Home > Consumer Reviews > Samsung Syncmaster 170MP 17" LCD Monitor with TV Tuner

I have installed the 170MP and really like it's bright screen. My Macintosh G4 required no special install software but it does come with a CD for Windows users. I am using the 1280 x 1024 setting and it gives me as much screen real estate as my 19" Mitsubishi 900u.

DO NOT BUY this unit if TV is your prime use. While TV looks good on it in a small window in pip on your computer screen, full size cable TV is very poor. All my other TV's look great on the same cable but the 170MP picture is really grainy and hard to watch. Switch it to pip small on your computer screen as a secondary treat and it is fine. The nice thing about having TV on your computer screen with this unit is that it takes no processor power and has room for a video 1 and video 2 connection as well. The audio built into the monitor is great for TV or computer.

The connectors on the back are difficult to get to and mounting the unit on a wall requires the purchase of an additional part.

All in all for a computer montor it is a great view and while not a steal at ($$$) it is nice. If I did it again I would probably save ($$$) and get the unit without the TV function. You can buy a really good TV picture for ($$$) as a separate unit.

As a computer monitor, the 170MP is very easy on the eyes, with good (and adjustable) color rendition, contrast, and brightness. The viewing angle is about as wide as it gets-almost on par with Apple's overpriced 17 inch; not only does the brightness not fade, but there is little color shift. There really isn't much to say, as it performs as well as I would want it too.

As a video monitor, it is lacking. I have fed it with satellite and DVD signals, using both the S video and RCA inputs (no real difference in viewable quality). At default settings, the picture was grainy and had the same sort of problems I associate with over sharpening on digital images. The major tweaking I did was to turn down the sharpening, using the nicely designed menu system. This made the picture soft, but to me far more acceptable.

Please note, I have not tried the built in tuner, as I don't have a good antennae to hook it up to. I just tried satellite and DVD feeds. I use a Samsung HDTV 30 inch "TV" (which has an incredibly good picture-try this beffore you spend the extra money on Sony, Philips, Panasonic, et al...) so I am comparing it to a VERY good benchmark. However, I think that it should have the circuitry inside it to produce a video image that is as good as my last TV did. Compared to the HDTV (which is upconverting the feed), the 170MP was lacking in brightness, contrast, resolution, and blackness. This seems odd because it really does look great (wide contrast range, good blacks, etc.) as a computer monitor.

When seated and staring at a monitor for hours, why not be good to yourself. This is the best way to go. The 170mp has an incredible image, that is easy on the eyes. With the added advantage of a tv tuner, this is the one to have. Although the small speakers don't pack much punch, it is a simple task to connect to outboard pc system speakers. Overall, a really cool piece of equipment. Go ahead... Indulge yourself.

When connected to my home-theater system via S-video, it sent an unacceptably loud hum/buzz/hiss back thru the audio system when the LCD display was on. When I switched video inputs via the front-panel, the display would momentarily blank, the noise would disappear, and as soon as the display came back on it would start up again. I have no way of knowing if I had a defective unit, or this was a design-flaw.

Otherwise I found this unit fascinating and impressive. I ran it a lot using S-video from both DirecTV satellite and from DVD. Depending on the quality of the source, it could produce amazing images with no scan-lines. The cool thing about it is that it can upconvert 480i to 1024p and make it look pretty decent. However, mediocre source (read Cable TV and VHS) will look poor-to-terrible, because this unit mercilessly reveals flaws in the source material that a regular "soft" TV display conceals. Also, amusingly, it occasionally revealed small blocky MPEG artifacts on some of the "standard" DirecTV channels, which I don't normally see; its well-known that they dynamically allocate bandwidth, giving more to Premium and sports channels. I would expect digital Cable to fare worse.

I adjusted this unit using the "Video Essentials" DVD. The big plus was its absolutely unbelievable horizontal resolution. I saw fine resolution detail in vertical-line test displays that I had never seen before; this probably explains why it looks poor with low-quality source material. High res + 480i upconversion + poor source = bad picture, especially when there is a lot of motion. The two BIG downsides were: 1) it cannot do absolute blacks well at all, and 2) the most damning is that the gray-temperature is set VERY high, making blacks and grays look distinctly "bluish", and there is NO adjustment to compensate which I am aware of. These two problems will kill this unit off for most videophiles; it's a common design problem. Note that my final settings for S-video were: Brightness 50; Contrast 50; Sharpness 0 (DEFINITELY!); Color 95 (strange but true) and Tint 50.

Consider for future HDTV that this unit is not 16:9, and it does not have component video inputs (present in the pricier 171MP model).

Pros:
*Excellent picture.
*Well made, solid feel, good looks - (not flimsy or cheap looking as one reviewer noted).
*Wall mountable.
*Separate TV tuner/controls for TV viewing- no computer needed!
*Remote control for TV(basic functions).
Cons:
*Speakers are adequate, but not excellent.
*TV works well, but view at a distance - not at 18" like you would while using your computer (in full screen mode).
Overall, I'm very impressed with the monitor (I've owned it for 9 months).