Samsung 226BW 22": 3000:1 Contrast, 2ms response time

spincut said:
you never said whether you had an S or an A panel, but the bakclight bleed picture looks alot worse than 226's "A" panel pictures (dont let that freak you out though if you dont notice when it's on), as i said before the backlight bleed varies from piece to piece not necesarily A or S.
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I think he said his is an S panel. But one thing I have noticed when trying to take a picture of mine, is that the photo always comes out far worse than how the monitor actually looks. I can't see any backlight bleed on mine, yet the camera makes it look bad when I take a picture of it without the flash.
 
yeah but since both were taken as a picture it's an all things equal situation (and 226's pics look even less bleedy, which is interesting since his is an A panel, as i dont think the panel is the cause, but the assembly making the bleed vary from monitor to monitor period thus far).
 
7331 said:
OK, I agree, but let's just look at the banding. Most of us are gamers. What if Crysis will be "not the best game to show off a widescreen" type of game too? What if Unreal Tournament 3 is so too? If we buy this monitor, will we have the fear each time we buy a game that it'll show such banding? :(

I'm slowly giving this monitor up. Is there a 22" monitor that:
- Has zero banding, guaranteed
- Each monitor you'll buy is the same panel, no lottery
- Has low backlight bleeding
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The only time I've ever seen banding, is in a few games, and its always in the sky, no where else in the game. I'm not sure why that is, but I blame the game author for it. Not all games are that way, and it doesn't bother me much.

I've never once seen it in any digital photos, only in some rare wallpaper or the sky in some games.
 
spincut said:
you never said whether you had an S or an A panel, but the bakclight bleed picture looks alot worse than 226's "A" panel pictures (dont let that freak you out though if you dont notice when it's on), as i said before the backlight bleed varies from piece to piece not necesarily A or S.
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If you read it again, you'll find.
btw it is an S, i REPEAT 'S' PANEL :)
And as i mentioned, the blacklight bleed is not bad at all, on the picture it looks more serious, but i think it is because of the really low shutter speed (if my photographic knowledge is exact :) )

ps: thx sylva, will try to make some photos, when i'll get some time, and normal light for it ;)
 
tc17 said:
The only time I've ever seen banding, is in a few games, and its always in the sky, no where else in the game. I'm not sure why that is, but I blame the game author for it. Not all games are that way, and it doesn't bother me much.
I've never once seen it in any digital photos, only in some rare wallpaper or the sky in some games.
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Thanks a lot for making that clear. I'm very disturbed by this banding situation and it's the only reason I'm not buying this monitor.

Do you have an S panel or an A one? Could you open this link and take a picture of the monitor showing the gradients?
Test Pic: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/#gradient
 
Anyone in the Las Vegas area still getting 'S' panels?

I'm going to pick up in CC or Frys (Las Vegas) end of the month, and I really hope its a Samsung panel.

Though, "A" panel crappiness still is not substantiated...it seems like a trend is starting already.

Thanks.
 
I was wondering if there's still any need for high resolution pictures?
I'm free tonight due to the rain. I guess something good can come of it for you folks :D

PS. I have the S panel.
 
bobbywang said:
I was wondering if there's still any need for high resolution pictures?
I'm free tonight due to the rain. I guess something good can come of it for you folks :D
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YES!! Please Please Please Please..... :)

I need hq pictures of this monitor showing gradients. I need to see if there is really exteme banding like some people say.
 
side by side comparisons are also always nice (especially between the 206 and 226 ot the different panel versions since we dont ever seem to have enough of those).
 
Banding is not an issue with my A panel, don't be disturbed by it. If that is your only hang up, then get this panel. Looking at the solid color pictures, there is definitely a large gradient in most of them, especially purple. After having this monitor for a week, I am finding that the difference in brightness from the bottom to the top is bothersome. The bottom seems too bright in comparison to the top. Especially if you have the top of the monitor around eye level (best ergonomics).

Incidentally, I asked Newegg about getting an S vs an A panel, so I could do a direct comparison, but they, of course, do not open the boxes so they cannot identify the panel. I asked that they give Samsung a little flak for their somewhat duplicitous action and they said that they would pass this along to their purchasing department.

Pete
 
My local futureshop finally started carrying the samsung yesterday... So i went to the store today and picked one up.... SO far looks great, got an S' panel... Pretty happy with it so far!
 
Like I posted earlier, I dont think there is a difference between the AUO and the Samsung panel, they have the same specs. People here are just freaking out and making assumptions about which is better.

