Two new monitors, which one to keep... backlight bleed on one, less features on the other

[Atlantean]

I bought the Samsung 226bw about a week ago and have played around with it quite a bit during that week. In that time I haven't had any real problems with it, the color is great, no backlight bleed visible, and no problems with banding. This week I decided to pick up the LG L226WA as it was on sale for the same price as the 226bw at Futureshop (in Canada the LG model is $50 more). The reason I wanted to try it out is that it had composite and hdmi in addition to the dvi and vga inputs. I unpacked the monitor, nothing special about the packaging, about the same as the packaging on any other monitor. I noticed the LG appeared to be slightly taller than the Samsung. Plugged it in, put the two side by side and noticed that the LG appeared to have a lot of backlight bleed, though I hadn't adjusted any of the settings so couldn't really be all that sure. After playing around with the settings the backlight bleed was still apparent. I tried comparing the video quality of the two by playing the same video at the same time on each monitor, the quality was relatively similar, colors about the same; however the backlight bleed was still apparent. After a couple hours of screwing around with the two monitors I came to the conclusion that the Samsung monitor is superior, I would have liked if it had the features of the LG L226WA, but I can't live with the backlight bleed. The LG monitor also has picture in picture which is a pretty cool feature, so I could have something from my computer running on the screen and have something else in the PIP section. But features don't make the monitor, it must also be clear, and backlight bleed is something that annoys me immensely.

Does anybody else have experience with the LG monitor? I would like the monitor if it didn't have the backlight bleed. Anyone with the Samsung monitor care to comment? Also if it matters to anyone I got an S samsung monitor, apparently it is the better of the two, though I haven't seen an A monitor as reference.

 

[Paladin]

These 2 seem to be the clear cut best of the 22" line. I keep hearing one or the other is better. Samsung for games, LG for color. Xtknight seems to like the LG better, but hasn't really played with either too much.

Question though, do either of them support 1:1 pixel mapping so that you can run games, that don't support wide screen, pillar boxed?

 

[Showtime]

I noticed the same thing with my 21" sammy and my older dell 20" ws. I kept both and use the dell for photoshop, surfing, work, and it's extra USBs. The bleeding is on noticeable at night in dark scenes so it's fine for most of the stuff I do. I game and watch movies on the samsung.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Question though, do either of them support 1:1 pixel mapping so that you can run games, that don't support wide screen, pillar boxed?

My understanding is that neither monitor supports 1:1 pixel mapping, but I have found mention on other forums that the Samsung does support one resolution besides native that does provide 1:1 pixel mapping.

Do a couple of searches for Samsung 226BW and 1:1 pixel, and you should get quite a few hits.

 

[Atlantean]

I am not too sure about the 1:1 pixel mapping... haven't had a chance to test it with video games as I don't play any that don't support widescreen resolutions. With videos the 1:1 pixel mapping works, black bars on the sides with 4:3 videos unless I stretch them to widescreen, and black on top and bottom if dvd thats in 16:9 (widescreen monitors are 16:10), if I am understanding 1:1 correctly then yes it appears the 226BW does support it.