Upgrade to Acer XB271HU from Sony FW900?

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bramabul5353

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I have been itching to try you try out the Acer XB271HU or the ASUS equivalent. I have two sony GDM-FW900 CRT monitors and I am curious as to thoughts on moving to this display. The FW900 pretty much is the holy grail of Input lag, no motion blur and response time = 0. It however is Heavy as hell and not very compact and easy on desktop space. Anybody else here upgraded from similar setup?
 
Is this a VA panel or IPS? If IPS you may be put off by the loss of contrast, especially if you light control.

If you don't light control, then this monitor may look better
 
Slower, laggier, blurrier. I wouldn't call this an upgrade at all especially if you're ditching both the FW900s. Subbing out one maybe.
 
Well i'll put it this way. My last Fw900 died 3 or 4 months ago and while i have still have yet to be able to pick a monitor but the AcerXb or the Asus Pg279q are two the only options really to attempt to "replace" an Fw900 in all around similarity.
But i can tell you that i went down to Frys and spent a good amount of time on both of these units and they are in no way comparable to an fw900. There is really no way in hell i would downgrade from an fw900 to any lcd made today unless i was forced to, but, if you were forced to, then yeah one of these two would probably be it or a 21:9 1440p screen. But the size or weight of an fw900 is a non issue to me personally i don't move it ever and i wouldn't be moving around an lcd either so..

I would suggest going to a store if possible and checking them out. Although it's still not the most ideal way to experience it, really having one in your own environment is, but i saw all i needed to see. It would only be worse for me at home as i work/game in a darkened room and like it that way. So the inherent ips glow and light bleed is guaranteed to be worse than what i experienced in store. You can use bias lighting, but that's not for me, i like a dark room for gaming and or netflix watching before i fall asleep. It also doesn't change the fact that blacks are not black and that you still cannot differentiate the lightest shades of white or black when using photoshop and gradients ect.

Also keep in mind the quality control on these is spotty to atrocious. The uniformity is bad to terrible. They are worth about half of what they cost imo. But, depending on your specific needs they might be the best that you can get right now.
Basically if you need decent color quality/viewing angles and better than average ips speed and response and you need or want ultra low motion blur or gsync then those are your choices, or one of the 21;9 versions, though they don't have ultra low motion blur.

Va is totally worthless even more than Ips or TN. The input lag and pixel response is the worst of the three. The subjective picture quality might fool you but once you get it home and start using it, it's negatives will really start to show. Still, some prefer those negatives as opposed to the negatives of tn or ips. It's really about what you can tolerate.

But to me there in nothing better than what you have already. It would take a gun to my head to switch to an lcd from an fw900 if i didn't have to, and i would still try to take that gun and shove it up their ass first.
 
The one thing that CRT has going for is contrast, and lack of BLB or IPS glow due to the fact CRT works by each colour generating its own light, and not blocking out white backlight, so at least in that regard, no LCD on the market can get anything remotely close (we are talking about a minimum 5 digit contrast vs maximum 4 digit contrast). The only thing you can do to alleviate that is using biased lighting to enhance perceived contrast. The only panel tech that can compete against a CRT at contrast level is OLED.

But, yes, seeing the monitor yourself is the most important part. And buy from hassle free returns if at all possible.
 
I ended up selling my X-Star and using my FW900 exclusively. Even with the slower than average motion performance, uniformity and semi glossy coating I could live with the X-Star, since it was very vivid, sharp and very responsive when overclocked. I could even live with having to work around it's bad PWM frequency.

What I couldn't live with was the atrocious IPS glow. Viewed straight on in good lighting I could feel it lurking and even a couple of degrees off axis it was just unbearable next to a CRT. Didn't help that I had to run at 100% backlight to counteract the PWM. I'm tempted to get the TN version if I ever get a 144hz 1440p monitor just to steer clear of that.
 
Thanks for all of the replies. I will test the unit out when I get it. Ordered one from Amazon and I am going to test it out. If it does not work or I am just let down really bad. Someone here may be getting a good deal on a monitor.
 
KG-Prime90 said:
Well i'll put it this way. My last Fw900 died 3 or 4 months ago and while i have still have yet to be able to pick a monitor but the AcerXb or the Asus Pg279q are two the only options really to attempt to "replace" an Fw900 in all around similarity.
But i can tell you that i went down to Frys and spent a good amount of time on both of these units and they are in no way comparable to an fw900. There is really no way in hell i would downgrade from an fw900 to any lcd made today unless i was forced to, but, if you were forced to, then yeah one of these two would probably be it or a 21:9 1440p screen. But the size or weight of an fw900 is a non issue to me personally i don't move it ever and i wouldn't be moving around an lcd either so..

