Dell P2314H "pixelated"?

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saito1234

Weaksauce
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Apr 7, 2010
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I wonder if anyone else experienced this problem - I replaced my TN monitor with a P2314H, which is my first IPS, and even after a few weeks, it feels that the screen is somewhat pixelated compared to any of my previous monitors.

This shouldn't be the case, as it's running in 1920x1080 and I look it from the same distance.

What can cause something like this? Is it maybe the anti-glare coating, which makes the screen looks like that?

Also my other concern is that on some colors (for example on orange, or light blue) it's like I can clearly see the individual pixels... can this may be because of the FRC? I find it very annoying, and interestingly I didn't experience anything similiar on my previous TN monitor.
 
I believe on the P2314H and P2714H models the sub pixels are in an unusual BGR order instead of RGB which messes up font rendering. See if you can take a close up macro photo to check. One random option to try is remove the screen from the stand and put it back on upside down. Then rotate the image via your graphics card and see if it then looks ok
 
There is a cleartype tuner built into Win7/8 that should let you specify BGR or RGB pixels. If on an earlier OS, there is a PowerToy utility provided by Microsoft with similar adjustment functionality.
 
Thanks, but I think this isn't the problem. Fonts look nice, what I meant about being pixelated is the screen itself, like pictures, and backgrounds, etc.

Instead of "pixelated" maybe "grainy" would be a better word, as the whole display looks like that, but it's a little hard to describe.
 
If the screen looks like it is covered in very fine transparent sandpaper that sparkles slightly when shifting your position, that is likely the anti-glare coating. Did your prior monitors have AG coatings, or were they glossy?

FRC usually results in what looks like faint random static noise overlaid on the image, and rapidly changes even when the screen image is not moving.

Another possibility is that pixels are large enough that you can see the sub-pixels. Showing a pure blue (or red, or green) image means that only 1/3 of the display surface is lit, leaving gaps in the grid where the other colors would be. This effect would be increased if there are particularly large gaps between the sub-pixels as well (the source of what some people call the screen-door effect).
 
Hmm, I think it might be the anti-glare coating, as it really looks like some very fine transparent sandpaper.
My previous TN monitor (23" Full HD Samsung) also had an anti-glare, and I think it was probably stronger, as the screen remained somewhat more unaffected from the sunshine. However, while using my previous Samsung TN monitor, I never felt the screen was dirty, or 'pixelated', like with this monitor, so it feels a little disturbing.

This monitor is a lot more sharper though, than my TN was, so maybe that's why it's more noticeable? I'm not sure.

While looking at some colors (like orange, or light blue) I think it can be felt even more (I'm not sure if it's also because of the FRC, or not).

Also, I expected a little more, when I read that it's "flicker-free", and there is no PWM, but I can still feel some flickering when looking at the screen, it's especially the most noticeable while looking at a page with a single color (a background, for example), what exactly can cause this?
I also felt something similiar with my previous TN monitor, and I hoped it was the PWM, but looks like not.
 
The shape of the sub-pixels can also play a part in the perceived sharpness. Usually both modern TN and IPS are good in this respect, but *VA panels can have shapes that depend on their brightness.

It's possible the distance between the RGB filters and the AG coating would have an effect, but I've never seen a measurement of this distance in reviews or specs.

FRC can cause flicker (particularly at darker levels), but it should appear more like faint static or crawling patterns than strong flickering.

Are you sure the flickering is not coming from an external source (e.g. nearby CFL lighting)? Even incandescent bulbs flicker slightly. Make sure you are using a digital connector (not VGA), as the analog signal can flicker from interference. If you still believe there is PWM flicker from the display, there are ways you can test for this.
 
Sorry if it was misunderstandable, I didn't mean the PWM flickering (and there's no other light sources here atm, so that can't be the case).

The flicker I see is more like when I'm looking at any type of colored background, it doesn't feel like when looking at a white paper for example... instead I feel some sort of disturbing flickering, maybe as you said a static noise also describes what I feel (sometimes I'm not sure, if it's the anti-glare coating, or a static noise, it just feels grainy to me).

I read that on most displays nowadays most people can't make a difference between 6+2bit with FRC or true 8-bit, because it looks almost exactly the same, however I don't have a true 8-bit screen to test it myself, sadly, so I can only guess.
 
Does the new display seem to have cooler colors than your past monitors? You might try either calibration or just adjusting the display to be slightly warmer in case the intensity of blue is causing problems. Be sure that the display is not excessively bright as well.

6+2bit FRC will always cause some artifacts, and their visibility will vary from person to person. There are good and bad implementations of the FRC ("good" implementations trying to hide the side effects), but unfortunately I don't have a good reference of how to identify both.
 
No, in fact my previous display was a Samsung XL2370 which was a lot cooler in colors, I think this is neutral.

Even after using this display for a month, the most annoying thing for me is that I can see some sort of pixelation, which I have never seen yet on my previous (TN) monitors.

It's very easy to see it, when I select any text in the browser (or any other application), and the background becomes light blue, instead of white. Light blue will never be light blue, instead I can see a light blue color, where every single pixel next to each other looks different in color (one of them is lighter, one of them is darker, and every pixel looks different). It's also the same in Skype, when selecting the name of a contact, etc.
I can see the same disturbing pixel problems in other colors too, like orange. This is the best way I could describe it.
 
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