Polaroid FLM-2601 26-Inch Widescreen LCD HDtv Monitor

by Polaroid

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 41 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B000B6756K
• Item model number: FLM-2601
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #416,610 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Features & Quality but somewhat Overpriced, October 30, 2005

By 

Jeff Boyd "JMB" (PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Polaroid FLM-2601 26-Inch Widescreen LCD HDtv Monitor (Electronics)

Please disregard the last reviewer's comments since he had the setup completely wrong.

I used an old "All in Wonder Radeon 7500 AGP4" and the system booted up immediately and after a few minutes of tweaking the resolutions it was just fine. 1360x768 is a DVI cable ONLY Resolution and using a VGA cable it's 1280x720 Native on both. Color blows away anything I've ever worked on (Graphics rendering) and in VGA you have a Phasing control that tries to clear up any distortion. This SHOULD be available in the DVI too but it's not and when doing fine text in the Native 1360 mode there's a little distortion that shouldn't be there. Remember that all this is in 16x9 Wide Aspect Ratio, which you can change on the fly via remote, so when in 4x3 mode (true PC @ 1024x768) it is fine with NO distortion but you get the black sides. The really amazing thing is you also get a TV Picture Window that will size and place anywhere on the PC Desktop just like the AIW card does. They stuck in something called "Picture by Picture" (PIP) and it just cuts the screen in half with one side PC (squashed) & one side the TV program. Only thing I could figure is running 2 TV pictures at once using the PC TV Card for what reason I don't know.

The specs are not given for response time though (20-30ms?) and it seems a little Ghostly when moving things around like a Gif Animation but the real test would be a game which I haven't tried yet.

TV performance is really amazing and I watched a 30-year-old movie (The Shining) on it using only basic cable and it was like being in the theater again. It has 4 levels of Noise reduction for picture quality including Auto which works fine. The remote is a work of art and it's just like an expensive Logitech Mouse with a rubber underside and Excellent controls for everything so you can change anything while you're in any mode. This is my first HDTV but I've always used good PC Monitors (currently 19" LCD) and equipment and this is actually better than a monitor unless you buy a 24" for around $1000 (HP) but no tuner. So the only negative things so far after only a couple of days testing are the Ghosting if that's actually what it is and the Channel Numbers are too small. Overall I'd say that's pretty darn good and if gaming is fine then it should get 5 stars.

Just use GOOD PC equipment and make sure to run a Clean OS with minimal background programs and it will be fine. I use an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ on an Nvidia Chipset board using 1gig of DDR and after upgrading the video it should be excellent (Radeon is too old).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just perfect for me, January 25, 2006

By 

TB (Harrisburg, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Polaroid FLM-2601 26-Inch Widescreen LCD HDtv Monitor (Electronics)

I've had this now for 3 months (10 hours/day of business) and have been wary of other reviews but I must say that the set is absolutely perfect in terms of picture quality whether it's HD or Analog too. After learning how to tweak the Colors which are always over saturated by most stations I have No complaints. When using DVD I noticed that there is NO Color deviation since the signal is pure so the presets are just fine. PC is also excellent at 1360x768 which comes up easily with a Good Video Card and driver and there is No Ghosting at all. Universal remote runs both TV, Cable & Teac Amplifier. So NO Red problems actually and speakers are so so but just use a subwoofer to augment them. Response time is 16ms too. Just remember when using a PC to always use the Native resolution, use the DVI input, select "Clear type for text effects & Sharpness will put the final touch on things.

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent value, but not perfect, January 21, 2006

By 

Gary Wolff "nepfan" (Mandeville, LA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Polaroid FLM-2601 26-Inch Widescreen LCD HDtv Monitor (Electronics)

I'm not up to speed on the monitor/TV/HDTV marketplace at all, so I can't really compare this to other products.

I was in the market for a computer monitor and my budget was $400 - $600 bucks. After looking around I realized I was going to get 20" at best in that price range.

Anyway, I purchased this product for $700 on sale. A 26" monitor for that price is an incredible value. I'm very happy with it.

My goal was to work on my computer and have the TV going at the same time. I can accomplish this with PIP.

The few things I don't like about it:

1 - You can only use PIP mode from the VGA/DVI mode. Thus, when using your PC, you can insert a picture from any of the other inputs. The converse is NOT available

2 - The PIP mode where the screen is split into 2 halves is very limited. Again, this is only available from the VGA/DVI mode. You can't control which input is on which side of the screen, and the VGA side scrunches up the resolution so I can read the text very well in my browser.

3 - You can't swap inputs, obvioulsy based on what I previously have said, in the PIP mode.

All that said, for $700 bucks I couldn't have gotten a better, bigger product. The picture is great.

If I were shopping for a high end TV for my home entertainment system this would not be my product of choice, but for a 26" montior at $700, you won't find one better.

I really enjoy it.