Hello Everyone,
On Friday I took delivery of a Samsung LE23T51 LCD and noting that there seems to have been some discussion of this model I decided to do a quick review. During this process I thought of the general interest in what the best settings are and so decided that I would do a thorough investigation of those as well.
The LE23T51
The display was ordered from PRC Direct for £420 on Thursday and was delivered on Friday at 11am. I have had some trouble with internet retailers lately so credit to PRC for actually fulfilling their delivery promises!
First impressions were that the package was lighter than expected but well designed and there were no rattles or shakes from inside the box. Always a good sign I think!
<Picture The Box - Coming Soon!>
When I opened the package it was clear that the packaging was well thought out. Screen and stand were sandwiched between two layers of polystyrene and the remote etc were safely packed in their own box. There should be no worries about ordering this for courier delivery as it would take quite a bump to damage the screen and would be clearly visible as damage to the outer packaging.
<Picture Inside the Box - Coming Soon!>
<Picture Inside the inside Box - Coming Soon!>
The system is supplied with four cross head screws which can be used to attach the stand or fix a wall mount bracket. For testing I chose to just use the stand but I will come back to wall mounting later. The stand was easily attached. It just slips in to the space at the bottom of the screen as is fixed using the screws. The screws are only needed to prevent the stand falling off when the display is moved so I would recommend just using a few turns with the screwdriver. The stand is just relatively soft plastic and there is no need to risk chewing it up by over tightening these screws.
Ok everything was together now it was time to fire it up!
When the set is powered on for the first time the plug and play menu appears. This is very intuitive and makes it very easy to get up and running if you are still making use of the included analogue tuner. I dont have an aerial so I skipped this step and got down to testing the many other inputs that are included.
I have a Sencore VP401 video generator (http://www.sencore.com/vp400/index.htm) that can generate all of the various signals required to test this display. The first task was to run through the video inputs using multiburst and focus patterns to identify which offered the best performance. I was looking for the highest horizontal resolution and clearest focus. All tests in this review were performed with the dynamic contrast switched off. The inputs were tested using the displays default picture mode Dynamic, Cool 1.
In order the best inputs for SD were found to be:
1. Component
2. S-Video
3. RGB
4. Composite
You will note the first surprise with this display. The RGB input performed very poorly in fact it was only just better than the composite input. It is very possible that some people may prefer the image on the composite input so if using this display with a Sky system it would be worth switching between the PAL and RGB settings on the Sky box to see which is better to your eyes.
Performance on the S-Video input was a marked improvement. The image was much more stable with a significantly higher horizontal resolution. This would definitely be the choice for older DVD players that lack component outputs or for those lucky enough to have S-Video on their set-top boxes.
The PAL component input was head and shoulders above the rest though. The image was very stable and had the highest horizontal resolution by some margin. Those looking for the best image from existing set-top boxes would be advised to consider a JS-Tech RGB to Component transcoder to enjoy the best possible standard definition image on this display.
For international DVD fans it is worth noting that NTSC was supported on all inputs with no obvious impact on performance. It should be noted that I do not have any NTSC DVDs so was unable to test for judder on a moving picture.
With the best input identified it was time to investigate what the best settings would be. Settings are highly dependent on the environment that the display is being used in and the performance of each set will differ slightly. For best performance there is no substitute for an ISF calibration. For all that I can understand why people would be reluctant to spend £250 to calibrate a set costing £420!!! With all of this in mind I decided to only measure the performance of the various manufacturer picture modes. The display has three Picture Standards (Dynamic, Standard and Movie) and five Colour Tones (Cool 2, Cool 1, Normal, Warm 1 and Warm 2). The Picture Standards affect the contrast, brightness and colour controls with each control value reducing as you move through the standards. The Colour Tones move from very blue to almost acceptable! In total there are 15 combinations and each was profiled using my Sencore ColorPro IV colorimeter. See the attached spreadsheet for details of the grey scale tracking, luminance and gamma for each combination.
