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

Tranq said:
I emailed BenQ Europe again today, asking if they would be selling the black/black version in the UK sometime soon, I got this reply:

-----
Dear Sir,

We are not planning to ship out black versions at the moment. Of course
this can be subject to change in the future.

BenQ Support
-----

This slightly annoys me as I'd like to have the black face to the monitor as I think it makes the images stand out better, but it seems as if this aint going to be possiable. I don't know if I wanna wait untill they ship them, as it seems as if they don't have a date for it. If anyone has anymore information about it, times when they might be releasing it (or if they are) any info would be apprichiated. I think that I might be ordering one tonight/tomorrow and just make do with the updated version, but with the silver front on it. Black sticky tape is always an option if it's bad! :D
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well im thinking of holding off until the wz model is out now anyway, hopefully it will be available in black and address the issues the w has had. The time to update my rig is slowly creeping up too, i want a new pimped out system in time for crysis, and an upgrade from a 15" (5yo) CRT to a 24" TFT sounds freaking awesome :D
 
ok, here's my quandry I'm in.... I want to get a monitor that will hold me over till fall when I'll get a new 46 plus or bigger LCD.

I've got a PS3 and Xbox 360 which I would like to use right now on. I picked up the Gateway 24 inch model, but I'm sort of not that happy with black levels and the little bit of ghosting.

I'm thinking the black levels and ghosting will be about the same on the Gateway and the Benq, because the pva and mva panels are about the same. Maybe I'm wrong here. However, I'm spoiled as I'm coming from an as-ips panel in the NEC.

So basically, is it worth the extra 150 dollars or so just for the hdmi connection on the Benq or are the Benq black levels and ghosting that much better.

Thanks for all of your opinions. :D
 
No probably not. The HDMI spec itself can handle it, HDMI is electrically equivalent to DVI with enhancements. However most 1920x1200 displays are single-link only which does 1920x1200@60Hz maximum. As a practical matter, 75Hz won't do any good, the display won't update any faster.
 
Sycraft said:
No probably not. The HDMI spec itself can handle it, HDMI is electrically equivalent to DVI with enhancements. However most 1920x1200 displays are single-link only which does 1920x1200@60Hz maximum. As a practical matter, 75Hz won't do any good, the display won't update any faster.
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Why wouldn't it if it's running at 75Hz instead of 60Hz?
 
whoster69 said:
Why wouldn't it if it's running at 75Hz instead of 60Hz?
Click to expand...

Although there is a more techincal explanation out there, the bottom line is that 60Hz is what LCD's run at--if you bump it up higher, the LCD is "smart" enough to dump a certain number of the frames received.

I'm sure someone else can swoop by with a link to a webpage that can explain this a bit better.

202276
 
LCDs don't really have a refresh rate. They are simply told to be on or off...The important thing with LCDs is the response time, meaning that you can only turn it on and off so quickly before you exceed the electronic limitations of the response time of the display...
 
Just been thinking about some stuff, which is confusing me slightly about what to do. As you know I'm planning on getting the FP241W in the next few days, this will be in addition to the Iiyama H1900 (19inch) I've already got. I'm planning on having the 2 monitors set up and running together at the same time in a dual screen arangement.
I have a nVidia 7800GTX card but wondering if it will have enough power to process both the montors with a game playing on a high res on one of the monitors (prolly the benq). The card its self is begginning to struggle with some of the new games out, I've had to drop rainbox 6 Vegas down to 1280 rather than 1600 to keep it smooth for example. I'm just wondering what is best to do and if any people that have bought the montior have it duled up have noticed any performance difference with it running 2 monitors.
I've looked briefly at updating my mobo and getting another 7800GTX and putting it into SLi, but it seems as if SLi only supports one monitor (and turning it on/off requires a restart to get back to dual screen), which seems to be an arse. Another option I can see is to buy a new gfx card (8 series?) or buy a a mobo with 2 PCI express slots on and get another card and have one card run one monitor.
If people have had the same kinda confusion / thought about it / done something about it any input would be nice, I don't really wanna get rid of this monitor to get SLi (though selling this might cover the cost of buying a new card), but the idea of buying a new monitor is to get dual screen.

