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

NCIX has stood by its expected ETA of 02/19/07 (tomorrow, for those keeping score) for the FP241VW since it was listed in December. The staff their stated that they would test one on arrival to see if it has 1:1 mapping and report to everyone. Anyone interested in this monitor (about $100 more than the W model but packs 'Perfect Motion' and more good stuff) here's the link:

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=22218&vpn=FP241VW&manufacture=BENQ

Let's all hope the VW (and even the WZ) are going to get the problems with this monitor sorted out.

Side Note: To those calling PIP a useless gimmick on the FP241W, I'm pretty sure it would be worse if there were two HD signals coming into it at the same time forcing it to scale one into a small box as it displays another fullsize HD picture. It sounds like A) it would look horrible to scale it and B) it could hurt the monitor's performance.
 
Wow, that VW looks like a nice screen. Any idea when that will be making a release in the US?
 
NCIX does ship to the States. I checked NewEgg, but no listing there. I don't know who's actually going to carry it in the US, but NCIX has been reliable for many US buyers of the FP241W here so far.
 
Typhoon84 said:
NCIX has stood by its expected ETA of 02/19/07 (tomorrow, for those keeping score) for the FP241VW since it was listed in December. The staff their stated that they would test one on arrival to see if it has 1:1 mapping and report to everyone. Anyone interested in this monitor (about $100 more than the W model but packs 'Perfect Motion' and more good stuff) here's the link:

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=22218&vpn=FP241VW&manufacture=BENQ

Let's all hope the VW (and even the WZ) are going to get the problems with this monitor sorted out.
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I've already had a preorder since they listed it, so hopefully it'll arrive sometime this week. If it does, expect a full review from me :D
 
Typhoon84 said:
Side Note: To those calling PIP a useless gimmick on the FP241W, I'm pretty sure it would be worse if there were two HD signals coming into it at the same time forcing it to scale one into a small box as it displays another fullsize HD picture. It sounds like A) it would look horrible to scale it and B) it could hurt the monitor's performance.
Click to expand...
The Gateway and other monitors and HDTVs do this without problems, so I'm not sure why the BenQ should be held to lower standards.

Honestly, I personally couldn't care about PIP one way or the other, so it doesn't bother me how the BenQ implements it or whether it's there at all. What does bother me is the way places like Newegg explicitly advertise this feature with statements like "This tech-savvy BenQ monitor boasts some insightful features, like a picture-in-picture function for viewing videos from up to two sources!" without bothering to mention the obvious limitations. Maybe BenQ had its reasons for designing it this way, but IMO this info should be more easily accessible by potential consumers, and right now, it seems the only way to find this out is to actually read through the online manual (or read this enormous thread :)). To be fair, the retail stores should also share the blame for this, not just BenQ, but nonetheless, the customer should know exactly what to expect before ordering, not afterwards.
 
DarkAngel_ZERO said:
I've already had a preorder since they listed it, so hopefully it'll arrive sometime this week. If it does, expect a full review from me :D
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Sounds good. :) I'm not really a big fan of the design of this monitor, but it will be nice to finally have some user reviews of whether the AMA-Z black frame insertion stuff is actually an improvement or just a gimmick.
 
I wonder if the ratio stuff will be fixed. Most of the wide screen options in game doesn't seem to work. The WII 16:9 option and ingame RE4 widescreen option both don't work correctly.

Is anyone else experiencing the no signal problem after playing PS3. I think someone mentioned HDCP, which my video card supports. Could that be the problem. If I play PS3 for a while then try to change the input back to the PC it just says no signal and I have to turn off my computer and restart it for me to get asignal again.
 
I have a Samsung 710T with a high quality DVI cable, I'm also getting the screen go blank briefly issue. I'm starting to think it is a software problem, it never used to do it and it started a few months back. I have a Radeon 1800XL AIW with Catalyst 6.12 but it also happened with at least the last 2 catalyst releases before mine. As there are people with Geforce cards and the same problem I doubt it's a graphics card driver issue. Could it be a Windows issue caused by a recent update? DirectX/DirectDraw?
 
ummppffff

its suprising how many people send in their monitors for a 1:1 fix and get a bad one back!!!

I hope to hear something soon from the RMA company and BenQ tech. dude soon. They said they dont know any new replacement models yet.