The default for the display is Dynamic Cool 1. This setting has an average temp of around 16000K and a peak luminance of 112.6 foot lamberts! For reference my calibrated Samsung CRT has a peak luminance of closer to 26 foot lamberts!
My choice for the best setting is Standard Warm 2. This offers decent grey scale, a more reasonable peak luminance of 71.83 foot lamberts and compromise gamma of 1.49. This setting is the best choice for the layman who just wants a decent picture without overdriving their display but much better performance can be achieved. I choose not to cover that but all of the data is there for others to discuss.
Next I decided to test the component input with some HDTV signals. This test revealed that the best choice for this display would be 720P. The 720P signal created a wonderfully stable clear image with very high horizontal resolution. The 1080i image seemed to lose a bit of detail and had a very noticeable and distracting shimmer. It is worth noting that 540P also supplied a wonderful picture with only the reduction in resolution counting against it. This is great news for those sticking with SD DVD players for the time being though.
It was now time to test the DVI input. The first thing to note with the DVI input is that it is not PC enabled. There is no EDID information which your PC would use to determine the supported resolutions. This means that the DVI is strictly for use as a digital video input.
Even in comparison with the analogue component at 720P the DVI input is clearly much superior. The picture is absolutely rock solid with very high resolution although again 720P performs better than 1080i.
Finally I tested the VGA input which must be used for PC input. This input supports a resolution up to 1360x768 at 60Hz. This is not one to one mapping unfortunately as the screen has a native resolution of 1366x768. The image ends up with two very thin black bars at each side but these are barely noticeable against the black surround of the display. The image from my laptop was very disappointing with obvious ghosting, however the image from the pattern was far better. I am convinced that this is much more to do wit poor performance from my lowly Intel 915 graphics card than anything else. The image from the pattern generator was absolutely superb more than good enough for games or HD videos. I would hesitate before I used it as my main display though, as with all displays of this size the comparatively low DPI affects the clarity of text.
Neil
On Friday I took delivery of a Samsung LE23T51 LCD and noting that there seems to have been some discussion of this model I decided to do a quick review. During this process I thought of the general interest in what the best settings are and so decided that I would do a thorough investigation of those as well.
The LE23T51
The display was ordered from PRC Direct for £420 on Thursday and was delivered on Friday at 11am. I have had some trouble with internet retailers lately so credit to PRC for actually fulfilling their delivery promises!
First impressions were that the package was lighter than expected but well designed and there were no rattles or shakes from inside the box. Always a good sign I think!
<Picture The Box - Coming Soon!>
When I opened the package it was clear that the packaging was well thought out. Screen and stand were sandwiched between two layers of polystyrene and the remote etc were safely packed in their own box. There should be no worries about ordering this for courier delivery as it would take quite a bump to damage the screen and would be clearly visible as damage to the outer packaging.
<Picture Inside the Box - Coming Soon!>
<Picture Inside the inside Box - Coming Soon!>
The system is supplied with four cross head screws which can be used to attach the stand or fix a wall mount bracket. For testing I chose to just use the stand but I will come back to wall mounting later. The stand was easily attached. It just slips in to the space at the bottom of the screen as is fixed using the screws. The screws are only needed to prevent the stand falling off when the display is moved so I would recommend just using a few turns with the screwdriver. The stand is just relatively soft plastic and there is no need to risk chewing it up by over tightening these screws.
Ok everything was together now it was time to fire it up!
When the set is powered on for the first time the plug and play menu appears. This is very intuitive and makes it very easy to get up and running if you are still making use of the included analogue tuner. I dont have an aerial so I skipped this step and got down to testing the many other inputs that are included.
I have a Sencore VP401 video generator (http://www.sencore.com/vp400/index.htm) that can generate all of the various signals required to test this display. The first task was to run through the video inputs using multiburst and focus patterns to identify which offered the best performance. I was looking for the highest horizontal resolution and clearest focus. All tests in this review were performed with the dynamic contrast switched off. The inputs were tested using the displays default picture mode Dynamic, Cool 1.
