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Full user review
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2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
2.5 stars
"Didn't live up to my expectations"
Pros: Connectivity, brightness
Cons: Poor refresh rate when using a DVI connector
Summary: I recently purchased a big and beautiful 23" W2306C television from DELL during their 12 days of deals event in March (Canada). I was thrilled I was able to get it for $650 with free shipping.
The unit's specs looked good and the only problem I could find was the lack of support for picture in picture.
I planned to use the W2306C as a monitor for my Dell Dimension 8400 with the bonus of being able to connect my xbox and watch television.
Out of the box I tried connecting the xbox using the component cables. It looked and performed as I expected, very well.
Next I connected my computer's nvidia 6600GT using a DVI-D cable. The first problem was the lack of any windows drivers for the display. The second problem was the picture quality not being up to expectations.
Still images looked good but as soon as there was any motion (moving your mouse or dragging a windows) there was considerable tearing and ghosting.
I did try connecting the computer using a VGA cable but the image didn't display properly (resolution didn't match what was being displayed in the display properties)
After trying everything I could think of I tried the last resort... Dell tech support. All they had me do was perform a factory reset on the monitor and reboot into safe mode to confirm that the display was the problem.
Based on posts in the Dell user forums this is a common issue when the W2306C is connected via a DVI cable. I suspect it has something to do with there being no monitor driver and my video card supporting a resolution a few pixels off the display's actual resolution (width of 1366 vs 1360).
nVidia's drivers do allow you to hack with the supported resolutions but that's too much work and should not be necessary.
Once tech support suggested I try to order a replacement unit I decided to return the unit for a full refund. If it doesn't work out of the box then it obviously hasn't been tested thoroughly enough and I'm not going to waste my time doing their trouble shooting. (I recently spent a few days struggling to get their faulty Dell 350 Bluetooth stack working with ActiveSync and that wasn't going to happen again!)
Since I was going to return the unit I didn't even try to connect the display using coaxil or a high def signal so I can't give an opinion on those features.
The setup menus were laid out well and you were able to change the names of inputs. The only feature I would have liked to have seen was being able to disable inputs. Instead the W2306C lets you cycle through all the inputs or active inputs (which is slow and clunky)
I had high hope for this unit and it's a shame it didn't perform as expected out of the box.
- 1 reply to this review
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This TV is great for HD viewing using Component AV cables and great for the XBOX 360.
