SyncMaster 243T

[[BB] Rick James]

What are your guy’s thoughts on this monitor? Would it be advantageous to go with this monitor or go with a 23 inch that is 16ms in the response time? I am a very avid gamer so this monitor's main intent in use would be gaming. I do no work on my PC; my PC is strictly recreational.

What are your guy’s thoughts? I do see that this monitor has a 25ms response time; will that make for ghosting?

 

[Lito]

The choice seems obvious. Go with the 16ms response time. Some people say they notice no ghosting on 25ms panels, but I'm sure most people do.

 

[kycysymet]

Read this Tread:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=809094

 

[[BB] Rick James]

Yeah I've already read that thread; it doesn't really say how gaming really is. It says it's good but it doesn't really go into it. I'm leaning towards the 16ms monitor at this point. I'm affraid of ghosting. Although I did have the 23" Apple Cinema monitor at one point and it didn't ghost and I think it was 25ms. I got rid of the apple cinema because it didn't work right on ATI cards. I just didn't want to deal with the hassle anymore.

 

[zicc]

Yeah I've already read that thread; it doesn't really say how gaming really is. It says it's good but it doesn't really go into it. I'm leaning towards the 16ms monitor at this point. I'm affraid of ghosting. Although I did have the 23" Apple Cinema monitor at one point and it didn't ghost and I think it was 25ms. I got rid of the apple cinema because it didn't work right on ATI cards. I just didn't want to deal with the hassle anymore.

I had the HP L2335, Sony P234 and the Samsung 243T and the Samsung blew them all away in my opinion. I played Doom3, Far Cry and Painkiller on all 3 of them and none of them showed any signs of ghosting.

The Samsung had a very clean, vivid picture compared to the other 2. I am a big gamer, that is why I wanted a widescreen and went through the trouble of testing all three before I committed spending this amount of money. There was no question in my mind which monitor that I wanted to keep.

I tested these monitors side be side while playing those 3 games. Two monitors at a time of course. My video card supports dual dvi connections, so I was able to have a game running on both screens at the same time. I had 4 other people there to give me their opinions on these three monitors and they all agreed on me keeping the Samsung. Believe me, I wanted to keep the Sony, because I love Sony products, but the picture did not compare to the Samsung. As for the response time, sometimes I think some manufacturers are more generous on their response time ratings.

Also, I was running a Gforce 5200 while testing all three and I also ran them on a Radeon 9800 Pro. I had no issue's with either card.

You can't go wrong with any of these 3 monitors. It reallly depends on how much you want to spend and what quality you are looking for. I am very picky and wanted the highest quality that I could get. Money was not an issue for me as I know that I will have this monitor for a good while.

I hope this helps.

 

[Mikelod]

Zicc, i just purchased the 243T and after setting the monitor up i can't seem to be able to adjust the contrast level. The control is grayed out. I can adjust the brightness control but not the contrast. What am i doing wrong, the online manual does not seem to work either (OSD portion). If anyone can help me on this it would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise so far i like the monitor as i use it more i will post a review here.

 

[zicc]

Zicc, i just purchased the 243T and after setting the monitor up i can't seem to be able to adjust the contrast level. The control is grayed out. I can adjust the brightness control but not the contrast. What am i doing wrong, the online manual does not seem to work either (OSD portion). If anyone can help me on this it would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise so far i like the monitor as i use it more i will post a review here.

If you are using the DVI inputs, you can't adjust the contrast. I noticed this on the HP and Sony as well. I don't know why, but you can't. You can however adjust the contrast from your video card software.

 

[Camridge]

Many people are seing ghosting on 16ms screens..

 

[Mikelod]

Zicc, yes i am using the DVI input. Didn't think of the video card software, just tryed it, worked fine. Thanks for the help.

 

[zicc]

Zicc, yes i am using the DVI input. Didn't think of the video card software, just tryed it, worked fine. Thanks for the help.

You bet.

 

[[BB] Rick James]

I had the HP L2335, Sony P234 and the Samsung 243T and the Samsung blew them all away in my opinion. I played Doom3, Far Cry and Painkiller on all 3 of them and none of them showed any signs of ghosting.

The Samsung had a very clean, vivid picture compared to the other 2. I am a big gamer, that is why I wanted a widescreen and went through the trouble of testing all three before I committed spending this amount of money. There was no question in my mind which monitor that I wanted to keep.

I tested these monitors side be side while playing those 3 games. Two monitors at a time of course. My video card supports dual dvi connections, so I was able to have a game running on both screens at the same time. I had 4 other people there to give me their opinions on these three monitors and they all agreed on me keeping the Samsung. Believe me, I wanted to keep the Sony, because I love Sony products, but the picture did not compare to the Samsung. As for the response time, sometimes I think some manufacturers are more generous on their response time ratings.

Also, I was running a Gforce 5200 while testing all three and I also ran them on a Radeon 9800 Pro. I had no issue's with either card.

