Backlight bleed in new NEC PA271W monitor; what should I do? (Pics inside)

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ahphoto

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I finally invested in a new high-end monitor for precise photo editing (NEC PA271W) but was disappointed to find that there's noticeable backlight bleed in 3 corners of the screen. Pictures:
#1
#2

These were taken with my phone in pitch dark and the monitor had been calibrated to an intensity of 140 cd/m2. The bleed is also noticeable against dark colors in daylight/with the lights on.

I'm not crazy about having spent $1,400 on a new monitor only to find faults like this, and it's still within the return period, but packing it all back up, dealing with RMA, paying to ship it back and waiting several weeks to a month for another one to be shipped to me that could be just as bad if not worse isn't very appealing either.

So my questions...first, is there anything at all I can do to fix it? I haven't found much online that seems very promising in terms of a fix but maybe I'm missing something. Second, assuming it can't be fixed and given the amount of backlight bleed in the pictures above, is it really worth paying to ship it back and waiting weeks to get a replacement? I know that's mostly a matter of personal opinion, but I don't know what the odds are of the replacement monitor being just as bad in terms of backlight bleed. I've read some posts that say *every* monitor like this has some degree of backlight bleed and that noticeable backlight bleed is common but I don't know how bad mine is compared to most or how much better I can expect a new one to be. My 5-year-old NEC LCD1990SXi monitor has no visible backlight bleed whatsoever, which is what I was hoping for with this new monitor (or at least not as much as this) but maybe that's unrealistic?
 
That level of bleed probably isn't uncommon, unfortunately. It reminds me of what my Dell 2412 looked like when I had it.

But for $1400 I'd expect it to be black as... black. No bleed at all. It should be perfect for that price.

Every monitor doesn't have bleed, although perhaps it does seem like many do. I don't have bleed in any of my 3 older LCDs here (or not enough for me to notice)... one of which is the brother to your old 1990SXI, but in VA form. And if it's common in the NEC PA271W (meaning you exchange it, and the second one has it too), I'd just return it for a full refund and get something else.
 
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That's pretty bad. For the price i'd think they would have better QC.
 
Unacceptable, but typical for IPS. Any display can have light bleeding but IPS seems to be the worst offenders. I have yet to read about an Eizo or Lacie IPS owner getting one or multiple units with that kind of bleeding, but they cost a lot more.

Unless you need the extended colour gamut and calibration options for work return it and get Viewsonic VP2770 or Samsung S27B970D.
 
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Does the bleed go away when you move your head? Make sure its bleed and not glow, where did you get this from? I was thinking of getting one as well as all other 27 inch wqhd screens have uniformity issues to some extent which I am very sensitive to, but this idis discouraging.
 
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I own an NEC PA271W and have some of that in mine as well. It depends on where your eyes are positioned. If you look at it dead on, it disappears. It could be more of a viewing angle thing than backlight bleed. I'm not entirely sure.

In real world usage though, I don't notice it at all.
 
The s2440l from dell which i had for 1/5th the price of that has better backlight bleed and i criticised it out of the park.

that just sucks. cautions me never to bother buying an expensive display on my own money.
 
I have a P241W (not the same model) and I don't have any backlight bleed, and I mean ZERO. I think your level of bleed is unacceptable and you should return the monitor to the shop and ask for a replacement.
 
tzhu07 said:
I own an NEC PA271W and have some of that in mine as well. It depends on where your eyes are positioned. If you look at it dead on, it disappears. It could be more of a viewing angle thing than backlight bleed. I'm not entirely sure.
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That is IPS glow, not backlight bleed. Backlight bleed is noticeable even when you have your head in front of the screen.
 
I Google searched IPS glow and found this image on HardForum:

http://i.imgur.com/IZWHK.jpg

OK yes, my monitor has some of that on the lower left and lower right corners. I guess it's glow then. This is new terminology for me. I just classified everything as "bleed" before.

Anyways, again in real world usage I'm very satisfied with my monitor. I think it's one of those things where if you try to look for it, of course it will bother you. When I first got my monitor, I also couldn't help but notice the anti-glare coating, but again I was looking for it. But eventually as I actually started to use my monitor and focus on the displayed content, I no longer noticed the anti-glare. The glow is even less of an issue, since that really only appears when you're displaying a solid black background or watching a movie with black bars on the top and bottom.
 
tzhu: try leaving a movie on repeat over night while leaving your monitor on, I've found sometimes monitors need to 'settle' in
 
ahphoto said:
I finally invested in a new high-end monitor for precise photo editing (NEC PA271W) but was disappointed to find that there's noticeable backlight bleed in 3 corners of the screen. Pictures:
#1
#2

These were taken with my phone in pitch dark and the monitor had been calibrated to an intensity of 140 cd/m2. The bleed is also noticeable against dark colors in daylight/with the lights on.

