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

Well i've just set up the monitor, and it's beautiful. The first thing that struck me was how big the stand was. And wow, the monitor, huge compared to the 4:3 19" screen i've had for years. VERY bright though, the whites are actually hurting my eyes. I can't see any dead or stuck pixels either which is good. Very happy.
 
Excellent, glad you liked it! Seems all monitors are set too bright these days, probably to inflate a detail in the specification :D

Mine should arrive friday! Hopefully May manufacture date, but it doesn't really matter if it isn't May or later now, thanks to BenQ!

It's a shame this monitor is can't be found in high-street shops (at least to my knowledge). We are forced to buy without seeing the item first, and although we can return it by law if we are not satisfied, we have to bear the cost of an insured courier return :(
 
Senza said:
Well i've just set up the monitor, and it's beautiful. The first thing that struck me was how big the stand was. And wow, the monitor, huge compared to the 4:3 19" screen i've had for years. VERY bright though, the whites are actually hurting my eyes. I can't see any dead or stuck pixels either which is good. Very happy.
Click to expand...

LOL! It is BRIGHT. My 241W replaced a 19" CRT. For the first week it felt like typing on a 750 watt billboard. Only website I could visit was this one. I turned the brightness down in the OSD in standard mode, just slipped on the welder's goggles before it powered up. Wishing it had a sub-zero brightness setting for those dark winter nights. A nice dark desktop theme is highly recommended too.
 
Yes, it's extremely bright, I used to use it at 80%, but now I have it at I think 60% brightness with 50% contrast.
 
is this a recommeded monitor?
anyone got some high resolution photos? :)
running game and movie :p
 
wiak said:
is this a recommeded monitor?
anyone got some high resolution photos? :)
running game and movie :p
Click to expand...

Highly recommended by most people it seems. The problem now is finding one of the most recent modes.... and I have no pics. Sorry
 
Wow, what a mammoth thread! :eek:

I just received one of these today for my home PC and installed it in my lunch break. I am having trouble getting the settings right. It's very bright, maybe too bright. I am back at work now and I have read in this thread to set the Brightness at 80 and Contrast at 60. Does this make the Blacks, Black as such? I am hoping someone has set up the colours on their LCD too though?

Basically I am hoping someone with better eyes for detail, has set theirs up properly and I'm hoping to follow your settings?? :p

Thanks
 
thelawns said:
Wow, what a mammoth thread! :eek:

I just received one of these today for my home PC and installed it in my lunch break. I am having trouble getting the settings right. It's very bright, maybe too bright. I am back at work now and I have read in this thread to set the Brightness at 80 and Contrast at 60. Does this make the Blacks, Black as such? I am hoping someone has set up the colours on their LCD too though?

Basically I am hoping someone with better eyes for detail, has set theirs up properly and I'm hoping to follow your settings?? :p

Thanks
Click to expand...

i use 65 contrast and 20 brightness, that gives it a nice smooth picture. use standard mode, not photo, movie, etc....
the brightness on this monitor is crazy, but thats what 500cd/2 will do:D
 
Monitor arrived today.. April 2007 firmware :( (we seem to be months and months behind in terms of firmware here in the UK)

On the other hand, BenQ should cover the costs of upgrading the firmware + transport as stated in their email to me.

I've got the monitor up and running, and apart from the firmware, I'm very impressed! No dead pixels or defects as far as I can see after running a program to help me find them. Turned the brightness down and fiddled with the contrast and now its great :)

Just got to get in contact with them to update the firmware to include overscan ;/ just hope they dont trade it by accident for a different one... this one is fine!
 
Doomer-Mind said:
Monitor arrived today.. April 2007 firmware :( (we seem to be months and months behind in terms of firmware here in the UK)

On the other hand, BenQ should cover the costs of upgrading the firmware + transport as stated in their email to me.

I've got the monitor up and running, and apart from the firmware, I'm very impressed! No dead pixels or defects as far as I can see after running a program to help me find them. Turned the brightness down and fiddled with the contrast and now its great :)

Just got to get in contact with them to update the firmware to include overscan ;/ just hope they dont trade it by accident for a different one... this one is fine!
Click to expand...

I'm in the UK too. After reading through some of the posts I have adjusted my settings to:

Brightness 30
Contrast 49
Red 49
Green 50
Blue 46

How do you know what firmware it has? :confused:
 
I suppose 'April 2007' firmware was a bad way to describe it. I should have said it was manufactured in April 2007. As a result, my monitor was manufactured a month before the new firmware (with overscan fix) was released with the May 2007 batch of monitors =[ Might be other fixes with firmware later than May, but the overscan fix seems to be the most recent issue.

Ah well, just means I have to wait to get it upgraded for free =/

As for the settings, I've left the colour at standard, my brightness is 20 and my contrast is 52.

NVidia's display optimisation wizard seems to work quite well for sorting out brightness and gamma if you have a geforce card.
 
I ordered mine almost 3 weeks ago and found out today (from NCIX via email) that it was officically discontinued from their inventory. I either had the choice of picking something else or getting a full refund. I chosed the refund.

