LG L246W

[senakun]

dead pixel

 

[bootstrap]

Looks like the "reseller" version of this monitor, the L245WP, is now available online in the US, as Newegg shows it as "in stock" for $640 (link). I believe this version was previously only available from NCIX. It's been posted before, but LG confirmed to someone at anandtech that the only differences between the 245 and 246 are the location of the OSD controls, and the availability (online vs. retail stores). Otherwise, they're both identical.

 

[serialmike]

question guys..

I have the dell 2007 20.1 wide and love it. i know it to be an lg made monitor.
i upgraded to the 24 this xmas and the gateway sucked and went back immediatly, then i got the dell and the monitor is nice but the backlight bleeds as you move side to side...its normal for this monitor but not the 20.

also the new 24 color is off i have read every review and now they say the color is accurate. maybe it is but when compared to my 20 inch dell its not. the ranges are to red and browns and tans come in to reddish also.

does nayone know if the 24 lg is much closer in color to the 20 2007 lg made dell and are the darks better with less bleed and less crush than the dell 24?

thanks in advance

 

[applebook]

Mike, I'm assuming that your 2007 is an IPS panel. If that's the case, then I don't think any non-IPS panel short of the high-end VA stuff used in the Eizos are really going to impress you in terms of color reproduction and uniformity. So far, I find that the 2407's color is a bit more accurate than the 2465.

The 2407 and 2465 are being compared to a 20" Intel iMac, which is an IPS panel and with my brother's 20" 2003 Dell, which is IPS as well.

 

[serialmike]

ty for the reply, as im sifting around the web and learning bout panel types i thik your right and the dell is going to have to do because im not spending 1500 for a 24 panel

 

[applebook]

Here are some pictures of the LG:

The left side is more uniform than it looks in this picture, though there is definitely some bleeding apparent.

This shot makes the left side appear even brighter than it actually is.

Ignore the artifact at the top of the screen.

Compared to the Dell 2407:

Again, the left side doesn't bleed as much as this picture makes it appear to, though the 2407 is known to be brighter from left to right.

Notice that on the LG, when viewing from this angle, the further side (left) is darker, while on the Dell, it's brighter.

Overall, I'm not that impressed with either display's backlighting, but the LG appears to have less bleed under normal viewing conditions, while the 2407's gradient-like shift from brighter on the left to darker towards the right is very annoying at times.

 

[Lox]

Future Shop now has this monitor priced at $749 CND. I'm going down to pick one up now ! Had to come home and ensure no one is having problems with using the screen as a computer monitor for color graphics, etc.
Bad experience yesterday after buying an 26" Acer AL2616wd.
This may not belong here but, I had bought the Acer AL2616wd. Nice screen but if your thinking of buying one be fore warned anything manufactured before Dec.2006 is NFG. Won't display native resolution of 1900x1200 !

 

[applebook]

Hold onto your horses! NCIX is selling its OEM version for $719.99 CAD:

http://www.ncix.com/products/index....WP-BN&manufacture=LG Electronics&promoid=1064

 

[serialmike]

hmmmm now im wondering

you see the 20 looks on a black screen to have more bleed ...but with a signal to it...suchj as wow you can plainly see that it has beter darks and thus more contrast.

the side to side change in bleedd on the dell 24 is annoying ALOT
But the biggest thing is the color of the 24 is actually alot different thatn the 20.

The 20 is color perfection....the best example of this i can think of is in world of warcraft. when you walk down the roads there is stone on dirt....on the 20 the dirt is tan and brown....on the 24 the dirt is red brown more towards red than brown...and i know its only a little thing but i cna see it i know its off ...it drives me nuts lol. also you see the orange tones on the 20 are orange on the 24 they are orange with a pinkish reddish hue.. was wondering if the lg 24 was more like the dell 20 or 24 in color.

