Product Reviews

Gateway proudly boasts that the FPD2185W is an high-definition monitor. There's a catch, though. Unless you're one of the lucky few who can afford the subscription charges for an HD service from the likes of Sky or Telewest, or are looking to buy a 'next-generation' HD-DVD or Blu-ray DVD player, you're going to be waiting a while before high-definition TV and movies finally make their way into your home.

If you're in the market for a HD-capable display of any kind, it's important to check that it supports the new HD copy-protection system, HDCP - see the feature on page 88. The Gateway has this point covered with a DVI input that supports HDCP-protected

ADVERTISEMENT

content.

The other crucial element is a monitor's actual resolution and the FPD2185w's ample 21in offer a high native resolution of 1680 x 1050. However, with high-definition TV and movies being delivered in 720p (1280 x 720) or 1080i/p (1920 x 1080) formats, this means that you'll either have to upscale 720-line video, degrading image quality in the process.

The Gateway FPD2185W also comes equipped with composite, S-Video and component inputs for ferrying in video from other sources. The picture-in-picture function even allows you to watch one of the external video sources in a window in the corner of the screen while viewing your Windows Desktop.

First impressions were that it gave a bright image with punchy colours, but under closer scrutiny, the picture quality was poor. Even the Windows Desktop looked very slightly out of focus and the edges of text were blurry. Playing a few scenes from a DVD movie wasn't very impressive either, as detail in dark shadowy areas of the picture was crushed into a murky black. No amount of tweaking the colour, brightness and contrast settings in the fiddly on-screen menus helped either. For a monitor that proclaims to be high-definition, that's just unacceptable.