Looking for a monitor under $250 with accurate color.

D

djgizmo

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 24, 2006
Messages
1,429
I'm a video editor and lately I've been color grading more and more on narrative projects. I'd like to invest in a new monitor which the color is fairly accurate and either comes factory calibrated or can be user calibrated without additional hardware.

Any suggestions?
Prefer 21.5 or 22"
 
Considering the S2240M since it seems to be well received (and really cheap right now).

Any thoughts?
 
djgizmo said:
I'm a video editor and lately I've been color grading more and more on narrative projects. I'd like to invest in a new monitor which the color is fairly accurate and either comes factory calibrated or can be user calibrated without additional hardware.
Click to expand...

no monitor in this price range will be factory calibrated, and no monitor can be properly calibrated much less profiled via the osd alone, you need a colorimeter.

the asus vs229h might be worth looking into - 94 percent srgb coverage and okay colors out of the box.
 
Thank you livefast,

When you say colorimeter, do you mean a Spyder4?
Also, what is 94 percent srgb coverage mean. Does that mean it has a limited color range?

BatJoe,
Have you seen the monitor you recommended in person?
 
BatJoe, I researched the monitor your recommended and it seems to be a VA panel with about 72% of sRGB.

I think we can do better than that. While I can imagine it works fine for you, I need to be able to trust what I see out of the box.
 
72%? That can't be right, can it? I believe the samsung 650 using an older but similar panel was around 85%ish, and I thought that was low.

And 94% s-rgb would be very decent, unless you happen to need wide gamut. But that may be out of your pricerange.
 
Well, right now I'm on the fence between the PB238Q which supposedly has a P-IPS panel and needs little initial calibration OR the vs229h, which can be calibrated to meet my needs.

It all comes down to money. sigh.
 
ok, bit the bullet and ordered the Asus PB238Q and the ColorMunki Display from Amazon. Both have rebates which should help in a month or 2.
 
Well received the Asus PB238Q today... and I'm highly disappointed. There's a ton of backlight bleed. The blacks aren't that black... calibrated (with Colormunki Display), my Hannspree TN display has better blacks.
 
If you want good blacks, afraid you have to go for a VA panel. Best IPS screens won't get near A-MVA levels.... they barely get to S-PVA levels (and some still don't).

As for 72% on that BenQ, you must have meant NTSC range? That just means it's not wide gamut.
 
Namelessme said:
If you want good blacks, afraid you have to go for a VA panel. Best IPS screens won't get near A-MVA levels.... they barely get to S-PVA levels (and some still don't).

As for 72% on that BenQ, you must have meant NTSC range? That just means it's not wide gamut.
Click to expand...

Yep, IPS is not the best. Definitely go with the BenQ as I originally suggested.
 
I'm not so sure I'd recommend the BenQ either, as he wants something with accurate colors for video editing. If you use a calibrator, you may get it decent enough, but there were tons of reports of color tinting out of the box on the 2450s. 2460 is going to be released soon, so perhaps wait for that.

There are other VA options (Samsung, Phillips, Dell, etc) ... look at prad or tftcentral and just pick whichever one suits your purposes best. Although the downside to any VA is that they aren't known for being as accurate as IPS panels, especially with color shift at angles -- not sure how important that is to you or not.
 
As mentioned, you should have gotten a VA if you cared about black level, although I don't know of any currently available that are smaller than 24". The color will be pretty accurate after profiling with your ColorMunki and Argyll.
 
I personally would not recommend a VA panel over a decent IPS for color-sensitive work, as there is a noticeable shift in greys, blacks and other dark colors off-center (although not as bad as a TN), caused by increased contrast at the center of the screen. I also highly recommend a colorimeter. You could buy one used on ebay, calibrate your monitor and then sell it again, if money is an issue. Alternatively, you may be able to find a fellow design professional (or student) with a colorimeter that you could borrow - it's only needed for a short period to calibrate.
 
I believe he said he had a colormunki in a later post, just above, so he should be able to calibrate it.

The VA angle shift could be problematic, I agree there. I haven't seen any A-MVAs myself, just non-widescreen S-PVAs, so don't know first hand if it'd be an issue.

If he went with 21.5-22", like he originally stated, it may be less of an issue however. The smaller the screen, the less color shift there should be (entire screen should be in direct field of view). A-MVAs probably would be best suited at standard ratios, or 16:10, but none are made at that size -- a 22" 16:10 A-MVA could work out decently for him, if one existed.

Anyway, the Dell VA at 21.5" that the OP mentioned earlier may be okay. And I think Samsung makes a 21.5" VA too. I am unsure how bad the shift would be on those, but it's got to be better than 24"ers. A possible issue could arise with fast moving scenes and overdrive problems, but again don't own those panels so can't say one way or another.
 
Last edited:
I would not use a VA for any color critical work. The gamma shift is very annoying if you are doing image editing. However for movies and games they are superior in almost every way. Most people have TVs for such things so for computer monitors I'd stick to IPS.
 
Sorry for the delay. Well, I should have corrected my post. It bleeds out from one side. (lower left). However, it has a lot of IPS glow at 100 brightness (default). I turned the brightness down to 50% and then re-calibrated. Seems much more reasonable now.

The screen is CRISP compared to the TN panel right next to it. Once I get all the rebates back for the Monitor and Colormunki Display, I'll pick up an matching monitor.
 
djgizmo said:
Considering the S2240M since it seems to be well received (and really cheap right now).

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

I just bought one of these as a second monitor, replacing an old Sony VA panel 4:3. The factory color isn't too far off. I have an HP ZR24w that's calibrated with a Spyder3Pro. I tried calibrating the S2240M and the results were really bad. Way too dark and the contrast was way too much. I tried different settings but gave up. I was able to adjust the color to come pretty close to what my HP ZR24w shows using the monitor menu controls and nvidia control panel.

It's pretty bright and you'll need to take the contrast down from the factory settings. For the price it's has a pretty decent picture. Very clean, clear and sharp. Good blacks (from being glossy).

The construction on the other hand leaves a bit to be desired. You can tell while handling it that it's a budget monitor.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top