The color is soemthing hard coded on a chip un adjustable thru service menu. and adjusting saturation is not the same as adjusting the grey scale. it is uncorrectable on the 24. but if the lg is the same then so be it but if the lg is more like the 20 i may be getting in trouble with the wife soon...especially since there is much less left to right bleed on the lg

 

[Lox]

Hold onto your horses! NCIX is selling its OEM version for $719.99 CAD:

http://www.ncix.com/products/index....WP-BN&manufacture=LG Electronics&promoid=1064

Well I went and bought at F.S. After my experience with the Acer display I didn't want to have to RMA anything. Especially for a few dollars difference.
It's a nice looking screen although it's going to take a bit of getting used to after using a CRT for so many years.
Setup was easy, and looks great right out of the box.
I've got a lot to learn regarding fonts, setup, etc. But so far I'm very happy.

 

[Mofongo]

Does anybody know which LCD panel is used in this monitor? Naively, one would expect the LG-Philips LM240WU1 S-IPS panel (like this site does) but the specs don't seem to match. Furthermore, it usually seems like the S-IPS panels tend to appear in the more expensive displays (IPS is more expensive to produce), and the L246WT is definitely in with the rest of the pack for the cheapest 24"-ers. For example, the NEC LCD2690WUXI is an S-IPS 24" widescreen (most likely LG-Philips), but it's $1400. The cheaper cousin, the LCD2470WNX, is around half the price and none of NEC product literature mentions S-IPS (or any specific technology in fact), which leads me to believe it is probably MVA or PVA based.

The 22" LG uses an AUO panel. AUO also makes a 24" MVA panel (used in the BenQ and, I think, Gateway), and so does CMO.

Just curious.

Mofongo

 

[applebook]

My LG is a VA screen, supposedly the same panel used in the current BenQ.

Judging from my use with it so far, it definitely is not an IPS panel, which I'm so used to by now, having been in front of at least one everyday for years.

With VA technology improving, the performance gap to IPS is closing.

 

[bootstrap]

LG confirmed to someone on the Anandtech forums that both the L245WP and L246WP use a P-MVA panel, the same found in the BenQ FP241W (as far as I know, the Gateway uses a Samsung S-PVA panel). When they first announced these monitor, they said that it would use an S-IPS screen, which has led to a lot of confusion. In fact, LG's website still lists the 245 as having

• 178/178 (S-IPS) Ultra Wide Viewing Angle,

but this is incorrect.

 

[Don_1]

I just got this monitor today from BB.

Has anyone calbrated this monitor?

 

[applebook]

I used SuperCal to calibrate all of my monitors. The LG looks very nice, and the blacks are really deep, especially for text. For word processing, the LG looks like a champ.

Ultimately, I'm choosing the Dell because I think that its image is a bit sharper, and I subjectively prefer its color, though the LG has more even backlighting, HDMI, and perfect 1:1 support (that I've tried so far anyway). I also prefer the Dell's stand and design.

Both are great and have their strengths, as long as the Dell is Rev 04.

 

[lrtrees]

SuperCal looks like it might be worth looking at if you are running a Mac.

 

[serialmike]

ty for the informaion guys.....i learned alot and now realise that imo the best and only lcd for me is an ips type panel.

i will keep the dell as its about as good as it gets without spending big money for an eizo or nec ips panel.

I shall simply keep my hopes up for a future 24 inch panel that is ips and under say round 800...at least i truely know what im looking for now

one last question though.

as i compare the color on the 2005 21 inch dell and my 2407 which is the closest to correct?
the 20 inch ips panel the browns and oranges look correct but but the white is dirty looking. on the 24 dell the oranges have like a pinkish hue to em its slight and most wouldnt detect it but i do. and things like roads in wow that are brown or tan on tthe 20 have a reddish tnt very red on the 24 (cant be adjusted out thru any adjustments on the monitor) saturation is not a grey scale adjust.....anyway which is "more" correct

ty for any replies

im jut not sure which is more accurate.

 

[senakun]

i like the LG too. good colors and blacks. only problems i've had:

1:1 scaling doesn't stick. when u change to 1920x1200, it's back to Full so u have to go back to the OSD to change it again.. kind of frustrating when u alt-tab out of a game that doesn't support 1920x1200 to the desktop and back again. the scaling options in my drivers don't work right, so i kind of need the aspect ratios to stick like my samsung. it seems to remembers which resolutions i set to wide and which i set to 4:3.