In order the best inputs for SD were found to be:
1. Component
2. S-Video
3. RGB
4. Composite
You will note the first surprise with this display. The RGB input performed very poorly in fact it was only just better than the composite input. It is very possible that some people may prefer the image on the composite input so if using this display with a Sky system it would be worth switching between the PAL and RGB settings on the Sky box to see which is better to your eyes.
Performance on the S-Video input was a marked improvement. The image was much more stable with a significantly higher horizontal resolution. This would definitely be the choice for older DVD players that lack component outputs or for those lucky enough to have S-Video on their set-top boxes.
The PAL component input was head and shoulders above the rest though. The image was very stable and had the highest horizontal resolution by some margin. Those looking for the best image from existing set-top boxes would be advised to consider a JS-Tech RGB to Component transcoder to enjoy the best possible standard definition image on this display.
For international DVD fans it is worth noting that NTSC was supported on all inputs with no obvious impact on performance. It should be noted that I do not have any NTSC DVDs so was unable to test for judder on a moving picture.
With the best input identified it was time to investigate what the best settings would be. Settings are highly dependent on the environment that the display is being used in and the performance of each set will differ slightly. For best performance there is no substitute for an ISF calibration. For all that I can understand why people would be reluctant to spend £250 to calibrate a set costing £420!!! With all of this in mind I decided to only measure the performance of the various manufacturer picture modes. The display has three Picture Standards (Dynamic, Standard and Movie) and five Colour Tones (Cool 2, Cool 1, Normal, Warm 1 and Warm 2). The Picture Standards affect the contrast, brightness and colour controls with each control value reducing as you move through the standards. The Colour Tones move from very blue to almost acceptable! In total there are 15 combinations and each was profiled using my Sencore ColorPro IV colorimeter. See the attached spreadsheet for details of the grey scale tracking, luminance and gamma for each combination.
The default for the display is Dynamic Cool 1. This setting has an average temp of around 16000K and a peak luminance of 112.6 foot lamberts! For reference my calibrated Samsung CRT has a peak luminance of closer to 26 foot lamberts!
My choice for the best setting is Standard Warm 2. This offers decent grey scale, a more reasonable peak luminance of 71.83 foot lamberts and compromise gamma of 1.49. This setting is the best choice for the layman who just wants a decent picture without overdriving their display but much better performance can be achieved. I choose not to cover that but all of the data is there for others to discuss.
Next I decided to test the component input with some HDTV signals. This test revealed that the best choice for this display would be 720P. The 720P signal created a wonderfully stable clear image with very high horizontal resolution. The 1080i image seemed to lose a bit of detail and had a very noticeable and distracting shimmer. It is worth noting that 540P also supplied a wonderful picture with only the reduction in resolution counting against it. This is great news for those sticking with SD DVD players for the time being though.
It was now time to test the DVI input. The first thing to note with the DVI input is that it is not PC enabled. There is no EDID information which your PC would use to determine the supported resolutions. This means that the DVI is strictly for use as a digital video input.
Even in comparison with the analogue component at 720P the DVI input is clearly much superior. The picture is absolutely rock solid with very high resolution although again 720P performs better than 1080i.
Finally I tested the VGA input which must be used for PC input. This input supports a resolution up to 1360x768 at 60Hz. This is not one to one mapping unfortunately as the screen has a native resolution of 1366x768. The image ends up with two very thin black bars at each side but these are barely noticeable against the black surround of the display. The image from my laptop was very disappointing with obvious ghosting, however the image from the pattern was far better. I am convinced that this is much more to do wit poor performance from my lowly Intel 915 graphics card than anything else. The image from the pattern generator was absolutely superb more than good enough for games or HD videos. I would hesitate before I used it as my main display though, as with all displays of this size the comparatively low DPI affects the clarity of text.
Neil