The Case of the Moody Monitor
Written: Oct 12 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Two Years Old and Still Works
Cons: Does some really WEIRD things!
The Bottom Line: Save your eyes and save yourself some aggravation, and look for ANY monitor but this one!
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| cypress's Full Review: Hewlett Packard MV 720 17 inch CRT Monitor |
When we bought our Compaq Presario 5716 PC back in October of 2000, we decided to upgrade from the 15-inch to the 17-inch Compaq MV720 monitor with the JBL speakers, especially due to their being a $50 rebate for buying it at the same time as the computer system, if I remember correctly. Unfortunately, this is one of those times that, when trying to get a 'bargain', I got a disappointment along with it.
I'll tell you about the JBL speakers first, because they're basically the best thing about the monitor/speaker set. Though they are not exactly Bose in quality, for the price, they do sound pretty darned good for stock speakers. Both the headphone plug and volume control are on the right speaker.
While I do like them alot, I wish they were a little louder, since I enjoy the occasional head-banger music, and of course, in the case of that type of music, the louder, the better! But my BIGGEST wish is that the speaker wires were made longer, so that I could place them where I REALLY would like them (on the wall!).. but, alas, I'm stuck with having to put them close to the monitor, and the speaker wire length (or lack of it) puts them right against the back 'wall' of my desk. It's hard to enjoy listening to music, actually, because the sound doesn't really resonate well from way back there...and I always seem to hear one side much stronger than the other. It's just hard to really enjoy them unless I hook up the headphones, then it sounds really great. (Now, as to whether that is due to the headphones or the speakers, or a little of both, I don't really know, but I'm sure someone out there in 'epinionland' knows and can tell me!
Now, as far as the monitor itself is concerned - the ONE good thing I CAN say, is that it has never broken YET after 2 years of heavy-duty use. I do like that the control buttons are right there, front-and-center, so you don't have to hunt for them like I've seen on some monitors.
Here are the specs on it, after which you will find my comments on this monitor:
Dimensions (H x W x D)
18.5 in x 16.3 in x 17.5 in (41.8 lbs)/ 47.0 cm x 41.2 cm x 44.5 cm (19.0 kg)
Monitor Type
Colour, multi-frequency
Monitor Chassis
69 kHz digital
Screen size
17 in flat square (43.2 cm)
Viewable Image Area
15.9 in (40.4 cm)
Dot Pitch
0.28 mm dot pitch
Display Resolutions
1280 x 1024 60 Hz (max resolution)
1152 x 864 75 Hz (max flicker-free)
1024 x 768 60, 75 and 85 Hz
800 x 600 60, 75 and 85 Hz
640 x 480 60, 75 and 85 Hz
Text Mode
720 x 400 70 Hz
Digital On-Screen Display
Brightness Adjusts display brightness (white level)
Contrast Adjusts display contrast (black level)
Degauss Demagnetizes screen to reduce colour impurities
Horizontal Position Shifts display right or left
Vertical Position Shifts display up or down
Horizontal Size Increases and decreases display width
Vertical Size Increases and decreases display height
Pincushion Adjusts the concave and convex portion of the picture
Trapezoid Adjusts the top and bottom display widths to make them even
Colour Temperature Adjusts the picture for more vibrant colours
Reset Resets monitor to factory default values
Pin Balance Adjusts each side of Pincushion
Parallelogram Adjusts the tilt of the display sides to the left or the right
Rotation Adjusts the tilt of the display
Exit Exits the OSD menu
JBL Pro Amplified Speakers with Dynamic Bass Response
On/Off volume control
Headphone jack
Power LED
Power Output 3 Watts peak, 2.5 Watts RMS
Frequency Response 80 Hz 18 kHz
Power Adapter 12 volts/1 amp
Horizontal Frequency
30 - 69 kHz
Vertical Frequency
50 - 100 Hz
Universal Power Supply
100 - 120 V, 60 Hz
100 - 240 V, 50 60 Hz
Inrush Current
30 Amps at 120 V
50 Amps at 240 V
Maximum Power Rating
less than 100 Watts
Synch Input
TTL
Signal Cable
15-pin miniature D-sub
Microphone
Integrated Telexฎ microphone
Power Management
Energy Star Compliant
Quick Setup Poster
Graphical
Power Management States
On Green LED colour (less than 100 Watts)
Standby/Suspend Yellow LED colour (less than 15 Watts)
Sleep Amber LED colour (less than 5 Watts)
Model
Part number 341267-001
UPC 743172694850
Compaq Extra Mile Assistance
*Covered by Compaq 1 year Limited Warranty: 1 year parts and labour
*(And my problems, natch, started occurring AFTER the warranty expired!)
I keep my computer and monitor on almost all the time, so I guess you can say I give it a pretty good 'workout'. I never had any trouble at all with it for the first year. But after that first year, it started acting crazy and has never stopped since. Now, I've owned two other monitors in the past, both 15" Packard Bells - and never did I *ever* have a LICK of trouble with them (which is a shock, since both of the PB computers that came with them required multiple part replacements over the 2 years that I owned each of them - but that's another story!) Anyway, with my good experiences with the Packard Bell monitors, I hoped to have the same good luck with this Compaq monitor. I expected to have a trouble-free, good quality monitor, but, that hasn't really been the case with this Compaq MV720.
Not a day goes by that this doesn't happen, and OFTEN: The monitor display will start to jiggle like crazy, for seemingly no reason at all! A picture that shakes like this is VERY distracting, and quite hard on the eyes when you try to read anything. (I can't COUNT the headaches this thing has given me, sometimes to the point that I just said to heck with it and shut the whole thing down.)
Now, I've tried EVERYTHING I can think of to remedy this...turning it off to give it a 'rest' (in case it was overheating or something from being on too long); using the de-magnetize (or is it degauss?) button - as well as every OTHER setting available to me as well that I thought might do something)... but NOTHING I do EVER seems to stop the jittery display! It might do it for five minutes, or two hours - it's never consistent.
Now, I have determined that, when we run our microwave, which is located on the opposite end of the house, it does mess up the picture on the monitor - BUT, as soon as the microwave quits, the interference stops and the monitor goes back to normal! So I don't really THINK it's interference causing the shaking, since it acts totally different for each instance. (Since I am at a loss as to exactly what makes it do this, I'd love it if someone would enlighten me, if they think they know what the cause might be!)
Other than this, though, it still works fine. I just don't like being really into something and having the monitor picture start shaking as if it's suffering from some strange internal earthquake! It's distracting, it's aggravating, and more often than not, it makes me want to give up and just throw the monitor out in the street and be done with it...but, until it truly dies, or I buy another computer, I guess I'm basically stuck with a moody monitor!
If you are on your computer a lot, reading or doing intensive work that require a lot of reading and concentration, then I really can't recommend this monitor to anyone. If it wasn't for that ONE defect, I would be giving this monitor a good rating, but I simply can't do it because of the 'headache factor'. Whatever this problem is, I hope Compaq has fixed this little quirk, whatever it is...but I heartily recommend that you do yourself a favor, and PASS this monitor up, because there has GOT to be something out there better than this...and I hope you find it....but please, don't waste your money on the MV720.
(NOTE: I understand they don't manufacture this monitor anymore - thank goodness for that! But if you have an opportunity to buy one second-hand, I would definitely suggest you NOT buy it, since it might look like it works perfectly fine when you look at it, but, once you bring it home, the earthquake is bound to begin! BEWARE!)
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 450 (1999)
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
cypress
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Location: La.
Reviews written: 63
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
Wife, Mom and believer in the Golden Rule and that honesty is the best policy!
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