advice requested on new monitor

[rob123]

ive got my eye on a samsung syncmaster 20 inch widescreen monitor.
i believe the model number is 206bw.

i mostly watch movies and avi's with the ocaissonal game. had some grief with a samsung the other dya but have been told i had the settings wrong.

the demo in the store was run off a toshiba laptop at the same time the laptop was running its own display. it used integrated graphics.

i have a p4 2.8ghz wih an ati x800 xk 256 mb video card and 1 gig ram.

plz telel me if this monitor can be run by my system.

as i mentioned the other day i bought a samsung and played some avi's on it. the colours were not going very well. particularly skin tones. the cheap ass ones at work can do a better job than that so i asked around and was ( as i mentioned) told i had done something wrong

thx for help and info

rob123

[enaberif]

your system won't make much diffference when it comes to the monitors performance. The video card will play a bigger role if you want to play games in a larger resolution than 1024 and such.

Samsung and LG are two of the best brands you can buy out there right now and you might want to think about a 22" instead of 20" as you gain more vertical desktop space than you would with a 20"

[CMetaphor]

I'd recommend the BenQ FP222w, its a 22' widescreen monitor with 5ms response time and a resolution of 1680x1050. I personally bought this monitor aftert alot of searching and its simply gorgeous. It has very clear images (using senseye) and very simple but elegant design along withboth dvi and vga inputs. Also, the newer version (fp222wh) has an HDMI Input, hehe.
And the best part is it's not even $350 right now.
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...nufacture=BENQ

[Jmac]

Well, it definitely sounds like you want a TN + Film panel as those are generally the best for gaming and movies. A good MVA/PVA panel would also fit the bill nicely as well as providing you with better image quality and viewing angles, but expect to pay roughly $150 - $300 more.

One thing that you'll probably want to do is properly calibrate the monitor and definitely use the DVI connection if you can. If you can't afford to buy a hardware calibrator (most people aren't willing to drop $150+ to calibrate a monitor), you can use software calibration. It's not quite as effective, but helps immensely as very few monitors come properly calibrated from the factory.

This article on calibration is from TFT Central, an awesome resource for anyone interested in LCD monitors, how they work, and what to look for.

TFT Central

[rob123]

and to jmac for the calibration page. will let you know how it goes. am going to buy the monitor tomorrow.

cheers

rob

[mo' power]

Great calibration tool! It made a nice difference on my new monitor. Thanks. (deserves a sticky)

[rob123]

just a minute or so ago turned it on after hooking up the
syncmaster 206bw. havent even loaded the driver yet and already its better than the other one i bought.

i went to the calibration page enclosed by jmac (thx again)
all the scales are visible as intended.

only thing i had to do was turn down the brightness and contrast. seems to come on set at 100% for both.

will try the drivers soon and post results

rob123

[sswilson]

Originally Posted by rob123

just a minute or so ago turned it on after hooking up the
syncmaster 206bw. havent even loaded the driver yet and already its better than the other one i bought.

i went to the calibration page enclosed by jmac (thx again)
all the scales are visible as intended.

only thing i had to do was turn down the brightness and contrast. seems to come on set at 100% for both.

will try the drivers soon and post results

rob123

Yeah, you could find your way out of the darkest depths of hell with the brightness settings the samsungs default to. I think I've got mine set to 30% :) .

So do you think you had a bum monitor, or were your settings messed up?

[rob123]

i think it was the bum (me) who was screwing with all the new settings he had to play with and couldnt figure out how he screwed it up.

the display set itself to 1152 X 864 and there seems to be no problem. the detail in dvd's is incredible and all the avi's i have tried are very watchable. there seems to be minor and barely detectable motion blurring.

is it really necessary to install the drivers that came with the monitor?. after my ecxperience with the bios i owuls rather not screw with something thats working.

on another note: i got that drive back from seagate/maxtor: the box says it is refurbished byt the drive says nothing on it. it was manufactured in jul 2006. either its new or this model is worse than i thought.

[sswilson]

You won't experience any problems installing the drivers for a monitor.

It's not like a bios flash that might pooch your system, it's just something that's going to give your OS a bit more info than Plug&Play can.

I believe the samsung drivers also install a program to adjust your monitor settings from within windows.