Hyundai L17T Monitor

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Thinking about upgrading your PC? If so what's top of your wish-list? Perhaps a top of the range graphics card is up there along with a powerhouse of a CPU, possibly some extra RAM. Or maybe you want to promote yourself to the 5.1 - or even 7.1 - premiership of speaker set-ups. How's a new mouse and keyboard sound? Or maybe you have a hankering for a new monitor. A new monitor you say? Time to ditch the CRT display and go TFT? If so, then we have a review that should interest you.

Not generally associated with consumer electronics, car maker Hyundai have decided to get into the computer peripheral business. Their new L17T is a stylish LCD TV monitor designed specifically to accommodate the needs of the gamer. LCD screens have been rising in popularity over past couple of years as they offer crisp details, are easy on the eye and take up a lot less desktop real-estate than the bulky CRT displays which have typically accompanied personal computers. As far as the gamer is concerned, the one major downside of TFTs has been their difficulty in displaying fast moving objects. The response time of earlier models has been such that rapid moving games like FPS titles and sports games have suffered on TFT displays. Ghosting and smearing effects have been an unwelcome downside to replacing a bulky CRT with a slimline TFT. The 12 millisecond response time of the L17T should theoretically bring about a final end to this major weakness of the TFT as a gaming screen. Here are the general technical specifications of the 17 Inch LCD Monitor TV:

Viewable size as 19 inch CRT monitor
17 Inch Viewable SXGA LCD
High quality screen rescaling capability
A-Si TFT Active Matrix adopted
0.264 mm pixel pitch
1280 x 1024 @ 75 Hz Max. Resolution
1280 x 1024 @ 60 Hz Recommended for use
Weight 4.6 kg
Display colour 16.7 million with image dithering
Input Signals: Video:- R.G.B Analog, Composite Video, Separate Video, TV
Sync:- H/V - Separate/Composite-Video/S-Video /RF(TUNER)
Connector:- 15 pin D-sub, S-Video, RCA(Composite, Audio R/L), TV Antenna
Viewable angle 140(h) 140(v)
Contrast ratio 450:1
Luminance 260 cd/§³ (Typical)
Image Colour Matching Profile
Support VESA Flat Panel Monitor Physical Mounting Interface
Built-in Speaker : 2ch x 2w

The screen of the L17T is surrounded by a slim border on three sides with the facing at the bottom bulging down to accommodate the two built-in speakers. There is also a thin strip of silver buttons down here to control the various functions of the display. The base of the monitor is given sturdiness through its rather large, but not excessive, footprint. While the display is light and can easily be picked up and carried about, there's enough weight in the base to cover any concerns about the unit tipping over. The display can be tilted both up and down although the range of movement could be a little more generous, especially when tilting the display down. Round the back of the screen there are two plugs, one for the RGB cable and one for power. The power cable is a bit of a bugger to insert as there isn't much room to manoeuvre. If you plan on moving the unit about this could become more than a minor annoyance. Otherwise a lot of consideration appears to have gone into the design of the unit's structure. Aesthetically I found it all very pleasing. The L17T looks fine and tidy and will look good next to any computer.

The first thing I was impressed with when I fired up the monitor was the crispness of the display. Each pixel was almost painfully sharp and clear, (there were no dead pixels on this unit either) text is a joy to read as not only is it extremely well defined but the contrast levels of the L17T are also superb. This also means that the L17T pumps out a very rich and vibrant image. Colours looked right and were bold without being brash. Blacks are black and whites are white and the overall image quality is superb. However, there was one problem which put a dampener on things. During my first day of using the Hyundai I noticed that for a couple of millimetres out from each of the four edges of the display there was a noticeable whitening effect. The colours along the edges were diffused and unsightly. This was only really noticeable on static screens with a dark background colour, but it was nonetheless a disappointing thing to see. After a few days of use the discrepancy diminished, but did not disappear. While the effect is practically unnoticeable, if you are a stickler for perfection like I am then such a flaw earns the L17T a black mark.

I put the L17T through a range of games to see how well it would manage. It more then coped, as not only was there not the slightest evidence of any smearing or ghosting but the vibrancy of the picture gave all the games that little boost in the image department. Everything looked spectacular and the nature of the LCD display meant that my eyes were not only treated to high-class images but they were left feeling just as good at the end of a long gaming session as they were at the start. No CRT induced red-eyes with this monitor.

Now the L17T has a native resolution of 1280 x 1024. If you try to run it at anything lower or higher the image quality takes a significant knock. The reasons behind this are irrelevant as there is nothing you can do about it. This could cause some problems, especially if the computer driving the image is being asked to do more than its hardware can handle. So if you are thinking about playing something as resource hungry as DOOM 3 on the L17T you may have to sacrifice image quality and drop the resolution down from the ideal native setting. This is not the fault of the L17T as all TFT monitors have the same weakness. While this could be a significant downside if your PC is beginning to huff and puff with newer games, it could be viewed as a boon if you have a machine that can comfortably run games in 1280 x 1024. Freed from any urge to run things at higher resolutions you can spend time (and any future money) making sure that you get the best speed and image quality from your machine at this resolution. Pop in a good graphics card and you will be looking at stupid frame rates coupled with a fantastic image. I found the viewing angle to be perfectly adequate as long as you don't plan on using the L17T as a display unit or similar.

So is there anything else about this display that should tempt you? Well the model I received came with a built in TV tuner. This allows the display to function as a, you guessed it, TV set. The s-video input that accompanies the RF aerial means you can hook up a range of other devices such as a DVD player or Sky box. It even comes with a wee remote control for the idle among us.

The image takes on the appearance of having been through a watercolour filter in Photoshop, although the effect is slight. It takes some getting used to, but unless you are an anal stickler for superior image clarity then it's likely your brain will stop registering this after a short while. TV shows were perfectly watchable although they benefited if the unit was at least a few feet away from the viewer's eyes. Paradoxically, while watching The Empire Strikes Back on the unit I was impressed by how much larger the picture seemed than it actually was. This was doubly impressive as the DVD player was set up to show the film in its proper aspect ratio, reducing the actual height of the film to less than ten inches.

The colour spread seemed to suffer when comparing a video image with a PC image, with some noticeable banding-type effects. The built in speakers are also very weak, with the sounds coming out of the L17T sounding both tinny and confined. While passable for watching the news or a documentary, films really sound poor coming out of them. The power levels are more than adequate; in fact, if the power levels were halved and the quality doubled we would be approaching a far better speaker setup.

The L17T is a good hybrid monitor. The image quality and responsiveness when used as a computer display is top notch and leaves the viewer both satisfied and with rested eyeballs. If used as a TV it is not the best TFT screen out there, with the blurriness and colour issues causing problems which are not helped by the underperformance of the built in speakers. Still, for the price at which the L17T can be had for with the TV tuner, around £350, you'd be hard-pushed to find a better multi-function monitor at a better price. You get a top quality gaming monitor which can be easily moved around to fill in as a TV set anywhere in the house. One other thing to note, availability of the L17T is rather sparse at the moment, at least in the UK.

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By Sam Gibson