I would suggest going to a store if possible and checking them out. Although it's still not the most ideal way to experience it, really having one in your own environment is, but i saw all i needed to see. It would only be worse for me at home as i work/game in a darkened room and like it that way. So the inherent ips glow and light bleed is guaranteed to be worse than what i experienced in store. You can use bias lighting, but that's not for me, i like a dark room for gaming and or netflix watching before i fall asleep. It also doesn't change the fact that blacks are not black and that you still cannot differentiate the lightest shades of white or black when using photoshop and gradients ect.

Also keep in mind the quality control on these is spotty to atrocious. The uniformity is bad to terrible. They are worth about half of what they cost imo. But, depending on your specific needs they might be the best that you can get right now.
Basically if you need decent color quality/viewing angles and better than average ips speed and response and you need or want ultra low motion blur or gsync then those are your choices, or one of the 21;9 versions, though they don't have ultra low motion blur.

Va is totally worthless even more than Ips or TN. The input lag and pixel response is the worst of the three. The subjective picture quality might fool you but once you get it home and start using it, it's negatives will really start to show. Still, some prefer those negatives as opposed to the negatives of tn or ips. It's really about what you can tolerate.

But to me there in nothing better than what you have already. It would take a gun to my head to switch to an lcd from an fw900 if i didn't have to, and i would still try to take that gun and shove it up their ass first.
Click to expand...

I got a feeling that this will be my thoughts as well. I may do a video of the two side by side when I get mine to show all the Gsync LCD fans what happens when it gets pitted against the mighty FW900.
 
aeliusg said:
Slower, laggier, blurrier. I wouldn't call this an upgrade at all especially if you're ditching both the FW900s. Subbing out one maybe.
Click to expand...
Never parting with the FW900 no matter what lol. They will go to the grave with me or until they pass. Just wanted to try something new for the sake of experimenting.
 
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bramabul5353 said:
I have been itching to try you try out the Acer XB271HU or the ASUS equivalent. I have two sony GDM-FW900 CRT monitors and I am curious as to thoughts on moving to this display. The FW900 pretty much is the holy grail of Input lag, no motion blur and response time = 0. It however is Heavy as hell and not very compact and easy on desktop space. Anybody else here upgraded from similar setup?
Click to expand...

Other then clarity on still images and size, the LCD will be a major downgrade from the fw900.

I would love to buy them off you, what kind of condition are they in?

How do you hook up a modern gtx card to it? DVI to vga cable?
 
coolhandm3 said:
Other then clarity on still images and size, the LCD will be a major downgrade from the fw900.

I would love to buy them off you, what kind of condition are they in?

How do you hook up a modern gtx card to it? DVI to vga cable?
Click to expand...
DVI to VGA will do it if the card has a DVI-I output. I don't think he's letting go of the monitors, though.

If you're anywhere near Boston, this guy was actually giving away one for free: 24" Widescreen CRT (FW900) From Ebay arrived,Comments.

Don't know if he had any takers.
 
coolhandm3 said:
Other then clarity on still images and size, the LCD will be a major downgrade from the fw900.

I would love to buy them off you, what kind of condition are they in?

How do you hook up a modern gtx card to it? DVI to vga cable?
Click to expand...
He just said he was taking them to his grave above you, lol.
bramabul5353 said:
Never parting with the FW900 no matter what lol. They will go to the grave with me or until they pass. Just wanted to try something new for the sake of experimenting.
Click to expand...
 
Get the ASUS if you get a good one Maximum PC said it's better than the Acer. I had my eye on the ASUS IPS for a few months.
 
Comixbooks said:
Get the ASUS if you get a good one Maximum PC said it's better than the Acer. I had my eye on the ASUS IPS for a few months.
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Ordered the Predator Yesterday, Fingers crossed it is a good unit. I will do a review and comparison of it and the CRT FW900 as soon as I get it.
 
The Review said they are almost the same thing they knocked a few points for the Bezel and stand on the Predator. I wonder sometimes if my 27" Monitor is too big looks great for some games
 
Comixbooks said:
The Review said they are almost the same thing they knocked a few points for the Bezel and stand on the Predator. I wonder sometimes if my 27" Monitor is too big looks great for some games
Click to expand...
I had a 27 inch monitor one time before I got my fw900 CRTs. I am on the fence about the viewing angle .When I play twitch shooters I actually prefer the smaller screen size because my eyes can scan the environment easier without turning my head at all.
 
