which monitor should I buy?

Post by **Silversurfer** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 8:54 am

It's between the:
Acer 27" HN274H 3D LCD 120Hz Monitor or Samsung UE32D6530 LED/LCD HD 1080p 3D 200Hz TV for, 1st gaming on PC and 2nd 3D movie viewing on Blu-ray or cable?

Help me please as theres only a few units/days left of the older samsung 3D TV & the Acer 27" isn't available in the UK for another 10 days so you can see the decision i have to make in the next day or so.

Here are the links to the tech specs of each model:
Acer 27" HN274H 3D LCD 120Hz Monitor
http://www.acer.co.uk/ac/en/GB/content/drivers" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Samsung UE32D6530 LED/LCD HD 1080p 3D 200Hz (400Hz Clear Motion Rate) TV
http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/conte ... g-0402.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I just need to know if I've missed something on the tech and future proofness of each unit, like HDMI 1.4a etc. especially with the too good-to-be-true Samsung 32 inch TV/monitor which has a massive saving from £1068 down to £729.97 on a price match with Free 5 year guarantee and free Samsung Blu-ray with Free 2 year guarantee!
the Acer 27" is pre-availabilty price is showing at £546.28 Inc with a 2 year carry-in two year carry-in warranty.

Any help much appreciated.

Post by **cybereality** » Tue Apr 19, 2011 8:08 pm

Well the big difference between them (aside from 5") is that the Acer monitor supports full 1080P gaming over DL-DVI (w/ an Nvidia card). The Samsung TV can only do 720P for gaming (60Hz) due to limitations on HDMI 1.4. Both sets can watch BluRay 3D at 1080P. So if you are primarily using it for playing games, then the Acer might be the better choice. If you mostly want to watch movies, then the Samsung will be fine since it will be at the full 1080P and the size will be bigger. That said, both options will probably look fine, its just depends what you want to do.

Post by **Silversurfer** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 5:51 pm

@ cybereality
thanks for the heads up on the DL-DVI 720p which made it easier to check the info in the user guide.

seems the samsung tv supports HDMI to DL-DVI cable connections, in fact if I am reading it right it only supports 1080p. Heres the quote from its guide:

"Resolution supported for HDMI PC mode
The resolution for HDMI PC mode is optimized to 1920 x 1080 input.
An input resolution other than 1920 x 1080 may not be displayed properly in 3D
display or full screen mode."

am I correct & if so does this make this tv special?

I will ring samsung uk tomorrow to confirm this point just to be on the save side & as I am not able to secure a pc game play demo, mili-seconds ms respose on this tv's LED &/or review I am hoping you guys can pass on your experience on tv 3d gaming at 120hz or 200hz.

any more advice / thoughts much appreciated

Post by **cybereality** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 10:09 pm

AFAIK, there are no HDMI chipsets in existence which support 1080P 3D at 60Hz. It has nothing to do with the display panel. The displays themselves can easily handle 1080P60 3D and beyond. Its an issue of the HDMI connection. Dual-Link DVI does have higher capacity, which is why it can be used on 120Hz 3D like with Nvidia 3D Vision. So you will likely be restricted to 720P gaming (or frame-compatible formats like side-by-side at 1080P). Either way, it should still look alright. The HDTV is good if you wanted to do PS3, then you will still get the highest available quality (1080P for Blu-Ray or 720P for gaming). Its only for PC gaming where you might lose out a bit. But the TV is also bigger, better for movies, more immersive. Not sure which is really better.

Post by **Chiefwinston** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 8:16 am

You know I would never buy a Monitor or TV without being in front of it and seeing if its going to do what I want. Take your time. Don't let what looks like a good deal turn into something you will be disappointed in. 3D is very fussy in terms of getting good/great results as you know. Mr ghost is still present to a unwanted degree from some manufacturers. There are great solutions out there- take your time and get one of the great solutions at a good price. Something that ghost with 3D is not worth very much to me. The sales brouchers will only give you the manufacturers sales BS in this regard.
Take your time and sample first.

cheers everyone

Post by **Silversurfer** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 8:41 am

ok cybereality, spoke to Samsung today & they can confirm that the Samsung D range of TV's (UE32D6530WK) are the first to support 1080p 3D at 60Hz via the 4th HDMI to DL/DVI connection to the PC. The previous "C" range didn't have full HD but 720p was supported. Here is another confirmation in the user guide:

“Side by Side” and “Top & Bottom” are available when the resolution is
720p, 1080i and 1080p in DTV, HDMI and USB mode or when set to PC
and the PC is connected through an HDMI/DVI cable.

