Asus VG248QE 144hz 3D Vision 2: The Official Thread

Got mine today, it had very poor contrast (400-700:1 depending on the preset) until I hit factory reset, it then rose to around 1100:1 which is great. Like PC Monitors unit mine has low average gamma in all of the preset modes, essentially it comes Black Equalized out of the box.

AlwaysAngryGuy said:
What is NCIX's return policy for monitors like? I can't find anything specifically on their website.
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Not good unless you buy their Express Coverage policy. New Egg is supposed to charge a 15% restocking fee but apparently people exchange & return items and don't get charged, maybe NCIX does this too but I have never read about it.

NCIX said:
All pricing subject to change. For all prices, products and offers, NCIX.com reserves the right to make adjustments due to changing market conditions, product discontinuation, manufacturer price changes, errors in advertisements and other extenuating circumstances. Promotional offers from NCIX.com are subject to availability and are available only while supplies last. No rain checks will be issued on promotional items and offers.

While NCIX.com uses all reasonable efforts to include accurate and up-to-date information on the Site, NCIX.com makes no warranties or representations as to the Site's accuracy. NCIX.com assumes no liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in the content on the Site.

NCIX.com warrants product(s) to be in good working condition and free from defects in material and workmanship for a period of one (1) year for OEM packages, and for thirty (30) days for RETAIL packages, from the original Invoice date unless otherwise restricted below or by the manufacturer's own warranty policy. Defective returns and warranty service will be replaced, exchanged or repaired at NCIX.com's sole discretion, and based on vendor's policy.

NON-DEFECTIVE merchandise returns may be accepted on some items ONLY within 15 days of the Invoice date, at NCIX.com's discretion. All NON-DEFECTIVE returns are subject to a 15% restocking fee. No refunds will be issued for blank media, digital cameras (and accessories), opened software, printers, printer supplies, paper, projectors (and accessories), appliances, handhelds, PDAs, notebook computers, special order computers and special order items.

Defective software, video games or DVDs will be replaced by the SAME title and format ONLY (and subject to current availability) within 30 days of the Invoice date. Software, video games and DVDs may be returned within 30 days only if the item is UNOPENED (with shrink wrap still intact) at the sole discretion of NCIX.com.
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NCX said:
Got mine today, it had very poor contrast (400-700:1 depending on the preset) until I hit factory reset, it then rose to around 1100:1 which is great. Like PC Monitors unit mine has low average gamma in all of the preset modes, essentially it comes Black Equalized out of the box..
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What are you using to measure contrast?
 
I don't know if this is cool or not, but if anyone is interested I'm selling my Asus 248QE.

Link removed - B.B.S.
 
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Dallows said:
I don't know if this is cool or not, but if anyone is interested I'm selling my Asus 248QE.
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Not cool at all, actually. Per the rules you agreed to when you registered:

(16) No BUYING, TRADING, or SELLING anywhere with the exception of the For Sale / Trade forum. The FS/T forum has its own set of specific rules and has a required 50 post minimum to participate.
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Sooo Vega... have you completed your project to put three in portrait with AG coating removed, debezelled and glued to a new stand yet?
 
stren said:
Sooo Vega... have you completed your project to put three in portrait with AG coating removed, debezelled and glued to a new stand yet?
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I think Vega sold his monitor already... at least he had it up for sale on the forums.

But your idea is great. I have 3 of these monitors and want to do this but I don't have the Kahuna's. I actually want to run 5 of these monitors in Portrait @ 144Hz ( without tearing ). But the only 7 series card so far that supports this is the 7870 E6 cards. I need at least 3 7970's ( that overclock to at least 1200/1600 ) with 5 displayports out on one card to accomplish this. I heard AMD is doing their own 7990. I would be amazing if they made one with at least 5 displayports out on the same card but I'm probably only dreaming. If they made one like the 6990 with 4 displayports and one DVI Dual-Link. It might work @ 144Hz but IDK about the screen tearing with different types of connections.
 
2D Lightboost Portrait Surround with these Asus QE's:


AsusPortraitLB.jpg



Still doing some tweaking.
 
Elmy said:
I think Vega sold his monitor already... at least he had it up for sale on the forums.

But your idea is great. I have 3 of these monitors and want to do this but I don't have the Kahuna's. I actually want to run 5 of these monitors in Portrait @ 144Hz ( without tearing ). But the only 7 series card so far that supports this is the 7870 E6 cards. I need at least 3 7970's ( that overclock to at least 1200/1600 ) with 5 displayports out on one card to accomplish this. I heard AMD is doing their own 7990. I would be amazing if they made one with at least 5 displayports out on the same card but I'm probably only dreaming. If they made one like the 6990 with 4 displayports and one DVI Dual-Link. It might work @ 144Hz but IDK about the screen tearing with different types of connections.
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Could you not use the ports from your second card?
 
