Sorry, IMHO this bleeding is terrible. If I were you, I'd go back to the store and exchange till getting an S panel, or my money back and save more dow to buy Benq's 24" monitor. I'm afraid this is exactly what I'll do. This kind of lottery and bleeding simply is unacceptable, no matter how indulgent we get, "well it's a 22 incher, it'll have bleeding, what can you do" etc., etc. Not for me. Many will jump at me asking what do I want from a "cheap" monitor, deficiencies are to be expected, and so what if it has pronounced bleeding, it's a gaming monitor and won't be used for much else. Well, $380 ain't exactly cheap. Yeah, compared to the price of a 24 incher it's less expensive, nevertheless it's much closer to $400than to $300. Looking at postings by people who have the S panel it seems the statistics begin to lean in favor of the S panel. Let's wait for postings by other people who will be getting S panels.
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Samsung 226BW 22": 3000:1 Contrast, 2ms response time
- Thread starter Kast
- Start date
I just got my panel today. It was special order and the CC where I live said I could open the box and look at it to see if it was an A or S panel before I took it home. I opened it and ... it's an A panel. I wasn't going to take but a brief explanation of the A vs S situation, they agreed to waive the restocking fee if I wasn't satisfied.
Good news and bad news. I love the size and overall look of the monitor but I have to say the the color are not uniform from top to bottom. I've only had it plugged in for an hour and haven't spent much time with adjustments but looking at the Windows Start bar is sort of washed out at the bottom of the screen. If I move it to the top of the screen it's much better. I don't know if this is a viewing angle thing or not because if I get way down and look at it, it looks better. But staying in that position and look to the top of the monitor make that part too dark.
My first impression is that I'm disappointed and hope that some more adjustments can fix it. I really want to keep this monitor but so far it isn't looking good. I'd probably get used to this but I don't want to. My Dell 1900FP monitor is perfect. Perfectly uniform, absolutely zero backlight bleed, great color but I love the 22" size. This sucks.
Any tips? Is there a way to get a more uniform color. Are any of the rest of you seeing what I'm describing.
Good news and bad news. I love the size and overall look of the monitor but I have to say the the color are not uniform from top to bottom. I've only had it plugged in for an hour and haven't spent much time with adjustments but looking at the Windows Start bar is sort of washed out at the bottom of the screen. If I move it to the top of the screen it's much better. I don't know if this is a viewing angle thing or not because if I get way down and look at it, it looks better. But staying in that position and look to the top of the monitor make that part too dark.
My first impression is that I'm disappointed and hope that some more adjustments can fix it. I really want to keep this monitor but so far it isn't looking good. I'd probably get used to this but I don't want to. My Dell 1900FP monitor is perfect. Perfectly uniform, absolutely zero backlight bleed, great color but I love the 22" size. This sucks.
Any tips? Is there a way to get a more uniform color. Are any of the rest of you seeing what I'm describing.
Both of the "A" panels I have had are exactly as you describe with the washed out color at the bottom which goes away if you move the taskbar, etc, to the top of the screen.
It does seem to be related slightly to the viewing angle as I've been testing that and notice that even the top of the display exhibits some of the "washed out" effect if I view it from the same angle I am viewing the bottom at.
I will say that calibrating the monitor with the Spyder2 makes a ginormous improvement to the white balance, color, etc.
As to the bleeding on the display, I believe we've seen pics from people with "S" displays that have bleeding as bad as what I have shown in my most recent photo. I think bottom line is that noone is building a 22" today that has great pixel response, and contrast, and lacks some of this backlight bleed through. Although $360 (what I paid) isn't cheap it's also less than half of what a good 24" costs and unfortunately a 24" won't work for me as I don't have a video card that can drive that resolution very well.
I'm going to give this newest "A" panel a week and see if I'm satisfied with the performance. As disappointing as it is that it's not "perfect" it's still a very nice display for the money.
Ok, 4 hours later and here is my new opinion.
I downloaded the latest video drivers. I have an ATI 9700 Pro card. Great card in its day but that was a few years ago. I used the Catalyst software to adjust the colors and gamma etc and things look a lot better. While I still have the inconsistency between the top and bottom, it is tolerable now. The settings on the monitor alone just don't seem to be enough to get the best results.
