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

shawkie said:
Should look pretty much flawless. Not quite sure what you mean by grainy. Certainly you won't see any deinterlacing or scaling artifacts. If your talking about video noise then I don't think this monitor is bad for that either but its difficult to measure.

Personally, I'm very happy with the combination.
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thanks, I just wanted to make sure it wouldn't look blurry. I have downloaded some 1080p clips and some of the scenes definitely look a little blurry. I would assume using an HD-DVD player would yield a better picture.
 
I tried watching some movie trailers on the Apple Trialers website.
They also looked somewhat grainy...
The source is 1080P, is my graphics card not able to output 1080P (its an X800 pro VIVO)? Is the quality being downgraded to standard definition?

I have seen some HD graphics cards, are they needed to display HD movie from a PC?
(Note I have yet to try an external HD source, such as PS3 or XBOX360, shall try soon though)

Also the frame rate is rather sloppy, guess my computer cant handle the high data rate..
 
s1ngh_01 said:
I tried watching some movie trailers on the Apple Trialers website.
They also looked somewhat grainy...
The source is 1080P, is my graphics card not able to output 1080P (its an X800 pro VIVO)? Is the quality being downgraded to standard definition?

I have seen some HD graphics cards, are they needed to display HD movie from a PC?
(Note I have yet to try an external HD source, such as PS3 or XBOX360, shall try soon though)

Also the frame rate is rather sloppy, guess my computer cant handle the high data rate..
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I have an Nvidia 8600 GT and I also found the trailers to be somewhat grainy.
 
Excellent news, this mail came from benq after I mailed them 2 days ago complaining about the overscan-issue:

"Hi XXXX

There is a firmware upgrade available for your monitor. We need your address and the model number of the projector to order an upgrade.

Please refer to the following general BenQ statement for explanation.

"This firmware provides new functions for spec upgrade including sRGB , DCR, Service page, Overscan switching. Besides spec upgrade, BenQ shows the determination to fulfill market requirement and RO instruction for the Overscan switching function.
"We provided a full screen display for HDMI interface initially, however, we received market feedback for HDMI interface should play a high definition output without any image distortion. BenQ designed three display modes to hit the market target as 1:1, Full, and Aspect and another concern came after the OSD modification.
Although the industry standard is to do the overscan for the video format to avoid the signal noise, end user will not satisfy with it especially for PS3 and XBOX 360 users. BenQ phased in scaling switching function to provide usage flexibility and build a good reputation for HDMI input.""

My firmware will be upgraded in the near-future.
I live in Finland btw.

edit: yeah, and my monitor is FP241W and is manufactured in May 2007
 
so this is a 3rd update?, i've been thinking of getting a dvi switch to get a proper 1:1 pixel map on hdmi devices but i might wait a bit longer now

i'm a bit concerned that the message asks model number of your projector, rather then monitor :S
 
Thanks for the news, joecamel! I've just emailed BenQ USA asking about the firmware and have included a copy of the reply you received from your BenQ division, spelling it out so that they don't confuse my query for that of the prior firmwares. Hopefully I'll hear something back within the next couple of days as well. I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Update:

Aside from the email via their support page, I decided to phone BenQ's US support line just now. I was immediately put through to a technician who, unfortunately, says that there's only been the one 1:1 mapping firmware released and that "if you got it, you got it", sayng that there's no new firmware dealing specifically with the HDMI overscan. He added that he doesn't think any further firmwares will be released for this model. We've seen conflicting responses about firmwares from diff BenQ techs in different countries before, so who knows how accurate my new information is, of if it only applies to the US. Hopefully I'll get better info from the online request.
 
Well, if you look at the reply I pasted here, it specifically states that the overscan-'issue' is fixed, so it definately is a new update. I'm still waiting for the RMA number so that I can get the monitor to be updated... I really really hope that this isn't just a misunderstanding by the benq rep who mailed me.

But the mail was so clear that there should be no what-if's

I'll keep you guys posted.
 
I am having my monitor collected today for the 2nd firmware update which i assume is the firmware outlined above, im in the UK.

After my previous encounter with the firmware update fiasco I emailed BenQ back again for assurance the firmware update does actually exist and that the service centre has the firmware update as last time i was constantly being told from the service centre that they were awaiting the firmware from BenQ. I was assured that it does exist and the service centre does have it, so hopefully it will be fixed and shorted in a short period.

i'll report back with updates throughout.
 
