spanky2k
Established Member
I promised earlier that I would post a full review of my brand new 30 inch LCD screen...
... and here it is!!
I tried writing it like a magazine article, thought it would make better reading that way, I hope you don't mind!!
==================================================
From unknown to unmissable
Online shop Dabs steps boldly into the flat screen TV world but can it pack a punch?
Electronics reseller Dabs has remained unknown to most people trotting around this rainy country although has had quite a following amongst the computer enthusiasts and IT firms. Offering every component a computer could need and low prices made it such an unknown favourite. A couple of years ago Dabs introduced their own budget line of hardware, covering everything from memory cards through to computer graphics accelerators, all at low, low prices. Their entrance into the LCD TV market went unbeknown to even most enthusiasts out there and the lack of information, photos and of course in-store models didnt help.
Following their use in the past of German electronics manufacturer Medion for their PC computer screens, it was logical progression that led them to using Medion LCD TVs in their Dabs Value line.
The MD41630 is their top of the line 30 inch model coming in at an astonishingly low price of £1099. One would think that for such a big screen with such a low price tag there must be some major faults. Philips 30 inch model retails at £1999. Does half the cost mean half the quality?
Pick a plug, any plug
Dabs certainly havent skimped on connections, offering two Scarts (one of which is RGB), S-video, YUV Component and DVI-I. Not to mention phono inputs for every single video input, including both Scarts!
The design of the unit is fairly basic and rectangular although this results in a surprisingly clean and stylish look. The only curve in the entire unit is a small black plastic bulge on the bottom of the MD41630 that houses the standby LED (which glows blue when the unit is on) and remote control receiver, surrounded by somewhat small control buttons that are impossible to see and are unlabelled. Having said this though, nearly all the control of this screen will be made with the rather clunky and plastic looking remote which may lack the looks of the stylish aluminium remotes of the more expensive screens but makes up for this by being very easy to use with large durable buttons and a simple clear layout. The only minor quibble is the strange position of the power button, which is located at the bottom of the remote. It should be noted that although the remote is slightly plastic looking, the display itself is nearly all metal, the only piece of plastic being the black control blob.
The MD41630 offers a contrast ratio of 500:1 and it certainly is impressive, especially for a screen at this price. Blacks, being the most common downfall of LCD displays, are incredibly well represented. It may not be quite up to the deep blacks that some Plasma counterparts offer but for an LCD around the £1000 mark, they are very good. Rich, vivid colours are also produced, showing good contrast and brightness. Dabs baby offers a large amount of calibration options, contrast, brightness, sharpness, colour and DNC, its own brand of image processing technology, designed to remove the effects of artifacting in low quality input feeds. Although nothing compared to the incredible Pixel Plus 2 in Philips top models, it does the job well enough. The colour temperature can also be set to various presets as well as a user configuration, where each RGB channel can be custom set.
User configuration modes are also available elsewhere, such as the custom zoom option amongst the aspect ratio settings, helpful when wanting to get a perfect sized zoom of a 4:3 input so as to utilise the widescreen fully. Whilst on the point of widescreen, it should be mentioned that the natural aspect ratio is in fact 15:9, not 16:9. This seems to be a common trend amongst LCD TV producers, most likely due to the common use of 1280x768 resolutions which are 15:9 when using square pixels.
Sound is good but nothing special, a good standard reproduction of tones at lower volumes whilst losing bass as the volume is turned up. An external amp would be advisable.
PC Connectivity is where the display really shows its colours, Medion obviously know what theyre doing, having originated in the PC screens market. A wide range of resolutions are available, up to WXGA, the native 1280x768. Images are super-crisp and responsive, appearing to literally jump out of the display. Microsoft WMVHD high definition content looks absolutely incredible, fully flexing the three coloured muscles within.
Although no HD standard is officially supported, HD decoders of the future will more than likely support either VGA or DVI-I connections, both of which are supported through the latters socket.
Conclusion
Although the unit lacks the supremely trendy looks of some of the more expensive 32 inch models from the more well known manufacturers such as Philips, Sony and JVC, it does not by any means look bad. It may look simple and uninteresting but it could look less out-of-fashion than its more current style-guru displays purely due to the fact that it hardly has any style to start with, so whats it going to lose in 5 years!
