DoubleSight DS-263N - 26"

I ordered through buy.com yesterday ($670.99 total shipped), it shipped today from Bloomington, California...

Are the non-polarized units coming from Cali?
 
Just ordered mine from ant online via amazon. Anyone else get theirs from here? Polarizer?
 
From which e-tailer would I have the best chance of receiving a polarizer version?

Another thing. I seem to get the impression that this monitor has fewer quality-control issues than the Planar version. Am I correct?
 
1. Text looks very sharp to me...

2. In regards to the question about the burnt out pixel: I have had 3 LCD monitors...

The first one I had was a Sony. It had one stuck green pixel. I took it back and got another which was perfect... not a single dead or stuck pixel.

The second one I had was a Gateway... it didn't have any stuck or dead pixels, but it did have pretty bad backlight bleed, so I took it back and got another one which was worse in regards to backlight bleed, but ALSO had a "shifted" pixel. Shifted pixels are where the pixel performs fine color wise, but is offset just so much that when it turns black, it doesn't block all the backlight and it looks like it is a "hot" pixel... but it is not... if you look closely you can see it is actually just shifted out of the way.

The third one is the Doublesight. It has a "shifted" pixel visible from straight on at the top of the monitor... and a few shifted pixels at the bottom that are only visible from certain extreme angles.

The good thing about shifted pixels are that they don't take up the whole "space" of a pixel... and sometimes are even smaller than a subpixel... so they are harder to notice than stuck or hot pixels.

I would be EXTREMELY disappointed with a stuck green pixel. I say take it back.

3. As far as which e-tailer to go with... I dunno... I bought my polarizer version from NewEgg. But don't go with them because their return policy sucks.
 
Well, I received my DS-263N today. The display is absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, it had a stuck red pixel right in the middle of the screen. It may have actually been a shifted pixel based on the description above. Under magnification on a black image, it looked like the red subpixel was off, and the two green subpixels on either side of it were stuck on. Anyway, it's going back for an exchange, no question. Hopefully, the replacement will be defect-free.

So, how do I know whether I got the A-TW polarizer?
 
I disagree with the console game issue.

Both the 360 Elite and PS3 have hdmi outputs... and an HDMI to DVI cable or an adapter is under $10 on Amazon.

The Wii will require you to purchase the VGA output made by Vdigi...

So the way mine is setup now, I have my PC on one, my PS3 on the other DVI, and will soon have my Wii on the VGA.

Bottom line: Every monitor that I have seen with multiple inputs (RCA, component, hdmi, etc) have serious problems with them. This is a way better solution.
 
Also, if under magnification you see a stuck green sub pixel, then it is probably a stuck pixel. Shifted pixels look more like dust on the screen.

If it is a stuck pixel, try using UDPixel to fix it. Shifted pixels are physically damaged and seem to be quite common, or at least on the last few monitors I've had... so I would try fixing it first if you don't have anything else wrong with it.
 
This monitor comes with an HDMI to DVI cable in the box...

Package Contents
26" LCD Display + stand
DVI-D Cable
HDMI to DVI-D Cable
VGA Cable
USB Cable
Power Cord
Users Manual
 
celiman80 said:
Also, if under magnification you see a stuck green sub pixel, then it is probably a stuck pixel. Shifted pixels look more like dust on the screen.

If it is a stuck pixel, try using UDPixel to fix it. Shifted pixels are physically damaged and seem to be quite common, or at least on the last few monitors I've had... so I would try fixing it first if you don't have anything else wrong with it.
Click to expand...

The red subpixel was black and the green subpixels on either side of it were stuck on, so maybe it was a combination of both. I've never had any success getting stuck pixels "unstuck," so I'm just going to exchange it. Amazon has a great return policy (which is why I bought it from them).
 
I've ordered mine from Amazon, as well...Delivery expected next Mon/Tues. I'll let everyone know re: polarizer or not.
 
Is there some sort of setting or physical placement I can change to reduce eye strain? At least, I think it's eye strain. I mean, I don't squint at the screen at all, it doesn't seem too bright at all, if anything it looks "too colorfull". I'm guessing that has to do with the gamut, but I think it helps picture quality more than hurt, and I don't think that should affect eye strain.