I <3 vega. Don't tell my wife.

Looking good! Thanks for the pic...

Any driver issues? Do you have your titans yet?
 
I removed the AG coating today :D
Finally I can consider the VG248QE an upgrade over the VG236H it replaced!

Before:
6Lga7xO.jpg


After:
E8vugDn.jpg
 
Ah that looks nice. But what do you guys put on the screens once the antiglare coating is removed? Do you keep it like that or do you put something else on the screen?
 
I left it with the polarizing layer exposed. The details of applying a replacement glossy coating were a bit out of my league. With very careful cleaning I think it will be alright. The author of the guide I used has been using his AG-removed Dell for a year without issue.

Based on various forum posts, I think the biggest danger to the monitor is the owner. Not soaking long enough, using random rags that were on hand instead of the correct paper towels, drenching the towels, being too forceful when removing the bezel, etc.

EDIT: I should add that different panels use different polarizing layers, so some are more resilient than others. I've read that the Dell 2711 polarizer was very fragile, and the 2412 was very sturdy. I'm inclined to say the VG248QE polarizer feels sturdy, but it certainly is a risk to have it exposed.
 
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Vega said:
One interesting feature that I like is Asus's Splendid "Game Plus". It allows HUD type floating cross hair's and an on-screen timer. For those that play "hardcore" type modes in games that do not allow a cross hair, it is an interesting feature.
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When I was a "pro" AAO player back in the early 2000's, I remember sticking clear magic tape in the middle of my screen and drawing a dot, so I can use the sniper rifle without zooming in.
 
I've read most of the thread, but can someone sum up any concerns I should have before buying. I remember someone talked about uniformity issues. Does Lightboost effect this? I'm also concerned about how bad it looks when games drop below 120fps in Lightboost mode. A blurry mess? Double images? I know I need an nVidia card.
 
Oofloom said:
I've read most of the thread, but can someone sum up any concerns I should have before buying. I remember someone talked about uniformity issues. Does Lightboost effect this? I'm also concerned about how bad it looks when games drop below 120fps in Lightboost mode. A blurry mess? Double images? I know I need an nVidia card.
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Just double image effect. It just looks like the CRT 30fps@60Hz effect -- some people prefer 30fps@60Hz on an LCD instead of CRT/Plasma because some hate the double-image effect. If you're familiar with that, then you will already know the 60fps@120Hz is the same, although the effect is more subtle (halved the distance between the double images at same motion speed, compared to 30fps@60Hz)

It doesn't look bad per se; just that LightBoost becomes "ho hum" if you're running frame rates far less than Hz. Still looks much better than 60Hz LCD, but most of the motion blur benefits is gone (relative to a regular 120 Hz LCD). You really want fps=Hz for strobed displays (e.g. CRT or LightBoost), and LightBoost is hardware-limited to function only at 100-120Hz and is not enabled at lower refresh rates. You could run at 100 Hz, since 100fps@100Hz is easier. The zero motion blur effect only really becomes "WOW" only at fps=Hz, such as 120fps@120Hz during fast-action FPS.

LightBoost is a feature that can be turned on/off so you can just turn off LightBoost until you upgrade your GPU.
120 Hz still looks great for motion, better than 60 Hz, for gaming.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong. You're saying that, even though it's no longer crystal clear due to the double image effect, 60fps @ 120hz with Lightboost looks better than 60fps @ 120hz non-Lightboost (in your opinion at least).

Also, sans-Lightboost, does 60fps at 120hz looks no better than 60fps at 60hz?
 
Oofloom said:
Correct me if I'm wrong. You're saying that, even though it's no longer crystal clear due to the double image effect, 60fps @ 120hz with Lightboost looks better than 60fps @ 120hz non-Lightboost (in your opinion at least).
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Well, I didn't say that -- I said that the benefits of LightBoost starts to become look clear beyond around 80fps, and increases until fps matches Hz. It does look slightly better, but very imperceptibly so. The lack of motion blur becomes really apparent when fps begin to match Hz. Just like for CRT.

Also, sans-Lightboost, does 60fps at 120hz looks no better than 60fps at 60hz?
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For strobed displays, fps=Hz always looks better from a motion blur perspective. That's why CRT 60fps@60Hz looked better than CRT 60fps@120Hz. LightBoost looks similar.

The rule of thumb is; what you saw on CRT for "X" fps @ "Y" Hz, the motion looks similar on LightBoost (with all stutters, judders, tearing, fluidity, and moments of perfect looking motion when fps=Hz)

Either way, LightBoost or not, these new 120 Hz LCD's are the best gaming LCD's ever made, if you can live with TN color.
 
Can someone with the monitor test to see what the minimum height of the stand is? My desk has a raised back "shelf" where the monitor sits, so I would need to lower it so that the bezel is just 1-to-1.5" away from the desk surface.
 