My S panel has very uneven lighting. When I display a beautiful girl (clothed :D )as my desktop, her skin tones at the bottom are much brighter compared to the top. I didn't do any sort of obsessive compulsive testing to determine this, it was just something that caught my attention and annoyed me. Do I jump to rash conclusions that ALL S panels are bad??

No.

I just need to go back to CircuitCity and replace me monitor. :rolleyes:
 
Mine showed up today, it's an "A" panel (it figures, with everyone else now getting "S" panels).

It looks pretty good but I'm having zero success in getting the color set correctly. Even with color temp set to "WARM" the whites look very blue and the whole thing looks a tad bit washed out. :confused:
 
Bought that Neo-Flex stand from Stapples. It holds very well, and is muuucccchhhh better than that piece of junky plasticy slapped on by Samsung. Highly recommend it :)

Can tilt, swivel, go up and down, etc etc. I believe it can even by rotated into portrait mode but the monitor may be a shade big to do that on my desk :)
 
Today I picked up two of these panels, turns out one is an A, and one is an S... Right now, one is hooked up two my laptop, and the other by a VGA connection from my desktop.. I'm gonna pick up a new video card this week with dual dvi, and will take some picks...
 
I emailed samsung today about the two Panels.I explained to them about the possible fallout with the use of the A panel.Was hoping for some answers but no good.It only made it to tech support at samung USA but they did give me the address of corporate headquarters and they said the higher ups will reply to customer questions and ideas.Here it is! Samsung Electronics USA

Office of the President

400 Valley Road, Suite 201

Mt. Arlington, NJ 07856

973-601-6000
 
Gamefreak99 said:
Bought that Neo-Flex stand from Stapples. It holds very well, and is muuucccchhhh better than that piece of junky plasticy slapped on by Samsung. Highly recommend it :)

Can tilt, swivel, go up and down, etc etc. I believe it can even by rotated into portrait mode but the monitor may be a shade big to do that on my desk :)
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It shouldn't be a problem to put it into portrait mode with the stand. Just make sure that the monitor on the stand is all the way up before you turn it to the portrait position. Just be careful when rotating - ya don't want to yank those cables out and damage anything.

The only problem I've had with the monitor so far is that I can't wait to get home from work to play. I put a cheap TV card in the system and watch CSI re runs while I surf and research. Reduces family time. (not a tech guy - just like what I see - no regrets on this purchase)
 
Has anyone done a serious calibration with a colorometer on one of these yet? I would love to find out what settings are set for a "proper" 6500K color.

If noone can get to it there's someone I might be able to borrow a Spyder from and do it myself but it will be a while.

As it is I am still struggling to get this set up to where it looks "right".
 
Hadron said:
Today I picked up two of these panels, turns out one is an A, and one is an S... Right now, one is hooked up two my laptop, and the other by a VGA connection from my desktop.. I'm gonna pick up a new video card this week with dual dvi, and will take some picks...
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Hi Hadron , you have an interesting setup here , could you give us your first impression concerning the differences between the two panels since this is the frist time i see the two panels side by side, I am waiting for your remarks and some picks will be great , if you can try to put the camera on a stand to prevent it from moving during shooting or use a timer to prevent blurred shots , thanks
 
wawoo said:
Hi Hadron , you have an interesting setup here , could you give us your first impression concerning the differences between the two panels since this is the frist time i see the two panels side by side, I am waiting for your remarks and some picks will be great , if you can try to put the camera on a stand to prevent it from moving during shooting or use a timer to prevent blurred shots , thanks
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Well I've been playing around with both panels today, and so far they look pretty similar, I can't really notice any major differences between the too, the A' panel does have slightly more bleeding in the corners though. I've tried playing some DVDs on both, and it looked ok. But I only have VGA connections at this time, and am expecting some big improvements when it's hooked up to DVI. Obviously i don't know if my comments are worthwhile until i have better inputs, I'll try to elaborate in a weeks time after I've installed by new video card...
 