As for backlight bleed, while it exists it certainly isn't bad enough to make me return this monitor. In fact I'm leaning towards keeping it now. I'm with you though, I'll give it a week to run it through the paces. The colors really do pop from the screen. I wish I had an S panel since it seems like it would probably be better but overall this is pretty darn nice.
I don't have a Spyder2 thing to calibrate this with. That would be nice but I'm not sure I want to spend the money just to calibrate this. Can they be rented? Did you buy yours? I think they are about $60 or so. I guess it might be worth it.
I guess for the hard core monitor guy there are some things this monitor won't do for you. But if you just want a great sized, nice looking monitor with what is actually a very nice picture, this isn't bad. Just keep in mind that out of the box this looked like crap and just playing with the monitor controls wouldn't have made it a heck of a lot better.
I feel a lot better about things now. I'm tempted to return it once just to try my luck at maybe getting an S model though. No dead pixels on this one either.
I downloaded the latest video drivers. I have an ATI 9700 Pro card. Great card in its day but that was a few years ago. I used the Catalyst software to adjust the colors and gamma etc and things look a lot better. While I still have the inconsistency between the top and bottom, it is tolerable now. The settings on the monitor alone just don't seem to be enough to get the best results.
As for backlight bleed, while it exists it certainly isn't bad enough to make me return this monitor. In fact I'm leaning towards keeping it now. I'm with you though, I'll give it a week to run it through the paces. The colors really do pop from the screen. I wish I had an S panel since it seems like it would probably be better but overall this is pretty darn nice.
I don't have a Spyder2 thing to calibrate this with. That would be nice but I'm not sure I want to spend the money just to calibrate this. Can they be rented? Did you buy yours? I think they are about $60 or so. I guess it might be worth it.
I guess for the hard core monitor guy there are some things this monitor won't do for you. But if you just want a great sized, nice looking monitor with what is actually a very nice picture, this isn't bad. Just keep in mind that out of the box this looked like crap and just playing with the monitor controls wouldn't have made it a heck of a lot better.
I feel a lot better about things now. I'm tempted to return it once just to try my luck at maybe getting an S model though. No dead pixels on this one either.
Mansize_tissue
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2007
- Messages
- 2,501
Is there an "A"/"S" panel lottery on the Samsung 206BW, too? If the 20" isn't burdened with the same backlighting problems as the 22", i may get that instead.
Well after taking my chances with an A panel and expecting the worst as far as backlight leakage is concerned - I think the concern is a bit overdone. The backlight bleed on my A panel is not that bad. It's there but I find it hard to believe it will really be a problem unless you do a lot of work on a totally black screen in a dark room.
And I really don't think you'll notice the problem with daily use. If you are a hard core monitor user that does photo stuff, maybe. I don't know.
Personally if you are just using this for a nice monitor I think you'll be happy with it. I really do.
Having said that, I am more bothered by the inconsistency from top to bottom but like I said, using the video card software color adjustments I've pretty much got that corrected.
So - this monitor isn't perfect. I don't know if any of them are but overall it sure looks nice. Don't freak out over the A vs S. Get it - adjust it and enjoy it. That's just my two cents.
And I really don't think you'll notice the problem with daily use. If you are a hard core monitor user that does photo stuff, maybe. I don't know.
Personally if you are just using this for a nice monitor I think you'll be happy with it. I really do.
Having said that, I am more bothered by the inconsistency from top to bottom but like I said, using the video card software color adjustments I've pretty much got that corrected.
So - this monitor isn't perfect. I don't know if any of them are but overall it sure looks nice. Don't freak out over the A vs S. Get it - adjust it and enjoy it. That's just my two cents.
How is that possible? Color adjustment methods adjust the whole picture. Not just the bottom or top. It's quite possible that you think you've solved it but it's still there. If there's a significant difference between top and bottom, you might have a defective monitor. Give it back and get a new one.
Well gunner1, I'm curious as to what you decide. I want to return mine because of the poor color uniformity (washed out at the bottom). If I knew of a better alternative, I would have returned it already. I don't know if getting an "S" panel would actually be better in terms of the color uniformity. I would consider the Benq 24", but it is a lot of money and I would have to modify my desk to fit it.