Found some nice stuff to screw around with in the Service mode. Might be useful for those who can't use lightboost yet....


If you like 80 Trace Free, but 100 TF is way too inverse ghosty artifacty, you can mess around with the service menu to "tweak" inbetween or gain values that aren't in the regular OSD.

Hard to explain how this works,
but the service menu OD setting is in 3 hexadecimal steps related to the OSD setting, e.g.
TF0=00, TF 20=03, TF 40=06, 60=09, 80=0b (12 hex), 100=0f (15 hex). That's what shows up in the service menu if you change the Trace Free settins in the OSD.

But once you set the OD in the OSD, and you try tweaking it in the service menu, the adjustments made IN the service menu don't correspond to the OSD values at all anymore. I'm not sure if this is a bug or intended, but you can use this to tweak the Trace free settings and get precisely what you want, instead of relying on 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and the unusuable 100.

Example: set 100 TF, then go into the service menu and change 0F to 0D. It will look like 95 TF instead of 80 (if you exit the service menu and go back to the OSD, it will still show 100).

I'm guessing this is some sort of gain control.

Setting 100 TF then lowering the gain to 07 is weird. It looks like 80 TF, but there is a very faint ghost trail that you don't see at 80 TF. It might affect fast motion positively for games, though, if you can't use lightboost; you can try it and see what you like.

Setting TF to 80 and then raising the gain to 0f does NOT set TF to 100 and you don't get any more ghost trails than at 80...MIGHT very slightly improve the quality for you, so mess around with it.

Have fun screwing with it.

Turn the monitor off first, then hold menu and turn it on with the power button. If you did it right, the Asus screen won't appear. Then menu alternates between service mode and normal OSD.
 
Oofloom said:
Can someone with the monitor test to see what the minimum height of the stand is? My desk has a raised back "shelf" where the monitor sits, so I would need to lower it so that the bezel is just 1-to-1.5" away from the desk surface.
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About 1.5 inches from the table surface. It actually sits lower than the samsung 2233rz on its stand.by maybe half an inch.(the thickness of the bezel).
 
Falkentyne said:
Found some nice stuff to screw around with in the Service mode. Might be useful for those who can't use lightboost yet....


If you like 80 Trace Free, but 100 TF is way too inverse ghosty artifacty, you can mess around with the service menu to "tweak" inbetween or gain values that aren't in the regular OSD.

Hard to explain how this works,
but the service menu OD setting is in 3 hexadecimal steps related to the OSD setting, e.g.
TF0=00, TF 20=03, TF 40=06, 60=09, 80=0b (12 hex), 100=0f (15 hex). That's what shows up in the service menu if you change the Trace Free settins in the OSD.

But once you set the OD in the OSD, and you try tweaking it in the service menu, the adjustments made IN the service menu don't correspond to the OSD values at all anymore. I'm not sure if this is a bug or intended, but you can use this to tweak the Trace free settings and get precisely what you want, instead of relying on 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and the unusuable 100.

Example: set 100 TF, then go into the service menu and change 0F to 0D. It will look like 95 TF instead of 80 (if you exit the service menu and go back to the OSD, it will still show 100).

I'm guessing this is some sort of gain control.

Setting 100 TF then lowering the gain to 07 is weird. It looks like 80 TF, but there is a very faint ghost trail that you don't see at 80 TF. It might affect fast motion positively for games, though, if you can't use lightboost; you can try it and see what you like.

Setting TF to 80 and then raising the gain to 0f does NOT set TF to 100 and you don't get any more ghost trails than at 80...MIGHT very slightly improve the quality for you, so mess around with it.

Have fun screwing with it.

Turn the monitor off first, then hold menu and turn it on with the power button. If you did it right, the Asus screen won't appear. Then menu alternates between service mode and normal OSD.
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Very interesting work! Since you're into hacking your monitor and seem to understand hexadecimal...

I wonder if this would also work via Entech Taiwan's softmccs.exe and try commanding your monitor with 0D commands via DDC/CI by typing them in the "Command Line Editor" (seen in screenshot) and hitting Enter.
(You can also browse the VESA MCCS PDF v3 for various additional DDC/CI commands that are not normally triggerable)
My wild guess is transmitting 03 0D 00 0F would configure you to a TF setting of 0F.
03 = write command
0D = setting to change (in this case, 0D probably being ASUS TF setting)
followed by two bytes (sometimes four), most significant byte first. It might not be a 0D command via DDC/CI but one of the 0xE0 through 0xFF. You can read the values from those by using the 01 read command (e.g. 01 E0). Changing your TF setting manually, then reading the bytes to find out what DDC/CI setting changed.

