Is this a decent LCD?

I'm Glad the T240 is working for you, my next Samsung LCD will probably be in the 24 to 28" range but must support swivel to portrait mode.

It looks like Samsung is revising the 25" line because the LCd I was thinking about is no longer available.

Shaf

NEC has a new 23" IPS-based LCD coming soon called EA231WMi priced at $379. It's ordinary 16:9 widescreen with 1080p resolution. The IPS is apparently cheaper because of different manufacturing method compared to older IPS panels.

AFAIR new methods to manufacture cheap variations of IPS panel have been found - but with compromises in picture quality. Which puts them between TN and (real) IPS.

Samsung also has a relatively cheap 23" TFT with an advanced panel for something like 250€. I don't remember which panel exactly. The problem with this TFT is that it requires proper calibration. Without this step the picture quality sucks. After calibration it's clearly better than TN panel TFTs. I cannot say how good it is compared to more expensive serious TFTs though. I suspect a carefully chosen 500€ TFT is once again clearly better.

The NEC is the direct competition to this Samsung. Generally speaking the NEC should blow it away.

Originally Posted by hishadow
Would you mind posting some impressions in a new thread after you get to test it?

Hi,

I put the project on hold until they iron out the bugs and threw all my money on dolby surround (I had 10€ speakers that were 5-years old). However Im still going to get this 3d screen in future. Its spreading to consoles too i.e all sony playstation 3 games:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/02/v…rting-in-2010/

Latest games like Avatar have full support for it. However after getting used to big 52" screens Im not that eager to play through 22" screen. Even then I might need to buy a new gpu for bigger screens because the 3d demands like double performance from hardware. Ill just keep tabs on it and see if they bring out new screens for it:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/01/s…eing-3d-vaios/

If I buy an LCD that is 16:10 (1920x1200) instead of 16:9 (1920x1080), I can still watch movies and play a console system on it right? I assume it will just have a small black border on the top and bottom, correct?

That, or alternatively you can scale it to 16:10. Some monitors have pretty neat anamorphic scaling for this, so you won't even notice.

Originally Posted by Prime Junta
That, or alternatively you can scale it to 16:10. Some monitors have pretty neat anamorphic scaling for this, so you won't even notice.

Thanks, I will definitely check for that.

Speaking of LCDs, my 24" Samsung LCD died yesterday. And my old replacement monitor is far away. It's like … Hell! Imagine, no radio, no TV, no telephone (ok, I still have a normal phone), nothing to read, nothing to play, no Internet at home. At the same time it's very interesting, I'm outside more, go to bed earlier and I'm generally doing stuff I never thought of doing before. And no, I'm not only talking about cleaning up.

Fortunately it still had warranty. First time experience with that, and so far I'm very happy about it. I don't even have to send in anything myself, I'm going to be brought a replacement LCD in 3-4 days by Samsung and they'll pick up the broken one for repairs. The hotline guy was very nice and helpful too — I was surprised, given my previous experiences with other hotlines (like Internet providers).

Walp, my computer's system disk croaked the day before yesterday. I got a replacement and started re-installing, but something went wrong while it was running updates, and it started bluescreening on boot. Back to square one…

(I want a Mac, dammit!)

My next one will probably be a 30" capable of 2560x1600, a purchase I might do in a couple of years. My old 22" is still going strong though. I have been watching Samsung SyncMaster 305T and it's starting to fall in the pricerange I can handle, but I am going to lay back for them to iron out the issues and get some competition.

Originally Posted by Prime Junta
(I want a Mac, dammit!)

Why?

Originally Posted by JDR13
Why?

Better hardware, better OS for everything but gaming, ability to boot to Windows to play games …

Originally Posted by txa1265
Better hardware, better OS for everything but gaming, ability to boot to Windows to play games …

I say that compatibility and accessibility have a larger importance than speed, power and gadgets. I find this philosophy universal, whether I am buying a computer, a car or a mobile phone etc.

Originally Posted by txa1265
Better hardware, better OS for everything but gaming, ability to boot to Windows to play games …

That's all I need to know.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Why?

Because installing and configuring a Windows system is a royal PITA compared to installing and configuring an OS X system. I'm going to spend all weekend getting my box to work properly again, and there are things I'd MUCH rather spend my time on. It's so incredibly tedious that suddenly throwing several thousand bucks at the problem feels like a very tempting thing to do. There are a few other reasons, but that's it mainly.

I'm not gonna switch now, though, and with any luck by Monday I'll have the box humming along nicely, at which point I'll forget about it until something goes pop again (or I really want to upgrade).

Originally Posted by JDR13
That's all I need to know.

It isn't that the Mac is bad for games, it is that very few games are released Mac first. I am playing one such game right now that won't see a PC release until next year … but in general games like NWN2 and CoD4 run slower on the Mac side of teh same system due to porting …

Originally Posted by txa1265
it is that very few games are released Mac first. …

Or at all!

Well, I *think* my box is off life support again. The bluescreen appears to have been caused by one particular driver update, which I've now blocked, and everything appears normal. Of course, I've just got the OS (and my personal files) up at this point — none of my software is back. More fun due tomorrow and for the weekend…

And I received the temporary replacement monitor just now, yay! Not too good, that one, but I can like, see stuff again.

I actually had to reinstall my apps too, recently, although it was a bit more planned than your crash, PJ. There was no direct upgrade path from Vista 32 to Win7 64, so I copied everything important to another partition, rebooted with the install DVD, had the setup program format my windows partition and installed Windows 7 without a hitch. Software will be installed incrementally as I need it. Aside from mail, browser etc., of course — those I need always.

I finally got around to getting that new monitor.

I went with the Samsung T240HD.