HP ZR2740w - 27" IPS - 2560x1440

Did you guys know that the ACD is only capable of 16.7 million colors!? The HP is over 1 billion, that's makes it a lot better monitor, true?
 
AndreRio said:
Did you guys know that the ACD is only capable of 16.7 million colors!? The HP is over 1 billion, that's makes it a lot better monitor, true?
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Those are the panel specs. I think it only can work with displayport, and even then the only apps that benefit are color aware imaging apps. So, for most people, it is not a useful feature of the ZR2740w, and I say this being the owner of 3 of them :)
 
stewartjm said:
Those are the panel specs. I think it only can work with displayport, and even then the only apps that benefit are color aware imaging apps. So, for most people, it is not a useful feature of the ZR2740w, and I say this being the owner of 3 of them :)
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Picts or GTFO. No seriously, let's see the set up.
 
Anyone else ordered one of these from costcentral? The price was quite good but it seems like they are taking forever to process my order. I ordered it 2 days ago, still no tracking number. When I asked customer service, they told me that orders there are processed in the order they are received and can take 1-3 days, and nothing more. I am used to orders being processed and shipped out within 24 hours, so I am not sure why they are taking so long.
 
For those of you who use a calibration device with this monitor, how is the calibration experience? No OSD means no RGB sliders. So there are only buttons for brightness and source? Do you change RGB settings through your display drivers? How good is the final result? I have an on-again, off-again lusting for this monitor but am concerned about the lack of OSD.

Also what about options for non-native aspect ratios? Does it just default to 1:1 and that's it, or is there some way to make it stretch and/or zoom? Not that I'd want it to, but I'm curious.
 
BassDX said:
Anyone else ordered one of these from costcentral? The price was quite good but it seems like they are taking forever to process my order. I ordered it 2 days ago, still no tracking number. When I asked customer service, they told me that orders there are processed in the order they are received and can take 1-3 days, and nothing more. I am used to orders being processed and shipped out within 24 hours, so I am not sure why they are taking so long.
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I attempted to order one from Costcentral, they called me on the phone within a day or 2, and said that it was a pricing mistake, and I had them cancel it. That was Novemberish.

I also tried to order one from Nextwarehouse, they also called me a day or 2 after the order, saying that they had none in stock(the lower priced model #). I let them keep on back order for 2-3 weeks, and they called me again saying it would be another 2-4 weeks, so I cancelled it at that point.

I've successfully bought 3 from Amazon, one of which I returned after it died when it was 3 weeks old, the third order was to replace the dead one. And I bought one from MacMall during the deal a few weeks back. Both the Amazon and MacMall orders showed up within 1-3 days.
 
Is there any chance an XBOX 360 could be connected to this monitor using a DisplayPort adapter at 720p? 99% of the time I'll be using this with my PC via the DVI port, but it would be nice to be able to connect the XBOX to it w/o having to use a DVI switch or something...

I see that others have had success using passive HDMI / DVI adapters and was hoping the same would be possible via DisplayPort.

ETA: Nevermind, after much searching I found that a special adapter is needed to go from HDMI to DisplayPort and they're quite expensive...
 
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I will be receiving this monitor later this week but after reading some of the complaints here on this forum I won't be throwing the box away before making sure everything is on the up and up. I believe I read through all the posts here thus far and my apologies if this question has already been answered or if this question is incredibly noobish but here goes: will I be able to run this monitor in a dual screen setup with the two dvi slots occupied while my hdmi mini slot is occupied by my hdtv set? Also here is a more general question: Will I be able to run a triple screen set up utilizing my motherboard's hdmi mini slot? Third screen need not be an eyefinity type setup but solely as another screen that can display things such as camera feeds or video to be edited.
 
Finally got mine. I have to say, 2560 x 1440 is really what it is cracked up to be. Along with the 27" size, I really feel that I have much more real estate than before. Even though it is smaller than 30", it still feels so big, especially coming from a 21.5" U2211H. The AG coating is also a little bit more noticeable, as expected. Kind of makes my eyes a bit strained when looking at things off center. This is a minor gripe, but after playing a few movies, I was amazed. Colors were extremely vibrant, and the black levels were also satisfactory. IPS glow and backlight bleed were also less noticeable than on my U2211H. Brightness is also intense, it really makes the colors look that much better though I will certainly need to turn it down below half to prevent my eyes from being strained too much. I haven't tried playing any games yet, though I wonder just how many settings I will need to turn down with this trusty old 6850. All in all, I am very happy with this purchase, though the sheer size and intensity of this display will take some getting used to.

