Samsung LW32A33W - How good is it?

Heard the Samsung LW32A33W has a rather low response time making ghosting noticeable?

Thinking of buying it. Looked nice when i saw it bu the feed was poor so its hard to judge PQ wise.

Support HDMI, DVi etc. Samsung have some zero pixel tolernace policy or something like that too.

 

I've seen one in Currys and I thought it was a good set and very stylish looking as well.

Picture quality wise, I thought it lacked finer detail compared to the Sony KLVL32M1 which it happened to be next to it in the shop, but overall reasonably good.

However, the Samsung clearly wins on connectivity.

 

Well....I may be able to do a proper review this week.

I'm currently sat in waiting for mine to be delivered by Currys.

Was told between 9.30 to 1.30pm. Bet it comes at 1.30 and then I'll have to go to work.

 

As it is Currys..a) it will be delivered to a street about a mile away from your house or b) it will be delivered tomorrow!

 

Its been delivered.

Initially I was impressed by the build quality, gold plated connections and nice design......then I switched it on

General TV is fine, especially from Freeview.

Switch to DVD and more importantly DVD via component (interlace and progressive scan) and the screen is quite blurry over fine details.

If that was'nt bad enough theres a missing pixel at the top left on the snazzy Samsung "no signal" blue screen.

Its going back.

On the plus point the backlight is perfect.

 

Does the screen ghost? As in it cant keep up with movement?

Sounds like you have a faulty tv if its blurry by default.

 

Yep its like motion trails, especially where there is fine detail.

On my Toshiba SD900e's blank screen if a menu is opened then closed theres a retained image momentarily.

I thought that was a plasma only thing!

Its a shame. The set looks nice, has a kinda CRT quality to most sources but its unacceptable at £1500!

I don't think it can be faulty....could it?

 

I was looking for a 32" LCD...initial viewings narrowed it down to the Sony KLV-32M1, Panasonic TX-26, & Samsung LW32A33 (some swear by the Philips' but I found them horribly digitised and lacking in contrast)

in the end, I couldn't find anything the Samsung did better than the Panny or Sony, so took the two home to try. The Sony showed the Panasonic a clean pair of heels from normal viewing distance, and its blacks was superb. But the Panasonics are still the finest and smoothest in detail of all the LCDs I've seen though at 2m away this advantage is useless.

But there are two problems with all LCD screens: the motion lag as described (due to poor response times), and contrast. You can get deep blacks if you want, but not the contrast - contrast are Samsung's LCDs strong point. Better than anything else - while other LCDs show almost blank screens, the Samsung will provide a coherent picture: try Lord of the Rings or any dark scene.

In the end, I decided at current prices, a 32" LCD isn't worth the money, when 42" plasmas can be had for similar money (including the excellent Philips 42PF9946 whose picture is clearly superior to all these LCDs)

 

The motion seems particularily bad on the Samsung though and much worse than the Toshiba 32WL48 which I could'nt really complain about in terms of bluriness.

Shame the Sony and Panasonics are'nt HDTV ready

 

Yes, sorry, I didn't really address the Samsung ghosting/motion lag/blurriness in particular, nor do I know that much about it. The Sony and Panasonic both definitely exhibited it, but it wasn't too distracting and I'm sure some people who weren't looking for it wouldn't even notice it from a normal viewing distance.

I do know that Sharp have LCDs with 'Quickshoot' which supposedly reduces the problem, and that JVC are launching new LCDs later this year claiming half their current effective response time.

 

Thanks for the responses. I'll look into other screens. LCD may have to wait for now.

TV wise i think the UK is kind of not great. CRt's dont even have component leads here save for a few models. Then they do stupid stuff like cut out 60hz.

 

I have the Samsung LW32A23W which I think is excellent. I have recently connected it via component to the tosh sd340E and the picture is excellent. I have no problems with the samsung at all. Contrast and colour are excellent. Motion lag/blur non visable via the dvd but slightly noticable via my telewest cable. Now, this is the old samsung lcd, im sure the newer one must be better???

 

Well Currys seem to be okay about it at the moment but want someone to see if first to authorise a refund or replacement.

I think someone from Sasmung is going to have a look at it soon (will find out tomorrow) and both Samsung and Currys both believe the sets faulty.

I'm not so sure. I think I'm pushing the barriers of the laws of probabilty with faulty sets soon.

Poo!

I felt sick watching it last night though. a) its very off putting b) I've wasted my money and caused myself more grief yet again.

The fact the W23A appears to perform well is a bit encouraging though.

 

Well here's some piccies before it goes back or I smash it to pieces for making me sea sick.

They are big and suprisingly crap considering the camera







If it were'nt for the blurriness to the picture and dodgy pixels I would've kept it.

I feel like going back to CRT

Or buying a 9986..............

 

Well after a bit of messing around and Currys trying to book a firm to come out who only "repair" TV's the TV is being replaced Monday.

Its certainly the last Samsung LCD TV I'm trying and I hope its fine but I have my doubts.

Anyway....the problem does look like very very exagerrated(sp?) digital noise reduction and was wondering if that could be switched off or tweaked in a service menu. Anyone know how to access this?

Thanks

 

Well the box is out and I'm gonna pack it up shortly but I thought I'd give my PC a go in the VGA input.

Well....its actually a pretty good monitor. I used an ATi 9600XT graphics card and the panel let me use 1920 x 1080i (admittedly at 30hz ). Saw some WMVHD demos through it and I'm really impressed.

On DVD's played through Power DVD5 though there was some smearing but nothing like using an RGB or component input so I'm not so sure.

If we finally get HDTV at 1920 x 1080 its gonna look the biz!

Will see if analogue sources improve tomorrow I guess.

 

Well you can write off the Samsung if you want clear ghost/blur free images.

Its going back and if Blackpools Currys will stop letting there stupid automated phone system hang up on me I'll find out if I can take it back personally.

This panel is worse than the first. Theres 6 pixels out in total and 2 of them in the right corner remain off all the time so can be seen on any colour.

Great way to waste £1500 and a lot of time

Back to CRT?