NEC 2490WUXi - The Full Story

Snowdog said:
The EyeOne D2 is the hardware device that comes with the SpectraView kit. It tends to be slightly better than than the Spyder.

No matter which HW device you use (EyeOne/Spyder) you definitely want to use the NEC software to calibrate the internal 12 bit LUTs of the monitor instead of other packages that calibrate the 8 bit LUTs on the graphics card.

If you start without a calibrator your best bet is to buy the whole package (montior+software+calibrator). It is the best deal.

If you already have an acceptable calibrator you definitely should prefer the SV software, but it is fairly expensive as a stand alone package.
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so if I already own the EyeOne Display 2 then I can download the SpectraView software for free or do I need to purchase that as well?
 
SV software needs to be purchased separately if you're not getting the -SV bundle for American units. I think NEC charges $100 for the disc, and $90 for a download-only version.
 
Is it normal having a slight red tint on bottom left corner even if i look at 2490wuxi straight on black screen?.
 
Yes, the reddish tint is a side-effect of the A-TW polarizer on the original 2490.

$100 does sound a bit steep, but you need this software in order to communicate with the 2490's built-in LUT. I'm not sure if any other calibration program can access it, but the higher end ones are also quite expensive.
 
I have a 2490WUXI2 and now after having it for a couple of months with the Spectraview software I really love it! It's just fantastic to be able to calibrate to any settings I want automatically.

One problem though, there are lots of games now that are made for 16-235 colors, but unlike movies you can't compensate for that in the video card drivers, so is it possible to do SRGB 16-235 calibration in Spectraview? Just lowering the black level on the monitor and bumping up the contrast doesn't look right to me, so is there some recommended way to do it?
 
can anyone tell me if the LCD2490WUXi is completely matte and not glossy...meaning is the bezel and base matte as well?...I'm pretty sure the screen itself it matte but I'm not sure about the rest
 
that's good to know...I'm thinking about picking one up this week while they still have the original version in stock...I could have sworn I read some reviews which stated that the base and/or bezel was glossy
 
I went ahead and purchased the 2490WUXi-BK-SV today...anyone know NEC's dead pixel policy?...do they give you a hard time or are they pretty easy to deal with?

I bought it from Amazon but apparently it doesn't come from Amazon.com itself but from one of those authorized resellers...hopefully the reselllers are legit and not selling used items...mine is coming from someplace called Wonder Electronics...I would have felt better if it was coming from Amazon directly but hopefully they stand by their 'authorized' reseller list
 
Last time I called NEC, they told me at least 6 dead subpixels or something.. I don't really remember, but I think I had 5, and I ended up replacing it via Provantage instead.
 
DarkScythe said:
Last time I called NEC, they told me at least 6 dead subpixels or something.. I don't really remember, but I think I had 5, and I ended up replacing it via Provantage instead.
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6?...that's terrible...I always thought NEC had one of the better dead pixel policies

I haven't heard about too many users complaining about receiving dead pixels with these LCD's so hopefully they all go through some tough QA
 
I bought the NEC 2490WUXi this past week and it's my first ever LCD...is it normal for the boot up screen to have a different resolution then Windows itself?...my boot up screens show up as 1280 x 1024 while Windows boots up in its native 1920 x 1200 resolution...is this normal?

1280 x 1024 was my previous CRT resolution so I'm thinking something might be mixed up there
 
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polonyc2 said:
I bought the NEC 2490WUXi this past week and it's my first ever LCD...is it normal for the boot up screen to have a different resolution then Windows itself?...my boot up screens show up as 1280 x 1024 while Windows boots up in its native 1920 x 1200 resolution...is this normal?

1280 x 1024 was my previous CRT resolution so I'm thinking something might be mixed up there
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Yes that is normal. From my understanding the video mode your graphics card uses in the bios is relatively small for comparability's sake.
 
thanks Mr_Coffee!

