Features and Specifications
As always, we'll start with a disclaimer: Those who are unfamiliar with display technology may wish to consult our short glossary of terms that we use in our display reviews before continuing. Specifications are prone for abuse, though, so just because one display rates higher in terms of contrast ratio or brightness doesn't mean it's actually a better display. (You'll get a prime example of this in a moment.) As usual, we will do our best to separate the reality from the hype in our reviews.
| Samsung 245T Specifications | |
| Video Inputs | Analog (VGA) DVI with HDCP support HDMI Component S-Video Composite |
| Panel Type | S-PVA (Samsung SAM02F5) |
| Pixel Pitch | 0.270mm |
| Colors | 16.7 million (8-bit) |
| Brightness | 300 cd/m2 |
| Contrast Ratio | 1000:1 Static 1500:1 Dynamic |
| Response Time | 6ms GTG |
| Viewable Size | 24" diagonal |
| Resolution | 1920x1200 |
| Viewing Angle | 178 vertical/horizontal |
| Power Consumption | <130W max stated 92W max measured |
| Power Savings | <2W |
| Power Supply | Built-in |
| Screen Treatment | Matte (non-glossy) |
| Height-Adjustable | Yes - 3.75 inches |
| Tilt | Yes - 25 degrees back/5 degrees forward |
| Pivot | Yes |
| Swivel | Yes |
| VESA Wall Mounting | 200mmx100mm |
| Dimensions w/ Base (WxHxD) | 22.1"x17.1"x9.8"
(lowered) 22.1"x20.8"x9.8" (raised) |
| Weight w/ Stand | 19.4 lbs. |
| Additional Features | (4) USB 2.0 - left (USB connection to PC required) |
| Audio | Audio out connection (for HDMI) |
| Limited Warranty | 3 year parts and labor (original owner only) |
| Price | MSRP $799 Online starting at ~$635 |
Like many of the latest high-end LCDs, the 245T comes with a backlight that offers an improved color gamut. Whether your eye can actually see the difference is a bit more difficult to say; even with an older 24" LCD sitting next to the 245T, it would be difficult for us to say that one of them looks clearly better/worse than the other. The backlight is also not quite as bright as other models on the market that are capable of 400 or even 500 nits, but we almost never run our LCDs at that brightness level; 200-250 nits is where we prefer to set are LCDs.
In the features department, the Samsung 245T compares favorably with the best 24" LCDs on the market. You get the typical four USB ports as well as a variety of video input options. How useful stuff like S-Video and composite input are varies by individual; we generally don't use either connection anymore. The VGA, DVI, HDMI, and component connections are more important, and you get one port for each. Whether or not the second digital port needed to be HDMI is another topic for debate; it's unlikely you would actually use the audio pass-through capabilities, in which case a second DVI port would have sufficed -- especially since the audio output jack only provides stereo audio. Since you can still use a DVI to HDMI cable, however, this isn't a major concern, and we're happy to have two digital connections.
Samsung provides a three-year manufacturer warranty on the 245T (in the US), which is much better than you get with most other brands. Technical support is available online or through the telephone, though telephone operating hours are not 24/7. You need to call during regular business hours, which is 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. M-F (Pacific Time). We were unable to get any specific answer as to pixel defect policies, though it sounds like if we made enough noise they would repair/replace the monitor even if there was only a single dead pixel. Since we did not experience any actual problems with our LCD (dead pixels or otherwise), we'll leave it at that. Note that the warranty only applies for the original purchaser; it is nontransferable.
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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.