Question - should 1:1 and Aspect wind up looking the same if HDMI is working properly at 1080p?
 
Where's the best place to buy a FP241W in the UK? Is there anywhere that does the black version?
 
M!ke said:
Where's the best place to buy a FP241W in the UK? Is there anywhere that does the black version?
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The FP241W sold at Rankhour.com is a black version. Best to call them up to confirm that it is still the black one that they have in stock.

Unfortunately, I'm looking for an all black FP241WZ and I've yet to find one. Any one know if there is one available in the UK? :confused:
 
M!ke:
I bought mine from MoreComputers.com, I ordered at about 2.45pm and it arrived by City Link Next Day at 8.30am! Very fast services, was very impressed.
The fact that I got it so early in the morning is just my luck I guess, it could turn up at any time of the day. I believe they have knocked off £25 now so it costs roughly £470 delivered.

I heard that you can only get Silver models in the UK..

PS How can you work out when the manufacture date of the monitor was?
 
@ krishnaz

Do you know if rankhour.com include the 1:1 mapping firmware?

Also i've noticed that overclockers.co.uk do this monitor for £422 including vat and firmware. Would buy it now but i still think i'll not like the silver colour. Anyone with the silver version want to try and change my mind? :p
 
M!ke said:
@ krishnaz

Do you know if rankhour.com include the 1:1 mapping firmware?

Also i've noticed that overclockers.co.uk do this monitor for £422 including vat and firmware. Would buy it now but i still think i'll not like the silver colour. Anyone with the silver version want to try and change my mind? :p
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Sorry, no idea about if it has the fix. Best to call them and find out the stock's manufacture date.
 
djphatic said:
I am having my monitor collected today for the 2nd firmware update which i assume is the firmware outlined above, im in the UK.

After my previous encounter with the firmware update fiasco I emailed BenQ back again for assurance the firmware update does actually exist and that the service centre has the firmware update as last time i was constantly being told from the service centre that they were awaiting the firmware from BenQ. I was assured that it does exist and the service centre does have it, so hopefully it will be fixed and shorted in a short period.

i'll report back with updates throughout.
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do you know if you can go to the service centre and they'll do it while you wait in the uk? i've read that you can in usa but i'm not sure if its the same over here. i only live about 60 miles from hemel hempstead which is where i think the centre is and would rather do that then send it off.
 
Greetings to you all !

I have been reading this thread since day one, more than a year ago :D and i finally joined the club!

Yesterday i bought a BenQ FP241W.......

Ok, my aim was the FP241WZ with a black frame... but i could not find it anywhere near me and because i live in Europe, more precisely in Portugal, the black frame model was also impossible to acquire :(

So i got a FP241W with a silver frame manufactured in March 2007... for 894€... that is something like 1229 U.S. dollars OUCHHH ! ...believe me, i looked around and could not find it any cheaper... it's not easy to live in Portugal :p
I know i could have bought it cheaper somewhere online (out of Portugal) but i prefered mine not to be delivered by mail as "accidents" sometimes happen so i picked mine personally at the store.

So far so good, i only played with it a couple of hours last night and i have not detected any anomalies... no bad or stucked pixels (but i have to test it deeper), no blackout problems so far (i hope it stays that way), not a scratch anywhere in the frame and the stand looks perfect...

Like everybody else has mentioned before, at the default settings the screen is veryyyyy bright ! I haven't changed the default settings yet... if you guys could give me some brightness/contrast values that lead to good results i would appreciate.
As other first impressions i found the screen to be very crisp with good colours... i'm used to my loyal 19'' Sony Trinitron CRT so i'm still adjusting to this new way of seeing things...

I spent my first few moments with the FP241W evaluating the amount of lag the screen produces... and i have to say that i like what i saw :)
I have made a tiny video clip of it and i will show you guys later on.

Now i have a few questions to you proud owners of Benq FP241W:

- Is it possible to see in the screen menu (or anywhere else) what firmware is installed?

- With a DVI source at the native resolution (1920x1200) is there any difference in using 1:1, Full or Aspect mode?

That's all for now, thank you for your attention.
 