Just kinda sucks because I had rearranged my setup to accomodate the new monitor.

Drawing not to scale.. ;)
 
Both Newegg and NCIX are no longer listing the FP241W on their websites. I got the last one from Newegg and it should arrive on 1-21-08. What are the odds that this is going to be a Sept 2007 model?
 
I have one of these on it's way to me right now, it appears to still be readily available here in Europe, on the continent anyway. \o/.
 
so that's who got the last one from newegg!! :)

since these are all OOS anyone know if you can remove the gawdawful stand on the FP241vw?? I know that it has vesa mounts, but those seem pointless with the stand on it.
 
Odd that its going out of production in the US.

I emailed BenQ a week ago to ask them if the monitor was going out of production in Europe, because I had noticed that stock had dropped low on a few sites. They emailed me back to ask me what sites I had visited and that they were still in production :D
 
I got one of the last ones from NewEgg as well, it should be here on the 21st of January, I can't wait. I'm just hoping and praying for one with the 1:1 fix.
 
First, thanks to everyone for all the tips and info. Been 'lurking' here for a couple of months already. Pulled the trigger and got mine 2 days ago. Sept 07 build, no dead pixels so far.

Got it from infonec

Great price at $529 but it was $519 at some point last year.

Their main store is 10 min away from work so I called and ordered Thursday. They called next day Friday saying it was in. (I think Benq's warehouse is also in the GTA) Picked it up and the rest is history. The sales guy did say that this monitor is eol but there are still 'some' left.

Also, When I picked mine up, I saw two other boxes and asked if the buyers asked for sept 07 build. He said 'yes' and asked me why everyone was asking for it...

Get it while you still can!!
 
Just got mine in today from Newegg. September 2007 Build, 1:1 pixel mapping, Overscan On/Off, no backlight bleed and zero dead/stuck pixels. Very happy everything turned out OK, I guess I got lucky. Turned brightness down to about 60.
 
So wait, is it confirmed that BenQ did in fact discontinue the FP241W in North America?

I really can't seem to find it anywhere.
 
Hey everyone, I got my monitor a week ago with no dead pixels. I'm running into a problem though when playing DVDs on my computer (through the internal DVD-RW on my tower). There are two black bars each on the top and bottom of the screen, and together they take up a considerable chunk of the real estate. Here's a link to illustrate:



You can see that there are two different shades of black bars on the top, and the same on the bottom. Is there anyway to reduce the size of or even eliminate the black bars?
 
Those different shades of black is fine. I get that with my 21" CRT.

As for getting rid of the bars, some DVD player software have options for adjust to 16:9 or 16:10. Try looking for that.
 
I am using PowerDVD, and I do not see a setting to change the video to 16:10... but I do see an option to stretch to fit screen. When I choose this option, the inner black bars are gone but the outer ones remain. Any way to get rid of all of the bars, since I'm running at 1920x1200 (16:10)?
 
Myrkul23 said:
Hey everyone, I got my monitor a week ago with no dead pixels. I'm running into a problem though when playing DVDs on my computer (through the internal DVD-RW on my tower). There are two black bars each on the top and bottom of the screen, and together they take up a considerable chunk of the real estate. Here's a link to illustrate:

You can see that there are two different shades of black bars on the top, and the same on the bottom. Is there anyway to reduce the size of or even eliminate the black bars?
Click to expand...

You need to adjust your picture settings to make the black bars unison. Regarding the black bars taking a chunk of the screen, I do not know why you would want to stretch the video anyways as it will be disproportional. If you are running a video thats 16:9 than there will be black bars on the top and bottom (since monitor is 16:10), but I think everyone knows this so I do not know exactly what you guys want.
 
Ok, well, since the 241W is being discontinued, and the 241WZ is too hard to find, what is the next best choice?

Is there another 24-inch BenQ monitor coming out soon that will be able to top this one (or at least same quality) or am I now completely shit out of luck finding a good 24-inch for the coming year?

(Disclaimer: I've done tons of research and this was absolutely the best choice, next to the L245WP, and now I can't find either)
 
branana said:
The FP241VW.

@Myrkul23: Why the hell would you want to stretch the image?
Click to expand...

So the FP241VW is pretty much identical to the FP241W, quality-wise?

I mean, considering the rave the FP241W has made, there has to be some difference between the two, right?
 
Zetherin said:
So the FP241VW is pretty much identical to the FP241W, quality-wise?

I mean, considering the rave the FP241W has made, there has to be some difference between the two, right?
Click to expand...

If you can get a newest firmware FP241VW (it is probably Sept. 2007 build as well), then it is basically an upgraded version of FP241W without the portrait view. I know Asia has the newest firmware version with overscanning option, but haven't heard anything in North America.
 
If anyone is still looking for a FP241W, I noticed a new one on ebay for $495.00. I think it is a Sept 2007 model. Wish I would have seen it before I spent $650.00 at Newegg, oh well.
 
I do not want to stretch the image, but I saw no other way in PowerDVD to reduce the size of the black bars. I thought that playing a 16:9 video on a 16:10 display would only result in one type of bar on the bottom and top. I was confused seeing two shades of black on the top and bottom.
 
