HP LP3065: A new contender for the 30" throne
by Jarred Walton on March 22, 2007 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Displays
Closing Thoughts
A large 30" LCD is definitely a luxury that only a few people are willing to afford, but if you have the money and other hardware necessary, using a computer takes on a whole new dimension with such a display. Games can feel even more immersive, but truthfully we find the extra screen size to be more useful outside of gaming situations. The ability to have numerous applications open without the need to overlap windows can increase productivity for example, and it's also possible to have two or three different versions of a document open at the same time for easy side-by-side comparisons.
All other things being equal - and in our testing we would have to say that the Dell 3007WFP and HP LP3065 are in a dead heat - price and features are going to usually be the determining factors on what LCD people want to buy. In the features department, we definitely give the edge to HP, but this will really only matter to people who plan on using more than one computer with the display. Otherwise, you could basically purchase either of these LCDs and be happy.
What about price? Looking online, current prices on the Dell 3007WFPHC and HP LP3065 are the same: $1699. HP currently offers a $40 mail-in rebate, and Dell has frequent sales that drop the price of their 30" LCDs by as much as several hundred dollars. If one of the displays is substantially cheaper, we would recommend saving money. Just keep in mind that a dual-link DVI KVM switch can cost several hundred dollars, so if that feature is something you would find useful we really can't see any reason to get any 30" LCD other than the HP LP3065.
We had a conversation recently about which company was better: HP or Dell? One person commented very simply: "Oh, HP is much better!" When we asked why, he gave the tongue-in-cheek response, "Because my wife works for HP." That's a pretty fair summary of the situation in our book. If you have any reasons or relations that make you prefer one company over the other, either 30" LCD will work very well. If you don't have any preference, we would purchase the HP simply because those extra DVI inputs could prove useful, if not immediately then at some point during the life of the display.
Is a 30" LCD the best display on the market? That really depends on what you plan on doing with your computer. If you like to run numerous applications at the same time, the added real estate can prove handy. Games and movies also look really nice on a large display, although as we mentioned on the Dell 3007WFP review HDCP support on dual-link DVI is currently not possible. Hopefully that never becomes an issue, and as long as Hollywood doesn't begin enabling the ICT (Image Constraint Token), it shouldn't be a problem. If you want to have a multipurpose display, however, we would seriously consider a 1080p LCD HDTV as an alternative. Some of those LCD TVs might not fit very well on a computer desk, but then some of them aren't much larger than the 30" LP3065.
It was interesting to hear from HP about the reasons current 30" LCDs don't have on-screen displays or support for non-dual-link inputs. While plenty of people will be happy with the displays as is, we are definitely interested in seeing next-generation 30" displays that have improved circuitry to allow for other resolutions and input options, along with an OSD. The small pixel size on the 2560x1600 panel seems to allow lower resolutions to run without feeling quite as blurry as they do on other LCDs. Perhaps that's simply because the scaling is being done on the GPU rather than on the display itself, but owners of the latest generation gaming consoles would probably like to be able to use one of these displays as well, especially in situations like college dorms where having multiple displays often isn't possible. However, until we see such 30" displays, we would rate the HP LP3065 as the best shipping 30" LCD, even if it's only by a small margin of victory.
A large 30" LCD is definitely a luxury that only a few people are willing to afford, but if you have the money and other hardware necessary, using a computer takes on a whole new dimension with such a display. Games can feel even more immersive, but truthfully we find the extra screen size to be more useful outside of gaming situations. The ability to have numerous applications open without the need to overlap windows can increase productivity for example, and it's also possible to have two or three different versions of a document open at the same time for easy side-by-side comparisons.
All other things being equal - and in our testing we would have to say that the Dell 3007WFP and HP LP3065 are in a dead heat - price and features are going to usually be the determining factors on what LCD people want to buy. In the features department, we definitely give the edge to HP, but this will really only matter to people who plan on using more than one computer with the display. Otherwise, you could basically purchase either of these LCDs and be happy.
What about price? Looking online, current prices on the Dell 3007WFPHC and HP LP3065 are the same: $1699. HP currently offers a $40 mail-in rebate, and Dell has frequent sales that drop the price of their 30" LCDs by as much as several hundred dollars. If one of the displays is substantially cheaper, we would recommend saving money. Just keep in mind that a dual-link DVI KVM switch can cost several hundred dollars, so if that feature is something you would find useful we really can't see any reason to get any 30" LCD other than the HP LP3065.
We had a conversation recently about which company was better: HP or Dell? One person commented very simply: "Oh, HP is much better!" When we asked why, he gave the tongue-in-cheek response, "Because my wife works for HP." That's a pretty fair summary of the situation in our book. If you have any reasons or relations that make you prefer one company over the other, either 30" LCD will work very well. If you don't have any preference, we would purchase the HP simply because those extra DVI inputs could prove useful, if not immediately then at some point during the life of the display.
Is a 30" LCD the best display on the market? That really depends on what you plan on doing with your computer. If you like to run numerous applications at the same time, the added real estate can prove handy. Games and movies also look really nice on a large display, although as we mentioned on the Dell 3007WFP review HDCP support on dual-link DVI is currently not possible. Hopefully that never becomes an issue, and as long as Hollywood doesn't begin enabling the ICT (Image Constraint Token), it shouldn't be a problem. If you want to have a multipurpose display, however, we would seriously consider a 1080p LCD HDTV as an alternative. Some of those LCD TVs might not fit very well on a computer desk, but then some of them aren't much larger than the 30" LP3065.
