Jim Robbins
Weaksauce
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2006
- Messages
- 117
Ok, you have probably all seen 10e's sweet review by now. I am a little behind, but I have some extra pics and comments as I was one of the five... Here it is below, or full text on my site at http://www.bexox.com/BenQV2400W.htm
BenQ V2400W Monitor
See Last Year's Showdown for some comparisons.
By Jim Robbins - June 2008
jim XdotX robbins XatX gmail XdotX com
Well, I have in my hands another 24" computer monitor. This one arrived at my home under some bad mojo and my review is a week later than I intended. You see, the day before it arrived my sump pump failed and I had to take everything out of my basement (computers, theater, desks, furniture) and try to dry it all out. Of course, the basement didn't dry well, so I had to trash the carpet and cut out the lower 4 feet of all my drywall. Now, it's like I have an unfinished basement and my insurance company is trying to get out of paying for all they should.... But I digress. On to the Monitor!
It arrived at my house directly from BenQ and it was double boxed. The box seemed pretty light, so I wondered if there was even a monitor inside. Of course, it was in there, along with a standard power cord, VGA cable, Warranty card, and useless instruction sheet and CD. Does anyone actually use the CD that comes with their monitor? I was pretty disappointed that it didn't come with an HDMI or DVI cable. At least one of those should have been included. No one will want to use VGA on a 24" monitor. Here are a few pics of the unboxing.
(Note: All source images are in 1600x1200. You have been warned.)
The images I had seen of this particular monitor didn't seem to do much for me. I thought I would hate the base with the offset stand support and the silver color, but I was wrong. I was really pleasantly surprised with the overall look of the unit. The shiny black edges were nice, as well as the two tone black and silver in various places. It looks really nice sitting by my PS3. In the following shots you can get a little of the look and feel and also see the DVI, HDMI, and VGA ports. there is also a standard power jack to the left of those inputs. Oddly, there is a headphone jack on the left side of the monitor. I don't thing the screen has any audio inputs, so this must be an output. The only way to get audio to this screen however, would be through the HDMI port. I'll have to try that later...
It looks like this is a TN based panel, so it won't have the viewing angles that the PVA/MVA/IPS panels have, but it seemed better than other TN panels than I have used in the past. Also, since the retail price is right around $500 and I paid several hundred more for my non-TN panels last year, it seemed to be an acceptable compromise. Check out the angle shots below. Notice how the angles are pretty decent unless you are looking up at the screen. Btw, that last shot with the grey is supposed to be a solid color. You can see the shift some, but it isn't very noticeable in a normal viewing height. I am using a DVI cable for the computer hook up, btw.
Ok, now that you know you shouldn't sit on the floor and watch this thing, you are probably wondering if it blurs while you are gaming. Well, it's an LCD right? So it has to blur some, but is it acceptable? Good ol' PixPerAn has a few tests that will show that off for you. I tried it with AMA off for the first shots. The last pic has AMA on, so it looks like it helps to diminish the blur. Also, this year's version of AMA doesn't make the screen seem to flicker.
I did some solid color testing to see how good the color uniformity was at normal viewing height. You can see the results here. Also, you can notice that there is a minor amount of backlight bleed at the top and slightly more at the bottom. For normal desktop use, you can't see it. It is slightly visible in dark movie scenes or games but it still didn't bother me too much. YMMV. The last few shots show some gradients and convergence. The pictures are a little grainy here, but the convergence was fine and the gradients smooth enough.
Now, on to some Input Lag Testing!! At 60fps, one frame is on the screen for 16.6ms. LCD monitors run at a solid 60fps at all times. Well, that's how fast it's theoretically updated anyway. In my tests, I could find no input lag. That seems impossible to me. No input lag? Really? Well, in the following images, the CRT is on the left and the BenQ is on the right. I was using Virtual Stopwatch Pro from Spring Creek Software and my my smallest shutter speed on my camera to take the pics. In like 95% of the cases where I could see the image from the CRT side, the numbers were identical. Even when the Scaler was set to Aspect it was still the same. But, is it really the same? Well, I am guessing it must be less than 16ms, as that's how long it takes the screen to refresh so it can't actually put the numbers on there faster than that. So, I even cranked up the crt to 85HZ and left the LCD at 60hz. It was still virtually identical most of the time. I suspect the video card (EVGA 8800GTS G92) was updating both screens at the same time even with different refresh rates since I was in Clone-screen mode. Anyway, I am pretty satisfied that this is the fastest 24" panel I have used, and certainly less than 1 frame per second. Check out the pics... Aspect mode for 1280x768 for the left two, and 1600x1200 in 1:1 mode for the right two.
-
One person on the forums asked if AMA had any additional lag. In the next few shots you will see it with both panel scaling on and AMA on. Looks like it is still no lag, or at least less than a frame's worth. You can see that there is a hint of fading in or out on these shots. It must be a part of the way the AMA works.
