Official BenQ FP241W Thread !!! Info, Pictures, Reviews

Like I stated before, maybe it only allows 1080p normally via HDMI? not DVI? Video playback is that of any 24"...unless the rip (or DVD) is of HQ HD, its going to look..blotchy..thats not the monitors fault..thats the encoding. I played some crappy old divx3 rips of stargate and they looked horrendous stretched to the monitors native res...then I played a pure HD rip of serenity and it looked wonderful! So like I said, it all depends on your source.
 
Did you check the OSD to see if scaling options showed up when you had the DVD player hooked up?
 
rabhw said:
it.com.cn review also has screens of it playing the "Fifth Element" in 1080p, which is a Blu-Ray release. It could be either hooked up to a BR player via HDMI, or it could be an internal PC drive playing it through a media player as someone said.

http://it.flash920.com/f/diy/069/4/319982_13.htm

^ The 1080p example on that page.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that aspect ratio looks good there. Also see good shots of what I'd expect on the page before (http://it.flash920.com/f/diy/069/4/319982_12.htm)
 
The more I look at it, the more I believe its an HDMI only 1080p thing. I just purchased a DVI->HDMI cable and will try that. ill output 1920x1080 and then see what happens. The cable should get here later this week ..ill update if noone already has on this subject with a real HD device

The senseye demo just shows how the monitor looks with and without it. it looks a LOT better with it.
 
DangerIsGo said:
The more I look at it, the more I believe its an HDMI only 1080p thing.
Click to expand...

Doubtful. All the inputs EXCEPT HDMI are doing stretching... and HDMI and DVI are identical, they probably use the same processing circuitry.
 
What if they dont? What if HDMI has its own seperate chip to do its processing and then in turn, scale it to fit proper size? I mean woult it not make sense how the images from it.com are in 1080p and displayed correctly?
 
DangerIsGo, did you actually try 1920x1080 via DVI from your PC? or did you video card only let your do 1920x1200? I cant remember whether I read this or not, and I cant find it after a quick look back through your posts.

They might be giving 1920x1080 the special treatment.
 
DangerIsGo said:
Well, I was able to output 1920x1080 via PC...and nope..its stretched to fill...very odd.
Click to expand...

There ya go. Which leads me to believe that its an HDMI only option..if not...then...BenQ is going to get a callin.
 
Bugger. :(

Sorry, I must agree with gatz that its unlikely the DVI and HDMI are treated any differently. They'll most likely use all the same circuitry, since HDMI is effectively DVI + integrated audio.
 
Well by this week if no one has an HDMI 1080p source, ill have my cable and can test it. If not, then :/
 
Thats for all the help looking into this for us.

I'm still hopeful it'll work the magic somewhere given that review with accurate screenshots.
 
I'm so glad that's over. Now I hope everyone doesn't start whining about how it should do this or it shouldn't do that.Benq did what they did and it does what it does and if you have problems with that then this monitor is not for you. Take the time you were going to spend whining and go find something that fulfills your needs. Mite I suggest the Westinghouse LVM-37W3 37" It's big, it has tons of inputs and it does nun of those things the naughty old benq does
Click to expand...
I repeat myself oh well so is every on else. It is what it is :eek: Thank you DangerIsGo for your time.
A huge disappointment !!! It's another monitor with useless analog inputs. What a shame for you BenQ. The biggest advertisement hype, Full HD 1080p support, what a joke The same 1080p support is with 244T and 2407FPW. I've been waiting so long for nothing.
I think, we customers should ban this monitor, otherwise they won't learn anything. This guy is going to teach l :rolleyes: them a lesson what a joke. And all this over speculation. Well mine will be here on Tuesday and I have a Denon DVD-3910 and xbox 360 if for one moment I thought any info that I posted would be used for anything other than bashing I would post it. But why take the time to unhook all that equipment just to give the opportunity to whine for 4 more pages.
 
DangerIsGo said:
There ya go. Which leads me to believe that its an HDMI only option..if not...then...BenQ is going to get a callin.
Click to expand...

Yes, why don't you just call them up since you already have the monitor? Just get it solve and over with.
 
Hey Guys,

First of all, I'm glad I found this great forum and a big thank you to DangerIsGo: Thanks for all the pictures and information on this Benq FP241W monitor. Totally appreciate it because I had this succer ordered with Newegg last night (NewEgg Rocks and of course has the very best price and shipping!) and decided to CANCEL today after reading more reviews and this forum and concluding that unfornately that this LCD is not worthy yet.