Also, I am a bit confused on how to get height adjustment to work. Currently, I only seem to be able to move it about an inch, raising the height a little bit more would make things a lot more comfortable.

Now I just need to find a good wallpaper.
 
BassDX said:
Also, I am a bit confused on how to get height adjustment to work. Currently, I only seem to be able to move it about an inch, raising the height a little bit more would make things a lot more comfortable.
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What I did was push down on the top of the monitor stand which enabled me to finally depress the unlock button on the back of the stand, then moved the monitor upward as far as you like. Moved it up a good 4 or 5 inches .
 
After using this thing for a few days, I did encounter a few other issues.

-The blinking pixel issue is definitely present. It is only noticeable on certain backgrounds (particularly greys). Like everyone else, switching to Dual Link DVI fixed it for me.

-I also encountered a strange issue where a horizontal "pin stripe" of pixels formed on the monitor. I don't have a camera on me, so for now I can only vaguely describe it in words. The "stripe" was faint and not visible on certain backrounds or distances, and was roughly 10 pixels high. Furthermore, the actual stripe was really just a sequence of lines, so to help visualize it, something like this:

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

With the lines of course being more faint than shown here. However, the most peculiar thing about this was that this only seemed to occur when mIRC was open. This also only occured when running it at 2560 x 1440, the stripes did not show up while running Windows at lower resolutions. For now, I am not sure if it is an actual issue with the monitor, AMD's drivers, or simply mIRC having compatibility issues at this resolution. After much investigation and frustration, I determined that this only occurred when the text displayed in mIRC was of a certain color. Bright colors in particular were the worst offenders, and the location of the stripes on the screen always occurred on the same line as the text in mIRC. So for now, changing the text colors in mIRC has tentatively solved the problem. However, I was wondering if anyone with an AMD card and mIRC could test this out.
 
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I have a friend that got this monitor, and I was pretty impressed with how it looked. I played D3 and noticed no response lag at all at full res. Problem is now I need to buy one myself, but I feel like I could be waiting forever for it to come on sale again. I have noticed provantage's stock for this monitor has increased 4x since I started watching the retailers about 3 weeks ago. Even if I could get free shipping I would probably pull the trigger, I just don't want to spend $700 on this monitor after shipping.
 
BorrowedTime said:
I have a friend that got this monitor, and I was pretty impressed with how it looked. I played D3 and noticed no response lag at all at full res. Problem is now I need to buy one myself, but I feel like I could be waiting forever for it to come on sale again. I have noticed provantage's stock for this monitor has increased 4x since I started watching the retailers about 3 weeks ago. Even if I could get free shipping I would probably pull the trigger, I just don't want to spend $700 on this monitor after shipping.
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True that. I utilized the Chase Freedom rebate to get this. 300 back after spending 500.
 
Why do lg,dell,hp even use this agresive ag coating? I dont think i ever saw anyone beeing happy about it,dont they listen to peoples opinions and care about their eyes? I have owned an hp zr24w for about one week and at that time i didnt know about ag coating,i just knew that the monitor was making my eyes hurt on anything white. Hopefuly i returned it but found myself in a dilema,there were not any 27 30 ips monitors without this ag coating, except maybe the eizo and those necs wich are crazy priced.... I went with the only solution on the martket ,a 30" ips monitor without ag coating,or a low agresive ag: acd 30". Its so much easier on the eyes even tho its 6 inches bigger, maybe not the newest tech,but my eyes are thanking me.
 
Florin22xxl said:
Why do lg,dell,hp even use this agresive ag coating? I dont think i ever saw anyone beeing happy about it,dont they listen to peoples opinions and care about their eyes? I have owned an hp zr24w for about one week and at that time i didnt know about ag coating,i just knew that the monitor was making my eyes hurt on anything white. Hopefuly i returned it but found myself in a dilema,there were not any 27 30 ips monitors without this ag coating, except maybe the eizo and those necs wich are crazy priced.... I went with the only solution on the martket ,a 30" ips monitor without ag coating,or a low agresive ag: acd 30". Its so much easier on the eyes even tho its 6 inches bigger, maybe not the newest tech,but my eyes are thanking me.
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I have read this but I have not experienced it myself. I thought the zr2740w was beautiful in d3 and bf3, but I did not really use it for any length of time on a white screen. I have heard (somewhere, possibly buried in this thread..) of people buying a coating you can buy at amazon or other etailers which makes it better on the eyes when dealing with white screens. I guess I will have to see for myself before I decide on getting a new background. It would be a shame to not be able to use this monitor for productivity, one of the main reasons I am considering it is the extra real estate for windows.

