Gateway 22" Thoughts
 

I was looking for a budget, all-in-one solution and the comments here about the Gateway 22" monitor, coupled with the fact that it's about the only thing in that range with component inputs... I had to take a look.

I just took my FX-1 to Circuit city and hooked it up to the Gateway (FPD2275W) monitor. Using HDV footage I'm real familiar with, it took about 15 minutes to adjust the monitor to keep the whites from blowing out and still have good blacks. I had to push the contrast and brightness controls to get there, but it looked good once I did, and rechecking with bars, it all worked well.

Just for grins, I then hooked the camera up to a $3,000, 1080p Sony. Minus the size, the difference between the two wasn't nearly as noticeable as I thought it would be. The Gateway isn't perfect but for the money, it seems quite good.

I also have a 40" Sony Bravia 720p set. Naturally I thought I'd buy a 32" Bravia for my editing (I like that 30% wider gamut on the Bravia's). Noticed the gateway's on display and bought the 22" on the spot. Same image for 1/3rd the money, including component with DVI? No brainer.

I've had this for eight months now and I'm happy with it.

I'm going to buy a 24", which can do 1080, which can also be rotated 90 degrees for portrait work, (been getting some jobs that require rotating the panels 90 degress at the shows).

The one thing I noticed with the Gateway is that the viewing angle is very small if you want to see even illumination from top to bottom of screen. I had to tilt top-forward, then it looked good. My Macbook (not Pro) is just as fussy, the Dells seem to have a much wider angle, but at app $300 more, I just can't swing it right now.

i have the gateway and i like it ... i find it very bright ( have to knock down brightness) ... i don't CC on it - go out to sony CRT production monitor for CC ... i bought mine new off ebay- they go from about 199-249 ... some are refurbs - 3month warranty .. others are new with 1 year warranty ..

I have the Gateway FPD2185W which is also a 22" screen at 1680x1050; not sure what is different with this model but from a quick look on the web it appears to be physically the same.

I agree it is very bright when used as a computer monitor (compared to my Apple 24"). At first I was very happy with it, but after a bit of use I realized that I couldn't get it very close to correct calibration when using the component inputs. The image is always too dark, even with brightness turned all the way up. The only way to get it brighter is increasing the contrast, and that causes the highlights to blow out.

Maybe this new model is better? But I spent a lot of time messing around with all the menu options and finally stopped using it with the component inputs. I suppose it could be an issue with my Z1, but I don't have this problem when connecting the camera to an older Samsung LCD via component. Your mileage may vary.

I now use it as a second screen on my computer through the DVI input, and it's pretty good for that. For some reason the menu options seem to offer a greater range of adjustment in DVI mode.