My BenQ FP241WZ

Just read through this whole thread (whew!). I think this will be my next monitor (upgrading from a Dell 2005fpw). Thanks for all the different advisements reagrding this monitor, especially you higgy...
 
To everyone who got the WZ version of this monitor,
is the BFI function really worth it or its ok without it.
bcoz my e-tailer informed me they not gona get it untill 1st week next month. so i cancel my order. and i'm seriously thinking of going back to plain W model without BFI which is widely available.
not ot mention here in UK it cost a fortune. W model for £601 (or US$1,162) delivered and WZ model £735 (or US$1,421) delivered. thats a whooping £134 (or US$260) extra.
IS the BFI technology really worth this much? do you use it most of the time? and does it help when watching movie or say japanese anime?
i'm not into console gaming in anyway (can't get use to gamepad for some reason) and only a PC gamer. i play racing games mostly (eg. NFS) and few FPS (eg. Call of Duty+no multiplayer), not the Unreal Tournament type. my main priority is watching video.
So what do you think? BFI a must or not?
my credit card and me both waiting!
cheers.
 
Sinbios said:
Hi everyone, the pictures of video playing at different display modes (AR, 1:1, etc) really don't tell whether 1:1 mode is working correctly, or if AR is really 1:1 or if it's scaling the picture back and forth. Could somebody with a PS3 please display the above image and test each mode? If AR is truly working at 1:1, it should be a fine, smooth gray pattern. If it's scaled in any way it will turn into a very obvious checkerboard.

I have made these images in Photoshop to illustrate:

This is what it should look like, if it's 100% unscaled:
unscaled.gif


Scaling down and back up in Photoshop produces the following:
scaled.gif


This will produce definitive results of whether any mode displays the pixels 1:1. If it works in 1:1 mode, but still has black bars on the sides, it may be that the original image is sized that way (i.e., not full 1080p!) to compensate for overscan.

Also, I'm still curious about the panel. Since AUO doesn't make a PVA panel, the BenQ guy is obviously talking out of his ass.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your help sinbios! I don't know why I have been a moron for so long. I went out and bought a dvi to HDMI adapter for $13.00.
Here are the 1080p test pictures that sinbios posted earlier over HDMI in 1:1 mode. It looks like you put that to rest, sinbios. It appears that 1080p works correctly over HDMI in 1 to 1 mode. There are about 1/2 inch bars on the top and bottom. It appears exactly the same in the aspect mode.


http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u285/higgy57/006-2.jpg

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u285/higgy57/004.jpg

It also appears exactly the same way over the dvi input, which I think we already knew. Now if I can figure out a way to test it over component, I think I can.

:D
 
higgy said:
Thanks for your help sinbios! I don't know why I have been a moron for so long. I went out and bought a dvi to HDMI adapter for $13.00.
Here are the 1080p test pictures that sinbios posted earlier over HDMI in 1:1 mode. It looks like you put that to rest, sinbios. It appears that 1080p works correctly over HDMI in 1 to 1 mode. There are about 1/2 inch bars on the top and bottom. It appears exactly the same in the aspect mode.


http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u285/higgy57/006-2.jpg

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u285/higgy57/004.jpg

It also appears exactly the same way over the dvi input, which I think we already knew. Now if I can figure out a way to test it over component, I think I can.

:D
Click to expand...
I don't think you can do 1080p over component, and I'm not sure how interlacing will affect the pattern... nice to see that it works fine in PC mode! Now we just need somebody to test over PS3 to figure out whether that's working correctly as well. I know I have a similar problem in my 720p TV, PC connections are 1:1 but other connections are scaled.

And the next definitive test... involves a screwdriver! ;D

Oh, one more thing. There's a lot of banding on the colour shot, does that actually look like that, or is it because of the quality of the photo?
 
DRen72 said:
I have a question for others using the 241XX Benq panel. I have the 241WZ.

Desktop text looks great using DVI input and standard mode, but if I switch to any of the other modes (photo, dynamic, movie) the text immediately gets blurry and I can't seem to change it. The sharpness settings also appear to be locked out on any settings other than standard. Is that what everyone else is seeing as well?
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's why I only use standard mode for regular usage. You might try that senseye stuff to see if that helps.
 
