ASUS VG278H - The weirdest backlight bleeding I ever saw

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Nov 21, 2011
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Just got my ASUS VG278H 27 inch 3D monitor. Used it for a couple of days- the 3D mode is excellent when compared to 3D Vision V1. The colors and response time are great. I was pretty happy for a while, before noticing some really weird backlighting issues:


P1030874_small.jpg


Notice the oval-shaped backlight bleeding / glow in the middle. I have never seen anything like that on any monitor I have ever used!

Does it seem to anyone like an acceptable backlight bleeding for a $700+ monitor? Has anyone else bought the monitor and observed the same issue?
 
I have one, granted mine was a lan prize from GeforceLAN, but I do not have that same backlight bleed issue. What kind of brightness do you have yours set at?
 
I'm having the exact same problem as well, with the oval-shaped backlight bleeding in the middle of the screen. It looks exactly like what you've shown in your picture. It's frustrating the heck out of me too, because I can even notice it when the screen isn't completely black. For instance, when I'm playing a game or something, I can notice a faint black oval shape in the middle of the screen where the backlight bleeding is occurring. I'm also noticing incredibly high amounts of ghosting in normal 2D mode, where objects in motion appear to have a very noticeable afterimage effect.

For $700, this is completely inexcusable. I already contacted ASUS support myself and am requesting an RMA, and I'd suggest you do the same.
 
I would like to know exactly what settings you have in your user controlled brightness and contrast levels so I can try to replicate the issue. I'm curious because if mine has the problem as well then we are getting somewhere with it, considering mine was one of 64 first in the country. I run mine at 5 brightness and 65 contrast for reference, I doubt that the color selection matters at all though.

Here is mine in a dark room with brightness set at 100 on black paint fullscreen.
img0274ru.jpg


And the camera is iphone4s, the tan shift on the right and left of the monitor don't actually appear that way in person, not sure why the camera picks it up unless it has something to do with the viewing angles.
 
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Its all because of this damn LED backlighting, I hate it. Ever since displays decided to go to edge lit led's everything had backlight bleed now. Its ruined everything. Out of the 6 or so led monitors i've tried recently the only one to have a really uniform backlight is my Apple Cinema Display. At that's because its thick, heavy, and expensive.
 
The oval-shaped bleed was present at every brightness/contrast setting I tried. I just replaced the monitor today- the new one is much better. A little bit of bleed at the edges- but nothing out of ordinary otherwise. Great in 2D/3D. No ghosting/crosstalk at Tracefree 80 and Contrast 66.

Must have been a defective batch. The oval-shaped bleed indicates some issue with manufacturing process. Most likely the LDC film got damaged or something.

Anyone having the same issue- I suggest an immediate exchange.

I'll post the new monitor bleed photo today when the room is dark :)
 
The oval-shaped bleed was present at every brightness/contrast setting I tried.

Same here. It was not only present with my normal settings (brightness 10/contrast 100), but also when I had set brightness/contrast to 0 and RGB to 0 as well. It was still just as visible regardless.
 
I have this monitor. How would I go about checking/reproducing conditions to see if I have any blacklight bleed
 
Has anything bothered you up to this point? I don't think that I'd go looking for problems.
 
Has anything bothered you up to this point? I don't think that I'd go looking for problems.

If there is a problem, it's better to find out now while it's still in warranty then to find out later when you can't do anything about it.

As far as reproducing it goes, just make a 1920x1080 completely black image in paint or something, and then launch it in full screen. Turn off all the lights in your room, then look at your monitor. You should notice the problems, if there are any, right away.
 
I'm going to wait and see how other people's monitors turn out before I consider RMA-ing mine. The way things are looking, the monitor you get back could be even worse.
 
received mine on monday and RMA today.

i didnt have the circle back light bleeding but i had two ghosts haunting mine
mine would show up on black, grey, and blue screens i was not happy.

after paying 700 dollars i will not have that


2011-11-21 21.25.01.jpg
 
HOLY SHIT, that's very bad

My 27" 120hz Samsung 750D at 100% brightness paint black fullscreen :)...

ledbacklight.jpg
 
Sorry to be the bearer of the bad news, but this seems to be a defect affecting the whole batch of monitors that develops over time. Please compare photos from yesterday and today.

In the photo yesterday there are no artifacts in the backlight bleeding:

P1030877.JPG


Just one day later there is that dreaded oval-shaped artifact developing in the middle of the screen:

P1030878.JPG


That's exactly the reason it took me 2 days to notice the issue last time- that's how long it takes for it to develop. I don't know what is the reason for this issue appearing. Maybe backlight is "burning out" quickly, or there is some sort of defect in the LCD film.

I'll let you know if the issue keeps getting worse over time... Did anyone else notice the oval-shaped bleeding develop over time?

Overall, I'm very disappointed with ASUS. I'd rather they delayed the release, but released a quality product. Sigh...
 
I don't recall seeing it when I first plugged in my monitor.

I waited a long time for a decent 27" 3D monitor and I thought this was it. :(
 
Really disappointed with the VG278H. I had the Acer HN274H before this one, which was a fantastic monitor. I sold it for $500 (bought it for $700) and paid an additional $200 to make up the difference for this monitor, because I had wanted the 3D Vision 2. Unfortunately, other than a slightly improved 3D experience, this monitor is worse in every way. So yeah, selling that monitor was a regrettable mistake on my part.

As far as the backlight bleeding getting worse over time goes, I didn't notice the backlight bleeding on my VG right away either. I only started to notice the oval shape about ~3 days after I had gotten the monitor. So it's possible that it could be an issue of deterioration.
 