Thanks
 
The display says it uses DVI-D, maybe it can do 75 Hz if you have the right cable.

The response time at worst is something around 12ms (i think), so it should be able to do 75Hz. But that would mean that it stays at the correct color for only a few ms before changing (if it is changing).

At the same time, to say that changing the input freq wont make the display faster is misleading. By that same logic we should all run our displays at 10hz so we see no ghosting at all.
 
n0xlf said:
LCDs don't really have a refresh rate. They are simply told to be on or off...The important thing with LCDs is the response time, meaning that you can only turn it on and off so quickly before you exceed the electronic limitations of the response time of the display...
Click to expand...

Not to take over this thread with response time analysis, but isn't on and off what a CRT is doing as well? I don't see the difference.

I have noticed that an LCD doesn't seem to flicker at 60Hz like a CRT does, but I've never understood why this is the case.

Thanks for the information.
 
whoster69 said:
Not to take over this thread with response time analysis, but isn't on and off what a CRT is doing as well? I don't see the difference.

I have noticed that an LCD doesn't seem to flicker at 60Hz like a CRT does, but I've never understood why this is the case.

Thanks for the information.
Click to expand...

CRTs use a scanning electron beam that excites phosphors in the display to create the picture line by line...Once a phosphor is "lit" by the beam, it immediately begins to fade...Slow down the refresh rate below the natural persistence of the CRT phosphors (and different CRTs can have different persistence), then you'll see it flicker because the screen is fading to a level that your eyes can recognize...Speed up the refresh rate and it's still flickering, but your eyes aren't bothered by it...Everyone's own eye "persistence" can vary too, which is why some people are very sensitive to low refresh rates...

An LCD has individual pixels that are simultaneously controlled, so the entire picture is being updated at the same time...The refresh rate here is more like how often you want to update the entire screen...1000ms/60hz = 16.6ms/hz, which is why you'll see a lot of LCDs claiming to be around that range +/- for their response time...I can't speak for the electronics within an LCD, but I would imagine that no matter what you set the refresh rate to, they are probably going to up or down sample it to what works best for their particular LCD response time...Obviously both too high or too low would be bad...It is this assumption that makes LCD refresh rates somewhat of a moot point because they can't be controlled in the way that CRTs can when it comes to refresh rate...

This is sort of on topic for this thread, as the FP241WZ is trying to do a few things to make it more CRT like - One is the fast response time of the display itself and the second is fooling your own eye persistence by inserting black frames in the display...The native response time is fast enough now for smooth ghost free gaming, but your own eyes are now causing the problem because the image isn't fading fast enough between frames...

Hope that makes some sense...It's completely clear in my mind :)
 
n0xlf said:
CRTs use a scanning electron beam that excites phosphors in the display to create the picture line by line...Once a phosphor is "lit" by the beam, it immediately begins to fade...Slow down the refresh rate below the natural persistence of the CRT phosphors (and different CRTs can have different persistence), then you'll see it flicker because the screen is fading to a level that your eyes can recognize...Speed up the refresh rate and it's still flickering, but your eyes aren't bothered by it...Everyone's own eye "persistence" can vary too, which is why some people are very sensitive to low refresh rates...

An LCD has individual pixels that are simultaneously controlled, so the entire picture is being updated at the same time...The refresh rate here is more like how often you want to update the entire screen...1000ms/60hz = 16.6ms/hz, which is why you'll see a lot of LCDs claiming to be around that range +/- for their response time...I can't speak for the electronics within an LCD, but I would imagine that no matter what you set the refresh rate to, they are probably going to up or down sample it to what works best for their particular LCD response time...Obviously both too high or too low would be bad...It is this assumption that makes LCD refresh rates somewhat of a moot point because they can't be controlled in the way that CRTs can when it comes to refresh rate...

