Official BenQ FP241W Thread !!! Info, Pictures, Reviews

FYI, I have an nVidia video card. I might be able to get the brightness down using the nVidia Control Panel (there is a brightness setting there, and at present it is set to the default 50%). But this might affect the color calibration. Will test it tomorrow.

- David
 
dderkits said:
FYI, I have an nVidia video card. I might be able to get the brightness down using the nVidia Control Panel (there is a brightness setting there, and at present it is set to the default 50%). But this might affect the color calibration. Will test it tomorrow.

- David
Click to expand...
I'm very interested in this aspect -- looking forward to your results. :)
 
I'm on the edge in ordering this from NCIX, but since the firmware is applied by NCIX themselves wouldn't that void the manufacturers warranty?
 
I am pretty sure it wouldn't void the warranty, otherwise NCIX wouldn't do it. BenQ Canada supplied NCIX with the instructions and training on how to do the firmware upgrades.
 
Hi ,there! After going trough 4 Gateway 24" LCD's for various of resons (buzzing, backlight bleed, smearing/ghosting in games and fast video) I've decided to try this bad boy out ;)

This is my quick overview, more will come later on, sorry - too tired today.

When they say BENQ is the gamers choice - they are damn right! This display has no ghosting at all. And I am super picky with this issue being COD2 player.
IMG_0260_resize.jpg


http://www3.sympatico.ca/igor.dertkin/IMG_0263_resize.jpg

0 dead/stuck pixels

IMG_0266_resize.jpg


Video performance - outstanding!

IMG_0267_resize.jpg



It need more fiddling around with settings to get to look the way I like. And i wish BENQ had implemented something similar to Gateways EazyTune.
 
dacalo07 said:
I love Gateway's touch controls, but I find BenQs to be more appealing: clearer text, HDMI input, and overall better image quality. I don't use PIP function anyways.
Click to expand...

I agree. If the Benq had the Gateway's PIP functionality and menu controls we would have the perfect monitor. I prefer the benQ's picture quality (and HDMI), I guess you can't have it all. Do you have both monitors? Lucky Devil
 
Spoonie_G said:
I agree. If the Benq had the Gateway's PIP functionality and menu controls we would have the perfect monitor. I prefer the benQ's picture quality (and HDMI), I guess you can't have it all. Do you have both monitors? Lucky Devil
Click to expand...

I'll have to join the agree train. I liked the Gateway controls when I checked it out at Fry's, it's too bad all the early good vibes in the Gateway thread turned to ughs as you keep reading in it, heh. Otherwise I'd have gotten the Gateway. But I'll take better picture and HDMI. I'm thinking of getting one of those spyder calibration units. What the heck, I'll go on a calibration spree at home and work to make it seem with the money. :)
 
Urian said:
The problem is that I live in Finland and I'm not sure where I could send a monitor to be upgraded. I've sent an email to BenQ's local office and asked if there are any places here that can upgrade the but I still haven't received a reply.
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Hello Urian,

I have no specific information for Finland, but BenQ in your country is at least the same organisational unit as the one in mine (Sweden): BenQ Nordic. After I bought this monitor the week before last I called BenQ Nordic's help desk and they arranged for my monitor to be shipped away for the firmware fix (to Västerås, about 60 km away from where I live, not the US!). I packed it off last Wednesday, and they said it would take about a week, so we'll see if I get it back some time soon...

It would be very surpising if you couldn't get the same service in Finland. I have never received any reply from BenQ over e-mail, but their help desk picked up quickly and answered in a very friendly and helpful manner (it is an outsourced service, I believe). On the BenQ Nordic website I found this phone number for Finland:

Finland Technical Support Helpdesk: 09-8171 0191 ( 09:00 - 17:00 )
RMA Email: [email protected]
RMA Helpdesk: 09-8171 0188 ( 09:00 - 17:00 )

Make sure to call them and check BEFORE you buy your monitor! Good luck.
 
Here's a comment from NCIX:

No we're actually updating the firmware after we receive inventory.

To answer the previous question though, no the warranty is not void - in fact, the equipment and software required to perform the flash operation came from BenQ and they are fully aware (and supportive) of what we're doing.
Click to expand...
 
