slaingod

I recently purchased a new Samsung LCD for my main workstation. It’s a little smaller than my last, weighing in at 40 inches versus 42 for my old monitor which is now downstairs. The big new thing about this monitor compared other LCDs is that it has LEDs for backlighting rather than the typical florescent tube. This means it runs cooler but more importantly has much better black levels. And I can confirm that they really are pretty awesome. You really do notice it on titles playing and fade in on intros like the Lord of the Rings.

There is one crippling flaw in this TV though: the lack of DPMS, otherwise known as Display Power Management Something, which is what your computer uses to turn off the monitor when it goes to sleep or when your screensaver turns on, etc. That in today’s age a TV that can be connected to a computer does not have this functionality is a travesty. For power savings and environmental concerns alone this should be in every TV/monitor sold today, but the various revisions of the Energy Star requirements continue to let HDTV’s that aren’t marketed as computer capable to slip through the cracks. It is the one horrific blemish on an otherwise stellar monitor.

I did a great deal on it though, only paying $1400 delivered. The new models were coming out but none of the new models delivers LEDs for backlighting at the size that I need. Plus the one great thing that started all this was that my old monitor had a slight but noticeable dark line running down the middle that was driving me batshit.