However ones I do get my replacement I will test it for 2 days and then send my old one back (yep replacement service)... I am wondering if its acctually worth it to get the 1:1 fix will all the issues. :(

PS: DVI going blank. Clean Windows XP install, all updated, gefore 7800GT with latest drivers. I get it rarely too
 
I can say with absolute certainty that all 3 FP241W's I sent in for the update were worth it! I work with video and viewing it in its native dimensions is essential. Having said that...

I bought 3 of these and decided to go with a Westinghouse 37" for the one that'll do most of the TV watching and client video export viewing. I'm selling it on eBay at the link below, if anyone is interested. It's been opened only for the firmware update and to test it (it works fine).

http://cgi.ebay.com/BenQ-FP241W-LCD...ryZ51047QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Typhoon84 said:
NCIX has stood by its expected ETA of 02/19/07 (tomorrow, for those keeping score) for the FP241VW since it was listed in December. The staff their stated that they would test one on arrival to see if it has 1:1 mapping and report to everyone. Anyone interested in this monitor (about $100 more than the W model but packs 'Perfect Motion' and more good stuff) here's the link:

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=22218&vpn=FP241VW&manufacture=BENQ
Click to expand...

I like the design of this monitor. Does the screen tilt up and down?
 
i'm wondering how you can tell if there's back light bleeding, because in a dark room, if i display a complete black screen(Dead Pixel Buddy) i do see some light, but it's mostly even(depends at which angle i look) so is it normal or my screen as a "complete" back light bleeding problem?
:confused:
 
It looks like they're starting to show up in stock at the other vendors also! It looks like there isn't a large amount in their inventories. Dream hardware only has 11 in stock. Better get them while they're hot.
 
MrPatate said:
no one mentioned my earlier pics... should i make some with the ps3 or it's a waste of time???
Click to expand...

Yeah, I want to see some pics of the ps3 running on it. Your pictures just got lost when there was that argument on the same page, so not many saw it.
 
dmanrevived said:
Yeah, I want to see some pics of the ps3 running on it. Your pictures just got lost when there was that argument on the same page, so not many saw it.
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yeah i know.. so people.. .go back to page 143 a drool a bit please... i want to feel the LOVE lol :p
 
Is it just me, or do mostly all of these monitors have a tilt in the normal position, some more then others?

I just put some ruler lines on this image to illustrate my point.

 
BrokenAnimator said:
Is it just me, or do mostly all of these monitors have a tilt to the left, some more then others?

I just put some ruler lines on this image to illustrate my point.
Click to expand...

There's no tilting trust me, i check with a measuring tape :p, the camera was tilted a bit and the picture was taken at an angle, so it's a bit on the side that's all it is
 
MrPatate said:
There's no tilting trust me, i check with a measuring tape :p, the camera was tilted a bit and the picture was taken at an angle, so it's a bit on the side that's all it is
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I say that because mine is slightly tilted to the right about an inch. I called up Benq to see if they could do anything about it. The customer service Rep at BenQ named "Zack" said I would have to pay for shipping there and back to get it replaced and laughed at me when I said can't we just exchange the stands?

I said, what if I exchange it and get a monitor with 3 dead pixels or uneven back lighting, not to mention the 1:1 firmware fix, would I be screwed then, is there anything I could do? ...he just gave a smart remark, nope...that would be it.

I will never ever buy a benq product again, and I will make sure to tell anyone that asks me to stay away from Benq, they make a mistake and I have to pay for it. It's really frustrating to say the least. So I am just accepting the crooked stand and moving on. Oh well.
 
BrokenAnimator said:
I say that because mine is slightly tilted to the right about an inch. I called up Benq to see if they could do anything about it. The customer service Rep at BenQ named "Zack" said I would have to pay for shipping there and back to get it replaced and laughed at me when I said can't we just exchange the stands?

I said, what if I exchange it and get a monitor with 3 dead pixels or uneven back lighting would I be screwed then, is there anything I could do? ...he just gave a smart remark, nope...that would be it.

I will never ever buy a benq product again, and I will make sure to tell anyone that asks me to stay away from Benq, they make a mistake and I have to pay for it. It's really frustrating to say the least. So I am just accepting the crooked stand and moving on. Oh well.
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Then return it to the place you bought it from. It's defective. There's no need to put up with this. You might also call BenQ back. Other people have had better success. Maybe you just got a bad rep.
 
BenQ should give you a new monitor for all the footwork that you have done for them broken animator! I've seen you quoted on TFT central or somewhere right. You were the first one to tackle their problem.

