HP ZR24w

The standard 17" MacBook Pro display is 1680 x 1050, but Apple also offers a "high resolution" option which 1920 x 1200 and that is what I have with the matte anti-glare coating.

Since I believe that IPS displays are not available on any laptops, I am not sure what you mean by crap here. Perhaps you are complaining about the glossy displays? Otherwise, I would be surprised if Apple did not have the best laptop displays on the market.

I just meant that there's nothing special about them - they're basic, glossy TN's on everything but the 17" MBP, which you have. I believe the 17" MBP has a 1920x1200 rgb led backlit display, which is very good for a TN, but the rest are nothing special, especially the dated 1280x800 displays found on the smaller macbooks. There are many notebooks with displays these days that are much better than what can be found on most macbooks, the Dell studio XPS 16 being one of them.

As far as IPS panels on laptops go, I believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that the last laptop to feature an IPS panel was one of the older (before lenovo took over) IBM T60p's.
 
I'm doing 2 on my GTX280 and I just bought a cheapo 8600GS so I can hook my current 1920x1200 TN panel monitor up too. Mainly going to be using the HP's of course but an extra 1920x1200 on the side for web browsing won't hurt :p

I can't wait until they come, and I'm going to be very disappointed if I get dead pixels on mine because with Cost Central you can't return them!
 
I'm doing 2 on my GTX280 and I just bought a cheapo 8600GS so I can hook my current 1920x1200 TN panel monitor up too. Mainly going to be using the HP's of course but an extra 1920x1200 on the side for web browsing won't hurt :p

I can't wait until they come, and I'm going to be very disappointed if I get dead pixels on mine because with Cost Central you can't return them!

Wow I didn't know you couldn't return there because of that.. makes me think twice before ordering. What is HP's stance on dead pixels if you order straight from them?
 
I have 2 questions for the owners of this ZR24W monitor:
- Does it emit any elctronic buzz/whine sound? Many monitor of this size have this problem, often it is audible only at certain brightness values like B<90% and of course you won't hear the noise if you are not in a silent room
- How does this monitor handle low brightness image quality? Many monitors show apparent good image quality only at high brightness/luminance, if you work in a dimly lit room at night and you need to turn down overall luminance some monitors don't go down at all, some others show really poor image quality, how does this monitor behave? How bright remains when both br. and contr. are set to zero? I should mention I need low brightness mainly for text/web browsing usage, especially with white backgrounds. I know that photos and video need higher brightness to show right colors.

Thanks a lot for your answers
 
Hi, I was wondering if anybody has tried this monitor with a PS3 or Xbox 360, does it have 1:1 scaling?
 
I have 2 questions for the owners of this ZR24W monitor:
- Does it emit any elctronic buzz/whine sound? Many monitor of this size have this problem, often it is audible only at certain brightness values like B<90% and of course you won't hear the noise if you are not in a silent room
- How does this monitor handle low brightness image quality? Many monitors show apparent good image quality only at high brightness/luminance, if you work in a dimly lit room at night and you need to turn down overall luminance some monitors don't go down at all, some others show really poor image quality, how does this monitor behave? How bright remains when both br. and contr. are set to zero? I should mention I need low brightness mainly for text/web browsing usage, especially with white backgrounds. I know that photos and video need higher brightness to show right colors.

Thanks a lot for your answers

1) No buzz, not even on bright white screens with brightness very high. My 2209WA had a noticeable buzz on certain pages that I could pretty easily detect, so I think my ears are okay at detecting this sort of thing.

2) IPS panels are usually the best at this. Off-angle glow is reduced at lower brightness levels and contrast is either improved, or stays the same while black levels are reduced from lowering the brightness.
 
Great to hear so many have received theirs and are liking them. In catching up with this now very fast moving thread:

I think it's only fair to include the pixel response time in lag measurments. For the time being I decided to standardize on 50% pixel response or so:

Using this method I got an average total response of 13.4 ms to 50% pixel change per bb23's pictures.

I'll post some pics later to better explain how I calculated this ... no imageshack here

That's pretty good. And if this monitor will do 75 or 80 Hz proper, that would make it a real winner for gaming.
Thanks for your analysis. I am looking forward to your pics and further explanation.

The problem is the pixel response time varies depending on what colors are changing and whether or not there's overdrive.

