The HP ZR24w Scaling Issues Thread

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ThomasJL

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This thread is intended for people to post thoughts, opinions, experiences, and updates related to the scaling issues currently present in the HP ZR24w.

Rather than combing through other threads trying to find info on the ZR24w scaling issues, it will be more convenient to use this thread as a one-stop place for anything related to the ZR24w's scaling issues.
 
Has HP released any information as to when the scaling issue will be resolved?

I think there are people who are holding back on purchasing the ZR24w because they want to be able to connect their DVD or Blu-ray player to it.
 
I am one of those people. I want to connect an xbox 360 and a playstation 3 to the display.
 
Has anyone here obtained a ZR24w that can scale properly?

If not, is there any word from HP on when the scaling issues will be fixed?

I am eagerly waiting to purchase this monitor, but I cannot do so until the scaling issues have been fixed. I don't own a TV, so I will have to plug my DVD player into the ZR24w. Obviously, it will not work until the scaling issues have been fixed.
 
I'm not sure if the scaling issue could be fixed with a mere bios update. usually there needs to be a physical chip to process the scaling, right?
 
vjcsmoke said:
I'm not sure if the scaling issue could be fixed with a mere bios update. usually there needs to be a physical chip to process the scaling, right?
Click to expand...

If the latter is the case, will HP be taking returns of all the defective ZR24w displays (i.e. the ones with scaling issues) and exchanging them for ones that work properly?
 
Has anyone here returned their ZR24w with scaling issues to HP and received a defect-free ZR24w?
 
If you guys had to guess, would you guess that the ZR24w scaling issues will be fixed by a firmware update, or would you guess that it is a hardware issue that a firmware update cannot fix?
 
Has HP ever acknowledged the scaling issue?

If anyone here has spoke with HP about the scaling issue, please tell us what they said.
 
ThomasJL said:
Has HP ever acknowledged the scaling issue?

If anyone here has spoke with HP about the scaling issue, please tell us what they said.
Click to expand...

Have you tried speaking with them?

The chances of this being fixed is very low. The LP2475w has been through multiple hardware and software revisions and the sRGB color preset still does absolutely nothing.
 
fyleow said:
The chances of this being fixed is very low. The LP2475w has been through multiple hardware and software revisions and the sRGB color preset still does absolutely nothing.
Click to expand...
AFAIK a working sRGB preset on the LP2475w would require a change in hardware. That rarely happens. And they had to know that it's crap from the very beginning.

If it is just a bug in software, it's easily fixed. So why not fix it?
Either they just don't care as long as it sells...
Or, they don't want returns because of that. (They didn't release user-flashable firmware updates before, so I don't think they will now.)
 
I don't think it's technically possible to change the behavior of an embedded scaler chip with a firmware update on this type of monitor. In the past I've seen firmware fix EDID and mode issues or color calibration; but not scaler logic.
 
fyleow said:
Have you tried speaking with them?

The chances of this being fixed is very low. The LP2475w has been through multiple hardware and software revisions and the sRGB color preset still does absolutely nothing.
Click to expand...

That's a shame, and perhaps a deal-breaker for me. I actually own an LP2475w, and the very reason I am interested the ZR24w is because the I only use sRGB and the LP2475w's sRGB setting is horrendous.
 
Well, it's September now. Is there any new news on the ZR24w's scaler? Has it been fixed yet?
 
Is it fixed yet?

(I feel like a child on a road trip who repeatedly asks his parents, "Are we there yet?")
 
It seems like no one has mentioned anything about the ZR24w's scaler in the past few months. Has HP adressed the problem yet? Has HP mentioned anything about a fix?
 
I just got 2 from MacMall this week. Sorry for my naivete, but what is the issue? If I feed either with 1920x1080 from DVI it looks ok just stretched.
 
That is the issue; the scaling does not kick in properly and use black bars at the top and bottom of the screen to preserve the 16:9 aspect ratio. Instead, it stretches it vertically into 16:10, which can be damned annoying when anything obviously circular or square, etc. shows up on screen; otherwise, I usually don't notice it.
 
