ViewSonic VX2245wm 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor with Integrated iPod Dock

Comment: I absolutely love this monitor! It has a beautiful and bright screen and I love the SD card readers! The USB ports are useful for flash drives stuff like that.

Comment: I called ViewSonic prior to purchasing this monitor. I wanted to be able to dock my iPod and play/view the movies or videos from the iPod right there on the monitor. When I talked to ViewSonic's sales people they said it would work that way. I went ahead and purchased the monitor and Nope. Doesn't work. I called ViewSonic back and talked to tech support and they could not find any information stating that the monitor would display the video or movies from the ipod being docked. VERY DISAPPOINTING. Sales should learn their products! The monitor itself is typical ViewSonic excellence ~perfect in every way~ however; the iPod dock is just that...a simple dock ~ built in. That's it. Probably not worth the extra money it costs but it's nice anyway. Speaker quality is horrible as to be expected for a built in to the monitor type speaker. It works okay for skype and video conferencing but don't try to appreciate Chopin's Nocturnes with these speakers!

Comment: The first impression after you buy a VX2245 is that this thing is really BIG and comes in a huge box. Upon opening the box you discover two big pieces of styrofoam protecting the display and around them are ALL the cables you need, even the USB one. The booklet with the software CD was not mounted anywhere inside the box and "flew" around free. This is not a big problem because after you remove the styrofoam you discover a rather thick plastic bag protecting the display and on top of that a thick transparent piece of plastic attached with tape on the front of the monitor. This bag doubles as a free monitor cover for those who plan to buy one. So, save your money folks.

The monitor is covered with thin pieces of plastic EVERYWHERE and you have to remove each and every one carefully. I do believe that the plastic has been applied by hand (that's a good thing) and it is required in order to protect the beautiful black piano finish of this monitor. After you position the monitor on the desk of your choice you will notice a couple of things. First it's BIG (did I mention this before?) and second it is of high design quality. But if you have carpet in the house all the little particles that fly around will stick to the base of it due to static electricity. You can clean it with a brush, so keep this in mind if you plan to buy the VX. You can also tilt the display to fit your needs but don't expect more than 5 degrees down and 20 degrees up.

The rear cover is NOT there and it should be because the wiring looks ugly. The main reason of its absence is air circulation. The VX2245 has grills on the top and bottom that allow air to circulate and cool the display. Viewsonic could mount a cover with grills on the rear though without adding a lot to the total cost. They should also make the wire hooks stronger since they look as if they could break easily.

The top right corner feels very warm (but not hot) after a short period of use and this may be because the inverter is located in that area. The VX needs at least 62W of power to operate but this is not much compared to older and smaller LCD monitors.

In my case I used a Powermac MDD G4 with original video card and DVI connection. At the same time I had attached a second smaller 15-inch LCD monitor to the card. Upon powering up the VX2245 I noticed some noise on the screen (some pixels were flickering). I disconnected the small monitor, rebooted and everything was fine. Since I was planning to remove the small monitor anyway this was not an issue.

The issue was the color of the VX compared to the 19-inch Samsung 930B that it replaced. The Samsung had more vivid colors, especially yellow. I had to re-work with all of my original background pictures in order to make them approach the quality of the Samsung. Now everything looks better but the quality of the colors is still not there 100%. Maybe 95% and I'll see what I can do about this. The CD includes a profile for Macintosh but only for OS9 not OSX. You can work around this by using the "monitors" control panel provided by Apple with your original software but OSX did not reach the picture quality I was able to achieve with OS9. Some tweaking with the "more options" of the "Dsiplays" control panel in OSX fixed the problem. PC users receive all the required software on the CD or can download it from Viewsonic's web site. Aside from this the picture is excellent. Fast response, no ghosts, no nothing. I don't play video games but gamers would love this monitor.

Another issue is the sound system. It makes noises at very high volumes, can be adjusted ONLY through the menu and in general its quality is rather cheap. The volume dial controls the woofer, not the main speakers. I still use the external speakers I had because I can adjust how far from each other they can be for better sound quality.

There were no problems with the USB hub and card reader. No software was required either. This feature was actually one of the main reasons I decided to buy the monitor. ALL-IN-ONE saves space, cabling and it is neat. One thing to remember is that the base has its own power button that has nothing to do with the LCD power button. The LCD power button turns red when the monitor sleeps and blue when it works. Nice little blue light.

You do get 4 adapters to fit every iPod model on this monitor. I am using the one for the 30GB Classic model and it works fine. The sound comes from the main computer speakers, not the monitor speakers. That does make me happy since the quality of the speakers of this monitor is cheap anyway.

In conclusion I am happy with it. After rebates and including shipping the cost to me comes down to $328. You cannot argue with this for a 22-inch LCD that has the looks of the VX2245, can you?

After a year of no problems I have noticed some noise coming from the inverter in the last couple of weeks. It's there but not always. It could be harmonics in the power grid but I am not sure 100% about it. Still looks and works great though.

Comment: "I wil never come back to buy in SKY BOX-USA.It has been my worst experience in Amazon.com. The company sent me a refurbished monitor and the page didn't say that no was new.They sent me the monitor in a package which was not the original, and it came with a broken corner.SKY BOX didn't want to pay for the returning,so i had to buy another one.BE CAREFUL BUYING TO SKY-BOX, THEY'RE CHEATERS."

Comment: Everything's great... A great buy for only $180.
Ipod dock w/ mic a bonus.
Speakers are OK. Subwoofer is OK too.
Huge 22" LCD
NO dead pixels