Backlight bleeding Acer XB270HU

[buck]

So I recently pulled the trigger on this $800 monitor for the beauty and performance. I saw a fair amount of pictures people posted and thought that it looked great.

This is the monitor I got. [imglink]http://s11.postimg.org/pl3zbfelf/glow.jpg[/imglink]


I contacted Acer and they said "what you're experiencing is still normal with the technology"... Am I overreacting when i said its severe? Is this indeed normal?

 

[Annisman*]

That looks pretty bad

 

[buck]

This was their exact response after looking at this:
"Hi again Matt,

I spoke with our support team about your monitor, and it was determined that what you're experiencing is still normal with the technology, and sending it in for repair would not address this, as replacing the panel would still have similar results. If you still have the option to do an exchange through Newegg, you might try going through that route, to see if you get one that works better for you."

I am pretty blown away at such terrible customer service. I do not think i am overreacting.

 

[Annisman*]

Well, you are probably better off sending it back to newegg, is that an option for you ?

 

[buck]

I guess my only option is to contact Newegg due to Acer being unwilling to stand by their product. I guess I am just surprised that this was considered "normal" for a $800 monitor.

 

[xthetenth]

Yeah, I got a pair for $700 that are barely that bad if they even are.

I would not be happy if my $800 dollar ultrawide had similar problems. It on the other hand is literally perfect. If there's any backlight bleed it's not visible past the reflections on the semi-matte screen.

I would not be happy with that on anything other than low end screens.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

This was their exact response after looking at this:
"Hi again Matt,

I spoke with our support team about your monitor, and it was determined that what you're experiencing is still normal with the technology, and sending it in for repair would not address this, as replacing the panel would still have similar results. If you still have the option to do an exchange through Newegg, you might try going through that route, to see if you get one that works better for you."

I am pretty blown away at such terrible customer service. I do not think i am overreacting.

They're just being honest. The screen is not good at dark scenes.

 

[buck]

They're just being honest. The screen is not good at dark scenes.

I understand that there is glow and some bleeding, but at some point it crosses over from acceptable to unacceptable. Where is the line? Do you find the picture i posted acceptable as a consumer?

 

[buck]

Yeah, I got a pair for $700 that are barely that bad if they even are.

I would not be happy if my $800 dollar ultrawide had similar problems. It on the other hand is literally perfect. If there's any backlight bleed it's not visible past the reflections on the semi-matte screen.

I would not be happy with that on anything other than low end screens.

The picture was taken at night in a dark room, that is not a reflection. Not sure if thats what you meant.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

I understand that there is glow and some bleeding, but at some point it crosses over from acceptable to unacceptable. Where is the line? Do you find the picture i posted acceptable as a consumer?

I'd have to see it in person.

 

[buck]

I'd have to see it in person.

Mom says strangers can't come in the house.

 

[xthetenth]

The picture was taken at night in a dark room, that is not a reflection. Not sure if thats what you meant.

No, I meant my 34UM95, which either has no backlight bleed or has so little that I can't see it past the reflections through my blinds. Pretty sure that's not an ultrawide OP's got.

 

[buck]

No, I meant my 34UM95, which either has no backlight bleed or has so little that I can't see it past the reflections through my blinds. Pretty sure that's not an ultrawide OP's got.

My mistake.

 

[Gryz]

I tried 2 XB270HUs. I've sent the both back to the webshops where I bought them.

You should lower the brightness. 20-25 is good enough under most circumstances. Certainly when you are playing in the dark. You could go even lower maybe. The glow/bleeding problem should be less then. But it will still be there.

I'm still not clear myself if it is ips-glow or backlight bleeding. I think it is a combination of both. The effect is that the corner(s) is yellowish, even when it is supposed to be black. When I moved my head, so it is right in front on the lower right corner, the yellowish tint would disappear a bit, and the screen would look grey. I think the yellow color is ips-glow. I think the white color is backlight bleeding. They multiply each other.

If find it weird that it is almost always the right lower corner. And the other corners on almost all screens have this problem a lot less. It makes me wonder if the placement of the buttons (lower right) has anything to do with it.