Oscar Tiberg said:
Hello Urian,

I have no specific information for Finland, but BenQ in your country is at least the same organisational unit as the one in mine (Sweden): BenQ Nordic. After I bought this monitor the week before last I called BenQ Nordic's help desk and they arranged for my monitor to be shipped away for the firmware fix (to Västerås, about 60 km away from where I live, not the US!). I packed it off last Wednesday, and they said it would take about a week, so we'll see if I get it back some time soon...

It would be very surpising if you couldn't get the same service in Finland. I have never received any reply from BenQ over e-mail, but their help desk picked up quickly and answered in a very friendly and helpful manner (it is an outsourced service, I believe). On the BenQ Nordic website I found this phone number for Finland:

Finland Technical Support Helpdesk: 09-8171 0191 ( 09:00 - 17:00 )
RMA Email: [email protected]
RMA Helpdesk: 09-8171 0188 ( 09:00 - 17:00 )

Make sure to call them and check BEFORE you buy your monitor! Good luck.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip (Tack för tippset :p ) I called them and they said that a company that's only about 15 km away can upgrade it. (Powermill if there are any other Finns wondering)
 
dderkits said:
FYI, I have an nVidia video card. I might be able to get the brightness down using the nVidia Control Panel (there is a brightness setting there, and at present it is set to the default 50%). But this might affect the color calibration. Will test it tomorrow.

- David
Click to expand...

With the FP241W's own brightness set to zero, if adjust the Brightness setting under the nVidia Control Panel to 28%, then the brightness, as measured by the One-Eye, does drop to 120 cd/m2. But, there are showstopper flaws with this "workaround". The color accuracy is severely compromised. And, it appears that not everything in Windows adheres to the nVidia setting ... notably, the mouse cursor still shines brightly.

While I was at it, I tried reducing the R, G, B colors through the FP241W's on-screen-display's color settings. With all colors set at 40 rather than 50, I measured only a 20 cd/m2 drop in brightness, and I had to adjust the contrast from 70 to 100 (per One-Eye). So this approach is not worth it, especially given the likelihood that color accuracy errors will be introduced.

My opinion is that the only workable way to adjust the brightness is with the FP241W's own brightness setting, and in that case the minimum brightness is relatively high.

- David
 
dderkits said:
The FP241W is indeed bright (too bright?). I just tested it with Eye-One Display 2 (Pantone). In Mode Standard, Color Normal, Contrast 76,
Click to expand...

Here's what I've learned. Always keep contrast at 50. Higher values will burn out highlights. Lower values will lower bit depth.

Lowest brightness you should set is 30. Below 30 the benq starts to digitally remove brightness and blacks. Below 30 shadows will lose details. It will only drop backlight to 30, below that the backlight won't change at all.
 
Urian said:
Thanks for the tip (Tack för tippset :p ) I called them and they said that a company that's only about 15 km away can upgrade it. (Powermill if there are any other Finns wondering)
Click to expand...

Have you contacted powermill yet or should this go through BenQ Nordic? I'll be making a firmware change too if that's possible here in Finland.
 
dderkits said:
My opinion is that the only workable way to adjust the brightness is with the FP241W's own brightness setting, and in that case the minimum brightness is relatively high.
Click to expand...

Minimum brightness without affecting colors is 30. Changing contrast from 50 will always affect colors.
 
maarek99 said:
Here's what I've learned. Always keep contrast at 50. Higher values will burn out highlights. Lower values will lower bit depth.

Lowest brightness you should set is 30. Below 30 the benq starts to digitally remove brightness and blacks. Below 30 shadows will lose details. It will only drop backlight to 30, below that the backlight won't change at all.
Click to expand...

I see what you mean about the digital control of brightness ... I definitely see its effects below 20. Is there documentation (on the Internet) from BenQ or others about the 30 threshold?

- David
 
I used Eye-One Display 2 (Pantone), with Eye-One Match version 3.61, to color calibrate my BenQ FP241W. The calibration process went smoothly, and I ran it two more times to confirm repeatability. The details are below. Do not rely on these data, since calibration results will vary.

My calibration goals were 6500K and 2.2 Gamma.

I used 30 as the FP241W's brightness setting. The luminance measured for this setting was 318 cd/m2.

At this brightness, Eye-One recommended a contrast setting of 56, which I used.