I'm not crazy about having spent $1,400 on a new monitor only to find faults like this, and it's still within the return period, but packing it all back up, dealing with RMA, paying to ship it back and waiting several weeks to a month for another one to be shipped to me that could be just as bad if not worse isn't very appealing either.

So my questions...first, is there anything at all I can do to fix it? I haven't found much online that seems very promising in terms of a fix but maybe I'm missing something. Second, assuming it can't be fixed and given the amount of backlight bleed in the pictures above, is it really worth paying to ship it back and waiting weeks to get a replacement? I know that's mostly a matter of personal opinion, but I don't know what the odds are of the replacement monitor being just as bad in terms of backlight bleed. I've read some posts that say *every* monitor like this has some degree of backlight bleed and that noticeable backlight bleed is common but I don't know how bad mine is compared to most or how much better I can expect a new one to be. My 5-year-old NEC LCD1990SXi monitor has no visible backlight bleed whatsoever, which is what I was hoping for with this new monitor (or at least not as much as this) but maybe that's unrealistic?
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If the bleed is visible from further than four feet, and from a straight-on viewing angle then it is bleed, and not glow....

Call NEC.

Their customer service is second-to-none, and will likely make arrangements that will satisfy you.

Trust me on this, twice I've dealt with them and twice I was left extremely happy.
 
10e said:
If the bleed is visible from further than four feet, and from a straight-on viewing angle then it is bleed, and not glow....
Click to expand...

Hey that's a really good test. I stepped back several feet and the glowing corners disappeared. As I got closer and closer, the glow slowly appeared again.

I think the degree of glow is proportional to the angle at which you look at the monitor's surface, which is what I thought.
 
Thanks for all the replies; the consensus seems to be that I should return it. I'll send it back for an exchange and hope that the replacement doesn't have this issue, and if the replacement is just as bad or worse then I'll return it and get a different brand/model monitor instead.

My other problem with this monitor is the anti-glare coating which I found to be quite noticeable (especially against white) and particularly annoying since I'm going to be using this monitor primarily for extensive photo editing and the anti-glare coating makes the photos seem like they have noise/grain when they really don't. I wouldn't send it back for a refund based on that alone, mostly because I don't know of any other comparable photo editing monitors that don't also have AG coating and I'm hoping I'll be able to get used to it and learn to stop seeing it with time like tzhu07 said in this thread, but it's still another strike against this monitor IMO.

tzhu07 said:
I own an NEC PA271W and have some of that in mine as well. It depends on where your eyes are positioned. If you look at it dead on, it disappears. It could be more of a viewing angle thing than backlight bleed. I'm not entirely sure.

In real world usage though, I don't notice it at all.
Click to expand...

I was looking at it dead on when I noticed it, and the pictures were also taken dead on.

undertaker2k8 said:
Does the bleed go away when you move your head? Make sure its bleed and not glow, where did you get this from? I was thinking of getting one as well as all other 27 inch wqhd screens have uniformity issues to some extent which I am very sensitive to, but this idis discouraging.
Click to expand...

No, it doesn't go away if I move around. I tried looking at it from all angles...directly in front of it, below it, above it, to the left, to the right, across the room, 10 feet away etc...it's pretty much the same no matter what. It wasn't solid black no matter how I looked at it. I bought it from B&H.
 
ahphoto said:
No, it doesn't go away if I move around. I tried looking at it from all angles...directly in front of it, below it, above it, to the left, to the right, across the room, 10 feet away etc...it's pretty much the same no matter what. It wasn't solid black no matter how I looked at it. I bought it from B&H.
Click to expand...

that's backlight bleed, exchange it. b&h is good about that sort of thing.

as for the antiglare coating, unfortunately if you need to have adobergb coverage your choices for a different professional monitor with a lighter coating are going to be really really limited, possibly nonexistent. maybe one of the eizos, but those will cost you even more.
 
B&H has this on back order right now for $799 which is a great price for this (may be a new LED based model is coming out soon since this over 2 years old now?) and while I'm tempted to get and compare this to my PB278Q (almost perfect but for the color temp uniformity which does not manifest in games or movies, just mainly on light grey shades) but the fact that they do not cover return shipping is not encouraging.

