Samsung 26 inch LCD

bigtom71

Komplett have a 26" LCD screen from Samsung for €500 at the moment. This is the LE26S81. It seems to have all of the bells and whistles on it: 4,000:1 contrast ratio, 2 x HDMI points, VGA, SCART, 1066 x 768 resolution, etc.

Is there a catch as this model seems a good bit cheaper than, say, the R81 or the R83 model ofthe same size. I cannot see any difference between them bar contrast ratio (4,000 compared to 5,000).

I want to get this for watching a little analogue TV, lots of DVDs and to connect to my PC for browsing and the like. It will also be wall-mounted which shouldn't be a problem whichever model I purchase. I may go for digital TV (I had it before but wasn't using it much at the time) at some point in the future, which would obviously give me a better picture.

Am I missing something? I have my finger hovering over the 'complete purchase' button at the moment, and am wondering what to do.

Tom...

8T8

The R81/R83 are simply a newer generation panel, Samsung make incremental improvements to each of its panels and as they do this get a new name. The latest generations panels are the most expensive ones and the older panels drop in price as a result.

The S81 series isn't that old & is still a decent display so no catch.

Be aware however reading text from any LCD HDTV screen can be a bit iffy depending on your eyes as the VGA connection cannot display the native resolution of the panel (hence some distortion of the text) but the HDMI can provided you have a DVI or HDMI output.

bigtom71

Thanks for that 8T8. I was aware of the need for a digital connection for the PC and plan on getting a new graphics card to cover it. The PC is a little dated anyway and could do with updating. I saw a good cheapo card on Dabs which has a DVI connector and it should do the job for me. I hope so anyway, as saving space (i.e. using the same LCD for TV and PC) is my major selling point for the Mrs. to get a new screen (which we don't really need, of course), ha, ha.

I am going for it now; pressing the button and, ... ahhh, the endorphins kick in as I spend more money on the Internet! So sweet.

Tom...

8T8

Oh yeah one more thing when you get the TV check the display settings in particular the colour tone as by default on some of the older gen Samsung's they set the colour tone to "cool" out of the box which gave everything a blue tinge it should be set to "normal".

You may want to fiddle around with the display settings as well for TV like Sky, Chrous etc {e.g below} but play around with the settings till you get something you like, also the different profiles dynamic, movie etc can hold the settings below at different values & the profiles can be applied to any input on the TV so I would recommend having a separate profile for DVD's & at some point get an upscaling DVD player as you have two HDMI ports.
Contrast: 70
Brightness: 55
Colour:58
Sharpness:45

Don't forget to snag a DVI-HDMI cable from Dabs as well.

bigtom71

Hi 8T8,

I'm coming back with a late reply having been away on holidays. Just to update you, I actually changed my mind at the end and went for the 32" model. I had reservations about how it would fit into the room, would the picture be crap playing from an ordinary DVD player and how the computer output would turn out.

Needless to say, it is fantastic. I have not yet used it as a TV (we only have analogue anyway, i.e. four Irish stations) but it is great with DVDs and the PC/Internet. I am still waiting for a HDMI/DVI cable, but the PC display is still good nevertheless (it stretches the display a bit to make the full screen, or you can set the TV to 4:3 format). I also went and got a Keysonic wireless keyboard from Dabs, so now all I need is the lazyboy!

Thanks for your help,
Tom...

8T8

No problem, yeah the resolution can get stretched generally it only likes 1024x768 or 1360x768 over VGA with 1360 being the best option.