The truth about this display is that it offers astonishing value, producing excellent images from a plethora of available connections. You cant really go wrong with a 30 inch display for £1099 let alone a 30 inch display with quality like this. My view would be that if you were looking for a thirty inch LCD in the first place and thus are prepared to spend the thousands extra then by all means go for the mainstream displays. If however you were looking at 23 or 26 inch displays, take a gander at this monster. Its in the same price range as many of the competitions smaller screens yet packs a punch equivalent to that of the unknown geeky Physics student who just won the Nobel prize.
Features:
15:9 75cm (30in) LCD, WXGA, progressive scan, 16ms response time, 500:1 contrast, 170 degrees viewable, progressive, 2 x 5 W sinusoidal broadband speakers, PAL/SECAM/NTSC compatible, 2 x SCART (1 x RGB), S-Video, YUV Component, RF, DVI-I, 3 x Stereo Input, 1 x Stereo Output, Sub out, Dimensions 529 x 809 x 180 mm, weight 15.4 kg, power consumption 160 W typical, < 3 W in standby mode.
Ratings:
Highs: Good picture quality, plenty of features and connections, fantastic PC monitor function, amazing value-for-money
Lows: Slightly boring design, cheap looking remote with an awkward power button
Picture: ****1/2
Sound: **1/2
Features: *****
Value: *****
OVERALL: ****1/2
==================================================
Photos:
Click on the images to enlarge:
The box:
The rear connectinos:
Daytime viewing from a Sky source (Sky source is from a Panasonic Digibox connected via a 30m phono cable connected via a phono/Scart converter):
More daytime Sky viewing (I think its from the same O2 advert, hence the blue):
The top edge of the display:
The top edge of the display while a black image is shown
Connected to a PC running the Futuremark 3DMark03 demo. Taken at night:
A close up of the same image (the image was frozen on display using the handy 'freeze' button on the remote). Again, taken at night:
The remote control. Also taken at night:
==========================================================
I hope this helps anyone who's considering this display!! If anyone's got any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!!
Kind Regards,
Phil
... and here it is!!
I tried writing it like a magazine article, thought it would make better reading that way, I hope you don't mind!!
==================================================
From unknown to unmissable
Online shop Dabs steps boldly into the flat screen TV world but can it pack a punch?
Electronics reseller Dabs has remained unknown to most people trotting around this rainy country although has had quite a following amongst the computer enthusiasts and IT firms. Offering every component a computer could need and low prices made it such an unknown favourite. A couple of years ago Dabs introduced their own budget line of hardware, covering everything from memory cards through to computer graphics accelerators, all at low, low prices. Their entrance into the LCD TV market went unbeknown to even most enthusiasts out there and the lack of information, photos and of course in-store models didnt help.
Following their use in the past of German electronics manufacturer Medion for their PC computer screens, it was logical progression that led them to using Medion LCD TVs in their Dabs Value line.
The MD41630 is their top of the line 30 inch model coming in at an astonishingly low price of £1099. One would think that for such a big screen with such a low price tag there must be some major faults. Philips 30 inch model retails at £1999. Does half the cost mean half the quality?
Pick a plug, any plug
Dabs certainly havent skimped on connections, offering two Scarts (one of which is RGB), S-video, YUV Component and DVI-I. Not to mention phono inputs for every single video input, including both Scarts!
The design of the unit is fairly basic and rectangular although this results in a surprisingly clean and stylish look. The only curve in the entire unit is a small black plastic bulge on the bottom of the MD41630 that houses the standby LED (which glows blue when the unit is on) and remote control receiver, surrounded by somewhat small control buttons that are impossible to see and are unlabelled. Having said this though, nearly all the control of this screen will be made with the rather clunky and plastic looking remote which may lack the looks of the stylish aluminium remotes of the more expensive screens but makes up for this by being very easy to use with large durable buttons and a simple clear layout. The only minor quibble is the strange position of the power button, which is located at the bottom of the remote. It should be noted that although the remote is slightly plastic looking, the display itself is nearly all metal, the only piece of plastic being the black control blob.