In my last set of reviews I plugged in nearly every device I had to the monitors. This time, I only tried my PS3 since it was the only console easily accessible from the pile of junk in my garage. I had to throw everything in there from my stupid basement flood, you know. Anyway, I used the HDMI cable for the hookup and just checked the main menu at 1080p and Spiderman 2 on Blu-ray. Well, the main menu all worked fine, but the BD had some strange frame tearing at first. I went in, changed the scaling to 1:1 and the Overscan to Off on the BenQ and the tearing went away. I am not sure what was causing it but it's gone now. Even though the tearing was gone, there was still a bit of odd video noise that was visible above and below the normal 1920x1080 viewing area. I don't know if the was the fault of firmware or something the PS3 was sending with the signal, but it was only visible on scenes that were completely black. *shrug* Oh, and don't try to send a 24p signal over HDMI to the monitor; use 60p only! I think I crashed it because I couldn't do anything with the menu buttons or even switch the inputs until I turned the PS3 and BenQ off then back on. The first pic shows the frame tearing on the dude's tie, then some normal pics and then the main menu.
Everything seems pretty good so far, right? Well, not exactly. As I was pulling out the BD, I was about to put in a PS3 game and give it a run then I noticed a stuck on green pixel in the upper left. Man, stuck on pixels tick me off so bad. I tried to rub it a bit, but it didn't go away and I didn't want to break the screen or anything. I didn't notice this at first, but seems all too obvious now. It is visible in some of my screen shots but not in others but it is most certainly stuck on all the time now. Dang, only 2 hours of use and this! Argh! Well, that's not the only thing wrong. The touch buttons are also terrible. Now, me and touch sensitive buttons don't get along. I don't know if it it's because I wash my hands all the time, or if I am just not an electrical kind of person, but I have to touch these buttons two or three times before the recognize the input. I don't think manufacturers should EVER use stuff like this. It frustrates me almost as much as a stuck on pixel.
Well, overall a decent monitor with just a few drawbacks. I think I like last year's panels a little bit better as they have better viewing angles, no stuck pixels, and buttons that I can actually make function. Of course the older guys have higher input lag, but still not terrible. I'll still die easily in games even if I have a slight blur or lag a frame or two. Now, this monitor has less inputs than my other BenQ as well, but it can be had for half the price, and the older model is now very scarce. I do know that BenQ has awesome customer service as my older FP241Z developed a strange line across the bottom. I called them up, they issued and RMA, I sent it off and got a screen back with a new panel in just under 2 weeks total. So, perhaps if I call them they can get me a screen without this dang stuck on green pixel. Anyway, If you have any questions please shoot them over to me in the forum. Thanks!
BenQ V2400W Monitor
See Last Year's Showdown for some comparisons.
By Jim Robbins - June 2008
jim XdotX robbins XatX gmail XdotX com
Well, I have in my hands another 24" computer monitor. This one arrived at my home under some bad mojo and my review is a week later than I intended. You see, the day before it arrived my sump pump failed and I had to take everything out of my basement (computers, theater, desks, furniture) and try to dry it all out. Of course, the basement didn't dry well, so I had to trash the carpet and cut out the lower 4 feet of all my drywall. Now, it's like I have an unfinished basement and my insurance company is trying to get out of paying for all they should.... But I digress. On to the Monitor!
It arrived at my house directly from BenQ and it was double boxed. The box seemed pretty light, so I wondered if there was even a monitor inside. Of course, it was in there, along with a standard power cord, VGA cable, Warranty card, and useless instruction sheet and CD. Does anyone actually use the CD that comes with their monitor? I was pretty disappointed that it didn't come with an HDMI or DVI cable. At least one of those should have been included. No one will want to use VGA on a 24" monitor. Here are a few pics of the unboxing.
(Note: All source images are in 1600x1200. You have been warned.)
The images I had seen of this particular monitor didn't seem to do much for me. I thought I would hate the base with the offset stand support and the silver color, but I was wrong. I was really pleasantly surprised with the overall look of the unit. The shiny black edges were nice, as well as the two tone black and silver in various places. It looks really nice sitting by my PS3. In the following shots you can get a little of the look and feel and also see the DVI, HDMI, and VGA ports. there is also a standard power jack to the left of those inputs. Oddly, there is a headphone jack on the left side of the monitor. I don't thing the screen has any audio inputs, so this must be an output. The only way to get audio to this screen however, would be through the HDMI port. I'll have to try that later...
It looks like this is a TN based panel, so it won't have the viewing angles that the PVA/MVA/IPS panels have, but it seemed better than other TN panels than I have used in the past. Also, since the retail price is right around $500 and I paid several hundred more for my non-TN panels last year, it seemed to be an acceptable compromise. Check out the angle shots below. Notice how the angles are pretty decent unless you are looking up at the screen. Btw, that last shot with the grey is supposed to be a solid color. You can see the shift some, but it isn't very noticeable in a normal viewing height. I am using a DVI cable for the computer hook up, btw.
