ViewSonic VA2465SMH 24" 1080p LED Monitor HDMI, VGA

I purchased this sight unseen, and solely to give my eyes a break from the much smaller laptop monitor I had been using. Since others have gone into the technical details (which are also amply described on this page), I'll stick to what I love about it and how I am now using it.The main thing was price. At less than a hundred fifty bucks I took a chance. Hooking it up was super simple: a power cord, a VGA connection to my laptop (using the included cable), and screwing in the VESA adapter from my Mount-It! MI-705, 3-Way Adjustable Tilting Desk Mount Bracket took literally ten minutes. This comes with a pedestal base that is more than adequate, but I wanted the mount I mentioned to free up desk real estate as well as to make this monitor a grab-and-go solution for a second use, which I'll get into below.If there is one thing that I do not care for, it's the cramped area for connecting cables. The cable adapters for VGA, HDMI and power are inserted vertically, and the VGA and HDMI connections are closer together than necessary. Since I am connecting and disconnecting cables often this is a peeve, but if you plan to install it and leave it in one spot it's not even an issue.The speakers are not the loudest when you are running sound via the HDMI port, but are more than adequate when you directly connect to the audio in port. This monitor comes with a 3.5mm cable for that purpose.For my laptop (an aging ThinkPad) it is literally plug and play. I have finally migrated from XP to Windows 7 and this monitor's model was immediately recognized.My second use is to press this into service as a large sheet music display. I am mirroring the screen using an EZcast 5GHz Wireless HDMI Streaming Media Player to display MobileSheetsPro Music Reader mirrored from a tablet screen. Since this monitor weighs less than ten pounds it is fairly easy to set up at a gig. As a side note, if you do intend to use this on a gig or as a karaoke display this is an excellent mount: Audio2000'S AST420Y Portable Flat Panel TV/Monitor Stand with Foldable Tripod Legs.Do note that the HDMI port will not power devices. For the EZcast dongle I have to use either a battery backup or a small wall wart (the same kind I charge my phone and tablet with), but that is not an issue either. I figured that for the price some corners had to be cut.Although this is designed to be a desktop monitor I do wish there was a remote option for it. When I am using it to extend my laptop display it's perfect. For the screen mirroring use I mentioned a remote would be helpful.The bottom line is I am thoroughly pleased with this monitor and may, in fact, purchase a second one so I am not swapping my laptop monitor out to take on gigs.

ViewSonic VA2465SMH 24" VA monitorGot this monitor because it is VA panel; general web/PC use and watching movies/video.Watching video on this monitor is a joy. Blacks are black. The contrast creates sense of depth. Foreground separation is very good - as if things were in front of green screen (in a good way). Animated things have a wet quality.I have to relate the viewing pleasure of this monitor to the sonic pleasure of listening to good Sennheiser headphones. There is separation and depth to the picture.Watching something on a TN monitor (my secondary), I feel like I am watching a flat rectangle with a bunch of scratchy colors on it. The same video on this VA monitor - I feel like I'm looking into a diorama, or a 3D museum exhibit. To me, there's a sense of being in that space.I am often surprised how much I appreciate the blacks. You'd never think that blacks can be so beautiful, in the way they say that rests are part of music. Even when I watch 4:3, or letterbox stuff, I get enjoyment from how black the borders are!I am often surprised when I am just watching something, and then out of nowhere I have to tell myself, "wow, this looks amazing".Just like my enjoyment with headphones, its almost 60% content(movie/music)/ 40% gear(headphone/monitor). So you will enjoy watching the capability of the MONITOR almost as much as the content of whatever you're watching.Pro:- VA Panel- Vesa mountCons:- can be a little ghosty at times (with fast motion)- buttons/navigation for settings not the most intuitive.Other:- Bezel is a little thick and round; kind of a 'gummy' appearance, and not very serious/neutral looking.(pictures are comparing this ViewSonic VA2465SMH vs. older Dell TN)

Like many others, it took me some tweaking to get the display to work right. I'm using a Radeon 6870 on 64 bit Windows 7 with AMD's latest drivers, hooked up to my video card via HDMI. For me, when I plugged it in, there was a thick black border around my desktop. Catalyst Control Center, for whatever reason, automatically put some underscan on the monitor. If you're having the same issue as me, to fix it, open Catalyst Control Center and go to My Digital Flat-Panels -> Scaling Options, and from there you can turn the scaling back to what it should be. Don't try to enable the monitor's built in overscan to combat CCC's underscan, or it'll end up making your display look awful. Now that I have the monitor displaying properly, it looks great. If you're having issues, don't give up hope, there is salvation. Also, the ViewSonic drivers didn't do anything for me, and Windows is still just using generic PnP monitor drivers for this monitor.The monitor's menus aren't too difficult to navigate, and I was able to set the color, brightness, contrast, etc. to my liking. There's a pretty decent range of options, so you should be able to make the monitor make you smile. However, about half of the manual image adjust options (like horizontal/vertical position, sharpness) are grayed out for me. These options might only be available if you're using VGA, but I'm not sure. There doesn't seem to be much documentation for this monitor aside from promotional junk. There's no manual for the monitor, only a small quickstart guide. The other amazon reviews were helpful, though. The speakers are on the back of the monitor, so the they blast audio at the wall instead of my head, and it doesn't sound very good. They're tolerable, though, and it's nice that the monitor has speakers in the first place.Overall, happyUPDATE: The speakers on the monitor are practically useless, do not let them influence your buying decision.