After checking out epinions.com and reading a few good reviews about it (there were a few bad reviews on it, but I decided to take the risk), I ordered one of the KDS VS-190 monitors. After it arrived, I took it out of the box and noticed the very unique design of the neck of the monitor (the back end of the monitor). Instead of the usual boxed-shaped neck that I have gotten used to seeing, this monitor had a back that curved up to a point. The sides that curved up was completely enclosed, except for a vent about 10" x 4" at the top where both sides met. The first thing I was thinking when I saw this was that this monitor was bound to have heat problems. Anyways, I put the monitor in its place and plugged it in. When I was doing this, I noticed that the VGA plug was not blue-colored, like most monitors found today. It's not a big problem, but should be taken into consideration if your purchasing this for someone who's new to computers and need some help in finding out where to plug it in. Another thing that I noticed when I plugged in the power plug was that the monitor started to make this farting sound that lasted for about 2 seconds. Not a good introduction to the monitor, I must say.

Powering up the computer, I noticed that the monitor needed heavy calibration as the bottom corners were curved in towards the center. So, I went into Windows, which started at a resolution of 1024x758, and also noticed that the bottom corners were curved towards the center with this resolution, along with the usual large, black borders you get with a new, non-calibrated monitor. I also noticed a fair amount of moiré on the Windows desktop even at this low resolution (this resolution is considered low for 19" monitors). This calls for some calibrating!

I can't say that the buttons for the digital on-screen controls were any better. The buttons were way too loose, and jiggled around when I pressed them, which is a sign of poor quality in the monitor. Anyways, I went through the menus, enlarging the picture as much as possible and changing the shape so the picture had nice and straight edges. One nice feature about this monitor is the moiré control (which, as I later found out, the Optiquest and most other monitors found on the market nowadays have also). The main reason I praised this feature on this monitor is because there was more noticeable moiré than average. Fiddling with this control, I managed to get about 98% of the moiré that was originally visible on the desktop to disappear. I finally had a nice and calibrated monitor!

It's time to crank up the resolution to see how much extra desktop space I could get on this sucker. I started with 1280x1024 @ 60Hz and, after I went through the on-screen controls again to make the picture right for this resolution, I noticed that the picture was actually pretty nice. I almost forgot about all the bad things I noticed about this monitor before, when I noticed that the screen was flickering and the picture was skipping around! So much for forgive and forget! After another 5-10 mins. of fiddling around with the on-screen controls again, I found out that the flickering was caused by the moiré control. The higher I set the moiré control, the more flickering would be going on, which meant I either had to live with a lot of moiré or a good picture that flickered a fair amount on the screen. I eventually found a balance between the two, and was once again happy again.

But, like all computer enthusiasts, I was not happy with the "minimum" settings, and cranked up the vertical frequency of the monitor from 60Hz to 85Hz, which is the maximum this monitor is capable of at this resolution. Let me tell you, it was a horrible sight! The picture began to blur up, and I also noticed that there were 2 dark streaks down the left hand side of the monitor. Not pleased with the results, I changed the frequency back down to 75Hz, then 72Hz, then 70Hz, until I reached 60Hz again, which the image looked good again.

So, as the regular Windows desktop picture didn't please me as much as I had expected out of any monitor made these days, I launched a game of Half-Life then Quake III. Let me tell you, gaming on a 19"er is the best! I don't think I can go back to anything smaller than a 19". Coupled with my new TNT2 Ultra card that I got a month ago, running games at 1024x758 never felt so engaging! This was the first time that this KDS monitor actually made me happy, which hints at whom this monitor is only good for: hardcore gamers.

On to: Low-End Solutions