Anyway, I have the monitor about 3.5 to 4 feet away from my head, a bit below eye level. As I said above, I don't squint at my monitor, but after using it for about an hour, my eyes will noticeably ache, especially if I close them and hold it for a bit. This goes away when I stop using it. I'm using Toastyx's calibration profile and his monitor settings. Anything else I can do to reduce eye strain, I don't have much to go on reducing brightness(12.5%).
 
Neon(or whatever type of gas they're using these days) circular-tube light in the middle of the ceiling. Is there a certain criteria to which I can judge if the ambient lighting isn't enough/too much?
 
dethwing6 said:
Is there some sort of setting or physical placement I can change to reduce eye strain? At least, I think it's eye strain. I mean, I don't squint at the screen at all, it doesn't seem too bright at all, if anything it looks "too colorfull". I'm guessing that has to do with the gamut, but I think it helps picture quality more than hurt, and I don't think that should affect eye strain.
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Classic symptom of a too bright screen. Dirty secret is most of these screen are too bright for typical computer room lighting. They fight over stupid specs until they get up to 400 or 500cd/m2 and these are obscenely bright values. Which wouldn't be too bad if they acutally still turned down to a low comfortable level, BUT they don't.

Even at ZERO, these monitors are still running 200cd/m2, then you need to tweak the graphics card to reduce by altering the amount of twist on the crystals, which ends up reducing contrast and making the image quality deteriorate.

You can compenate by making your room much brighter so your LCD doesn't stand out as super bright anymore. But this always struck me as an insane waste. Making a too powerfull backlight (wastes power to be too bright) and then you solve it by boosting the room lighting to compensate (wasting more power) and generating more heat, needing more AC in the summer.

Stupid spec wars.


BTW:
I have two of those CF bulbs lighting my computer room, it is too dim for me to use one of the brighter monitors, I had to get rid of my 2405, because it was too painful to use.
 
Ok, so another quick question. The there are some DS monitors that have the polarizer but not all of them? Do all of the Planar PX2611W displays come with a polarizer?
 
jmr said:
Ok, so another quick question. The there are some DS monitors that have the polarizer but not all of them? Do all of the Planar PX2611W displays come with a polarizer?
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None of the Planar displays have the polarizer to my knowledge.
 
after looking for a while for a new monitor I think thanks to this thread I've finally settled on getting this bad boy, seems all around great without many downsides...Just have one question...Do you guys think its worth spending ~$80 extra (including shipping) to get from amazon over buy.com? Seems they have a MUCH better return/exchange policy

EDIT: It seems Amazon is out of it themselves...should i still get it through amazon? What are the chances that one of the other retailers will have the polarizer? Has anyone received one from an amazon retailer with a polarizer...if so which one?
 
I just got mine... I don't think it has the polarizer but I won't know for sure till later (I'm in a room with lots of white paint and windows, I'll report back after dark...). I bought from Buy.com and it was shipped from California.

I haven't messed with the ICC or anything yet.

It's certainly bright, and a huge step up from my old monitor. Very fast, just played a little CSS and it's much better than my laptop monitor for speed.

So far, no faults, no stuck pixels or scratches.. If indeed this is a non-polarized version, it's not bad at all. I only see a white-ish haze from above the monitor at extreme angles, but that may be the window light playing games.

I can see why people are calibrating, very bright and vibrant colors. Thanks for the ICC Toasty...
 
InspecterJones said:
after looking for a while for a new monitor I think thanks to this thread I've finally settled on getting this bad boy, seems all around great without many downsides...Just have one question...Do you guys think its worth spending ~$80 extra (including shipping) to get from amazon over buy.com? Seems they have a MUCH better return/exchange policy

EDIT: It seems Amazon is out of it themselves...should i still get it through amazon? What are the chances that one of the other retailers will have the polarizer? Has anyone received one from an amazon retailer with a polarizer...if so which one?
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I personally think Amazon is worth the extra cost. Their returns policy is much more consumer-friendly in my opinion. I set up my exchange last night and the replacement will be here tomorrow. With Buy.com, it's a two-week turnaround.
 
