Digital Trends

Kreisen LT-30FMP

February 23rd, 2005 | by Ian Bell

Under the Hood

Let's face it, when you are spending under $1500 dollars on a 30” LCD television, you expect cuts to be made in order for it to reach this price point. At least we did. enCross has done a great job cutting these corners in areas of low importance. We can probably all agree that the most important feature on any television is the picture tube, or in this case the LCD panel. As we mentioned in the introduction, we were told that the LT-30FMP comes with a LCD panel manufactured by either Samsung or LG.Philips. Our LT-30FMP came with a panel manufactured by LG.Philips. In case you are not familiar with this brand, LG.Philips is the same company that has manufactured LCD panels for Apple (used in their 23” and 30” Cinema displays) and HP (used in their L2335 and F2304).  Although we cannot confirm that the LCD panel used in the LT-30FMP is the exact same one used in the Apple and HP displays, we would not be surprised if it was since their specifications are very similar.

The LT-30FMP comes with a 30” viewable WXGA TFT display featuring a 16:9 aspect ratio and a 450:1 contrast ratio. It is capable of displaying 16.2 million colors and has a 25ms response rate. If you plan on using the LT-30FMP as a computer monitor first and a television second, then you will be happy with its 1280x768 native resolution. And of course since you will most likely be using the DVI input to do so, be aware that you will be limited to a 60Hz refresh rate. Hardcore gamers will most likely want a smaller monitor with a faster response rate. We want to point out that the HP L2335 23” LCD we reviewed earlier in the year also has a 25ms response rate and was able to handle most of the games we threw at it.

As far as inputs go, the LT-30FMP has most of them covered. It comes with coaxial, composite, component, S-VHS, analog VGA and DVI inputs for the video side and RCA/composite audio inputs. It also comes with composite and headphones outputs. There are four picture modes to choose from: Dynamic, Standard, Mild, Game and User. The video is filtered using a 4H Digital Comb Filter to make sure that edges are sharp and text is easy to read. Although there is no mention on the enCross website, the Kreisen LT-30FMP does not come with a HDCP compatible DVI input. This means that the set may not be compatible with every component that uses a DVI output. If you are strictly using the DVI input for use with a personal computer, you do not have to worry; this will only apply to most home theater components. We were told by our press contact at enCross that they would be adding an integrated ATSC tuner and HDCP compatible DVI inputs to this model in May 2005.