SAmsung 245bw user review

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benw17

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Nov 8, 2007
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Samsung 245bw

Decided to do a review after spending more time with it since many are asking about 24" lcds

Pre-information: Currently priced at $430-500 online, 5ms response time, 24”inches widescreen (tn), currently being ran at 1920x1200 8800 GTS 320mb (see my rig)

The buying process: Circuit city had it super discounted at $350 shipped during black Friday after $120 rebate. I ordered Thursday and it was at my house by Monday, nicely packed and no damage. So UPS guy and Circuit city did a bang up job for not messing up.

Rebate: took approximately 1.5 month with no drawn out crap like when a rep tells you that you messed up somewhere along the lines, it was seamless.

Upon opening the box I was super happy… it was huge… I moved from a 19in BenQ to this. Freaking huge. Once again I can not say how large this bad boy is.

The stuff was a bare minimum, power cable and a DVI cable, and a odd mount/base that’s actually really good.

So angles, it’s pretty easy to use with the vertical moving up and down and tilt.

Movies: The coloring is just fine; I watched the departed, 300, and curse of the golden flower (very colorful scenes). Everything was cool as long as you used a proper decoder (choose ulead DVD decoder).

Gaming:
Old games AGE II, Starcraft, Baulders Gate II,
Modern games – Heroes V, Fear, Need for Speed carbon
Newer – Crysis, COD4, Stalker
Summary: it it fit the resolution the games were crisp and vibrant, no mouse drag,

Word documents and papers: requires tuning down cause 24 inches of white paper really hurts the eyes especially after playing some dark ass games.

So my scores:

Monitor build 8/10 could be more adjustable
Features 8/10 play with the settings to learn what mode is best suited for the purpose
Gaming 7/10 not as adjustable in terms of fitting pixels like the BenQ 1:1 ratio
General use 9/10
Movies 9/10

The Samsung 245B is really a great monitor that is priced competitively. I also have not seen any problems like some are reporting (overheating, buzzing, flickering, wobbly stand/bad build quality). So I hope this helps you make a decision, my advice like everyone else, when playing with this resolution get dual card set up to really take advantage of the 24inches.
 
i have the 245BW its a good monitor and its well built with very little defects. its performance for the price is superb. its a very clean monitor screen.
 
agreed. for $350 this was the best deal.

once again just wanted to let people know that this is a great monitor. I know how it felt, when you were looking around and the forums and write ups... when you just wanted some re-assurance.
 
yeah samsung 245BW is calibrated optimally for its performance for the price. very good monitor with a nice clear screen for all uses. good reviews on 245BW on the net. this monitor is very popular among gamers, movie enthusiats and internet users. def worth the price.
 
what are your color, gamma, brightness, contrast settings please! mine are

Brightness 35
Contrast 75
Magic Color Off
R 49
G 38
B 37
Gamma Mode 1
Sharpness 32
 
I also use the 245BW and it has been amazing for me. Easily far better than every other monitor I have used. I run it with a Apple 20" monitor, and I always hate having to look over to the Apple to hit next song on iTunes.

A lot of people have problems with it, but I got it for 329 AR (CC Black Friday Deal) I've already received and deposited my rebates and .... I'm very happy.
 
bencho said:
what are your color, gamma, brightness, contrast settings please! mine are

Brightness 35
Contrast 75
Magic Color Off
R 49
G 38
B 37
Gamma Mode 1
Sharpness 32
Click to expand...

i use the manufacturers recommended settings of magicbright. i use text for text and movie and dynamic contrast for HD movies and game for game. i leave the RGB settings at default as they are supposed to be flat.
 
Draziom said:
i use the manufacturers recommended settings of magicbright. i use text for text and movie and dynamic contrast for HD movies and game for game. i leave the RGB settings at default as they are supposed to be flat.
Click to expand...

i do the same thing in terms of settings. i was thinking about getting one of those Lacie Blue Eye things but damn are they expensive....
 
Thxiiet said:
I also use the 245BW and it has been amazing for me. Easily far better than every other monitor I have used. I run it with a Apple 20" monitor, and I always hate having to look over to the Apple to hit next song on iTunes.