I think I just found my next monitor. A bit high, but oh well quality panel for a great price.
 
Deinonych said:
I personally think Amazon is worth the extra cost. Their returns policy is much more consumer-friendly in my opinion. I set up my exchange last night and the replacement will be here tomorrow. With Buy.com, it's a two-week turnaround.
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Asian Dub Foundation said:
the absolute ease with exchanging items with amazon is worth the 80 bucks premium
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yea thats what I figured too, with something like this you're better off just paying a little extra for the guarantee...plus, its not like anyone is being frugal when buying one of these, i mean just how many people actually need a 26" lcd :p
 
dethwing6 said:
Is there some sort of setting or physical placement I can change to reduce eye strain?
Click to expand...

I set brightness to 0 and put all the color gain settings at 90.1%. It's definitely a downgrade in quality but that's the only way I can use it.

I also pushed it back as far as possible (when I first got it I put the screen where my CRT was) and I light the wall behind the screen with a full spectrum fluorescent lamp. But I have no other direct lighting near it (my computer desk is under a loft bed) so I had to use that lamp even with my CRT, which was something like half as bright as this LCD.
 
dethwing6 said:
Is there some sort of setting or physical placement I can change to reduce eye strain? At least, I think it's eye strain. I mean, I don't squint at the screen at all, it doesn't seem too bright at all, if anything it looks "too colorfull". I'm guessing that has to do with the gamut, but I think it helps picture quality more than hurt, and I don't think that should affect eye strain.

Anyway, I have the monitor about 3.5 to 4 feet away from my head, a bit below eye level. As I said above, I don't squint at my monitor, but after using it for about an hour, my eyes will noticeably ache, especially if I close them and hold it for a bit. This goes away when I stop using it. I'm using Toastyx's calibration profile and his monitor settings. Anything else I can do to reduce eye strain, I don't have much to go on reducing brightness(12.5%).
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My first DS-263N gave me eyestrain pretty bad, but my replacement that I received today seems ok in that regard. My first one had terrible flicker on that one Lagom test and the colors were way off on the normal settings (I could never get the colors right no matter how much I played around with the OSD). If you have these same symptoms you might want to think about getting a replacement - it might just your particular monitor is bad.

On my replacement text appears more clear - everything does actually, the colors are more accurate and appear more uniform throughout the monitor. It's hard to compare exactly since I can't see both at the same time.

There is no noticeable back light bleed on this one, but I think it doesn't have the AT-W polarizer, because it appears to have white glow at slight viewing angles. Since I work mostly on white backgrounds anyway, that doesn't bother me too much.

My replacement also has a single stuck/dead black pixel near the middle of the screen with a damaged blue one to the left of it and a damaged red one to the right of it. I can hardly see the damaged ones, but the black one is very noticeable. UDPixel hasn't fixed it yet, but I'll try to run it overnight to see if that does anything. That's the only thing that really bothers me about it.

I think getting a monitor without any issues isn't very likely, so I'll probably not try for another replacement (especially since I have to pay shipping one way).

If your monitor has enough issues that really bother you, though, I would suggest trying your luck with a replacement.
 
I do think mine does not have the polarizer. From certain angles you do see a white glow. I'll have to play with some dark games to see if it really bothers me. So far it really doesn't.

Just noticed one flaw, slightly off center on a black background there's a small grey spot that looks like a small hair. Really not bad though, I had to really look for it. I'll be using UDPixel to check it out in more depth.

It appears that Buy.com, shipped from California is the source of most of these monitors without the polarizer. Something to consider if you're sensitive to that.
 
For what it's worth, my story directly contradicts the warehouse location/retailer theory.

I ordered one of these monitors three weeks ago (3/19) from buy.com. It shipped the next day from Bloomington, CA and arrived the day after that. I got one of the non-polarizer versions; I didn't know there were polarizer versions at the time but I did find the brightness excessive, since I have my computer in a house as opposed to out in broad daylight. That unit had backlight bleed and a row of three dead pixels in the middle-left of the screen, and the Doublesight emblem wasn't stuck on straight.