the text looks a little blurry compared to my samsung 21" wide and nec 19" (models in sig). i was wondering if this is a 24+" monitor thing or are there 24+" monitors out there that display sharper text. do the dell 2407's? i also wonder if my eyes are going... i think they are sensitive to begin with anyway. my eyes went red from the really bright gateway 24". i was looking at the 30" dells also but i don't think i have enough video card power to run games at the settings i usually use. are there any drawbacks to getting a hdtv, like that legendary westinghouse, instead? any info or comments would be greatly appreciated

sometimes when switching resolutions, when i switch to 1920x1200, i see a pixelated-type screen as if half the pixels are bigger than they should be and mess up the mapping on the screen. sometimes switching to another resolution and back again fixes this.. sometimes i had to reload the video drivers, or just restart the computer. it happened on the LG with bad pixel that i had before this one as well. i think it has something to do with the aspect settings on my drivers; they don't work properly and sometimes not at all.

this thing is great for watching movies though! i've watched about 25 movies on it (including the one i exchanged). very enjoyable.

 

[blank]

hmm, i'll have to do a comparison, i haven't noticed the sharpness bit

 

[senakun]

hmm, i'll have to do a comparison, i haven't noticed the sharpness bit

thanks blank.

for games the LG seems fine. but for reading text things seem a bit different. i use the ClearType text smoother in windows XP for everything. my room has relatively low light.

the text seems to be fuzzy especially black text, as if the black is diffusing into the neighboring pixels. on white background it gets worse that my eyes start squinting because the screen gets so bright all of a sudden and i have to turn down the brightness. but when the brightness is lower (between 14-17), the white around black text is not so white. but by then my wallpaper and pictures look so dark that i can't make out any detail in darker areas.

white text on black background seems to glare out.. my eyes don't seem to like bright white that much. i lowered the brightness to about the same as my samsung 215tw, but i got very different experiences. the samsung. on the [Internet] preset (2nd lowest brightness preset) the text, both white and black was sharp. with the LG, my eyes have to work more and the pages with white backgrounds still seem really bright. maybe it has to do with the size of the monitor compared to my 21", more white pixels coming at me at once?

i probably didn't explain things properly, but please let me know what you find and what your experience is.

thanks
sena

 

[bootstrap]

for games the LG seems fine. but for reading text things seem a bit different. i use the ClearType text smoother in windows XP for everything. my room has relatively low light.

the text seems to be fuzzy especially black text, as if the black is diffusing into the neighboring pixels. on white background it gets worse that my eyes start squinting because the screen gets so bright all of a sudden and i have to turn down the brightness. but when the brightness is lower (between 14-17), the white around black text is not so white. but by then my wallpaper and pictures look so dark that i can't make out any detail in darker areas.

Sorry if this is too obvious of a question, but have you tried turning off ClearType to see if the text looks better to you? I find that it looks much worse on some monitors than on others. Since it tries to improve the smoothness of text by using subpixels, you can get some really obvious color fringing, which I think is what you're probably seeing when you refer to the black diffusing into the neighboring pixels. You're seeing individual sub-pixels of different colors being used at the edges of the text, and this can cause it to appear less sharp.

I'm not a big fan of ClearType, especially as the pixel pitch increases (it's OK on my laptop, but looks horrendous on my Dell 1905fp, which has a pretty large pixel pitch). When I first installed IE 7 on my desktop, it enabled the clear type font by default (I previously had it off) and it took me a few minutes to figure out why the hell the text suddenly became so blurry. If you haven't already tried, I'd turn this setting off and then see if the text looks sharper.

 

[blank]

i took some close up photos between the LG and my macbook pro 17" i'll post them but it was hard to hold some variables constant

macbook pro 17" close up

the LG in vista with cleartype (it's not a screen door, just the camera)

I doubt this experiment would make it into any peer reviewed journal. Nevertheless, I find the LG to be very sharp for my purposes. Maybe the macbook pro isn't very sharp either and it could be relative. It's a pitty I don't have a 2407 to compare.

 

[Don_1]

What settings are being used for this monitor?