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Comixbooks said:
The Review said they are almost the same thing they knocked a few points for the Bezel and stand on the Predator. I wonder sometimes if my 27" Monitor is too big looks great for some games
Click to expand...
Well both the XB271HU and PG279Q use the same AUO AHVA panel, so they pretty much are the same aside from differences in manufacturing and aesthetics.
 
bramabul5353 said:
I had a 27 inch monitor one time before I got my fw900 CRTs. I am on the fence about the viewing angle .When I play twitch shooters I actually prefer the smaller screensize because my eyes can scan the environment easier without turning my head at all.
Click to expand...


Yeah 24" is perfect I have my 27" on the far end of my drawing table I play far away from it and have it angled so I'm not looking directly at it. You see more with a 27" but you take in more light. I noticed with the reviews on the Predator you can lower it almost to the base of the Stand which is really nice.
 
coolhandm3 said:
Other then clarity on still images and size, the LCD will be a major downgrade from the fw900.

I would love to buy them off you, what kind of condition are they in?

How do you hook up a modern gtx card to it? DVI to vga cable?
Click to expand...

DVI to BNC connector
 
Ok so I got the ACER xb271hu and did some extensive testing this weekend.

PROS: The monitor is amazing and has extremely good color reproduction, ULMB is a great feature in twich games and makes motion blur almost CRT like. Gsync is really good and makes stutter, lag, and tear free gaming nice to look at. The stand, bezels, and finish are very nice and it adjust easily.

CONS: Contrast is really good surprisingly for and LCD panel and in some games it looks very satisfactory, most games look goodhowever I played DOOM on this monitor and after seeing the LIFELIKE REALISM that the FW900 adds to Contrast it looks like two different games. Literally the CRT makes DOOM look like an entirely different game. On the LCD it looks looks HORRIBLY washed out because doom heavily relies on chasms and dark corridors to add that Dark Immersive effect.

Final: overall I am very pleased with the unit. The monitor has a ton of PROS and is the best LCD I have ever used hands down. Its not absoulutely perfect but if this monitor had the CRT ink blacks and not just high ANSI contrast I would die and go to heaven lol.
 
bramabul5353 said:
Ok so I got the ACER xb271hu and did some extensive testing this weekend.

PROS: The monitor is amazing and has extremely good color reproduction, ULMB is a great feature in twich games and makes motion blur almost CRT like. Gsync is really good and makes stutter, lag, and tear free gaming nice to look at. The stand, bezels, and finish are very nice and it adjust easily.

CONS: Contrast is really good surprisingly for and LCD panel and in some games it looks very satisfactory, most games look goodhowever I played DOOM on this monitor and after seeing the LIFELIKE REALISM that the FW900 adds to Contrast it looks like two different games. Literally the CRT makes DOOM look like an entirely different game. On the LCD it looks looks HORRIBLY washed out because doom heavily relies on chasms and dark corridors to add that Dark Immersive effect.

Final: overall I am very pleased with the unit. The monitor has a ton of PROS and is the best LCD I have ever used hands down. Its not absoulutely perfect but if this monitor had the CRT ink blacks and not just high ANSI contrast I would die and go to heaven lol.
Click to expand...


Sounds great!

ULMB, does it add lag? What fps does it allow, 60fps? Would you say the all games would be good on ulmb? I assume ulmb dims the picture and locks out the color controls right?
 
Honestly this monitor gets EXTREME bright, so even if you opt for the ULMB which works AMAZINGLY it does not reduce the peak brightness to bad levels. in a moderately lit room. I like it. It may actually add some perceived contrast in dark scenes because of the way ULMB works, I keep GYSYNC on mostly but ULMB works fanstastic on this panel and I tested it with the Blur Buster UFO test and it was crazy how close it is to the FW900 motion.
 
coolhandm3 said:
Sounds great!

ULMB, does it add lag? What fps does it allow, 60fps? Would you say the all games would be good on ulmb? I assume ulmb dims the picture and locks out the color controls right?
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1. No
2. It only works @ 120hz mode, and is exclusive with G-Sync (can't have both).
3. Dim, yes, colour controls, no.
 
Hmn. Interesting to hear. Not surprised about your description of how it makes Doom look. And that is one of my major gripes with them.

