ZR2740W vs U2711

S

soldierblue

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 20, 2010
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I'm finally ready to graduate. I tried so many cheap-ish displays that BestBuy literally won't let me return anything for 90 days so, it's come down to these two.

I'd be connecting my main rig via DP. My consoles are run through an HDMI switch to an HDMI to DVI cable, so HDMI isn't essential.

The way I'm seeing it right now:

U2711:

Advantages -
* I like the inputs, but I don't need them, they're just an added feature to me.
* I'd prefer CCFL backlighting.
* The full scaler would be nice to have.

Concerns -
* Quality control/support.
* Panel uniformity.
* Input lag.

ZR2740w:

Advantages -
* Cost, I'd be saving around $150.
* Low input lag.

Concerns -
* Quality control/support.
* Panel uniformity.
* Lacks a full scaler, so I'd have to run consoles at 720p (from what I understand). Probably not a huge deal.
* The "dark stripe."

What do you guys think? Is there anything else I should be looking at or considering?
 
I've tried both, I have no complaints whatsoever about the HP LED lighting. It puts off much less heat compared to the Dell and there is no warm-up time.

The biggest difference is the Dell is wide-gamut, the HP is not. IMHO wide gamut offers no real-world benefit, and frankly opens up a whole host of problems in terms of screwed up colors. (primaries, especially reds, are grossly oversaturated and out-of-balance.)

see this thread for some discussion.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1684976

If running your consoles is a big deal, I wouldn't necessarily count on the HP to get the job done. If you can force 1280x720 output, it should work, but I think people have had mixed results.

As far as quality control, it seems like there are potential issues with either one, but they both have great warranty service so I wouldn't sweat it. Personally I would take the HP hands down over the Dell. Though with the availability of the cheap Korean 27"s, I would be hard pressed to spend the $ on either of them. My vote goes to the Microcenter Auria, but it looks like that is pretty much out of stock at the moment.
 
I didn't even think about the wide gamut being an issue. The Korean displays intrigue me, but we don't have I Microcenter and I have a few qualms about eBaying one.
 
I could also just buy another 680 because want. That would set me up better to make the jump to 1440 in the next few months.
 
Samsung S27A850D is sRGB is better for consoles and uses a PLS panel (no tinting or dark brightness stripes, semi-glossy coating=matte with very, very little grain, vibrant+clearer colours due to the lack of strong anti-glare coating and sharper text), but it has 1 frame of input lag, possible backlight bleeding (recent units seem to be fine, always buy from a place with a hassle free return/exchange policy if buying locally) and slight black crush+over saturation due to the default gamma of 2.4 (the unit PRAD.de reviewed had the same issue, but not TFT Central's) The higher gamma is a non-issue with the 360 since the reference level can be set to intermediate=no black crush.

Another options is the Samsung S27B970D which will likely be the ultimate 1440p display, except in terms of input lag (has scaling, but it may have low input lag. The Eizo SX2762 has extra inputs and scaling but only 8ms of input lag according to PRAD so it is possible the 970D will have low input lag too) and pricing (1200$).

At the moment I think a display with a scaler is the best solution. Possibly later this year or early next year, once the next gen consoles are announced (which will support 1440-4k) there will be scaler+input lag free high res displays.
 
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soldierblue said:
I didn't even think about the wide gamut being an issue.
Click to expand...

The dell does have an sRGB emulation mode, but it really didn't seem to work all that well, just made everything look too under-saturated.

fwiw, I also have a wide-gamut ZR30w right now... with my Radeon 6870, in the Catalyst Control Center under display color -> color temp there is a checkbox for "Use EDID data." Besides the color temp, it also seems to completely rein in the wide-gamut colors. Makes it look very comparable to the zr2740w. I don't know how it would perform with the Dell... I had an older system with an Nvidia card and couldn't find any comparable setting.

That said, even with a Radeon card I would still generally avoid wide-gamut since it seems like that little checkbox is something AMD could potentially bork in a future update.
 
NCX said:
Samsung S27A850D is sRGB and better than both the Dell and HP since it is PLS (no tinting or dark brightness stripes, semi-glossy coating=matte with very, very little grain, vibrant+clearer colours due to the lack of strong anti-glare coating and sharper text), but it has 1 frame of input lag, possible backlight bleeding (recent units seem to be fine, always buy from a place with a hassle free return/exchange policy if buying locally) and slight black crush+over saturation due to the default gamma of 2.4 The higher gamma is a non-issue with the 360 since the reference level can be set to intermediate=no black crush.
Click to expand...

That's a very tempting option. At this point I think I'm going to tweak my plan to get a second 680 first so I can more comfortably make the leap to 1440p.

Do you have any thoughts on how bad the Korean panels probably are?
 
I have 2 korean displays (CrossOver 27q LED-p [dual link dvi only...I sold it to my dad who creates Survey plans since I primarily console game. He loves it, especially the sharpness+clarity vs his Samsung T240 which has a lighter matte coating than matte IPS panels] and the CrossOver 2720MDP [tons of inputs+scaling+1 frame of input lag) and both are excellent, the 27Q LED-P less so since it had a strong blue tint out of the box and required profiling. Lots of people have downloaded my ICC profile (up on TFT Central) and fixed the blue tint. Some have even taken before+after pictures that show the improvement. The 27Q LED-P worked with my PS3+360 @720p with a dvi-hdmi cord.

Both have slightly better pixel response times (less ghosting) than my Samsung S27A850D, which is still very fast. Both of my CrossOVer's also have no back-light bleeding while my Samsung has a tincy bit. I paid 900$ for my Samsung in November 2011 and bought both CrossOver's for less.

I like my 2720MDP and S27A850D equally since both have their own strengths. It is really nice having both a glossy and an essentially grain free matte display.
 
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So, would you say the HP would be worth the extra ~$300 over the Crossovers/Catleaps/Shimians? In turn, would you say the 850D is worth the ~$180 over the HP?

It's looking like I'll either be springing for a Crossover/Catleap/Shimian now, or saving for one of the more costly displays. I'd definitely like to do SLI first or at the same time and have that all set and ready.
 
soldierblue said:
So, would you say the HP would be worth the extra ~$300 over the Crossovers/Catleaps/Shimians? In turn, would you say the 850D is worth the ~$180 over the HP?

It's looking like I'll either be springing for a Crossover/Catleap/Shimian now, or saving for one of the more costly displays. I'd definitely like to do SLI first or at the same time and have that all set and ready.
Click to expand...

I was looking at these Catleap's as well and I am pretty skeptical because of my luck with monitors lately. I recently had my 4 year old LG IPS panel crap out because of a power supply about 5 months ago. Turns out they have undersized Caps in them, that can be replaced which I hope to work on this week.

I went to Fry's after it died, and got an Acer 1080p 27". Now about 1/2 the time I power it one part of the backlight doesn't come on and is dark. When it does this i have to power cycle it to get it to work, its rather annoying.

I have just had terrible luck w/ these LCD's as of late so Im thinking of springing for the HP so I don't get screwed again w/ some kind of stupid defect, or DOA product. For myself the extra $300 is worth that.
 
I hear you, I'm in the same boat. Had one of those 28 inch HannsG displays for three years before the power board started going. I tried an Asus, a Samsung, and dual-LGs before settling for a still not-very-good 27 inch Planar. Then I started having issues with it going blank intermittently. Planar sent a replacement, but it just looks worse to me than the one I had. So, the search goes on. I just want something the same size that's not TN and not terrible.
 
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