I prefer to think of it this way: Beyond the lag, it's going as fast as the technology allows, so I don't worry about response times. I just care if there's a significant delay before the frame is displayed.
Good stuff. I am thinking I should re-post some of these posts on the input lag thread because they have been very helpful in explaining that test further. Is that okay with you guys?


Kind of as an aside, but why does everyone's cameras have CCD problems?
I know mine has some dead pixels - probably because I got it at least 5 years ago.

Just from pure curiosity; has anybody got time to check how this monitor looks with 1680x1050 resolution? How sharp the picture is with it, etc?

I have had myself some problems when using 1920x1200 resolution with my work monitor (Dell 2408WFP), as the text in documents, browser, etc has been too small for my eyes. Unfortunately 2408WFP doesn't really support 1680x1050, but in ZR24w's spec that resolution is listed. So I was wondering whether ZR24w is really usable with such resolution or not, in case 1920x1200 would be still too much for me?
I used to have to set my Samsung from 1600x1200 to 1280x1024 to make various spreadsheets and database browsers easier to read. I thought I might have to do something similar with the HP, but the 1920x1200 is fine for me so far. Like others, I definitely had to significantly lower the brightness because I do a lot of work with text on white.
 
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A few more responses to various posts...

hmmm debating between this and the U2410...
are the extra inputs on the U2410 (hdmi mostly) worth $90 over the hp which is not wide gamut and has better coating?
Should I stick with my U2410 and get 2 more? Or Should I get 2 of these , they sound very promising. However I'm not sure if mixing is the right idea.
So are these 24 inch version instock on HP's website? or limited? I'm thinking of getting 2 of them to finish my IPS 24 inch setup (I've got a U2410) thoughts anyone?
From what I have read about the Dell U2410 (tinting issues, especially), it seems the HP is better overall - plus a lot cheaper! Some people here have both now (I think) - so their comments would be very helpful.

Given they are both 24" monitors with 1920x1200 resolution - that makes Eyefinity setup much easier and inherently easier on the eyes than say my Eyefinity setup with the HP in the middle and two 20" Samsungs all running at 1600x1200. I think it is whether you can get them calibrated closely enough, and also the difference in the width of the bezel for them. I assume you would put the U2410 in the middle (using the displayport) and the two HPs on the sides (using DVI)?


Wow I didn't know you couldn't return there because of that.. makes me think twice before ordering. What is HP's stance on dead pixels if you order straight from them?
Regarding your question, this was posted several pages back:

To answer my own question, HP pointed me at the appropriate web page, which is:
https://h71016.www7.hp.com/html/infodesk/returns.asp?jumpid=hpr_R1002_USEN

30 day return for non-defective products from HP Small & Medium Business. $15 [NOT 15%] restocking fee. A very good deal, and worth paying tax for (I'm in California and it's $39.31 in Santa Clara County. YMWV in other CA counties).

I've just ordered. Free shipping is from the Houston, Texas area. Shipper is either FedEx or UPS, depending upon who offers the lowest rates that day. If your preference of shipper is strong enough, you can pay to get whichever you want.
Remember, you must CALL to get free shipping from HP.


Well your samsung TV probably has its color oversaturated.
Yeah, I think that is characteristic of Samsungs. Sony on the other hand goes for more natural coloring. I guess it depends on your preferences and what a person is going to do with the TV.
Well I just did some gaming in TF2 and I didn't notice any lag and I still kicked serious behind.
Great to hear this.
 
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If anyone is getting these for eyefinity, the power led CAN be turned off via the osd, nice little touch I. Noticed.
 
Got mine last night. Played about 3 hours of Bad Company 2. Love it. No more lag than I would notice with the Dell 2005FPW i upgraded from. It's a beauty. Highly recommended. No stuck pixels either.

One annoyance - out of box brightness is INSANE. No problem - drop it down to 45. But the monitor seems to go back to 90 when it sleeps. So I have to change it back to 45 each time I boot the computer or bring it out of sleep. That is annoying.
 
Got mine last night. Played about 3 hours of Bad Company 2. Love it. No more lag than I would notice with the Dell 2005FPW i upgraded from. It's a beauty. Highly recommended. No stuck pixels either.

One annoyance - out of box brightness is INSANE. No problem - drop it down to 45. But the monitor seems to go back to 90 when it sleeps. So I have to change it back to 45 each time I boot the computer or bring it out of sleep. That is annoying

This is annoying, I use sleep/wakeup many times:mad:

I suggest you to try the hp display assistant software , it allows to use presets at your command, I had it on another hp monitor, it was very slow at first start and had plenty of bugs but can solve in part the problem you reported.

