactivity is lower…


Take a look at this manufacture’s dead pixel policy by clicking here!

Epilogue

ViewSonic is successful here with the first VA 8 ms, a response time 3 times faster than that of the previous monitors of this technology. This time it is a matter of "grey to grey" measures and not "white black white" as the ISO norm requests. But, in the end, we don’t care about the method: the most important thing is the result. So that finally the overdrive (included in this monitor) may turn out to be a useful improvement. As far as we are concerned, it is the first time that it really adds something (our previous tests with AU Optronics and Samsung panels had not convinced us at all).

The use of the overdrive isn’t the only explanation for this very good result. ViewSonic, or to be accurate, the panel manufacturer (AU Optronics) has also used low viscosity liquid crystals and thinner cells . According to the manufacturer, these two modifications would have an impact on the response time but also on pixel reactivity. (see our call in the bottom of the page here).

Finally, as we have said all along in this article, this monitor is great but that is mainly due to its panel. It hasn’t been produced by ViewSonic, but by AU Optronics, one of the three major LCD manufacturers to the world. For now, this product seems to be exclusively for ViewSonic, but we have already heard about products to come in the next two months with the same components.