If you're going to go even beyond, then if you know a little electronics, there's a schematic diagram available in a document "Hacking Monitors Made Interesting" for snooping the I2C serial line of your DVI/HDMI cable (DDC/CI). I'm mighty curious if some of the protocols necessary to enable LightBoost, is part of it. (I know DDC/CI commands 03 FA 00 01 through 03 FA 00 0A changes the LightBoost setting from 10% through 100%, but only if LightBoost is already enabled, it doesn't seem to enable LightBoost alone by itself).

Some interesting research information can be found beginning at post 494 of the LightBoost thread.
Also, you'll want to configure your resolution via a Custom Resolutions utility to have a Vertical Total of 1147 or 1149 for your 1920x1080 @ 120 Hz setting; this seems to be one of the pieces required to get LightBoost working. Both OCBurner and Vega discovered that the right timings also need to be used to enable Lightboost.
 
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Thanks, Falkentyne. That's a big deal for me since it means I won't have to order a mount.
 
Question - I've debezelled this monitor. The Vesa mounting brackets are in the back of the plastic bezel. There is no where to mount screws on the inside metal casing. I'm at a loss here on how to get the mount back on without the bezel. Vega has a video of his success, and has been the person to inspire me to do this, so the hope is to emulate his awesome setup.
 
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I ended up disconnecting all the electronics to the panel, pulled the circuit boards out of the back cage, and drilled 4 holes for screws facing outward.

 
I'm debating getting a nvidia gpu upgrade so that I can use lightboost on a VG248QE monitor.
.
I was going to hold out until gtx780 and titan were both out but it sounds like the gtx780 might be a long way off yet.

I am now considering a Titan but I've been reading that they throttle.
The price is also very high when two 680's are priced similarly and would outperform it considerably.
Of course single cards have their benefits.
.
Still undecided. Might get one 680 + the monitor to start with and see how it goes, idk.
.
It's too bad an easy amd lightboost hack isn't avail. Wish I would have went nvidia last time >.<
 
I just calibrated my display with the iDisplay Pro. It definitely is not perfect, but is 100x better than the stock setup. Got it to 6540k, 119 cd/m2, and an average dE of 2.63.

Here is the ICC file:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dvdhgbbhks5xhpz


Random question: What scaling do you guys use on this monitor, gpu vs display? Trying to get the least input lag possible. Right now I have it set on "display" and "no scaling".
 
masterkaj said:
I just calibrated my display with the iDisplay Pro. It definitely is not perfect, but is 100x better than the stock setup. Got it to 6540k, 119 cd/m2, and an average dE of 2.63.

Here is the ICC file:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?dvdhgbbhks5xhpz


Random question: What scaling do you guys use on this monitor, gpu vs display? Trying to get the least input lag possible. Right now I have it set on "display" and "no scaling".
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Was your calibration done in Lightboost mode? What display mode do you use (standard/nightview/etc)?
 
I've made a few profiles which are available here:

http://www.mediafire.com/#h2e9xichxc36n

I didn't record my 60+144hz settings so ignore those profiles for now.

Lightboost Profile (native brightness, 2.2 gamma, 7500k color temperature [to compensate for the green tint of the 3D glasses). Contrast 65 [bleaching occurs above 70 contrast and lowering it raises the gamma...this was the best setting for a balance between gamma and contrast], Light Boost Max

The BenQ XL2420T has much better Light Boost colors and black levels than the VG248QE. BenQ:

http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i432/240hzTeslaStorm/BenQ XL2420T Review/3DChart.png

The VG248QE's color temperature is around 8500k by default in light boost mode, the gamma is low around 1.9 and the contrast is mediocre hovering around 400-700:1 (700 if the contrast is cranked, 550:1 by default and with 65 contrast setting). Looking at Overclock.ru's macro images the VG248QE appears to have the same coating as the BenQ, but in practice I think it is much lighter. When I tried watching Tintin in 3D on the BenQ last year I turned it off after 5 minutes because of how obvious the AG was while I can barely see it on the Asus. There is some definite sparkle+grain but I don't think it is nearly as bad as the BenQ, the trade off is that the XL2420T has much better Light Boost image quality.

I will add masterkaj's profile to the first post.
 
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BTW, I have done more tests during the last weekend, and took a lot more photos which I will blog about at www.blurbusters.com later ....

One thing I've found is if you are someone who notices the faint LightBoost crosstalk artifact on VG278H (the faint trailing 'super-sharp ghost'; which doesn't noticeably exist on BENQ XL2411T), lowering Contrast down to 70 or 75, instead of 90, eliminates most of that crosstalk. It dims the picture a bit, but this could significantly benefit some ASUS VG278HE users; since the VG278HE is even more prone to the problem than the VG278H.
 
NCX I'd be curious what you would find the color and black level to be on a VG248QE with the AG coating removed.
 
It would look a bit clearer and marginally more vibrant.
 
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