Proview PL766s 17in. Flat Screen

* Intro
* Reason For Purchase
* Exterior Appearance
* Functionality
* Graphics
* Sound
* Conclusion

First off I have to say I'm glad to be back! I've missed the Epinions community! I have been gone for a long time but I'm back and I'm going to try my best to stay at it this time!

* Intro

Well, ill start off by letting you know that Proview isn't some small backyard manufacturer. They are located in the city of Garden Grove, California and are a subsidiary of Proview International Holdings Limited, a publicly held corporation with headquarters in Hong Kong. The company is among the top five largest computer monitor manufacturers in the world in terms of total production capacity. Proview offers a complete line of 14 to 21 inch cathode ray tube (CRT) and liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors. With service centers located in the City of Garden Grove, California, and Houston, Texas, you can buy a Proview Monitor through retail stores nationwide! Resellers, schools and even government agencies can purchase in volume through Proview authorized distributors!

* Reason For Purchase

Well, it all started out with me being fedup with "Box Built" or "Mainline Production PC's". I just couldn't get the performance or reliability I was looking for from any "Mainline Production PC". I wanted a computer that I could TRULY upgrade! Not like the ones you buy at Circuit City or Best Buy. Those sound great until you really try to do more than put RAM in them. You cant overclock, you cant run very many processors, you really cant even upgrade cooling! So I just said "scrap it" and started from scratch. I spent months looking for a good looking case, then deciding on hardware. Well, I knew I wanted a flatscreen but I was on a budget. So I went looking online for quality flatscreen monitors. When I first saw Proview I was skeptical because of the lower price than all the other manufacturers. Well, after much deliberation I decided I would buy it. That was a decision I have not once regretted in my 4 months of being the proud owner of a Proview Flatscreen!

* Exterior Appearance

This has to be in my humble opinion one of the best looking monitors out there. It has a very stylish brushed aluminum/black casing with very stealthy buttons. This is all accented by the subtle LED lighting for power and status indicators. Also all wire connections are concealed by almost seamless covers all the way to the base of the monitor! It also has a very great tilt/turn ability which is a chronic problem with flatscreens! Most of them don't turn but this one actually does! It also has small speakers on both sides of the monitor molded seamlessly into the overall structure of the monitor face. They are almost completely invisible! As I said this is the best monitor I've ever seen and one I'm proud to own!

* Functionality

This is also one of the most functional monitors I've ever owned! I use it mainly for gaming purposes so I have discriminating taste. I had installed an ATI Radeon 9700 video card in my PC and I wanted and LCD screen that actually could keep up. Now the Radeon 9700 card supports HDTV outputs which very few flatscreens actually have. Well, this one has them and boy does it make a big big difference between using VGA or HDTV! You wouldn't believe the sight if you switched between the two! Also it supports surround sound from the two onboard speakers. One of the best features of this monitor is the auto config feature of the screen width,height,color,brightness I mean everything. All you do is hit one button on the side of the monitor and BAM! its all done for you.. However the geniuses at Proview didn't leave it at that they also gave you the option to in addition to using auto config you can further custom tune your monitor after it establishes a base line! GREAT FEATURE! Last but not least it also has volume control ON THE MONITOR! No more finding it on the backside or through your keyboard. This makes it easier to balance the speakers monitors with desk speakers for much better sound staging and imaging

* Graphics

This was one of my major concerns. As I said before I'm into gaming and wanted a monitor to keep up. Why spend the money on an ATI RADEON 9700 only to have the monitor ruin it? Well, I have yet to be disappointed. I have seen fire effects, sparks, lighting, dust, smoke effects that I didn't even know were in the game! Also I don't feel as fatigued from looking at the monitor because the graphics are so much better! Another great thing is that you and run a refresh rate of upto 80 Hz which is quite high. I have also noted that it does very well when you get a lot of onscreen effects at once. They don't all blur together this monitor keeps its composure and does it all with brilliant clarity!

* Sound

At first I was unimpressed about the sound. That was because I was using 6 speakers. 2 of them were the ones on the monitor. However my skepticism was quickly undermined once I actually turned on the monitors speakers! I hadn't realized that you had to turn them up on the monitor. Once I got everything dialed in and setup with all 6 speakers TURNED ON it sounded amazing. If you set it up right even with a regular sound card you end up with the monitor acting like a center channel from a 5.1 system. Voices sound like they are right infront of you and you get crossing sound effects or wandering effects. You can hear bullets flying by and cars coming up on you! Its simply amazing. You wont believe your ears!

* Conclusion

In conclusion I would like to say if you are in the market for a new monitor you cant go wrong with this one. It has great performance, affordability, and stylish all in one package. Simply put this is the ideal monitor for most users. As always thank you for reading my review and please leave feedback.. THANK YOU!!! DYQ685