Lord Dragon Nice Pics!I see you have the CC3 demo!I have always been a cc fan.i will have to give cc3 a try.And now with my new 226bw it should look real cool.
 
stanleyjohn said:
Lord Dragon Nice Pics!I see you have the CC3 demo!I have always been a cc fan.i will have to give cc3 a try.And now with my new 226bw it should look real cool.
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The game is faithful to it's name. I really enjoyed the demo, but unfortunately it's really short :(
I love the real-film blocks in it :) i think it gives a lot to it's delight.
The only down-side, that i can't play in 1680x1050, cause my hardware is pretty old for it, but hopefully the end of the summer i can afford a lil' upgrade.
sry, for the off
 
Hadron said:
Well I've been playing around with both panels today, and so far they look pretty similar, I can't really notice any major differences between the too, the A' panel does have slightly more bleeding in the corners though. I've tried playing some DVDs on both, and it looked ok. But I only have VGA connections at this time, and am expecting some big improvements when it's hooked up to DVI. Obviously i don't know if my comments are worthwhile until i have better inputs, I'll try to elaborate in a weeks time after I've installed by new video card...
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Thanks Hadron!

agreed...DVI on both would be the best way to compare.

Keep us posted. :D
 
LordDragon said:
The game is faithful to it's name. I really enjoyed the demo, but unfortunately it's really short :(
I love the real-film blocks in it :) i think it gives a lot to it's delight.
The only down-side, that i can't play in 1680x1050, cause my hardware is pretty old for it, but hopefully the end of the summer i can afford a lil' upgrade.
sry, for the off
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What hardware do you have?
I see on your gallery HD PROMO VIDEO - do you have link for this video? or this is a sat channel ?
Sorry for my english, I'm from Poland :)
I waiting for 226BW, but i can't buy it in PL :(
 
VICTORious said:
What hardware do you have?
I see on your gallery HD PROMO VIDEO - do you have link for this video? or this is a sat channel ?
Sorry for my english, I'm from Poland :)
I waiting for 226BW, but i can't buy it in PL :(
Click to expand...

That's interesting, cause we have in Hungary for about 2 weeks, and as i said it is manufactured in Slovakia, so the distance can't be a prob. Or they can't go to N, only to S? :D

As far as i can remember i've downloaded the video from a torrent site. So try ur luck and search for it.

And i have an Athlon64 3500+ Sapphire Radeon x800xl with 1 GB ram, and when i put up into 1680x1050, it is unenjoyable.
 
LordDragon said:
I've taken new pics, now hopefully with better quality.
U can find them HERE

Have fun! ;)

ps: and it's an "S" panel :)
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Did anyone else notice that the middle of the screen appaears brighter on the picture with the white background? (http://picasaweb.google.com/suadurva/Samsung226bw/photo#5037651142675972802)

I actually ran it through a RGB color thingie,and it clear shows that the picture is brighter in the middle. I have the exact same thing on my screen. Is this typical of this screen? or even typical for widescreens?
 
VICTORious said:
I know this site, but I'm fan of Formula 1 [McLaren Team;) ] :D
Where I can find this HD videos?

#LordDragon
Yes its very strange, Slovakia is a neighbour.........

btw Hungary nice country - F1 GP Budapest 2006 - my 1st GP live :D
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As i mentioned, i've found those videos on torrent, so unfortunately i can't say exactly where, but search for it, and maybe u can find it.

Yep, Slovakia is a neighbour for a lot of countries. ;)

And we are very proud of our GP, and to let u know a trivia, the GP is not in Budapest, but in Mogyoród, which is a little village near the capital. :cool:

again, sry for the off

And to reply for another post, maybe joop is right, but i can't see the brighness changing at all, but it can possibly because of my eyes are not so sharp. Also I think it is not that marginal :O
 
I tried to get this panel to give me 1:1 scaling on screen print copies to Photoshop but it won't work. You need to get a more expensive monitor.
 
I could not get small fonts to read clearly on my new Samsung monitor. Then I read about the S vs A panel on Hard Forum. Mine was an A (last letter on the back panel top line after the model number). I returned it and got an S (Circuit City doesn't know about this issue). The S panel works great. Having spent two weeks trying to get my A panel to read clearly, the S panel was good to go out of the box without reloading the driver or anything (except turning down the brightness).
 
I've had this panel for a good month and it is by far the best panel for the money. My 360 looks incredible! Highly reccomend
 
The situation with the monitors was far different from what I've seen 2 weeks ago. All monitors were present, the 906, 206 and the 226 SIDE BY SIDE. There there also were other manufacturers' monitors such as Acer (19 and 22", Gateway, Samsung 225 & 204B, Viewsonic and LG, all ditto) and Hewlett Packard's HP w19b. I could not see much difference between Samsung's xx6 series monitors. They beat Viwsonic's gear because of their much better contrast, but lacked the 204B's details. Of course, the 204B is a 20" 1600x1200/.255 monitor. But the main problem remains: there was only 1 (one) static image on all of the monitors. None of the stores I visited had ANY monitors connected digitally, a practice I fail to understand since digital has been with us for a good number of years. All wide monitors showed circles as ellipses (no 1:1 transformation). But this may be due to lack of software tweeks or knowledge by the personnel.

