Dell S-Line Screens - S2740L, S2440L, S2340M, S2340L, S2240M

Just got my S2340L. First impressions are not good!

Cons (so far)
-There is a dithering/noise effect going on in the picture, dunno if its the so called PWM stuff i read about at TFT-central (its possible my cheap HDMI-DVI converter is doing it, i dunno)
-Movement creates dark overshoot. I can see dark artifacts appearing on the text on this page, just by scrolling up and down a little.
-IPS-glow is VERY prominent compared to my Dell ST2220T
-Blackpoint/ contrast ratio is much worse than my ST2220T (that has 0.13cdm2 blackpoint). The picture on S2340L looks simply washed out, on every preset and every brightness setting.
-I seem to have gotten a model with alot of bleeding down in the lower left corner

Pros (so far)
-Pretty much pass every lagom.nl test, except for sharpness test
-Colors, gamma and temperature seem to be pretty accurate in standard preset

Will most definitely return it. My Dell ST2220T is so much better than this (and it even has a cheaper E-IPS panel, instead of the new AH-IPS panel). Too bad, i had so high hopes for this screen and i love the 23" size . :(
 
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That sucks. I guess I'll still wait for any reviews, but I might have to look for another screen. I was really hoping it would be good. Thanks for sharing though.
 
The black artifact is dark overshoot.

The blacks will never look deep because the bezel is so dark due to the glass on the black bezel. My Dell has a 0.13 black level & my CrossOver does 0.15, but the CrossOver appears to have deeper blacks because its bezel is not as dark.
 
NCX said:
The black artifact is dark overshoot.

The blacks will never look deep because the bezel is so dark due to the glass on the black bezel. My Dell has a 0.13 black level & my CrossOver does 0.15, but the CrossOver appears to have deeper blacks because its bezel is not as dark.
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Nah, i have them side by side on the same brightness setting, and contrast ratio is just much better on ST2220T (also tried with the S2340L on very low brightness with the same washed out picture) It may that the bleeding and the prominent ips-glow makes me perceive it much worse than it is, but i can tell you its pretty bad. Will see if can get some pictures up soon.
 
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@ Frameless
Any chance of testing it without the HDMI-DVI converter (with consoles or anything else)
 
Hey guys, first post here on the Hardforum.

Just received my S2740L today. Ordered it over the phone from Dell last Wednesday.

After testing BF3, WOW, SWtor, and general use, my first impressions are great.

Thought it would be a step down in colors and clarity from my HP ZR2440W, but thats not the case. This monitor holds its own side by side. The colors are great. The glare really isnt as bad as it was made out to be in this thread. Not a problem for me whatsoever.

The picture is actually clearer than on my HP. The edge to edge glass screen really makes everything crystal clear. The very grainy screen on the hp was beginning to bug me while web browsing and such. Ive always wanted a glossy IPS screen, but cant really pay the $1000 dollar premium for a quality panel, nor the graphics required for a 1440p display.

This thing is awesome and i see myself keeping it for a while.
 
NCX said:
If you have a Nvidia GPU you have to enable Ycbcr444 when using HDMI other wise the blacks will be terrible:

http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i432/240hzTeslaStorm/Asus VG23AH Review/CorrectHDMISettings.png
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As I've said before, you should never do this. You're limiting your black range to 16-235 instead of the full 0-255. You can achieve the same affect by changing the HDMI black level setting on the monitor itself.

If you want to get proper 0-255 black levels over HDMI on an Nvidia GPU, just run the below utility.

http://blog.metaclassofnil.com/?p=83
 
Medion said:
As I've said before, you should never do this. You're limiting your black range to 16-235 instead of the full 0-255. You can achieve the same affect by changing the HDMI black level setting on the monitor itself.

If you want to get proper 0-255 black levels over HDMI on an Nvidia GPU, just run the below utility.

http://blog.metaclassofnil.com/?p=83
Click to expand...

Ive just tried this on my S2440L I've just picked up. By default using the RGB setting the black depth is awful, at around 0.42 cd/m2 (at default settings). When switching to YCbCr444 the picture immediately looks better and black depth is now 0.06 cd/m2 as it should be. If i revert back to RGB but use that utility to switch to full range then the black depth is again 0.06 cd/m2.

so the utility works fine, but are you sure the YCbCr444 is actually limiting the output range to 16-235? It seems more like the default RGB mode is limited to that range when using HDMI, and the YCbCr444 setting seems to extend that range properly, at least so you have the proper black range at the lower end?
 
