UK Samsung LE26R41B vs US Samsung LNR268W

echelon

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Over the past weeks I've been excitingly reading the positive Samsung reviews, and also managed to take a look at one in a shop on Tottenham Court Road. Have to say i was impressed, best PQ ive ever seen from an LCD, and this was with a poor fuzzy input.

Anyway, was looking into prices online, when i noticed the American model the Samsung LNR238W. At first i thought it was the exact same TV, but then i noticed the change in inputs (check the bottom of this link)

http://www.tvauthority.com/LCD-TV-and-Monitors/Samsung-LN-R328W.asp

Instead of 1x Component + 2x SCART, it has 2x Component + 2x AVI.

What im asking is do the Americans have a better deal? Would you prefer the American or UK (considering it may be posisble to get this TV cheap on import)? I'm undecided..most of my devices currently work on RGB, but 2 components would be well handy, espcially once the Xbox360 is realeased.

Also in not sure if you can have RGB inputing through the AVI ports, or if RGB is scart only?

Further investigation revealed that the 32" and 23" models have the exact same set of inputs..which means the 23" is SERIOUSLY well connected, the perfect TV for a bedroom + videogames!
 
Instead of 1x Component + 2x SCART, it has 2x Component + 2x AVI*.

What im asking is do the Americans have a better deal?

What do you mean by AVI ports? If you mean standard AV in, no, those are for Composite video only (the poorest quality type).

Yes, the Americans do have a better deal. On the European model, one of the SCART sockets supports Interlaced RGB video in standard def - only up to 576i. The other SCART socket is close to useless as it only supports Composite video (it has the same fuctionality as a Yellow/White/Red AV input).

If you're comfortable with importing it (no warranty etc) and you can be fairly sure the US version works with PAL video, have a satellite/cable/Freeview box to plug in with a SCART to S-Video (or if you're rich, SCART to Component) adapter, then by all means go for the import. Remember you'll probably need a good quality stepdown transformer for the different voltage as well. In fact, I'm glad you suggested it, because I'd consider importing my next LCD TV too, if they downgrade the European version enough.
 
I had been looking into picking up the US version before it was announced in the UK, and personally I'd say it's a better idea to stick with the UK one, assuming you currently have things with RGB SCART. (you could always buy an adapter for SCART > Component, but that's pricy)

However, I checked out the manuals etc, and I don't believe it supports 50Hz at all, there was no mention of it at least.

You can always buy a component switching box if you need more component inputs, and they're much cheaper than a SCART > Component adapter.

The price difference would probably be quite big after the cost of importing too.
 
However, I checked out the manuals etc, and I don't believe it supports 50Hz at all, there was no mention of it at least.
The US manual of course won't mention it, but my thinking is that since it's so trivial to implement on an LCD TV, it would work with PAL stuff fine. In fact, the manufacturer would probably have to go to more effort to *disable* PAL support, but I could be wrong.

Regarding the RGB SCART. I'm assuming the only use people would have for this is a digital TV decoder (we have Component and HDMI DVD players now). The picture quality on digital TV broadcasts is so bad anyway, I think slightly downgrading it to S-Video to get an extra Component input would be a good idea. (But - you'd lose Auto Widescreen switching).
 
I'd stick with the UK one simple for less hassle - there really isn't a difference in effective inputs. Ignore the 2xAV, as they are just composite.

Yes, the US gets 2xcomponent, but its likely that you'll be using at least one interlaced source (eg digibox). For that, you get no benefit over RGB SCART, of which there is one on the UK model.

That effectively leaves you with 1 component free for a progressive device on both units.
 
I'm fairly sure both Component inputs on the US one are Progressive, so you do have the advantage of a cleaner setup (no need for a switch box). But yeah, the AV inputs aren't all that useful.
 

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