01-08-2007, 04:09 PM
BrokenAnimator [H]Lite

I am taking it down to the local BenQ depot to get the update tomorrow! Will let you guys know how it goes when I get it back.

They said it shouldn't take to long
 
whoster69 said:
Then return it to the place you bought it from. It's defective. There's no need to put up with this. You might also call BenQ back. Other people have had better success. Maybe you just got a bad rep.
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Yea, I totally agree, but I have been through so much with this monitor I am just to the point where it's to much of a hassle and I just want to move on and not worry about it anymore. First I get the firmware fix (which was a huge hassle), then 3 days after 3 dead pixels pop up.

I sent it back to NCIX, and they send me a new one (cross shipped) it takes them over a month to refund my credit card and after they do it's to the wrong credit card (I do lots of business with them reluctantly), and the new one they sent me has the crooked stand.

What I did was I support it with a pencil on the right corner and it levels out the lean on the right, which works pretty well....accept people ask me why I have a pencil supporting the right corner of the monitor. I just say, long story short don't buy a BenQ. Oh well..it adds character..lol
 
higgy said:
BenQ should give you a new monitor for all the footwork that you have done for them broken animator! I've seen you quoted on TFT central or somewhere right. You were the first one to tackle their problem.
Click to expand...

Yea, I have a long history with this monitor, including first one to get the 1:1 fix. Benq dosen't really give two grains of salt about that, but I think it goes to show what kind of company people are dealing with. One that dosen't give a crap. I am just staying away from BenQ all together.
 
I own two of the BenQ FP241W monitors, built in November 2006. One has the 1:1 firmware mod, and one does not. I also have a Dell 2407WFP rev A03 built in January 2007. I have had the Dell and BenQ monitors side by side but do not currently. In all cases described below I am running all monitors in 1920x1200 (or, 1200x1920) so the artifacts are not caused by scaling.

I would advise people to carefully consider their primary use of the monitor before choosing one. If you are going to be running VGA (D-Sub) primarily (as I've noticed that many laptops do not have DVI outputs) and you are going to spend most of the time looking at text, then by all means, get the Dell (unless, perhaps, the VGA output is coming from a Mac... more on that.)

If your primary use is for other than reading text, or you will never need to run this in VGA mode for any length of time, or your eyes are not so great, then skip this post, because the BenQ is a great monitor in all other respects. Additionally, I do virtually no gaming, unlike many posters here, it seems. However, if you plan to use VGA a lot for editing and looking at documents and web pages, read to the end of the post (there is an important caveat there.)

I purchased these for a software development setup where each monitor is connected to a laptop, and each monitor is set up for portrait display so I can see more of a document at once. I do a lot of browsing and viewing PDFs along with editing source code, in other words, looking at text. I bought these monitors because they got rave reviews here and had the HDMI input which I considered great for forward compatibility. After getting the first one, I compared the component video processing of both and decided that the Dell was sharper but overly so, where details like hair looked better but compression artifacts were also visible and there was a slightly greenish fringe effect which is kind of hard to describe. On the other hand, the BenQ did not have the greenish fringe but was also perhaps overly soft. (I could be wrong but I do not recall the sharpness control either being available or being able to control these.) I would say I prefer the BenQ in this respect. However, component video quality was a low priority. The monitors are virtually equivalent in DVI mode.

The laptops that were used to test each monitor in VGA mode were a 3-4 year old Toshiba M100 (with hacked video drivers to obtain 1200x1920 mode), a new Dell Latitude D620, a six month old Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV650, and a new Apple MacBook Pro 17" using its DVI to VGA adapter.

Bottom line is that with all laptops but the Apple, VGA text on the Dell is very crisp. If you select "auto align" on the Dell, it aligns perfectly every time. The VGA quality is equivalent to that of DVI. But on the BenQ, you have a lot of work to do to get the VGA quality to approach that of the Dell.

A very interesting note is that only with the MacBook Pro did the VGA performance of the BenQ match its DVI performance. And, the Dell's VGA performance looked much worse than its DVI performance with the same Apple notebook. But since the MacBook Pro has DVI output, this is somewhat irrelevant as you'd want to use that output since you have it. For the other three notebooks, the performance was reversed.

Also, let me say that if you're running font smoothing, you might not notice the following effects. In that case, you'd be happy with the BenQ. But I turn off font smoothing because my eyes are good enough that fuzzifying the text is annoying.

