[Arachas]

Sorry for ignoring the rules. I’ll figure it out myself, thank you.

[pidgeon667]

Hi,

First of all thank you for the review of the 328E1CA, I really like your attention to details.
I bought this display and what I immediately noticed was a strange phenomenon at the bottom of the screen. The text seemed blurry while at the same time it’s fine at the top and middle of the screen. After closer inspection I was able to confirm that the image is in fact not ideal. I have taken the liberty of taking the photos (sorry for the dirt, I didn’t see it when taking pictures).

This is how it looks when looked at straight angle. The text is sharp and clear:

This is how it looks when looking from above. Please note the grey shadow (around 2 pixels wide) being casted below the white text:

– The pictures were taken from up close but my position is about 70cm from the screen. The eyes are about on the level of top of the screen as dictated by ergonomics rules. The effect from that distance is very apparent. The bottom of the screen looks blurred and text not being very clean. Reminds me a bit of the old D-Sub connector days when it sometimes happened due to analog signal not properly synced with a monitor.
– When I lower my head and look at the bottom of the screen from straight angle it looks OK, which means problem is related to viewing angle. Interestingly if I increase the angle to an extreme values the effect seems to disappear so I would say it’s visible in medium angle range only (which unfortunately is a typical viewing angle for me).
– Also I have noticed that colors look really washed out when looking at the bottom of the screen. I expected that the viewing angles will not be perfect as it’s not an IPS panel, but then again I’m currently using TN 24” panel where viewing angles problem is not bothersome for me, so I kind of expected that it’s not going to be any worse with VA panel. Unfortunately it seems worse.

Does that seem like a faulty unit or is it general problem of this model/VA panels in general?
I really wanted VA panel for good blacks and contrast but maybe I should look for IPS panel instead? Sure seems like a safer choice if you want good color-angle consistency and not having to worry about smearing effects in games.

I would really appreciate your input.

[PCM2]

Hi pidgeon67,

This post is technically against the forum rules (falls into ‘technical support’ rather than buying advice, which is the intention of the forum). But it’s also very well-constructed and interesting. And importantly, I see it as a useful and relevant addition to this thread, which I’ve merged yours with.

I’d suggest not being too stringent with viewing positions and ergonomically correct viewing positions. The suggestion I prefer is having your eyes in-line with the top third of the screen. A bit of flexibility is built into that based on screen size and practical viewing distance – if you find you’re habitually straining your neck looking up or down or slouching too much you will want to make adjustments. Not just to the monitor, but your chair or potentially desk depending on setup. I know it’s sometimes suggested on certain resources that the eyes should be in-line with the top edge of the screen. That advice was formulated back in the CRT days and and made more sense back then and in the small office LCD days. Where you had a relatively small screen size. You should only really have your eyes that high up for a larger screen (31.5″ in this case) if the screen is tilted back sufficiently or you’re a fair distance away. If you position your eyes a bit lower down as suggested, do you observe this? What about if you tilt the screen back a bit instead?

I haven’t really observed this myself and nobody has raised this as an issue specific to the 328E1CA or as I recall any other model. That isn’t to say they haven’t observed this kind of thing, I’m sure some will have. But it’s probably due to your viewing position which isn’t one people would usually choose to adopt for a 31.5″ screen ~70cm away. Given the structure and orientation of VA subpixels when observing bright content with a dark background, it makes sense to me that you’d observe a ‘shadowy border’ around text if viewing from the sort of viewing position you’re describing. And I can’t see how it could be a fault of any sort with your particular unit that wouldn’t affect others or indeed other models with the same panel type. If you prefer having your eyes in-line with the top edge of the monitor and that works for you and you can’t get around the issue with tilting the monitor or don’t want to do that. Then it would make an IPS-type model or smaller VA model (if viewing distance can’t be increased) more suitable. Of course, sticking with the ‘4K’ resolution removes VA as an option below 31.5″.

[Arachas]

Couple of days in with the 278E1A and I’m liking the crisp text. Scaling is not an issue at all, I’ve got it at 150% and tons of workspace.

The monitor really only has one major drawback: the cable ports face backwards, not to the bottom. If you want to put it on the wall, you’re dealing with a protruding power plug. You’ll need an angle HDMI connector to get any kind of close to the wall. I went with a table-mounted monitor arm and an HDMI cable with a really short plug. It’s far back enough for me, but I don’t understand why they designed it this way at all.

[PCM2]

I’m glad you’re enjoying the experience and it’s hitting the spot for your text-viewing needs. Even with slight scaling being required, which is understandable for a 27″ UHD model. It’s unfortunate you’re needing to work around the annoying port placement for wall-mounting, though, and that’s an important point for others to consider in a similar situation.

I’ve used a few models which include VESA holes but have the ports facing backwards in a recessed area, rather than facing downwards. The Philips 328E1CA does this as well (same ‘E1A’ series and design, so unsurprising). Never quite understood it either as it just makes things more difficult if you’re trying to mount it to a wall. Perhaps it allows the monitor to be marginally slimmer, but there are some other models out there that seem to be equally slender and manage to implement downwards-facing ports instead.