You can't go wrong with any of these 3 monitors. It reallly depends on how much you want to spend and what quality you are looking for. I am very picky and wanted the highest quality that I could get. Money was not an issue for me as I know that I will have this monitor for a good while.

I hope this helps.

How do you test the monitors? You buy then and then return them? Didn't you get charged restocking fees?

I did see the 243T at CompUSA and the picture on that monitor did look incredible. The thing that really scares me is that it's only 25ms. Right now I'm leaning towards the Sony P234 because it has the same contrast ratio as the 243T and it also has a better response time. (16ms)

In terms of image quality and overall gaming performance which is better? The P234 (Sony) or the 243T (Samsung)?.....

 

[GreenX]

Many people are seing ghosting on 16ms screens..

I see lots of motion blur on my 16ms VP201 and a friends Dell 2001FP LCD's in games.

I think I'll have to go back to CRT, I dunno....

 

[firey-eyez]

why is it that some people claim that 16ms screens are great for gaming but others say that it is hardly playable?

 

[Mikelod]

The thing that really scares me is that it's only 25ms

Rick james, I have been playing ut2k4 on this monitor for a bit now and i can say i have seen no ghosting as of yet. Keep in mind i am still trying to set up the monitor (brightness, contrast and so on). Will keep you updated.

 

[zicc]

How do you test the monitors? You buy then and then return them? Didn't you get charged restocking fees?

I did see the 243T at CompUSA and the picture on that monitor did look incredible. The thing that really scares me is that it's only 25ms. Right now I'm leaning towards the Sony P234 because it has the same contrast ratio as the 243T and it also has a better response time. (16ms)

In terms of image quality and overall gaming performance which is better? The P234 (Sony) or the 243T (Samsung)?.....

I made sure that the places I bought the lcds did not charge a restocking fee. I bought the HP and the Samsung from buy.com and they actually paid for the return on the HP. I bought the Sony from sony.com. I didn't have to pay any restocking fee, but I had to pay shipping, but it was worth it I guess. Call me crazy.

The Sony had a yellow cast to the picture that I could not get rid of. The blacks were real faded looking also. The text was not as clear as on the Samsung. On the Sony, if you were not sitting with a direct view, you would see a haze on the screen The Samsung you could look from any angle and the picture quality stayed the same. The blacks bothered me alot with the Sony. If you look at this forums page with the black background, it looks solid black on the Samsung. On the Sony, the black looked very washed out.

I don't get why someone said that games were blurry even on the 16ms lcd. I don't see any blurriness at all and on Doom3, things go pretty fast. Maybe something else is causing the blurriness besides the 16ms on that monitor or the monitor that is showing blurriness is defective.

Good luck on which ever you buy.

 

[BillR]

why is it that some people claim that 16ms screens are great for gaming but others say that it is hardly playable?

Some people just don’t adapt well to change is one reason. Others might suffer from “buyer’s regret” after having spent the money for and LCD.

None of it really matters much; the CRT is about a dead issue. Every manufacture I talk to wants out of that business in the worst way, both in TV and computer monitors.

I thing the term “unplayable” is way over used, as well as the term “ghosting” is very misunderstood. People look at the “specs” and “believe”. It’s almost a self-fulfilling promise; “My .25 monitor is going to ghost, I read it would on the forum”. I have several LCD’s that run at .25 and they don’t ghost. Sure, if you wiggle the mouse around at 500 mph it leaves trails, but it does that on a CRT as well.

So many time I go to a customer’s house to find the LCD so mis-adjusted it’s scary. Actually I see the same thing with CRT’s as well. Once you clean them up suddenly the “problem” is gone.

The two companies I have had zero problems with are Envision and Samsung. Envision is AOC. Neither of those companies exaggerates their response times from what I can see.

The 24” Samsung is to die for, if you got the bucks.

 

[[BB] Rick James]

Some people just don’t adapt well to change is one reason. Others might suffer from “buyer’s regret” after having spent the money for and LCD.

None of it really matters much; the CRT is about a dead issue. Every manufacture I talk to wants out of that business in the worst way, both in TV and computer monitors.

I thing the term “unplayable” is way over used, as well as the term “ghosting” is very misunderstood. People look at the “specs” and “believe”. It’s almost a self-fulfilling promise; “My .25 monitor is going to ghost, I read it would on the forum”. I have several LCD’s that run at .25 and they don’t ghost. Sure, if you wiggle the mouse around at 500 mph it leaves trails, but it does that on a CRT as well.

So many time I go to a customer’s house to find the LCD so mis-adjusted it’s scary. Actually I see the same thing with CRT’s as well. Once you clean them up suddenly the “problem” is gone.

The two companies I have had zero problems with are Envision and Samsung. Envision is AOC. Neither of those companies exaggerates their response times from what I can see.

The 24” Samsung is to die for, if you got the bucks.

I did get a chance to look at the Samsung at Compusa and it did looks just awesome. I think my mind is made up.... I think I'll go with the Samsung.