CAn I ask you to set brightness/contrast both to zero and tell me how the monitor look: completely black, dim, normal, bright? I love my nec monitor that can go very smoothly from very bright to total black just with brightness and contrast settings, giving always a great contrast and image quality down to the dimmest setting. Pity it's only 19" but still I have to see another monitor with similar image quality and comfort of view, can use it for 12 hours without eye strain

Thanks
 
I have 2 questions for the owners of this ZR24W monitor:
- Does it emit any elctronic buzz/whine sound? Many monitor of this size have this problem, often it is audible only at certain brightness values like B<90% and of course you won't hear the noise if you are not in a silent room

I believe that both of the ZR24w's I have are absolutely silent.

- How does this monitor handle low brightness image quality? Many monitors show apparent good image quality only at high brightness/luminance, if you work in a dimly lit room at night and you need to turn down overall luminance some monitors don't go down at all, some others show really poor image quality, how does this monitor behave? How bright remains when both br. and contr. are set to zero? I should mention I need low brightness mainly for text/web browsing usage, especially with white backgrounds. I know that photos and video need higher brightness to show right colors.

Actually, I am running my ZR24w's with the brightness turned all the way down to 0. I have had the contrast turned all the way to 0 too and the panel still does not get dark. So, this might not be the right panel for you.

Otherwise, the image quality seems just as good at lower brightness levels.
 
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Originally Posted by bofors
Actually, I am running my ZR24w's with the brightness turned all the way down to 0. I have had the contrast turned all the way to 0 too and the panel still does not get dark. So, this might not be the right panel for you

Typical from HP, they pump the brightness all the way as if all users watched the monitor on a sunny beach.

Anyway there should be a workaround, if you'd be so kind to make the test for me, it only takes 1 minute: try to go in custom rgb setting and decrease equally R/G/B values say at 60% (it may get too dark or still too bright the best value is got by trial) you should get an image with standard color temperature but with lower brightness, if you see weird colors or you lose too much halftones/darktones or proper contrast then the monitor does not handle well low brightness.

Thanks again
 
Anyway there should be a workaround, if you'd be so kind to make the test for me, it only takes 1 minute: try to go in custom rgb setting and decrease equally R/G/B values say at 60% (it may get too dark or still too bright the best value is got by trial) you should get an image with standard color temperature but with lower brightness, if you see weird colors or you lose too much halftones/darktones or proper contrast then the monitor does not handle well low brightness.

Ok, I will try this. RGB levels go from 0 to 255 on this panel, by the way.

However, it is not clear what brightness and contrast settings you want.

EDIT:

Ok, turning down the RGB channels equally seems to cause no color or contrast problems at all.

I am able to generate a fairly dark, but still legible in daylight, screen by turning brightness, contrast and each RGB channel down to 0. I would think this would be dark enough for you. Again, I see no distortion in color and contrast is maintained.
 
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I would follow the herd for CostCentral, but I'm in CA where I get taxed on it from them.

Well I have bought from BLT before and didn't have a problem. I'll do it again since Cost Central is out of stock too. Don't really mind waiting, more interested in the low price and free shipping. Now that I know HP's dead pixel policy I'm okay with ordering this monitor from whoever.
 
Any one knows the difference between the two versions, VM633A4#ABB and
VM633AT#ABB ?

The VM633AT#ABB is a bit cheaper than the VM633A4#ABB.

Different panel, or maybe something else?

/SWIN
 
Originally Posted by bofors
Ok, turning down the RGB channels equally seems to cause no color or contrast problems at all.

I am able to generate a fairly dark, but still legible in daylight, screen by turning brightness, contrast and each RGB channel down to 0. I would think this would be dark enough for you. Again, I see no distortion in color and contrast is maintained

Thank you very much for this test, you are very kind.
Pity Hp didn't implement br. and contr. range wide enough to avoid the need to go into RGB channels, anyway usually HP gives a software called Display assistant (if I recall right) that is able to shoot in once many display settings, just like presets, so you may have "night web browsing" "daylight photo watching" and so on and recall them without having to go into OSD menus and settings which usually take longer time.
 
