Why You Can Trust CNET Baumann Meyer DT2620D review: Baumann Meyer DT2620D
Pricey at $1999, but if you're looking for something with European flair, plenty of features and a plethora of connectivity, this TV is definitely worth a look.
To many people Baumann Meyer is an unfamiliar name. It originally started producing touch screens monitors but has recently begun making LCD TVs. The DT2620D styling shows a European influence and it is clearly aimed at the higher end market at $1999.
Baumann Meyer DT2620D
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
It boasts a built in HD digital tuner, multiple SCART connectors and HDMI with dual tuners, one analogue the other HD digital to assist with picture in picture function.
Design
Overall, the build quality is quite good and it has a nice shiny piano black finish. The 7.5 watt stereo speakers are mounted underneath the screen. Its contrasting silver-grey stand doesn't allow for swivel. Baumann Meyer offers quite a few accessories for mounting the TV, including tall stands, wall mountings or a modern looking furniture unit to contain the TV and AV accessories.
This TV has quite a unique design when you consider its TV inputs and outputs. On one side is an s-video composite combo connection for game consoles and video cameras. On the other side is a cover which reveals two SCART connections, two component and an optical audio connector. On the rear there are HDMI and VGA PC video and audio inputs. This is a rather unique solution which works really well provided that you do not have to add or remove the SCART connections very often.
The menu system design is quite good - with large text and big colourful icons. The remote control navigates through the all the menus, but what we find strange is that each tuner has a different set of controls. This may be confusing to the average user. In the menu system is an "Install" section for managing the TV tuner, however this is only available for the analogue tuner. The corresponding digital section is greyed out. In order to tune the digital TV, you will need to select a further setup option from the remote, accessing a completely different menu system dedicated to the HD TV tuner.
Features
The Baumann Meyer unit is quite an advanced product, supporting both a digital analogue tuner - useful if you are in an area with poor reception.
The screen is 1366 x 768 pixels so is not quite true HD. It can, however, accept any signal up to 1080i. There are various widescreen settings available including the usual standard options such as panorama, 16:9 and 4:3.
The impressive number of separate inputs (7) comprises one s-video composite combo input, one HDMI, one VGA, two component, two SCART and an optical audio out for connecting to a digital amplifier.
The remote control is comprehensive and features dedicated buttons for most inputs including aspect ratio, picture and sound control. The only change we would want is to move the digital TV buttons from the bottom up towards the middle of the remote since they will be the more commonly used items. On the TV there is an additional control panel to give you direct access to most menu selections so its no problem if you lose the remote.
Performance
We were impressed with the quality of this TV. It is good to have the digital tuner built in but more work needs to be done to integrate it with the menu system. The quality of the HD tuner is excellent and HD content looks stunning. Picture in picture is easy to use and control from the remote using dedicated buttons for changing the size of the inset image, changing its position or changing the channel for the inset tuner. Another great feature is a yellow box that flashes around the image you're modifying so you don't get confused about which picture you're adjusting - the main picture or the inset image.
Picture quality is good - blacks and highlights are both quite adequate. We test using HD trailers for the Matrix and Transformers films which are both quite dark. The darkest black show a little bit of light leaking through but this is nothing that would be a distraction. There is no problem recognising shadowed detail - a problem for some other TV units. When connected to a PC playing HD content, five vertical bars run down the screen the screen whenever it was black, and this is a little distracting. Colour saturation and brightness, however, are excellent and skin tones are exceptional with no sign of any unnatural red faces.
The sound is perfectly reasonable for normal everyday use but it is lacking bass reproduction. There is a lot of grunt from the built in amplifier and it will easily fill a room at just 30 or 40 percent volume.
When connected to a PC, you are able to use the TV's native resolution (1366 x 768 pixels) and the TV auto adjusts to align the VGA signal. We noticed that the image was not as sharp as it could have been and there was minor image distortion in bright white areas. Its 8ms response time means that gaming is no problem.
The Baumann Meyer DT220D is a very good LCD TV. Its picture quality and sound performance is very good and the dual tuner configuration is definitely the way to go. It is pricey at $1999, but if you're looking for something with European flair, plenty of features and a plethora of connectivity, this TV is definitely worth a look.