This is sort of on topic for this thread, as the FP241WZ is trying to do a few things to make it more CRT like - One is the fast response time of the display itself and the second is fooling your own eye persistence by inserting black frames in the display...The native response time is fast enough now for smooth ghost free gaming, but your own eyes are now causing the problem because the image isn't fading fast enough between frames...

Hope that makes some sense...It's completely clear in my mind :)
Click to expand...

It makes it a lot clearer to me! Thanks for the thorough explanation!
 
Hello everyone. Thanks for all of the great information here. Without your feedback, I'm sure I would not have bought this monitor. :)

I received mine today from newegg - no firmware update, black/black model, $725.

I have a problem that I hope someone can help with. I cannot get HD DVDs to play using CyberLink's PowerDVD 7.1 Ultra or InterVideo's WinDVD 8 Platinum. The Cyberlink Advisor utility indicates that everything checks out (system, graphics card, drivers, hd dvd drive), except for Video Connection Type which is "Digital (without HDCP)". :rolleyes:

My Nvidia 7600GT is connected to the BenQ via DVI to HDMI, and everything indicates an HDMI connection has been made. The 7600GT has HDCP and so does the BenQ. Does anyone know why HD DVDs would fail to operate in this case? :confused:

I have been watching TV and movies on my PC for the past year and a half, and I love it. I switched from a Dell 2405FPW to the BenQ FP241W, just for HD DVD. My first impressions, given that I've only had my BenQ for half a day, are that the BenQ's colours seem more vivid (at least to my "amateur" eyes). The Dell was probably slightly better at displaying text, particularly the Windows XP font used in Explorer.

So anyhow, until Hollywood greps "the law of attraction", can someone explain how to get HDCP working? :p Thanks.
 
Part of a secure video path is not only hardware that supports it, but video drivers that support it. Make sure the driver version you are running is certified for secure video path, or go find a set that is. You may have to hit up a place like guru3d to find a set of video drivers to give you HDCP from start to finish.

Of course, you could make a stand and not use things broken by design like DRM, but if HD video is what you want, this is the price you pay.
 
Sycraft said:
No probably not. The HDMI spec itself can handle it, HDMI is electrically equivalent to DVI with enhancements. However most 1920x1200 displays are single-link only which does 1920x1200@60Hz maximum. As a practical matter, 75Hz won't do any good, the display won't update any faster.
Click to expand...

I'm not really concerned about the LCD not being able to handle it, more of a case what the OS & Graphics Card are outputting, as 75Hz is much better for PAL 25fps/50fps than 60Hz is (windows and/or the graphics card will start temporally interpolating and it will look hideous).

I find it ofputting that the entire DVI specification was built around NTSC, ignoring half of the world.
 
ID64 said:
Well, except absence of 1:1 aspect ratio, movies via component input on BENQ look better than on Gateway. I think, that I read somewhere that Faroudja chipset is actually buggy and make picture even worse and not better. Another thing that is very annoying on Gateway is this graininess, that some other people have mentioned on this forum. It makes to squint your eyes all the time.
Click to expand...

The 1:1 would be important to me. Does the BenQ not support that? I know the Dell does but I heard the picture quality doesn't compare with the BenQ or Gateway.
 
bluetooth2007 said:
Hello everyone. Thanks for all of the great information here. Without your feedback, I'm sure I would not have bought this monitor. :)

I received mine today from newegg - no firmware update, black/black model, $725.

I have a problem that I hope someone can help with. I cannot get HD DVDs to play using CyberLink's PowerDVD 7.1 Ultra or InterVideo's WinDVD 8 Platinum. The Cyberlink Advisor utility indicates that everything checks out (system, graphics card, drivers, hd dvd drive), except for Video Connection Type which is "Digital (without HDCP)". :rolleyes:

My Nvidia 7600GT is connected to the BenQ via DVI to HDMI, and everything indicates an HDMI connection has been made. The 7600GT has HDCP and so does the BenQ. Does anyone know why HD DVDs would fail to operate in this case? :confused:

I have been watching TV and movies on my PC for the past year and a half, and I love it. I switched from a Dell 2405FPW to the BenQ FP241W, just for HD DVD. My first impressions, given that I've only had my BenQ for half a day, are that the BenQ's colours seem more vivid (at least to my "amateur" eyes). The Dell was probably slightly better at displaying text, particularly the Windows XP font used in Explorer.