Some people say they don't have the ips-glow. I don't believe that anymore. I just think those people don't play dark games. And don't watch dark movies on their monitor. Or maybe they have their PCs in a brightly lit room. I think all XB270HUs have the problem. Just some people are not bothered by it.

I play a lot of dark games. And I like to play in the evenings and in the nights. And the room where my computer is has very dimmed lighting. I found the glow/bleeding unacceptable. It was as if a bright spot-light had been pointed at my right lower screen, and it brightly reflected into my eyes.

I've read a lot of people saying that indeed this ips-glow is a well-known drawback of ips-technology. I don't know if all panels by all manufacturers have the same amount of ips-glow. But I'm not taking any risks anymore. I've just accepted the fact that ips-monitors are not for me.

After I tried the 2 XB270HUs, I started to hope that we would get a gaming monitor with a VA-panel. VA-technology is supposed to have similar colors as IPS-technology. But much better contrast, and much better blacks. A week later my prayers were heard !!!

Check out the upcoming Acer Predator Z35.

35 Inch, curved screen, 21:9.
VA-panel.
144 Hz and G-Sync.
Nobody knows whether it will have ULMB or not. It's 144Hz so it would be possible.
Resolution: 2560x1080.
Expected release: nobody knows, I've heard dates from end of May till September.

A lot of people think the low resolution is not good enough for them. Maybe not for them, but I don't mind. A 21:9 34" monitor has the exact same ppi as a 27" 16:9 monitor. So 35" in stead of 34" isn't going to make a big difference. 1440p looks good, but it costs framerate. With higher framerates you could configure more eyecandy (further draw-distance, better shadows and HBAO+, more foilage, etc). I hope this Z35 will be the perfect monitor for me.

 

[xthetenth]

I've read a lot of people saying that indeed this ips-glow is a well-known drawback of ips-technology. I don't know if all panels by all manufacturers have the same amount of ips-glow. But I'm not taking any risks anymore. I've just accepted the fact that ips-monitors are not for me.

That's fair but they really don't all have glow let alone that much. I'm not joking when I say I can't see any at all on my 34UM95.

I'd buy that Z35 in a heartbeat if it were 3440x1440 and freesync though. I'm not going to compromise resolution for work and games just to get some higher framerates though.

 

[moonbogg]

OP, the picture is over exposed and making the problem appear greater than it is. These monitors have some light bleed and its normal. They also have IPS glow. Those two things are normal and can be reduced by turning brightness to a sane level, such as around 30.
Some panels have more bleed than others, so take it back to the egg and try another one if you want. There is a big thread on overclockers where they talk about the light bleed a lot on this monitor. We paid $800 so we expect $800 worth of quality, but that's not what people are getting. We are paying a massive gaming gimmick tax on a mediocre IPS type panel. Perfection cannot be expected or guaranteed. Most kids get this monitor and instantly go ZOMG CS:GO is awesome! and they never look for defects.

 

[Gryz]

I'd buy that Z35 in a heartbeat if it were 3440x1440 and freesync though. I'm not going to compromise resolution for work and games just to get some higher framerates though.

The current DP1.2a specification gives barely enough bandwidth to do 144Hz on 2560x1440. It's filling something like 80%-90% of the available bandwidth. It's just not enough for 3440x1440. That's 31% more pixels, so 31% more bandwidth required.

I guess that's why all the new 3440x1440 monitors are 75Hz or 85Hz max.

We'll have to wait for the upcoming DP1.3 spec to see 3440x1440 monitors at 144Hz.

 

[buck]

OP, the picture is over exposed and making the problem appear greater than it is. These monitors have some light bleed and its normal. They also have IPS glow. Those two things are normal and can be reduced by turning brightness to a sane level, such as around 30.
Some panels have more bleed than others, so take it back to the egg and try another one if you want. There is a big thread on overclockers where they talk about the light bleed a lot on this monitor. We paid $800 so we expect $800 worth of quality, but that's not what people are getting. We are paying a massive gaming gimmick tax on a mediocre IPS type panel. Perfection cannot be expected or guaranteed. Most kids get this monitor and instantly go ZOMG CS:GO is awesome! and they never look for defects.