It was interesting to hear from HP about the reasons current 30" LCDs don't have on-screen displays or support for non-dual-link inputs. While plenty of people will be happy with the displays as is, we are definitely interested in seeing next-generation 30" displays that have improved circuitry to allow for other resolutions and input options, along with an OSD. The small pixel size on the 2560x1600 panel seems to allow lower resolutions to run without feeling quite as blurry as they do on other LCDs. Perhaps that's simply because the scaling is being done on the GPU rather than on the display itself, but owners of the latest generation gaming consoles would probably like to be able to use one of these displays as well, especially in situations like college dorms where having multiple displays often isn't possible. However, until we see such 30" displays, we would rate the HP LP3065 as the best shipping 30" LCD, even if it's only by a small margin of victory.
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lawrenpx - Saturday, December 4, 2010 - link
Has anyone been able to get the Matrox TripleHead2Go Digital to work with the HP LP3065 in either Linux Redhat or PC Windows? When I connect my monitors all I get is a blinking green light on the monitor which I believe means no signal. Perhaps I need to get a Linux driver but I can't find any. ThanksKeithP - Thursday, March 22, 2007 - link
While I understand some people can't wait for technology, it seems we are pretty close to seeing 120Hz refresh rates and LED backlighting. Given that, I think spending a bunch of money on a large LCD display may not be the best move.Of course, if you can't wait, the HP and Dell seem pretty nice.
JarredWalton - Thursday, March 22, 2007 - link
120Hz refresh rates will require something other than dual-link DVI in order to function. Right now, it's a matter of bandwidth. DVI runs at 165 MHz, which means that single-link maxes out at around 1920x1200 and dual-link maxes out at twice that (3840x2400). It will hopefully happen at some point, but we need a new input standard that provides more bandwidth first.chizow - Thursday, March 22, 2007 - link
Thanks for including an input lag comparison Jarred. Another suggestion to test is something I saw done by just an average user. He found a website or program that simply had an atomic clock or something that displayed current time down to the millisecond. Then he just used that to capture his comparison ISO from a digital camera. Essentially it gave him the exact difference in milliseconds between each panel without having to calculate the difference based on frame rates or discounting partial frames etc.The additional DVI inputs on the HP are nice though and hopefully your suggestions about future inputs are implemented in future 30" panels. One question though about the different inputs and resulting display resolutions. Are you able to control panel resolution using the panel itself? Or is that all controlled by the input device? I'd like to know if non-2560 input resolutions are upscaled to 2560 or if the panel displays them 1:1 with black bars. I know for PC inputs this should work with all Nvidia cards, but if you connected a PS3 via HDMI > DVI converter what display resolution would you get?
chizow - Thursday, March 22, 2007 - link
Thought about this some more. Would you get a corrupted display since the PS3 output isn't dual-link? Would be kind of a bummer but it makes sense.......Chucko - Thursday, March 22, 2007 - link
Amen on getting stuff reviewed sooner, this monitor has been out forever. Thanks for the review, great job!JarredWalton - Thursday, March 22, 2007 - link
It takes time to get products, especially when you're (re)launching a segment. The display began shipping in quantity around December, so it's been about three months. "Forever"? Possibly for some markets, but the fact is nothing new has come out in the 30" LCD market after this launch, and it's still good to have results in for future reviews. Hopefully I will be able to get earlier releases on future displays. :)JarredWalton - Thursday, March 22, 2007 - link
Forgot to say that when using a single-link DVI connection (which is what the PS3 uses), there was display corruption - or even a blank screen - up until Windows loaded. I booted - or tried to boot - a PC with Linux (again on a single-link connection). I didn't get any signal at all. It might be possible to get it to work if you set up Linux on a different display and then after configuring X for 1280x800 switch to the LP3065, but basically HP doesn't officially support single-link DVI. I would venture to say that a PS3 wouldn't work at all with the display... or an Xbox 360 or anything else that doesn't support 2560x1600 or possibly 1280x800.Renoir - Thursday, March 22, 2007 - link
Single-link DVI would appear to be a bit of a grey area. Why would HP go to the hassle and expense of including an HDCP cryptorom and then not allow you to easily utilise it over a single-link. I say "easily" because although you suggest it's possible you haven't managed to get it working.Does this mean that the display can "scale" 1280x800 despite not having an actual scaler because it fits so easily into 2560x1600? Stupid question maybe but just wanna make sure I understand what was meant by that.
AFAIK the ICT only affects the analogue outputs and High def dvd versions of powerdvd etc require HDCP on any digital outputs.
This issue is clear as mud. Would be great if you could find out what the deal is with HDCP content on this display!
JarredWalton - Friday, March 23, 2007 - link
I don't have any Blu-ray or HD-DVD drives, so I haven't been able to test. Given that HDCP support is now available on a lot of monitors, it's reasonable to say that older DVI ports don't support it, so ICT would affect them. The whole HDCP + Dual-link is this messed up area, as HDCP was originally created for HDMI and single-link.Of course, my technical opinion is that HDCP is just a joke and a waste of time and money anyway. Gee, how long did it take for people to figure out a way to decrypt Blu-ray and HD-DVD content? Thank goodness we all "need" HDCP cards and such now!
As for the 1280x800 support, the monitor fills the screen with content, but it's just a straight doubling of pixels. The Dell 3007 does the same thing. I guess that was easy enough to implement without any special hardware. All other scaling... well, there isn't any in the monitor. The GPU handles scaling (I recommend NVIDIA *strongly* here, as the ATI scaling is not quite as full-featured).
Anyway, I should be getting a laptop with a Blu-ray drive in the near future for review, so I'm going to hopefully be able to test dual-link plus Blu-ray output. Since no content currently uses ICT, though, it doesn't really matter. Frankly, if they ever enable ICT, a lot of people will be pissed.