Looking for 22" IPS with 8-bit panel

[austinpike]

Looking for a 22" IPS display with an 8-bit panel. All the 22" IPS panels I've found seem to be 6-bit+FRC. We are trying to match panel color/quality to the HP 27" IPS (zr2740w and z27i.) Have tried the NEC EA224WMi but it seems lacking in contrast. Obvious choice would be the Z22i, but I believe that is 6-bit also so I'm not sure if it would be any better than the NEC. (Will likely try that next anyway if there are no 8-bit 22" panels readily available.)

These will be distributed to a large number of users, so ideally it would be something that looks decent out of the box. The 27" HPs don't really require any tweaking to look good. Will be for business and graphics use, so speed/lag is irrelevant.

 

[NCX]

Pretty sure all of the new 21.5" panels are 6 bit+FRC and almost all of the 1080p AH-IPS suffer from gradient banding and can only cover 90% of the sRGB color space. The glossy Acer H226HQL is PWM free and has excellent color presets and only costs 130$ in the US.

 

[Murzilka]

The glossy Acer H226HQL is PWM free and has excellent color presets and only costs 130$ in the US.

It's definitely not PWM free. It's possible to see the flicker even on an iPhone camera.
Although it's hard not to recommend it because of the image quality...

 

[Bluesun311]

It's definitely not PWM free. It's possible to see the flicker even on an iPhone camera.
Although it's hard not to recommend it because of the image quality...

My Qnix looks kinda flickery on my cell phone. Then I tried the blurbusters ufo test and it seems to pass. This monitor does not strain my eyes at all. PWM confounds me.

 

[Murzilka]

My Qnix looks kinda flickery on my cell phone. Then I tried the blurbusters ufo test and it seems to pass. This monitor does not strain my eyes at all. PWM confounds me.

I think I will need to buy a special camera that registers the PWM...
But I can tell my personal impressions for now if the Iphone camera is not good for that - I have the same kinda headache I get from other monitors that use PWM like my Yamasaki Catleap for example. I don't get this feeling when I use the Dell P2414H for example because it is truly flicker free.
I feel that it does have PWM and that chez site simply lied in their review.
Because if you google, you will eventually find the official forum where the Acer rep confirms that the monitor uses the PWM, which means it flickers.

 

[Tup3x]

You don't need a special camera for it (might be difficult with iPhone thanks to crappy camera software). As long as you can manually adjust shutter speed you should be fine.

ISO 3200, 1/4000 sec. shutter

ISO 3200, 1/800 sec. shutter

On my Lumia 920 the fastest shutter speed is 1/16000 so it's pretty good device for checking PWM flickering.

 

[NCX]

feel that it does have PWM and Ex Czech site simply lied. Because if you Google, you will eventually find the official forum where the Acer rep confirms that the monitor uses the PWM, which means it flickers.

Feelings are not sufficient when testing for PWM. Low PWM frequencies are easy to test for using Blur Busters test or by simply recording a monitor like in this BenQ video.

So a third party reviewer lied and the Acer rep who confirms the monitor uses direct current for the back-light on page 2 instead of PWM when questioned further is also wrong?

 

[Comixbooks]

I have a PWM flicker free BenQ worst monitor I ever bought it's boxed up....

ASUS are pretty good no matter what size they don't bother me anyway..

 

[Murzilka]

Feelings are not sufficient when testing for PWM. Low PWM frequencies are easy to test for using Blur Busters test or by simply recording a monitor like in this BenQ video.

So a third party reviewer lied and the Acer rep who confirms the monitor uses direct current for the back-light on page 2 instead of PWM when questioned further is also wrong?

Do you know the difference between the "signal" and "backlight"? If yes, please elaborate. Also tell me please when does PWM come into play in the signal and in the backlight and how that correlates. And which one of those two different kinds (or maybe the same) of PWMs is more important and visible for the eye.
If you can answer that - we may then understand wtf that rep was talking about on the second page, while on the first page he clearly stated that the monitor does have PWM.

And like I said I can't measure the PWM right now, but the monitor feels tiresome for eyes and brain and it looks like PWM to me.

 

[NCX]

There is no point in explaining anything to you because you have already decided your issues are PWM related, even though it only takes a minute (surely you own a cell phone?) check for low hz PWM.

 

[Murzilka]

There is no point in explaining anything to you because you have already decided your issues are PWM related, even though it only takes a minute (surely you own a cell phone?) check for low hz PWM.

It's like you didn't read my first post where I noted that the iphone registered the flickering.
And of course I own a cell phone. And not only that! I also own the monitor I'm talking about..

 

[Bluesun311]

I noted that the iphone registered the flickering.

Yeah, I think it's totally possible. I just don't know if our iPhones are catching it correctly or not. I don't think my Qnix is pwm but it looks like it is on my iPhone. When I track my eyes with the line from the blurbusters test with the brightness set at 0 I do not get artifacts. One line, and same look about it as 100% brightness. I think that's pretty good anyway. It could have a high pwm frequency but it matters little.

One thing that wouldn't surprise me, sir. You've gone to a very small dot pitch. That hurts my eyes. 27" 1440p doesn't, because it's not much different from 24" 1080p, which I was used to. I remember going from a 19" 1200X800 or something like that 3:4 monitor I have it here, to a 1080p 22" LG and oh the eye watering. Eventually I got used to it.

 

[Murzilka]

Yeah, I think it's totally possible. I just don't know if our iPhones are catching it correctly or not. I don't think my Qnix is pwm but it looks like it is on my iPhone. When I track my eyes with the line from the blurbusters test with the brightness set at 0 I do not get artifacts. One line, and same look about it as 100% brightness. I think that's pretty good anyway. It could have a high pwm frequency but it matters little.

One thing that wouldn't surprise me, sir. You've gone to a very small dot pitch. That hurts my eyes. 27" 1440p doesn't, because it's not much different from 24" 1080p, which I was used to. I remember going from a 19" 1200X800 or something like that 3:4 monitor I have it here, to a 1080p 22" LG and oh the eye watering. Eventually I got used to it.

Yeah, also, maybe it's because the display is too bright. At zero brightness it outputs 140cdm2 of luminance. At 8%, I haven't measured, but I got a feeling that my eyes would bleed out.... Add to this very small dot pitch, as you mentioned, and there you have that pressure on the eyes I am being talking about. That's possible.
I will download the app for the iPhone5 that will allow for setting the shutter speed and other options of the camera and I will settle this PWM question once and for all concerning this monitor.
Nevertheless this monitor produces the best image quality I have ever seen on any monitor in games and internet and whatever media and it doesn't require calibration. So it's pretty much a small jewel in a grey mass of the multimedia monitors today. Only if it were less stressful on eyes...

 

[CrabJuice]

I used a H226HQL for a little while over 6 months ago. Nice image on it, as Murzilka claims, but it was too glossy for me and I lost count at 5 dead subpixels. Although, it was definatly PWM free or maybe very high frequency. But even with high frequency its hard to fool the oscillioscope that Extrahardware review uses to test PWM.

I guess representatives are a bit sensitive when it comes to technical variations between units. Remember the days when Dell used to swap out IPS panels for VA panels? Also when Samsung swapped their own TN panels for CMI panels? You dont see those kind of moves anymore.