Sousuke said:
To everyone who got the WZ version of this monitor,
is the BFI function really worth it?
cheers.
Click to expand...
I've tried it, I didn't care for it because of the flickering. But this is the thing. No one that I know of has tried it on a true 1080P game. This will probably be a whole new experience. For me, the jury is still out.
 
Sinbios said:
And the next definitive test... involves a screwdriver! ;D

Oh, one more thing. There's a lot of banding on the colour shot, does that actually look like that, or is it because of the quality of the photo?
Click to expand...
I've been doing a lot of a reading about how to operate that screwdriver. That Chinese is hard to read though. :D

Yes there is a little banding in the green and a little in the red.
 
higgy said:
I've been doing a lot of a reading about how to operate that screwdriver. That Chinese is hard to read though. :D

Yes there is a little banding in the green and a little in the red.
Click to expand...

I can read Chinese, point me to the instructions and I'll do a quick translation.

Is the banding as bad as it looks like in the picture?
 
You got to be f....... kidding me? I just stumpled over this thread: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1168778

So, I just ordered this monitor, and know I find out that this monitor also have a problem? Can someone confirm that 1080p inputs are displayed incorrectly? With black bars all around the image?

EDIT: I missed the part saying it's on the HDMI input that there are problems. I will use my xbox 360 over component, so I'll keep my fingers crossed...
 
Sousuke said:
bcoz my e-tailer informed me they not gona get it untill 1st week next month. so i cancel my order.
cheers.
Click to expand...

That just means that it is possible you would have recieved the rumored firmware update. Where did you order from?

higgy said:
Maybe the PS3 needs a firmware update. :confused:
Click to expand...

Thats a little bit more than a maybe, but I'm starting to think it might be on the PS3 end if the PC input works fine. Maybe it's the hdcp (wild guess)? PCs only use HDCP when using protected data, or at least that is the case with XP.
 
janoloco said:
does any body knows the solution for the signal-lost issue? (blackout) problem
Click to expand...

See post #218 in this thread (or this post in the FP241W thread). As far as I know it's not confirmed, but hopefully some more people with this issue can try his suggestion and see if it works. I don't think higgy has encountered this problem with his WZ.
 
i just got my FP241WZ yesterday, when starting xp the blackout problem comes out some times just when loading programs finishes and at ramdom times too. i have an ati card, i turned of the alternate dvi operational mode and so far everything its ok.

i´ll keep you informed
 
Rieder73 said:
You got to be f....... kidding me? I just stumpled over this thread: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1168778

So, I just ordered this monitor, and know I find out that this monitor also have a problem? Can someone confirm that 1080p inputs are displayed incorrectly? With black bars all around the image?

EDIT: I missed the part saying it's on the HDMI input that there are problems. I will use my xbox 360 over component, so I'll keep my fingers crossed...
Click to expand...


If you are referring to the FP241WZ as the monitor, then yes, there are some problems. On my XBox 360, I tried 1080p via VGA and Component video. It works in best in Component Video. Only if you used 1:1 mode, it would leave bars on the sides as well as the top and bottom. However, if you put the monitor in aspect mode, then it would be displayed correctly. I couldn't tell that it was doing any actually scaling, just displaying the signal as it should. It seems that BenQ is aware of this problem and may have a firmware fix in the future (according to the thread you mentioned). I personally don't care to ship mine in for a fix, as it does actually work correctly in a different mode than expected. Why bother if it works, just in a different mode, right? *grin* Anyway, I just did a comprehensive review of three 24" monitors, and they all have some irritations, or bugs, or whatever... Nothing is perfect, but we have to look past the irritations sometimes. *shrug* Later...
 
higgy said:
Yeah, that's why I only use standard mode for regular usage. You might try that senseye stuff to see if that helps.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Standard mode is the correct sharpness level. The other modes look like they are there to emulate what an LCD TV panel might do. It is VERY typical to have the sharpness too high by default on a TV. All the manufacturers do this to TVs so they look "sharper" than the competition. So, if you sit back from the BenQ and put it in Dynamic mode, it will look more like something you get at Best Buy. The other modes, though too sharp or blurry may look better or worse depending on how far back you sit, or the kind of content you want to display. For example, if you use Photo mode, and put a giant pic on the screen, you will see the colors change a bit (slightly more accurate in my non-professional opinion). Also, you'll see a slight blur on text, but this will actually make the image look more like a smooth edge photo than a computer screen. Heck, if you like "cleartype", it might even smooth that out a little. I hate cleartype, myself, but it's an interesting test to try if you use it. Hmmm...
 