I adjusted the R, G, and B colors using the FP241W's on-screen-display's color controls. Eye-One determined that 6500K was achieved with:
R = 49
G = 50
B = 46

Eye-One ran its tests and reported its results:

fp241w.colorsummary.PNG


I allowed Eye-One to generate an ICC profile (version 4, LUT) and applied it to my computer.

Then, with the ICC profile in place, I ran the "Monitor Validator" application (part of the Eye-One Match application). Here are the test results (in raw format):

http://www.derkits.com/apps/images/fp241w-postccresults.pdf

The average dE was 0.79. Pretty good.

Remarks:
- The minimum true brightness of this monitor is arguably too high.
- The current version of Eye-One Match will allow the user to choose a custom luminance "target" (i.e. desired luminance), but only up to 250 cd/m2. Hence the 250 cd/m2 target value.

- David
 
Spoonie_G said:
I agree. If the Benq had the Gateway's PIP functionality and menu controls we would have the perfect monitor. I prefer the benQ's picture quality (and HDMI), I guess you can't have it all. Do you have both monitors? Lucky Devil
Click to expand...

For now I have both, but Gateway goes back to FS soon.
 
Well the Jan 30th estimated delivery date from NCIX came and went... I really wish they'd give me the tracking info once it crossed into the US...

Fingers crossed for today.
 
ID64 said:
Hi ,there! After going trough 4 Gateway 24" LCD's for various of resons (buzzing, backlight bleed, smearing/ghosting in games and fast video) I've decided to try this bad boy out ;)

This is my quick overview, more will come later on, sorry - too tired today.

When they say BENQ is the gamers choice - they are damn right! This display has no ghosting at all. And I am super picky with this issue being COD2 player.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/igor.dertkin/IMG_0260_resize.jpg

http://www3.sympatico.ca/igor.dertkin/IMG_0263_resize.jpg

0 dead/stuck pixels

http://www3.sympatico.ca/igor.dertkin/IMG_0266_resize.jpg

Video performance - outstanding!

http://www3.sympatico.ca/igor.dertkin/IMG_0267_resize.jpg


It need more fiddling around with settings to get to look the way I like. And i wish BENQ had implemented something similar to Gateways EazyTune.
Click to expand...


Aleluia ! Finally someone knows how to take good pictures :D

Great pictures ID64 ;) And great keyboard... i have one of those too.

I'm thinking on buying the FP241W... and i have a request if you don't mind...

...could you please take and post some pictures of the FP241W running some PC games on resolutions lower than 1920x1200 in 1:1 mode?

I would really apreciate that...

Again, great pictures and thank you for posting them.
 
maarek99 said:
Minimum brightness without affecting colors is 30. Changing contrast from 50 will always affect colors.
Click to expand...

So, Eye-One had me set my contrast to 56 (at brightness 30), and I thought that was all well and good. But, in examining the results of the color calibration, I noticed that the really bright whites had an obvious greenish/bluish tint to them (whites 243 and above). It appears that this tint is introduced by the FP241W's contrast control. I could clearly see the tinting on a DisplayMate "256 Intensity Level Ramp" test (it stood out relative to the rest of the gradient).

I went into the "Extreme Gray-Scale with Color Bars" DisplayMate test and viewed this test while slowly decrementing the FP241W's contrast control. Each decrease in the contrast shifted the tinted/discolored range up 2 (e.g. contrast 55 affected whites 245 and above). By the time I reached contrast 49, the tinting had disappeared (i.e. not even visible on white 255). So I'm on contrast 49 now.

Not quite sure what to make of this, but I'm now on board with keeping the contrast at 50 (or, no higher than 50), at least when the brightness is set to 30. By the way, for all my testing, I'm using the DVI interface.

- David
 
I've went to costco but unfortunately they dont carry it locally, only online. I've placed an order for the 2407, hoping that it'd be rev A04....but it is taking too long to process...I'm thinking of getting the FP241W from costco.ca. I've mailed them twice to as if they could check the manufacturing date for me but did no receive any reply. Should I go ahead and order it regarless?
 
Ronin said:
Aleluia ! Finally someone knows how to take good pictures :D

Great pictures ID64 ;) And great keyboard... i have one of those too.

I'm thinking on buying the FP241W... and i have a request if you don't mind...

...could you please take and post some pictures of the FP241W running some PC games on resolutions lower than 1920x1200 in 1:1 mode?

I would really apreciate that...


Again, great pictures and thank you for posting them.
Click to expand...

