Experienced NEC 2490 users...

[Greg Smalter]

There are a bunch of features on the NEC 2490 that seem neat but are off by default and have poor documentation. Any tips are appreciated.

Black level: Everyone wants blacker blacks. The manual fails to explain what the trade off is for setting this to 100%.

ColorComp/Auto Luminance: It seems like they took a lot of effort to implement these features, which default to off. They also seem to step on each other's toes in that the manual says they do basically the same thing (stabilize luminance and color). Under what circumstances should each be used? The loss in luminance doesn't sound like a big deal since most people don't run at 100% brightness (I run at 60% right now). Again, what are the trade offs involved with enabling these?

Is Auto Brightness an effective feature or just a novelty? Also, with respect to brightness, there are at least four ways to adjust brightness: Brightness, Eco Mode, Low Bright Mode, and Auto-Brightness. Other features also affect max brightness. This is confusing because it seems there are multiple ways to achieve the same brightness (i.e. there is probably no difference between 100% brightness with Eco Mode and 75% (or close to that) brightness without Eco Mode).

Finally, I'm pretty happy with how the picture looks before messing around with anything, but if I do change stuff, is the NaViSet software recommended?

Thank you.

[Sycraft]

Black level you should leave alone. I am not sure what the function of setting it above 50% is, but you don't get darker blacks. I have a 2690 which I calibrate with the Spectraview software, which sets the level son the monitor by itself. When set to max contrast, it leaves black level at 50%.

Colorcomp is nice. More or less what happens is NEC takes a reading at the factory for what the variance in the panel is over a grid, and stores that in the monitor. This then trys to correct for that. I leave it on at level 3 and it seems to make for a more uniform image, though I'll admit it is a minor change.

The auto luma I don't remember what settings they are on. Spectraview set it to what it wanted based on my instructions. Basically it is in the mode that trys to maintain a stable luma level per my settings (190cd/m2 in my case). It doesn't vary with ambient light level.

Auto brightness I don't use, as I specify the precise level I wish the display to be at. Near as I can tell, the eco modes aren't different. It is simply an easy way to reduce and restore brightness. Say you want to cut brightness by 25%. Ok well set the eco mode. Then when you want it back, change it back. No writing down the levels or anything.

Naviset I can't use since I run a 64-bit OS. From looking at their docs on it, it looks like it offers more control than you get in the normal OSD, but less than you get in the advanced OSD. No harm in using it, it changes the settings just the same as if you did it on the OSD. The monitor has DDC/CI which means the system can send it commands. NaviSet just lets you use that.

[albovin]

ColorComp/Auto Luminance are pretty much covered in the manual.
You don't need them unless you do a serious pro color work or you see an issue with whitr screen uniformity.
Leave them off at all times.

Black level is more tricky.
Technically it does not make black deeper.
It reduces brightness of white when below 50% (black remains with no change) and increases brightness of black when above 50% (white remains with no change). It produces visual effect of black level change. Affects extreme gradations of black and white.
This is a tool for quick manual picture adjustment in movies and games when necessary.

What reduces brightness of black is brightness control. In fact it is a backlight intensity control. It regulates both brightness of white and black at the same time.

Low brightness modes are covered in the manual too. You need them only if you have to work in darkness. I never do so.

Eco modes - you are right, those are just shortcuts to lower brightness.

Auto Brightness is a must for the top class monitors.
Mode 1 - adjusts brightness in accordance with ambient light;
Mode 2 ("Dynamic Brigtness") - reduces brightness when too bright image is displayed.

I never use NaViSet.

Most often I use Eco mode 1 and Auto brightness Mode 1 during the day and switch to Auto brightness Mode 2 in evenings.

Good luck.

[Greg Smalter]

Thanks to both of you. After playing with stuff, I've found that ColorComp is worth it (and doesn't seem to affect input lag), while auto brightness doesn't work well for me (I notice the brightness changes when they happen, and it's distracting. Plus, I have a consistently-lit office).

Thanks for the tip about NaviSet. I have x64 also so I won't try it.

[Snowdog]

I turn off all the auto-luminance and auto-brightness stuff. I prefer to make my own choices.

Colorcomp not only evens brightness, it is factory calibration as well. I don't use it as I don't notice a big benefit and it eats into contrast.

Black level should be on default. I doesn't make black blacker, what it does is crush dark gray into black destroying shadow detail. If you are playing some program material with a messed up gray scale it may improve things but the better choice is crush down the gray scale in your video player software.

[Surly73]

There are a bunch of features on the NEC 2490 that seem neat but are off by default and have poor documentation. Any tips are appreciated.

Black level: Everyone wants blacker blacks. The manual fails to explain what the trade off is for setting this to 100%.

ColorComp/Auto Luminance: It seems like they took a lot of effort to implement these features, which default to off. They also seem to step on each other's toes in that the manual says they do basically the same thing (stabilize luminance and color). Under what circumstances should each be used? The loss in luminance doesn't sound like a big deal since most people don't run at 100% brightness (I run at 60% right now). Again, what are the trade offs involved with enabling these?