Ok, now that you know you shouldn't sit on the floor and watch this thing, you are probably wondering if it blurs while you are gaming. Well, it's an LCD right? So it has to blur some, but is it acceptable? Good ol' PixPerAn has a few tests that will show that off for you. I tried it with AMA off for the first shots. The last pic has AMA on, so it looks like it helps to diminish the blur. Also, this year's version of AMA doesn't make the screen seem to flicker.
I did some solid color testing to see how good the color uniformity was at normal viewing height. You can see the results here. Also, you can notice that there is a minor amount of backlight bleed at the top and slightly more at the bottom. For normal desktop use, you can't see it. It is slightly visible in dark movie scenes or games but it still didn't bother me too much. YMMV. The last few shots show some gradients and convergence. The pictures are a little grainy here, but the convergence was fine and the gradients smooth enough.
Now, on to some Input Lag Testing!! At 60fps, one frame is on the screen for 16.6ms. LCD monitors run at a solid 60fps at all times. Well, that's how fast it's theoretically updated anyway. In my tests, I could find no input lag. That seems impossible to me. No input lag? Really? Well, in the following images, the CRT is on the left and the BenQ is on the right. I was using Virtual Stopwatch Pro from Spring Creek Software and my my smallest shutter speed on my camera to take the pics. In like 95% of the cases where I could see the image from the CRT side, the numbers were identical. Even when the Scaler was set to Aspect it was still the same. But, is it really the same? Well, I am guessing it must be less than 16ms, as that's how long it takes the screen to refresh so it can't actually put the numbers on there faster than that. So, I even cranked up the crt to 85HZ and left the LCD at 60hz. It was still virtually identical most of the time. I suspect the video card (EVGA 8800GTS G92) was updating both screens at the same time even with different refresh rates since I was in Clone-screen mode. Anyway, I am pretty satisfied that this is the fastest 24" panel I have used, and certainly less than 1 frame per second. Check out the pics... Aspect mode for 1280x768 for the left two, and 1600x1200 in 1:1 mode for the right two.
-
One person on the forums asked if AMA had any additional lag. In the next few shots you will see it with both panel scaling on and AMA on. Looks like it is still no lag, or at least less than a frame's worth. You can see that there is a hint of fading in or out on these shots. It must be a part of the way the AMA works.
In my last set of reviews I plugged in nearly every device I had to the monitors. This time, I only tried my PS3 since it was the only console easily accessible from the pile of junk in my garage. I had to throw everything in there from my stupid basement flood, you know. Anyway, I used the HDMI cable for the hookup and just checked the main menu at 1080p and Spiderman 2 on Blu-ray. Well, the main menu all worked fine, but the BD had some strange frame tearing at first. I went in, changed the scaling to 1:1 and the Overscan to Off on the BenQ and the tearing went away. I am not sure what was causing it but it's gone now. Even though the tearing was gone, there was still a bit of odd video noise that was visible above and below the normal 1920x1080 viewing area. I don't know if the was the fault of firmware or something the PS3 was sending with the signal, but it was only visible on scenes that were completely black. *shrug* Oh, and don't try to send a 24p signal over HDMI to the monitor; use 60p only! I think I crashed it because I couldn't do anything with the menu buttons or even switch the inputs until I turned the PS3 and BenQ off then back on. The first pic shows the frame tearing on the dude's tie, then some normal pics and then the main menu.
Everything seems pretty good so far, right? Well, not exactly. As I was pulling out the BD, I was about to put in a PS3 game and give it a run then I noticed a stuck on green pixel in the upper left. Man, stuck on pixels tick me off so bad. I tried to rub it a bit, but it didn't go away and I didn't want to break the screen or anything. I didn't notice this at first, but seems all too obvious now. It is visible in some of my screen shots but not in others but it is most certainly stuck on all the time now. Dang, only 2 hours of use and this! Argh! Well, that's not the only thing wrong. The touch buttons are also terrible. Now, me and touch sensitive buttons don't get along. I don't know if it it's because I wash my hands all the time, or if I am just not an electrical kind of person, but I have to touch these buttons two or three times before the recognize the input. I don't think manufacturers should EVER use stuff like this. It frustrates me almost as much as a stuck on pixel.
Well, overall a decent monitor with just a few drawbacks. I think I like last year's panels a little bit better as they have better viewing angles, no stuck pixels, and buttons that I can actually make function. Of course the older guys have higher input lag, but still not terrible. I'll still die easily in games even if I have a slight blur or lag a frame or two. Now, this monitor has less inputs than my other BenQ as well, but it can be had for half the price, and the older model is now very scarce. I do know that BenQ has awesome customer service as my older FP241Z developed a strange line across the bottom. I called them up, they issued and RMA, I sent it off and got a screen back with a new panel in just under 2 weeks total. So, perhaps if I call them they can get me a screen without this dang stuck on green pixel. Anyway, If you have any questions please shoot them over to me in the forum. Thanks!