Samsung SyncMaster 940BF 19" LCD

Reviews: Multimedia

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Anthony Fiti
Anthony
Samsung
Jul. 4, 2006

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Setup

The first thing to do was to calibrate the display. One annoying thing about the calibration software was that some of the test patterns were in the center of the screen, right underneath the OSD that I was trying to use to adjust the picture. It took some searching, but I finally found the menu item to move the OSD out of the way so I could calibrate the display properly. One of the things I didn't expect was that it could distinguish between multiple monitors and video cards - that is impressive.

Speaking of the OSD, it is easy to work with and not too onerous. There are a lot of options to choose from, however. You can control the brightness and contrast (only via VGA for contrast settings), color controls and other image adjustments, though once it is configured the only button you'll probably need is the button to switch the unit off.

Testing

As I mentioned in the Setup portion of this article, the Samsung SyncMaster 940BF did come with calibration software, which I used to adjust the monitor for my eyes and my environment.

The first DVD I watched was my Superbit copy of The Fifth Element. Superbit DVDs are movies that are encoded at a higher bitrate than traditional DVDs. In order to do this, they usually cut out all the extras on the disc. The goal is to make the DVD transfer as close to the original film as it is possible.

The monitor performed excellent when it came to display the movie. The color reproduction was excellent and there was no streaking or ghosting. Samsung advertises a 4ms grey-to-grey switching time with this panel, so the lack of image artifacts as a result of the LCD panel is not a surprise. When it came to displaying large blocks of color, the monitor also performed well.

In addition to good colors and response time, the monitor also supported good black levels, and the LCD backlight coverage was even, not lighter at the corners or inconsistent. I did not observe any stuck pixels or any other LCD panel anomalies with this unit.

The viewing angle on this monitor is also superb, as I was able to view the monitor from a 45° angle with just a little discoloration, and it was still readable until the text became difficult to read from the viewing angle.

Finally, I tested out both the DVI and VGA connections for this monitor. The difference is not really noticeable when watching movies, typing up papers or playing games, especially given the VGA cable that was shipped with the unit - it is not a cheap cable, the connectors are solid and the wires are of a heavy gauge.

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: First Looks
Page 3: Setup & Testing
Page 4: Conclusion

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3 User Comments

1 - Posted by twenty3sky on February 2, 2007 - 11:24 pm

I love the cons of this article. In other words it doesn't have a lot of extra crap. As a product designer, one of the first things we are taught in school is make your product do one thing and do it well. That is exact;y what this monitor does. 2000:1 contrast 2ms response time... what else can you ask for... Oh yeah 269 at bestBuy...

2 - Posted by Brian on February 3, 2007 - 12:04 pm

I know where you're coming from twenty3sky. If you need a monitor to just do its main job of displaying a picture from one input, then hey, that's great. My previous monitor was like that. I bought it a couple years ago and it was awesome, and all it had was a VGA input. That's all I really needed too.

Recently, I got a Dell 2007wfp so now I have some of these extra doodads like multiple inputs and USB connections... and I am really happy with the monitor. Not only does it do its job well, but the multiple inputs is great for connecting my desktop and my laptop without having to switch cables around, plus a TV-in would be great if using your computer as a media center PC (assuming you didn't have a TV tuner in your computer). The USB ports on the side of my monitor are awesome too. I can quickly connect my portable devices without bending down to reach my computer or behind it. It really depends on what you need it for, and in the author's opinion, that 'extra crap' can be quite handy.

What you're saying works sometimes, but not all the time. Let's use cars for example: If cars were only made to do their job, to get you from one place to another, they wouldn't have all this extra crap like airbags, air conditioning, stereos, etc. I don't know about you, but I like to be comfortable while I'm going from point A to point B.

3 - Posted by Kurtis on February 4, 2007 - 1:53 am

I'd like to pick up where Brian left off, regarding special features and cars... what I really like is how on my Camaro there is this "spin-out-into-a-ditch-from-th e-highway-in-the-rain" mode, which as it turns out isn't something you can really disable. Though installing new tires has gone a long way to supress this annoying feature.

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