Dell 2007 fp/fpw Banding issue.

Firewall, if you're still following this, could you post your revision/place of origin? Mine is bad, like many others, and yours if the first one that sounds like it's actually good, and not just from someone who doesn't know what they're talking about.

Here's an accurate depiction of mine, and I would love to get a good replacement:

banding.jpg


 
Man, I was thinking about getting this monitor until I found this thread... thanks for saving me a ton of money guys! :D

Anyone know of any other monitors with similar specs (20 inch, 1680x1050 res, 800:1 contrast, etc) that don't have problems?
 
As old as this thread is, I will dig it up anyways :p


I am mid-order on my 2007FPW - this monitor has all the features I need, color, adjustability, size, price the only drawbacks I am able to find is the really bad banding...
2 things made me decide that it was worth a try

A) 21days no questions asked return policy - banding sucks? returned.

B) I am finding that some of these monitors are having less banding issues than others, so if its returnable, then why not take a shot in the dark, I may just get lucky.


Tip if/when ordering:
- Call on the phone, confirm return policies and such, then conclude the convo. and when they ask are you ready to order, let them know that you will just order online and the questions where all you needed to know. In an attempt to close the sale, they will drop the price.

Found this out on accident today while ordering, online final price is coming up at... $389.88
while my phone final price is; $362.02
:cool: :cool: :cool:


/edit

I will post results on banding when it arrives.
 
Dont want to sound stupid,but I have only been into PC's for a short time.
Whatexactly is banding?
 
The chatter on this issue is plenty warning for me. Thx guys for saving me a boatload of cash.
 
wil129 said:
Dont want to sound stupid,but I have only been into PC's for a short time.
Whatexactly is banding?

In basic terms, it's when colors are displayed seperatley instead of being displayed as a smooth transition. Imagine a picture of a lightbulb in the center of a dark room, in a normal picture the light would transition from bright to dark the farther away you get. With banding, instead of a smooth change, the light bulb would be surrounded by rings (or bands) of color as the brightness level changes.
 
I never thought banding was an issue until today when i played Act of War- High treason. This game has a lot of movie scenes and the screen just looked terrible even with my ATI 1900xtx. lots and lots of colour steppings. When I used the gradient test with VGA connection, i couldn't notice any banding. but in games it's still there.
 
Maybe in that case it is just the game. Some games are not programmed well and will have banding in the gradients even on a CRT. Can you do a screen capture at the point that shows a lot of banding (not a picture with a camera, just a screen cap).

Save it to PNG or some other lossless format and we can see if it is the monitor or the game.
 
Snowdog said:
Maybe in that case it is just the game. Some games are not programmed well and will have banding in the gradients even on a CRT. Can you do a screen capture at the point that shows a lot of banding (not a picture with a camera, just a screen cap).

Save it to PNG or some other lossless format and we can see if it is the monitor or the game.

The pic I posted above, is my freaking WALLPAPER. On any other system, the sky is smooth. Heck even the XP Windows welcome screen has lines across the bottom. It's rediculous to think that Dell didn't know about this prior to shipping thousands of these units. If they fail to provide a working replacement, I see a class action lawsuit coming.

 
Hey, I agree that banding is an issue. I returned my 2007fp because of banding and text blur. IMO all these Dell panels have busted DVI input electronics that need fixing.

But if someone doesn't see it in a gradient test over VGA but it appears in a game, there is a chance that the game is at fault. A screen cap should help sort that out.
 
Are they 6-bit panels? I think this is something that can happen, because the monitors interpolate truecolour, and can get sloppy. Though I don't think this is what you're all experiencing... In fact, it may be a lot simpler than you think.

I have a 3007 and saw the exact same thing. What I noticed was that if I played with Adobe Gamma and moved the gamma slider left and right, the banding pattern changed. At some point, it was "alright" and near another it was "crap". Then, after a few days of trying to live with it, I decided to play in my display settings. The GeForce drivers (ATi too, I think) have a gamma slider of their own. I played with both the Adobe Gamma and GeForce sliders until, finally, one click of the slider gave me flawless colour reproduction. Smooth as hell.