With the other three laptops and either auto-align, or any amount of pixel phase or clock tweaking, or sharpness/brightness/contrast or video mode tweaking, or switching video cables, it was not possible for me to match the VGA quality of the Dell. I get everything set up as good as I can at home, trying to reduce the fuzziness to a minimum, then go back to the office and am frustrated to see that the Dell simply is sharp and has great colors. On the BenQ to get close to the Dell's sharpness I have to increase contrast to the point where subtle colors are fading to white.

Auto-Align on the BenQ without the firmware mod gets me close, but I have to go into the settings and drop the pixel clock by one, and then adjust the pixel phase for a minimum of what I'll call "bleed" into the adjacent pixel. On the BenQ with the firmware mod, the pixel clock is fine, but I still have to adjust the phase.

Increasing the contrast and adjusting the brightness is the next step to get the font sharpness to more closely approach that of the Dell, but the cost of this is that pastel colors tend to merge with white. Setting the sharpness of the BenQ to maximum is helpful.

The bottom line is that you can get the BenQ pretty close to the Dell, but not without a lot of manual tweaks.

Another thing that I thought I'd like about the BenQ was its clean black border, uncluttered with buttons or a silver edge like the Dell. But I find I am constantly fiddling with the controls, and with them being on the bottom of the display when it is rotated 90 degrees where the labels cannot be seen, even though I have kind of memorized which control does which, I still have to feel for the edge of the row of buttons, and count my way back in to find the "menu entry" button before I press the first button. And if I accidentally hit the "recalibrate" button, I have to go back in and fix the pixel clock or phase settings. If "recalibrate" actually worked properly, I would have liked to have had that button surfaced as it is here, but in this case it is a nuisance.

Compare this to the Dell, which I simply turn on and it looks great in VGA mode.

You might ask why I would purchase a second BenQ after discovering that the text quality in VGA mode was not so hot. It is because I wanted a matched set of monitors and because I thought my second laptop (which I bought later) would have DVI output. Turns out it did not (it has HDMI, but it only goes to 1080i), and returning the BenQs is not an option.

Back to the question of the MacBook Pro looking great in VGA mode on the BenQ, and pretty bad on the Dell. It makes me wonder if the BenQ engineers are testing these with Macs (competing with the Apple Cinema 23" for Mac business???) I have no idea. But it also means that your laptop's VGA output might also look great with the BenQ and not so hot with the Dell. In my case, the Dell "won" three laptops to one. My suggestion then, which unfortunately is not terribly feasible, is to find the monitor that you want to use your computer with, and physically attach your computer, and make sure it works well for you before you commit to owning it. Or make sure your laptop has DVI capability.

I want to repeat that in all other respects, to the extent I've tested them, the BenQ is a great monitor but it falls down in VGA mode. I am hoping that BenQ engineers are reading this and I'd be happy to provide them with additional information and photos in the hopes that they will look into this and possibly provide a firmware update.

(Incidentally, and off topic, the Qosmio G35-AV650's HDMI output only goes to 1080i, and otherwise provides only VGA output to 1920x1200, with no DVI. I got this beast of a machine for a discount of about 35% but otherwise it is overkill in certain areas (RAID 0 & 1) and disappointing in others (the HDMI output does not even match the capability of the laptop's HD-DVD drive, which is disappointing since it means I can only do 1080p on the laptop's display and not on the BenQ.))

Finally, I saw a 24" Gateway in BestBuy recently, and text in VGA mode was blurry, even with font smoothing turned off on the PC to which it was attached. I cannot say much more about this because it was only one computer, and perhaps more tweaking would have cured this, but it was enough to keep me away from the Gateway.

Sorry for the long post, but I hope it is helpful to some people looking at a purchase decision.
 
Anyone having the same problems I'm having. If I turn on my computer then the Benq then I get no signal, but if I turn on the monitor first then computer I do get a signal. I'm using the included DVI cable connected to a PowerColor Radeon x1950 Pro AGP. I have the no signal problem switching from HDMI PS3 as well. Last night computer and monitor was running fine, then went out to eat so I turned the monitor off and came back turned on the monitor the monitor and no signal.
 
Catrot

Yes, I also have the same problem. By turning the monitor off ,while computer is on ( running windows ) and turning it on the signal gets lost.
Only thing to do is to reboot comp. This never happen while I had crt monitor, it always aquired the signal. My Benq is connected to Radeon 9800xt . Best solution for our problem is to never turn off your monitor.

