Samsung now shipping Touch of Color LCD monitors

Even if you're not exactly in the market for a new flat-panel, Samsung's still hoping to snag a bit (or all) or your latest paycheck with its Touch of Color LCD monitors. Hinted at during CES and officially unveiled back in April, these displays boast a 5-millisecond response time, transparent plastic bezel, 10,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, twin 3-watt speakers, a built-in ATSC / ClearQAM TV tuner (!) and an optical digital audio port for channeling 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound. As for resolutions, the 24-inch T240HD and 26-inch T260HD both offer full 1080p, while the 22-inch T220HD gets a 1,680 x 1,050 panel . Snag whichever one suits your fancy right now for $429, $549 or $599 from smallest to largest.

[Biggiesized Posted Jul 24th 2008 3:47AM]

I wonder how many controls they have for tweakability.

[Frastoglegnia Posted Aug 1st 2008 3:40PM]

Reportedly, the T260HD is *not* HDCP compliant. If true, this means very few people are going to be using this monitor with their PS3s or Blu-Ray players. It will also undercut the versatility of the monitor/tuner and make it useless for many of us.

Pity, that, since I thought I wanted one.

Also: TN panel, non-adjustable stand, non-wall-mountable monitor = dodgy viewing angles for the deskless. Consider the practicality of your visual sweet spot before buying.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 4th 2008 11:37PM]

I connected the PS3 to the Samsung T240HD via HDMI and played a couple of Blu-ray movies and the played with no problems with sound. When the home screen of the PS3 displayed you have to used JUST SCAN mode to get the 1080p display mode but there is a small bar in the top and bottom of the screen. However, when I select to play the game in the PS3 (Grand Theft Auto IV) the screen was filled completely displaying the 1080p that the game support. Great for watching TV, even if conencted to Non-HD Cable.

[Frastoglegnia Posted Aug 1st 2008 3:42PM]

One last thing:

Where is the in-depth Engadget review that would confirm/dismiss the non-HDCP compliant issue? Where is any in-depth review, for that matter?