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

Dear Mickey,

could you please check whether FP241W can play movies at 24Hz (24 FPS)?
There is an option for switching it on in the latest (1.90) PS3 firmware.
You can find the option here:
http://www.us.playstation.com/ps3/network/updates/PS3_190_update.html#bd_dvd_settings

Switch it ON, play a BD movie and look at the BenQ's OSD. Is there 50Hz, 60Hz or 24Hz?
How does it look? You should be able to observe an improvement on slow panning or anything that scrolls (for example credits).

24Hz should be smoother than other values because movies are usually (always?) encoded at 24 FPS on Blu-ray Discs.
 
i tried the 24hz on my monitor last night, albeit not the latest firmware with overscan, and it didnt work, i just got a blue screen like no signal was being detected.
 
PROTiE said:
Dear Mickey,

could you please check whether FP241W can play movies at 24Hz (24 FPS)?
There is an option for switching it on in the latest (1.90) PS3 firmware.
You can find the option here:
http://www.us.playstation.com/ps3/network/updates/PS3_190_update.html#bd_dvd_settings

Switch it ON, play a BD movie and look at the BenQ's OSD. Is there 50Hz, 60Hz or 24Hz?
How does it look? You should be able to observe an improvement on slow panning or anything that scrolls (for example credits).

24Hz should be smoother than other values because movies are usually (always?) encoded at 24 FPS on Blu-ray Discs.
Click to expand...

I will try for you, but I bet it will not work, even with the newer firmware.

Cheers :D
 
Hi Mickey,

I'm considering buying the FP241W – but have been holding out for the overscan fix. I was told by European support that the firmware was released at the end of May and would be present on monitors with a manufacture date of June onwards.

Considering you've had a swap out rather than an upgrade - what is the manufacture date on your FP241W?

Regards,
Ebo.
 
OK I tried the 24hz mode, but as I suspected, it did not work. I was quoted 50hz as the lowest this monitor goes to, by Benq when I was inquiring about PAL signals.

Here are a couple of shots from the demo of Heavenly Sword via HDMI, Aspect mode,720p:





Also a photo from Superman Blu-ray, HDMI, 1:1 mode, 1080p:



My camera skills are not great and it is hard to take shots on your own, but I can testify that the image quality is supurb :)

While the Heavenly Sword demo is very short, it plays great and looks like it will be a system seller for sure.

Cheers :D
 
ebo6 said:
Hi Mickey,

I'm considering buying the FP241W – but have been holding out for the overscan fix. I was told by European support that the firmware was released at the end of May and would be present on monitors with a manufacture date of June onwards.

Considering you've had a swap out rather than an upgrade - what is the manufacture date on your FP241W?

Regards,
Ebo.
Click to expand...

Feb 2007 mate :)

You would not be disapointed with this monitor. Coming from the Dell 2407 to the Benq like I have, the difference is night and day for me with the firmware update.

Cheers :cool:
 
Cool, so would Benq monitors in the stores now have the same firmware as you? Can it do 1080p over VGA for my xbox 360? You also mentioned that the benq is like night and day to the dell 2407.... how so? I'm trying to decide between them both.
 
Well the Dell had lousy picture quality, via the component RGB and composite connections.

It can't do various resolutions and interlaced signals very well, if at all.

720p suffers from screen tearing, like bad vsynch on a PC game, you have to turn on/off the monitor to fix most times.

My monitor never remembered the gamma, colour, brightness, sharpness etc.... settings when turned off at the plug.

No HDMI connection.

Some of the Dells had text blur problems and colour banding when using DVI, latter revisions may fix this though.

Worst of all for me is zero 50hz pal signal support. The monitors lowest hz is listed as 57hz. So DVD upscaling to 1080p via my PS3 did not work at all, because the PS3 is outputing 1080p @ 50hz.

The Dell costs more than the Benq, so it's a no brainer if you can get the Benq with the latest firmware installed :D
 
Whats the latest firmware? Did you buy it from the store or did you have to send it in for the lastest update? So 1080p aspect ratio, 1:1 is fixed in the new update?
 
pixelperfect said:
Whats the latest firmware? Did you buy it from the store or did you have to send it in for the lastest update? So 1080p aspect ratio, 1:1 is fixed in the new update?
Click to expand...