If you want to leave computer running but have the monitor turn off for a while ( assuming you do not want screensaver application on ) I suggest to go to Control Panel / Power Setting and under Turn Off Monitor set it to desired time ( mine is 10 minutes ). After which computer goes into stand by mode and it shuts power off.
Than simply after you want to resume , press any button on the keybord. The monitor aquires signal without any problem.It has been tested. Hope that helps.
 
This post might be useful for people who are considering the purchase of this monitor. Quick background on me.

Without reading any reviews on any LCD monitors I went out and bought
BenQ in December . I wanted the biggest one I can afford and which was avaiable at local store. My previous monitor was 17' Viewsonic CRT and it started showing its age. I was running it on VGA Ati Radeon 9800 XT and 2.53 ghz Penthium 4 ( 1024x768 res ). I am average user who likes to surf the web and play games( fps )

First I would like to point out what I do not like about this monitor and wish they had it done differently. Comparing it to my 17' Viewsonic. And than what I actually like about it.

Bad

1. Controls :
- wish they put it in the front for easy access. It is hard to adjust brightness and contrast while not being able to see what buttons you are pressing. I find myself constantly pressing the wrong ones.
- wish you could turn the power on and off while running windows, without loosing signal and not being able to continue without having to reboot the computer.

2. Input :

- wish they designed better locations for it
- 2 usb ports should have been located on the bottom of the stand ( like
22' Viewsonic has ) and not at its side. My desk is huge but I have problems to connect my cell phone usb cable to it . If I do the monitor looks like it is on life support with all this cables sticking out of it.
- all others like (hdmi , vga , dvi ) should have been located at the back
not at the bottom , where is so hard to reach .
- better cable management system . It doesn't look nice with all this cables showing coming out of the bottom ( due to bottom inputs I suppose )

3. Vga vs Dvi imput

Hands down dvi wins. Vga has funny colors and quality of text is poor at best . ( Doesn't really matter cause my new video card doesn't have vga output anyways )

4. Black colour.

It is not black anymore ,when comparing to crt . Even if you put contrast and brightness to zero it looks like very dark grey to me.

5. Resolution

Looks best at Max resolution ( 1920 x 1200 ) any smaller and everything looks out off whack in windows. Icons and text too big and stretched.
At max resolution , text too small to read , had to increase Dpi to 120.
Viewing webpages requires sometimes to enlarge text as well, cause some pages not only are impossible to read but also some text over laps other .
Readjust mouse setting is a must , very large screen area requires more ground to cover ( running out of mouse pad area at the beginning )


Good

1. Ghosting

Have not noticed any either in video , windows or in games.

2. Imput lag

Windows environment - none
Games - some, but with explanation bellow.

Observed in two games Half Life 2 and Call of Duty 2 . Problem was solved rather quickly once I realized that I am running those games at
much higher resolution that before ( not talking about Frames Per Second drop) . Talking about mouse movements versus gun movement on the screen. After tweaking mouse controls and lowering special effects within video settings ( shadows, lighting etc etc ) everyhing went back to normal. Need kick ass video card.

Even did the test observed at YOUTUBE where a fellow has both lcd and crt connected to the same video card and moves a window when half is on on monitor and second half is on the other. And compares lag that lcd has over crt . It looks that way on mine too. But it is only a false perception . If you assumed that crt has lag before you viewed this video you would prove that point the same way. You move the half window in lcd screen and you can see that the crt half follows with a delay ( lag ) Plus different resolutions and refreshment rates do not help either. So I think this video is useless.

3. Gaming

OMFG

Widescreen gaming is like watching a movie on 4:3 at home and than going to see it in the movie theatre. You can not compare.
Everything looks better and it is so much fun that you have to see it to believe it.

4. Going back

I had to set up friends computer so I connected my old 17' Viewsonic to it. Couldn't believe it ,what was I seeing. Everything so small and bloody dark. I was wondering how could I put it with this for so many years. You can not compare those two.
No going back that is for sure.




CONCLUSION

Do I regret the purchase ? NO
Would I buy different 24' better designed Lcd ? YES
Would I buy CRT if they made 24' widescreen version ? MAYBE

Hope this been so use for you !!!

PS: If anyone has any questions please PM me and I answer them to my best knowledge .
 
Can anyone tell me how to distinguish the type of panel your monitor has? The WZ should be here tomorrow and I was wanting to let you guys know if it was the same as the FP241W. Is the model number of the panel printed on the label on the back of the monitor? I have the new panel number, M240UWO1 V2
 
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