I bought the 2490WUXi-SV that comes with the calibration sensor and SpectraView software, is calibration necessary if I'm mainly using the display for PC gaming (with a bit of web browsing and Office applications thrown in)?...will I get better black levels by calibrating (that's the main reason why I would want to calibrate so that I can get close to CRT level blacks...or at least black levels better then the default levels)?...I'm a huge PC gamer and the blacks on LCD's are a bit disappointing coming from my previous high end CRT...but I also don't want to mess anything up as I never calibrated a display before and I'm worried that it might get a bit complex and I'll mess up some internal settings on the display
 
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The prices just dipped on the 2490WUXi2.... it's down to just below $900 shipped at most places. Anyone have any ideas why this may have happened? Cheaper panels? Holidays?
 
anyone know how exactly to use preconfigured color profiles available on sites such as TFT Central?...where do I install them to and which one is best to use out of the 4 available for my 2490WUXI?...the hardware LUT one?...or do I just experiment with all of them to see which one looks best to me?

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/icc_profiles.htm
 
Does this screen and the Planar share the same panel? The review from CNET worries me about either of these displays:

Performance
We tested the Planar PX2611w with its DVI connection. The display posted a composite score of 88 on CNET Labs' DisplayMate-based performance tests. We compared it with the 25.5-inch HP w2558hc, which scored an 88. The PX2611w scored well in most of our color tests, but really faltered in our two color ramp tests, which look for LCD's capability to render gradations of primary colors smoothly, uniformly, and consistently. In our test, the PX2611w wasn't able to show these gradations smoothly at all. On the black screen test, we saw clouding at the top right-hand corner and bottom left-hand corner of the screen.

The Planar PX2611w achieved a brightness score of 308 candelas per square meter (cd/m2)--much lower than Planar's claimed 400 cd/m2 max. The HP with its brightness of 387 cd/m2, came in significantly higher than the Planar.

Our Kill Bill Vol. 1 DVD ghosting test yielded noticeable ghosting on the Planar. We played the movie in the Planar's Movie preset and appreciated its deep blacks and its ability to achieve accurate and vibrant colors.
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Also is this the same monitor (notice the 2 at the end):

LCD2490WUXI2-BK

I'm seeing this version selling for a few hundred less then the LCD2490WUXi-BK
 
Inside_line said:
The prices just dipped on the 2490WUXi2.... it's down to just below $900 shipped at most places. Anyone have any ideas why this may have happened? Cheaper panels? Holidays?
Click to expand...

People are finding it's an inferior LCD to the WUXi series and not buying I believe.
 
after calibrating my 2490WUXi using the included SpectraView software/EyeOneDisplay 2 and saving all my settings will it still be saved within the monitor's hardware itself?...I'm a frequent reformater and I like to erase my hard drive and re-install everything often and was wondering if the recalibrated settings will be erased each time I do a reformat...hopefully not

apparently this monitor's allows calibration at a hardware level compared to saving it on a video card level...so I'm assuming that reformatting will not erase anything?
 
polonyc2 said:
anyone know how exactly to use preconfigured color profiles available on sites such as TFT Central?...where do I install them to and which one is best to use out of the 4 available for my 2490WUXI?...the hardware LUT one?...or do I just experiment with all of them to see which one looks best to me?

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/icc_profiles.htm
Click to expand...



If you've got a 2490WUXi, leave it the hell alone. (seriously).

Set it to factory defaults everywhere. Following that, the most important things:

- set sRGB color
- leave ColorComp ON
- leave sharpness at the default (26.2% I think)
- leave contrast at the default
- leave black level at the default
- leave ColorComp ON, and set to 3, this is virtually as good as calibrated
- don't turn the brightness TOO low engaging lowbright mode unless you really need it - this starts to use pixel blocking and reduces accuracy.
- know how to get into the advanced OSD (hold pwr and input for several seconds on power up) - it's in the manual.

The 2490WUXi with Colorcomp on is already practically calibrated, tracks gamma almost perfectly, has "proper" sharpness settings out of the box (confirmed at lagom.nl). This is what you get when you buy a Pro-grade device.
 
Surly73 said:
If you've got a 2490WUXi, leave it the hell alone. (seriously).

