Eizo Smart Insight

[Jonao]

Does anyone have any experience using an Eizo monitor with the "Smart Insight" feature?

http://www.eizo.com/global/products/foris/fs2333/index.html

A Quote from the above page:

"Master the Game with Smart Insight

You can’t defeat what you can’t see. With that in mind, EIZO developed Smart Insight technology to vastly improve visibility in dark areas of the screen. With Smart Insight, you can see the vital details that would otherwise be hidden so you can surprise your opponent before he surprises you. Conventional gaming monitors apply gamma correction across the screen to improve visibility which results in blurring and reduced contrast in the dark areas, The FS2333’s Smart Insight uses a technique called tone mapping which preserves the image details without reducing contrast. The difference is so significant that it’s almost like an unfair advantage.


Smart Insight comes with a total of five user-adjustable RTS and FPS settings."

I'd like to know how if any of you that have used this monitor enjoy the feature. What is your experience with it? Pros and Cons? Messing with the gamma is nothing new to FPS gamers, but having a monitor that essentially does that, while not utterly destroying image quality might be something I'd be interested in.

Thanks

 

[Osirison]

I really like Eizo being into professional gaming, its also the first pro brand that is improving the input lag which is great!
This way they luckly bring the monitors with real color back to the younger people who probably only ever have seen photo's on TN monitors.

Smart Insight is I think more a way to get even more gamers to use Eizo monitors, since Eizo already do not use extreme dynamic contrasts or not use it at all in their monitors.

Its just the lack of greyscales and to aggressive dynamic range processing that makes dark areas even darker on the typical TN based screens.

I'm not sure what Super Resolution actually does which is a feature of Smart Insight.
The blur is usually created by the anti aliasing process to blur out jaggies so simply turn off anti aliasing?

 

[Sycraft]

I've not seen one but my guess is it is a different gamma curve. I have an NEC monitor and I get a similar result using the L* gamma curve. It gives me full shadow detail, without blowing out highlights. 100% worth the price of a calibratable monitor in my opinion.

Basically the idea is that it is a perceptually uniform gamma curve, rather than a straight power function like is normally used.

So my guess is Eizo is doing the same sort of thing, maybe even the exact same curve. More perceptually uniform so you can see details in the dark colours, but not just a straight increase which of course blows out the highlights.

 

[Sailor_Moon]

Basically the idea is that it is a perceptually uniform gamma curve, rather than a straight power function like is normally used.

Just a little note for those who are unfamiliar with gradation curves:

While L* is perceptual uniform (that means that the available tonal values are used most intelligent when transforming data from a linear space) we should add that the content must be gammacorrected with its inverse. Regarding RGB working color spaces that is true for ECI-RGB v2. A good choice for RAW development.

When simply applying the L* output characteristic to material corrected with respect to a sRGB or Gamma 2.2 gradation the dark midtones will be brighter than intended. That's OK for non color critical work – specially under problematic ambient conditions. But in most cases it should be sufficient to care for the intended characteristic on display side in unmanaged applications: A loss of shadow detail in games is often simply caused by a Gamma 2.2 instead of sRGB gradation because many displays offer no possibility of reaching it via its electronic.

So my guess is Eizo is doing the same sort of thing, maybe even the exact same curve.

I don't know if Eizo refers to its "Power1" and "Power2" modes (probably not). But here's their characteristic in form of the corresponding gamma for the FS2331 (grey: sRGB):

http://www.prad.de/new/monitore/test/2010/test-eizo-fs2331-bk-teil9.html

Best regards

Denis