Drags, I'm going to order that model soon as well. Any opinions/photos from you would be much appreciated.

Also, what about HDMI on an AMD gpus ? Will I have to change something as well ?
 
l33twannabe said:
Drags, I'm going to order that model soon as well. Any opinions/photos from you would be much appreciated.

Also, what about HDMI on an AMD gpus ? Will I have to change something as well ?
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its very glossy so be wary of that, and a lot of the performance you can expect from an AMVA panel really. great contrast ratio, deep blacks, out of the box performance is very good. responsiveness is good but there's some black trails and overshoot.

I don't believe you need to make any change son an AMD GPU, it's a weird NVIDIA thing with HDMI :)
 
Yeah, I'm more than aware it's very glossy. That's the only thing I fear, but since my room is rather dark, I think it should be fine.

What about those black trails and overshoot ? Does it happen in games only or during the usual work as well ?
 
l33twannabe said:
I think all VA based panels suffer from black crush. But yeah, let us know Drags how bad it is with this particular model.
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it depends on whether it's viewed head on or not. from head on, some of the dark grey shades get "crushed" but as you move sideways they appear. The contrast ratio is high enough to distinguish all the shades, but the viewing angles cause a bit of an issue
 
Thanks. I knew the screen was, but ws not sure about the bezel. Piano black bezels are definitely out where I live. The dust and inevitable scratches from cleaning my plasmas bezel drives me nuts. Also, someone mentioned it's easy to scratch the actual screen itself. Presumably there is no protective coating on it. Most dissapointing. Was hoping to get the 27" for gaming to replace the 2410m.
 
The whole panel and bezel are covered by the protective glass front which goes edge to edge, so theres no separate bezel to clean as such. It's pretty easy to clean the whole front panel and the glass is obviously pretty hard :)
 
Drags said:
.
Click to expand...

Can the S24 out black the piano black bezel? The bezel is so dark it makes my S2740L's 0.13 black look slightly grayish, which is my biggest issue with the display, along with the overshoot.
 
Drags said:
Ive just tried this on my S2440L I've just picked up. By default using the RGB setting the black depth is awful, at around 0.42 cd/m2 (at default settings). When switching to YCbCr444 the picture immediately looks better and black depth is now 0.06 cd/m2 as it should be. If i revert back to RGB but use that utility to switch to full range then the black depth is again 0.06 cd/m2.

so the utility works fine, but are you sure the YCbCr444 is actually limiting the output range to 16-235? It seems more like the default RGB mode is limited to that range when using HDMI, and the YCbCr444 setting seems to extend that range properly, at least so you have the proper black range at the lower end?
Click to expand...

If using RGB, your monitor will default to 0-255 full range. Some monitors will have an option to drop down to limited range (16-235) which will make blacks look proper on an NV card. By using YcbCr, your'e telling the monitor, "Hey, I only do 16-235." So, this setting gets locked out, which is why it looks correct.

By running the utility on RGB, you get full range (0-255). It's a suble but appreciative improvement in some cases.

NCX said:
Using YcbCr444 is fine (no negative effects) and is required on a few displays I've owned when using HDMI.
Click to expand...

It's not required if you prefer full-range. In fact, it's a hindrance in this case. Leave yourself at RGB, use the utility, and you're set. By using YcbCr, you're using limited range.

l33twannabe said:
Also, what about HDMI on an AMD gpus ? Will I have to change something as well ?
Click to expand...

AMD has a toggle in their driver for these situations.
 
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LostStorm said:
Who knows but after the review I decide to cancel my Amazon order for it But if your order it they suppose to send you an email with an eta(I never got mines though)
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Why? Seems like the only thing wrong with it was overdrive, which may possibly be turned off from the service menu. Since the display has such low input lag, I'm sure there is enough leeway to compensate for the added input lag of turning overdrive off.
 
Medion said:
If using RGB, your monitor will default to 0-255 full range. Some monitors will have an option to drop down to limited range (16-235) which will make blacks look proper on an NV card. By using YcbCr, your'e telling the monitor, "Hey, I only do 16-235." So, this setting gets locked out, which is why it looks correct.

