Alienware AW5520QF Optimal Settings

[Baasha]

I've had my Alienware AW5520QF monitor since Oct. 2019 and it's an absolute beast - OLED, 120Hz, 4K, G-Sync 55".

I did a 'pixel refresh' (setting in the menu on the screen) the other day and now the image looks quite bright - I'm not sure if the settings need to be adjusted? I also didn't know this monitor has something called "Smart HDR" - I enabled it to 'Reference' mode which apparently uses the OLED panel's color gamut. I tried turning it off but it didn't affect the brightness/contrast of the display - it still shows a much brighter image than before (prior to the pixel refresh).

My brightness and contrast are set to 70 and Sharpness is at 50.

What are the optimal settings for this monitor and why is the image all of a sudden much brighter now (is that a good/bad thing)?

 

[Armenius]

I've had my Alienware AW5520QF monitor since Oct. 2019 and it's an absolute beast - OLED, 120Hz, 4K, G-Sync 55".

I did a 'pixel refresh' (setting in the menu on the screen) the other day and now the image looks quite bright - I'm not sure if the settings need to be adjusted? I also didn't know this monitor has something called "Smart HDR" - I enabled it to 'Reference' mode which apparently uses the OLED panel's color gamut. I tried turning it off but it didn't affect the brightness/contrast of the display - it still shows a much brighter image than before (prior to the pixel refresh).

My brightness and contrast are set to 70 and Sharpness is at 50.

What are the optimal settings for this monitor and why is the image all of a sudden much brighter now (is that a good/bad thing)?

With HDR the screen is supposed to be able to hit 400 nits in a 3% window, or 130 nits full screen. In SDR at 100 brightness it will only hit 90 nits on a full white screen and averages around 110 nits. At 70 brightness and assuming a linear curve I'd say you've been running the screen at 70-75 nits. How bright are we actually talking, here? Have you just been used to how dim this screen is or has gotten over time?

 

[Baasha]

With HDR the screen is supposed to be able to hit 400 nits in a 3% window, or 130 nits full screen. In SDR at 100 brightness it will only hit 90 nits on a full white screen and averages around 110 nits. At 70 brightness and assuming a linear curve I'd say you've been running the screen at 70-75 nits. How bright are we actually talking, here? Have you just been used to how dim this screen is or has gotten over time?

Yea, I feel the last statement you made is what I'm thinking - I've become used to the dimness that once the pixel refresh was done, everything looks bright to me. I hope that is the case and that there isn't anything 'wrong' with the panel (?). I also did a "Panel Refresh" last night when going to bed - that takes about an hour to finish and the monitor started fine this morning - though it still looks 'bright' to me.

Also, do you have any recommendation on what 'Preset' I should use? I believe it was in Standard mode all this time and I toggled between the different modes and 'Cool' looks really good (softer on the eyes) but I'm wondering if other owners of this panel have a preferred mode that is optimal?

Last but not least, does this panel have PiP or PBP mode? From what I've seen online, it does not but just want to make sure.

 

[Armenius]

Yea, I feel the last statement you made is what I'm thinking - I've become used to the dimness that once the pixel refresh was done, everything looks bright to me. I hope that is the case and that there isn't anything 'wrong' with the panel (?). I also did a "Panel Refresh" last night when going to bed - that takes about an hour to finish and the monitor started fine this morning - though it still looks 'bright' to me.

Also, do you have any recommendation on what 'Preset' I should use? I believe it was in Standard mode all this time and I toggled between the different modes and 'Cool' looks really good (softer on the eyes) but I'm wondering if other owners of this panel have a preferred mode that is optimal?

Last but not least, does this panel have PiP or PBP mode? From what I've seen online, it does not but just want to make sure.

I don't use the monitor, so I could not tell you. I have an LG TV which uses the same panel, but the settings are going to be different from this monitor.

In general, Cool makes the picture appear artificially blue. To me, this bothers me a lot when looking at flesh tones. People who are used to a cooler white balance may think a properly calibrated image looks too red at first glance.

On the LG TV, I use the "Expert Dark Room" preset and adjust from there. I set the color temperature to Warm2 and adjusted the white balance using the calibration program on the Xbox One (now Series X) since I don't have a standalone screen calibrator. Brightness is set to 50, which equates to approximately 150 nits in SDR on this TV.