Closing Thoughts
We like to think that after spending over $600 on a 24" LCD, users will get a high-quality experience. That may not always be the case, but at least with the Samsung 245T we have no qualms with recommending it as a very good 24" LCD. Perhaps a better recommendation however would be to try and purchase a 24" LCD that comes with a Samsung S-PVA panel; all of the LCDs we've tested that have Samsung panels perform admirably, with the deciding factors generally being a personal preference -- external appearance, extra features, or more likely price.
The Samsung 245T has an MSRP of $799. At that price, we have to admit that it would be very difficult for us to recommend this particular LCD over some of the competition. Thankfully, a quick look online shows that prices are much more reasonable, and quite a few resellers carry the LCD for under $700 -- some as low as $630. That price is definitely higher than what we see on some of the budget 24" LCDs, but then many of those LCDs use TN panels
There are a few areas where the 245T falls short. Perhaps the biggest flaw is the support for resolution scaling. If you predominantly use 16:10 or 4:3 aspect ratios, you should be okay, but any 16:9 sources will end up slightly distorted when using the digital inputs; however, analog inputs are better on aspect ratio support. This isn't a big enough problem that we would go so far as recommending against using the 245T, and truthfully there are plenty of users that will never know the difference; still, there are other LCDs that offer better scaling options. Dell's 2407WFP and Gateway's FPD2485W are two examples, and there are certainly others.
There are many people that seem to think 24" LCDs are "too large", but after purchasing a 2405FPW three years ago I have never regretted the decision. In fact, I even took the next step and upgraded to a 30" LCD 18 months later. The cost of 30" LCDs is still relatively prohibitive, but when you think about how many hours you spend a day staring at your computer screen, we definitely wouldn't skimp on this important peripheral. We feel 24" LCDs are now the sweet spot for computer displays, and with prices ranging from $300-$700, they're more affordable than ever before. The Samsung 245T comes in at the higher end of that range, and it's still not perfect, but if quality is a primary consideration, you could do far worse.
If you're not in a big hurry to upgrade your display right now, we should also mention that there are a few other companies launching new displays in the near future. We can't talk performance or features yet, and we're not expecting any quantum leaps in overall quality to occur; still, waiting to see what other companies come out with won't hurt. One thing is certain: this isn't the only LCD we're going to see released this year with this particular Samsung S-PVA panel.
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nubie - Thursday, February 7, 2008 - link
In most proper drivers you can select a mode that has 1:1. In the nVidia classic panel (I only use the classic panel, google sedonadisable if you can't find yours.)Use DVI or HDMI, and go to device adjustments, there is a setting called "centered output", use this to send black pixels to fill the digital signal until the pixel ratio is 1:1.
I ran into a problem that wouldn't allow me to run custom resolutions, this is the fix:
http://wikitechia.org/wiki/The_custom_resolution_c...">http://wikitechia.org/wiki/The_custom_resolution_c...
I agree that scaling technology needs serious work, 16:10 is not 16:9, and 1388x768 is not 720p. Add to that the fact that even if you can get the native res of some panels to be sent by the PC, the display still stretches and overscans it, that is bad.
Doesn't the Xbox360 have support for native panel resolutions such as 1280x1024 as part of the VGA output? Doesn't this extend to the HDMI output? I would really like to know what support there is for native panel resolutions on consoles.
Every PS3 and Xbox360 I have ever seen has had mediocre picture quality, and I sincerely hope that it is a problem on the display side (in-store displays only).
JarredWalton - Thursday, February 7, 2008 - link
I don't think consoles support PC resolutions. They are usually HDTV/TV resolutions, so you get 640x480 on the old stuff, and 720p or 1080i (or maybe 1080p?) on new stuff. Of course, some titles use a lower resolution like 1024x576 or something and stretch that to 720p/1080p for performance reasons.The 245T will accept other resolutions; the problem is that your only options are "fill the whole screen (and aspect ratio be damned)" or "fill a 4:3 area (again, forget about the actual AR)". With PC connections, you're fine if you use the driver to adjust the stretch options.
Unless I'm severely mistaken, you don't get that functionality with consoles. Or DVD/Blu-ray/HD-DVD players.
nubie - Thursday, February 7, 2008 - link
WRONG!!! Information available as of 2005:http://hardware.teamxbox.com/reviews/xbox-360/40/X...">http://hardware.teamxbox.com/reviews/xbox-360/40/X...
1024x768
1280x720
1280x768
1280x1024
1360x768
I was simply curious as to whether recent updates to the Xbox360 firmware had made it MORE compatible.
JarredWalton - Thursday, February 7, 2008 - link
Interesting - didn't know consoles supported other output resolutions... though it seems like it would be game dependent, right? (I'm pretty much a PC-only gamer, so I haven't owned a console since the N64.)If you can output 1360x768, you should be able to get a 16:10 AR that will fit with this display properly. That's what I would go for, anyway.
JarredWalton - Thursday, February 7, 2008 - link
Playing DVDs, you can usually control this with your player software, and in fact you can control this with NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards (though I'd give the edge to NVIDIA here) under Windows. The problem is what happens when you hook up something like a game console, or some other device that doesn't do internal scaling. Then you're stuck with what the LCD firmware provides, and in this case it falls short.I'd think Samsung could release updated firmware to address this issue. Will they, and if so can you apply it to the initial models? Probably not, but they may prove me wrong.
SilthDraeth - Thursday, February 7, 2008 - link
Click on about above the Forums link, then on the next page, click on intellitext and then choose the option to turn it off.Problem solved.
Welshtrog - Thursday, February 7, 2008 - link
I have tried about 10 times and the B***** thing will NOT turn offGTMan - Friday, February 8, 2008 - link
You probably have to enable cookies.Or get a good hosts (google "hosts") file to block lots of ads. There is also a little program called Homer which will replace the blanked ads with a color gradation.
Welshtrog - Thursday, February 7, 2008 - link
I have tried about 10 times ant the B***** thing will NOT turn offAmishElvis - Thursday, February 7, 2008 - link
Those drop down ads are a deal breaker for me. Get rid of them or I will find another tech review site.