Gamefreak99, I said the same thing about the monitor stand (totally flimsy) weeks ago and our peers seemed to not quite believe me :)

And, again, the HP beat all other monitors hands down as far as super crisp picture and superb color rendering. I simply couldn't get enough of Vista's sample pictures, you know the flowers, mountains, etc. Just gorgeous. Too, bleeding was minimal when I popped up the DOS console and configured it for full screen. Of course, it's a glossy panel. The only reason I didn't buy it on the spot is that it's too small and has no HDCP. Why don't these guys produce a good 22 and 24" glossy panel? True, light reflection might scare some people away. But when seeing the vibrancy of the HP w19b compared to the opacity of the other monitors I just sighed and sighed in awe.

Now, something else: many of us mention different manufacturers using the same panel so that picture quality should be the same. Well, we tend to forget that though panels may be the same, some other essentials also determine the picture's final outcome. Let us remember that a good part of a monitor, be it CRT, be it LCD or Plasma for that matter, is made up by electronics. There is the hidden dragon. For not only Sony uses the Trinitron for their CRTs, but Samsung and JVC too in some of their monitors, and at one point even Toshiba (correct me if I'm wrong). Still, the picture wasn't the same, usually Sony's was the better and that's because of the electronics involved, the way engineering designed it and not the least, the quality of the parts. It's a big difference between a resistor that's at 10% tolerance of its value and made of carbon and one that's ceramic or metal film with a tolerance of 1% or less. And so it goes for every little detail. It's not at all different with our LCD panels. In completion to whether the panel is an A or an S, one must also investigate where a manufacturer cuts corners at other structural parts that are less obvious to the naked eye. Just my 2 cents:)
 
spincut said:
side by side comparisons are also always nice (especially between the 206 and 226 ot the different panel versions since we dont ever seem to have enough of those).
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Spincut, you been wanting someone else to do this for you for over 2 weeks. Any reason you can't get the 206bw and 226bw and compare them yourself to see if theres a difference in picture quality? If its that important to you maybe you should resolve it yourself. Not being mean, its just if I was that concerned about something and couldn't find the answers I'd make my own attempt thats all. I've had my 226bw for 3 weeks now and loving it and your still wondering. :p
 
I have registered on these forums today just to share my impressions/experiences on this topic.

I had to find a monitor with the following constraints:
1) 22''
2) 5ms or better typical response time (2ms BW preferred)
3) >1000 contrast ratio
4) <$400 price.
5) HDCP compatible

Realistically there are only two monitors that I could find with this properties. LG L226WT and SincMaster 226bw S panel, which I will denote in text as 226bwS. I also have checked Acer X221WSD monitor, which fails only in BW response time (or may be not, it is just not specified) and A panel of 20'' "brother" of 226bwS, which is 206bw (206bwA in this text). I have seen 226bwS 206bwA and X221WSD monitors at the same time in the store, I have bought and returned L226WT and I have 226bwS.

Of all panels the LG L226WT has the worst color reproduction, and one of the worst angle sensitivity (on the level of 206bwA). The colors are shifted to the blue even for warm settings in L226WT and what is worse, it just can't reproduce yellow color. Watching my Mexican photos with lots of sand and beaches was quite bad, because all the sand was simply gray. You can't correct it without screwing up the rest of the colors by neither monitor controls, nor by more advanced color curves settings in NVIDIA driver. Also the green color is not so vivid. I did not even test the monitor for color banding, because at that time I did not know that it could be a problem. So, I have returned it (and no, it is not an individual single panel problem, the monitor in the store, had exactly the same problem, I just hoped that that monitor on display is bad and bought another for testing, Best Buy does not have restock fees, so I could do it)

In color reproduction X221WSD and 226bwS are equally excellent. 206bwA panel does have bluish appearance, similar to LG L226WT, but it CAN reproduce yellow color quite fine. The X221WSD and 226bwS have about the same viewing angle, and 206bwA only slightly worse. Where 206bwA significantly worse is CONTRAST. When you look side by side with S panel or with Acer panel, you can clearly see that the blacks are not that deep in A panel as in either S panel or in Acer panel. However, I do not think it is due to light leakage from the monitor itself. I think it is due to the scattering of the outside light (it was quite bright in Circuit City, where I have seen the monitors).