As far as ULMB i found it not exactlly comparable to fw900 clarity, but still pretty much a must have compared to without it, as i think that is still the last biggest grip for me with lcds. It used to be the matte coatings, so i'm glad the Matte coating has gotten so much better, because if they had the old type matte coating there is no way in hell i would ever use one period. My first and foremost requirement was always glossy.

Anyway, that's cool that you like it though and that you apparently got a good panel. Grats.
 
coolhandm3 said:
Sounds great!

ULMB, does it add lag? What fps does it allow, 60fps? Would you say the all games would be good on ulmb? I assume ulmb dims the picture and locks out the color controls right?
Click to expand...
ULMB does dim the picture but it does not dim it beyond say a plasma tv level for viewing in a moderately lit room you still have plenty of luminance.
 
KG-Prime90 said:
Hmn. Interesting to hear. Not surprised about your description of how it makes Doom look. And that is one of my major gripes with them.

As far as ULMB i found it not exactlly comparable to fw900 clarity, but still pretty much a must have compared to without it, as i think that is still the last biggest grip for me with lcds. It used to be the matte coatings, so i'm glad the Matte coating has gotten so much better, because if they had the old type matte coating there is no way in hell i would ever use one period. My first and foremost requirement was always glossy.

Anyway, that's cool that you like it though and that you apparently got a good panel. Grats.
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Thanks, and I agree I got lucky on the panel lottery with this one. No BLB or any uniformity issues. I calibrated it last night with a custom ICC profile and it hit very accurate colors. kind of surprised me. I hate how out the box these monitors and every other LCD Neons everything to blind you. Now it produces very lifelike accurate colors after Cal. I do this to both my FW900s every year or so when the blacks lighten and the G2 changes. I Found ULMB pretty nifty, its surprisingly close to my panny plasma in panning around but not up to the FW900 quiet yet. Still very decent and was pleasantly surprised. I keep it off though because I prefer using Gsync. The fluidity ini animations and just everything going on on the screen in general with G-Sync on is awesome and makes gameplay a very fluid and fun experience. If this monitor could do CRT blacks in a dark room I would call it almost the perfect monitor. I would love to see an Oled Panel combined with gsync. I would pay north of 1k for one of those. I think Dell has an OLED now but its 5k bucks :(
 
I got this monitor too. It is a bit washed out but with calibration it's pretty good, DOOM looks fine to me, but never played it on a CRT.
 
If you want something to replace your CRTs, wait for OLED. Probably the only thing that is going to come close. However getting one priced right and with all the features you want is going to take some time (economies of scale... etc).

Still, 4K @ 120Hz and 27" sounds nice. Not to mention easily able to cover 100% of Adobe RGB and having a 5 digit contrast ratio. No discernible response time. I'm sure one is coming soon... priced at some absurd amount.
 
UnknownSouljer said:
If you want something to replace your CRTs, wait for OLED. Probably the only thing that is going to come close. However getting one priced right and with all the features you want is going to take some time (economies of scale... etc).

Still, 4K @ 120Hz and 27" sounds nice. Not to mention easily able to cover 100% of Adobe RGB and having a 5 digit contrast ratio. No discernible response time. I'm sure one is coming soon... priced at some absurd amount.
Click to expand...
Yeah check out the Dell OLED monitor. It's specs are right up your alley if you can pony up $5000!
 
Dizon248 said:
Yeah check out the Dell OLED monitor. It's specs are right up your alley if you can pony up $5000!
Click to expand...

Checked it out (UP3017Q). Seems like it is what I expected. It was supposed to come out in March, but I haven't seen any reviews on it. Most of them are just "hands on" reviews from people who got to see it at a Dell booth.
I think it will be truly interesting to see someone who work can put it through its paces on video and photography work. I imagine it should give a noticeable advantage in grading work. It's obvious it will do just fine in the gaming world.
 
It looks good. I Really wish i could get the FW900 perfromance and quality in a light compact package. I been drooling over that OLED ever since i saw it launch. Hopefully we are almost there......
 
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the PVM-2541, which is newer than the 1741, has a duty cycle of 7.5 ms (see fig 19 in this paper). The peak luminance of that display, with full screen patterns, is about 150 cd/m^2 (fig 2b in same paper). With a strobed duty cycle of 1ms, that means that peak luminance would drop to a mere 20 cd/m^2 (assuming they couldn't boost the output any further)
 
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