2007WFP gradient banding

[yacoub]

How do you access the service menu?

 

[against]

Turn off the monitor, hold + and menu buttons at the same time while turning it on.

After the power is on, let go of the 2 buttons and then press the - button.

 

[yacoub]

Thanks:

http://users.adelphia.net/~jrockcls/servicemenu.jpg

I wonder if turning on the Debug mode would help at all. I'm not about to find out though. ;P

 

[MaceX]

Originally posted by: yacoub
Thanks:

http://users.adelphia.net/~jrockcls/servicemenu.jpg

I wonder if turning on the Debug mode would help at all. I'm not about to find out though. ;P

I've turned it on, but I didn't notice anything different.

 

[kmmatney]

Originally posted by: yacoub
Hey, here's a question for you 2007 owners: Do solid gray images "swim"? I'm getting waves sweeping down the screen when I view a solid gray image, like in MonitorTest, or the background of Excel 2003 w/o a sheet open.

I can tell if I look very carefully that this is occuring all the time, but it is more noticeable on a solid color that isn't bright.

update: It does it in VGA also. Fuggit, I'm sending it back.

How do I properly RMA a monitor w/ Dell? I guess I'll call them up...

Grey backgrounds will often "swim" on LCDs - I have seen this on many LCDs of all types. In fact a software program written by a coworker did this on my nice Samsung 213T LCD at work. He ended up changing the backgrounds and the problem went away.

I should get his original background and use it as a test image for LCDs.

 

[yacoub]

Hmm well all I know is I never had this swimming on my five year old Sony LCD. With this Dell it's like having a lightbulb with a slightly loose filament or something. Very unappealing 'feature'.

Either way if it's normal that does make me feel a little better.

 

[oddity]

Originally posted by: MaceX

Originally posted by: yacoub
Thanks:

http://users.adelphia.net/~jrockcls/servicemenu.jpg

I wonder if turning on the Debug mode would help at all. I'm not about to find out though. ;P

I've turned it on, but I didn't notice anything different.

Hate to sound like a "omg noob" here but, how do you access that service menu?

 

[yacoub]

Seriously, look one post further up than the ones you quoted. LOL

 

[yacoub]

.

 

[oddity]

Originally posted by: yacoub
Seriously, look one post further up than the ones you quoted. LOL

Hmm.

Well, guess my reading skills are at an all time low today

 

[xtknight]

Swimming gray = 6-bit probably. Not good. But not surprising given the banding.

 

[spronkey]

Isn't swimming usually associated with signal interferance? The S-IPS panels are definnitely 8-bit (their accompanying electronics might not be, but given they can display the colour cubes fine apparently...)

Anyhow, along with my proposed tests, do you guys still see banding if you turn down your gamma in ATi/nVidia's respective driver utilities?

Also, could someone PLEASE post at least some VGA pictures? I was running my 2005fpw in VGA mode for a while (when I still had it) and it was only very slightly less sharp than DVI, and this was using the flimsy supplied VGA cable. I suspect it would produce an almost indistinguishable signal with a high quality shielded XGA+ cable...

In the thread titled "where is anandtech's reviews of the 1907/2007..." or close to that anyway, one of the guys mentioned colour banding on the 1907 disappearing when he turned his output gamma down to 0.9 in ATi CCC...

 

[imported_greyhound]

Turning the gamma down from 1.0 to .90 on my NVIDIA panel makes my banding worse.

 

[spronkey]

What about turning it up?

Is the banding more noticable on certain colours? Are you in desktop mode?

 

[imported_greyhound]

Higher gamma didn't help, though it didn't hurt either. My banding is most noticeable on the color spectrum steps from dark gray to black, less so for green and red, none on blue. Using xtnight's purple/green pattern, I see less banding on VGA than on DVI but there is still some on VGA.

Stupid question - when both VGA and DVI are connected at the same time, and I set VGA up as the secondary display in my video controls (so it's active when i change sources) how do I get my icons and taskbar to show up on the desktop when i switch inputs? Right now, all I get on the VGA is the desktop wallpaper.