The MD41630 offers a contrast ratio of 500:1 and it certainly is impressive, especially for a screen at this price. Blacks, being the most common downfall of LCD displays, are incredibly well represented. It may not be quite up to the deep blacks that some Plasma counterparts offer but for an LCD around the £1000 mark, they are very good. Rich, vivid colours are also produced, showing good contrast and brightness. Dabs baby offers a large amount of calibration options, contrast, brightness, sharpness, colour and DNC, its own brand of image processing technology, designed to remove the effects of artifacting in low quality input feeds. Although nothing compared to the incredible Pixel Plus 2 in Philips top models, it does the job well enough. The colour temperature can also be set to various presets as well as a user configuration, where each RGB channel can be custom set.
User configuration modes are also available elsewhere, such as the custom zoom option amongst the aspect ratio settings, helpful when wanting to get a perfect sized zoom of a 4:3 input so as to utilise the widescreen fully. Whilst on the point of widescreen, it should be mentioned that the natural aspect ratio is in fact 15:9, not 16:9. This seems to be a common trend amongst LCD TV producers, most likely due to the common use of 1280x768 resolutions which are 15:9 when using square pixels.
Sound is good but nothing special, a good standard reproduction of tones at lower volumes whilst losing bass as the volume is turned up. An external amp would be advisable.
PC Connectivity is where the display really shows its colours, Medion obviously know what theyre doing, having originated in the PC screens market. A wide range of resolutions are available, up to WXGA, the native 1280x768. Images are super-crisp and responsive, appearing to literally jump out of the display. Microsoft WMVHD high definition content looks absolutely incredible, fully flexing the three coloured muscles within.
Although no HD standard is officially supported, HD decoders of the future will more than likely support either VGA or DVI-I connections, both of which are supported through the latters socket.
Conclusion
Although the unit lacks the supremely trendy looks of some of the more expensive 32 inch models from the more well known manufacturers such as Philips, Sony and JVC, it does not by any means look bad. It may look simple and uninteresting but it could look less out-of-fashion than its more current style-guru displays purely due to the fact that it hardly has any style to start with, so whats it going to lose in 5 years!
The truth about this display is that it offers astonishing value, producing excellent images from a plethora of available connections. You cant really go wrong with a 30 inch display for £1099 let alone a 30 inch display with quality like this. My view would be that if you were looking for a thirty inch LCD in the first place and thus are prepared to spend the thousands extra then by all means go for the mainstream displays. If however you were looking at 23 or 26 inch displays, take a gander at this monster. Its in the same price range as many of the competitions smaller screens yet packs a punch equivalent to that of the unknown geeky Physics student who just won the Nobel prize.
Features:
15:9 75cm (30in) LCD, WXGA, progressive scan, 16ms response time, 500:1 contrast, 170 degrees viewable, progressive, 2 x 5 W sinusoidal broadband speakers, PAL/SECAM/NTSC compatible, 2 x SCART (1 x RGB), S-Video, YUV Component, RF, DVI-I, 3 x Stereo Input, 1 x Stereo Output, Sub out, Dimensions 529 x 809 x 180 mm, weight 15.4 kg, power consumption 160 W typical, < 3 W in standby mode.
Ratings:
Highs: Good picture quality, plenty of features and connections, fantastic PC monitor function, amazing value-for-money
Lows: Slightly boring design, cheap looking remote with an awkward power button
Picture: ****1/2
Sound: **1/2
Features: *****
Value: *****
OVERALL: ****1/2
==================================================
Photos:
Click on the images to enlarge:
The box:
The rear connectinos:
Daytime viewing from a Sky source (Sky source is from a Panasonic Digibox connected via a 30m phono cable connected via a phono/Scart converter):
More daytime Sky viewing (I think its from the same O2 advert, hence the blue):
The top edge of the display:
The top edge of the display while a black image is shown
Connected to a PC running the Futuremark 3DMark03 demo. Taken at night:
A close up of the same image (the image was frozen on display using the handy 'freeze' button on the remote). Again, taken at night:
The remote control. Also taken at night:
==========================================================
I hope this helps anyone who's considering this display!! If anyone's got any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!!
Kind Regards,
Phil