It's a shame because I can live with the lack of 1:1 etc. but the lack of uniformity thing bothers me on a day to day basis.
Pete
It's a shame because I can live with the lack of 1:1 etc. but the lack of uniformity thing bothers me on a day to day basis.
Pete
I have an S panel, and can confirm the inconsistency from top to bottom. However its not a color thing for me but just a slight wash-out effect. I barely notice it, but for instance if I move my black taskbar to the top, it looks much darker, well more like the color its suppose to be. But since this seems to be the only way I notice the effect, I just ignore it. I can't notice it on games yet in any significant way.
I should also note that I haven't adjusted for color yet either, that's something I should probably do. It just seems like even if I did adjust color, I probably wouldn't be noticing any significant changes since I already think it looks fantastic.
edit:
There's also something to be said about the size of this monitor. Looking down on the monitor creates a washing out effect, looking up at it makes the picture somewhat darker, so because I usually sit pretty close, its possible that I am getting a very slight wash-out effect on my eyes only on the bottom half of the monitor. I've been thinking of going to the local staples to get one of these better monitor stands, but I also think I've paid enough for this week. We'll see. Does anybody that bought a new stand for this guy have any pictures? (I admit I skipped about pages 20-30 when reading so I didn't see one).
Yep SecCom, that is what I mean too. But the "washout" manifests itself in color uniformity issues. I have a picture here: http://picasaweb.google.com/petes226BWpix. You can see it in the gradient picture. That is actually supposed to be a solid color. Of course, you can see this effect in all LCDs, but it isn't this bad on my 17" at work or my 37" TV. Also for best ergonomics, it is recommended to have your eyes level with the top of the monitor, but to me that makes it look even worse.
stanleyjohn
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2007
- Messages
- 137
I remember when i first joined this thread on the 226bw.It seemed like this was the monitor to get.Very positive chat and little negativity.When the A panel showed up!Comments of the 226 bw have gone down hill.Granted!! it does seem that the A panel is not as good as the S! But all this present focus on bleeding,banding,uneven colors seems to be making this once apon a time great monitor into a not so good one anymore.Even some of the s panel reports have been a bit more negative lately.I think all this talk has made us looking for problems that have been there all along.If this A a panel isnt that great!then what is?? for the type of monitor and price tag.After all this chat!!I dont think I or others here will be able to look at any 22" within the same price range and not see the problems that have been discribed here.Just venting alittle a guess!Great people here and have found a wealth of info.I just wonder if i had not found this forum and just went out and bought this monitor would my feelings of the 226bw be different?I think yes!! Id say it was a great monitor and leave it at that.Now that the genie has been let out of the bottle i wont be able to look at any monitor without finding fault.
I kind of feel the same way, however I was going to get one of the cheap ViewSonic 22's on newegg before I read a few threads on the different 22's out there. This is still probably the best one, but I've been hearing the LG and the Gateway are also very good options. I was almost pulled into the Gateway just for all the features it has. This monitor is crap on features, it's basically the same stuff as my old Samsung 17" with the exception of dynamic contrast which I am not a fan of. In the end, I decided on this one purely because I thought it would end up being the best overall in picture quality, and so far I am still blown away.
After playing Gears of War on this thing, well, lets just say I don't think I can go back to anything with any lesser picture quality. Granted, I got an S panel, I guess I'm one of the "lucky" ones, but if you want an S panel, it seems like they haven't completely stopped making them. I just ordered this from newegg last week. If anyone orders from newegg and recieves the A panel, please post here, I'm sure people would like to know.
Basically my assessment from all this:
S panel = fantastic monitor, and I speak from personal experience and from everyone else's great review, well worth the extra money over other 22" monitors, and probably more worth the LG or Gateway.
A panel = Ok monitor, could be better, costs the same as the S. If you recieve this monitor from whoever your seller is, convince them to do a return or exchange it for the LG or Gateway if possible.
Hope that all helps anyone considering this thing.
Dirty1talian
n00b
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2004
- Messages
- 14
^^^ Correction I had an S panel monitor that exhibited the horrible "washed out" backlighting problems that all the A panels had.
