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General discussion

Issues with The 40" 6 Series (LN40A630) as a PC Monitor

Feb 24, 2009 3:35AM PST

This weekend I took the plunge and purchased the Samsung 40? LN40A630 for use as a 1080p home PC monitor. It should be worth mentioning that this is my second TV-LCD, my first being a 37? 1080p Westinghouse that I?ve used (with fantastic results) for the last 2+ years ? which unfortunately suffered a smashed screen while moving into my new house. ):

So that said, I purchased the Samsung as a replacement ? and then spent the rest of the weekend extremely frustrated, trying to get it to work well with my PC. I?m hoping maybe someone else has ran into similar issues, or maybe even a godsend from Samsung will have a decent solution for me, preventing an unnecessary return.

For a little background ? I?m using this on a PC with a GeForce 8800 GTX. While my Westinghouse had a DVI port on it, the Samsung is HDMI ? therefore I purchased a 6? DVI to HDMI cable for the connection.

It's also worth nothing that I'm using HDMI Port 2, which the monitor's manual specifically states should be used for DVI->HDMI cables (telling me -someone- has done this before).

The initial problem was that the screen the PC was transmitting was placed about an inch outside the borders of the Samsung screen, all the way around. Meaning I just barely couldn?t see my Start-menu etc. The PC was definitely sending at 1920x1080 (at 60hz), and seemed to recognize that as the native resolution of the Samsung ? so all was theoretically well ? it should have matched up perfectly ? but just didn?t. Ultimately I semi-fixed this problem on the Samsung itself by setting the options to use ?Just Scan? rather than 16x9, but I get the sense that in the process of growing and shrinking I may have slightly lost my 1:1 pixel ratio in the process ? as everything still feels very ?off?, and lacks the crisp pixel edges that I?m used to. It almost feels like a very slight anti-aliasing is applied ? and while minor, it may end up being enough for me to return the screen, as it?s pretty jarring to my eyes.

The second problem was the fact that all text on the screen was surrounded by a white outline, roughly 3-5x the width of the text itself. It basically felt like a bad contrast issue, but again I found what ?felt? like a fix. By adjusting the sharpness on the Samsung to literally 0, that white outline effect went away entirely ? but I feel this may relate to the issue above. My text just doesn?t feel sharp ? everything is just a tad blurry.

The last issue, which may be related to any and all of these ? is a substantial color bleed that I?m seeing, primarily with reds. If I show any stark red color on the screen, it has a very visible black outline along the entire left side. Oddly enough this ends up looking like a shadow, giving red text unnecessary (and very strange) depth. On top of that, pretty much anywhere red is visible on the screen, it?s a bit blurred, and bleeding outside the lines. It?s very obvious in things as small as icons in my Firefox toolbar.

Lastly, just a point for anyone interesting in doing something along these lines ? this may sound ironic, but I?m concerned that the contrast on these screens may be so good that it?s actually detrimental as a PC screen. While I?m sure it looks fantastic in games (World of Warcraft looked almost 3D) and movies ? blank text on a white Word Document is pretty jarring. I?m very confident you can adjust settings around this ? but it?s much much more prominent on this screen than my Westinghouse, which is a few years back in tech. In addition, the brightness of these has improved so much over the last couple of years, but being used at a closer range (a few feet) it?s pretty much a requirement to limit that substantially anyway.

So all of that said, I?d really appreciate some feedback. I have a feeling that if properly configured I?d really enjoy this screen ? and it would suit my needs well. The physical aesthetics are gorgeous, and on paper ? the screen is a monster.

Thanks ahead,
Luke
luke@centercode.com

Discussion is locked

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Name the input PC
Feb 24, 2009 9:24AM PST

It doesn't seem like you named the input PC. To do this, hit "source" to bring up the source menu, go to HDMI2, hit the "tools" button on the remote, go to "Edit name" and select PC.

When you do this, it does some of what you've already done (sharpness to 0 and just scan), but it also fixes the color decoding (blurry reds seem to be a common problem on LCD TVs actually). I'd also suggest going into the detailed options in the picture settings and setting the color tone to warm2.

Finally, if it's still too bright, reduce the backlight. I have mine set around 3 or 4.

Hopefully this helps!

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My (Potential) Hero
Feb 24, 2009 10:34AM PST

I can't tell you how much I'm dying to get home and try that. If it works you're not only my hero of 2009, but I'm sending you an Amazon gift card.

=Luke

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My Hero (Confirmed)
Feb 24, 2009 11:55AM PST

I did exactly what you said - and it worked exactly as you said it would. Basically options were disabled and enabled - and the slightly fuzzy feeling I had around my pixels melted away instantly.

Everything seems much better now.

That said, while the reds are noticeably better - there still is a bit of a bleed. If I throw together an image that's flat red against white, the black bar along the left-side of it is still fairly noticeable, and the bleed to the right is still there - although much less noticeable than before. If anyone has tips to lessen that - I'm all eyes and ears...

Lastly, you mentioned using Warm 2. Unfortunately Warm 1 and 2 are both disabled for some reason - but it's worth mentioning that they were prior to your PC Source adjustment as well. I always thought that was strange - any idea why? The cools are available.

Any other tips for getting the most out of the screen would be appreciated as well. (:

Thanks again, and if you want to shoot me an E-mail I'll hold good on the Amazon gift offer. You saved me a lengthy trip and a lot of headache.

=Luke

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Well for warm2...
Feb 24, 2009 9:55PM PST

To get the other color tones, you need to switch the picture mode. When you hit menu, hit OK to go into the picture menu; the line that says "Mode: Standard" should be highlighted. Hit "OK" again, and it will bring up another menu to switch it to "Movie". Then when you go into detailed options it, you'll get all the color tones available.

I should mention that some people think warm2 is too warm (i.e. white looks a bit yellowish), but that's the closest setting to 6500K for my TV.

I'm not sure why the red is still blurring for you -- I just tried it (drew a red box on a white background in paint) and I don't see it on my TV, though I do have the model down (the 550). I think, though I'm not sure because I use an ATI card, that somewhere in the nvidia control panel, there's an option for the output format (like RGB or YCrCb) -- I don't know what the driver uses by default, but it should probably be set to RGB.

And I appreciate the gift card offer, but I think it'd be better if you donated to the charity of your choice Happy.