Now, about color banding, there is NO color banding on Samsung monitors due to the panel itself. Banding is a result of "Magic focus" technology, which makes colors more slightly vivid, but it does produces those bands of intensity. Luckily, one can switch off the Magic Focus. I do suspect suspect that many users who had banding problems did not know that. Also, if you try to watch movie on Samsung monitor with NVIDIA card, you will see horrible image, but this is because NVIDIA cards have separate brightness/contrast control for the "movies" technologies. You have to play with those to make it look good (and it does look good when adjusted, and there is no problems to watch dark movies whatsoever!)

Another thing with all 22'' LCD monitors, that they do see banding produced by 32 (or actually 24) bit color schemes, which is currently the maximum color resolution available. You see it more clear in blue colors (sky in the game, but not in photos, or blue SGI image). You see it better than in CRT monitors. There are several reasons for that.
1) most people upgrade from small monitors and it is less noticeable when the bands are narrow. (I have upgraded from 19'' Trinitron monitor)
2) Many CRT monitors use analog input, and the signal is just not that clear as oppose to sharp digital signal of LCD monitors. Plus LCD is generally sharper and pixel size is smaller. All that leads to the more clear edge of the color band. Our eyes are very good on detecting the sudden color change rather than simple color difference, so that edge make is more noticeable.
It is funny but those color bands is only due to the fact that LCD are better (larger and sharper) than CRTs.
However, this banding is really minor, as it should be, on all panels I have tested.

I have tested only 2 monitors in games for response time L226WT and 226bwS, the ones that I have owned, both performed great (if you ignore colors in L226WT). I do suspect that the Aser monitor, despite non-specified BW response time would perform equally well, because the average time of that monitor is still 5ms.

Finally the actual reason of why I I bought 226bwS and not Acer X221WSD is monitor appearance! I like so much better the high glossy black of Samsung monitor, that the Acer's gray looks "pale" in comparison. However Acer is about 50$ cheaper, though it does not have DVI cable included. Acer would be my clearly second choice if I could not get the S panel.

Saying all this, I do not think that A panels are that bad. They do have some extra blue color, but it is only visible when you directly compare it with other monitors, and as for lower contrast, if you do not work/play in brightly lit rooms, you should be fine.

Finally here is a trick how you can get the S panel.

Go to the Circuit City and see if they have S panel on display and some monitors for sale. Then talk to the manager and explain that you want the S panel. You can suggest that you buy whatever they have, open the box, and if it is A panel, then you exchange it with the one that is on the display. Most of the stores will agree to that because they do not lose anything by doing this, yet are getting the sale of the monitor. You will get an S panel, even it is indeed from display, and thus check for scratches before you do it (it definitely will be dirty), you also get opportunity to see if the panel have dead pixels before you buy! This is the way I got my S panel, and I am really happy with it!
 
Excellent info MxM. Thank you very much. Your comments about banding on Samsung monitors being caused by Magic Focus was very interesting. I wonder if people who have bash 226bw panels because of banding can comment on that? Did they simply not know that or did they see banding despite turning that off?
 
My experience with the "A" panel matches closely with what MxM says. The panel has a bluish cast that I haven't been able to get rid of.

It "might" be possible to get rid of this with a color calibration but I'm not sure.

The other problem that this particular panel has is some bleed at the bottom but it's not so horrible that it makes the display unuseable.

Right now I'm tossed up about keeping it or returning it. I should probably try to do a real color calibration with a colorometer like the Spyder before pitching it though.
 
Problem with yellow with LG-L226WT!I see no problem here!Color spectrum works great with this 226wt.Have a 226bw also with matched color display 100%.Except for alittle more backbleed with 226wt! i see no diff between 2 monitors
 
OK, I've done a "professional" calibration on this display with Colorvision's Spyder2Express product and it has made a pretty serious improvement. The before/after changes make it pretty evident that the default color on the display has a serious blue shift.

Color for photo work is now highly accepteable. I don't see any banding on photos taken with my Canon 20D SLR camera.

The only outstanding issue now is the noticeable and annoying light bleed at the bottom of the display. I will spend the next week deciding if it is bad enough that the display will have to be swapped out.

As an example of the light bleed, if I move the windows task bar to the bottom of the screen it looks completely washed out. If I move it to the top or side of the screen it looks completely normal. Unaccepteable really in a $379 display.
 
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