Can any one please confirm? Or may I can keep exchanging the PB278Q forever till I miraculously get a uniform(er) panel if they even exist.

Only overclockers.ru truly tests panel uniformity all the other websites just compare the brightness uniformity which is independent of color uniformity, which seems to be a bigger issue for these large IPS/PLS panels.
 
ahphoto said:
I was looking at it dead on when I noticed it, and the pictures were also taken dead on.
Click to expand...

Oh I meant dead on with eyes perpendicular to the corner area, the glow disappears for me. When I sit at normal distance and look at the center, I still see the corner glows, but as pointed out, if you back away more than 4 feet, it disappears.

But since you said you can't get it to disappear from any angle you look at, then I guess you figured out it's backlight bleed.

As for the anti-glare coating, I kind of equate it to those Magic Eye pictures, where if you try to see the 3D shape in the image, it will appear to you. However, if you just look at it normally as you do any other object, it just appears as a flat image. When I first got my monitor, I was purposely trying to see the "3D image" as I was staring at the grain against a white background. Now the grain doesn't even register for me, until this thread reminded me of it again. But I still don't see it as I'm concentrating on typing this post.

Lastly, the Eizo monitors are allegedly the best graphics monitors available, but I haven't seen any in person, so I'm just relying on testimonials from others. The Eizos are over twice the price of a comparable NEC, but I doubt they are significantly better. It also doesn't help that reviews of Eizos are extremely rare.
 
For the OP, if you can get by with s-rgb, I'd suggest returning it and getting something with a lighter coating. You may eventually get a bleed free version of that NEC, but you will always have the antiglare coating issue. Some may say they get used to it, but I certainly couldn't... unless I developed cataracts or something.
 
undertaker2k8 said:
B&H has this on back order right now for $799 which is a great price for this
Click to expand...

Holy crap! I bought my PA271W for around $1,200 (without the puck) near the date that it was released. It does seem a little weird though, because on that site the version with the color calibration puck is $1,450. I wonder why that doesn't get a sale price.
 
Namelessme said:
For the OP, if you can get by with s-rgb, I'd suggest returning it and getting something with a lighter coating. You may eventually get a bleed free version of that NEC, but you will always have the antiglare coating issue. Some may say they get used to it, but I certainly couldn't... unless I developed cataracts or something.
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I think people's eyes and the way they see things are just different.

When I was researching 2560 res monitors, every professional review of the NEC PA271W made no mention of the anti-glare coating being an issue. When I got it, I noticed the coating as I was purposely inspecting the monitor. Then over time the grain just disappeared into the background.

I was actually on the verge of calling up NEC or returning the monitor, but some user on some forum suggested that you should use your monitor normally and see how it pans out. I've now been on this monitor since it released.
 
tzhu07 said:
I think people's eyes and the way they see things are just different.

When I was researching 2560 res monitors, every professional review of the NEC PA271W made no mention of the anti-glare coating being an issue. When I got it, I noticed the coating as I was purposely inspecting the monitor. Then over time the grain just disappeared into the background.
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True, and I guess it matters how much it bothers the OP. If it really bothers him, even after weeks of use, I think it may bother him forever.

If after a couple of days he doesn't care anymore, then yeah, he can live with it.

I think for some people, they don't mind it simply because they have primarily used AG coated monitors their entire life. Or as you say, people's eyes just work differently. Anything above a med coating and my eyes have a problem... and even med AG is still somewhat heavy to me, pretty much my limit.
 
Any one had any experience with BH exchanges and return shipping: on the website they claim that return shipping is always on the customer but reality can be quite different as my experiences with newegg show.

If only Amazon had this screen for this sale price (even with CA tax added), I'd try it in a heart beart as returning would be a non-issue.
 
ahphoto said:
My other problem with this monitor is the anti-glare coating which I found to be quite noticeable (especially against white) and particularly annoying since I'm going to be using this monitor primarily for extensive photo editing and the anti-glare coating makes the photos seem like they have noise/grain when they really don't
Click to expand...

Yes, it makes content look grainy/noisy when it should not be.

