Samsung SyncMaster B2230HD user reviews

Pros This $200 Samsung connects to most external devices. PIP lets you toggle between the HDTV & another device - e.g., PC wordprocessing during TV commercials. Audio is great with optimizing presets from music to speech. Video is fine with most lighting.

Cons The picture is lousy under both bright & dark backlighting in a dark room - this is a common problem for many flatscreens, but the Samsung seems particularly bad. Wallmounting of this screen is difficult & VESA mounts are apparently unavailable.

Summary This is my first flatscreen HDTV & I've only had it for a couple of weeks. I needed a screen to serve as both TV & PC monitor & in those respects this Samsung had the best features of the 20"-24" TVs available locally. I was quite happy with the $200 price, having expecting to pay 15%-20% more.

A minor point, but for long term appearance I prefer matte finishes over the Samsung's gloss. It will need more frequent & less abrasive cleaning.

Since I needed to rewire the satellite cable for the unit, my first foray into the Samsung out of the box was hooking-up & testing the audio. I'm pleased with the internal audio (no buzzing or humming here) so much so that I may not even wire it into the 5.1 system for a while.

Next I wired in a laptop & a Blu-Ray player (both via HDMI). Initially I was happy with the picture, but after testing over a range of lighting conditions I reached a point of frustration where video quality was inconsistent under certain lighting conditions. I know that many LCDs have video problems in certain lighting conditions & I hope to eventually get this screen working all of the time. However, I have to say that there was never this much trouble with either a CRT or a laptop LCD in the area where I use this screen.

The cable is now attached to the antenna port & I'm happy with both the standard & HDTV audio & video feeds. I'm also fascinated with the PIP gimmick.

I've only had the Samsung for a couple of weeks, but my first impressions are that the Samsung is an excellent product for the money. I still need to reach better resolution on the backlighting/picture quality issues & need to run it through some home theater diagnostics to compensate for the colorblindness & tinnitus that affect my diagnostic abilities (LOL).