Sure. What do mean by 1:1 mode? under Nvidia 1:1 mode? Please, explain it to me
 
dderkits said:
My calibration goals were 6500K and 2.2 Gamma.
Click to expand...

i'm curious why you chose that gamma setting, 2.2 is for CRT's 1.8 is for LCD's.
when i calibrated mine with the spyder, after resetting the benq to factory defaults came out to be 1.83, and the picture is damn impressive :)
 
maarek99 said:
Have you contacted powermill yet or should this go through BenQ Nordic? I'll be making a firmware change too if that's possible here in Finland.
Click to expand...

I haven't contacted PowerMill yet but I've spoken with benq's helpdesk on the phone and also received an email from them with a link to a form the I shall fill in once I receive my monitor. With a bit of luck I'll get my monitor before the weekend and check if it (against all odds) has the new firmware. Otherwise I'll send it to PowerMill next week.

Oh and btw. When I asked benq about fees they said that they'll pay both shipping and any possible fee that PowerMill might charge for upgrading the firmware :)
 
Ronin said:
Aleluia ! Finally someone knows how to take good pictures :D

Great pictures ID64 ;) And great keyboard... i have one of those too.

I'm thinking on buying the FP241W... and i have a request if you don't mind...

...could you please take and post some pictures of the FP241W running some PC games on resolutions lower than 1920x1200 in 1:1 mode?

I would really apreciate that...

Again, great pictures and thank you for posting them.
Click to expand...

what keyboard is that anyway? linky? :confused:
 
kin0kin said:
I've went to costco but unfortunately they dont carry it locally, only online. I've placed an order for the 2407, hoping that it'd be rev A04....but it is taking too long to process...I'm thinking of getting the FP241W from costco.ca. I've mailed them twice to as if they could check the manufacturing date for me but did no receive any reply. Should I go ahead and order it regarless?
Click to expand...

why wouldnt you just order from NCIX...?

you're just asking for trouble
 
ID64 said:
Sure. What do mean by 1:1 mode? under Nvidia 1:1 mode? Please, explain it to me
Click to expand...

Did your monitor come with the 1:1 aspect ratio firmware fix?

If not anything not run in native resolution will stretch to fill the screen.
 
My opinion is that the only workable way to adjust the brightness is with the FP241W's own brightness setting, and in that case the minimum brightness is relatively high.

- David
Click to expand...
Thanks David. Very helpful info. But doesn't LCD brightness diminish with time (like DLP or LcOS HDTV sets)? Also, an article from x-bit labs that I read on LCD parameters said the reason LCDs seem so bright when coming from a CRT is that because it is brighter than a CRT. Give your eyes time and you'll get used to it (or so the article said).
 
OK...still playing with my settings for the 241. I notice what looks like a brightness around the edge on all the characters on my screen. Any time there is a black character on a colored background, it really shows up. I've turned off ClearType in Windows to see if that was it and it still shows. Can anyone explain to me what this is or if this is a problem with the monitor. I don't see it on my IBM laptop at all. It really makes the characters harder to read to me.

Colored text on black or other colors appears to be ok...it's just black text (which of course is mostly what is on my screen right now.)

And in response to an earlier post, I am using bright 20, contr 30 and am pretty happy in the daytime while I'm working.
 
ID64 said:
Sure. What do mean by 1:1 mode? under Nvidia 1:1 mode? Please, explain it to me
Click to expand...

No, not the nvidia 1:1 mode... i meant the monitor 1:1 mode... :rolleyes:

Did your monitor come with the 1:1 aspect ratio firmware fix?

If yes them you have in the monitor menu the possibility to choose from "Full", "1:1" and "Aspect" modes...

...if you don't :( nevermind, but thank you anyway...

But you are welcome to post some more pics... it's always nice to see the FP241W in "action" :D
 
Ronin said:
No, not the nvidia 1:1 mode... i meant the monitor 1:1 mode... :rolleyes:

Did your monitor come with the 1:1 aspect ratio firmware fix?

If yes them you have in the monitor menu the possibility to choose from "Full", "1:1" and "Aspect" modes...

...if you don't :( nevermind, but thank you anyway...

But you are welcome to post some more pics... it's always nice to see the FP241W in "action" :D
Click to expand...


I sent my monitor and got the fix but I dont see that in the menu.... What is it under?
 
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