Great, 10 minutes after I place an order with BLT, cost central emails me to say they got 8 in stock. lol.
 
Any one knows the difference between the two versions, VM633A4#ABB and
VM633AT#ABB ?

The VM633AT#ABB is a bit cheaper than the VM633A4#ABB.

Different panel, or maybe something else?

/SWIN

I am not sure what VM633AT#ABB is, perhaps a typo?

But HP has a "promo" special on this panel as a distinct part number: VM633A8#ABA

VM633A8#ABA is the same panel (or perhaps "cherry picked"?) as the VM633A4#ABA.

They are both HP ZR24w's.
 
... usually HP gives a software called Display assistant (if I recall right)...

HP Display Assistant is correct, but I suspect this is Windows only software.

that is able to shoot in once many display settings, just like presets, so you may have "night web browsing" "daylight photo watching" and so on and recall them without having to go into OSD menus and settings which usually take longer time.

I have yet to look at the manual, but I do not see any way create "pre-sets" or save settings in the OSD menus.
 
One annoyance - out of box brightness is INSANE. No problem - drop it down to 45. But the monitor seems to go back to 90 when it sleeps. So I have to change it back to 45 each time I boot the computer or bring it out of sleep. That is annoying.
I don't understand. Does the monitor forget its brightness? Or does it restore it to 45 after waking up?
 
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Originally Posted by bofors
I have yet to look at the manual, but I do not see any way create "pre-sets" or save settings in the OSD menus

Sorry, I thought you were using windows, the preset feature was in the Display Assistant, presets were saved on the pc and then restored on monitor at user command. It would be nice to have something similar in OSD menus but I don't think it's available. I don't know if display assitant is available in other o/s and even under windows you must have compatible graphic card. The software is made from a third software house for HP. It had many issues, I rememeber it took 3 minutes at first start to detect connected monitors and was not working well with mixed brand multiple monitors, sometime attempting to set monitor 1 with monitor 2 settings or altering wrong graphic card LUT at o/s boot. I wonder why a company like HP doesn't fix this software.
 
I don't understand. Does the monitor forgets its brightness? Or does it only change brightness during sleep then restores it to 45 after waking up?

I set the brightness to 45, looks great. Leave my PC for a while and it goes to sleep (as does monitor). Come back an hour later and press a keyboard key to wake up machine. Machine and monitor come back to life, and the monitor brightness is at 90 again and almost melts my eyes. Go into the monitor OSD, and sure enough brightness is at 90. Set it back down to 45, rinse, repeat. It happens every time.

This happens both when the PC/monitor go to sleep mode, and when I power off the PC. I never use the monitor power button.

Using the displayport connection, not sure if that matters. Will try DVI tonight

EDIT - not sure about the other OSD settings, i only changed brightness. gonna swing home for lunch break and will try changing other OSD settings and see if they all reset to factory.
 
Sorry, I thought you were using windows, the preset feature was in the Display Assistant, presets were saved on the pc and then restored on monitor at user command.

I run Mac OS X. It has built-in display profile management where different profiles can be selected, but I am not sure if this goes as far as HP Display Assistant.

I rememeber it took 3 minutes at first start to detect connected monitors and was not working well with mixed brand multiple monitors, sometime attempting to set monitor 1 with monitor 2 settings or altering wrong graphic card LUT at o/s boot. I wonder why a company like HP doesn't fix this software.

Mac OS X just works in this regard. We even have it working with hot-swapping multiple graphics cards on "hackintoshs".
 
Jpeake: this is weird.
Can someone check if their monitor forgets its brightness / contrast settings after going to sleep or shutting down?
 
I set the brightness to 45, looks great. Leave my PC for a while and it goes to sleep (as does monitor). Come back an hour later and press a keyboard key to wake up machine. Machine and monitor come back to life, and the monitor brightness is at 90 again and almost melts my eyes.

I just manually put my machine to sleep for a minute or so,

My brightness, which is set to 0, did not change.
 
Jpeake: this is weird.
Can someone check if their monitor forgets its brightness / contrast settings after going to sleep or shutting down?

I do not see this problem.

I am wondering if Jpeake is hitting "Save and Return" in the OSD menu when setting the brightness.

EDIT:

I am also wondering HP Display Assistant could be an issue here.

I am also using the DVI port.
 
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I haven't had a problem with my brightness changing either (and it's set much lower than 45). I have mine connected through the DVI port.
 
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