LG IPS234V-PN: Faint vertical lines on solid blue/aqua colors

mezZo

n00b
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Feb 17, 2013
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14
Dear HF-members,

I just registered to start this thread - so bear with my noobish ways, shall you notice any.

I recently received a LG IPS234V-PN display after shopping around for a rather cheap IPS screen. Since the 234V had the best reproduction of sRGB (at least in my budget), I went with it. After connecting the first one I received, I was amazed by its colors, contrast and over all look (coming from a ViewSonic VX2260wm). But as soon as I got to the Win 8 start menu, I noticed very faint brighter and darker lines on all blueish solid colors, like a vertical pixel grid.

I decided to ship that one back and ask for a replacement, which I received yesterday. But as it turns out, I notice the very same effect. So far I have tried everything I could think of to remedy the situation:
- DVI, HDMI and D-Sub
- Different laptop (one ATI, one NVIDIA GPU)
- All drivers updated
- Different resolutions
- Different refresh rates (I even used ToastyX's CRU - and to people that don't notice those lines; apparently this display runs 75hz just fine)

Nothing worked, except for a small effect I could achieve by going from 1080p (60hz) to 1080 @ 50hz. Now the lines are much fainter, but still visible (at least to my eye).

My web searches brought up a somewhat related issue in earlier MacBooks and Cinema Displays, but that's about it. Strangely enough I stumbled across a post by ToastyX on this very forum (http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1211452) from 2007, that's describing exactly the problem I am perceiving.

Does anyone have any idea what I else I could be trying or would you just send it back and look for another display (Dell U2312HM comes to mind, albeit being much more expensive)?

Since it's hard to actually "get" what I'm trying to describe, I ps'd a picture to show the pattern I am seeing. On a "normal" monitor, this should somewhat reproduce the vertical lines. The effect is much stronger than what I am seeing, though.
lgips234vverticalpatter.jpg
 
Could it possibly be the pixel setup? Since all the blue sub-pixels would be one on top of the other and since the red and green ones are off wouldn't that naturally leave gaps between each blue sub-pixel? I know my Galaxy Note phone does this (most noticeably with red colors).

May or may not be the issue, just a thought!
 
I stumbled both about dithering and banding and neither description fit the pattern 100% - at least in my opinion. I was of the opinion that banding was more about wider, irregular bands. The pattern I am (or rather: was) seeing was uniform across the whole width of the screen: each darker/brighter line 1px wide, with a 1px gap in between.

JoeUser, thank you, I thought about that, too. Now that you're bringing it up, though, this might be the sole and simple explanation. But it didn't get that much worse when I got closer to the screen. Something I'd expect if it was just that; the pixel grid/setup - wouldn't it? It was impossible to capture with a digital camera and nobody I showed the screen was able to see those lines - I was freaking out.

Anyway, I decided to also send the 2nd one back and get a U2312HM instead. Pricier, but after 3 days of IPS-goodness, I can't stand my old TN panel anymore. :D

/edit:
But why would the effect change in magnitude with a change in refresh rate?
 
I was thinking of getting this monitor too...

:O

Well that throws a wrench in my plans.
 
I was thinking of getting this monitor too...

:O

Well that throws a wrench in my plans.

It's entirely possible that you won't notice anything like that, since I never stumbled across another review that mentioned a pattern like that or anything resembling it. Maybe I'm (sadly) just over-sensitive to those lines (keep in mind; of three people I showed the screen to, nobody saw 'em).

Try it out, if you don't see them, it's an amazing screen for the price.
 
Update:

I just received my replacement U2312HM (after two IPS234V). Same issue, so I guess it wasn't the panels, but rather my eyes that are very (very, very!) sensitive to this phenomenon. I reckon JoeUser was right about the effect being attributable to the pixel setup inside (every?) IPS panel.

I'm really bummed out now. No IPS-goodness for me, I guess. :eek:
 
I've seen this effect with the 23" Apple, but other monitors with the same panel didn't have the problem. I've also heard of it happening with the 21.5" iMac. This is the first time I've heard of it happening with non-Apple displays.

It's definitely not universal to every IPS panel. The pixel grid explanation doesn't make sense because it affects greenish-blue colors more than pure blue, and other single-subpixel colors like red aren't affected. It's probably something the timing controller chip is doing.
 