Jim Robbins said:
If you are referring to the FP241WZ as the monitor, then yes, there are some problems. On my XBox 360, I tried 1080p via VGA and Component video. It works in best in Component Video. Only if you used 1:1 mode, it would leave bars on the sides as well as the top and bottom. However, if you put the monitor in aspect mode, then it would be displayed correctly. I couldn't tell that it was doing any actually scaling, just displaying the signal as it should. It seems that BenQ is aware of this problem and may have a firmware fix in the future (according to the thread you mentioned). I personally don't care to ship mine in for a fix, as it does actually work correctly in a different mode than expected. Why bother if it works, just in a different mode, right? *grin* Anyway, I just did a comprehensive review of three 24" monitors, and they all have some irritations, or bugs, or whatever... Nothing is perfect, but we have to look past the irritations sometimes. *shrug* Later...
Click to expand...

Does the 360 have a picture viewer? If so, could you run this test: http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1030757347&postcount=210

This will show us whether 1:1 works correctly with consoles and component video.
 
Jim Robbins said:
Only if you used 1:1 mode, it would leave bars on the sides as well as the top and bottom. However, if you put the monitor in aspect mode, then it would be displayed correctly. I couldn't tell that it was doing any actually scaling, just displaying the signal as it should. It seems that BenQ is aware of this problem and may have a firmware fix in the future (according to the thread you mentioned).
Click to expand...

Some people believe that consoles are outputting an overscan image as TVs display their images in overscan to avoid the interference and encoding that appears on the edges without overscan.

The firmware fix would allow the monitor to detect overscan and corrects its image accordingly. IOW, it switches to aspect mode automatically.
 
Sinbios said:
Does the 360 have a picture viewer? If so, could you run this test: http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1030757347&postcount=210

This will show us whether 1:1 works correctly with consoles and component video.
Click to expand...

I tried a different test pattern on my 360 last night. The xbox bounces it around or scales it in and out like a picture show. I wasn't able to just get a still image to display, so I can't verify 1:1, unfortunately. However, I did notice that on VGA, the monitor thinks the xbox is sending a 1680x1050 signal. My CRT also thought that it was receiving a 1680x1050 signal, even though I clearly selected 1920x1080. I think MS isn't outputting the signal entirely correctly.

Now, when the xbox is using component video, the monitor thinks it is actually receiving a 1080p signal, it just shrinks it down a little, and puts bars on the sides. I think that is the fault of the WZ. One of the PS3 dudes on another thread mentioned BenQ is going to update that for him (in Hong Kong). We might have a fix for some of this stuff, but it's hard to know if it is worth it.

MS needs to fix stuff... BenQ needs to fix stuff... I am sure Sony has to fix stuff, too. Heck, I think it's all broken!! Oh well, take the best you can get and just look past the flaws, or you'll never enjoy it. I guess I am ready to settle a little so I can have a big screen. Later!
 
Jim Robbins said:
I tried a different test pattern on my 360 last night. The xbox bounces it around or scales it in and out like a picture show. I wasn't able to just get a still image to display, so I can't verify 1:1, unfortunately. However, I did notice that on VGA, the monitor thinks the xbox is sending a 1680x1050 signal. My CRT also thought that it was receiving a 1680x1050 signal, even though I clearly selected 1920x1080. I think MS isn't outputting the signal entirely correctly.

Now, when the xbox is using component video, the monitor thinks it is actually receiving a 1080p signal, it just shrinks it down a little, and puts bars on the sides. I think that is the fault of the WZ. One of the PS3 dudes on another thread mentioned BenQ is going to update that for him (in Hong Kong). We might have a fix for some of this stuff, but it's hard to know if it is worth it.

MS needs to fix stuff... BenQ needs to fix stuff... I am sure Sony has to fix stuff, too. Heck, I think it's all broken!! Oh well, take the best you can get and just look past the flaws, or you'll never enjoy it. I guess I am ready to settle a little so I can have a big screen. Later!
Click to expand...

Weird.