- leave black level at the default
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the default black levels is my only complaint with this LCD...it's not true black like my former CRT...so that's the main reason why I wanted to calibrate it
 
This monitor looks great from the factory but looks even better after calibration. Switching calibration on and off shows slight difference but there is an improvement.
 
polonyc2 said:
after calibrating my 2490WUXi using the included SpectraView software/EyeOneDisplay 2 and saving all my settings will it still be saved within the monitor's hardware itself?...I'm a frequent reformater and I like to erase my hard drive and re-install everything often and was wondering if the recalibrated settings will be erased each time I do a reformat...hopefully not

apparently this monitor's allows calibration at a hardware level compared to saving it on a video card level...so I'm assuming that reformatting will not erase anything?
Click to expand...

anyone have an answer about this? :confused:
 
polonyc2 said:
after calibrating my 2490WUXi using the included SpectraView software/EyeOneDisplay 2 and saving all my settings will it still be saved within the monitor's hardware itself?...I'm a frequent reformater and I like to erase my hard drive and re-install everything often and was wondering if the recalibrated settings will be erased each time I do a reformat...hopefully not

apparently this monitor's allows calibration at a hardware level compared to saving it on a video card level...so I'm assuming that reformatting will not erase anything?
Click to expand...

Yes, with the Spectraview software all the adjustments are saved in the monitor itself. When using colour manged applications you will still need the ICC profile generated by Spectraview and that is saved on the hard disk.
 
mlewis said:
Yes, with the Spectraview software all the adjustments are saved in the monitor itself. When using colour manged applications you will still need the ICC profile generated by Spectraview and that is saved on the hard disk.
Click to expand...

but if the adjustments are made in the monitor itself then it should still be there even if I reformat my hard drive correct?...or are adjustments made in the monitor itself AND a profile also stored on my hard drive?...and are they both equally important?...meaning if the hardware adjustments are there but the profile is not will it still be calibrated correctly?...sorry for the confusion but I just want to make sure I understand correctly before doing this
 
Surly73 said:
If you've got a 2490WUXi, leave it the hell alone. (seriously).

Set it to factory defaults everywhere. Following that, the most important things:

- set sRGB color
- leave ColorComp ON
- leave sharpness at the default (26.2% I think)
- leave contrast at the default
- leave black level at the default
- leave ColorComp ON, and set to 3, this is virtually as good as calibrated
- don't turn the brightness TOO low engaging lowbright mode unless you really need it - this starts to use pixel blocking and reduces accuracy.
- know how to get into the advanced OSD (hold pwr and input for several seconds on power up) - it's in the manual.

The 2490WUXi with Colorcomp on is already practically calibrated, tracks gamma almost perfectly, has "proper" sharpness settings out of the box (confirmed at lagom.nl). This is what you get when you buy a Pro-grade device.
Click to expand...

changed all the settings to match what you listed...is sRGB the best mode even if I'm mostly using the monitor for gaming?...it defaulted to N (native) mode and I had to manually switch it to sRGB...I also left Auto Brightness and Low Bright Mode at OFF...the monitor also defaulted to ColorComp Off
 
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albovin said:
All modes are "good". Choose what better suits your eyes.
N has somewhat higher contrast than sRGB.
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thanks...I think I'm going to play around with the SpectraView software and EyeOneDisplay 2 tonight and see if I can get an even better picture (especially when it comes to black levels)

plus since I paid more money for the calibration tools why not put it to good use :D
 
I have owned this monitor for a while now (almost a year I think) and I just went through my advanced OSD after calibrating with my media lab's eye-one. I saw an option on tab 9 for image rotation so I set it to auto to see if it would auto rotate the image when I go rotate my monitor (instead of my having to do it via OS settings). It works but the image quality is really bad, does anybody know how to make this feature usable?
 
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is it OK to put a center channel speaker on the top on the 2490WUXi?...I noticed that the LCD has air vents all along the top and sides so I don't know if covering a few of the vents with a speaker would cause any damage to the LCD...
 
As long as you put it on the center bar you should have about a half inch of clearance from the air vents on each side. Mine hardly gets warm up there, you should be ok.
 
Okay, I've noticed something interesting recently... Just curious if anyone can shed some light on what this might be? ;) I'm thinking a Diagnostic LED of some sort?

If you set windows to turn off the monitor... Let its light turn orange, wait a few seconds, then move the mouse and watch through the vent holes in the top, a blue LED comes on, shortly followed by the screen lighting up and displaying your desktop, and then the Blue LED fades out... I've never noticed this before, so I uploaded a video to Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFGn2q5S-2I
 
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