For the past few months I have been using a nice 32″ LCD TV in my bedroom, hooked up to my Vista Media Center PC. Unfortunately, it belonged to my parents, and it was basically being “stored” in my room until they got it installed on the veranda out back. Alas, the day came last weekend when they took it away, and I was back to using my little computer LCD for my TV watching needs.

I decided I should go out and buy my own, since it’s something I used quite often (perhaps a tad too often :P), and therefore worth the outlay. Being a student and only working part time, I had a limited budget to purchase a TV that I would be happy with for a while.

I’ll say it now, I am not a fan of plasmas. They have great black levels, but they have never looked as good to me as an LCD TV, so much selection was narrowed quite a bit. Plasmas are quite cheap now at 42″ sizes, but often have pathetic 852×480 or 1024×1024 non-square pixel resolutions which look terrible, especially up close. Since it was going in my bedroom, it was always going to be close.

So LCD TV it was to be. It also had to support true 16×9 output from my Media Center PC. 1280×720, 1366×768, 1920×1080. If it didn’t support those over VGA or DVI/HDMI, then they were out. Using my parents 32″ LCD TV I was only ever able to connect properly at 1920×1080i over Component, which wasn’t ideal since the panel was 1366×768. It also strained the aging 7100GS graphics card in the MCPC, since it had to render the needlessly complex Vista Media Center interface at the high resolution.

I narrowed my selection down to two displays: some no-name brand 32″ LCD TV with 1366×768 resolution, and a 26″ Samsung LCD TV with the same resolution and a built-in tuner. Both came it at $699 which was perfect. Ultimately I chose the Samsung since (from previously reviewing the 32″ model) I knew it supported 1:1 pixel mapping over VGA, had good viewing angles (176 degrees), and also was a very good looking screen! To be honest, the no-name 32″ just looked so, well, cheap, that I basically ruled it out straight away.

On Monday I drove into uni so I could pickup the screen on my way home. I got them to put it aside for me that morning since they only had one left! Buying it on Amex netted me an extra year’s warranty (plus a $20 surcharge, which was much better than some store’s extended warranty), and I walked out very pleased

Hooking it up to my PC via VGA was as simple as plugging in the cable. The system recognised the native resolution, and now Media Center runs as smooth as silk (even on the pathetic 7100GS). HD programs look fantastic on this thing, either through Media Center or using the integrated HD tuner! The screen swivels on its base, something the display I was using before didn’t do, which is very handy.

Inputs aren’t quite as abundant as on some displays, but all the important ones are there. Two Component, one Composite/S-Video, one HDMI, one VGA along with an optical out for sending audio coming in via HDMI to your amplifier. A great thing I’ve noticed on this TV is if you press the source button, only sources that have something connected get shown. Say for example you have VGA and a Component source connected, pressing the button with scroll through just those two. Very handy!

I also found that the “Service” USB port can be used to charge devices, very random, but worth mentioning

The 26″ display fits a bit better in my room as well. The 32″ was nice, but it really was a tad large.

So if anyone is looking for a small LCD television, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the Samsung 32″ LA26R71BD LCD TV.