 

[blank]

What settings are being used for this monitor?

me? i haven't touched a setting, honestly

 

[senakun]

i took some close up photos between the LG and my macbook pro 17" i'll post them but it was hard to hold some variables constant

I doubt this experiment would make it into any peer reviewed journal. Nevertheless, I find the LG to be very sharp for my purposes. Maybe the macbook pro isn't very sharp either and it could be relative. It's a pitty I don't have a 2407 to compare.

thanks for checkin, blank. my eyes prefer the samsung i guess maybe it's that semi-gloss coating. also some weird thing is happening. with vsync off, i can see tearing on my samsung (very bad), but not my LG. what's up with that? could it be related to the input lag issue with the 215tw's?

also when i look close at the screen.. i seem to be able to see the pixels shake a little, like there's some kind of interference. is this normal? maybe i should exchange it for yet another one. i really wish there was a place to test dell monitors

still deciding if i can live with the LG, i got it for 600 using a giftcard . not sure if putting in another 100 bux and getting the dell will make me any happier. i like the OSD options in the 2407 tho.. has all the scaling i want and buttons in front. if any 2407 users can hear me, how is the backlight on the dell?

 

[applebook]

how is the backlight on the dell?

It's a mixed bag. While there are no "spots" or major bleeding, the left side of the screen (about 1/4 of it) is slightly (10% or so) brighter than the rest of the screen. The LG is more uniform, but mine had some bleeding on the top and in a few corners.

Here's an obvious but slightly exaggerated picture of the Dell's backlighting issue:

 

[senakun]

would this backlight issue be covered under warranty? also, does the 2407 remember what aspect was selected for each resolution? could you try going to 1600x1200 with 1:1 aspect and then going back to native and back to 1600x1200? does it hold the 1:1 aspect or does it stretch it now and you have to go back into the menu? do you use any aspect settings in your drivers? i have an ati card so maintaining aspect ratio with the drivers is.... not working.... can't remember when it did. thanks

 

[Don_1]

When my computer has been turned off for an extended period, the monitor won't come out of suspend mode.
I have to turn the monitor off then back on.
Anyone else have this problem with the L246WP?

Another question how can the service menu be accessed?

 

[applebook]

would this backlight issue be covered under warranty? also, does the 2407 remember what aspect was selected for each resolution? could you try going to 1600x1200 with 1:1 aspect and then going back to native and back to 1600x1200? does it hold the 1:1 aspect or does it stretch it now and you have to go back into the menu? do you use any aspect settings in your drivers? i have an ati card so maintaining aspect ratio with the drivers is.... not working.... can't remember when it did. thanks

The strange backlighting issue on the 2407 is just a characteristic that has been "accepted" as normal, unfortunately. Unless you really look for, you don't notice most of the time.

Mine is A02, so I cannot do 1:1 in DVI or VGA

 

[applebook]

When my computer has been turned off for an extended period, the monitor won't come out of suspend mode.
I have to turn the monitor off then back on.
Anyone else have this problem with the L246WP?

I've experienced the same thing. This is known as "input lag," if I'm not mistaken, and is common on 24" LCDs, though some are slower than others.

 

[mejohnm]

When my computer has been turned off for an extended period, the monitor won't come out of suspend mode.
I have to turn the monitor off then back on.
Anyone else have this problem with the L246WP?

Another question how can the service menu be accessed?

I had tried to do this with my LG all weekend and it always came back on. I left it on all the time, so when my computer was off over night, or just off for an hour or so. I have the European model though (L256WP) with a Nvidia 7800GT.

 

[Don_1]

Even though the LG is a very nice monitor, I took it back to B.B.
The not turning on was the deal breaker.
I don't think it was input lag, because the monitor was still suspended after the machine had gotten into windows.

 

[senakun]

mine is going back too. i think i found a new love:

http://www.necdisplay.com/Products/Product/?product=75787ebd-557c-4900-9109-98880244779d

but at what cost???

 

[blank]

hmm, now i'm having the monitor standby issue. if it goes into monitor standby it will not come back unless i switch to component and then switch back to HDMI. The computer does not sleep or hibernate, only the monitor stands by. Does anyone know why this is happening?

Ok, i've narrowed things down a bit more, when plugged into the Mac and PC the monitor will not come out of standby IF there is something plugged into the component input as well. I had my cable box plugged in and it would not come out of standby. With the only input being HDMI, it will resume from monitor standby.

ok, another update, I plugged in my xbox. At first the problem didn't occur but after a few minutes of the xbox running a dvd on component, and going into standby in windows, it would not respond. However, turning off the xbox restores everything back to normal. The cable box doesn't really turn off ever, I suppose it always sends some sort of signal to the monitor, but the Xbox turns completely off.

so, to conclude, I can't use any device that sends a signal on or off to the monitor via component if I want to go into standby and resume in windows via HDMI.