Well Benq UK told me the fix was released in July, that is when they emailed me and arranged to swap over the monitor, no upgrade, just a straight swap :)

HDMI 1:1 1080p works great, as you can turn overscan off with the latest firmware. I suggest you go back a few pages and read the thread a bit, there are pictures too! :D

EDIT: OK here is a link :p http://img239.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00577ke3.jpg

As for if the stores have the upgraded version yet, I have no clue. I imagine they would have to power up the monitor and see if the option is in the menu or not.....
 
OK I checked via component RGB and HDMI, and yes, there is a green line when using 1080i. I never noticed this before, as I have never used 1080i, only 1080p.

Cheers :D
 
Mickey Padge said:
Well Benq UK told me the fix was released in July, that is when they emailed me and arranged to swap over the monitor, no upgrade, just a straight swap :)

HDMI 1:1 1080p works great, as you can turn overscan off with the latest firmware. I suggest you go back a few pages and read the thread a bit, there are pictures too! :D

EDIT: OK here is a link :p http://img239.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00577ke3.jpg

As for if the stores have the upgraded version yet, I have no clue. I imagine they would have to power up the monitor and see if the option is in the menu or not.....
Click to expand...
no matter how much I ask, no one has ever been able to tell me a way which firmware a benq monitor has (is it even possible)

If it is possible to determine if it has the latest firmware by looking in the menu to the overscan feature, then can you please tell me (with pics) step by step where this option should be in the menu's so i can check it in the store before i buy the monitor?

thanks!
 
lets say, for instance that i have mythtv installed on my computer and im using it to display an HDTV signal from a tv tuner. if i turn it on fullscreen, its still going to use the computers display properties, like its resolution, refresh rate, and all that, right? if for instance a show i was watching was only 24 hz, would it have a problem displaying it?
thanks
 
Mickey Padge said:
Well Benq UK told me the fix was released in July, that is when they emailed me and arranged to swap over the monitor, no upgrade, just a straight swap :)

HDMI 1:1 1080p works great, as you can turn overscan off with the latest firmware. I suggest you go back a few pages and read the thread a bit, there are pictures too! :D

EDIT: OK here is a link :p http://img239.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00577ke3.jpg

As for if the stores have the upgraded version yet, I have no clue. I imagine they would have to power up the monitor and see if the option is in the menu or not.....
Click to expand...

I read a few pages back and they said it just removes the black bars but still crops the picture. Any chance you have a nintendo WII to test? The 480p on the WII doesn't display properly in Widescreen
 
Mickey Padge said:
Well Benq UK told me the fix was released in July, that is when they emailed me and arranged to swap over the monitor, no upgrade, just a straight swap :)
Click to expand...

That is strange how they arranged a straight swap rather than upgrade.

Having emailed them previously about my first encounter with the upgrade process and the massive complaint I made, I would have thought they would offer me a swap rather than upgrade.

I think all the latest firmware addresses is the HDMI issues, everything else relating to correct aspect detection (eg wii widescreen) still wont work correctly.
 
@ Mickey Padge

Please could you set your PS3 to 576p and try both 16:9 and 4:3 in aspect mode and 1:1, take pictures and post them up.

When i set my PS3 to 576p in 16:9 both 1:1 and aspect are screwed up. If this is the case with your monitor then I cant see wii widescreen working correctly either.
 
djphatic said:
@ Mickey Padge

Please could you set your PS3 to 576p and try both 16:9 and 4:3 in aspect mode and 1:1, take pictures and post them up.

When i set my PS3 to 576p in 16:9 both 1:1 and aspect are screwed up. If this is the case with your monitor then I cant see wii widescreen working correctly either.
Click to expand...

I assume you have the latest firmware aswell? Did you try this over HDMI?
 
Cactrot said:
I read a few pages back and they said it just removes the black bars but still crops the picture.
Click to expand...

I was referring to the firmware released in May which was, until this past day or so, the last confirmed firmware to be released prior to this new July one. I hope that every firmware they update to isn't going to require a board swap, though. Noone wants to send a monitor in every single time BenQ fixes one thing at a time. Meanwhile, I wish that BenQ US would confirm they're getting this very firmware soon.
 
In terms of checking for the overscan setting, pictures are not really needed. I have posted a picture of what it looks like a few pages back :) Just press "menu" then the button above (down arrow) twice, easy :D

Here is 576 with 4:3, aspect mode:



Then 576 with 16:9, aspect mode:



So 16:9 is messed up, it shows as 16:9 but squashed to a 4:3 ratio! :eek:

Not a big problem though, just select fill from the menu and it looks much better, just no black bars at the top and bottom like there should be.

