Samsung 172T or Hitachi CML174 LCD?

[UnSean]

Originally posted by: Eug
Yep, that review seems on the mark.

You have compared the 2 side by side then?

I would have been surprised if a first run 16 ms screen would have had the same colour fidelity as my 172T. The Samsung's colours are simply outstanding. Who knows what Xmas will bring though of course. Faster response times from Samsung? Better colours from Hitachi? One can only hope.... I may want a second TFT.

So you know that it is not possible to manufacture, test and deliver to the market, a fully functional, but faster LCD monitor that is state of the art?

As for blurriness with fast motion, I agree that the Samsung 172T's response times can be improved. This is most easily noticed on dark backgrounds even with just scrolling text (esp. certain colours) very quickly, eg. such as at the AVS Forums. However, with black text on light backgrounds, I virtually never notice it. It's good that AT falls into this latter category. Furthermore, I also agree with the comments about DVD. I don't notice this issue when I watch DVD movie scenes on the Samsung 172T for whatever reason, even if the movie has lots of dark scenes.

Again you have seen them side by side? Was each monitor setup with the software used for playback?

So, it seems like the best general advice is Hitachi for gamers and Samsung for most everyone else, with exceptions of course.

Your conclusion is based on what?

 

[Frankie]

I have just reread the review again and I think I'm sold on the Hitachi. I just now need to decide on when I want to get it, I'm most likely going to order it this weekend. In any case I'm sure I'll be happy with the Hitachi, even if the colors aren't comparable to the Samsung. Like what someone else said, I don't think I'll be worrying about colors while I'm dodging bullets. One more thing, I'm at college right now and I'm using a Flat Screen Monitor. It's a Gateway FPD1730 and when I move the mouse back and forth I do notice bluring, and it's quite noticable too. The funny thing is that before I started reading about the monitors, I didn't even notice the bluring.

 

[UnSean]

One further point of note, there is no mouse trails on a black background but a very tiny amount on a white background with a black object, this is still virtually undetectable and significantly better than most crt's.

The reason that there is some on the white is because the rise time is slower than the fall time and thats shows up on white backgrounds in an LCD's case.

Frankie you won't be dissapointed.

 

[Viper96720]

I'm planning on getting the Iiyama AS4314UTG. How does it compare to the Hitachi? Looking to spend a max of $600 any other recommendations

 

[filmore crashcart]

Yeah Frankie, you'll be happy. BTW, I downloaded Natural Color as another forum member advised, and now I have to keep myself from licking the reds off my lcd screen (it's getting to be a real problem, I drool all over the keyboard). If this is not "natural" color and it is disabled color, then I'd rather keep with my unnatural palette.
Anyway, one man's red is another man's orange and it you want to be wiser than anyone that has contributed to this thread so far, you'd go out and physically visit the monitor along with some other LCDs and decide for yourself without all this review chatter. If not, I feel you'll be happy with your choice.

Hmmmm.... that seems to be a very nice "berry" blue on the toolbar, I wonder how that will taste?

 

[Eug]

Your conclusion is based on what?

On the AnandTech review of course.

this is still virtually undetectable and significantly better than most crt's.

Mouse trails on a CRT??? For what it's worth I don't see that on the Samsung either.

 

[KristopherKubicki]

I have contacted iiyama but I am still waiting for a response. I will try my best to get that AS4314UTG model for review.

Kristopher

 

[jshine]

KristopherKubicki

any news from NEC?

 

[KristopherKubicki]

jshine,

Our confrence call got pushed back a day for reasons unknown. We should hear from them tommorow morning.

Kristopher

 

[IQJUMPuw]

Hmmm... looking at the review, I would definitely go with Samsung hands down.

 

[Frankie]

Originally posted by: filmore crashcart
Yeah Frankie, you'll be happy. BTW, I downloaded Natural Color as another forum member advised, and now I have to keep myself from licking the reds off my lcd screen (it's getting to be a real problem, I drool all over the keyboard). If this is not "natural" color and it is disabled color, then I'd rather keep with my unnatural palette.
Anyway, one man's red is another man's orange and it you want to be wiser than anyone that has contributed to this thread so far, you'd go out and physically visit the monitor along with some other LCDs and decide for yourself without all this review chatter. If not, I feel you'll be happy with your choice.

Hmmmm.... that seems to be a very nice "berry" blue on the toolbar, I wonder how that will taste?

While I would LOVE to go and physically look at the monitors and compare them, I can't since the only place I've seen them available is online. My local Best Buy has a Samsung, but it's a 171, and that's only analog.. not digital. I haven't seen a place locally that carries digital monitors, most of them are analog. In any case based on the Anandtech review and on Toms Hardware review I'm satisfied the Hitachi will serve me well. In any case I plan on getting it at MonitorsDirect.com so if for some reason I'm not happy with it according to their web site I can ship it back to them and get a refund. Like I said, I don't scrutinize things a whole lot so I'm inclinded to overlook small things as long as it performs well for what I do most, which is dodging bullets in Battlefield 1942 and soon in Command and Conquer Generals.

 

[filmore crashcart]

Frankie-
I still feel that the color and lighting of this monitor is more than adequate. I continue to be pleased with mine and that is all that matters to me - and I wouldn't pigeon hole it as "just a gaming monitor". I do a lot of text work on mine and some photo editing and it does that just fine..
MonitorsDirect is a safe place to buy it from so you won't go wrong.... please post your impressions once you have gotten it. BTW, when I cranked up Spearhead on this monitor, I got my rear end riddled online simply because I was to busy gawking at the scenery to pay attention to what was happening in the game.

