Official Samsung 245BW Discussion Thread

LOL little late to the party for an official thread. ah well, its a great monitor despite being TN

i use the following settings:
bright: 100
contrast: 75
red: 36
green: 46
blue: 50
 
My mom is currently using my 245BW but once I get my new rig I will take it back and let her use my 22" Acer.
 
I like the monitor, it has a bit too much gamma, and when i adjust it from the nvidia controp panel it only adjusts the desktop gamma, games still look too bright, and greys are really bad on this monitor, and some ghosting is present.......i am only keeping this because i got it from costco and they have a 1 year exchange policy, soon as they get a better model i will exchange it.
 
I've spent probably more time testing and tweaking settings on this monitor than anyone on the planet. One thing you have to know about this monitor is, you will not like it if you don't know what you are doing in regards to adjusting color / gamma / etc. If you adjust things right you can get low 900's contrast ratio with an input lag free 24 inch monitor. There is nothing really out there good for gaming in 24inches besides this and the NEC 2490 and maybe a few other variants of Samsung TN or LG Phillips IPS panels.

If you use the monitor at 100 or even 75 brightness you'll probably be blind in a week. The following phenomenon are all things I have found out for mine in particular:

- any change in brightness causes large changes in color temperature, if any factory calibration was done on these monitors, it was probably done at an outrageous brightness level making your colors horrible if you set brightness to bearable level

- On my monitor in particular, without changing any other settings besides brightness, lowering brightness all the way to 49 gives no sacrifice in contrast ratio

- If you go lower than 47 brightness you need to raise the contrast on the monitor (on my monitor and probably similar effect on most other 245bw's), otherwise your contrast ratio suffers badly

- A setting of 45brightness and 76 contrast on the monitor results in the lowest possible brightness setting I can use without sacrificing any Contrast ratio. I think I remember 47 brightness 75contrast working good as well.

- I use an RGB setting of 44 Red 39 Green 50 blue with 45 brightness 76 contrast

- The best way to "ghetto" calibrate this monitor if you don't have a calibration unit is to open up a white background (not grey or any other variant) that has black text (like a news story) and adjust the brightness until black text on white background isn't unbearably bright. To get your color settings right, open up a site that has lots of shades of grey such as http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/index.php and adjust RGB levels one by one until your greys look neutral.

- After getting your color and brightness levels correct, use Samsung Magictune Gamma Calibration utility or use a color calibration unit like Spyder 2, etc. (your monitor will not look good if you do not use one of these due to the way the stock settings are on this monitor)
 
THRESHIN said:
ghosting and bad greys? sure yours isnt defective? mine is great.
Click to expand...

Play Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, you should find a slight ghosting, also dark levels of call of duty 4 will reveal the bad greys.
 
gar818 said:
Play Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, you should find a slight ghosting, also dark levels of call of duty 4 will reveal the bad greys.
Click to expand...

i've played through COD4 start to finish and didnt notice any bad greys, even the black and white area where you're shooting from some gunship.
 
wow really, what settings are you using, can you take a high res picture of the dark scenes in COD4, maybe i do have a bad unit and need to exchange it, if you could do me this favor i would appreciate it, thanks in advance.
 
gar818 said:
Play Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, you should find a slight ghosting, also dark levels of call of duty 4 will reveal the bad greys.
Click to expand...

You just don't have your gamma ramp set correctly, run samsung magic tune and calibrate it. Keep your eyes squinty while looking at the square on screen and make sure your eyes are 100% level with the square while doing it, not above or below.
 
I think this monitor really shines in the fact that it has a 5ms input lag.
Less than half of the next best and 20 times better than most 24 inch lcd's
 
I've had this monitor since November (got in on the BF Circuit City deal for $329 AR) and I love it. One thing everyone has to remember is alot of what we think is good and bad with a monitor is subjective. This is obviously the case when one person says they notice ghosting and bad greys and another person says the exact opposite. There are lots of variables. I've played COD4, Far Cry, and Bioshock on this panel and I really don't have any complaints about it. I can't say that I notice any abnormalities when I'm involved in a shooter game. If there is bad greys (and that may be the case), I just don't notice them while running around shooting and being shot at. ;)
 
R0achTheWarHero said:
You just don't have your gamma ramp set correctly, run samsung magic tune and calibrate it. Keep your eyes squinty while looking at the square on screen and make sure your eyes are 100% level with the square while doing it, not above or below.
Click to expand...

