Samsung 2493HM & 2693HM

[gamblor]

If anyone spots these for sale in the UK be sure to pipe up. I've been in the market for a 24" monitor for toooooo long now. Piccies.

Unless the Dell 2408 turns up to this party soon I may have to go for one of these Samsung TN beasts. Just so I can stop lurking on monitor forums.

[Tejstar]

I wonder how much these will cost in the UK. Going by the US price I can't see them being cheaper than £370.

[gamblor]

Indeed, the Samsung 245B is going for a shade under £300 now, so I'd hope the 2493HM would go for similar. I don't mind spending nearer £400 but I'd rather it wasn't on a TN panel, eyes on the Dell 2408 in that case.

[Tejstar]

The problem is that on launch I can't see the Dell being cheaper than £475 on release, so it's all relative. I suppose you could always pick up the Samsung 245B for a bargain price, depending on whether there's a real difference with the 2493HM?

[x2srj]

Yeah I'm after one of the two monitors mentioned above... just cancelled a Dell order on a 22"....

anyone know roughly on what release dates will be for these panels?

[Tejstar]

No price or release date has been given at the moment, but I'm sure it can't be too long before we have some finalised details.

[x2srj]

what about the BenQ FP241W ?

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/123982

Do you think it'll be OK for SkyHD, PC and maybe even a PS3?

[gamblor]

Looks like the new 24" and 26" models are almost here. Price is a little steep, but that was to be expected I guess. Hope some reviews arrive soon.

[2BadgersBlue]

I thought TN panels were meant to be 6bit, not 8bit as indicated by the full 16.7 million colours?

I'm really thinking about getting one, primarily for photo editing on a modest budget but I do enjoy the odd frag-fest here and there.

Am I going to have to wait until someone reviews it or can someone use their crystal ball and say what the panel is going to be like for the aforementioned tasks?

Cheers

[m-cine]

I just bought a 2693HM. (in Czech, equiv to £450, =$900)

Overall it's very satisfying, way better than a 19". It has almost identical pitch to a 19" so text size is the same. I tested a 22" and an old 24" but I'm really glad I went with 25.5"! There's only one disappointment.

Compared to my old Acer AL1931 19" which has a great picture, the 2693 does have a vertical colour/brightness viewing angle "characteristic". Its ok in the horizontal, but in the vertical, even when viewing head on to center, sitting still, it has a very slightly darker magenta tint towards the top and a very slightly lighter greeny tint towards the bottom (at a distance of a couple of feet).
Its fine for everyday use but it would be an issue doing graphics work, or colour photo work. You can see it on grey scale tests. You can just see it in photos but untrained people probably wont notice it. If you sit well back its less pronounced. I didnt notice it doing a quick DVD movie test. If this matters to you check it out first.
This is just my own opinion. I'm accepting it, because I feel that if a Samsung at this price point has it, then this is probably the state of technology at the moment. My favourite has been the BenQ FP241W but since several new 24s were announced I had to wait to see what price and spec they would materialise with. The wide gamut Dell 2408 is £578. My 2693 was about £450.

I'll be getting an HDMI cable and checking if the 2693 does 1:1. Its not in the manual.

If anybody knows the colour gamut % please post, its not written anywhere! I also found it very hard to calibrate (usually the built in Mac OSX calibrator is good enough for me). I had to turn the brightness down to 0, and tweak the Mac calibrator a lot. I need to learn more about this.

No 'dead' pixels.

Other users comments:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824001264

[Cjwipstar]

Has anyone been able to confirm whether or not the Samsung 2493HM and 2693HM have 1:1 pixel mapping for 720p, 1080p and so on non-native resolution inputs, or does it scale the image?

Thanks.

Charles

Update
I contacted Samsung via e-mail today regarding the issue of 1:1 pixel mapping vs. scaling of a 1080p image, their response, besides being for the wrong product, just re-iterated the information found on the product page. So much for customer service. Any one got any more information about the 2493HM?

[Cjwipstar]

Guessing either no one knows or anyone who does know hasn't seen this. Please if you do know whether they can do 1:1 pixel mapping, can you let me know.

Thanks

[gamblor]

I would also like to know the answer to this. I plan to connect an XBOX 360 via HDMI and would like to ensure it keeps its native 1080p resolution. I've placed an order for the 2693HM (after an extensive search for a TFT monitor) but still have a week to decide before Dabs actually get any in stock...

[Miller]

I've had my 2493 for about a week now, and I am quite pleased with it (it's my first lcd monitor). As it's a TN panel there are restricted viewing angles, worst in the vertical, but as used as a monitor it's not something I personally notice. I like the height adjustment this lcd has.

I'm just starting to get to grips with the colour etc adjustment, but at the moment I'm just using the auto modes (game, movie, intelligent etc). All in all, I'm very pleased, but I have no previous experience of an lcd to compare.

I got mine for £350 delivered from Lambdatek. As for 1:1 ,mapping.......not sure, I've read elsewhere that's controlled via your graphics card, perhaps someone can direct me to find out if this lcd does?

[Cjwipstar]

From what I understand, if outputting via a computer graphics card, given the correct drivers, it is possible to do 1:1 pixel mapping in software. But the issue is really whether the monitor can handle it in hardware (via HDMI) with a 1080p source (such as SkyHD, a PS3 or an Xbox 360).

If you have such a source a simple test would be just to plug this source in via the HDMI port, make sure the output is set to 1080p, and see how the monitor handles it. If it fills the screen, it's scaling, if you get black borders it's either maintaining the aspect ratio or doing 1:1 pixel mapping. If it does have black borders, try switching the source to 720p if you can, if it's just maintaining the aspect ratio it should be the same size as the 1080p image on the monitor (as that's the max. size of the 16:9 image on a 1900x1200/16:10 monitor), if the 720p image yields borders on all sides, then in theory it's 1:1 pixel mapping... at least that is my understanding of it. From the user guide I have seen that there's some sort of 'AV Mode' that is meant to give the best possible reproduction of the input, as I assume this might be 1:1 mapping, but it could also just maintain the aspect ratio to avoid that 'stretch effect' but it would still scale the image to fit the panel.

Thanks

Charles