Glossify Your Matte AG Screen?

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iaTa

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It seems there are many people on this forum including myself who would love to see a large high quality IPS panel such as the Dell U2711 in glossy form. I was seriously considering purchasing a 27" iMac purely for this reason even though I would have no use for the Mac hardware built into the screen. This was until I discovered the amount of people complaining about bleeding backlights on the 27" iMacs. That's one trait that I could not accept. As I understand it the U2711 does not exhibit the same backlight issues probably due to the use of a CCFL backlight instead of edge lit LED like in the iMac. That however brings me back to the problem of the AG coating which I also cannot stand.

Then it dawned on me that you can get both matte and glossy screen protectors for small displays and after a bit of research discovered this company:

http://www.rota.com.tw/Screenlcd.html
http://keyboardprotector.com/page11.html
http://www.greenonionssupply.com/spb1022wm.html

The manufacturer Rota mentions that they sell the glossy film in rolls or custom cut (as they don't do a 27" windscreen size pre-cut unfortunately). So my question is has anyone tried it and what do people think the final finish will be like if I purchase a U2711 and cover it with this glossy film? I think it could possibly be my ideal screen. It doesn't look too hard to apply either:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-JcyOKAsNY

First post by way, great forum.
 
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I don't think it works that way. You need to remove the ag coating first to get the full glossy effect.
 
It still eludes me how people think that turning a display into a bad mirror is going to improve the image quality.
 
That's just a screen protector. Covering an AG coating with a glossy film is probably the worst of both worlds. :).

A screen protector at that size must be a nightmare to apply in trying to avoid trapping a single speck of dust.
 
Well I guess it all depends on the person, I actually prefer the dell in the first picture, the extra "pop" and contrast from the glossy coating looks to be a little too much for me. But then that's my general opinion of glossy coatings (aside from the unavoidable reflections if you're not working in a cave)
 
hardBBQ - I'm not sure if that's the case. I own a Dell Studio XPS with a glossy RGBLED screen and was surprised to find out that the actual panel is matte with an AG coating. It is only the edge to edge plastic in front of the screen that gives it the glossy look and all of the associated advantages/disadvantages that come with it. Without removing the glossy plastic you would have no idea that the screen underneath is matte. I would assume the same would be true of a glossy screen protector. I also would have thought it would be incredibly difficult to install due to dust and bubbles but if you watch that youtube installation video I posted it looks quite easy. I wish I had known the sticky tape trick when I installed protectors on all of my portable devices.

Neb - very true it's purely personal preference. I will be watching a lot of videos and playing a lot of games in a light controlled environment so the added pop and perceived contrast is much preferred. If I was doing a lot of photo processing in a bright environment I may have a different view.
 
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The one thing I doubt about the plastic protector is whether it'll remove the grainy effect of the AG coating on the U2711. It doesn't bug me, but I don't think that applying a film on top of that is going to remove that particular aspect of the AG coating. No way to tell unless you buy it and try it out though :)
 
That's a valid point. The only thing I have to go on currently is my RGBLED screen and you can't see the AG coating on that at all. I think there will be an even better chance of hiding the AG coating if the glossy front is being applied directly onto it. As you say only way to know for sure is to try it. An expensive experiment though! Maybe someone with a matt screen could try holding some glossy plastic or glass in front of their panel?
 
Just applying a glossy coat over a matte finish does not reproduce the effects of a glossy AG layer. You can't turn a matte AG layer into a glossy layer such as on the 20WMGX2.
 
vick1000 - well then how do you explain my Studio XPS screen, it looks like any other glossy screen yet the actual panel is matte with AG?

isp - will do, thanks.
 
iaTa said:
That's a valid point. The only thing I have to go on currently is my RGBLED screen and you can't see the AG coating on that at all. I think there will be an even better chance of hiding the AG coating if the glossy front is being applied directly onto it. As you say only way to know for sure is to try it. An expensive experiment though! Maybe someone with a matt screen could try holding some glossy plastic or glass in front of their panel?
Click to expand...

What you could do is contact them letting them know of your intentions and asking if you could possibly get a small sample to first test it out. If that doesn't work you can ask to buy a small piece, I'm going to guess that they have small sizes available.
 
Hmmm I've just contacted these people from MetaGenie's thread:

http://www.protectcovers.com/

And they said that applying a glossy film on a matte screen would not be good and you would get a trapped water effect. I wonder if Rota use a different glue or something then. That thread is very interesting a quite technical. A lot more to this than meets the eye (pardon the pun!). Does anyone know if the iMac 27" screen actually uses a glossy panel or if it just has a glossy glass frontage?

Good idea Neb.
 
While this is an interesting argument, people should join together and complain to manufacturers why exactly we can't have top notch glossy ANTI-REFLECTIVE films like we saw on top notch CRTs like the Sony GDM-F series and on many current plasmas. That's the best of both worlds, right? No matte finish to "blur" the display, but no glare.

Everyone continues these "Betty or Veronica" debates without considering that Mary Ann is out there too. :) Given the option of all three (coatings, that is) I'd choose the smooth AR coating every time. Every LCD monitor I see hasn't had an AR coating.

To be on topic. I wouldn't think that most coatings would work well, although I've read about people putting packing tape on their matte screens to turn them glossy so who knows. Packing tape is a thinner film than most screen protectors, and probably adheres to the matte texture with fewer micro-gaps.
 
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Someone needs to sacrifice their monitor and simply try polishing away the finish, with Brasso or something...
 
Metagenie's thread about converting matte to glossy is here, by the way. He never did follow up on whether he actually did something or just gave up.

Someone needs to sacrifice their monitor and simply try polishing away the finish, with Brasso or something...
Click to expand...

That works on CRT monitors because underneath the anti-glare is glass, which is reasonably durable. You don't get that easy way out with LCDs.
 
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