Now, y'all may not have Adobe Gamma running, but you may have something else conflicing with your video card's drivers. Or your video card's drivers may be in conflict with themselves, so play with colour sliders and watch (have a gradient on-screen while you play, so you can see it go from bad to worse while you slide things). Hopefully some of you will be able to slide it to perfection.

I didn't read this thread much at all, but noticed that by page 5 it wasn't solved at all, so I thought maybe I'd offer this. Worked for me. Your mileage may vary...

Good luck.
 
^^I have the issue even when hooked up to a non-pc source, such as an x-box or dvd player. I also get the issue on the RCA and S-Video outs from my video card. It's definitley an issue with the monitor.

 
Hello all I just got my 2007 from dell and I am not seeing any banding issues, after running the tests you provieded. lets hope they fixed it.

Luke
 
Oldie said:
Firewall, if you're still following this, could you post your revision/place of origin? Mine is bad, like many others, and yours if the first one that sounds like it's actually good, and not just from someone who doesn't know what they're talking about.

Here's an accurate depiction of mine, and I would love to get a good replacement:

banding.jpg




Oh wow, I can see that! Naw, I have a similar colored wallpaper and it doesn't look anything like that. I'm at work now but I'll take pics when I get home and get the other info.
 
Oldie said:
The pic I posted above, is my freaking WALLPAPER. On any other system, the sky is smooth. Heck even the XP Windows welcome screen has lines across the bottom. It's rediculous to think that Dell didn't know about this prior to shipping thousands of these units. If they fail to provide a working replacement, I see a class action lawsuit coming.



I'm sure they knew about it but most people aren't us, here at the [H]. They are noobs that won't care.

Another dump on the customer tactic by a big corp. I'm glad mine is cool, but it sucks that so many of you got screwed. :(
 
ARgh! It hurts my head to see how many people post screen caps like that lets us know what their monitor is showing.

If you want us to see what you see, you have to take a picture with a camera.

And if you are posting a screen cap, you really must save as PNG or some other lossless format.
 
I'll take a picture later when I get my camera back from girlfriend.

Honestly, what you see on that link is what it looks like on my monitor.
 
Also take the pics at the angles you sit at, or various angles to be sure to capture the image

ALSO, if youd going this with the light soff

USE A TRIPOD or sturdy surface and try to keep your ISO as low as possible - this will result in a much crips. cleaner pic.
 
Price was good enough that bought one anyways regardless of the issues and yup....

Banding isn't bad, but their is a very annoying visible flickering on Hardforum's grey background.

I'll give them until tomorrow to respond, but this thing is going back.

HOPEFULLY the 2407FPW won't have these problems. yah right.
 
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I'll check the other info tomorrow. I'm too tired right now.

Bah, you can see the flash in the second one. In the first one I didn't use the flash.
 
I took somer pictures, but don't know if they'll be any good for you to tell. If not, I'll try to take some better pictures but my Sony Cyber Shot DSC-T1 sorta sucks. ;(

dsc019446tc.jpg


dsc019503cd.jpg

**This my work hat so it's messed up. Excuse the mess :) **

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In the first pic for some reason it was blurry on the bottom right corner when I took the pic, but it doesn't look like that if you're on it. Everything looks fine. On the last pic It was centered and didn't get about 2-3 inches on the left and right of the screen. I just tried to focus in on the picture.
 
i see banding in the third pic. running via VGA will eliminate the problem though
 
But isn't DVI better? Is what you see that big of a problem? To me it doesn't look that bad, but think I should take advantage of my warranty and send it back?
 
steveng said:
i see banding in the third pic. running via VGA will eliminate the problem though

VGA will reduce it, but quite frankly, people don't pay $300-$500 for VGA monitors. BTW, Smashed Ixnay, I think I've been to your church. :cool: Unless that's another Grace Fellowship.

 
Just about 3 days ago I finally got myself a 2007WFP. I hooked it up to the rig in my sig and right now it's only hooked up via vga (more on that later). After installing it and setting the resolution to 1680x1050 I loaded up about 15 different backgrounds and I didn't notice any banding going on. So then over the last couple of days I've played maybe 6 hours worth of Battlefield 2 and still do not notice any banding.