Needless to say this was NOT a keeper but before sending it back to buy.com I wanted to see how Doublesight would treat the case. After going back and forth with 4 emails I found out that they're serious about their 6-pixel return policy
and don't consider moderate BLB a problem at all. They did inform me that 4 pixels in the middle of the screen would have qualified as defective, though. Fair enough, I'd only wasted a few days so I got it back to the retailer for exchange within the 14 day window. One thing that struck me as odd is how buy.com sent the package out Fedex but handled the return through UPS. The replacement also shipped from the same Bloomington, CA location on 4/7 and arrived a day later just like before.

The replacement is a polarizer version. I'm 100% sure because the difference is really obvious. The redshift ToastyX described is completely unlike the white shift on the old version; if your view is close to edge-on you'll have no trouble seeing it. White shift vs. red shift doesn't matter to me though since the viewing angles are quite good either way, but what really impressed me is how much lower the brightness is. 100% on this one is about where 0% was on the old one. The old one was just insultingly bright even at 0 but this one looks just right at ~20%.

So in summary, same retailer, same shipping location, one had a polarizer and one didn't. And the polarizer is definitely better :)

P.S. My first post woot!
 
Hammerhead666 said:
This monitor comes with an HDMI to DVI cable in the box...
Click to expand...

I completely forgot about that... I had ordered one a while back just in case it didn't come with one, and just used that instead.

One thing I have become increasingly unhappy with, besides the back light bleeding which seems to get worse as it heats up, is the banding issue. I was using Stellarium (the planetarium software) the other day and noticed that the sunset had a riddiculous amount of banding... Completely ruins the effect of the program.

I don't know a whole lot about banding, so my question is this: Can it be fixed in a firmware update? And how likely is it that DoubleSight will release a firmware update in the first place?
 
celiman80 said:
I completely forgot about that... I had ordered one a while back just in case it didn't come with one, and just used that instead.

One thing I have become increasingly unhappy with, besides the back light bleeding which seems to get worse as it heats up, is the banding issue. I was using Stellarium (the planetarium software) the other day and noticed that the sunset had a riddiculous amount of banding... Completely ruins the effect of the program.

I don't know a whole lot about banding, so my question is this: Can it be fixed in a firmware update? And how likely is it that DoubleSight will release a firmware update in the first place?
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Have you tried setting the DV Mode to Text? That should make the banding go away; all the other modes have problems.
 
I posted a few pictures of my monitor with the polarizer, and at first I didn't seem to get what people were saying about the brightness being too high. I guess I haven't experienced a non-polarizer version. The red and green shifts are definitely noticeable and the brightness is amazingly good in the sense that it doesn't hurt me at all. Overall it's worth it to get a polarizer, I bought it from Amazon and it shipped out from Kentucky. The monitor's been running for a week and I think it's well worth the money.

DSC00959.jpg


DSC00956.jpg


DSC00949.jpg
 
Well... I don't have the polarizer. I also don't think I have any dead or stuck pixels.

However, I have a defect just to the right of center. It appears to be a small tear in the lcd film. With black, blue and red displays with UDPixel, I can see what appears to be a light grey hair. Can't see it with the green though. It's really bad with the black. If I look from the bottom right corner, I can't see it at all, but to look straight on or from above, it appears to be a small slit.

Could this be a split in the lcd layer? This appears to be the only fault.
 
Well I received mine, from Tennessee, and I can't notice any red or green glow at any angle. No dead or stuck pixels. It seems to have the white glow at angles, and the BLB in the upper right corner other's have reported. So am I to assume this is a non-polarizer version? Any speculation on my chances of getting this replaced with the polarizer version directly from DS should I decide to exchange it? Otherwise, it's a beautiful monitor.
 