Also, does anyone know how this would work with another monitor at...say 1080p? Would I use dual dvi for the 2740w and then need some adapter for the other monitor if I wanted them to work side by side? Sorry if this seems to be a stupid question, but I have never dealt with a dual dvi into one monitor setup....
 
just wanted to let folks know that mine gave out (stopped turning on) at 60 days. could be a first run hiccup; who knows
 
^^^ My first one died after 30 days. I tried the Dell u2711 after that, but greatly prefer the HP, so I'm on my second one now.... fingers crossed.
 
I have 3, one died around 25 days old, it's replacement and the other 2, are now roughly 30, 40 and 60 days old. Knock on wood.
 
I sent mine back and ordered a Dell that was on sale for the same price. The Dell may have been the lesser of the two monitors based on arguable specs; unfortunately the monitor would only display at 720 x 1280 through dual link DVI cable (tested many, including the supplied cable). According to HP forums this is a known issue reported months ago concerning an incompatibility with ATI cards... First post on this issue was November and someone posted just yesterday also having the same problem.
 
I bought this monitor a week ago, and I have only one problem with it:


http://img864.imageshack.us/img864/6712/01vitbild.jpg

There is a dark "stripe" across the screen (horizontally). Is this common in this model? I have been offered two possible solutions:

1. RMA it to HP and get a new one (DOA)
2. Use the 14 day right to regret purschase.

This is an excellent monitor in all aspects so I´m thinking about getting the DOA and hope for a new screen without issues.

How do you guys who own it think about the uniformity of the panel? Have you seen this stripe on your screens?
In light games/movies/backgrounds I can clearly see that dark stripe and it bothers me :(

Edit: Sorry about the pic, you may have to zoom in a bit too see it :)
 
All 3 of mine show a similar dark band on uniform brightly lit screens. Pretty much any LCD is going to have some sort of uniformity issue on solid dark and/or light screens. I wouldn't worry about it.
 
I can confirm that this also occurs on mine, though it is much more faint. I tend to find it more noticeable when watching videos in full screen.
 
Thank you for your fast replies :) I´m noob here on the forums and had no idea I could get this issue confirmed so fast :)

I´m not sure my camera really makes this defect justice, but it´s most noticable in World of Warcraft in bright enviroments, while removing the UI and zooming out. In other games (even bright ones) it isn´t really noticeable. What a was curious about was if you guys could see the same tendency (a pretty thick strip that lined horizontally across the screen), and if that was the case, maybe it just is something i have to deal with.

The last thing on earth I want is to go RMA and get a new one from HP with the same effect BUT also with dead pixels and backlight bleeding. If this "strip" indeed is inevitable, then I might settle with this panel since it hans´t got any other defects like dead pixels and backlight bleeding. Otherwise it´s quite perfect, but when playing World of Warcraft and entering the bird´s eye view, it´s pretty distracting tbh :(
 
Ericone said:
I bought this monitor a week ago, and I have only one problem with it:


http://img864.imageshack.us/img864/6712/01vitbild.jpg

There is a dark "stripe" across the screen (horizontally). Is this common in this model? I have been offered two possible solutions:

1. RMA it to HP and get a new one (DOA)
2. Use the 14 day right to regret purschase.

This is an excellent monitor in all aspects so I´m thinking about getting the DOA and hope for a new screen without issues.

How do you guys who own it think about the uniformity of the panel? Have you seen this stripe on your screens?
In light games/movies/backgrounds I can clearly see that dark stripe and it bothers me :(

Edit: Sorry about the pic, you may have to zoom in a bit too see it :)
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It's on all of them. It's from how the backlight is diffused. I've looked at the newest Apple Cinema Display at the store, and even it has the exact same problem. All LED backlit displays have to make trade-offs in uniformity. With one edge lit it's usually either this or a more trapezoidal luminosity pattern.
 