I don't have a Wii to check, but I would not draw comparisons between a PS3 using 576 over HDMI, to the Wii using a different resolution and connecting cable :)

Cheers :D
 
Mickey Padge said:
In terms of checking for the overscan setting, pictures are not really needed. I have posted a picture of what it looks like a few pages back :) Just press "menu" then the button above (down arrow) twice, easy :D

Here is 576 with 4:3, aspect mode:



Then 576 with 16:9, aspect mode:



So 16:9 is messed up, it shows as 16:9 but squashed to a 4:3 ratio! :eek:

Not a big problem though, just select fill from the menu and it looks much better, just no black bars at the top and bottom like there should be.

I don't have a Wii to check, but I would not draw comparisons between a PS3 using 576 over HDMI, to the Wii using a different resolution and connecting cable :)

Cheers :D
Click to expand...

It looks like lower resolution WS still is fucked. Stretched vertically and squished horizontally. :( BenQ, is it so hard to get it right?! :confused: :mad: :( :( :( :mad:
 
Sigh, I guess this means no Dragon Quest Swords in Widescreen for me. Hmm for my WII its connected to the Component, but I think the Component is broken in general. Damn Benq, if they are going to fix something, why can't they just fix it right.
 
If I take my monitor to the benq service center in Los Angeles will I get the latest firmware with overscan fixed?
 
Looks like 576p isn't scaled properly either. It's being shown at 5:4 instead of 4:3 or 16:9.
 
Like I said,

Anything with a .9 device aspect ratio (NTSC and PAL standards) will not scale correctly on this monitor.
 
IWKUA said:
If I take my monitor to the benq service center in Los Angeles will I get the latest firmware with overscan fixed?
Click to expand...

They don't seem to know about it yet. At least not that one specifically. As far as my last discussion with them went, they just know that some firmware in general is supposed to be in development and coming at some point to them. That being said, for all we know iit could be the broken May firmware that they end up with instead of this newer, less-broken July one. For some countries, this July firmware makes the 4th one, by my count. US has only ever gotten the original one, so anything we get will be our second. Just hope that they're bypassing 2 and 3.
 
~El~Jefe~ said:
Well gosh golly! Why dont you read the freakin thread lazy mofo?

pwnd
Click to expand...

No meaning to double quote...but COME ON, there's like a thousand posts about 360's!!


If only they could fix up the the aspect/scanning/resolution Issues, I would consider this, but at the moment my money is on the 28" ViewSonic, it might be TN, but it works, and it's bigger.
 
Rational conclusion about this thread now that I own a planar 26"......


nearing 200 pages of posts and the machine still doesnt do what people would like it too.

skip this purchase.
 
Interesting. Just found a post on the ncix.com forum thread for the FP241W about 1:1 mapping for the HDMI. I haven't had the chance to research this for its accuracy, but maybe someone else can confirm or deny. This is the post by Girish P as shown on this page:

Basics:
=====
Benq FP241W has a HDMI 1.1 port.
HDMI 1.1 cannot support 1080p.

PS3 has a HDMI 1.3 interface.
Therefore ps3 recognizes benq as a 720p device and delivers games and stuff at a 1280x720 res. If you choose 1:1 mapping you get to see the black bands on all sides obviously.

Solution:
======
Buy a HDMI male to DVI-D female converter and connect PS3 to benq using this. PS3 will now recognize it as a 1080p device, and run correctly. In 1:1 mode you will still see black bands on top and bottom, because benq has a native resolution of 1920x1200 and PS3 is transmitting at 1920x1080.

For playing 720p games and videos the HDMI connection is sufficient.
For playing 1080p stuff you will need HDMI to DVI converter.
 
I still like to see some old PS1 or PS2 games being upscaled by the PS3 on a monitor with the overscan fix. :)
 
Hi all,

I apologize if this issue has been addressed already.. im sure it has but i couldn't find it in the colossal thread!

Here's my problem: I have the FP241W and an xbox 360. I can't seem to get any of the high def modes working with the component cables. I don't have a vga adapter.

I know that the monitor is receiving the high def signal because i can check that in the menu... but the games are definitely low def. I've tried everything i can think off, and i figured i'd ask you guys before going out and buying the vga cable.

thanks!
 
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