![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
Hi, decided to register on here as I'm fairly sick of trying to sort this stuff out on my own...
After much prevarication as an LCD novice, I decided to buy a Samsung 226bw for around $370 (from amazon.co.uk, if that's of any interest) the other day and take my chances on the panel lottery. Well, it looks like I lost (not that the back sticker/secret menu will tell me). There's pretty heavy backlight bleed (something I can just about put up with, I think - its pretty common to have some, apparently), but more significantly, I've got a pretty heavy blue tint - something that really shows up when I'm reading, which is something I have to do quite a bit of. It leaves colours such as greys and yellows looking washed out, blurry and uncomfortable on the eye. I can partially aid it by putting the colour in 'warm mode', though - that worsens the appearance of other images, though, which is a shame as the monitor can do a lot of things very well.
Anyway, I've got options - here's where you people can help me
First of all, I could complain and try and insist Amazon send me another monitor - demanding/hoping its a better one, as this is 'faulty' - apparently significant backlight bleed counts as a fault. However, there's no guarantee on what I'll get and doing a bit of reading on this site, I saw someone say the 226bw is now out of production and all those still available are the As and Cs.
I've also got the right (for a few more days) to cancel the contract and send the screen back no questions asked if I want. I could then buy another monitor - what's the current state of play with monitors? I've found it really hard to research the area, especially when you take panel issues into account - so many reviews are old, for example - what does 9/10 in 2006 mean in 2008? I want a 22" monitor for something in the region of £200 ($400 or so) - for general use, reading and gaming mainly.
Another option I have is to keep this monitor and set about calibrating it. Some say this can tune an A panel up to S standard - not so sure about C. If so, where should I look for info on doing this? Magic tune isn't working for some reason, and I seem to be doing something wrong with the file provided here - http://www.behardware.com/articles/667-3/samsung-226bw-a-and-s-series-the-verdict.html . Using the instructions for my Vista, I have no OK button for the final act required - after I make the profile my default, I click on the advanced tab, select the profile in the top drop down menu and then have no OK button to click. There is a close button, but nothing at all noticeable happens - either the profile makes no difference, or, more likely, there's something wrong with the process (me?).
I think that's everything. Just pretty sick of the whole business, having spent a long time (trying to) research the area prior to buying. Oh yeah, one other thing - taking my monitor through the tests on this website - http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ , it largely seems fine apart from the white saturation tests, where even the second line down is almost invisible. I can just make out two of the bottom line if I turn the contrast to zero, but obviously that's a pretty unsatisfactory solution.
Anyway, that really is it. Thanks for reading and offering any assistance. Just wanting to know what my next move should be.
Dunno
After much prevarication as an LCD novice, I decided to buy a Samsung 226bw for around $370 (from amazon.co.uk, if that's of any interest) the other day and take my chances on the panel lottery. Well, it looks like I lost (not that the back sticker/secret menu will tell me). There's pretty heavy backlight bleed (something I can just about put up with, I think - its pretty common to have some, apparently), but more significantly, I've got a pretty heavy blue tint - something that really shows up when I'm reading, which is something I have to do quite a bit of. It leaves colours such as greys and yellows looking washed out, blurry and uncomfortable on the eye. I can partially aid it by putting the colour in 'warm mode', though - that worsens the appearance of other images, though, which is a shame as the monitor can do a lot of things very well.
Anyway, I've got options - here's where you people can help me
First of all, I could complain and try and insist Amazon send me another monitor - demanding/hoping its a better one, as this is 'faulty' - apparently significant backlight bleed counts as a fault. However, there's no guarantee on what I'll get and doing a bit of reading on this site, I saw someone say the 226bw is now out of production and all those still available are the As and Cs.I've also got the right (for a few more days) to cancel the contract and send the screen back no questions asked if I want. I could then buy another monitor - what's the current state of play with monitors? I've found it really hard to research the area, especially when you take panel issues into account - so many reviews are old, for example - what does 9/10 in 2006 mean in 2008? I want a 22" monitor for something in the region of £200 ($400 or so) - for general use, reading and gaming mainly.
Another option I have is to keep this monitor and set about calibrating it. Some say this can tune an A panel up to S standard - not so sure about C. If so, where should I look for info on doing this? Magic tune isn't working for some reason, and I seem to be doing something wrong with the file provided here - http://www.behardware.com/articles/667-3/samsung-226bw-a-and-s-series-the-verdict.html . Using the instructions for my Vista, I have no OK button for the final act required - after I make the profile my default, I click on the advanced tab, select the profile in the top drop down menu and then have no OK button to click. There is a close button, but nothing at all noticeable happens - either the profile makes no difference, or, more likely, there's something wrong with the process (me?).
I think that's everything. Just pretty sick of the whole business, having spent a long time (trying to) research the area prior to buying. Oh yeah, one other thing - taking my monitor through the tests on this website - http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ , it largely seems fine apart from the white saturation tests, where even the second line down is almost invisible. I can just make out two of the bottom line if I turn the contrast to zero, but obviously that's a pretty unsatisfactory solution.
Anyway, that really is it. Thanks for reading and offering any assistance. Just wanting to know what my next move should be.
Dunno