I can confirm that this also occurs on mine, though it is much more faint. I tend to find it more noticeable when watching videos in full screen.
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Ok. I watched some full screen videons and didn´t notice it. It´s the most noticeable in high detail, bright areas in games such a the dwarf starting area in WoW.

All 3 of mine show a similar dark band on uniform brightly lit screens. Pretty much any LCD is going to have some sort of uniformity issue on solid dark and/or light screens. I wouldn't worry about it.
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I think you´re right :) all my screens i´ve owned has had some issue with uniformity. However, is this band in the lower part of the screen so noticeable? for me it´s noticeable in bright/detailed games, especially when going for a bird´s eye view.

I really, really don´t want to change this panel, since it has virtually no backlight bleeding and dead pixels whatsoever :)

EDIT: Could anyone who owns the monitor and has this dark stripe please take a pic and upload? It would be very much appreciated so I can compare and judge if my stripe is within the normal range of the monitor´s specs.

Been trying for the last hour or so to see some pattern on the anti-glare that makes this dark stripe. There seems to be a visible AG-stripe corresponding with the dark horizontal part, but i´m not sure. The AG is applied in stripes so it´s very hard to tell wether this is a LED or AG issue :S
 
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Do you see this dark band/strip in games and movies?

At first I only noticed it when having a solid white background, but now I can also see it in games. The wierd thing is that the strip/band is most visible when the picture is moving, and as soon as I stand still in games and the picture is a still picture, it´s much harder to see the banding/strip.
 
BorrowedTime said:
lol... its only 100$ now, but I just applied for the card solely based on your post :)

Shame u cant get referral $. Thanks tho, good idea.
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Did you already apply for the card? Its back up to 300 now. I applied when the deal read "$200", then called them up and got them to honor $300!
As for the dark stripe, I have never detected one. I am connected via dual-link DVI.
Getting kind of nervous after reading about all of these dead panel stories. Only time will tell but I'm really enjoying this screen so far.
 
I´m gonna test Dual DVI and see if the stripe is still present with it (I use display port) but I fear it will be :( In that case I´m thinking about sending the monitor back.
 
So yeah about 18 hours after writing my last post concerning all the dead HP panels, I am now sitting in front of a dead HP ZR2740W panel. Well its not completely dead. It will flash my splash screen at me for about .5 seconds before going back to black. Like its taunting me. Awesome.
 
plan99fromouterspace

Do you have DisplayPort on your graphics card? I notice that when I try to go DVI the same thing happens for me, the screen is just black.
 
Ericone said:
I´m gonna test Dual DVI and see if the stripe is still present with it (I use display port) but I fear it will be :( In that case I´m thinking about sending the monitor back.
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If you're thinking about trying for another of the same, don't send it back thinking you'll get something different. I had three of them and they all had the stripe. This occurs because the backlight is mounted such that it's concentrated about an inch above the bottom of the screen, and, unlike backlight bleeding, there is no potential for variation among units. If it is too bothersome then you'll have to get a different model.
 
If you're thinking about trying for another of the same, don't send it back thinking you'll get something different. I had three of them and they all had the stripe. This occurs because the backlight is mounted such that it's concentrated about an inch above the bottom of the screen, and, unlike backlight bleeding, there is no potential for variation among units. If it is too bothersome then you'll have to get a different model.
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In what situations do you see the dark stripe?

Is it only when you see a solid white background?
I can see it in first person games, even when the picture isn´t completely bright. Also, in World of Warcraft it is VERY visible when flying over a dark blue/purple/dark green area. Then there are like two dark lines that go across the screen.

I still think it´s wierd that none of the reviews I´ve read mentioned this dark stripe, since it´s quite a big and distracting uniformity issue. They mention (in technical terms) how much whites vary in the edges compared to the middle, but they failed to mention there´s a dark stripe that´s visible in applications and games, and is on the level of distraction as screen tearing. A poster on the swedish site Sweclockers looked at my photos and said his Zr2740w didn´t have this issue.

Still I´m not sure what do do. The HP guy I´ve talked to is ready to send me a new monitor, but now i´m getting unsure. Maybe it´s better to just get another model. I still have the right to regret the purchase but I really, really liked the specs of this one.
 
Ericone said:
In what situations do you see the dark stripe?