So anyhow, until Hollywood greps "the law of attraction", can someone explain how to get HDCP working? :p Thanks.
Click to expand...

If the problem isn't with the drivers, you might want to try your other DVI port. Not all ports are HDCP compliant on some cards. Here is a reference article that tells about them :)

http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=2874
 
hello all

i have been following this since the 1st thread, and now i want to get one:

couple of issues:

- the random on and off, it was mentioned it was a cable but than it wasnt, has anyone came up with a solution or know why this happens?

- if you use the monitor and than turn it off for a while and tha came back, it wont pick up the signal, do you always have to restart the system for this?

i'll be running with another tft on the DVI using the 8800GTX with latest XP drivers.


Thanks
 
elpaw said:
I'm not really concerned about the LCD not being able to handle it, more of a case what the OS & Graphics Card are outputting, as 75Hz is much better for PAL 25fps/50fps than 60Hz is (windows and/or the graphics card will start temporally interpolating and it will look hideous).

I find it ofputting that the entire DVI specification was built around NTSC, ignoring half of the world.
Click to expand...
I was actually asking about this for the same reason earlier in the thread (which is admittedly very long so not surprising you missed it).... ;)

Unfortunately, the short answer is "no 1920x1200 @ 75Hz" with the Benq. :(
 
Anyone know how to track the package after it enters the US? The tracking number NCIX sent me only says it has enter the US and en route to the destination. I emailed NCIX but their auto reply says it could be up to 2 days before they reply to my question. The package cleared customs on 2/7. Thanks.
 
Do yo know of any decent replacement stand for FP241W. I know that both DELL LCD stands (2405 and 2407 model) do not fit.
 
ati said:
couple of issues:

- the random on and off, it was mentioned it was a cable but than it wasnt, has anyone came up with a solution or know why this happens?

- if you use the monitor and than turn it off for a while and tha came back, it wont pick up the signal, do you always have to restart the system for this?

i'll be running with another tft on the DVI using the 8800GTX with latest XP drivers.
Click to expand...

I've been using the FP241W for about 7 weeks now :
1) the random on/off only did it about 4 times in the first 2 weeks, it never came back.
2) Never got that issue.

The only issue that I have is the following : If I use the DVI connection, the monitor doesn't wake up untill windows is loading (no bios boot screen). That might be my a bug in my videocard bios thought (X800pro modded to XT). I tried the VGA cable and everything is fine.
 
how do you find the benq for gaming is it as good as others say ? what about ghosting and other probs found on cheaper lcd,s ? looking to buy one so hope any answers help cheers :)
 
I've been following this thread for about 2 weeks now and decided to buy through NCIX due to the updated firmware.
The only option for purchase for US customers is Paypal.
Paypals policy is that your billing address has to match your shipping address.
I read that others on this forum also encountered this issue and had to ship to their homes.
I cannot ship to my apartment because it is an unsecure area, facing a very busy street.
I thought if my credit card had both my home and business address registered to it and my Paypal account also had both addresses, I could get this display sent to my work.
Nope.
Paypal has been totally unresponsive in resolving this for me with 2 emails sent from me with no reply.
In this day and age it seems farfetched that this service has no way to verify a 2nd shipping address.
So I had to cancel my order.
I was so close. Now I'm super :mad: .
There's got to be a way to get this display without all these hoops to jump through.
 
I play WoW, CS:S and COD2 and it's just wonderful. DVDs where playing great too, but you can spot compression artifacts because the LCD is so big.

I can see some ghosting when there is some bright /dark colors and you move really fast, but compared to the other LCD I had it Rocks ! You have to try to spot ghosting, when I play I rarely see it.

