OT: Samsung 245BW Monitor deal

bbcdrum wrote on 12/29/2007, 10:51 PM
I just picked up a Samsung 245BW 24" widescreen monitor at Costco for $400. Samsung has a $50 rebate on that model through 12/31/07. (sorry for the short notice, just found it today.) Seems like a pretty good deal to me. Newegg has it for $460 before rebate.

So far, I like the monitor. It looks great to my eye and there is so much real estate! (I'm replacing a 19") It is pretty no-frills, though. No usb, no speakers (except with separate add-on) and it has just DVI and RGB connections. It works for me though.

Kevin

Comments

craftech wrote on 12/30/2007, 4:40 AM
Thanks for sharing the deal.

One note on that monitor though. It isn't useful for serious work in video editing or especially photo editing. The gradation is not uniform especially if you move your head slightly. Off axis viewing is especially bad. There are much better LCD monitors that don't do that.

John
Dan Sherman wrote on 12/30/2007, 6:09 AM
What are the better LCD displays?
I mean, apart from Sony of course.
Harold Brown wrote on 12/30/2007, 11:42 AM
I have a Gateway FHD2400 and it is very nice. It has received very good reviews and I love it! I can pivot the monitor and it auto switches to portrait. Great when you have 20 or so time lines in Vegas. Tons of connections. I prefer the glass screen which gives better contrast. Along with the EZTune software is what gives it its good rating.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2213483,00.asp
Ben1000 wrote on 12/30/2007, 6:58 PM
Howdy...

I'd have to agree. I have this monitor on my surfing/email computer, but after having used it for a couple of month now, I would agree there's no way I could use this for serious work.

The colors are not uniform across the entire breadth of the screen, left to right or top to bottom. The backlighting is also not uniform. Also, while the DVI input works very well, the VGA input is unusable for me, as it adds verticle line artifacts across the display which I am unable to get rid of.

It's a great monitor, and a good deal, but not for video or photo work. I use a DELL monitor for that, which looks a lot better...

-Ben


essami wrote on 12/31/2007, 2:35 AM
>Gateway FHD2400

This looks really nice. Anyone know if its available from anywhere in Europe? Or if anyone can point to a similar display on the same price range?

Sami
craftech wrote on 12/31/2007, 10:12 AM
Ditto on the Gateway and no, it is not avaliable in the UK. Only the Gateway FPD2485W is available there which is not as good.

Also good in a 24 inch is the HP LP2465 and the Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP-HC and the NEC MultiSync LCD2490WUXi and the ViewSonic VX2435WM

John

bbcdrum wrote on 12/31/2007, 9:45 PM
John,

Thanks for explaining what my eyes were seeing. After spending both night and daylight hours looking at the monitor, I started having to work too hard to see a uniform image and my eyes got fatigued. You're right, off-axis is pretty bad,

I returned it this afternoon. I guess it's time to save up for a non-TN panel. Any recommendations in the $600-800 range?

Thanks.

Kevin

edit: Just saw your post with suggested monitors. All but the NEC are in my price range. Thanks!
scottbrickert wrote on 1/2/2008, 5:47 PM
Thanks for pointing out the FHD2400. I actually had an HPw2408 on order at Amazon for $463 shipped. I re-read the reviews and realized the price difference bought better screen performance and more connections, so cancelled the HP.

Circuit City has the FHD2400 on sale for $499, free shipping, plus tax, but they're out of stock.

For further info, I highly recommend this LCD thread on Anandtech (before reading it, I was ignorant, now, much less so). It includes a list of recommendations per usage.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=31&threadid=2049206&enterthread=y

Coursedesign wrote on 1/2/2008, 7:02 PM
Don't forget the Westinghouse L2410NM, which I think is now available for $350.

Outstanding picture quality, with separately adjustable black level and white level (and much more).

I have two of these, couldn't be happier with the picture.

The controls take some getting used to, after that it is easy. Nice external design, too. Search forum for more info on this, Newegg is also a source.

I bought mine after seeing 2 years of consistently good reviews for Westinghouse.
essami wrote on 1/2/2008, 7:41 PM
Thank you for the good suggestions! Its surprisingly difficult to find a good monitor in Finland :)

I can order Dell monitors but I dont see the model crafttech mentioned available in European site of Dell. More suggestions would be very welcome with places to purchase from in Europe. Im looking into spending around 400-600 euros. The size doesnt matter 19"-22" would be optimal for me. Ill be using it to edit EX1 footage with Vegas 8.

Sami
riredale wrote on 1/2/2008, 7:45 PM
I'll chime in here with my lovely and shockingly inexpensive 24" Soyo, available through OfficeMax. Fantastic P-MVA panel with no black level shift as you move your head around, excellent color saturation and uniformity, but very basic VGA and DVI connections, however. Also, there have been reports of an early failure rate that happens to some of them within the first week or two. After that, the panels seem to run forever-- mine's been on continuously since mid-August.

The shocker?--Bought it for $290. If it holds up, an amazing value. So far, it's holding up fine.

EDIT:
Finland, eh? Hmmm... OfficeMax is probably not within walking distance...

Well, at the very least you can surf to here to learn all about the various types of LCD panels. I had no idea there were all these different technologies out there, but there are major differences between them. I had just purchased a decent 22" Emprex last fall until I saw that website and realized that the panel was just a simple TN type, with huge black level shifts as I bobbed my head up and down. Sold it to someone else and got the Soyo.
briggs wrote on 1/3/2008, 9:37 AM
I just got the DoubleSight DS-245W from NewEgg which is a Samsung and 8-bit. Currently $440 after rebate.

I am just now hooking it up... so no hands-on performance review yet, but some of you might be interested in considering it.
JFJ wrote on 1/6/2008, 3:55 PM
How does eveyone feel about the samsung syncmaster 226CW (not bw)?

But, for dual monitor, I still think a flat-panel + a crt is more beneficial (combined with a TV monitor).