Sampo LME-15S1 15-Inch LCD Flat-Panel TV
A good bargain, but not exactly as advertised...
I purchased this monitor to serve as a &quot;preview monitor&quot; for my home theatre equipment rack, which is in a separate room from my projector and screen and which also contains a PC. Because of the variety of input types this monitor supports (Composite Video, S-Video, Component Video, RGB Video, and Cable/Antenna) it allows me to preview and cue any of the source material - and operate the PC in the rack. The TV tuner is an unnecessary feature for me, but it is a nice bonus.<br /><br />The auto-size auto-contrast-adjust features were pretty neat and worked surprisingly well. I don't need to use the RGB-out for dasiy chaining to an additional RGB output, but it's nice to know I could.<br /><br />The color and brightness are good, but the LOW color temperature setting is usless as it turns everything on-screen bright red. I recommend either the MED or HIGH settings depending on your tastes.<br /><br />The on-screen menu is well laid out, and gives you good access to the configurable options. I also like the hard buttons on the bottom of the screen for power, input toggle, channel, and volume.<br /><br />The monitor isn't perfect, however. It comes with a clear protective film over the screen to protect it during shipping, which was to be expected. However, the adhesive on the clear film was so strong that as I pulled if off (and I pulled it off gently), it actually peeled off some of the paint around the screen frame and exposed silver metal specks in a few places. Not the end of the world, but annoying to have to stare at.<br /><br />I was also bothered that the best resolution in RGB mode it could handle was only 1024x768. Any higher res from the video card returned an &quot;OUT OF RANGE&quot; message on the screen. The 17&quot; version of this monitor can do 1280 res, so I was surprised that the 15&quot; little brother couldn't. It did handle 32-bit color at 1024x768, however - which the manual says it won't.<br /><br />The remote is OK, but there are somestatements on the manufacturer's Web site relating to the remote control that are simply NOT TRUE. For example, the description says:<br /><br />&quot;In addition to standard TV controls, this remote control is equipped with Discrete Power On/OFF and Direct input keys suitable for universal remote macro programming.&quot;<br /><br />That statement is false. The remote that came with my unit has ONE regular power toggle button that cycles on and off, and ONE input button that cycles through the 5 inputs (Video, S-Video, Component, RBG, and Tuner).<br /><br />That wasn't such a huge problem for me, however, since I use a touch-screen learning remote to control all my theatre gear, and I was able to find the discrete IR power and input codes for a different Sampo HDTV monitor on the Web, program them into my learning remote, and they worked just fine. But unless you have a learning remote and are able to input direct IR codes using software (such as a Philips Pronto or Marantz RC series), you won't be able to take advantage of the fact that this monitor responds to discrete codes.<br /><br />Another very minor glitch with the remote is that the caption for the LOUDNESS button has an extra &quot;N&quot; in it - it reads &quot;LOUNDNESS.&quot;<br /><br />I also didn't like the fact that the audio plug for the RGB input is a stereo mini-jack, while all the other audio inputs are standard RCA L&amp;R jacks. Additionally, I would have liked to have the ability to use one set of audio inputs with any video input for easier connectivity when connecting directly to a surround processor or other other A/V switcher.<br /><br />However - even with all the above issues, this monitor is a great bargain. With the price so low, I am able to overlook the hiccups and welcome this monitor into my equipment rack. If you're looking for a monitor that can handle all of the currently-standard video inputs, and can put up with some minor problems in return for the low price, then this monitor is right for you.<br />