I'm going to continue to use it for about a week and see what happens then. Also, part of the reason I may not be seeing the banding issue might be because my previous monitor was a 17" CRT. I just may not be used to this LCD yet and therefore really don't realize I'm seeing banding. I don't know.

I'll try to take some pictures tonight when I get home from work and post them. By the way, does anyone know of any good ways to test for banding as well as for dead pixels. Just looking at my screen I didn't see any dead pixels but it's hard to tell.

Ok. So I have a quick question. I have an eVGA GeForce 6600GT in my rig. It's max resolution is 1680x1050. No problem. It has a VGA port and another port that I could have sworn was DVI but now I'm not so sure. I initially wanted to hook up via DVI so I plugged the DVI cable in to the monitor and then pulled out my pc and tried to hook up the DVI cable to my graphics card. The plug on the end of the cable doesn't quite match the female port on my graphics card. Are there different kinds of DVI?

I went to eVGA's site and tried to get a good look at my graphics card but their site doesn't provide a way to see the card up close and from different angles so I'll have to see if I can find other pics or try to take some pics tonight to try to show you guys. I want to hook this monitor up via DVI but it doesn't appear I'll be able to do that just yet. Hopefully at the end of June I'll be able to build myselff a new pc.

** Edit ** I just found this pic on newegg of my graphics card. It shows what my DVI port looks like.
End view off 6600GT and it's DVI connection
I can't seem to find a picture of the DVI cable end that comes with the 2007WFP monitor but it doesn't quite look like the DVI port on my graphics card. Am I missing something that I need to be able to connect this monitor via DVI?
 
Reading on this banding fubar by Dell has taught me alot about LCDs. I saw on Dell forums that a Dell Moddy has promised:
----------
All,

Dell Engineering has tested a firmware update to address the banding issue. We are currently assessing the best way to get the solution out to our customers and expect to have an update by Friday this week.

-------


Hopefully they will make it available for download. It would be stupid of them to require so many customers to send their monitors back. If they come through, I will buy a 2007fpw; a simply beautiful monitor.
 
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_monitor&message.id=56617

Quoted Text from Dell Rep
Sorry for the long wait. We do have a fix in place. Dell has a firmware update that adjusts the ACC (Adaptive Color and Contrast) & ACM (Active Color Management) features, eliminating the banding issue when using the Desktop mode. All of these monitors have three display modes: Desktop, Multimedia and Gaming. The firmware turns off Faroudja video processing in Desktop mode. It remains enabled in the other two modes. Essentially, the updated firmware allows users to choose whether they want the Faroudja video processing feature on or off. I understand your time is valuable.
 
I've PM'd Chris, I'll let you guys know what kind of response I get.
 
Firewall said:
Shoot, so what do we do if we don't have the problem?

Hmm, just send your monitor to me...:p That should clear that issue up right away!



 
Oldie said:
VGA will reduce it, but quite frankly, people don't pay $300-$500 for VGA monitors. BTW, Smashed Ixnay, I think I've been to your church. :cool: Unless that's another Grace Fellowship.


I understand your point but i really don't see any loss of quality by going from DVI to VGA.
 
steveng said:
I understand your point but i really don't see any loss of quality by going from DVI to VGA.

You would if you were a graphic artist. ;)

 
Obsidiank said:
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_monitor&message.id=56617

Quoted Text from Dell Rep
Sorry for the long wait. We do have a fix in place. Dell has a firmware update that adjusts the ACC (Adaptive Color and Contrast) & ACM (Active Color Management) features, eliminating the banding issue when using the Desktop mode. All of these monitors have three display modes: Desktop, Multimedia and Gaming. The firmware turns off Faroudja video processing in Desktop mode. It remains enabled in the other two modes. Essentially, the updated firmware allows users to choose whether they want the Faroudja video processing feature on or off. I understand your time is valuable.
Does that mean if you are not in the desktop mode, the banding will still exist?
I hope they will post the firmware for download which is the smartest thing to do.
 
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