March 28, 2004

BenQ FP591 LCD Monitor Review

I recently bought a BenQ FP591 monitor (visit site) for the display of my multiple digital photos. The LCD monitor has two optional accessories, a card reader and TV tuner. I only bought the card reader so this review will only talk about this component.

Overall the monitor looks great with a very stilish surround. It is only a 15“ display but for my purposes that was fine. The maximum resolution is 1024x768 which is perfect for displaying photos or basic computer operation. If you are to use this as your main computer monitor I would recommend getting a different monitor that can do at least 1280x1024 as this is a much better resolution for using your computer.

Basic computer operation was not the reason why I bought this monitor, its ability to display a slideshow of photos stored on cards stuck into the optional card reader was what attracted me. The card reader comes as a seperate module that is slid into a hidden compartment at the top of the monitor. Installation of the module was easy and problem free. The problems started when I started to put photos onto an SD card and stick it into the appropriate slot. The monitor did not easily recognise the card and it took a number of times turning off the power and back on again to recognise the photo. The next problem is that the monitor displays the photo at full screen and will stretch the photo to fit. This stretching distorted many of the photos I had. I therefore had to go through all my photos and scale them to 1024x768 resolution and then pad them with black so that they took up the complete screen.

Another feature of the monitor is that it can be connected up to your computer via the supplied USB cable so the cards inserted into the monitor can be read in your computer. The same problem with recognising the cards still existed when using the card reader in this mode. An added benefit is that by using the card reader module it is possible to conduct a firmware patch on the monitor. I am hoping that future firmware patches will fix these problems with the monitor.

One of the card slots on the monitor is a compact flash slot, I therefore enquired with the BenQ representative if this could read the Microdrives that are available is sizes >1gig. This would therefore allow me to store a large number of photos on the Microdrive and then just let the monitor scroll through the photos. When I tried to insert the Microdrive I discovered that it physically did not fit through the facia. After removing the facia by taking the card reader module apart and cutting a larger opening the Microdrive fit through and did actually work in the reader.

Overall the monitor looks great. Once it actually reads the cards inserted the monitor works quite well. With its firmware update feature hopefully many of these problems will be rectified.

Rating: 5/10

Posted by Egon Kuster at March 28, 2004 11:33 AM
Comments
Any news on firmware? I had the following problems: Yesterday I bought a brand new BenQ FP591 LCD Monitor. I am trying to use it as a Digital Picture Frame. Today I inserted a CF card with some JPG photos and was briefly able to use the DPF functionality. However since removing the card, and reinserting it later I am unable to get it to work in DPF mode at all. (I powered the unit off while removing and inserting the card) When I switch the unit on I get the No Signal message and the unit quickly goes into standby mode. It is impossible to access the OSD at this time. I tried attaching an rgb cable with signal so that I could at least access the main menu. On the main OSD menu, DPF is greyed out and cannot be selected. I changed the input priority to DPF. Still no luck. Sometimes it recognizes the DPF and says No Card or Emtpy Card. I have tried the CF and an SD card both of which were working at the start. I have variously tried powering the machine off and on (at the mains). Removing and reseating the DPF unit. At some point I got the DPF to start loading images V but the screen filled with garbage. At this point Im ready to take it back to the store. Having bought it yesterday I can return it easily. However the first unit I saw in the store had a similar problem with the DPF unit. So I suspect its a common problem in this model, or perhaps this batch. If theres no way I can rectify this other than by buying another unit then I will probably just ask for my money back. Any ideas? Posted by: chris at September 2, 2004 01:48 AM
I would recommend taking it back as I also find that the DPF functionality is buggy and would not recommend it to anyone at the moment. Last time I looked there still was not a new firmware update to fix these problems. Here are a few things to try: - Format the Card using FAT32 (very important) - transfer the files over the the card making sure they are already 1024x768 resolution (the monitor does not scale or stretch the photos very well) - turn off the monitor - insert the card while the monitor is disconnected from the power and there are no lights - turn on the monitor and wait for the card inserted LED lights up, this should also display the DPF functionality. If it does not then try turning off and on again at the powerpoint. But as I said the monitor is very buggy and I would not recommend it. You can buy hard drive based units (like an ipod) that have video out that you can connect up to your TV to view photos which I think is a better option (were not around when I bought mine). Posted by: Egon Kuster at September 2, 2004 07:33 PM