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On the test bench at PCSTATS today is the ASUS VH242H 23.6-inch (hereafter 24-inch) widescreen LCD display. This LCD computer monitor features a 16:9 aspect ratio and native resolution of 1920x1080 pixels that goes hand in hand with 1080p HD content oh so nicely.
79% Rating: 
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ASUS VH242H |
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Visual Display Tests, OSD
On Screen Display menu
The OSD menu
ASUS use takes a bit of time to get used to,
mainly because four control panel keys are needed to navigate and toggle different options. The OSD
itself isn't particularly complicated and most of the visual options are redundant if you connect
the display to a PC via the DVI video cable.
The Gaming Test
The ASUS VH242H monitor was tested with a fast
paced FPS game and the results were satisfactory. The high contrast ratio of 1000:1 (DC 20,000:1) results in dark
black backgrounds and suitably bright graphics. The VH242H LCD panel is rated for 5ms
G-to-G pixel refresh rates, so rapid screen movements were ghost free as far as we
could tell.
ASUS Splendid technology essentially makes the display
heavily contrasted when the
"gaming" mode is selected. This can achieve a "richer" appearance in certain games,
but if the scenery is predominantly black it makes it difficult to see darker details in
those scenes.
LCD Screen Evaluation Notes
Test parameters: Mode - Theatre, resolution 1920x1080, 32 bit,
60Hz, 6500K, DVI connection.
For the evaluation of the ASUS
VH242H's display quality, PCSTATS used a standard Monitor Test application which
outputs various test patterns, solid colours, and different grey scales
from which to construct subjective image quality comments. These include contrast,
colour luminance, brightness and Moire. Ghosting is subjectively
tested in a gaming environment.
Brightness and Contrast: The ASUS VH242H has a high static contrast ratio (1000:1)
which results in bright white test bars over a suitably black
background. Be mindful of which ASUS Splendid setting you select, half make the
screen too bright, others too dark. Under the Gaming mode the transition
white test bars were distinguishable, but the 1-9 percent black test patterns
not as clearly defined, for example. We didn't notice any particular problems with excessive
light bleed though on the VH242H. Curiously in the alternating full
black screen-to-full white screen test there was digital noise visible at the center
of the screen for a split second.
Colour Vibrancy: The white, red, green and blue test screens were equally bright
and vibrant. All test images were even across the entire screen. Colour saturation on the whole was
fine. No visible dull, stuck or broken pixels were detected.
Non-native Resolution: The native resolution of the ASUS VH242H is 1920x1080. We tested several non-native resolutions and found the image dithering/image scaling fine.
Moire: All Moire test
patterns displayed fine and without any background interference. One of the
Moire test patterns rendered on the ASUS VH242H somewhat slowly, but not
nearly as slow as we witnessed on the unimpressive Samsung 2243BW
monitor.
Viewing Angles:
Viewing angles are rated at 170° horizontal, 160° vertical for the ASUS VH242H LCD display. If you
sit too close to the screen you will notice this limitation
more so than if you sit back a good 24"-36". The 160°
vertical viewing angle is especially evident as it can make the
bottom Windows Start bar appear
overly contrasted - like using the "sharpen" command in Adobe Photoshop once too often on text.
Decent Sound Quality from Integrated Speakers?
The Asus VH242 is equipped with 2W stereo speakers which receive an audio
signal from the PC via mini-headphone jack, coaxial SP/DIF or HDMI cable.
As you might not have guessed, the sound quality is
actually a bit better than what we're used to from typical monitor speakers.
The usual tinny, bassless audio that only 1" speakers can dish out
is improved... to a point. I suspect it's largely due to the
position of the speakers inside the ASUS VH242H cabinet. Where most LCD
monitors have their speakers in the lower part of the front bezel pointing
towards the user, just below the screen, the VH242H has them located at the top
of the unit pointing up. Generally speaking, audio quality is undistorted and on
the whole passable, particularly when the display is up against a wall so the
sound is reflected back towards the user.
The High Definition Video Test
With the Blu-Ray movie "10,000 BC" playing from a Samsung BD-P1500 connected via HDMI cable to the ASUS VH242H monitor, picture quality
was completely fine. The movie came across sounding a little hollow, clearly
there's no getting past the fact the VH242H totally lacks punch in the whomping bass
department. At full volume the it isn't especially loud either.
Of course when it comes to LCD displays with integrated speaker this is expected; it's simply not a
substitute for a proper sound system or good pair
of stereo headphones.
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