Samsung 240T any thoughts?

[John LaCava]

I'm looking into this widescreen Samsung SyncMaster 240T TFT as my new main display.

Here is just one of a million reviews google hits http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1141

I currently use an NEC MultiSync FP1375x, 22" CRT w/ .24mm pitch dot. You just cannot fault this monitor. Its perfect picture quality wise, but I really want something bigger for movies. This monitor has two inputs, one DVI one Analog VGA, so I connect my computer to the DVI and my DVD player to the VGA via a video scaler.

For computer work this monitor really has all the realestate you could want, but the 4:3 form factor means that the amount of screen available for widescreen DVD is only moderate. I have a small (by american) / medium (by European) size living room, so the picture is still big enough to enjoy the impact of DVD from back on the couch, but my sound system is very robust and dwarfs the picture by comparison.

I have been looking into alternatives. I intend to use the one display for both computer and HT, so it much be high res (UXGA or higher) with high refresh rates, preferably .28 or better pitch dot. Most Plasma screens don't meet this requirement. So I came across the Samsung 240T. Its widescreen (16:10 I believe) goes up to 1920x1200 res, and has .27 pitch dot.

Normally I'm used to dealing in refresh rates with CRT, but apparently this is not so important with TFT as there is no flicker. But an important spec it the refresh rate with regards to how fast a pixel can change color. Apparently this monitor has a 25ms rate. I'm told this is good. I don't have any experience with it though. Will this be a sufficiently fast refresh rate as not to give me blur during fast moving scenes in DVD? Reviews seem to indicate not.

I found a really decent price on this item

http://www.digiuk.com/samsung/acatalog/GO_DIGI_24__TFT_47.html

Anyone has an oppinion please let it be heard.

Cheers,
John

[JonMarsh]

Hello John,

Yes, I've looked at that Samsung pretty closely a couple of times, too, and recommended other Samsung models for friends, and installed them. Now, I'm a pretty big fan of lCD"s for standard computer use- in fact, it's all I've been using at home for a while now, excepting the 20" Toshiba my daughter uses in her room. For CAD and DTP, the LCD's work great.

24 msec response time is fairly fast for LCD's. BUT, if you're talking about using this as a primary display for DVD or gaming, you may not be completely happy. OTOH, you may find the perfect geometry and convergence to offset the other drawbacks.

What drawbacks?

Well, one you're clearly aware of is response time. A 24 msec response time is the equivalent of 40 FPS. Now, in theory, for movie sourced material, played back at 72 FPS (frame trippling after de-interlacing), or 50 FPS (frame doubling) that should be fine. Where it falls down is in gaming; for really fast action games, you need to have video card and display capability in the 75 to 100 FPS range for best performance- I'm not just talking how it "looks", but also how it plays- you can't make fast, accurate moves without a high video sampling rate. This means both display and vide card are important.

For DVD, a more important factor is color consistency and contrast ratio. Laptop displays mostly stink in that regard, even compared with LCD projectors. Desktop LCD displays are better- note the higher performance in off axis (vertically as well as horizontally) they have for color accuracy and uniformity. That said, they still require some calibration to get fairly true color, and most tend towards a palette in which the red is too orange (phosphor limitation) and the green is too yellow (ditto). Because the picture (particularly scaled from computer DVD is so clear, you won't notice the color issues as quickly.

The comparison standard I use is an NEC presentation montor, which has a special Toshiba microfilter tube which incorporates color filters in the phosphor dots, and it can deliver color accuracy and vibrance to die for, along with reasonable detail.

Over here, you can get a 16X9 monitor from Digital Connection which used to be made by Princeton and now is sourced by another firm which uses a similar Toshiba tube. If you're doing computer as well as video playback, I'd also look at the Sony FW900. These are all heavier, but about the same cost as the Samsung. Note that the Apple 23" 16X10 display (LCD) is now $1995 in the US; I'd expect a similar price overseas soon. It has very good video performance as LCD displays go- you might want to check that out also. ALWAYS look before you put your hard earned green down...

-Jon




Earth First!
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We'll screw up the other planets later....

[John LaCava]

WOW,

ThanX for the tips, I will definately give it more thought. I feel CRTs are generally preferable to LCD in most respects, but I figured this samsung deserved a look. How did you equate the 24m response to 40FPS?

I would get a CRT if I could find a nice one in 16:9 with a dual inputs at rear. I'll look into what you've put down but if anything else comes to mind please lemme know.

Cheers again,
John

[JonMarsh]

No substitute for an eyeball examination, John! If I think of any other displays in that range to recommend, I'll try to post by this weekend. I'm in FL on a business trip (APEC conf) following surgery early last week, so I'm not as "together" as usual! :LOL:

Re the response time versus FPS, if the response time to change a pixel frame set is 24 msec, then the number of times (frames) which can be changed in a second should be around 1/0.024, which works out to about 40. In principle, for movie mode sources (24 FPS) shouldn't be any problem. Some games work OK on LCDs, like NeverWinter Nights, which isn't really a "fast" 3 D actaion game- but games like "No One Lives for Ever", Jedai Knight II, or Unreal II MUST be played on a CRT- IMO.

Frankly, the absolute best video quality is still obtained with CRT-s especially carefully setup large tube FPTV setups- but they sure are expensive, and there's no denying the appeal of soemthing hanging on the wall that's only a few inches thick.

Something I've had some nice luck with is using even LCD projectors at short than typical projection lengths with smaller than typical screen sizes- the resulting picture can be larger than a direct view, and pretty bright even with average to poor light control. If you use good direction screen material like DaLite Hi-Power, off axis light is rejected, and the result can compare favorably to a direct view- I've got our booth people considering this kind of setup for our next show booth design. A 2000 lumen projector focussed down to 36-40 diagonal makes a very bright picture compared with a 20" diagonal LCD, and of course it's much bigger.

Over here, you can now get 42" plasma's with 858X480 resolution for about $3K, which is about 2000 British pounds. For DVD that's pretty good.

Also, the Sanyo Z1 projector, which is 1/2 HD resolution, would be intersting projected to small image size, say 40 to 70 inch diagonal.

There's so many possibilities once you start thinking and looking; it can be overwhelming.

-Jon

Still, in your case, go take a look at the Apple LCD, and expect to see some other products shipping soon at the price point you like. Good luck with your shopping.




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[John LaCava]

I am really digging the Sony right now. I found one refurb w/ 3 year warranty for £940, seems like a good price, looks like a sweet monitor!

Can get the same new for ~£1350.

Also seen on ebay over here but I tend to want a warranty on this stuff so I won't bid too high.

I wish the Sony had dual vga input. It appears to have VGA and BNC, but BNC isn't altogether that useful from where I sit.

Haven't bought anyhting yet but I'll be sure to get back to ya when I do and let ya know the resuly.

Cheers,
J