VIEWSONIC VX2460H-LED 24 inch LED Display 1000:1 250cd/m2 1920 x 1080 5ms (Black)

I bought this monitor because of the specs which rate it at 40,0000 to 1 contrast ratio, and it advertises 'blacker blacks' and brighter colors. Also, the fact that it is covered by a standard 3-year warranty does not hurt, and for the price, it's right.

I hooked it up as a secondary monitor on my multi-monitor setup with an HDMI to DVI male-male cable, since my graphics card is a couple of years old and doesn't have HDMI outputs.

No complaints about compatibility, everything worked right out of the box, but next to my LCD Westinghouse LCM 19V7 the native HDMI output appears to be "washed out".

Of course I didn't expect the color settings to match on both monitors, but I was expecting a picture that would 'jump out' in comparison to my older primary display. I tried using the PC settings on the graphics card control panel, but although the colors were brighter, the aspect ratio was not correct, so items on the desktop were distorted, for example the clock gadget is supposed to be round, and if I put it at 1600 x 1200 ratio under the PC settings, it became an oval-shaped clock instead. So I put it back to its native 1920 x 1080p resolution until I can figure out what are the best settings. The graphics card is an XFX GEForce 9800GT (NVidia chipset), so upgrading the card to the newer Radeon series may give me more resolution options, but it's not high on the priority list for right now.

I have given it a provisional 4 stars due to these facts, and once I figure out how to tweak the settings so the displays more closely match, I will revisit this review and adjust the rating accordingly.

The picture is sharp, and the 24" display provides plenty of screen real estate so I can have all my windows open and side-by-side on my video and sound editing programs, so no complaints there.

My overall impression of the monitor right out of the box (ease of setup, compatibility, picture sharpness and clarity) is that I like it, but I will like it better once I figure out how to make the displays more closely match (as much as possible between an LCD and an LED monitor, that is).

EDIT: (8/21/12) After doing a little research, I figured out how to calibrate the monitors, and with a little adjustment of the primary monitor's color settings, I now have the two monitors fairly close to one another in color and tint, and the calibration is pretty close to what it should be.

There is a tool for calibration built in to Windows 7, and if you do a little digging, you can find it and it is a great help in getting your monitor where it should be.

After calibrating both monitors, I must say, now I can see where the advantage of the 40,000:1 contrast ratio comes in handy because the gamma guide I used shows the individual graduations in the gray scale from true black to white quite well. In this case, I have decided to add the 5th star to the review.

Aesthetically, the monitor looks amazing, I love the touch buttons, the picture quality is very good, has perfect interaction with my macbook, is very thin, but the problem is about base it is very unstable, the monitor could fall down with any little hint. But it is definitely an excellent monitor.

Okay, I read all the reviews on here before I bought this. The person who commented about the stand ??? I don't know what they are talking about, it's very sturdy. They must have not put the thing together correctly. You can also adjust the monitor up or down to your liking.

As far as the colors on this thing go, they are extremely rich and deep. I do a lot of gaming and Battlefield 3 on Ultra looks absolutely stunning. I am honestly trying to think of something bad that I can say about this monitor, but I seriously can't. It's very bright and rich and just AWESOME. I'd highly recommend. I hope this helps someone who was walking on the fence about the stand issue.