I, like all of you fellow geekoids, have been waiting for this monitor for months and months. I have never owned an LCD in my life although I bought my x-girlfriend a Viewsonic P201b 20.1" like a year ago for about $750 (totally overpaid and knew it at the time when she could have gotten a 19" for less than half but she insisted) and though it took awhile to go down in price, it's now discontinued and like $350 which I figured would happen eventually! Still a great monitor and she loves it though for what she does (web design) and the few games she plays.

I myself have been using CRT's for almost 20 years now. Eye Strain and Radiation are my drugs! Right now I am using a Sony 24" FW900 Widescreen and this monitor was da bomb when it came out years ago and cost a bundle (and now they are dumping them on Ebay for 199 which is hard to believe since they retailed for 5 grand when they first came out!)...Still has a great picture and works great but it uses up too much electricity (200W), heats up the entire room and house using up more electricity with the air conditioning, gives me major eyestrain from the flicker (even at high refresh rates it is subconscious) and glare, and cannot possibly be very healthy to sit at for long periods of time up close for so many years as it does emit some radiation.

Before I retired from playing Quake3 (due to oncoming carpel tunnel had I not stopped), I kicked major ass on team freeze tag to the point where I was like Neo in the matrix and I saw everyone coming way in advance and could literally be a one man team 1 against 10 in a room and still go untouched and freeze everyone in sight. Having a fast net connection and ping to the server was of course one reason but also my CRT having no blurring or lag was definitely another not to mention the size actually helped me. (the fast Razer mouse and fast keyboard also helped but ultimately millions of hours of practice was the final reason -- was a good time while my wrist lasted)...

Anyways, LCD's are the current future/upgrade path for those of us still using CRT's absolutely. No radiation, much less power consumption and heat, no flicker which is excellent, much more space saving (putting it on the wall is soo cool), and etc. etc. We all know why we want the LCD. The real problems of course are ghosting with fast moving games and video, less realistic color reproduction than CRT's, and the resizing issue. What gets me with this Benq release is that they are holding off a very important feature: BFI. If ghosting isn't an issue with this monitor, then they wouldn't have even bothered implementing it in the next model up. But this panel is really a 16ms panel and 8ms G-TO-G panel and the only reason G-TO-G has improved to 6ms is due to overdrive aka Benq AMA. Also, despite the color quality being fairly good, the presets are pretty bad it seems. Finally, the resizing issue is really sad to hear about because a lot of us want to see that 1080p hi-def video at native res 1920x1080/16:9 for blu-ray movies and ps3 games for example and if it isn't implemented correctly, then the HDMI input is useless (DVI does the same thing and you aren't using audio anyways on the hdmi input) and HDCP is basically copy protection forced upon us by Sony which won't even go into effect for a few years because studios have already stated that they won't be limiting their movie resolutions until everyone has had a chance to upgrade so HDCP won't be utilized for at least a few more years and is pointless in worrying about now.

So, like the lot of you, this is a disappointing release by Benq and I think it's smart to WAIT for now. I figure I've waited months already, so what's another few months to see what Benq releases next and how the competition reacts... Benq has never been a top contender in my opinion in the LCD market till now so just wait till the bigger names come out with their answers to this monitor and you'll see prices drop further and quality go higher and you'll probably see MULTIPLE HDMI ports so you can finally connect the newer video cards with HDMI outputs AND your PS3/BLU-RAY player at the same time and have correct 1:1 scaling and all that jazz that you guys are complaining about. Not to mention the PIP may not be able to switch between all inputs from what I hear? This may be incorrect but if true, it may limit PIP functionality.

I think the price of this one will drop drastically once the BFI model is released. If not, then Benq will probably discontinue this one since I don't see why they would make any FP241's without BFI at that point if it is so important to correcting motion blur and ghosting on this display. (By the way, the BFI demonstration was impressive but also unimpressive up in the right corner which may be a serious flaw in their technology after all). They promise "CRT like" performance with BFI but we'll see...

In any case, I'm going to hold off for now. I figure I've had a CRT for almost 20 years so what's a lousy few more months of waiting? I'm not gonna wait for OLED, SED, or the new backlights since those are not gonna be affordable or here till 2008-2010 but there is no way prices won't continue to drop now in the next few months due to the fact that the 6 bit 22" inchers with HDCP support are 300 bux which despite their inferiority in many areas, how can a 24" be 800 then even with an HDMI port if it doesn't even scale the inputs correctly? It can't last which is good for everyone! My 2 cents. Let them change/fix their mistakes and problems with initial quality and complaints. It's like buying a new car and getting the first one off the assembly line. Bound to have problems and be back at the dealer. Better off waiting a few months till they work the kinks out and at the same time watch the price drop! You end up with better quality control at a reduced cost in the end!

