Good display option for Amiga users

Argos are currently selling a 19" Samsung HD Ready LCD TV (pebble) for £179.99.

We just bought one for the bedroom (pre-wedding present) and I've very impressed with it. The image quality for standard definition (SD) broadcasts are very good. SD broadcasts tend to look a bit pixelated and blocky up close on LCD TVs, however on this TV it looks pretty good even close up. I've not been able to test it with an HD signal because we don't have access to HD yet. However I did see it running a PS3 game and also displaying HD broadcasts in Currys and it looked very nice.

This TV can also be used as a PC monitor. It has both VGA and DVI sockets on the back and will run at a native resolution of 1440x900 which is quite a nice resolution for a 19" LCD. It also has a large selection of other inputs for all other combinations of connector. Composite and audio phono, rgb scart, component, hdmi... etc. So it supports pretty much every connection you could think of.

This made me think of something. For everyone looking for a way to connect up their Amiga to a TV, this TV could be a good solution. With the Scart and composite phono connectors you have two good ways of accessing the low 15Hz TV mode used in most Amiga games, and with the VGA connector it might be possible to also access the higher AGA modes, although that would need to be tested.

Is it widescreen?

Yes. And the panel's pixel dimensions are 1440x900.

A link to the Argos item is http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produc...%7C9555322.htm

There are also other sizes of this TV available. A 20" one on Argos for £199.99 for example has a higher resolution of 1680x1050.

And there is actually a 17" Samsung for just 109.99 on Argos at the moment. It isn't from the Pebble range so doesn't look as nice, but has a resolution of 1280x1024 and would be a great choice for a PC monitor/TV solution, and would also work well for the Amiga.

1280x1024 and 1440x900 are rather useless for an AGA amiga except in emergencies.

How anyone could cope with using that on a regular basis I don't know. I'm sure it would be nice with a suitable graphics card though :)

Wish i had the money and i'd give it a try for my miggy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stephen Coates

1280x1024 and 1440x900 are rather useless for an AGA amiga except in emergencies.

How anyone could cope with using that on a regular basis I don't know. I'm sure it would be nice with a suitable graphics card though :)

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Umm... Steve, those are native resolutions of the panel! Obviously the panel will also run in lower resolutions. And I can confirm that unlike other LCD TVs I've used in the past, a standard 720x576 PAL TV signal does not look blocky or pixelated on this Samsung TV. And even up close it looked very good. Therefore I fully expect an Amiga output at standard resolutions to look just as good.

And the TV/monitor actually supports resolutions from 640x350 upwards so it should have no problems.

Plus you have the added advantage of the built in speakers. I'm usually quite disappointed by the sound quality from most smaller TV sets, but the speakers in this TV are pretty good. Obviously they will never match any standalone speakers, but they are not hollow or tinny and you can control the treble and bass from the menus and it has an obvious effect.

Obviously using this TV you still don't have a flicker fixer solution, but I'm wondering if you actually need one. After all, LCD panels don't flicker. When I get time I will have to test this TV with an A1200 and see what happens when I use interlaced screenmodes. I also want to test to see if it will sync low enough to support the higher VGA modes of the AGA chipset. The manual states it supports Horizontal sync from 30-81kHz so it might work with the 31kHz modes. If it does then it will make a good solution as you can connect to the Amiga via both the VGA and scart rgb ports for great image quality in both high and low resolution screenmodes.

tell us then about the Amiga test on it.

I look a nice tv, but the Contrast ratio (1000:1) could be a bit higher. But looks good for the price.

I doubt you would find higher contrast on a TV of only 19". Every other LCD TV of the same size I've seen has contrast of 500:1 or even 300:1.

Yes, i guess you right, higher contrast normaly are on 32" higher.
I never thought that contrast would be less in smaller tvs....