How many acronyms can a monitor have before it chokes on its own resolution? We have all come to expect CRTs, LCDs, TFTs and God knows what else but now Samsung has come up with a monitor with so many acronyms it will leave you gasping. Its an MP TFT-LCD monitor that can be used for PC, PS2, TV, CATV, DVD or VCR and comes with PIP (picture-in-picture), STFC (self test function check) and OSD (on screen display). It will handle both PAL and NTSC, is capable of dealing with S or MTS-mode and offers a choice of RCA or S-VHS connectors. If that hasnt got you acronymed out, the SyncMaster will automatically tell your PC its EDID (Extended Display Identification Data) using DDC (Display Data Channel) protocols.

Once the alphabet soup has settled it means that the 170MP is a 17in multipurpose, flat screen Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display that can be used on your personal computer, PlayStation 2, Television, Cable TV, Digital Video Disc or Video Cassette Recorder, and can be used as wall-mounted or on your desk. Even when it is connected to your PC it will multitask, running TV, DVD, or VCR in a resizable frame on the desktop.

As soon as you unpack it you know the SyncMaster has the potential to be something a bit special. It weighs just 6.5kg and comes with its own handle that folds down to form the base of the monitor. Having cleared away your old 19in CRT and replaced it with the 170MP it becomes obvious what a space hog your old monitor was. This one is just 63mm, or 2.48 inches, deep and despite dropping down from 19in to 17in there is no difference in viewable area. The 170MP offers exactly 17in (diagonal) of viewing area compared to the 19in CRTs 17.2 inches.
If you are using it as a TV it is the equivalent of a 43cm screen.

The 170MP is a standalone television and does not rely on your PC because the TV tuner is built into the unit itself. All you have to do is plug in the antenna, set the system to PAL and scan the channels. If you connect it to cable TV the scanning can take up to eight minutes depending on how many channels you subscribe to.

In fact, the SyncMaster is better as a television monitor than it is for a PC because the average user watches TV from further away than they sit to their
PC. The closer you are to the display the more the image distorts and this creates a problem when using it as a computer monitor.

The optimum display resolution is 1,280 x 1,024 at 60Hz, which is as high as many PC graphics cards will cope with. Anything less causes text to blur, uneven colours and some phase flicker. However, the high resolution does make some Web pages look ugly because of their low-res graphics, even once the colours have been calibrated with the SyncMaster software. The 60Hz refresh rate is also not much to worry about, since TFT technology eliminates the flicker found in CRTs at low refresh rates.

The picture-in-picture display is excellent, with the display being both resizable and moveable. Because it draws video and audio from an external DVD or VCR players, or the monitors internal TV tuner, it is not taking any resources from the PC, which allows you to run a game or DVD on your PC while watching TV in PIP mode without impacting performance.

All of this can be controlled from the control panel on the front of the monitor or the remote control unit that is mandatory for any self-respecting TV.
Setting up the monitor takes about 15 minutes and most of that time is spent using the Colorific software that sets the monitor to the lighting conditions in your workspace. Because the monitor has been designed to be able to be wall mounted everything must be plugged in vertically behind a removable panel. That is not particularly practical if you want it sitting on your desk, and unfortunately, the power lead had a habit of dropping out unless it was rammed home.

Apart from that there was little to complain about. The SyncMaster 170MP is the epitome of a rich persons toy. It has quality workmanship and more bells and whistles than an aviary full of canaries. Given the high price of LCD monitors, I expected it to be no less than $5,000, so I was pleasantly surprised to see it come in at under $4,000, however, I am just not sure that I would use the MP170s features enough to justify the price. For someone looking for a slick TFT screen for their home system with a vision of turning it into the focus of their entertainment system, then the MP170 has a lot to offer, and we can expect to see more of.