[pidgeon667]

Hi,

Thank you for the response, lowering my eye position and tilting the screen indeed helps a bit.
However, in order to completely remove the blur at the bottom of the screen, I have to lower my eyes below the half of the screen, which is certainly not feasible from ergonomics point of view. Also the bleached color (especially visible when looking at the windows taskbar icons) is clearly visible. Maybe I’m just oversensitive to this or maybe I’m sitting to close to the monitor.

My overall experience with 328E1CA is as follows:

– The curved screen is something I could live with, it’s not bad. It can add some immersion especially when watching movies or playing games. On the other hand, it does look a bit unnatural, the left and right edges of the screen seem to be closer to you. In order to make most of it, you need to be sitting in front of the center of the monitor. If you shift your position left or right (or up/down), the perceived geometry of the screen will change, making it look more unnatural. Generally I prefer flat screen.

– The size of the screen certainly provides very good pixel density. This means that you will have plenty of screen real estate while still enjoying crisp image. This makes the 31,5” size somewhat optimal for 4k resolution. On the other hand, some users may find this screen too large depending on the distance between screen and their eyes. I found it very nice for watching movies or playing games with a pad because I could sit back a distance myself from the screen. On the other hand, when working with mouse and keyboard, I found it a bit tiresome that I had to move my eyes and rotate my head so much. It all depends on how far you can put the screen, I would say 60 cm distance from your eyes is minimum.

– The contrast was very good, this can be appreciated in some games with dark scenes. I feel it’s less beneficial in movies as the movies are usually recorded in a way that you do not see deep black spots a whole lot.

– Colors are rich apart from the bottom of the screen which just produces terribly washed out colors (especially visible on windows task bar). It depends on your viewing position but you may notice this quite easily. Could be a fault unit though.

– You can observe a static blur at some viewing angles, mostly at the bottom of the screen, I could notice this especially with text. I believe this requires a high sensitivity to this kind of things and most users would probably not notice this though.

– When it comes to gaming performance, it’s very good. I did not notice any blurring, smearing or any other artifacts. The input lag was not noticeable.

– Built-in speakers are quite poor. I’m certainly not an audiophile, but I could immediately see how my 20$ external speakers are better. Built-in speakers are just muffled, you can forget about any bass.

At the end, I will be returning this monitor. I’ll go for IPS panel next time as I think it will be safer choice overall. I will ask for some advice but maybe I should create a separate topic not to mix too many issues in one.

[PCM2]

Thanks for sharing your extended thoughts on the monitor – very interesting to read and a good collection of positives and negatives. Funnily enough the speakers, although pretty poor compared to most standalone speakers, are better than average for integrated monitor speakers. But that’s not saying much, really. They weren’t good enough for me to want to use them in preference to my headphones most of the time. And poor compared to models like the ASUS CG32UQ where I enjoyed the speakers for anything but gaming – directionality from my headphones or a surround sound speaker system is preferable there. They’re also weak compared to most TVs of this sort of size. Given your sensitivities and the bits you found most annoying, I certainly agree that an IPS-type panel would be the way forward. There are a few threads covering such models, although availability is really patchy at the moment due to the global pandemic. Some examples:

https://forum.pcmonitors.info/topic/new-32-4k-display-help/
https://forum.pcmonitors.info/topic/which-4k-uhd-monitor/

[pidgeon667]

Due to budget limitations I’m forced to go with 27/28″ IPS panel. 32″ IPS 4k panels are twice as much expensive.
As a side note, 27″ 4k VA panels do not exist. This means that within 400-500$ budget size dictates panel technology (or vice versa).

What I need is panel with good viewing angles (which I did not realize before), vibrant colors (I don’t care about accuracy that much) and no issues while gaming (ghosting, blurring or anything like that). Height adjustment and built-in speakers are nice to have.

I was considering ASUS VG289Q which you covered in the news section but it looks like you haven’t had a chance to do a review.

Alternatives could be LG 27UL650 or similar.

Looks like every reviewer on the internet has their own way of doing reviews so it’s hard to compare monitors if they haven’t been reviewed by the same reviewer. Especially if the monitor has not been labeled as “gaming” monitor, the pixel response times are often not tested. Can it be assumed that 60Hz IPS panels don’t have the slow response time issues anymore?

[PCM2]

What about the 278E1A mentioned earlier in this thread? It’s very similar to the 276E8VJSB we recommend with the inclusion of VESA holes and speakers. Perhaps you’d prefer the other models you mentioned due to better ergonomic flexibility, which I understand. I also think you’re going to be quite happy with any of the models you’ve highlighted. The pixel response weaknesses are only slight on these models and they put the 60Hz refresh rate to good use. You can certainly use our review of the 276E8VJSB as a guide for what to expect in terms of pixel responsiveness and general colour reproduction characteristics. So there are no real issues you should be concerned with in those respects.

[Kachongui]

Does the 278E1A model feature AMD FreeSync? Are those VA panels artifacts that horrible on the 32″ model?