The problem is i cannot get magictune to work on my vista x64, i even downloaed the 64bit version from the samsung website.....any ideas?
 
mine strangely didnt come with magictune but when i downloaded and ran it the damn thing totally screwed my colours. i just use the settings i have listed above.
 
sparks said:
I think this monitor really shines in the fact that it has a 5ms input lag.
Less than half of the next best and 20 times better than most 24 inch lcd's
Click to expand...

Input lag? Not refresh rate? Wondering where you got this information from, if you could post a link that would be great.
 
gar818 said:
The problem is i cannot get magictune to work on my vista x64, i even downloaed the 64bit version from the samsung website.....any ideas?
Click to expand...

Run it in a virtual machine. If you run Vista 64 I highly recommend either Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 or VMWare player, both of which are free. For VMWare player you need an existing VM or you can convert the Virtual PC disk image to a VMWare image (just uninstall the Virtual PC extensions first.) You can install Windows XP 32 bit in the virtual environment. The VMWare products even support USB port mapping in the virtual environment, makes using a 64bit OS full time very feasible (other than games that don't support the 64 bit environment.) My Virtual PC boots in about 6 seconds - if its not already running), way better than dual booting.

[Edit - if this software (which I don't have) requires the machine to recognize the monitor, you may need to use the dual boot option.)

The other option is to install WinXP in a dual boot environment, which also has its benefits. It miiight work with a CD bootable windows image such as BartPE, but I haven't tried that.
 
i really think some people are just way to picky with monitors kinda like audiophiles.

I got my 245BW a few weeks ago, my first 24" and i love it, no dead pixels the color looks fine to me i never adjusted anything other than brightness i moved to like 88 i think.

Game are simply amazing, no ghosting and the screen is so big you really get lost in the game i love it!

with an 8800gtx everything game i have thrown at it plays at max settings at 1900x1200 except fro crysis lol

best monitor i have ever owned
 
im very picky with monitors, i like this monitor but it needs to be calibrated a bit before it gets better.........if your a casual gamer who does not pay attention to detail, you wont complain much and notice minor imperfections.
 
I am rather picky about monitors and from the few dozen I looked at the 245BW was the best of the best. It does not ghost at all as far as I can tell even in crazy high paced games such as UT3 on a 3x game speed Instagib CTF server.

The colors look clean, gray is gray, black is black, and white is white, no light bleeding crap like my laptop does in the corners of the screen.

This monitor never leaves the 1920x1200 resolution setting, it gets used for UT2k4, UT3, Bioshock, WoW, Portal/HL2/TF2, even with AA off edges look great at such high reso and size but my 8800GT runs at burning hot nearly all the time due to the stress of pushing so many pixels, the 8800GT will go to my parents computer when the 9800GTX comes out.

The only gripe I have about the monitor is the heat output, if I play for 3-4 hours on UT3 I swear my face starts to melt from the heat the screen puts out, I would go so far as to say the back top side of the monitor is about as hot as heatsinks on the gskill ddr2 ram I run.
 
sparks said:
I think this monitor really shines in the fact that it has a 5ms input lag.
Less than half of the next best and 20 times better than most 24 inch lcd's
Click to expand...

I think it is 8ms input lag on average (half a frame delay?).
 
here are some good settings

red = 49
green = 43
blue = 52

brightness = 74
contrast = 50
 
gar818 said:
here are some good settings
red = 49
green = 43
blue = 52
brightness = 74
contrast = 50
Click to expand...

Those settings are awful, you don't want to change your monitor contrast to anything other than 75 or 76 then brightness should be anywhere from around 43 to 49. As for color settings, those will be different for each monitor.

Mine is bright enough to blind someone at 45brightness 76 contrast.
 
R0achTheWarHero said:
Those settings are awful, you don't want to change your monitor contrast to anything other than 75 or 76 then brightness should be anywhere from around 43 to 49. As for color settings, those will be different for each monitor.

Mine is bright enough to blind someone at 45brightness 76 contrast.
Click to expand...

actually these settings give the best color reproduction and make the greys look good, best settings so far for me.
 
So what's the general response in terms of how I should calibrate these new monitors?

I ended up returning my Westinghouse 24'' monitors on account of continued defective units and managed to snag 2 Samsung 245BW's at $375 each here in Canada at a pretty sweet deal I think.

Not many people have posted colour settings and the one person who did someone said they were quite poor.

Any more recommendations?
 
