Samsung SyncMaster 940MW

Samsung 940MW 19" LCD TV/Monitor

I purchased this LCD screen from Argos in July 2006 and they are still

available for the price of £229.99 (Nov'07) product code 5291883. I had been looking for an LCD TV for a few weeks and was salivating over one of those Black shiny numbers that Samsung make when I noticed this one sat on the top shelf not in immediate view. The first thing that struck me was the price, I mean wow, £230? I had been looking at models around the £400 mark, this seemed like such a bargain.

The TV was for a bedroom and I was having difficulty justifying spending £400 when the room had a perfectly good CRT type TV in there already. Seeing the price and the fact that the picture in-store looked good, I pulled out my credit card and marched up to the pay point.

The basic contents of the box are:

Monitor and stand

Quick set-up guide

Warranty Card

CDROM (User guide and Natural Colour Software)

D-Sub Cable

Audio Cable

Power Cord

Remote

Batteries

Coaxial Connector

That's right no SCART cable, fortunately I had one so no problem.

Wall-mounting - be careful!

I was wall mounting the screen so I detached the stand as it was ready assembled and began to mount the standard bracket to the reverse of the screen. The bracket came with about 1" screws and 1/2" screws. I choose the 1" screws and nearly broke the TV within 30 minutes of having it! I continued to screw them in so far that the actually popped the LCD screen away from the frame at the front. My heart sank and I thought I'd jut thrown my £230 in the gutter. With trepidation and a few prayers I withdrew the screw and examined the front. Behold there was no damage, I popped the screen back in the housing and used the 1/2" screw - so be careful!

Controls

From left to right, recessed just below the screen are:

1. SOURCE

Press the 'SOURCE' button to change the input signal source.

Changing the source is allowed only in external devices that are connected to the monitor at the time.

2. PIP

Available in PC/DVI Mode In PC mode, turns on Video or TV screens in PIP mode.

3. MENU

Use this button to open the on-screen menu and exits from the menu screen or closes screen adjustment menu.

4.CHANNEL

Moves from one menu item to another vertically or adjusts selected menu values. In TV mode, selects TV channels.

5. ENTER

Activates a highlighted menu item.

6. POWER

Use this button to turn the monitor on and off.

There is also a power and remote LED at the right hand end of the unit.

The speaker runs along the width of the front fascia at the bottom.

Sockets Galore

The reverse of the monitor has inputs for DVI(HDCP) / RGB and AUDIO for connections to a PC. There is a SCART socket, component in sockets and antenna.

The side of the unit carries headphone socket, S-Video, Video and L/R Audio sockets.

Remote

A tidy remote fitting snugly in the palm of our hand finished in a silver and black combo looks quite smart. It carries all the usual buttons including STILL and P.MODE for pre-defined picture mode.

Stand.

I discarded the stand, but noted that it is not height adjustable but can be tilted from 1 to 23 degrees.

Initial Set-up

After mounting the screen and connecting to the cable box via SCART cable I turned the screen on and hey-presto the source was detected immediately and I was in business. I ventured into the on-screen menus to customize viewing pleasure.

The first thing I must say is that the menu is exceedingly clear and easy to navigate via the remote control.

I ventured into the Picture menu to be confronted by the MagicBright(TM) settings. Basically this is Samsungs proprietary software for choosing a screen suitable for TV/DVD, Internet, Text and for Custom. To be honest all of the pre-selected settings were too bright, the grass was just too green for me. I experimented with the custom settings, which, allow you to adjust the Contrast / Brightness and Colour Tone independently. I basically turned most of the settings down and moved the Colour Tone to 'Cool' (choice of Cool / Normal / Warm / Custom) and found myself staring at a wonderful colourful picture with greens of a realistic tone and a jolly nice viewing experience overall.

The number of settings that you can play with to adjust the picture is great if you like that sort of thing, however, it will certainly detract if you basically just want to connect it up and go because I would be surprised if you liked the brightness of the screen out of the box or the vividness of the colours.

Sound.

A big concern on what is essentially a 'portable' LCD can be the sound quality from such a tiny speaker. Venturing back into the OSD you can select Sound and then choose from Standard, Music, Movie, Speech and Custom. Although the presets are pretty good because I'm a fiddler I was once again back into the Custom settings to define Bass/Teble.

There is a Dolby Virtual setting and something called BBE High Definition Sound which is explained in the manual as: 'is a proprietary audio enhancement technology that compensates for phase and amplitude distortion inherent in the nature of loudspeaker physics. BBE works like an automatic focus in a camera, bringing incredible clarity, depth and detail to the sound.' Yeah right, whatever!

Living with the TV

Having owned the TV for over 12 months then I have to say that at the price point I think that you'll struggle to find better. It does not have the overall picture quality of a more expensive model, but if you're thinking of replacing your CRT portable in the bedroom then this one will be a suitable step-up.

Problems?

A couple of times when I've tried to turn on the screen either by remote or the power button nothing has happened. I'm inclined to believe that this has been down to the power cable working loose because when I've fiddled with the connections the screen has worked. I've just a slight 'nag' it may be something else, but I'll keep you posted if it develops further.

PC Use

For those of you using the screen with a PC the CDROM includes a proprietary driver which installs automatically. The recommended settings are 1440 x 900 at 60Hz.

Manual

The is an adequate quick start guide, however, the main manual is an acrobat file on the CDROM. It is very comprehensive and includes a fault finding section.

Specification:

Model Name SyncMaster 940MW LCD Panel

Size 19.0 inch diagonal (48 cm) Display area 408.24 mm(H) x 255.15 mm(V)

Pixel Pitch 0.2835 mm(H) x 0.2835 mm(V)

Synchronization Horizontal 30 ~ 61 kHz Vertical 56 ~ 75 Hz

Display Color 16.7 M Colors

Resolution Optimum resolution WXGA+ 1440 x 900 @ 60 Hz

Maximum resolution WXGA+ 1440 x 900 @ 60 Hz

Dimensions (WxHxD)/ Weight

466 x 406 x 217 mm / 18.3 x 16.0 x 8.5 inch / 6.2 kg / 13.7 lbs (With Stand)

466 x 371 x 66 mm /18.3 x 14.6 x 2.6 inch (Without Stand)

Conclusion

The build quality of the housing is a little tacky, the picture will probably require you to fiddle with the custom settings before you're happy. The sound is good from a small speaker. If you're looking for that CRT portable replacement then look no further, for the money you will be getting good value and be saving yourself quite a bit of space too.