Samsung SyncMaster 910MP - Not really worth it to game on, OK as a bench monitor

[DanAdamKOF]

So the Samsung SyncMaster 910MP is a flatpanel released in the USA that can take 15khz SCART RGB in.  I stumbled across this monitor at a used goods store, the price was a bit much for an impulse buy but they said I can return it within a week if I don't like it.  And that's a good thing, because I really don't like it.

With 240p and 480i content, the image is really blurry.  Adjusting sharpness either makes it more-blurry if you adjust down (duh) or introduces tons of ringing (like when you try and sharpen something that's already blurry).  I'm going to try and borrow a remote to enter service mode and discern if anything can adjust the blur filtering, but I really doubt it.  I'll try and get some pictures but imagine perhaps a capture card screencap (with a blurry S-Video connections with blurry and shifted chroma), saved as a JPEG a bit smaller size than the capture window, then blown up full-screen and aggressively blur-filtered to mask the pixellation, it looks really bad.  I played some SNES Gradius 3 and normally-sharp elements like the score text and the power-up boxes had bad chroma shift, and while I wasn't expecting really sharp pixels like the PSOne screen, everything is really blurry.  I wonder how a filtery N64 game would look through this, lol.  If you want to make it worse, try composite, you get what looks like three times the blur when using it.

Also I'm a Bemani/Beatmania IIDX player, and I feel lag from this set when playing.  I tried a 240p (6th) and a 480i (Gold with no timing adjust) style, both felt a bit off.  I watched some tatsujins in IIDX 6th and for Lisu's V tatsujin, it looked like when there was a cymbal crash for the scratch, you would hear the cymbal a bit before you'd see the scratch note actually be hit by Lisu.  I get the feeling this would introduce too much slop for a lot of twitch-reflex gamers.

One more thing, I can't confirm but it seemed like now and then the display would stutter slightly, like it would hold 1 frame for about 5 frames then continue from the next new frame.  It may just be me, I may try and look for this next time I mess with the monitor.

I wasn't planning on having it replace my PVM 2950Q, but unless you need perhaps a bench RGB monitor this is too ugly too look at.  I might add this monitor can be VESA-mounted so if you do lots of RGB mods and want to wall-mount a smallish and cheapish RGB monitor (that's bigger than a PSOne screen) in your work area, this may work for you.  I will also add that, if I remember correctly, the manual says it supports NTSC, PAL and SECAM.  Hm, this wouldn't be that bad of a bench monitor I guess, but I personally don't need it (my 8" color CRT and PSOne screen would do everything I need).

A tip, you need to set this monitor to Europe mode (possibly also Africa) to use the SCART input.  It took me quite a while to figure this out.

I'm gonna add an unrelated RGB photo just so I feel good about myself again:

aaahhhh that's better.

edit: Filled in some info about it supporting NTSC, PAL and SECAM.  My main opinion is I don't think anyone who likes RGB is going to like staring at this TV and trying to game on it, but for all its features it may be OK as a workbench monitor.

[NFG]

Thanks for the brief review. 

I confess, I kept reading the words and looking down at the photo and trying to match the two things in my head (and failing).  I'm glad you sorted that out at the end.  =D

[cgm]

I own this monitor's replacement model, the 930MP. I never tried to play RGB gaming with it, now it sits here dead. I might try and fix it some day (main PCB needs to be replaced, fault in the standby power circuit). I also have its widescreen cousin, the 940mw, which I just replaced caps on and got working again. It might be pressed into service as an Amiga monitor once I rig up a SCART adapter.

[barbeque]

I picked one of these up for $20 this weekend because I saw it on the 15khz wiki.

Definitely does not want to display my Amiga 500 with one of the cheapo Amiga RGB -> VGA adapters, just complains that it's "not optimum mode."

I might pick up a SCART cable some other time but it does not appear to like (I assume) 15khz in VGA.

[cgm]

These monitors will not accept 15khz from the VGA port, only the SCART port. I have since fixed my 930MP and can finally say that it is NOT worth it for optimal 15khz viewing. The SCART input treats all RGB input as 480i and deinterlaces the video.... just like those cheapo ebay SCART to HDMI adapters. The output is blurry as a result. Compatibility with the OSSC is another mixed bag with these, better off finding another monitor.