A lot of people have problems with it, but I got it for 329 AR (CC Black Friday Deal) I've already received and deposited my rebates and .... I'm very happy.
Click to expand...

agreed, Circuit City surprisingly did not try to shaft me with the rebate it was quick as hell. Samsung did the same, however it was stuck at approval but i gave them a call and got someone immediately and problem resolved. Spent the $120 on some Ocz Reaper.
 
thanks for the review OP, i will definitely keep an eye on this one when i'm ready to bite the bullet for my next 24"er
 
Techx said:
thanks for the review OP, i will definitely keep an eye on this one when i'm ready to bite the bullet for my next 24"er
Click to expand...

mission accomplished. i have contributed to [H] the way it has helped me then.

but in addition to the mini review i missed:

back light bleed - *for me* almost unnoticeable since its relatively low(?). i watch a couple of foreign Noir and black and white films so to me did not distract at all.

Stuck/dead pixels - no dead pixels for me but one stuck one. Luckily it went away on its own during the calibration.

flimsy stand - someone users say taht after repeated use of moving the stand up and down it looses its spring-ness. i literally tested the bad ass stand for 30 minutes moving it up and down, still good for me. no signs of wearing down.

prolonged use equals buzzing - well i watched all three lord of the rings movies..thats 8 hours long of use then i played some age of empires, then some Cod4 which was equal to like 12 hours... result was that the monitor did not buzz. It was warm to the touch on top but nothing like over heating.
 
I also have the 245bw and it is possibly the best monitor I have ever used. I simply cannot think of a time I have used a better monitor. Its the best 500 dollars I ever spent. I bought it last summer during July. It has been a joy to use ever since. I'm planning on getting a second one for dual monitors.
 
I like my Samsung 245BW, I wanted something better but there is no monitor yet that has short lag but a great viewing angle. I went from two LG 19-inch screens to this one 245BW and I'm fairly happy with it. Viewing angle could be better but I sit far enough that it doesn't bother me much and one of my primary jobs is website building. I mainly bought it for that and gaming, and it looks great in COD4. I got mine for $350 from Best Buy after I got them to price match it and used my reward zone card and had some reward zone money cards.
 
if you have nothing against TN panels, the 245B(W) is one of the best out there. i got mine about 8 months ago and i am very very happy with it even today. very well calibrated and i had virtually no backlight bleed myself. i can't notice any afterglow unless i look close and strain to see it. in other words, near non existent. i compared this to 4 226BW's back then - i had a lot of duds for some reason, but had my hands on all 3 versions at the time - and a HP w2207 and the 245bw was much better quality compared to the other two. much better colour accuracy, BLB, etc.
 
I would think that the 245BW has a nice picture.

It's the same panel as the 2493HM, and as a PC-only display it does a very good job.

You get what you need: Low input lag, vivid colors, and a nice stand. As well you get real OSD buttons which the 2493HM lacks.

Up here in Canada it's $350.00 without any rebates, making it an incredible steal.

Enjoy,

10e
 
10e said:
I would think that the 245BW has a nice picture.

It's the same panel as the 2493HM, and as a PC-only display it does a very good job.

You get what you need: Low input lag, vivid colors, and a nice stand. As well you get real OSD buttons which the 2493HM lacks.

Up here in Canada it's $350.00 without any rebates, making it an incredible steal.

Enjoy,

10e
Click to expand...

$350 In Canada? Do you have a link?
 
After my 22" from Costco crapped out (x2gen, 11 month life) on me, I went to Costco and got a full refund on it. With that money, $324 when you include tax, I was able to put it towards the 245BW, which was on sale for $399.

Best $100 upgrade ever.
 
I really like this monitor as well, but I have a serious question regarding non-native resolutions. If I play any game at a resolution other then 1920 x 1200 it looks like crap!
and not just because its a lower resolution. There is this insane blurriness on everything. Fortunately for me I can run most games at 1920 x 1200. But crysis was one I wanted to run at 1440 x 900 or 1680 x 1050, and it just looks so awful at those resolutions. I could really notice this when I tried 1600 x 1200 on a CRT display. it's not all in my head, this monitor just looks VERY poorly if its not run at 1920 x 1200.
Is their some way I can get that crisp image in a resolution like 1440 x 900 or 1680 x 1050 ? am I overlooking something ? This is honestly my first LCD ever, are all LCDs like this ? Any help is appreciated.