I'm waiting on a product specialist to phone me back to it confirm but it's looking good as Samsung seem to have a history of innovating in this field of PC connectivity as know on the 27" TV that was one of the only TV's with a DVI connection as well as the D-Sub 15pin back in the day.

I'll report back as soon as I hear , hopefully with good news on the Samsung HDMI chipset specs & numbers.

Cheers

Post by **Silversurfer** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 3:00 pm

Chiefwinston wrote:You know I would never buy a Monitor or TV without being in front of it and seeing if its going to do what I want. Take your time. Don't let what looks like a good deal turn into something you will be disappointed in. 3D is very fussy in terms of getting good/great results as you know. Mr ghost is still present to a unwanted degree from some manufacturers. There are great solutions out there- take your time and get one of the great solutions at a good price. Something that ghost with 3D is not worth very much to me. The sales brouchers will only give you the manufacturers sales BS in this regard.
Take your time and sample first.

cheers everyone

When out to see if I could get a demo but only the flag ship 46" 8000 Samsung in the shops at present so it looks like I'll have to wait as it turns out that the 32" TV isn't end of line after all so I have time to weigh up my options.
Thats why theres no reviews out for the 32" Samsung, its to new & the price reduction is due to slow sale in the UK retail electronics sector in general so theres heavy discounting all over the place.

This also bawds well for the Samsung support staffs claim that as a new 2011 model "D" range TV's do full 1080p 3D at 60Hz via the HDMI/DL-DVI connectors. As I said in the above comment I'll of course update this thread as soon as the Samsung product specialist rings back to answer all tech quires I have.
For instance the 318 page user manual doesn't state the ms response of the TV which I know is important.

Hope this thread helps others also as this issue of this HDMI/DVI chipset supporting full HD 3D at 60Hz isn't covered in my goggling so far in the AV or 3D forums.

Cheers

Post by **cybereality** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 6:51 pm

That would be interesting if the Samsung actually does support this. I still have my doubts, sometimes those reps will tell you anything to get you to buy the TV. Also, the quote from the manual is talking about frame-compatible modes, which already run at 1080P and have nothing to do with HDMI 1.4. Anyway, I've seen some of those new Samsung TVs in the store, and they are amazing. Didn't try the 3D, but the 2D was second to none. Really, it would be worth buying just as a 2D set. I imagine the 3D will also look nice, but who knows about the ghosting. If you want a really nice 3D HDTV you might want to look into the Sony Bravia line. I was just looking at that in the store today (with the 3D glasses) and I was blown away yet again. Well worth whatever they are charging.

Post by **Fredz** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 12:41 pm

cybereality wrote:AFAIK, there are no HDMI chipsets in existence which support 1080P 3D at 60Hz. It has nothing to do with the display panel. The displays themselves can easily handle 1080P60 3D and beyond. Its an issue of the HDMI connection. Dual-Link DVI does have higher capacity, which is why it can be used on 120Hz 3D like with Nvidia 3D Vision.

It's not an issue with the HDMI connection itself but with HDMI transmission chips which are not able to support the bandwidth required for 1080p at 120Hz.

The fact that this TV can accept a PC with a DVI connection won't change anything to this since the signal will be treated by the HDMI transmission chip, which is the limiting factor in this case. In the manual for this TV it's also specified that the maximal frequency in 1920x1080 is 60Hz, so it would't have supported 1080p at 120Hz anyway.

Post by **cybereality** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 12:44 pm

Fredz wrote:It's not an issue with the HDMI connection itself but with HDMI transmission chips which are not able to support the bandwidth required for 1080p at 120Hz.

Yes, that is what I was saying. Its not supported. I used to word connection to refer to the entire format (as opposed to a DVI or DP connection, for example). Not in reference to the cable or the port that supports that connection. And I did use the work chipset, which should indicate what I was talking about.

Post by **Fredz** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 2:55 pm

Ok, I just wanted to clarify that to not have other people who don't know the subject (not you) think that it was a problem of HDMI connection vs DVI dual-link connection.

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