The same story here. After using the monitor for a couple of days I noticed this oval... I was surprised I didn't see it right away. I've replaced the monitor with another one at the store and the first thing I checked was the presence of this oval. There was nothing... except for a little bleeding at the edges. Unfortunately in 2 days the oval started to develop... and over a weekend of using the monitor it only got worse.
Now I think there is no point in replacing this one... I'm gonna have to ask for a refund. And the worst part is that there is no alternative at the moment.
 
I received my Monitor on Friday and checked for the oval shaped ghosting in the middle nothing but after a few days it’s now there it’s not as bad as the pictures I have seen here but it’s noticeable. There is an inner back piece on the back of the monitor which is right behind where the shape of the oval bleed shows in the center could it have something to do with that center piece area in the middle?
 
There is an inner back piece on the back of the monitor which is right behind where the shape of the oval bleed shows in the center could it have something to do with that center piece area in the middle?

There's alot of electronics including the speakers are in that "inner back piece". There could be a magnetic field build-up causing the problem. My problem has not gotten worse, in fact it doesn't look as bad as the picture I posted earlier. I am a little disappointed in the amount of crosstalk I am getting. I reduced my 3D contrast to 66, but some 3D movies have a fair amount of annoying crosstalk.

For example, http://www.3dvisionlive.com/3d_video/over-sky-3d-trailer has alot of crosstalk on the landing gear in the final scene.

I have some side-by-side movies that are showing a fair amount of crosstalk. I'm new to 3D Vision and I expected it to be better.
 
I am blown away by the smoothness in games and the 3D with this monitor I played Skyrim and Batman and I was just amazed. Floppy try setting Tracefree to 100.
 
My monitor doesn't have the wierd backlight bleed issue, and after adjustment looks pretty nice. However, due to cosmetic issues out of the box (3D logo on base messed up, small dents on frame) and the slight clockwise tilt of the monitor, I'm going to exchange it for another VG278H when amazon gets more stock :(
 
My monitor doesn't have the wierd backlight bleed issue, and after adjustment looks pretty nice. However, due to cosmetic issues out of the box (3D logo on base messed up, small dents on frame) and the slight clockwise tilt of the monitor, I'm going to exchange it for another VG278H when amazon gets more stock :(

That sucks also I may switch mine as well depending on if it gets worse in the first 2 days it was not noticable at all only after like 3 days did it start showing so you may want to check again after you have used it for a few days.
 
I'm on my third VG278H monitor now. I'll keep you posted if the oval-bleeding develops again.

Keep us updated, here is what I noticed I have been using my Monitor everyday since 11/25 first day no sign of what the pictures look like here than after a few days it started to look like the pictures here now yesterday when I checked again it is no way near the same its almost gone so everyone check again to see if it went away for you as well mine is much better now and I have been using the same settings. Cheers!
 
Got one of these at work today to do some 120hz experiments that we are running. Then I found this thread... bummer.

So far everything looks fine. The monitor seems good overall and when compared to my Benq XL2410T I have at home the lightboost technology is really impressive for 3D stuff. Still ghosting, that i can deal with, but the terrible dimming from 3D Vision 1 is gone. Hopefully this issue gets solved and/or the other lightboost monitors fare better.

Looking at everyones pictures it seems the shape of the oval matches the shape on the back for the air flow grill...
 
Keep us updated, here is what I noticed I have been using my Monitor everyday since 11/25 first day no sign of what the pictures look like here than after a few days it started to look like the pictures here now yesterday when I checked again it is no way near the same its almost gone so everyone check again to see if it went away for you as well mine is much better now and I have been using the same settings. Cheers!

That's great news, hopefully more people will share their experiences and have the same positive results.
 
now yesterday when I checked again it is no way near the same its almost gone so everyone check again to see if it went away for you as well mine is much better now and I have been using the same settings. Cheers!

What settings have you been using?
 
I think this is something mechanical, probably the filters behind the screen are not well sticked to each other and the oval shaped artifact is result of bubbles or air to be inbetween them.
 
Picked mine up yesterday. Just turned it on. The oval is already forming. I don't think I want to deal with all the other issues with it either. The colors, the backlight bleed, and it being tiny.

It's tough though... because I went from a Westhinghouse 37w3 to this and this thing is so fast and smooth in comparison. The backlight bleed and black screens are terrible.. and.... I may hold off selling my westy to a friend.
 
I figure the more that post, the more information we have at our disposal. I got my VG278 on November 22. Looked incredible for a couple of days. Third or fourth day, it looked just like the picture in the first post. I contacted ASUS with a technical issue ticket and they had me reset the monitor, update graphic card drivers, swap DVI Dual link cables, try on a different computer.......all to no avail. I ended up doing a RMA with the reseller.

I will keep my experiences posted when and if a replacement monitor gets sent. I hope that they find an easy fix for this issue as the monitor excels in every other aspect.
 
Results from my THIRD VG278H.

Ok, here is the photo from the day of purchase (Nov 29):

P1030886.JPG


Then, 3 days later (Dec 2):

P1030888.JPG


Like a freaking clockwork! :mad:

This leads me to conclude that pretty much every single monitor is affected more of less. I can't believe ASUS let that slide...

Troub- are you saying that the problem just went away by itself after a while?
 
1 week later, I still don't have the oval backlight problem :). But then again, I don't go looking for it, so maybe it's there and I'm not senstive to it. But a pure black background overall looks fine aside from a bit of bleed on the left.
 
After 3 days...

bleed.jpg


After Two Weeks...

bleed2.jpg


Looks like it evened-out by spreading. :p

It's still darker at the top and there is a slightly darkened area below center.

These pictures were taken with a crappy Samsung Captivate.
 
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