I have read this whole thread and I was hoping to get a few questions answered. let me start with the fact that I have been thru 4 lcd's in the past two weeks, and I am at my wits end. I know that I want a 24 to 26 inch lcd for gaming, surfing, etc. I originally bought the gateway 2400 which was pretty good for a tn glossy panel. I actually like how the colors pop on glossy panel. problem with that monitor is it had a stuck pixel. retuned it for a like unit, this time dead pixel. returned it again and the new one had a stuck pixel. decided that the gateway might have quality issues and the manager at best buy offered me the samsung 2693hm 25.5 inch for 399.99. i was excited, this is a 600 dollar monitor online. well this had a stuck pixel in the upper corner. i was going to live with that, but the more i used the monitor the more i felt the colors washed out too much when changing viewing angles. stumbled across this thread, and this sounds like an amazing monitor if you get one with not stuck/dead pixels and polarized. reading the reviews here, it seems like this monitor is the luck of the draw. how many got one without a stuck pixel? obviously owners of this feel that it is worth the price premium over a tn panel, but being that you cant buy it locally, it is luck of the draw. Does anyone think one should wait to buy this until all the units are shipping polorized? any info, input would be much apprecited. thanks in advance
 
batai37 said:
Well I received mine, from Tennessee, and I can't notice any red or green glow at any angle. No dead or stuck pixels. It seems to have the white glow at angles, and the BLB in the upper right corner other's have reported. So am I to assume this is a non-polarizer version? Any speculation on my chances of getting this replaced with the polarizer version directly from DS should I decide to exchange it? Otherwise, it's a beautiful monitor.
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I'd really like to find out if Doublesight will exchange the unit due to a missing polarizer. From experience I'd expect an average LCD company to deny the very existence of polarizers since they tend to deny everything else like different panel types, input lag etc. Contact them and tell us what you learn! If they're willing to call the non-polarized versions defective and replace them that would completely rock. I have serious doubts though due to my own experience.

bjrebo1 said:
stumbled across this thread, and this sounds like an amazing monitor if you get one with not stuck/dead pixels and polarized. reading the reviews here, it seems like this monitor is the luck of the draw. how many got one without a stuck pixel? obviously owners of this feel that it is worth the price premium over a tn panel, but being that you cant buy it locally, it is luck of the draw. Does anyone think one should wait to buy this until all the units are shipping polorized? any info, input would be much apprecited. thanks in advance
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I bought before I knew about the polarizer lottery, and I don't honestly know if I would have bought one knowing what I know now. I don't think I got that lucky because from the reports here it looks like a bit over 50/50 odds for getting a polarizer, but I didn't really bargain on having to send it back in the first place.

If you're not afraid of negotiating nicely with customer service and shipping stuff back, I'd say buy it from a company with a very good return/exchange policy and keep exchanging until you get a satisfactory one. From the sounds of it you probably won't have to exchange more than once but it might still be a toss-up.
 
I turned the brightness down to 0% last night, it actually helped quite a bit, the eye aches went away. It's weird even though the change on screen is hardly noticeable. I might attribute this to a lack of sleep this week too(didn't notice it on the weekend).

For those worrying about quality issue, I wouldn't let it get to you. I believe through the technology of IPS panels, stuck or dead pixels are much less obvious than TN's. I had an Acer with a dead pixel and a Samsung with a stuck red and stuck green(that I could fix with the pressure method but kept coming back). Holy shit, those annoyed me to no end. And it wasn't a "I know it's there, so now it will bug me", you could notice it easily. And they weren't in the center field of vision

On my 263N, I noticed a stuck red pixel, but I can barely see it. I know where it is(lower left), but I never notice it when using the monitor. I have to squint, pull my head in a few feet and put on a black background, oh there it is. Same with the backlight bleed in the upper right(turning down the brightness obviously makes this go away a lot, and so will ambient lighting...who plays in the dark?), I really have to go looking for it. I haven't seen any difference on my games even if I was looking for it. I had a 216BW with a horrible backlight bleed in the MIDDLE. And I could see that in games, traversing through my scenes like some dead night elf.

That's been my experience with the quality issues on this monitor. They're quite minor IMO, and after lowering the brightness, don't affect my usage at all.
 
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