-WaitandSee

P.S. Also another drawback is dead pixels and Benq doesn't have the best reputation for replacing displays with dead pixels unlike Viewsonic and some other companies. I'd like to see how many of these first run displays have dead pixels and subpixels and how people are being treated... no one wants stuck or dead pixels for an $800 display...that would bite!
 
My BenQ FP241W monitor is coming Tuesday and I know my primary use is with the computer. I never own a DVD player and will never own a HD player too. Because, my computer can play DVD movies and it's under control at software level, for example, WinDVD and Nvidia, both can control the stretching and aspect ratio. "The power of computer, all-in-one."

The future is computer becoming a "Media Center" and I'm already there. My whole living room entertainment devices go through my computer. Heck, with WinDVD, I can force anything on the television and receiver, I can turn the movie color to black and white or shrink the screen and fix the ratio.

As for high definition, too expensive in my opinion. I'll be playing DVD's movies until HD comes affordable and no confusion. So, I can buy a HD burner for my computer and play HD movies.

I like having extra inputs, you never know you might need it, but will be temporary. Full usage will be the computer, everyday!

Great for programming and graphic designing.

My television set is CRT. There are two things I'm looking to replace my television set, LED projectors (longer light life) and SED. These two upcoming technologies are the best of them all compare to today. Vision it, my living room will be using the LED projector, 60 inch screen, my computer will be a SED monitor, and the bedrooms will have SED television sets. A dream.
 
lol @ waitandsee's post..... future display tech is OLED and SED, LCD is todays tech! Yesterdays was CRT!
 
Hey,

Well I'm not up to par yet on the future tech SED and JED(Beverly Hillbillies Tech) and OLED and the GDEAD (Grateful Dead Tech) -- I'll have to go read my Tom's Hardware Guide now -- and CRT's may be OLD TECH, but it took a LONG time to get CRT's to where they ended up at their demise and the same will be true for the new tech to meet and exceed the old and there is no argument there because they are still striving for "CRT LIKE" performance even today with the current LCD's.

:)

-WaitAndSee
 
I read up on SED and OLED tech and wow very interesting stuff.

SED is basically going backwards to improve CRT tech but in a more compact "lcd form factor" and less power hungry way and therefore less emissive/less radiation way. It's essentially a "compressed" CRT to the max! Very very cool...truly "crt quality" because it is essentially a better 21st century "CRT"!

OLED is new organic LCD tech which is very promising esp. with flexible displays. Problem is MTBF which may take many years to figure out how to increase although the low manufacturing cost and low power requirements are really amazing as is the quality.

Doesn't matter. Remember how long it took for HDTV to become a reality? I believe it was Zenith who thought it would be out in like 3 years and it ended up taking more than a decade and a half or longer (and if it wasn't for the FCC mandate to broadcast in HDTV since the broadcasters didn't want to invest in the entire thing without proof of household hdtv's (the catch 22), we'd still be all watching lo-def analog garbage).

And if Canon and Kodak don't freely license the tech and want to charge massive licensing fees on their patents, then these camera companies' greed will slow down the time to market to the extent where we'll be lucky if our grandkids have SED and OLED TV's and Computer Displays much less US anytime soon for any kind of affordable $$. Remember what Plasma's used to cost and some still do? You wanna pay 25 grand for one SED TV or OLED Monitor?

LCD tech is the only "now" so if the Benq FP241W is good enuf for you now, get it and be happy, but I'm gonna wait just a wee bit longer to see what develops with Benq and the other manufacturers over the next few months. It'll be quite interesting. Hey thankfully I cancelled the DELL 24" order back when it came out as well! That was a disaster releasing that beast before it was ready. The internet saved me on that one too -- thanks to the Japanese reviews :) but if you're happy with Dell, all to you as well!

Take care -- Love your arguing on here by the way -- too dam funny...

-WaitandSee
 
menace2society said:
This guy is going to teach l them a lesson what a joke. And all this over speculation.
Click to expand...
Of course it wasn't serious about giving them a lessons. But it is not speculation. DangerIsGo tests have shown everything, this monitor is stretching to 1920x1200 and nothing will change that.

Regards
 
I think I agree that if you're not in the market for a 'pc monitor' and you're concerned with the 1:1 mapping issue, then maybe the current 24" monitors out there aren't for you...