 

[imported_greyhound]

Well I moved VGA to primary display, rebooted and got icons but no taskbar - weird. Anyhow, the grayscale banding is almost nonexistent with VGA, abigger difference than the purple/green pattern. As to sharpness/clarity - I can't tell the difference - VGA looks just as good!

 

[yacoub]

you want to Clone your desktop I believe.
also my experience is the same as yours - banding dark grays into black, slight on red and green also, less noticeable on blues.

 

[Ryan Norton]

Have a 2007FWP arriving at work today but my POS work PC only has a VGA output. Only DVI in sight until I get home, then, is my G4 Mac Mini. Any reason to suspect the banding issues might be different with a non-PCIe GPU? Things are slow today so I'll be able to run through the test stuff posted, although I don't have a digital cam here.

 

[spronkey]

It would be interesting to see if this occurs on different operating systems too..

Anyone running non ATi/nVidia got one of these? Maybe an Intel Express notebook?

Also, try adjusting timing settings slightly. E.g. refresh rate tweaking (60.1, 60.2 kinda stuff) with powerstrip or similar.

Damn those of you who returned yours - mine still havn't arrived due to "worldwide shortage" !

 

[erwin1978]

The 2007fp and 2007fpw are 8 bits or 6 bits?

 

[Ryan Norton]

Claimed 8bit by the manufacturer of the panel:

http://www.lgphilips-lcd.com/homeContain/jsp/eng/prd/prd201_j_e.jsp

EDIT: sorry, didn't see that was just a java app. here's the stats:

LM201W01
?Features

20.1" TFT LCD Panel for Monitor



Model Name LM201W01
Active Area [mm]

433.4 x 270.9
Outline Dimension [mm]

459.4 x 296.4
Thickness [mm]

23.7
Resolution

1,680 x RGB x 1,050
Aspect Ratio

16:10
Pixel Pitch [mm]

0.258(98.4)
Number of Colors

16.7 M (8bit)
Luminance [cd/?]

250/300
Color Saturation (%)

72%
Weight [g]

2,950
Contrast Ratio

600:1
Interface

TMDS / LVDS
Viewing Angle [°,U/D/L/R]

178/178(CR=10) (S-IPS)
Color Temperature [K]


Response Time [ms]

16
MP Schedule

Now

 

[xtknight]

Obviously Dell must not have hooked it up right, or they only connected 6-bits to the panel, which is quite likely. TNs could also be 8-bits if they really wanted to. It's all up to the panel manufacturer and whomever hooks it up. In this world, who really knows what 8-bit means these days? Could be their connotation for a 6-bit RGB stream and a 2-bit dithering controller. Unfortunately you just can't trust 'em, and ViewSonic Deutschland routinely lists 8-bit and in a lower parantheses specifies 6-bit+FRC, if applicable. Now they have removed the parantheses and nobody knows.

 

[oddity]

The 2007WFP doesn't seem to display red fonts/text/small red stuff very well either- it comes out very blurred.

 

[kenwo88]

For those who want to make dell aware of the issue, there seems to be a dell moderator on the dell forums who looks like (s)he is trying to look into it by asking for screenshots of the problem. So, if you're in the know, or have some screenshots, try going to this forum here and post your findings. Maybe something will come of it.

My shipment is coming tomorrow. I'll run some tests and will post whatever I can find there.

 

[against]

Originally posted by: kenwo88
For those who want to make dell aware of the issue, there seems to be a dell moderator on the dell forums who looks like (s)he is trying to look into it by asking for screenshots of the problem. So, if you're in the know, or have some screenshots, try going to this forum here and post your findings. Maybe something will come of it.

My shipment is coming tomorrow. I'll run some tests and will post whatever I can find there.

I saw he posted in the 'banding' thread as well (that is now 6 pages long i might add).

I don't have any photos available for him as mine is packaged up, but i did point him
to this thread.

Hopefully this means someone at Dell is taking note.

(doesn't hold breathe though)