 

[jshine]

You people arent considering the NEC 16ms lcd are you! doesnt seem to be the peoples choice just yet but as far as i know its a direct competitor to the hitachi.im taking a look at one of these when compusa gets it in but by then i may have have gotten the hitachi and maybe i can compare.

 

[jshine]

:Q

Due to overwhelming demand we are currently out of stock on the Hitachi CML174B, 17 inch LCD monitor. We have inventory of the (CML174 white). We expect our next shipment of the CML174B the first week of March 2003. We are currently accepting backorders on a first come first serve basis against the March shipment. Please note that the March shipment is almost sold out. For various reasons dates may change, we will update this page as we get closer to the first week of March.



looks like its time to backorder.......

 

[UnSean]

Switched to DVI and I get slight improvments all around, Checkscreen displays full colour banding with equal gradation.

I did a proper (The Matrix is a poor quality DVD and showing its age) DVD test for reds, I used a region 1 (available and bought in the US) copy of Blade, no problem here and more red than the average lol.

Overall I can only sumise that my UK version manufactured in Jan 2003 is revised in comparison to your test example.

I have an overclocked Gainward ti 4600 Golden sample.

 

[jshine]

Originally posted by: UnSean
Overall I can only sumise that my UK version manufactured in Jan 2003 is revised in comparison to your test example.

how do we know which revision we get compared to the review sample?

 

[Boyho1]

Hi guys

I have had my CML174 for 2 weeks now and I am not disappointed one bit. It is difficult to make your mind up because as someone else commented, you cannot usually see these different monitors side by side to do a personal comparison which in any event would be subjective anyway!

In these circumstances all you can do is read as many reviews as possible and as the saying goes "you pays your money and makes your choice". Already I can confidently predict that I will never ever go back to a CRT. I use my rig mainly for gaming particularly Flight Simming which perhaps is not as demanding as say FPS games but the visual experience for me has never been better.

I am in the UK and one comment that might be relevant is that my software version is 1.02 MT and I have not noticed any uneven lighting of the screen. These screens are less good if you have an audience as the picture is only 'perfect' when viewed more or less direct on. I paid £371 from a company called nexnix who are the only uk suppliers apart from dabs.com who were out of stock at the time of my purchase.

Frank

 

[KristopherKubicki]

The Matrix was only used to test for motion blur, not colors.

Kristopher

 

[UnSean]

Originally posted by: KristopherKubicki
The Matrix was only used to test for motion blur, not colors.

Kristopher

I quote

" The Matrix demonstrated a very small difference in high motion. DVD (and most other video sources) display video at approximately 30 frames per second or less. Thus, the screen displays each frame for approximately 33ms. Even with a poor response time of 15ms rising and 15ms falling we should notice very little motion blur. The CML174 came close, but could not produce the same rich colors from the 172T. "

I assumed you meant from the Matrix as stated above.

There are no rich colours in the film lol

 

[Storm]

How does the 172T and the CM174 compare with the Planar PX171M? I know the Hitachi and Planar have the same screen but that doesnt necessarily mean they will perform exactly the same...

 

[KristopherKubicki]

UnSean:

Quote should read:

As expected, our DVD of Men in Black II looked pretty much the same on both screens, while The Matrix demonstrated a very small difference in high motion. DVD (and most other video sources) display video at approximately 30 frames per second or less. Thus, the screen displays each frame for approximately 33ms. Even with a poor response time of 15ms rising and 15ms falling we should notice very little motion blur. The CML174 came close, but could not produce the same rich colors from the 172T.

You chopped half the sentance off =)

Kristopher

 

[Frankie]

Filmore,

I will be posting my impressions when I get it. I'm really excited about getting this, since I do need a montior and I'm hoping that this one will last me for quite some time.

As far as the color, I guess black is a very popular color. I'm not concerned about the color so I'll get the white. As far as NEC monitors go, I looked at the one on their web site but I think I'll stick with the Hitachi. Now if my local CompUSA had the NEC then I would most likely go take a look and just see it for myself, but since they don't I'll stick witht the Hitachi.

 

[UnSean]

This was not an attempt to play on your words, I used from the comma onwards as it implied that the reds were a problem in this DVD.

I have absolutely no red's problem and the screen brightness problem you refer is mostly down to head and screen alignment.
If you use a black background in Win XP pro the black is absolutely even top to bottom, as it was on the testing software I used in all colours.

I have failed to find any of the faults you describe so I am left baffeled by the review.

It would also seem that not one owner has posted problems either.

 

[KristopherKubicki]

UnSean:

I do not see the need to continue bickering like this. From emails, forum posts, subjective and quantitive tests, even other review sites, we have gotten a consensus of color rendition problems. There are multiple threads on this forum and the Articles forum that agree.

We have nothing to gain or loose by exploring defaults or benifits of a monitor. In fact, unlike other review sites, we dont even keep most hardware. This includes, but is not limitted to the CML174 and the Samsung 172T.

If you have further issues with our analysis in the article, please direct it to the Articles forum or to me directly at kkubicki@anandtech.com

Kristopher

 

[Eug]

I just bought Unreal Tournament 2003.

I really don't notice any problem with the Samsung 172T and gaming. Mind you I've only played a few maps for 90 minutes or so. For my light gaming needs, the Samsung 172T is fine.

I'm just disappointed that my Radeon 9100 and Celeron 1.4 aren't quite up to the task for outdoor maps even at 1024x768x32.