ViewSonic V3D231 3D-Ready 23-inch LCD Monitor Review

Setup and Usage
Getting the V3D231 setup is pretty easy, just plug in the power and plug it into your machine either via DVI, HDMI or VGA.  One you have it setup you are ready to go.  As I said this display gives you a maximum resolution of 1920 x 1080 so you have quite a lot of real estate to work with.

ViewSonic V3D231 3D-Ready 23-inch LCD Monitor ViewSonic V3D231 3D-Ready 23-inch LCD Monitor

Before we get into 3D testing, lets go ahead and do some normal LCD testing.  We used AIDA 64’s monitor calibration for this.  The first test is brightness and contrast, the basic rule of thumb is you don’t want the display to be too dull, too bright is ok because you can always turn that down. The brightness was set perfectly and I didn’t have to adjust anything. The sharpness test was next and I noticed that the lines were very crisp and smooth.

ViewSonic V3D231 3D-Ready 23-inch LCD Monitor ViewSonic V3D231 3D-Ready 23-inch LCD Monitor

As far as color reproduction goes this display is awesome! All colors are very vibrant and look great.  For normal viewing the colors on this display are some of the best that I have seen!  The all black test is a good way to see how much backlighting will bleed through when say you are watching a movie or playing a game with dark scenes. That black test showed pretty much no backlighting at all, this is because the V3D231 is LED backlit.  The picture below really does not do the display justice.

ViewSonic V3D231 3D-Ready 23-inch LCD Monitor ViewSonic V3D231 3D-Ready 23-inch LCD Monitor

This monitor is great for gaming.  The 2ms response time means you will see no ghosting or anything like that while playing games.  Also since the display has such great color reproduction you are really immersed in the gameplay.  This is also true with movies and videos.  The darks are extremely dark and things like lens flares really look amazing.

Ok now on to the 3D aspect of the V3D231.  First you get 2 pairs of passive (non-powered) polarized glasses.  One is a normal pair of glasses and another is a clip on pair if you already wear glasses.  These glasses are not that much to write home about, they are just about the same glasses you get at the movie theater.  So do not expect them to be that comfortable.

The V3D231 is 3D-ready out of the box so if you have 3D content or games they will work right away.  What if you do not have 3D games or content?  This is where the TriDef 3D software comes in.  It will turn your games and content into 3D content.  This is actually quite cool.  So you can load up video clips and such with the TriDef 3D media player and they will look quite good in 3D.  Gaming with TriDef 3D is a little more complicated.

First you will need to open the TriDef 3D Ignition program.  One you have it open you can scan for installed games.  If the program does not find any games, which in our case it did not you can add them.  The program has predefined 3D profiles for certain games, you are able to select them from a dropdown list.  If your game is not listed I would suggest taking a look at the Game Profiles forum on TriDef’s website.  I was easily able to find the profiles for my games there.  Once you have the profile installed you will need to either launch the game from the Ignition program or you can create a shortcut for a 3D version of the game.

I tested quite a few different games and I was actually pretty impressed.  The game I played the longest in 3D was Borderlands.  I really enjoyed it actually and it made me want to play the game longer.  The only downside to playing games in 3D is you will notice a performance hit.  This was not that noticeable on our system since we were rocking a GTX 580, but people will mid-range cards will definitely see this.  So be prepared to take a performance hit when playing games in 3D.

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