Then it seems to not have been fixed. It does not preserve 1:1 mapping.

I remember back in the day when that was what I wanted. I remember playing starcraft/doom on my first laptop and it took up about 1/4 of the screen.
 
To make a long story short, I've spoken with the engineers at HP and the scaling issues are a hardware limitation and CANNOT be fixed via firmware update. There is no planned fix for the monitor so 1920x1080 content will remain stretched.

The longer story:
I purchased the monitor soon after it was released, based on initial impressions on this forum, and based on the fact that the HP ZR24w user manual lists 1920x1080 as a fully support resolution. After a few months of owning the monitor with little information available about a fix, I decided to contact HP directly. It was a painful process that has cost about 18-20 hours worth of trouble shooting and calls to tech support.

Most of my time was spent trying to prove to the HP techs that there was a problem with the monitor itself and not with all 5 of the devices I had tested with the monitor. When HP phone support suggested I reformat my hard drive and uninstall Windows, I officially knew I was talking to the wrong people. After considerable effort, HP sent me a replacement ZR24w, which I knew would feature the same flaw, but they didn't accept that fact at this point.

The new monitor comes, same problem, and after even more effort I get the case escalated to an actual engineer, not just a phone support person. The engineer spoke with the ZR24w team and confirmed the problem. The engineers at HP say the scalar chip they are using has limitations that cannot be fixed with firmware.

Now that HP has admitted that the monitor has a problem, they still will not refund my purchase. It is an interesting case that HP will admit the problem, admit that there is no fix, and still not act to refund the purchase. From a customer standpoint, it does not make sense to verify a problem and not receive a fix, which in this case the only fix is to return the monitor. After all, I already knew there was a problem; I did not need them to simply verify it.

I should note that a lot of effort went into my interactions with HP, and the effort could have been saved if just one tech support person had the monitor in front of them during our interactions.

I hope that this effort will help other owners and potential owners of the HP ZR24w.

Bottom line: The scaling issue will not be fixed by HP, so if you buy the monitor make sure you do not mind the scaling issues of the monitor.
 
TMcK said:
To make a long story short, I've spoken with the engineers at HP and the scaling issues are a hardware limitation and CANNOT be fixed via firmware update. There is no planned fix for the monitor so 1920x1080 content will remain stretched.

The longer story:
I purchased the monitor soon after it was released, based on initial impressions on this forum, and based on the fact that the HP ZR24w user manual lists 1920x1080 as a fully support resolution. After a few months of owning the monitor with little information available about a fix, I decided to contact HP directly. It was a painful process that has cost about 18-20 hours worth of trouble shooting and calls to tech support.

Most of my time was spent trying to prove to the HP techs that there was a problem with the monitor itself and not with all 5 of the devices I had tested with the monitor. When HP phone support suggested I reformat my hard drive and uninstall Windows, I officially knew I was talking to the wrong people. After considerable effort, HP sent me a replacement ZR24w, which I knew would feature the same flaw, but they didn't accept that fact at this point.

The new monitor comes, same problem, and after even more effort I get the case escalated to an actual engineer, not just a phone support person. The engineer spoke with the ZR24w team and confirmed the problem. The engineers at HP say the scalar chip they are using has limitations that cannot be fixed with firmware.

Now that HP has admitted that the monitor has a problem, they still will not refund my purchase. It is an interesting case that HP will admit the problem, admit that there is no fix, and still not act to refund the purchase. From a customer standpoint, it does not make sense to verify a problem and not receive a fix, which in this case the only fix is to return the monitor. After all, I already knew there was a problem; I did not need them to simply verify it.

I should note that a lot of effort went into my interactions with HP, and the effort could have been saved if just one tech support person had the monitor in front of them during our interactions.

I hope that this effort will help other owners and potential owners of the HP ZR24w.

Bottom line: The scaling issue will not be fixed by HP, so if you buy the monitor make sure you do not mind the scaling issues of the monitor.
Click to expand...

