Home > Consumer Reviews > Envision EN-7500 17" LCD Flat Panel Monitor with TV Tuner

I purchased this monitor...I'd been looking at the Envision line for a while, but noticed this one and decided to make the purchase. This monitor is different from all of their other line, because it has the Picture in Picture and TV tuner built in.

While I rarely use PIP even on my normal television, I do currently use a TV Tuner card with my PC, and this allows me to eliminate running cable through the PC if I want to watch a program. The advantage of PIP on this monitor is that you can actually watch a program while continuing to work on the computer. In other words, have PC input on the main screen and your video or TV in on the PIP screen. Very flexible in that regard.

For inputs you can use either standard video analog, SVID, or the normal monitor cable from your PC. It also includes speakers on the monitor itself, which you can activate by connecting your line in from the PC, or which will be used when you plug in the coax from your VCR or satellite. There is also a headphone out plug, in case you want to listen in private.

The monitor itself is very light. I was surprised at just how light it is. You can not readily adjust the hight of the monitor but you can very easily tilt it back and forth for easy viewing. Depending upon the height of your computer desk, this might or might not be an issue for you.

The menu system is very easy to use, and allows you to independently configure the settings for PC, PIP, or TV tuner inputs.

Max resolution of this device is 1280x1024 with an associated refresh rate of 75. With a monitor this large, you might as well use the max. I did adjust the brightness down to very very low, and left contrast very high, which is the recommended setting for MOST monitors to ease eye strain.

Setting it up to work with XP takes a tiny bit of configuration, but nothing extravagant. The vendor website describes how to do this, as well as offers driver downloads. Because this device is brand new, there are NOT drivers currently on the vendor website, so use the one on the included CD. In XP, just tell it not to search for a new driver (XP didn't automatically detect it when I plugged it in), and force it to use the one you specify which is on the CD. It will tell you the driver isn't certified, just ignore that and make it install.

Once the driver was installed, XP identified the monitor appropriately. After that, I did only minor configuration with the onscreen menu to move the display around a bit.

Aesthetically, the silver colour matches the rest of my setup, so that was a nice bonus. And since the monitor is so thin (depth of about 8" depending upon how you tilt it), it takes up very little space on the desk. (width is 19" wide due to slim speakers on sides)

Shimmer effect: Depending upon what screen colours you use, you might notice a slight shimmering effect. I have seen this within Internet Explorer, on a grey/silver background (i'm using the XP blue default theme with no customized colours). I do not notice the shimmer on any other colour being displayed by the monitor, but on that silver area in the menu bar, you can actually see the monitor refreshing. While it is a bit distracting, I simply changed that colour and it went away.

So far, the monitor has performed well, presenting very brilliant colour, and with only a slight drawback on that shimmering in the silver. (7/17 update: i was able to eliminate about 50% of the shimmer by reducing the brightness to zero and increasing contrast to 100)

....

Happy monitoring!

1. The contrast ratio is not 450:1 as in Amazon's spec.
-- In fact ,it's 350:1 in Envision's web-site & user manual.
** you can find in the manual if you check it first.
-- I checked Envision's web-site in early Aug., it's still 450:1, But they changed it to 350:1 by late Aug.
-- I called the technical support last week. The lady said Envision firstly used contrast ratio 450:1 LCD panel for this model but they changed to a cheaper one later (350:1).
## THIS WILL MISLEAD CONSUMERs to make decision to buy.
** the contrast ratio is a KEY factor in LCD monitor display. The higher-- the better -- but a little bit expensive.

2. TV (not so good as expected)
-- the picture/color is not so vivid as conventional CRT type TV (if you request good picture quality).
-- Maybe it's probably due to Envision using the lower contrast ratio (350:1) LCD panel.
-- This is a COMMON problem among those LCD TVs in the market.

** Even the Samsung, Sharp......
-- I'd recommend selecting a higher contrast ratio one when you're going to buy & should check the manual first.

3. Good PC monitor (1280x1024 resolution)
-- performs still good with contrast ratio 350:1.
** you'll feel it's the same good as other manufacturer's LCD 17" monitor when you shop around at relailers (Fry's CompUSA...).
-- good picture quality (PC mode) with wide angle display & 0.264mm fine pitch.
-- Expecting excellent performance if Envision change back using higher contrast ratio LCD panel (450:1).

4. Good multimedia monitor with its TV, Audio/Video (AV), S-video inputs for external VCR/DVD/TV game connections.
-- the PIP function is amazing, but you can only watch TV while you're using the PC. Envision should expand it's function by enable AV & S-video selection in PIP mode.
-- Fix PIP size. You can't change the size of PIP.

Overall, it's still worth to buy at this price. I'll give 5-star rating if better panel is used (contrast ratio 450:1) for better TV picture quality.

This one is as sharp and as bright as you can get for a PC monitor, but it is as blurred as you can get for a TV. Even at the lowest brightness and highest contrast, the TV picture is nowhere near a cheapest tube TV. As a comparison, I played a DVD through my PC DVD player, and through the S-Video out of a DVD player. The results are day and night. I don't know how Envision designed the TV feature of this monitor. It sure looks like an afterthought to me. But I guess if you want a truly great LCD video monitor, you have to spend north of 1K in the video department. Also, the speakers are so lousy, they can actually hurt my ears. Still, the combination of a PC monitor and a TV saves a lot of space in the bedroom. So, I would rate it 4 stars, despite of the shortcomings on the TV side.

The PC works fine. Simple to setup. For PC mode rating would be higher. Much better than the the 7100e. Viewing angle's have improved The first En 7500 I bought lasted about 1 week before the Screen went terrible. Sometimes it would be clear and sometimes not ,very fuzzy and terrible colors and very poor resolution. Exchanged it for a new one. Which i have for 2 days seems fine.I tested super nintendo game system and that was very poor.I think it is because of the low resolution of the SNES I'm hoping for better resolution with XBOX and GAME CUBE . and Dreamcast. The PC mode is fine for gaming Quake,CounterStrike, and UNreal Tournament are fine. I'm hoping for good DVD picture but I'm not overly optermistic as the reviews are coming in. Trying to get one Monitor to do PC- DVD--TV AND games is a bit much. My advise buy this at a store that you can return. Stay away from MAil order on this one.Test it and if it works and fits your needs keep it. Otherwise buy a standard LCD for PC and forget about the DVD and audio imputs . Right now they will be going through changes in Tech until they get this right.I will report back about DVD TV and GAMES
I will report back late about the other video game and dvd modes OH yes the TV tuner. I've seen one playing DVD's at the store and I was not Impressed!

This is a real deal. The monitor is only ~ US$600 shipped to my door. In my bedroom it completely takes the place of a 17" monitor and TV, using up about 1 square foot of space. Mine shipped with two whacked pixels (very acceptable and hardly noticeable. In native resolution, everything is crisp and bright with a nice viewing angle. While brightness and contrast are fine despite having lower numbers than the top guys (Viewsonic & samsung), the overall sharpness seems to lag a little behind those brands. It's an easy tradeoff with everything you get here, and no big deal to me.

REMOTE: Mentioned little by envision, it's actually a good little remote, handling all TV tuner functions and every OSD function available on the front buttons---cool.

SPEAKERS: decent quality and plenty powerful if you don't need any bass.

SLEEP TIMER: Would have liked to see this, since it's ideal as a bedroom TV (not a main living room TV). Maybe in the next version...

Again, the quality critics make a good argument, and I would have paid an extra $... for this package with Viewsonic quality. For the price paid, though, I can only praise this ingenious toy.