At 09:24 PM 18/12/2007, Brian Weeden wrote:
The X223 is listed in a couple places at $350. Not bad. However the
reviews I have seen said it's a TN+film panel and I keep hearing
that's not so hot but haven't figured out why yet. So it will stay on
the list as a possible.
"TN Film (Twisted Nematic + Film)
With their fast response times, TN Film panels
are arguably the most responsive in the market
today. Response times of 4ms G2G and under are
common place. Black depth is not quite as good as
VA panel types, but has improved significantly in
recent times, aided further by the introduction
of high dynamic contrast ratios. Colour accuracy
is very good with proper calibration; however
some people are put off by the 6-bit colour
depth. Modern FRC methods and improved panels
make TN Film still pretty decent in terms of
colour accuracy, but remain behind VA and IPS
panels. Movie noise is often a problem,
especially where overdrive technologies are
excessively used, or implemented with poor
control. Perhaps the most obvious down-fall of TN
Film is the restrictive viewing angles,
especially vertically. TN Film based displays are
normally very cost effective however, and
dominate most sectors up to and including the 22 range.
MVA (Multi-Domain Vertical Alignment)
MVA panels offer typically very good black depth,
a notch above TN Film. The viewing angles are
also greatly improved, and are wide in both
horizontal and vertical fields. Colour depth is
nearly always a true 8-bit, with no need for FRC
methods. Colour accuracy is very good, and movie
playback is probably the smoothest and least
prone to noise' on MVA based matrices. Response
times are decent with modern overdrive methods,
but not quite as fast as TN Film panels. MVA
screens are considered very good all round.
Viewing angles are slightly inferior to IPS
panels however, and a characteristic contrast
shift can be seen as you move your line of sight
off-centre. This is why IPS panels are considered
more suitable for colour critical work, and are
more widely used in professional display ranges.
Premium-MVA (P-MVA) and Super-MVA (S-MVA) are
variants of this technology and represent the
modern generation of such panels. AdvancedMVA
(AMVA ) is very new, and is designed to offer the
next generation of improvements in this technology.
PVA (Patterned Vertical Alignment)
Samsung's own version of VA matrices, offering
very similar characteristics to MVA based
screens. Movie noise is more accentuated however,
and overdrive control is more variable. Black
depth is very good; arguably the best in the
market, and again PVA panels are pretty decent
all round. Super-PVA (S-PVA) panels represent the
latest generation of PVA screens and feature some
improvements over the older PVA panels.
IPS (In Plane Switching)
IPS and Super-IPS (S-IPS) panels are well
regarded at the moment. They offer the widest
viewing angles in the market, and are superior in
this regard to VA matrices. They do not suffer
from the off-centre colour / contrast shift of VA
panels and are commonly used in colour critical
professional displays as a result. Response times
are variable, but some modern overdriven panels
are very responsive in practice, even being
comparable to the fastest TN Film panels. Colour
depth is 8-bit and colour accuracy is very good.
Black depth is not as good as VA based displays,
but modern dynamic contrast control has improved
performance in this area for multimedia
application. IPS based screens are typically the
most expensive however, but some modern panels
are very good all round. Movie playback is noisy
in most cases, and a step behind MVA panels."
From this description, I can't see a big problem
with TN Film. I don't care about viewing angles,
since I'm sitting in front of the screen, but I
guess that could be an issue. I'd like to see
all four side by side to see the differences.
I did also see the Samsung 226 BW which seems to be pretty awesome
except there is an A version and a S version and it looks like you
really don't want to get the S version:
Not a big fan of Samsung. I installed 52 of them
at the local Philatelic Centre, and the image
quality is crap. Everyone complained about them,
and I spent quite some time trying to get the
image better, and there wasn't much I could
do. These are W2K machines, so maybe that's part
of the problem. Two have died already, and they
are about eight months old, so that's not a good sign.
T