Well, my guess for the component issue is when the TV gets an analogue signal over component, it scales it down a bit and then convert to digital, to compensate for overscan. Not a huge deal since the image is scaled anyway during analogue to digital conversion. Can we verify that HDMI from PS3 is not scaled? If the digital signal is scaled around, it's BAD NEWS.
 
I just got this monitor and my OSD-menue looks wierd. Can anyone take a pic of his/hers OSD-menue so I can see it mine is faulty. :)
 
higgy said:
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u285/higgy57/007.jpg

Edit: Please feel free to post your experiences, questions, ect. with the WZ model.
Click to expand...

Well, just got mine today. But after reading some reviews and threads on this forum, I must say I'm a bit disappointed in this monitor.

First of all, the ghosting is insane. Much worse than I expected. Tested it in FEAR and Half-Life 2 so far, and the ghosting is clearly very visible. I've tried the PerfectMotion settings. This, as far as I can tell, eliminates the ghosting completely. BUT... The flickering of the screen gives me a headache. Just like playing on 60 Hz on a CRT screen used to give me. It's strange, since I didn't see it this clearly on the FP24W. Maybe it's just not calibrated good enough yet? Anyone have a good way to properly calibrate a LCD screen, please say so.

Second, the stand are somehow crocked. The screen itself tilt to the right and cannot be adjusted.

I don't know if it's a keeper yet. It depends if I can somehow so it up so that the ghosting isn't as visible as now.
 
Rieder73 said:
Well, just got mine today. But after reading some reviews and threads on this forum, I must say I'm a bit disappointed in this monitor.

First of all, the ghosting is insane. Much worse than I expected. Tested it in FEAR and Half-Life 2 so far, and the ghosting is clearly very visible. I've tried the PerfectMotion settings. This, as far as I can tell, eliminates the ghosting completely. BUT... The flickering of the screen gives me a headache. Just like playing on 60 Hz on a CRT screen used to give me. It's strange, since I didn't see it this clearly on the FP24W. Maybe it's just not calibrated good enough yet? Anyone have a good way to properly calibrate a LCD screen, please say so.

Second, the stand are somehow crocked. The screen itself tilt to the right and cannot be adjusted.

I don't know if it's a keeper yet. It depends if I can somehow so it up so that the ghosting isn't as visible as now.
Click to expand...
That is the first excessive ghosting compliant that I've heard of. It is strange that you didn't notice the excessive ghosting with the FP241W. I did notice a little ghosting on mine, but nothing serious. If it's not a defective cable, I would suggest returning it and trying a different monitor manufacturer.
 
Could anyone with this monitor and a PS3 pleeeeease do the pattern test I posted above with HDMI? It is my only reservation about this monitor - if PS3 HDMI maps the pixels properly, I am going to snap one up.

Higgy: where are the Chinese instructions for opening the monitor up? I could translate for you if you want.
 
I just wanted to put out a heads up about using the HDMI input with this monitor for computer usage. If you have a new video card with HDMI output you might want to wait until someone else tries it with this monitor. It seems to treat the signal as HDTV through HDMI. Otherwise you might need an HDMI to DVI adapter to run it through the DVI input.

I'm not positive, just not certain.

I'm just trying to help. :)
 
Hi Sinbios,
The Chinese article that I am referring to is on post number 89 of this thread. It is translated to English from Chinese but it loses lot in translation. My main concern is where they talk about the disassembly being expensive. Are they talking about disassembling an expensive monitor or the disassembly being expensive because it cannot be reassembled? LOL!

Edit: There is a lot of information on post number 89. There are 26 pages of the disassembly article here http://translate.google.com/transla...0&hl=en&safe=off&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&sa=N you will need to be very bored to read them all. :)
 
@stefannyc
If you're still out there, how did Techonweb treat you on your monitor return?
 
Hello Higgy,

Sorry for the delay but I was away last week. They send me a RA number after 2 days and offering credit back. But I realized that the component of my DVD player were broken and not the monitor. So I kept the Monitor as I am very happy with it
 
stefannyc said:
Hello Higgy,

Sorry for the delay but I was away last week. They send me a RA number after 2 days and offering credit back. But I realized that the component of my DVD player were broken and not the monitor. So I kept the Monitor as I am very happy with it
Click to expand...
Great, I was worried I lead you astray. ;)
 
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