Zetherin said:
Ok, well, since the 241W is being discontinued, and the 241WZ is too hard to find, what is the next best choice?

Is there another 24-inch BenQ monitor coming out soon that will be able to top this one (or at least same quality) or am I now completely shit out of luck finding a good 24-inch for the coming year?

(Disclaimer: I've done tons of research and this was absolutely the best choice, next to the L245WP, and now I can't find either)
Click to expand...

The only ones I know of with comparable specs (I make no claims about quality) are the Samsung 245T and the Hyundai W241D -- PVA / MVA panels with DVI + HDMI. 1:1 for either of these is anyone's guess, and I'm not sure if the Hyundai even exists yet. Benq has a new 24" on the way (March?), but the specs they have published thus far are conflicting and seem to indicate another TN.
 
Myrkul23 said:
I do not want to stretch the image, but I saw no other way in PowerDVD to reduce the size of the black bars. I thought that playing a 16:9 video on a 16:10 display would only result in one type of bar on the bottom and top. I was confused seeing two shades of black on the top and bottom.
Click to expand...
I think you're justified in your confusion really, i've never seen two different shades of black in the bars before. It's as if the lighter shaded bars are in the picture themselves.

Doomer-mind: Sorry to hear you got an April 2007 model, though if it's behaving like mine is, i'm sure you're not disappointed (although i have had a couple of the dreaded blackouts i've been reading about with a Radeon 9800 pro graphics card, but not many, and i'm upgrading it soon to an nvidia 8800GT anyway, so it'll be interesting to see if they stop after that). I haven't taken the time to contact BenQ yet about the firmware upgrade, but if you ever do, i'd appreciate if you could post about how it goes!
 
aPixelisaPixel said:
The only ones I know of with comparable specs (I make no claims about quality) are the Samsung 245T and the Hyundai W241D -- PVA / MVA panels with DVI + HDMI. 1:1 for either of these is anyone's guess, and I'm not sure if the Hyundai even exists yet. Benq has a new 24" on the way (March?), but the specs they have published thus far are conflicting and seem to indicate another TN.
Click to expand...

So let me get this straight: BenQ is discontinuing this product because the panel is of very good quality and is too expensive to mass produce. And, now, they will be reverting back to a lesser quality TN panel this coming March?

WTF is this shit?! I'd be willing to a pay a bit more for better quality, but frankly, it's a hassle to even find one! Hyundai doesn't look that appealing to me...and the Samsungs, from what I've seen, just don't offer the same quality of a product (maybe I'm wrong)

Even the LG that I mentioned with a very good panel has been taken off of newegg, and all that's left is SHIT. Everyone thinks the stuff that's on there is decent, but you can really tell a difference...at least from the ones I've seen.
 
Just picked mine up from here locally in Mississauga - outside of Toronto. Managed to find a shop that had a September 2007 unit that was evidently ordered for someone else but never picked up.

I've only just gotten it out of the box - so no real tests or anything run yet. But I have shopped and looked at a lot of monitors and seen them on display (of course, in store displays are usually crummy anyway), but this model beats all of them. I prefer it over the Dell 2407.

Thanks to [H] folks in this thread and others that convinced me to grab this one instead of another model even though I'd not had the benefit of seeing it on display before I bought it.
 
Zetherin said:
So let me get this straight: BenQ is discontinuing this product because the panel is of very good quality and is too expensive to mass produce. And, now, they will be reverting back to a lesser quality TN panel this coming March?
Click to expand...

An NCIX employee claims on their forum that the panel manufacturer, AU Optronics, has stopped making the panel that Benq was using. Why AUO has (apparently) discontinued it is unknown.
 
Myrkul23 said:
I do not want to stretch the image, but I saw no other way in PowerDVD to reduce the size of the black bars. I thought that playing a 16:9 video on a 16:10 display would only result in one type of bar on the bottom and top. I was confused seeing two shades of black on the top and bottom.
Click to expand...

hey myrkul, just because you're watching a dvd does not mean it is 16:9. it depends on what aspect ratio the production company produces the movies in. for example, let's take 3 blu-ray movies.

meet the robinsons = aspect ratio is 1.78:1 which is technically 16:9. no black bars will be shown on a HDTV, but on benQ, you'll see black bars b/c its 16:10.

ratatouille = aspect ratio 2.39:1, this is NOT16:9 therefore black bars will be seen on the top and bottom of a HDTV. 2 kinds of black bars will be seen on the benQ, 1 b/c its not 16:10 and the other b/c its not 16:9.

pirates of the carribean at worlds end = aspect ratio 2.35:1, this is NOT 16:9. same results as ratatouille.

no way to remove black bars unless the movie itself is formated to 16:9 and you will always have black bars due to the monitor being 16:10 when watching movies or HDTV. sad but true. FYI, when movies are filmed, the most commonly used aspect ratio is 1.85:1, and can range up to 2.40:1. therefore, the 1.78:1 is a compromised ratio from the original 1.85:1 it was filmed in. hope this helps.
 
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