Do you need a wide gamut display and the NEC's calibration features? If not then there is no need to keep it. Get a Viewsonic VP770, it does not have a grainy matte coating and should suffice for your uses
 
@NCX: except that most PLS displays are warmer on the left and cooler on the right (check reviews on overclockers.ru:
http://www.overclockers.ru/lab/4842..._testirovanie_monitora_Samsung_S24A850DW.html
http://www.overclockers.ru/lab/5002...i_testirovanie_monitora_Samsung_S27A850D.html

. Only the S27B970D does not have the issue due a compensator present but its is very glossy and my copy had dead pixels. All three PB278Qs I have had, have this issue though the current one is the best with no other issues like BLB or bad pixels.
Since the VP2770 does not have a compensator, I doubt its any different.
 
livefastdieyoung said:
that's backlight bleed, exchange it. b&h is good about that sort of thing.

as for the antiglare coating, unfortunately if you need to have adobergb coverage your choices for a different professional monitor with a lighter coating are going to be really really limited, possibly nonexistent. maybe one of the eizos, but those will cost you even more.
Click to expand...

That's why I chose this model despite the anti-glare coating, since I couldn't find any alternatives that were comparable to the PA271W but didn't have the AG coating. I made another thread on here about choosing a monitor a few months back and my second choice for a monitor was the Eizo CG243W, which is smaller than the PA271W, has a lower resolution and is about $700 more expensive, but even the Eizos apparently have the same AG coating as well and I've read at least one review stating it's just as bad in terms of grain. I haven't seen one in person to determine whether that's accurate or not, however. In addition, according to some of the posts at another forum, the NEC already has some of the lightest/most gentle coating around.

So unless there's another model out there that I'm missing, I don't think a better alternative exists (but if anyone knows of one, by all means let me know). I'm going to hope the next PA271W monitor has no backlight bleed issues and that I'll get used to the AG coating and not find it to be an issue after I've had a chance to use it for a while. If the next model has equally bad backlight bleed and/or I can't get used to the AG coating though, what would my next best choice be? Something as equivalent to the PA271W as possible, especially in terms of calibration and color accuracy, but without the AG coating and without the backlight bleed issues. Like I said, I don't think there's anything out there as good or better that's wide gamut and doesn't have AG coating, but what models come the closest?
 
ahphoto said:
My other problem with this monitor is the anti-glare coating which I found to be quite noticeable (especially against white) and particularly annoying since I'm going to be using this monitor primarily for extensive photo editing and the anti-glare coating makes the photos seem like they have noise/grain when they really don't. I wouldn't send it back for a refund based on that alone, mostly because I don't know of any other comparable photo editing monitors that don't also have AG coating and I'm hoping I'll be able to get used to it and learn to stop seeing it with time like tzhu07 said in this thread, but it's still another strike against this monitor IMO.
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I'm on the same boat as you. The NEC P/PA series are ruined by the AG coating, IMHO. You'll see grain not only on images and photos, also on white backgrounds and, in a greater extent, on light grey backgrounds (I think the effect is more noticeable on light grey than on white). It seems LG Display have toned down the hardness of their AG coatings in the newest panels, probably in LM240WU9. For example, the newest Eizo ColorGraphic monitors, CG246 and CX240, both use quite light coatings. You would have to wait some time to see new models with these light coatings, unfortunately. I'm pretty sure NEC will go this route too, but it will take some time.
 
tzhu07 said:
When I was researching 2560 res monitors, every professional review of the NEC PA271W made no mention of the anti-glare coating being an issue. When I got it, I noticed the coating as I was purposely inspecting the monitor. Then over time the grain just disappeared into the background.
Click to expand...
Did you read the PA271W TFT Central review? They mentioned it. Other sites such as PRAD, don't mention this issue. Let that be clear: the issue will NOT disappear, just you're getting used to the 'grainness', but you're seeing the same.

In short, if you want a non-grainy IPS panel, you must find a NEC 2490WUXi/2690WUXi 1st gen, or buy a recent 27" IPS panel, as nearly all of these have a bearable coating.
 
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_HU_ said:
In short, if you want a non-grainy IPS panel, you must find a NEC 2490WUXi/2690WUXi 1st gen, or buy a recent 27" IPS panel, as nearly all of these have a bearable coating.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't even call the 1st gen 2490WUXI non-grainy. It's just a less obtrusive type of grain... sort of in-between the super heavy IPS coatings and the older VA coatings... probably a tad more grain than PVA/S-PVA (at least the small models I have seen).

Another option in the 24" arena which tends to get overlooked, probably because they can't be found new anymore, are the 24" ACDs. But they will be fully glossy and won't have hardware calibration.

The key problem for the OP is the wide gamut thing. Otherwise there are IPS/PLS options available at 27" with a light or glossy coating (the samsung PLS comes to mind). As a second choice, I guess look at what Eizo has available, or wait for new models next year. For some strange reason high end models used for photo editing are given a coating that makes photos look like they have grain, when they don't... bizarre reasoning by manufacturers. Hopefully they are coming around on that.
 
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