Is it only when you see a solid white background?
I can see it in first person games, even when the picture isn´t completely bright. Also, in World of Warcraft it is VERY visible when flying over a dark blue/purple/dark green area. Then there are like two dark lines that go across the screen.
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I ended up returning it (partly because of this), but on all the replacements I had the symptoms are pretty much what you describe. Motion made it particularly obvious, and it was more visible on medium to low-brightness solid colors.
I still think it´s wierd that none of the reviews I´ve read mentioned this dark stripe, since it´s quite a big and distracting uniformity issue. They mention (in technical terms) how much whites vary in the edges compared to the middle, but they failed to mention there´s a dark stripe that´s visible in applications and games, and is on the level of distraction as screen tearing.
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I thought so as well. But if you look at the uniformity picture on http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/hp_zr2740w.htm you can see there's a steep luminosity gradient from the brightest spot in the lower center to the bottom, where the gradient at the top makes the same transition over a larger distance. This would make it more obvious to the eye and yield what you're seeing. As I said earlier, I happened to notice the Apple Cinema Displays have the same problem, and I've never heard this complaint about them either.
A poster on the swedish site Sweclockers looked at my photos and said his Zr2740w didn´t have this issue.
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It's probably there, but he isn't seeing it. You kind of have to focus "beyond" the screen to see uniformity issues like these. I did have some backlight bleeding on one that partially obscured the line, but I can't say that's a solution.
Still I´m not sure what do do. The HP guy I´ve talked to is ready to send me a new monitor, but now i´m getting unsure. Maybe it´s better to just get another model. I still have the right to regret the purchase but I really, really liked the specs of this one.
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You could always try the replacement, especially if you can compare and keep the best one. But I wouldn't get your hopes up on it being too different.
 
I ended up returning it (partly because of this), but on all the replacements I had the symptoms are pretty much what you describe. Motion made it particularly obvious, and it was more visible on medium to low-brightness solid colors.

You could always try the replacement, especially if you can compare and keep the best one. But I wouldn't get your hopes up on it being too different.
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True, motion makes it visible. When I freeze, it´s harder to spot unless it´s a solid white background.

Just out of curiousity, what are the other reason you returned it?

I´m not sure I can compare units since I will have to declare my monitor "DOA" (dead on arrival). They will then send me a new monitor and take my current (I guess).

Could you recommend any other good 27" or 30" as an option to this monitor?

I will be returning the HP monitor. Very disappointing that no reviews even touched on the subject of the dark stripe on the monitor. Neither Tftcentral or fladpanelsHD listed this defect under "cons" instead they listed other non-issues.

The fact that a black bar stretches across the screen is more severe than for example "Contrast good but not fanstastic for an IPS" or even "No OSD". I´m starting to wonder if these reviewers have even looked at a white background in the uniformity test. I even see the strip in the light blue login screen in Windows.
 
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To the HP ZR2740W owners: how do you percieve the monitor´s backlight uniformity/IPS glow?

I ´m having pretty severe (imo) IPS-glow and blacks are only real black in the middle of the screen. Is this something we have to deal with regarding IPS in general, or can there be variance among different units?

HP has offered to send me a new monitor to try out. Is there a chance it might have less severe IPS glow / backlight uniformity (i have some pretty big bleeding on the right corner) or is it something common with this model?
 
Got these back at the end of December for $550 each after MIR (received it a few weeks ago). Everything is on a chief monitor stand, which although not as cool/elegant as my old humanscale 2 monitor arm, is a lot stronger. Tried a few different setups:

1. L-L-L: just too damn wide
2. P-P-P: Nice and compact, but not having a single widescreen kinda bugs me.
2. P-L-L: Nice for 2 cad windows on the L's, coding stuff on the portrait monitor. Asymmetrical loading bugs me though, also pretty wide.
3. P-L-P: Get a single widescreen "main" display, 2 side screens flanking. In practice usually have 2 windows open on each side screen, kinda like having 4 1280x1440 monitors, 2 on each side (I know there are a few programs that would help me achieve that, any suggestions?). I also like this as I can rotate the side monitors to have the top of the bezel inwards, as they are a bit thinner than the bottom bezel.


4. Haven't tried this, but may go for L-P-L, only downside is slight asymmetrical setup due to the P monitor in the center having uneven bezels.



 
I'm really interested in the gaming performance of this monitor. I think it will be visually far superior to my current ASUS 23" 1080p monitor, but I am a bit scared by the lag. Do people have any impressions of it? I am not a serious (i.e. competitive) gamer in any sense, but I also don't want to feel like I am playing with lag.
 
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