 

[El Barto]

I got mine the other day, and I'm happy as a clam.


The contrast is great. Colors pop, and text is clear at native resolutions.
I finally got rid of my 19" Fuji Plus LCD.

-I like the plethora of inputs, but I'm only using the VGA and HDMI/DVI-D inputs.
- No component in other words.
- Not having any issues with the "standby" resumption over HDMI
- Only complaint is that it puts out a lot of heat.

thanks for reading!

 

[bootstrap]

I've experienced the same thing. This is known as "input lag," if I'm not mistaken, and is common on 24" LCDs, though some are slower than others.

Input lag actually refers to any latency a monitor has in addition to the response time of the panel. It has nothing to do with resuming from suspend. Panels with bad input lag have a perceptible delay between the user input and the screen's update. People who play fast-paced games (e.g. first person shooters) seem to be especially annoyed by this. By all reports, I don't believe input lag is an issue with the LG (in fact, in Jim's comparison with the Dell and BenQ, it actually had the lowest latency).

mine is going back too. i think i found a new love:

http://www.necdisplay.com/Products/Product/?product=75787ebd-557c-4900-9109-98880244779d

but at what cost???

Just out of curiosity, what's the reason you're returning it? Because of the text blurriness you mentioned previously? Or were there other issues?

so, to conclude, I can't use any device that sends a signal on or off to the monitor via component if I want to go into standby and resume in windows via HDMI.

Very strange. Just to clarify, though, when this happens you just have to turn the monitor off and back on? You don't need to restart the PC? I'm trying to understand whether this is a deal-breaker or just an inconvenience.

 

[blank]

Input lag actually refers to any latency a monitor has in addition to the response time of the panel. It has nothing to do with resuming from suspend. Panels with bad input lag have a perceptible delay between the user input and the screen's update. People who play fast-paced games (e.g. first person shooters) seem to be especially annoyed by this. By all reports, I don't believe input lag is an issue with the LG (in fact, in Jim's comparison with the Dell and BenQ, it actually had the lowest latency).


Just out of curiosity, what's the reason you're returning it? Because of the text blurriness you mentioned previously? Or were there other issues?


Very strange. Just to clarify, though, when this happens you just have to turn the monitor off and back on? You don't need to restart the PC? I'm trying to understand whether this is a deal-breaker or just an inconvenience.

i didnt have to turn it off and on or restart the computer, If the monitor in HDMI was sleeping because the computer was inactive, I would have to switch to component and then back to HDMI to make it show windows. But this was only when I had the cable box plugged which sent a signal even though the box was "off"

 

[senakun]

Just out of curiosity, what's the reason you're returning it? Because of the text blurriness you mentioned previously? Or were there other issues?

aside from blurry text that i'm not too sure about now:

- screen gets jumbled up sometimes when switching resolutions. i have to reinstall my drivers to fix it. i think it has something to do with my ATI card.

- switching from 1:1 mode to native resolution and back turns off 1:1 completely. so every time i have to go back to 1:1 alt-tabing in a non-widescreen game gets tedious since i do it a lot.

- the stand was sticking. didn't glide like the one i returned previously. felt like something was griding against something else.

- backlight was patchy.. didn't look like that on the first one i had

- switching resolutions takes a few seconds. seems like forever sometimes.. lol


i think it's a good monitor for the price i paid though... i kinda liked it in some respects, but i want to see if there are better ones out there for a reasonable amount more.

 

[gman]

Question, I've notice that on the lower right corner on a white screen it looks a bit yellow if your eyes are basically positioned in middle of the screen. If you move your head over the area the yellowish ting goes away. Also, if you look at the screen at an angle from the left the screen looks yellowish if from the right it looks a bit yellowish, but not as bad. Is this the anti-glare stuff they put on here. Other than that this thing is frikin awesome.

 

[El Barto]

I don't have any yellowish tinting in ANY of the corners on my LG.

You might want to exchange it, you probably got a "bad" one.