Wow that's a massive turn down.
 
Do other monitors have this problem or is this specific to the zr24w? If other monitors have this problem, how common is it? Just curious.
 
Does the scaling issue affect games played from the computer itself (and not from an external source) in full screen mode? Sorry if this is answered in other threads.
 
that sucks, but its good to finally have some confirmation.

psoriac, i just tested this on mine. 1920x1080 stretches to full screen, and the monitor will not display it in aspect ratio.
 
If I play DVDs on my computer, nothing strange happens to the aspect ratio. Nothing strange happens if I rip them to my hard drive, and nothing strange happens if I convert them to mp4s. My wife uses hers as a TV with a computer TV tuner and it works perfectly.

From what I'm gathering, the strangeness happens when you hook up a device (Xbox, PS3, Blu-ray) directly to the monitor and that device isn't a computer video card.
 
guachi said:
If I play DVDs on my computer, nothing strange happens to the aspect ratio. Nothing strange happens if I rip them to my hard drive, and nothing strange happens if I convert them to mp4s. My wife uses hers as a TV with a computer TV tuner and it works perfectly.

From what I'm gathering, the strangeness happens when you hook up a device (Xbox, PS3, Blu-ray) directly to the monitor and that device isn't a computer video card.
Click to expand...

99.99% of the time you've got a computer hooked up to an LCD monitor, your video card is doing all of the scaling itself and the monitor's scaler isn't doing anything. Video cards need to have scalers because monitor's don't necessarily have them. It works out well, because even if they have them a lot of times they're even brain dead or broken (as is the zr24w's scaler).

Bummer to hear that HP won't fix it. =(
 
I just connected my 360 to the monitor via HDMI to DVI.

When I use 1680x1050, there are black bars on top and the bottom, but the aspect ratio seems to be fine.

However when I set the resolution to 1920x1080, the aspect ratio is messed up, sucks. It is not that bad though, it will some time to get used to it but still playable.
 
Its a PC monitor guys.... not a 1080p TV

PC = Monitor
Xbox/PS3 = LCD Television

Sure wish a lot of people wouldn't knock such a great monitor at an amazing price for what you get cause you cant play your "Xbox" :II

Just my 2 cents on all that scaling issue nonsense.
 
Am I to understand that if you put a DVD in your computer's optical drive to play a movie, the scaling will be OK?

I was about to order this monitor after several days of study and now this....
 
It wasn't until the second page that I realized that the issue has to do with connecting 16:9 HDTV devices to the ZR24w, which is a 16:10 computer monitor. The thread initially sounded like there was a problem displaying 1080 content via Windows, which isn't the case.
 
bigsnowdog said:
Am I to understand that if you put a DVD in your computer's optical drive to play a movie, the scaling will be OK?

I was about to order this monitor after several days of study and now this....
Click to expand...
Yes, the scaling will be OK if your graphics drivers do the scaling. This means that a 1900x1200 signal will be sent to the monitor but with black bars. You will have to enable 1:1 scaling in your drivers' parameters.
 
Bump. The last post on this thread was eight months ago, in December 2010. Have the scaling issues on the ZR24w been resolved yet? Or, at the very least, has HP mentioned anything about a future fix of the scaling issues?
 
It will not be fixed.

As someone else stated this is a 16:10 computer monitor not a 1080p tv.

Take your consoles elsewhere! or better yet hook them up to a 1080p tv!!!!
 
Since the monitor doesn't have a scalar in it, I'm unsure why people thought it would ever be fixed. I figured the non-existent scalar was one of the reasons the ZR24w was ~$50 cheaper than its predecessor, the 2475.
 
From what i've read it seems to work all the way up to 1680x1050 anything higher res than that you are SOL.
 
Makaveli@BETA said:
From what i've read it seems to work all the way up to 1680x1050 anything higher res than that you are SOL.
Click to expand...

So that would mean that setting the PS3 to 720p should enable correct scaling, with black bands at the top and bottom? Does anyone know for sure, or has anyone tried it for sure?
 
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