The question I have is how do we go about pushing the industry to release monitors that we want? I like the Samsung 931C and its color reproduction, but what are the odds that I'm going to see something like that in a 24" model with HDMI/HDCP--and other inputs--with 1:1 pixel mapping and/or the lack of strecthing/lag/whatever...? I still have my 19" shadow masked Samsung monitor from god knows when, and I will be replacing it when I can get that elusive 24" Widescreen low-response, high constrast, mulitple input, 1:1 mapped LCD monitor... I'm open to suggestions or company technology on the horizon that might provide this for me... I can't wait for SED... I need something to hold me over until then...

I'd love to hear about others' pipe dreams when it comes to their ultimate monitor hopeful.
 
Well the answer is that hopefully with the release of the FP241WZ with AMA-Z/BFI Tech, Benq will also address the 1:1 issue and I guess that will have to do for the time being unless Samsung or other manufacturers can release superior 24" tech w/HDCP and HDMI support in the same time frame. Hopefully BFI is all that it is cracked up to be and will be worth the extra $$ they will ask for it. If it does work well and can eliminate most blurring/ghosting in fast moving video and gaming without causing other problems, then it'll be nice to see. I personally think that the current model will be discontinued as soon as the BFI model is out and therefore the BFI model will end up costing pretty much the same in the end and would be worth the wait.

-WaitandSee
 
waitandsee said:
I personally think that the current model will be discontinued as soon as the BFI model is out and therefore the BFI model will end up costing pretty much the same in the end and would be worth the wait.
Click to expand...

I think BenQ will be selling both products, with the Z being a premium model for extra $$. I sincerely hope it fixes the aspect ratio, I'm anxious to buy! My credit card is just itching to dump money on the first company who can make this "dream" LCD!

If BenQ doesn't fix it in the Z, I am not aware of any other LCD's in the pipeline to look forward to... does anybody else know of one?
 
Does the Dell 2407 do it all? I know it does not have HDMI, but the DVI is HDCP enabled, which is essentially the same, right? It has proper scaling options too.

I know it has certain issues of its own, but they seem less critical IMO. In my search for a 24", I'm moving towards the Dell because I can't think of many reasons why the BenQ is superior.
 
happycat said:
Does the Dell 2407 do it all? I know it does not have HDMI, but the DVI is HDCP enabled, which is essentially the same, right? It has proper scaling options too.

I know it has certain issues of its own, but they seem less critical IMO. In my search for a 24", I'm moving towards the Dell because I can't think of many reasons why the BenQ is superior.
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Yeah, I've been tempted to buy the Dell also, buy annoyingly it doesnt do 1080i, which is pretty common these days.
 
From what I heard the new upcoming Nvidia G80 will have HDMI output(s). I think only then we will see full HD format on this monitor , it appears that its asking for the dedicated source coming from a video card. As you know everything starts from the pc and not from outside components because this is not an entertainment setup but a hardware pc one. But again, im only speculating. If this doesnt work, I will write up a nice , friendly letter to BenQ tech staff. (yeahh right)...

Amir
 
Strange that all guys with nothing but negatives are ignoring the pictures posted from the Chinese review.
So here one more time. (all the pictures enlarge)
On this page standard DVD (480p) and nothing is stretch
http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?h.../diy/069/4/319982_12.htm&prev=/language_tools

On this page HDTV movies and again everything is displayed correctly, nothing is stretched.
http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?h.../diy/069/4/319982_13.htm&prev=/language_tools
If there are negatives I prefer to hear it from people that own the monitor, not from somebody who just loves to piss on the bonfire.
Anybody who prefers another monitor why not go and buy one.
 
Heinz68 said:
Strange that all guys with nothing but negatives are ignoring the pictures posted from the Chinese review.
So here one more time. (all the pictures enlarge)
On this page standard DVD (480p) and nothing is stretch
http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?h.../diy/069/4/319982_12.htm&prev=/language_tools

On this page HDTV movies and again everything is displayed correctly, nothing is stretched.
http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?h.../diy/069/4/319982_13.htm&prev=/language_tools
If there are negatives I prefer to hear it from people that own the monitor, not from somebody who just loves to piss on the bonfire.
Anybody who prefers another monitor why not go and buy one.
Click to expand...

Isn't it true that to be able to use the enhance HDMI you would need a HD player that will take advantage of this option from Benq monitor? I'm still waiting for someone with a proper HD player connecting this properly to the Benq monitor. I don't think it just a plug and play. There are options need to be done before it will give you the proper output.
 