[PCM2]

No AMD FreeSync, which is why it isn’t mentioned in the news piece (and as per the similar 276E8VJSB). What “artifacts” are you referring to?

[Kachongui]

I’d call it artifacts but I don’t know how it’s called exactly. I’m speaking about the observed effects that pidgeon667 has mentioned previously.

[PCM2]

I’ve already covered this in my initial reply to pidgeon667. I’ve recommended the 328E1CA to many people and will continue to do so. As I said, I didn’t notice the issue during my time with the monitor from my viewing position. And I haven’t had anybody else bring it up either. As pidgeon667 said, it’s something he is sensitive to and doesn’t think it would be something most would notice. I agree with this. If you’re wanting to sit relatively close to a screen of this sort of size then you’ll get a more consistent viewing experience from an IPS-type panel instead.

[untoo]

I have the Samsung 32 UR590. It uses the same panel as Philips 328E1CA. But it has no vesa, so looking to probably replace it.
I was not happy with it for reading and writing purposes until I made some adjustments in the settings. After adjustments its great.
Although maybe a tiny bit washed out when I looking at it from a bit of an angle (downward etc), but still crisp enough that I couldn’t care.

Settings I adjusted
Samsung Magic Upscale: Mode2 (out of box: off)
HDMI blacklevel: Low (out of box: normal)
Gamma: Mode 3 (out of box: mode 1)

What I’m concerned about is if one is able to adjust the picture quality using settings on the 328E1CA similarly as with UR590. Because if it looks more like the Samsung does when out of the box, I’m not that interested.

pidgeon667
I haven’t been able to replicate the effect you got with the pictures you posted. To me it looks like the top of the 5 has greyed out a horizontal line of pixels compared to the top. No idea why that has happened.. Like ithas more of a grey shadow as well.

[PCM2]

The Samsung uses the same CELL as the Philips – the backlight is different. That’s a vital distinction to make, especially as you seem to have made adjustments to the Samsung that would help counteract the natively less saturated look from the reasonably narrow colour gamut. The 328E1CA has a wider colour gamut and is more vibrant, able to output colours that the Samsung is physically incapable of. If this is the sort of look you were going for, the Philips may appeal. I won’t criticise your adjustments as everybody has their own preferences there, but the Philips offers plenty of flexibility in the OSD as covered in the OSD video. Including sharpness and gamma settings.

You should also make sure you’ve actually corrected the colour signal in the graphics driver, if applicable, on the Samsung. You shouldn’t feel the need to set ‘HDMI Black Level” to “Low” if this is correct, but again it may be that you prefer the oversaturated look that might bring with it.

[DougWilsons]

Thanks for this. That’s helpful. I’m actually now ready to purchase a 32″ 4K monitor imminently, but I’m going to go with a flat screen. I have a bunch of different light sources in my office (including to the side and behind me) and I also shift positions a lot.

If anyone has any flat 32″ 4K recommendations for text work/document editing, it would be appreciated. Need it to be VESA compatible.

[PCM2]

The somewhat stronger matte screen surface of the flat VA models may work well for you in that situation as well, DougWilsonsSlapper. You should take your pick largely based on price, availability and other features you might find attractive. Core performance is pretty similar on all of the flat VA models in many respects. But be aware of the different backlights used and capabilities tied to that. Especially if you’re considering one of the VESA DisplayHDR 600 models. For your uses you shouldn’t be considering those, specifically, but you might have a preference over colour gamut. Some models have a wider gamut than others so present shades in a more saturated way. There are a few possibilities mentioned earlier in the thread (this post onwards).

[DougWilsons]

Thanks!

Whatever is available of the BenQ EW3270U or LG 32UK550-B, I’ll probably get. They seem to be the lowest placed in my area.

[untoo]

To clarify more on why i made the adjustments.

Samsung magic upscale. Everything went from from blurry to crisp. Of all the adjustments this had the strongest effect. In fact it was so blurry out of the box there would be no doubt that I would have it replaced.
This is the one Im most concerned with the 328E1CA. Because the places that sell 328E1CA, I have no option to get a refund.

Gamma adjusments seemed to make the text not as as thin and pixly.

HDMI blacklevel. Made black text blacker and white background whiter in a way thats much easier on the eyes, easier to read the text.
I can now see it makes the images more saturated as well…

[PCM2]

The 328E1CA has excellent clarity as covered in the review and I didn’t observe any specific issues with text rendering. I don’t think anybody would describe it as ‘blurry’ or anything of the sort unless they simply prefer and perhaps are used to an oversharpened look. Or if they’re observing content at a fairly sharp angle, as covered earlier in this thread. I’m surprised you didn’t find that U32R590C appealing in that respect and felt the need to use a sharpness filter, but I’ve noticed on some other Samsung models that the default sharpness setting is a touch on the soft side. The 328E1CA also has a sharpness control if you need to increase that according to preferences. You didn’t confirm that you’d checked the colour signal, as per my previous post. The only way that setting the ‘HDMI Black Level’ to ‘Low’ would improve contrast and representation of white vs. black is if you’re not using the correct colour signal in the first place when using the ‘Normal’ setting.

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