Is Auto Brightness an effective feature or just a novelty? Also, with respect to brightness, there are at least four ways to adjust brightness: Brightness, Eco Mode, Low Bright Mode, and Auto-Brightness. Other features also affect max brightness. This is confusing because it seems there are multiple ways to achieve the same brightness (i.e. there is probably no difference between 100% brightness with Eco Mode and 75% (or close to that) brightness without Eco Mode).

Finally, I'm pretty happy with how the picture looks before messing around with anything, but if I do change stuff, is the NaViSet software recommended?

Thank you.

I strongly suggest you read http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1338622 from the beginning to the end. I have ended up writing a lot on some of the things you have questions on in that thread.

My recommendations:

- leave black level alone, it isn't what you think. It remaps darker shades to compensate for various types of devices (kind of how NTSC black is 7IRE, not 0IRE). You can cause black crush, or elevate blacks with this feature. It won't make black any blacker - if that makes any sense.

- ColorComp : Turn this on. I noticed SUBSTANTIAL increases in panel colour uniformity (greys and whites) with this on. This does use the LUT to overlay a pattern programmed at the factory. Technically you lose some contrast, I went from over 800:1 to 750:1 but it was worth it. It also appears that this helps bring your display closer to calibrated sRGB without using SVII. My correction curve is almost nothing with CC on, but quite substantial with CC off. I hypothesize that CC and the resulting perfectly even whites and greys are a key part of the "high end" LCD experience. Just don't go nuts with the CC level - 3 is fine.

- AutoLuminance : NEC employees have suggest it as the way things should be done (see that thread). Snowdog chooses not to use it as he's going for absolutely maximum contrast. I've ended up doing it the NEC way. I'm running AutoLuminance of 130cd/m2 and it's working great. I don't use the mode that varies brightness depending on what's displayed - that doesn't jive with color-critical work to me and doesn't really apply at only 130 cd/m2

- Auto-brightness: I think this is a nice feature but I don't use it as I'm sticking with my SVII profiles rigidly. If I didn't do hardware calibration I'd probably have it on.

- The low-bright modes use the LUT to dim the pixels, not the backlight. Low bright can be a great way to surf or code in pitch black rooms, but ruins your contrast because the backlight is not dimmed so black stays the same - white just gets darker. Generally it should be avoided unless you really need brightness that low.

As I wrote in the other thread, I've found it hard to use SVII and auto-luminance to set the lowest backlight level without triggering low-bright. As I mentioned, I find auto-luminance set to 130 to be pretty good. I believe this value is just slightly above minimum backlight brightness.

Enjoy...

[Greg Smalter]

Thank you for pointing to that thread. I had actually read it previously, but it makes a lot more sense now that I own one.

Now that I understand how ColorComp reduces contrast, I've moved from the default level of 3 to level 1. This drops the contrast much less than level 3 but provides almost all of the noticeable uniformity correction. This is working well for me.

For AutoLuminance, level 1 isn't very noticeable, while level 2 and 3 are very weird and seem to turn my screen green. I leave this off.

Finally, are you guys working in complete darkness at 130 cd/m2? I'm finding myself at 250 cd/m2 in a normally-lit office with no sunlight.

Thanks again.

[Snowdog]

I am using it at home, in my living room with two lights (1 lightbulb each) that are pretty far away (10ft). So it is pretty dim at night (certainly more dim than my office). Mine runs about 140cd/m2 minimum and I find that about perfect in these conditions. On a nice sunny day with more light (but not direct) I turn it up till I like it. But since I am using it at night, the minimum config is the one to go with for me. I just turn up the backlight at anytime conditions change and I need more light. You shouldn't obsess with a number. Just set it where you like it.

[Surly73]

Thank you for pointing to that thread. I had actually read it previously, but it makes a lot more sense now that I own one.

Now that I understand how ColorComp reduces contrast, I've moved from the default level of 3 to level 1. This drops the contrast much less than level 3 but provides almost all of the noticeable uniformity correction. This is working well for me.

For AutoLuminance, level 1 isn't very noticeable, while level 2 and 3 are very weird and seem to turn my screen green. I leave this off.

Finally, are you guys working in complete darkness at 130 cd/m2? I'm finding myself at 250 cd/m2 in a normally-lit office with no sunlight.

Thanks again.

I'm working in a home office at 130. There's no direct sunlight. It's a "little dark" but still perfectly visible in the brightest conditions (sunny with snow all over outside) but the natural light only enters at a window to the side so there isn't much glare. At night with one indirect table lamp it is a touch bright, but still fine. I'd set the auto-brightness function if I wasn't running calibrated, I think. At this point I never change any settings - it's moved from fiddle phase to stability.

When you run SVII, autoluminance is set to control the brightness only, not to vary the brightness based on content. I believe that's numerical setting "1". I've never used anyting but. I think the other modes are less for photography/office work and more for medical imaging or something (which also seems to be a significant niche for the 2490).

In my environment 250 would be painful.

Glad you're getting used to you 2490. It took me a while, and a long blog-ish thread here to work through it, but I've been loving it the last little while despite it not being my CRT. :)

[Greg Smalter]

It's 250 cd/m2 according to the monitor - not measured. So, it's probably less.

In any event, I agree. In an absolute sense, this is a very good monitor. In the context of acknowledging that LCDs are horribly slow, have cruddy contrast and poor viewing angles when compared to any other display technology, this monitor is amazing.

Thanks for your help.