Greetings,

I have this exact same problem with all my 3 LG IPS237L... :( it's driving me crazy...:confused:
 
Its a 6-bit problem, no? You need to go for 1440p IPS panels to get away from those problems.

Maybe AMVA panels have less banding also. They're supposed to be 8-bit anyhow. GW2450HM, S2440L and such.
 
I also have the aqua striping problem with my LG IPS235P-BN. I can see it particularly on the shade of blue used by Skype and the Windows 7 log on screen. It irritates me because it reminds me of really cheap LCD panels on netbooks. I think it could be solved by a driver/firmware update, since close up photographs show every second pixel is just a darker shade rather than a subpixel issue. If it's just a way to shade on a 6 bit monitor shouldn't it at least be vertical AND horizontal so it's a very tiny crosshatch and not as noticeable? Speaking of crosshatches, I also see a faint diagonal diamond crosshatch on pure white areas if I am at a slight angle - something to do with the coating I think.

I doubt these would concern most viewers and they'd be blown away with the vivid colours and minimal ghosting, but then again if you're the kind of person seeking out an IPS panel these visual imperfections are just the thing you don't want. I have no similar problems with my Samsung BX2440, although the image brightness is a bit more uneven, the viewing angle narrower and contrast not as good.

I bought both monitors mainly because of the adjustable stands they come with, but I am now annoyed when I put them side by side, because the difference between 23" and 24" is bigger than I thought (there was a 24" LG IPS available but I didn't pick it because it wasn't adjustable). So a note if you are already using and used to a 24" screen, 23" is noticeably smaller.
 
I've recently returned the 23" monitor for a 24" LG 24EA53. It has the same problem with backlight bleed, this time in the bottom left corner. It looks really awful on any image that isn't very bright in that area - the image loses a lot of detail and just looks like silvery grey mush.

I emailed LG's support team about this problem and received no reply. I urge people to reconsider buying cheap IPS panels, from LG at least. After some painstaking adjustment, I've managed to calibrate both monitors (BX2440 and 24EA53) to look the same color temperature and this can only be done with low contrast settings that affect the brightness of the monitor and make many scenes look a little on the dark side (which is bad considering the backlight bleed). Any brighter though using gamma and contrast and there is always a gold/topaz tinge to the grays and washed out lighter colors. Settings for my monitor as follows:

Brightness 100
Contrast 38
Gamma 1
Color Temp: Custom
Red 65
Green 71
Blue 89

But with these more accurate settings you can see that the IPS technology itself really doesn't help a huge amount. The color gamut is wider and thus you see more details easily and greater saturation of colors, but to be honest you really have to be actively comparing this to an LCD monitor to really notice - it doesn't jump out at you or anything unless the image is particularly saturated with solid colors (like artwork images). In photographs many times the LCD will win out simply because they have a high dynamic range so the backlight bleed will have a chance to show in darker areas and wash them out.

What I will say in favor of this monitor though is that unlike the previous 23", the 24" (re: 23.8") is a decent size and doesn't have striping problems with light blue/green colors. It also does not have that translucent crosshatch pattern on the screen when viewing white/gray colors from shallow angles.
 
I also got the IPS 234V a few months back.

IPS glow is there and is bad for really dark scenes. But otherwise the screen is pretty good. I'm not intro ultra detail or anything; I just wanted a decent 1080p screen.

Not bad for 200$ I guess. Still not sure if I'd buy glossy vs matte next time. Both have their pros and cons and I just don't have an obvious preference at this point.
 
HP ZR2440w (6bit LG IPS panel) here and I have a similar problem with light greys and blues (especially noticeable in W7's default window background color): alternating darker and lighter columns of pixels.

Surprising no review has ever mentioned this effect (and I have read a lot of them of this and similar monitors!), nor the amount of glow coming from the corners which is apparently somewhat common as well.
 
Update: just received a replacement ZR2440w because I could not stand the backlight bleed. Bleed is generally the same, slightly better, *however* the weird interlacing on light grey and blue is not as apparent on this one (barely visible). Manufacturing date and country are the same, China, april 2013. Still not sure if its a defect or firmware update, but in any case it's interesting.

Edit: darker greys are striped on this one. Guess it varies from calibration to calibration? Both were straight out of the box though.
Edit 2: messing with the contrast setting of the monitor moves the striped pattern across different shades of grey.
 
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