Kiss Coolview 3 17

...to be replaced by the Kiss Coolview Monitor.

This is a genuinely cool piece of kit.

Its widescreen for starters. Anyone who's read my camcorder review will know how I love widescreen.

It's got a built in TV Tuner which handles a whole load of different standards; PAL, NTSC, Secam etc and of course you can hook it up to your PC via the RGB input. It also has S-Video and composite inputs.

...
...occasion.
I don't get a very good TV signal in my study so I don't bother but it's nice to know that when one day in the future I get myself a wireless video transmitter/receiver I'll be able to get a decent signal. (I like to think ahead when I'm buying my gadgets)

Not everyone will have heard of Kiss, but they are a reputable manufacturer. Their plasma screens and LCD TV's have a reputation for quality, and that same know-how ... more

When I bought my PC last year, I asked for the standard LCD monitor that came with it to be replaced by the Kiss Coolview Monitor.

This is a genuinely cool piece of kit.

Its widescreen for starters. Anyone who's read my camcorder review will know how I love widescreen.

It's got a built in TV Tuner which handles a whole load of different standards; PAL, NTSC, Secam etc and of course you can hook it up to your PC via the RGB input. It also has S-Video and composite inputs.

I've only used it as a TV on the odd occasion.
I don't get a very good TV signal in my study so I don't bother but it's nice to know that when one day in the future I get myself a wireless video transmitter/receiver I'll be able to get a decent signal. (I like to think ahead when I'm buying my gadgets)

Not everyone will have heard of Kiss, but they are a reputable manufacturer. Their plasma screens and LCD TV's have a reputation for quality, and that same know-how has gone into the design of the CoolView.

The monitor itself is a dull silver colour with speakers at the bottom below the screen. Also at the bottom is the on/off button and volume control. Around this button are 4 additional buttons that allow you to access the on screen menu and to navigate around the menu.

The menu allows you to set the obvious stuff like colour, contrast, brightness and volume, sharpness, red, blue and green levels.
You can change the language which also changes the TV Standard to the one in use by the country that the language is spoken in.

The monitor has the picture in picture facility which allows you to watch TV in a little corner of the screen whilst using the PC.
An auto-adjust option in the menu automatically adjusts the monitor so that the image on the screen fits the monitor.
E.g. sometimes when I run software that automatically adjusts the resolution (like games), the monitor will show the image offset to the left or right. Selecting the auto-adjust option places the image squarely in the screen thus saving me from having to manually bring the image back into the centre.

Controlling the menu using the 5 buttons on the actual monitor is pretty tedious and not intuitive so I use the supplied remote control to adjust the monitor.

The monitor will automatically detect the signal being received and automatically adjust itself appropriately. E.g. if it detects an S-Video signal then it changes the 'source' to S-Video and shows the image being received on the screen. When you connect your PC and switch it on, it will automatically change the source to RGB.

The monitor comes with a stand and when sitting on your desk can be tilted to the desired angle. You can't swivel the monitor but you can tilt it right back so that it lies flat on your desk. This is useful because it allows the monitor to be hung up on a wall; all you need are 2 or 3 screws. In fact this is how I have it set up in my study as it frees up a surprisingly large amount of space on my desk.

As a PC monitor its great. It uses an odd resolution (1280 x 768) which kind of stretches everything on my PC but I don't really mind that. I think it's a compromise to allow it to be used either as a widescreen TV or as a PC monitor. The picture is sharp with no distortion of any kind. The contrast ratio of 250:1 is more than enough for my needs as I often work in my study with the lights down. It does mean that in bright light you need to adjust the contrast and brightness settings to be able to see properly.

The user manual is a little rubbish. It looks like the manual was written using some kind of translation software. However this doesn't really matter because the monitor is so easy to use; its essentially plug and play. I think the monitor itself is built in Korea.

Mine cost £349 12 months ago from PC World and this came with a free Logitech Wireless Keyboard and Mouse worth about £80. (Tip: Only buy stuff from PC World during Bank Holiday weekends. It's the only time they are competitive).
 

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