Well, if you look closely at the pics on the Chinese site, you'll see the the "Pause" in the upper left corner of some of the pics is actually outside of the image and into the black area. If a DVD player is outputting in 480P, and the screen is actually scaling correctly, then the "Pause" would be entirely inside of the image, but it's not. So that is probably a computer input, but I can't read chinese to tell for sure.

Anyway, I have been wanting a 24" monitor for quite some time, and this one looks pretty decent. Looks like the lag time is much shorter than the Dells or the Samsungs, etc, but still a small lag of maybe 35 to 40ms from the previous posts. And if we are actually getting 16ms for black-white-black, then it should be good for speed. At 60fps, one frame is rendered at 16.6ms. So, we are lagging by 2ish frames maybe, and every frame should be rendered without any noticeable blurring. So for the speed FPS freaks, you are one 30th of a second behind the action. Of course, that's not perfect, but it's pretty good when the other big monitors are 4 to 6 frames behind (15th or 10th of a second lag).

Also, we have no confirmation for scaling or pixel perfect on HDMI 1080p sources. We know what the manual says, but that may or may not describe the actual function. I was personally planning to be cycling many devices through a monitor like this if I bought one, from the Game Cube in 480i and 480p on component video, to the Xbox and Xbox 360 in a variety of modes on the component vid, as well. Of course, the PC would be hooked up with DVI for now at a pixel perfect resolution... And I am not really looking forward to the BFI technology as it will "Blank" an entire frame or part of a frame every 3 to 4 frames. That translates into video stuttering as a trade off for less blurring in my mind. Will it actually stutter? I don't know, but it sounds fishy to me.

Anyway, as a computer programmer for my main job, I'd love the big picture. As a gamer for my hobby, I'd like to use all my devices without any stretching. As a guy who works at Best Buy for extra fun money, I have access to walk into the store with a shiny new monitor and hook it up to the Blue Rape (i don't like sony) player with HDMI and give you boys a full test with 1080p. Oh, and I can hook up my other devices as well.

Only one thing holding me back... I don't like newegg as they charged me 100% for my last computer, and only sent half of the parts, and they are the only ones with the blasted monitor in stock. I have one on order at Buy.com, but I am not hopeful they will actually get it in stock soon. *sigh* I should cancel it and order at newegg, but the principal of it all is bugging the crap out of me...

Anyway... My 2 cents so far....

Jim Robbins
 
Until I get my DVI -> HDMI cable and can output 1080p from my PC (which I can), I cant access the HDMI menu (which its probably the same as all the others) but it may have an option for 1080p enabled that is not available in the other menus.
 
Heinz68 said:
Strange that all guys with nothing but negatives are ignoring the pictures posted from the Chinese review.
So here one more time. (all the pictures enlarge)
On this page standard DVD (480p) and nothing is stretch
http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?h.../diy/069/4/319982_12.htm&prev=/language_tools
Click to expand...
Nothing is stretched because they're using a PC DVD player. You can see the mouse cursor at the bottom of this picture: http://www.it.com.cn/f/diy/069/2/319917_91.htm


On this page HDTV movies and again everything is displayed correctly, nothing is stretched.
http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?h.../diy/069/4/319982_13.htm&prev=/language_tools
If there are negatives I prefer to hear it from people that own the monitor, not from somebody who just loves to piss on the bonfire.
Anybody who prefers another monitor why not go and buy one.
Click to expand...
We've already had confirmation that 480i/480p isn't scaled properly, and the manual makes no mention of scaling options. Nobody here has tested HD sources yet. Perhaps 720p and 1080i/1080p are scaled correctly. All we're trying to do is find out the facts.
 
ToastyX said:
Nothing is stretched because they're using a PC DVD player. You can see the mouse cursor at the bottom of this picture: http://www.it.com.cn/f/diy/069/2/319917_91.htm
Click to expand...
Aww...dont say that. I think I'm gonna cry. Those pictures were what was giving me hope. Now you mention it though, the mouse cursor and the word 'pause' being outside the video are pretty clearly indications this was on a PC running at 1920x1200, not a consumer device running at 1080i/1080p.
 
Dont lose hope...the fifth element pics you cant find the mouse pointer, so hopefully they are 1080p pics.
 
so besides the HDMI stuff which i dont care for this monitor is identical to the acer when it comes to ghosting and input(mouse) lag?
 
I don't think anyone is being negative here. People are just trying to get the facts straight before potentially dropping a large amount of money on a product that they're interested in. What's wrong with that?

DangerIsGo - did you manage to actually add a custom resolution to the stuborn nvidia display properties? How did you do it? :)
 
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