InFeXiOn said:
So what's the general response in terms of how I should calibrate these new monitors?

I ended up returning my Westinghouse 24'' monitors on account of continued defective units and managed to snag 2 Samsung 245BW's at $375 each here in Canada at a pretty sweet deal I think.

Not many people have posted colour settings and the one person who did someone said they were quite poor.

Any more recommendations?
Click to expand...
i also would like to know.... seems not many people have this monitor?
 
i have this monitor...

view angles bad.
i was using it at stock settings until i saw this thread and i use the other guy's settings now.

overall im content with this monitor.. good enough for gaming and movies for me. i may get another one of these when prices drop... or the Gateway fhd2400. dunno yet.
 
i also see this at costco for $400. looks like a good monitor and a very great company. might pick one up today. :)
 
mempho_to_diego said:
i also see this at costco for $400. looks like a good monitor and a very great company. might pick one up today. :)
Click to expand...

I got my 245BW from Costco for $399 (+ $50 rebate that expired 12/31). Look around for newer rebates, I used newegg's rebate form because it did not specify newegg.

You buy at Costco and no worries about dead pixel returns. And $399 is what you would pay after rebate at newegg or amazon.

This is a *great* monitor. There is lots of anti-TN panel bias around. I guess it is justified if you are a photographer/graphic artist and need perfect color reproduction or use it as a TV and watch from bad angles.

But if you are looking for a 24" Monitor for working/surfing/gaming the 245BW is the best deal out there. I looked at plenty of 24 inchers & I do have a 19" MVA panel Viewsonic so I am well aware of the difference between TN and MVA/PVA panels.

That Westinghouse MVA that people are suggesting got 4/10 review at ExtremeTech, won't go into standby mode and has serious ergonomic issues. No way I would get that monitor over the 245BW. People are buying it just because it is not TN panel.

The 245BW colors look great to me, no noticable lag when gaming, but what I love most about this monitor is the text. It is razor sharp. I am a programmer, work 10 hours a day on this thing, and it is best monitor I have ever had for sharp, clear text. :)
 
pg60, this solidifies on why i'm going to buy this monitor today. i also don't care if it is a TN-panel, as i'll be looking at this monitor straight on about 99.9% of the time. I got a 32" vizio for watching tv, etc ... so i'll be content with this monitor.
 
mempho_to_diego said:
pg60, this solidifies on why i'm going to buy this monitor today. i also don't care if it is a TN-panel, as i'll be looking at this monitor straight on about 99.9% of the time. I got a 32" vizio for watching tv, etc ... so i'll be content with this monitor.
Click to expand...

agreed! i get sick of the TN bashing around here. if a TN isnt good enough for you, then get something better, be happy and quit your bitching. if you can accept the drawbacks of TN and its good enough for you, then hey you just saved a few hundred dollars! cool!
 
THRESHIN said:
agreed! i get sick of the TN bashing around here. if a TN isnt good enough for you, then get something better, be happy and quit your bitching. if you can accept the drawbacks of TN and its good enough for you, then hey you just saved a few hundred dollars! cool!
Click to expand...

certified!
 
pg60 said:
The 245BW colors look great to me, no noticable lag when gaming, but what I love most about this monitor is the text. It is razor sharp. I am a programmer, work 10 hours a day on this thing, and it is best monitor I have ever had for sharp, clear text. :)
Click to expand...
Good to hear. I'm going to pick mine up now.
 
I have to agree with you guys. I just bought the 245BW over the christmas. So far, I am very happy with the monitor. As for viewing angle, since I am sitting in front of the monitor like most people, I do not have any issue with viewing angle.
 
Ah, I'm loving this monitor so far. It is much better than the other TN film panels I have/had have. I watched the Matrix in 1080p and it is smokin'! :cool:
I got it at Costco and it has no backlight bleed nor dead pixels!

What should I use to calibrate it? I have OS X installed on a HDD I can boot to and use the monitor calibrating tool that comes with it or should I use some other software?

One of my gripes with the 245BW is that I can see the difference in lag time between it and some 2MS monitors I have. I don't notice it when the monitor is by itself, though, only when directly compared to a faster one.

I will post pix if someone wants some.
 
u're probably just seeing a bit of the afterglow, i notice that too on my desktop (white mouse cursor, win95/98 green background - i'm a little oldskool:p) and without any RTA it does make a slight difference. thats my only gripe about this monitor, wish it had a GOOD rta or something to reduce afterglow.
 
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