One more quick thing thats bugging me is xbox360 games look like crap on here because the VGA cable only supports 16:9 resolutions, and the 245BW auto-stretches those resolutions to 16:10 aspect ratio resulting in some SEVERE aliasing issues. I'm sure some of you are aware of this. There is like a 100 page thread on xbox.com complaining about this, and MS has done nothing. But, is their anything I can do on my end to get a proper clean xbox360 signal on this display ? Couldn't Samsung release a new firmware version that supports 1:1 pixel scaling ?

Believe it or not I really like this monitor though lol. But xbox360 was a key concern when I purchased it, and if I coudl go back and re-buy an LCD I would make SURE it supports 1:1 scaling.

Any advice/help would be appreciated especially about the blurriness of non-native resolutions.
 
Hi,

Whether you are using ATI or NVidia, use the video card to scale instead of the monitor. It generally looks better, gives you the same FP/S as the lower resolutions, and doesn't add input lag, which the monitor will if you use the monitor's scaler to convert lower resolutions.

You can do it in the nVidia control panel or ATI CCC. When you do it, make sure to turn off anti aliasing or it will look very soft and blurry too.

With the 360, the 1280x768 resolution is closest to 16:10 that you can get. Otherwise there isn't much you can do.

The 2493HM suffers from the same issues. I don't think Samsung has an understanding of this market yet.

I would e-mail Microsoft. They are more likely to do something about it.

Regards,

10e

setzer_ said:
I really like this monitor as well, but I have a serious question regarding non-native resolutions. If I play any game at a resolution other then 1920 x 1200 it looks like crap!
and not just because its a lower resolution. There is this insane blurriness on everything. Fortunately for me I can run most games at 1920 x 1200. But crysis was one I wanted to run at 1440 x 900 or 1680 x 1050, and it just looks so awful at those resolutions. I could really notice this when I tried 1600 x 1200 on a CRT display. it's not all in my head, this monitor just looks VERY poorly if its not run at 1920 x 1200.
Is their some way I can get that crisp image in a resolution like 1440 x 900 or 1680 x 1050 ? am I overlooking something ? This is honestly my first LCD ever, are all LCDs like this ? Any help is appreciated.

One more quick thing thats bugging me is xbox360 games look like crap on here because the VGA cable only supports 16:9 resolutions, and the 245BW auto-stretches those resolutions to 16:10 aspect ratio resulting in some SEVERE aliasing issues. I'm sure some of you are aware of this. There is like a 100 page thread on xbox.com complaining about this, and MS has done nothing. But, is their anything I can do on my end to get a proper clean xbox360 signal on this display ? Couldn't Samsung release a new firmware version that supports 1:1 pixel scaling ?

Believe it or not I really like this monitor though lol. But xbox360 was a key concern when I purchased it, and if I coudl go back and re-buy an LCD I would make SURE it supports 1:1 scaling.

Any advice/help would be appreciated especially about the blurriness of non-native resolutions.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the reply. I actually already had it set to "Use NVIDIA scaling".

I just tried using my displays built in scaling, it looks about the same as using NVIDIA's scaling.
If I turn all scaling off, the game doesn't fill the screen (obviously) but the blurriness is gone!
it seems like its a problem related to scaling. So now that I think about it, technically speaking the problems I am having with my xbox360 and running PC games not in native resolution are derived from the same thing, Scaling!

I miss CRT's, btw is their any LCDs out there that actually do good scaling ?
 
If you mean good scaling as in "not too blurry" or "proper aspect ratio" you can read the G2400W vs. 2493HM thread I created (if you haven't).

Other than 1920x1080 over VGA, the G2400W does the scaling properly for aspect ratios. It also does not blur things when it scales up, so they look a bit sharper.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1298311


Regards,

10e

setzer_ said:
Thanks for the reply. I actually already had it set to "Use NVIDIA scaling".

I just tried using my displays built in scaling, it looks about the same as using NVIDIA's scaling.
If I turn all scaling off, the game doesn't fill the screen (obviously) but the blurriness is gone!
it seems like its a problem related to scaling. So now that I think about it, technically speaking the problems I am having with my xbox360 and running PC games not in native resolution are derived from the same thing, Scaling!

I miss CRT's, btw is their any LCDs out there that actually do good scaling ?
Click to expand...
 
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