Probably a stupid question: why is it only possibble to update the firmware by BenQ and not in our PC?

That would be impossible for me to do in my country because there''s no BenQ official rep.
 
carlmart said:
Probably a stupid question: why is it only possibble to update the firmware by BenQ and not in our PC?

That would be impossible for me to do in my country because there''s no BenQ official rep.
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because if i recall correctly, the firmware update isnt just that, its a board replacement also inside the unit itself.
 
joecamel said:
There is a firmware upgrade available for your monitor. We need your address and the model number of the projector to order an upgrade.
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Hello Joe,
There are firmware upgrades available for the BenQ projectors overscan issues. Can you confirm that they are not talking about a projector?
 
So ive been away from here for a while:

Do I need to call BenQ and ask for a firmware upgrade to fix some issues like 1:1? What else will the firmware fix? All I do is call em up?
 
Hello higgy,

Yes I can confirm, the rep talked about the monitor and there is a firmware upgrade that allows users to switch overscan on/off themselves. 100% confirmation can be made only after someone has the upgrade done, but this seems pretty solid info coming from both UK and Finland BenQ reps. If(and when) this is true, this monitor will be by far the best 24" tft, bar none. :p
 
well bad news already, the courier didnt come and collect the monitor, even though i called repairtech around 3pm to confirm someone was coming. The guy rung them and said they were going to collect it. This happened to me the first time i sent it in for the firmware upgrade, so it wont get collected to after the weekend now.

Ive still not had any confirmation from repairtech that they actually have what is required to perform this new update either, only BenQ have said it is available, which was the case last time and repairtech didnt have what was required.
 
Well, I just got my reply back via email from BenQ US support asking about overscan-correcting firmware. All I got back in reply to my long, detailed email was the following:

"We do not have a solution to your situation by e-mail. Please call
866-600-2367 for technical support."

But, as I said yesterday, I had already phoned them at that number and got told there was no firmware for my FP241W except for the original first one, which I'd already gotten when i bought it from NCIX in the first place. I hope you guys have better luck and can convince the US division it exists if any of you get it done.
 
Ninjak said:
Well, I just got my reply back via email from BenQ US support asking about overscan-correcting firmware. All I got back in reply to my long, detailed email was the following:

"We do not have a solution to your situation by e-mail. Please call
866-600-2367 for technical support."

But, as I said yesterday, I had already phoned them at that number and got told there was no firmware for my FP241W except for the original first one, which I'd already gotten when i bought it from NCIX in the first place. I hope you guys have better luck and can convince the US division it exists if any of you get it done.
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Thats the same damn thing I got. Why cant their tech support ask us our info over email? wtf? strange...
 
Ninjak said:
If corrected, 1:1 HDMI should look exactly the same as already-working aspect HDMI at 1080p.
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Well, if that's the case, then I think the problem may be solved. I just got the WZ from TigerDirect (arrived yesterday) and it looks like HDMI on a PS3 is working just fine in both 1:1 and Aspect. I didn't take the time to look at it extremely closely, but it looked the same going back and forth a couple times.
I'll look again a bit more closely when I have more time.

edit:
Well, I took a good look at some still backgrounds that filled the whole screen, and I cannot tell any difference between Aspect and 1:1 at 1080p over HDMI. Hopefully they've finally fixed this issue that's been bugging so many users.

I don't know what stores have what version in stock, but again, I bought my WZ from TigerDirect.com this week.
 
do you have any option for overscan? i assume it would be on the same menu as aspect settings i.e. 1:1, aspect, full
 
http://pigsterwiki.com/ says something about the overscan issue being fixed in Korea, so maybe it will finally get fixed. Eagerly awaiting confirmation from djphatic though!

Last thing left to fix is the blackout issue, though from what I've read it is due to the dvi cable that comes with the monitor. Really hope that I find out that this is true when I get my monitor soon...
 
djphatic said:
do you have any option for overscan? i assume it would be on the same menu as aspect settings i.e. 1:1, aspect, full
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The only thing I can see is "OSD Lock" which I can't tell does anything at all. So unless that actually does stand for something like "Overscan Display" I don't think there is any such option.
But heck, as long as it's working, that doesn't bother me. :)

edit:
How soon does the blackout issue usually occur? Is it immediately after purchase or do users see it start later on?
I'm using the DVI cable that came with it and I haven't had any problems so far.
 
