Samsung LT-P326W

Samsung is among the leaders in flat-panel computer monitors, and it's making a big push to topple Sharp in the flat-panel LCD TV market, too. The LT-P326W is a significant threat to Sharp's industry-leading LC-32GD4U, and although its image quality isn't quite as good, it offers a wider connectivity suite and slicker styling. If price is your first concern, you'll probably be happier with a no-name 32-inch set such as the Olevia LT32HV or the Kreisen KR-320T. This Samsung strikes a happy price medium between those sets and the Sharp, although we do wish it cost a couple hundred dollars less.

This 32-inch Samsung produces good-quality images for a flat-panel LCD, but it's not up to the level of Sharp's sets yet. Out of the box, the Movie preset and Warm color-temperature setting resulted in a fairly accurate home-theater picture. We calibrated the set and achieved a more accurate picture, naturally, but we couldn't compensate for the greenish darker areas completely. The rest of the grayscale was reasonably consistent.

The Samsung was able to get slightly darker overall than the Philips 32PF9996 we compared it to, with inkier letterbox bars and deeper shadows. But its shadow detail wasn't quite as good as that of the Philips. As Peter climbs the stairs to his run-down apartment, we could make out the lapels of his jacket on the Philips; on the Samsung, they were lost in shadow. Naturally, the Sony tube delivered superior shadow detail and black levels compared to either LCD.

As expected, HDTV via our DirecTV feed had even better detail and looked more saturated. We watched a little of Sunrise Earth on Discovery HD and noticed immediately that the Samsung did a good job of keeping video noise to a minimum. In one shot of a foggy morning in the Grand Tetons, the Dell W3000 and the Philips 32-inch LCD both introduced significantly more snowy interference in the trees.

The Samsung delivered very good resolution in 1080i mode compared to the Philips; conversely, its 720p picture via component video looked a bit softer. As with most such sets, the Samsung delivered a slightly sharper picture via its digital inputs than via component video. Strangely, however, the DVI input looked even sharper with high-def than did the HDMI input, while the difference between component and HDMI wasn't as great. As a result, we'd recommend using the DVI input for high-def.

Source: cnet