Samsung 214T flat panel - is it that good?

[Fpbear II]

I'm intrigued by the Samsung 214T LCD panel. Is it worth double the price
over the 204B model? Primarily I am interested in a good color dynamic
range for viewing photos, and blur-free videos. I noticed that it is
out-of-stock everywhere, probably due to the Christmas rush. Or is there
another comparable display coming out that I should wait for instead?

 

[Mike Ruskai]

I'm intrigued by the Samsung 214T LCD panel. Is it worth double the price
over the 204B model? Primarily I am interested in a good color dynamic
range for viewing photos, and blur-free videos. I noticed that it is
out-of-stock everywhere, probably due to the Christmas rush. Or is there
another comparable display coming out that I should wait for instead?

That monitor uses a S-PVA panel, which suffers from pretty severe
"input lag" (a better term would be display lag).

The cause is image processing, designed to reduce ghosting and do
anti-aliasing on scaled images (i.e. when the set resolution doesn't
match the monitor's native resolution). The processing is done by
buffering a number of frames (from 2 to 4, it seems), so that
calculations can be done on the sequence of pixel values for a given
screen area.

The consequence is that what you see on the screen is appearing
20-60ms later than it should.

Some people claim not to notice this at all. I've only seen videos of
it in action, and in the videos, it's extremely noticeable.

For your needs, the most significant effect this design flaw will have
is likely audio/video synchronization. The video will lag behind the
audio. When it comes to seeing someone speak, that kind of mismatch
may be intolerable (I know it drives me crazy when something on TV is
out of sync).

I suggest plugging any considered LCD purchase into this page:

http://www.flatpanels.dk/panels.php

Note the panel type, and avoid S-PVA, S-MVA, and Overdrive-TN.

Plain TN and the various IPS types should be good.

 

[Bob Myers]

]> That monitor uses a S-PVA panel, which suffers from pretty severe

"input lag" (a better term would be display lag).

The cause is image processing, designed to reduce ghosting and do
anti-aliasing on scaled images (i.e. when the set resolution doesn't
match the monitor's native resolution). The processing is done by
buffering a number of frames (from 2 to 4, it seems), so that
calculations can be done on the sequence of pixel values for a given
screen area.

I'm sorry, but this is incorrect. "S-PVA" refers to a particular
class of LC cell design; there is no relationship, necessarily, between
the LC technology used in a given panel, and the image processing
which may or may not be performed by the "front end" electronics
of the monitor. In other words, while that processing can certainly
result in this sort of input-to-display delay you're describe, there's
nothing that ties that sort of processing to a particular panel type.

The processing which is performed on an image is pretty much up
to the monitor designer. Now, you might SEEM to see some
correlation with panel type, simply because certain monitor makers
tend to buy panels made by their own LCD division (Samsung
being a perfect example), and so their designs would tend to use
only panels of a particular type. (Samsung's LCD division makes
VA-type panels, so it's not very surprising to see that type in
Samsung monitors!) So you really can't judge this sort of thing
solely by looking at the type of panel in the monitor. Obviously,
there have been quite a few LCD televisions made using VA
panels (again, Samsung being a good example) - and just as
obviously THOSE do not suffer from a video/audio synch problem
that such a thing would suggest, were the panel type to blame.

Bob M.