I had to get
this. It looked like the perfect all-in-one solution for me, and it's panned out almost perfectly. The only disappointment is that the HDMI/DVI input does not support input from a PC. (I can make my video card look like a 720P digital source to the TV, but that's not optimal. Better to use the analog VGA input, which looks like a 1360x768 plug-and-play PC monitor to Windows.) So I'm using a VGA switchbox to get both PCs hooked up. The image is very sharp and clear. Colors are rich, contrast covers the whole gray scale (unlike that Acer LCD monitor I liked less every day). Viewing angles are very wide, I'd say at least a 100-degree cone before there's any noticeable change in the colors or shades of the image. Beyond that, you can go almost all the way to perpendicular and still get a decent picture, albeit more washed out. This makes the Acer I've been living with look like a joke. (Any change in the angle of view affects the color and shade of what you see on it. Colors will even invert if you look up at it from below desk level. Cheap TN technology sucks. I didn't even know there were very different ways of making LCD panels until after I started to hate these problems, and I read up on it.)
Since it's a TV, it has the whole slew of video connection types. I have the Xbox 360 hooked up through component cables, and the Nintendo GC through S-Video. These look outstanding. The quality of the 720P image from the 360 doesn't surprise me, but the 480i output from the GC sure does. It looks as good as you would expect, and in the correct 4:3 aspect too. Each source gets its own programmable settings. It's easy to set high brightness and contrast for game and video sources without the need for bleeding eyeballs on the PC desktop. There's a PIP feature which lets you watch TV while on the PC.
Other than arcade games like Lumines, I've only played Dead Rising on the new screen so far. The difference from the old display is night and day. This game is not a washed out mess after all. Dark scenes don't have to sink into murky mud. And hey, no more vertical stretch! That's another thing I didn't know about most widescreen PC monitors. They're 16:10 aspect. HDTV is 16:9. You'd think that the 11% stretch would be minimal, but I noticed it rather quickly, and grew to bother me intensely. No more long heads, skinny bodies and egg-shaped planets. Yay.
And also because it's a TV, every source has audio inputs together with the corresponding video inputs, including VGA and HDMI (in case you use DVI through an adapter--HDMI itself includes audio). So, with all its inputs (see below) it acts nicely as a receiver. The only thing I'm switching manually is the PCs. (Very low-tech on the audio right now. I'm using a stereo miniplug extension to the back of the TV, and hot-swapping the PC-audio source by hand at the other end.) Everything else can be switched with the remote control. Sweet. The last bit of icing is an active headphone jack (which allows volume and EQ controls to work). I have my Logitech 2.1 speakers hooked up to it, and it all works together so well.
Given my very limited area for everything I care about (you've seen it in another thread), I don't think I could have done any better. It's the perfect size to be about 18" away from me, and still looks great as a TV from 10 ft away in my bed. I highly recommend it as an Xbox 360 display too. (I think MS even got together with Samsung on optimizing their TVs' "game mode" for the HDTV console). Right now, I couldn't be more pleased.