I left my DSLR at work so i didnt get a better picture. Regardless, the bleeding is excessive and even with the "over exposure", the light is excessive compared to most XB270HU monitors.

 

[Innokentij]

That was horrible Im sorry Acer think's this is acceptable level. But if it's not full backlight or OLED that is to be expected. Edit: I know it look horrible on the picture in a dark room, but it looks much better with the lights on and not a black background picture im guessing

 

[xthetenth]

The current DP1.2a specification gives barely enough bandwidth to do 144Hz on 2560x1440. It's filling something like 80%-90% of the available bandwidth. It's just not enough for 3440x1440. That's 31% more pixels, so 31% more bandwidth required.

I guess that's why all the new 3440x1440 monitors are 75Hz or 85Hz max.

We'll have to wait for the upcoming DP1.3 spec to see 3440x1440 monitors at 144Hz.

I'd rather a great screen for everything but gaming and a screen for gaming that makes a tradeoff I'm comfortable with. I prefer pixels to framerate. It's probably going to take till DP1.3 monitors are out for everything to really be sorted out though.

 

[buck]

That was horrible Im sorry Acer think's this is acceptable level. But if it's not full backlight or OLED that is to be expected. Edit: I know it look horrible on the picture in a dark room, but it looks much better with the lights on and not a black background picture im guessing

when its not using a black background and during the day, it really looks great.

Sadly most of my gaming is done at night.

 

[Grooveriding]

It seems to be a real challenge to put out a good monitor. I've been wanting one of the gaming displays to get the high refresh rate for a while now, but they've all had huge issues.

The ROG Swift looks bad with the TN panel and the one I received had multiple dead pixels. I tried the Acer 32" 4K IPS and it was decent, but I returned it because I wanted a higher refresh rate. I was planning to get this Acer for the 144hz/IPS/Gsync, but by many accounts at OCN when it launched, its even worse than the Swift for quality issues like backlight bleed and dead pixels.

Right now its still a compromise to get a reasonably high resolution like 2560x1440 and up with 120-144hz and IPS tech in the form of quality defects as the trade off. I'm still compromising on sacrificing high refresh rate to use a good monitor.

AFAIAC that Acer looks like garbage, in that picture. The problem I find is that cameras pick up what is not visible to the naked eye. My 30" Dell in sig has no visible glow whatsoever when you are sitting in front of it with a black background. There is a very subtle indication that the screen is being lit, but its uniform across the entire screen and does not result in white splotches at all. The screen looks a uniform black whether in the corners or the middle. From an angle you see mild IPS glow from the corners on a black background. But, if I try to take a picture of the screen dead on, the result looks horrible, huge glow and nothing like what I see with my naked eye. Maybe there are some ideal settings you can set on your DSLR to make it give a result that you get with your naked eye, but I can't figure them out. If the monitor looks like that image to the naked eye it's complete garbage. I just find you can't trust what a camera produces when it comes to LCD monitors. The images I get using a DSLR look nothing like what my eye sees on a black background.

Either the technology behind the 1440p TN/IPS panels used in the 144hz gaming monitors is too immature to produce a decent panel consistently, or the manufacturers are not selective enough in what panel grade they use and try to charge premium monitor prices for. Most of what I've seen does not pass a B grade panel, with the 'best' samples being A- at best.

We need Dell, Eizo or HP to step up and put out some high refresh rate but A+ grade screens.

 

[xthetenth]

Pictures do magnify issues. It turns out that my 34UM95 does in fact have a tiny bit of glow in one corner, but I can't see it without a camera, and reflections are much brighter even with drawn blinds.

 

[Innokentij]

when its not using a black background and during the day, it really looks great.

Sadly most of my gaming is done at night.

I took a picture of mine and i have same problem like u, i can only really notice the bottom right part the rest only my camera sees. I think Acer is right on this one sadly. I do not own this Acer tough, i have a Asus PB278QR.

 

[moonbogg]

Color uniformity on these is just total garbage, at least the two samples I have had. This one is better than the last, but the left side has a brown tint to it. I have to forget about this and ignore it because its driving me completely nuts. Don't expect a uniform display with these things. Just don't do it. Buy it for viewing angles and gaming performance. That's it.