SAMSUNG LCD Monitors ***Buyer Beware***

I just returned home with my second Samsung 206BW LCD monitor which as a strong blue prominance in it's colors.

After researching this problem, I discovered the Samsung Nightmare and consumer russian roulette:
http://www.behardware.com/articles/667- ... rdict.html

In short, is you buy a Samsung LCD monitor, chances are you will get a 3rd party panel with the Samsung sticker on it w/o the quality you would expect.

I'm now in the market for one of the following:

Apple Cinema Series >=20'
or
HP LP2465

Q for computer GURUS: The Apple monitors have an DVI plug-in and my PC only has an analog plug with a videao card that is built in the motherboard.....Can I purchase a new card to accomadate the Apple monitor or am I restricted to analog monitors only?

Marc[/url]

Marc the Apple CS came highly recommend by several NSN members so I took their advice and ordered the 20" from B&H Photo with Free Shipping a few months back. I've been nothing but pleased with it over my previous ViewSonic Pro Series.

If your board has the necessary slot to handle the video card its a fairly easy task to install one with DVI. You need to verify that and what exactly type slot it is.

I think that is a bit over the top of a topic considering very few monitor companies make their own panels. Did you know the same panel is in the Apple Cinema and Dell 20" LCD? Its the other components that make the bigger difference.

I have read that article recently on BEHardware and it looks like its addressed through calibration, either way Samsung is releasing a 226CW which is supposed to be S panels.

I am curious if you have calibrated your LCD or just using them at 6500 Kelvin?

On to your PC question. You need to look to see if your card will support the native resolution of your monitor. If it doesn't you need to find out if you can disable the onboard video card and install another card preferrably a PCI express X16. If your card supports the monitor, say 1900x1200 for the HP, then I there are DVI to DB-15 adapters that come with a lot of monitors. In fact you get 2 of them with the HP monitor. Go to Newegg.com and look at whats included.

Hope that helps

As for your question, I am assuming your graphics card has a 15 pin VGA connector only and you need to make it work on a DVI monitor. The HP takes care of this for you by providing you a cable for exactly that purpose with the monitor.

Alternately, you could get a new graphics card. Any graphics card without DVI outputs is ancient - at leat 5 years and possibly older since it came to market. Even cheap cards today would be substantially superior.

I'm using a Samsung 215TW LCD monitor and have no problems with it. Calibration is very good and have no problems with bad pixels.

Interesting link.
I have 2 Samsung LCD televisions, and a 913T monitor, and they've all been great.
Sounds like they really made a bad decision with who did the outsourcing on the panel on that model.

T Series Samsung LCDs are the higher end units, the B Series are the 6 bit screens. Hence the price difference of about $200 for the 244T and the 244B.

Stu

I have the Apple 23" Cinema Display and couldn't be happier. I highly recommend it.

I just purchased a 20" Apple Cinema Series LCD Monitor. Problem solved.

Thanks All!

Marc

Good choice Marc _ did you calibrate it?

Tsmith wrote:Good choice Marc _ did you calibrate it?

I just finished installing the monitor (also needed a DVI compatible video card for my PC)....

Out of the box looks surreal! The colors, quality of the panel is up 10folds from my previous 15" NEC CRT.

I never thought the pictures could look so good on screen.

I'm going to callibrate it now and get back with my results.

Viva Apple!

I'm looking at a Samsung 305T, tried it for a couple days.

Good range on the brightness adjustment, you can turn black into black,
most LCD's even at the lowest backlight level I find too bright.

The out of box colors look good.
One weakness is the lack of HDCP and no internal scaling,
so it rules out using it as a HDTV display.

The antiglare matte is on the strong side so you get some silk screen effect on bright colors.

My 24" monitor looks small after using the 30".

Also, looked at the new Alu iMac 24", very nice as well.
Uses a IPS screen with a glass panel so no silk screen effect,
its a bright screen but that works well to cut down reflections.

I find photos just look amazing the the imac screen,
with the glossy glass finish.