I don't know any LCDs that don't have ghosting... you just can't get rid of that with current LCD technology.
 
What does the 'i" button (very first one from the buttom just below the Input/Swap) do?
 
It's been a long time since I have seen any screenshots of this monitor in this thread. Could someone please post some? Is NCIX the only place to get the monitor with the upgraded firmware?
 
For those that ordered through NCIX paypal, how many days did it take for them to ship it or update there site / email with tracking info? I ordered on Friday, which said it was in stock, and still says today, and I haven't received any shipping information.

Is this typical for them? I didn't really expect it would ship on Friday, but Monday for sure.
 
75 hz is way more smoother than 60hz. You can see it immediately on the benq fp241w. Just switch to a lower resolution and select 75hz. I real pity it doesn't support 1920x1200 at 75hz. That means that it's not really dual-link dvi.
 
maarek99 said:
75 hz is way more smoother than 60hz. You can see it immediately on the benq fp241w. Just switch to a lower resolution and select 75hz. I real pity it doesn't support 1920x1200 at 75hz. That means that it's not really dual-link dvi.
Click to expand...

http://www.benq.com/products/LCD/?product=1010

BenQ doesn't claim it's a dual-link monitor, based on a quick skimming of that page. It shouldn't need to--it supports 1920x1200 @ 60Hz, which is fine.

202276
 
maarek99 said:
75 hz is way more smoother than 60hz. You can see it immediately on the benq fp241w. Just switch to a lower resolution and select 75hz. I real pity it doesn't support 1920x1200 at 75hz. That means that it's not really dual-link dvi.
Click to expand...

I don't mean to be an asshole here, but that isn't true simply because technologically an lcd has no refresh rate that changing the option from 60 to 75 would actually change anything meaningful. If you perceive it to be better, then great, but the fact is that an lcd does not refresh the display using a scanline like a CRT, and that refresh rate is pretty much meaningless. When a pixel changes, the lcd just updates it as fast as the response time of the display device allows.

Edit: Behardware examined this issue when taking a look at some new 100hz displays Samsung was shopping around as of CeBit 2006, and they found much the same thing, unless the display claims higher refresh rate support in its marketing stuff, it is probably going to simply be internally clocked at 60hz and it will drop frames to keep clocked
http://www.behardware.com/articles/641-5/1rst-lcd-at-100-hz-the-end-of-afterglow.html
 
Those you bought it from NCIX with the firmware update, can you tell me it's the black/black or black/silver one?
(critical thing for me.... i hate silver.. well anything else than black .... brrrr :p)
 
maarek99: The reason you likely see an improvement is that your graphics card is working too hard at 1920x1200 and you get a framerate improvement at lower resolutions. It takes a hell of a graphics card to drive 1920x1200 at 60fps solid on modern games. Even an 8800GTS isn't up to it for many games. I reliably get 40+ fps but I don't always max out and there is a perceptible difference (though not a big one) between 30-40 and 60fps.
 
I ordered using Paypal on a Friday, shipped on a Monday. Still waiting for the dog sled to deliver it. *sigh* over 2 weeks for it to come down I-5 from BC to CA is a bit much. I still don't regret going with NCIX because there was a clear reason to order from them over NE, the firmware updates and the no dead pixel policy I paid for, but all things being equal, if NE had the firmware fix, I'd have gotten it from them.
 
maarek99 said:
75 hz is way more smoother than 60hz. You can see it immediately on the benq fp241w. Just switch to a lower resolution and select 75hz. I real pity it doesn't support 1920x1200 at 75hz. That means that it's not really dual-link dvi.
Click to expand...

I can notice the difference too from 60hz to 75hz easily. When i had my Viewsonic 2md 19inch monitor all my games felt alot smoother, with less tearing on screen at 75hz compared to 60hz. Some may differ on this subject because its true that lcd's dont rely on refresh rates such as crt's but it has to do something with pixels being more amplified when running at 75hz, ergo, a smoother image.
 
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