Samsung 226BW Image quality problem

I just picked up a Samsung 226BW last night. I currently have a Dell 2005fpw. Out of the box the colors on the Samsung are washed out and the screen is real bright. I turned down the brightness and changed the tone to warm. I then messed with gamma, etc. I got the screen to look pretty dark and a little richer but then the light color details were lost. Also playing videos on my Dell look nice but on the Samsung the skin tones are pale and colors washed out. I messed with the settings in the NV control panel to try and improve the color without any luck. Are there magical settings that will make this display as nice as my Dell? I didn't think I would notice the difference in quality between the TN panel and the S-IPS, but it is quite noticeable. I'd like to keep the monitor, but if I can't get it to look nice I will have to take it back. I'll see if I can get some pics up.

Comparison

Comparison 2

Comparison 3

Try using a color adjuster thing? Maybe take it back to where you bought it and ask if you can use one of their spyders before you return it?

To me that looks like a gamma issue. Try lower the gamma a bit see if that lowers the washed out effect. Otherwise if you notice a difference on the color end from a TN to IPS panel then you likely wont be happy with keeping the samsung. For me once i saw the difference i just couldn't dare go back to a TN panel.

Unfortunately I've already tried lowering the gamma on both the scrren and nvtools. I did help make things look a little darker however colors still were not rich. It also made detail in lighter images get lost. Well, I guess I'll be taking it back. Atleast I don't feel too bad for paying $475 for my Dell now, the quality, stand, inputs, 1:1 is a whole lot better.

inscape01 said:

Unfortunately I've already tried lowering the gamma on both the scrren and nvtools. I did help make things look a little darker however colors still were not rich. It also made detail in lighter images get lost. Well, I guess I'll be taking it back. Atleast I don't feel too bad for paying $475 for my Dell now, the quality, stand, inputs, 1:1 is a whole lot better.

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Please keep in mind virtually all 20" & 22" LCDs that use TN panels have terrible default color settings. You should not rely on the monitor's factory presets or any color setting modes it may offer via it's menu (i.e., photo, movies, games, etc.). Basically in order to get the most out of these TN panel monitors you need to manually adjust the respective Red, Green & Blue color values yourself. For whatever it's worth I had the exact same problem when I first got my VX2235 (it also sports a TN panel w/FRC) until I manually increased the color values, in my case to their maximum values. Once I did this I got rich, vivid colors... probably not ideal for professional graphic or video work but good enough for games, videos and surfing. Too compensate for the strange 'overexposure' style effects of maxing out the color values I turned down the Contrast, in fact I notched it down to zero! Seemingly odd settings but I was shocking pleased how well the picture looks now. My friends have nothing but compliments for my new LCD and one of them owns a Dell 2405, the other a Viewsonic VX922.

My apologies if I sound like I'm pontificating but these budget LCDs really do need alot of fine tuning in order to make the most out them.

Great pictures, seems like the IPS panel won this battle.

Nvidia cards let you turn up the color saturation. Personally I think the Samsung has more natural looking colors in the 2nd photo, but that may be personal preference.

My experience with TN panels is exactly as the OP described. Light colors, such as bloom lighting in video games, and the way flesh tones blend, looks very "off".

All I have to say is this talk about how "poor" TN panels are is a bunch of BS.

I own a Benq fp202w and it looks great for photos and everything else. Jeez, this is just as bad as the CRT owners acting like they only thing they will use is a CRT. I guarantee you they would say the same thing about your non-TN panels.