OSD = On Screen Display. So the OSD lock just locks the OSD to stop you from accidentally making changes if you accidentally touch one of the buttons.

Supposedly, the black-out issue is seemingly random from what I've read. Though, like I said, it seems that not using the DVI cable supplied prevents it from occurring. Let us know if you get any issues with the BenQ cables.
 
Just bought the BenQ FP241W directly from BenQ here in Irvine, CA.
The monitor is refurbished but has the latest firmware. The monitor is in a like new condition no dead pixels, no blacking out and no cosmetic damage. From what they told me in most cases these monitors were returned because of the 1.1 problem so there is nothing else wrong with them. Great deal!!

I am comparing it side by side with the Dell 2407HC. I like them both so far.
 
Philwong said:
ar.jpg

Top: 4:3 to 16:9.
Bottom: 16:9 to 16:10.

Form your own conclusion. To me, 1:1 is not an issue. Any serious movie viewing should be done on big screens instead.

Phil
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youre a dickbag phil

yes you are.
 
It's probably been 2 months since I last posted in this thread, but that's because my issue went away. I ended up swapping out my old Dell DVI cable, that never had an issue with my Dell 20" display, with the cable that came with the FP241W, and my 1-2 times a week issue with the image disappearing for a moment went away. So I guess in my case it was the cable. I ran that for a month with my old video card and then got the 8800GTX a month ago and haven't had any issues with it.
 
Well I ended up purchasing the Toshiba HD A2 HD-DVD player and am really unimpressed with the results. I had it outputting at 1080i through a HMDI>DVI cable. I have the monitor on 1:1. The picture looks fairly grainy, hardly HD quality. I think it looks the worst on flat textures, I really noticed this on a wall that was supossed to be white but just looked awful. This was with the Goodfellas HD DVD, I also tried the Pirates Of The Caribbean SD and that looked terrible. I tried also hooking it up with just an HDMI cable and that didn't help at all. Any ideas on what I can do to improve the picture?


Thanks
 
shawkie said:
Actually, the HD-A2 can look fantastic on this monitor. I have one (actually an HD-E1 but its the same thing). You will need an HDMI to DVI lead if you want true 1:1 pixel mapping with 0% overscan though. If you connect with a straight HDMI to HDMI lead then you can have true 1:1 pixel mapping (with no blurring) but you'll see some black borders that shouldn't be there. If you scale the image up to get rid of the borders then you'll introduce some blurring.
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HI,
What settings are you using for the player and monitor, because my A2 really doesn't look that great on here.

Thanks
 
Basically i am interested in buying this monitor after choosing it over the dell 2707WFP. Maybe im reading this wrong but i have heard and read the 1:1 problem has been fixed in the last firmware update (march?) is this true?

Also im going to phone up rankhour to see which firmware the monitors they stock have, unless anyone knows? I'm guessing the manufacture date would have to be march+?

Apologies is what i have asked has already been answered but it is a long thread lol.

Thanks
 
bitgod said:
It's probably been 2 months since I last posted in this thread, but that's because my issue went away. I ended up swapping out my old Dell DVI cable, that never had an issue with my Dell 20" display, with the cable that came with the FP241W, and my 1-2 times a week issue with the image disappearing for a moment went away. So I guess in my case it was the cable. I ran that for a month with my old video card and then got the 8800GTX a month ago and haven't had any issues with it.
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Hi bitgod,
I have never had the black out problem, but I have never used the original BenQ cable that came with the monitor. I will get the original out and see if I can induce the black out problem.
 
higgy said:
Hi bitgod,
I have never had the black out problem, but I have never used the original BenQ cable that came with the monitor. I will get the original out and see if I can induce the black out problem.
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Interesting. I've been running my FP241W (manufactured Nov 06) on my 7800GTX with the included DVI cable since I got it in Feb and have yet to experience the blackout issue even once. No problems with switching inputs or waking from sleep mode. Neither have I run across the problem I've seen reported in other forums where the screen doesn't recognize the PC video signal until after the BIOS screens complete and the OS loads. I keep wondering if I just got really lucky with mine or if it's something else.
 
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