Not all S panels are great unfortunately
Not all S panels are great unfortunately
The bottom line is that this monitor is a crap shoot right now, it's hard to say if an "A" panel is not as good as an LG or Gateway (or Viewsonic) display since it seems to depend on how good or bad of an "A" or "S" you get.
To summarize the issues with the panel charecteristics;
1. Blue cast and bad color accuracy (fixed by calibration).
2. Fairly bad bleeding (on A and S panels but A seems to have more of this).
3. Viewing angle seems to have dramatic impact on the brightness/cast of the display. Stuff on the bottom can look a little bit washed out from a normal viewing angle, while the top of the display looks fine.
I'm still on the fence on returning this one or keeping it. The bottom line is that there is no 22" out there that is really better, and quite a few that are worse. Several review sites have indicated that every panel they've tested has backlight bleed, banding, etc, others insist their displays are perfect.
So, in the end, it's a crapshoot, which is why I would absolutely advise against ordering one online. If you get a bad example it's going to be a royal pain to swap it out.
To summarize the issues with the panel charecteristics;
1. Blue cast and bad color accuracy (fixed by calibration).
2. Fairly bad bleeding (on A and S panels but A seems to have more of this).
3. Viewing angle seems to have dramatic impact on the brightness/cast of the display. Stuff on the bottom can look a little bit washed out from a normal viewing angle, while the top of the display looks fine.
I'm still on the fence on returning this one or keeping it. The bottom line is that there is no 22" out there that is really better, and quite a few that are worse. Several review sites have indicated that every panel they've tested has backlight bleed, banding, etc, others insist their displays are perfect.
So, in the end, it's a crapshoot, which is why I would absolutely advise against ordering one online. If you get a bad example it's going to be a royal pain to swap it out.
I took a few pictures. The pictures are crap, I'll tell you that right out, but it just to get an idea of the stand. I like the stand and to add the up, down, tilt, swivel and spin to this monitor for $29. I'd say its worth is.
This is with the stand all the way down. It almost touches the table.
This is all the way up. About 7" from the table.
Rotated...
And the back of it...
The monitor is steady on the stand. It moves up and down easily yet stays put where you want it. It works well. I would recommend it.
It is the Neo-Flex by Ergotron.
Hello guys.I am into buying the 206bw, but first i wanted to ask something people that own this monitor.I think someone said in that topic (i m not quite sure, this topic is huuuuge) that 226bw doesn't support 1:1 pixel mapping.Is that true for 206bw too?So if i use a different than native resolution the monitor would stretch the image no matter what the gpu driver is set to show?There is no way to by-pass that?
Thanks for any answers.
Thanks for any answers.
It doesn't lock down. But like I said, for $29, it adds some pretty nice functionality to the monitor. Something that Samsung should have built in.
This is one big thread alright - and growing. I'm pretty sure I'll keep this monitor.
Like someone said in a previous post - if you had just gone out and bought this without reading this thread, you'd probably love the monitor. If you over analyze anything you'll find something wrong. And unless you have the luxury of trying out a bunch of monitors, you have to pick something. People have mentioned the Gateway monitor. I just have a problem buying anything that says Gateway - maybe it's just me. But I don't associate Gateway with quality.
I've had problems with LG products and getting service also. I don't know about monitors, but they only allow service from a select view vendors. Service on other LG products has been a nightmare so I'm leery about them too.
226 arrived from Newegg. It's a S panel.
Time to go and hook this sucker up.
update:
No dead pixels after filling the screen with multiple colors. The colors are going to need a slight change through a calibrator to fit my tastes but overall, out of the box, they are good. Can't comment on back-light bleeding yet, but will later in the night. Can't quite see the problem with the screen being washed out along the bottom and darker near the top... might be because I am not shoving my face up and down the monitor trying to read text. I have the monitor ~2' 5" away from my face and slightly bent back. Everything looks great and am very pleased with the initial setup and display so far. May take pictures later on.
Got to give my mother the old LCD monitor now. She'd be upgrading from a crummy 19" CRT.