By running the utility on RGB, you get full range (0-255). It's a suble but appreciative improvement in some cases.



It's not required if you prefer full-range. In fact, it's a hindrance in this case. Leave yourself at RGB, use the utility, and you're set. By using YcbCr, you're using limited range.

.
Click to expand...

what i don't understand though is that using the YcbCr option clearly doesn't seem to limit the range to 16 - 235, as if it did the black level (0) would be different to when using full 0 - 255 range wouldn't it? I've measured the black level at the same value when using YcbCr mode as when using RGB with the tweak to make it full range. the only time range seems to be limited, and therefore black measurement is rubbish, is when using RGB mode without the tweak
 
joebobjoe said:
Hey NCX,

Any word on altering or disabling overdrive from the service menu?
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don't think it's possible, it's not available in the factory OSD of the S2440L (or recent U2713HM either) so Dell must have removed it from their software
 
Newegg has the S2240M for like $30 less than Dell's own site. Can't figure how they can undercut Dell on one of their own monitors. lol. (Edit: I see other Dell monitors cheaper on newegg too). Does Dell offer better warranty/guarantee when ordering direct from them?
 
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KeithM said:
Newegg has the S2240M for like $30 less than Dell's own site. Can't figure how they can undercut Dell on one of their own monitors. lol. (Edit: I see other Dell monitors cheaper on newegg too). Does Dell offer better warranty/guarantee when ordering direct from them?
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No, they are just so expensive. Where I live, Dell sells S2440L for almost 450$ whereas other shops have it for 300$.
 
Ive been looking for a glossy display 24" / 27" for long time.

I mostly use photoshop for web design. I hate AG coating displays.

How is the glossy panel on this one compare to for example a Sammy 120HZ
 
JeroenD said:
Ive been looking for a glossy display 24" / 27" for long time.

I mostly use photoshop for web design. I hate AG coating displays.

How is the glossy panel on this one compare to for example a Sammy 120HZ
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Check post #86 and you'll see how reflective it is. People say it's more reflective than anything they have ever seen. Also, Photoshop has dark colours, so it might be a big problem unless you work in dark room conditions. Otherwise you'll be seeing your reflection and what's behind you all the time.
 
Drags said:
what i don't understand though is that using the YcbCr option clearly doesn't seem to limit the range to 16 - 235, as if it did the black level (0) would be different to when using full 0 - 255 range wouldn't it? I've measured the black level at the same value when using YcbCr mode as when using RGB with the tweak to make it full range. the only time range seems to be limited, and therefore black measurement is rubbish, is when using RGB mode without the tweak
Click to expand...

People have explained it better than me. Here's one reference that I found.

http://www.audioholics.com/tweaks/calibrate-your-system/hdmi-black-levels-xvycc-rgb

Before HDMI became such a big deal in PC monitors, this wasn't an issue for us. It was simply an issue for home theater nuts. Basically, all movie content is created with 16-235 in mind. However, to make this work properly on an RGB setup (0-255), both the input and output have to be set to full range so that 16-235 is properly mapped within those 256 levels, otherwise, you get washed out or overly dark images.
 
joebobjoe said:
Why? Seems like the only thing wrong with it was overdrive, which may possibly be turned off from the service menu. Since the display has such low input lag, I'm sure there is enough leeway to compensate for the added input lag of turning overdrive off.
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I was going to use it for gaming and blu ray. But since I'll be watching movies from the bed(not dead on), the color shift worries me. So I'm thinking about getting the S2340L, but once again there are mix reviews from other members. So until I can come to a decision, I'll just keep praying my 17 inch CRT last forever(Philips 107E5).
 
LostStorm said:
I was going to use it for gaming and blu ray. But since I'll be watching movies from the bed(not dead on), the color shift worries me. So I'm thinking about getting the S2340L, but once again there are mix reviews from other members. So until I can come to a decision, I'll just keep praying my 17 inch CRT last forever(Philips 107E5).
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The color shift on the BenQ GW2750hm was overstated and was better than my TN in person. I would take the color shift of a VA for off-angle movie viewing over the color shift on a TN, or the off-angle glow of an IPS. For movie watching, my GW2750hm was superior to my wife's 27" ACD, IMO.
 
@ Medion

Now you tell me, where were you before I cancel the order (J/K)
Yeah I just have to decide what I can live with for now.
 
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