Time to go and hook this sucker up.
update:
No dead pixels after filling the screen with multiple colors. The colors are going to need a slight change through a calibrator to fit my tastes but overall, out of the box, they are good. Can't comment on back-light bleeding yet, but will later in the night. Can't quite see the problem with the screen being washed out along the bottom and darker near the top... might be because I am not shoving my face up and down the monitor trying to read text. I have the monitor ~2' 5" away from my face and slightly bent back. Everything looks great and am very pleased with the initial setup and display so far. May take pictures later on.
Got to give my mother the old LCD monitor now. She'd be upgrading from a crummy 19" CRT.
Cliff Couser
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2003
- Messages
- 1,860
so....everything from Newegg seems to be an S thus far.
also...the reviews (take it for what its worth)....have all been stellar.
also...the reviews (take it for what its worth)....have all been stellar.
If they would post some pictures of those displays with a fullscreen black background then I might be convinced.
I'm still debating whether I should dump this one I have back on Circuit City due to the backlight uniformity issues with it.
I have the 206bw. It does not support 1:1 pixel mapping so, yes, you will having stretching when using other resolutions. I'm not aware of any way to bypass this.
You can have your video card drivers force 1:1 mapping if that's what you are after. You just can't do it from a secondary input source like an Xbox.
Pardon the interruption here... I was actually about to grab one, doing last minute due-diligience.
Does this mean that by default the monitor scales all video modes to fit the monitor? So, you still get 1:1 at 1680x1050, but all other lower modes are scaled out? No 1:1 pixel mapping in a "picture frame" unless you set a custom mode with [what's that program called].
OR... does 1:1 refer to aspect ratio, such that it might change the ratio to eliminate letterboxing? (not necessarily a good thing)
Also, a question: Is there a button to switch between the DVI and VGA inputs? I was thinking of DVI to my gaming computer, and VGA to my KVM switch.
Alright that's two of us with confirmed S panels from Newegg
The monitor will be default scale all non native resolutions to fit the display. As I indicated you have control of this in video drivers (at least Nvidia's do) where you can instruct via the video drivers that you want to do 1:1 mapping, so basically the video card will "pad" the smaller resolution so it is boxed on the display.
Yes, there is a button labeled "source" that lets you toggle between DVI and VGA.
I feel stupid for posting twice in a row here, but I thought I'd answer this real quick. 1:1 really isn't going to be a huge deal on your actual computer, unless, perhaps, you have a game that doesn't support WS resolutions and you don't want it stretched. But yes that's where it does the thing where it maps it into a picture frame basically (which this monitor doesn't do by default).
The input switch button could have been placed in a little better place IMO, but its there, and I've already done it enough times that my finger knows where to find it without thinking about it (second button in from the right). I say that because its the one button many of us are going to be pressing quite frequently, like me with my Xbox 360 and computer both plugged in. Just to note, there is no PIP support on this monitor, and from what I can tell, if you set contrast a certain way on one input, it carries over to the other input, which was a really really dumb choice if you ask me, however they obviously were not expecting guys with 2 separate inputs. So again you come to the fact that this is one beautiful monitor, but absolute crap when concerned with features. They certainly didn't go "above and beyond" in that department.
Thanks for the tip! I'm not sure if I'll need 1:1 for anything or not, but it's good to know I have this option.
From the nVidia control panel I selected "nView Display Settings"->"Device settings"->"Centered ouptut". Bigi, if you're interested I tried a few resolutions (800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024). It works fine, there's no loss in image quality whatsoever. Text remains sharp.
The info you guys are looking for is right in this thread.
To summarize, there are two panel types and both are TN. The "S" panel is produced directly by Samsung and is an "A++" rated panel. On average people have not reported bad bleeding problems with this panel.
The "A" panel is made by AOU and is an "A" rated panel. They have on average seemed to exhibit more backlight bleed (obviously there's no hard data on this).
Both panels have the same specifications.
To summarize, there are two panel types and both are TN. The "S" panel is produced directly by Samsung and is an "A++" rated panel. On average people have not reported bad bleeding problems with this panel.
The "A" panel is made by AOU and is an "A" rated panel. They have on average seemed to exhibit more backlight bleed (obviously there's no hard data on this).
Both panels have the same specifications.