[PCM2]

Hi nowak1981,

To be clear, the Gigabyte FI27Q-P page is a news piece not a review. I know it’s more informative than what some sites classify as a “review”, but it isn’t in the review section and clearly isn’t what we consider a review. We will be reviewing this model shortly, however. Note that ANC (‘Active Noise Cancellation’) features on both the ‘P’ and ‘non-P’ models and also featured on the AD27QD. You will find that review useful as a rough indication of what to expect from the FI27Q(-P). The pixel response tuning has been improved somewhat on the ‘FI’ models and you get the 165Hz refresh rate. But the same panel and chassis is used and there are many similarities.

When you refer to “he” in the video – that is me. Also note that what you see on videos is limited by the camera, video editing software, YouTube and ultimately your own monitor. Pay more attention to the commentary and observations noted there than what you actually see on the video. That’s far less misleading and more informative. Don’t confuse input lag and pixel response times (we measured that level of input lag – ‘1ms’ is just an extremely misleading and fairly useless manufacturer specified pixel response time). But certainly don’t worry about overshoot issues on this model – if using the ‘Standard’ setting which we recommend it’s very well balanced. This was explained in the video, so there’s no need to worry about how things look with some settings you’re not ever going to use anyway. It’s just shown for completeness, because some users will wonder about those faster response time settings and the impact they have. I’d highly advise you carefully read, possibly several times, the responsiveness section of the written review. It gives a very clear visual representation of the pixel response behaviour using the different overdrive settings and draws comparisons with various other models. The subjective analysis also reinforces the observations made in the video review.

The main issue you’re describing with motion handling is limited refresh rate plus PWM which the AOC i2757Fm uses. This causes repetitions of objects like mouse cursors and makes things feel “disconnected” relative to high refresh rate models. If you’re “getting” 90fps on a game on a 60Hz monitor then you’re getting tearing – because you’re not using VSync. Either the ViewSonic or Gigabyte would be a massive upgrade for you, with the former having somewhat better pixel response tuning but both being a world away from your current monitor. The variable refresh rate technologies would ensure your ~90fps was free from tearing and stuttering from mismatches between the two. And they both have effective Low Blue Light (LBL) settings. Further points of comparison are made in this thread, which should prove helpful when deciding between these models.

[nowak1981]

I appreciate all the insight you have provided, I didnt know it was you in that video I watched lol. It was a good video, I did watch the whole thing and I completely understand how my own monitor and the camera would affect what you were showing. I think i am pretty much set on the Viewsonic XG270QG I’ve got it flagged on PCpartpicker and once I see what my tax return is gonna be like, ill prolly pick up a set. The thread you linked in the last post really helped a lot. Ill try to post my experiences with them when I get them.

[PCM2]

I’m glad you’ve found the reviews and advice helpful. Thank you for supporting that time and expertise with your kind donation as well. 🙂

[linksyswrt54gs]

Hello,

My eyes are sensitive to light. I think photophobic is the term. I am in IT and spend major time in front of monitor screens. I am using flux application on my computer and it helps but i am looking for a best possible monitor that support eye care to protect my eyes in long term. I mostly do reading and some video matching. I dont play games at all. I want to thank you for your time and help in advance. I really truly appreciate your suggestion and advise.

Thanks so much!
sam

[PCM2]

I’ve merged your thread with this ‘megathread’, it s a suitable topic with a lot of good advice. I’d recommend taking a look at my initial post here and some of the more recent recommendations and advice given in the last few pages.

[GiantHogweed]

Apologies if I’m asking for a bit too much help here, but I’m starting to wonder if my BenQ PD2500Q is the right choice for me as I just can’t find a setting that looks correct.

For the first time, I’m noticing that I seem to be getting eye strain and head aches when looking at this monitor for longer periods of time. I’ve done about as much in the menu as I can think of. Since having this monitor just for a few days, I think I will have spent nearly an hour in the OSD, so I think I have covered it by now! I never get eye strain or head aches with other displays or monitors, so is not common in my case at all.

Over the few days I’ve been using it, my impression is that the contrast (or gamma?) seems rather extreme. For example, looking on forums like here, all the white and grey backgrounds look really bright and almost merged so they are much harder to separate. If you switch to a darker background, it seems like the screen is significantly darker, making the difference in darker shades also difficult to distinguish. I’ve never come across a monitor that I’ve felt the need to change brightness and contrast so frequently. I first thought dynamic contrast must be enabled but that isn’t the case. Even when reading text on a white background, it doesn’t appear that sharp to me. But mainly because the white background seems so bright compared to the black text that is makes it tricky to focus on even when dim. I feel like I’m not talking any sense here but that is the best way I can describe it.

When gaming or watching videos in a dark ish scene and you see a bright light, to me it just seems so intense that it makes it harder to look at what is around it. I just don’t know what controls would sort this out. I am aware this monitor may be good for picture editing as it does a good job at highlighting the faults with the pictures. But I would even question if the sRGB is totally accurate. The contrast is fixed in this and the bright colours simply look that way too vibrant to me. But then this is the case on virtually all the modes unless tweaked, which then has other consequences. Many including the standard look to have too much contrast as well as looking over saturated in what seems to almost be a cartoon sort of way. In one game I play where there is some green text on a bright yellow background (which is not ideal as they are both bright), they are incredibly hard to read due to the monitor making them both so bright that they almost merge. It is made a little easier when the brightness is down, but then the dark areas are just too dark. Even viewing a screenshot of this taken in the game on my tablet removes this issue.

The best I have found so far is to lower the contrast to well below 30. I’ve also tried lowering the gamma through Nvidia on my PC and that makes browser text dramatically less painful to look at when lowering it from 1.000 (the default) to 0.800, but everything else such as the colours look too deep or dark so I can’t simply switch to using this as a solution. Looking around, I have found a few reviews on amazon US and one or two other places with people mentioning or questioning why this monitor specifically vs others appears so bright or however you can describe the odd differences with it. But didn’t really see any good answers.

Does this monitor use technology I’m not just not used to? Even as I began writing this, my eyes seem to be hurting despite it being incredibly dim and too dark for anything other than browsing. Decreasing the nvidia gamma as I described earlier reduces this problem, but really ruins the colour of most other things I do. I can’t be changing it this often. I actually really doubt this is a fault with it, but if i can’t find a solution for the eye strain it is causing me, I think I’m going to have to return this as well.

I’m really having bad luck at the moment. If it wasn’t for the covid restrictions, I could do with visiting a specialist monitor store to get some advice there as well as close up views of the monitor before purchase.

[PCM2]

The way you’re describing it does make it sound like the gamma is off. I assume you’ve tried higher ‘Gamma’ settings in the OSD? You’ve used similar models before so it does lend credence to there being something just off with the image setup rather than there being any underlying technological issue. One way you could know for sure, and this might be beneficial for any monitor you select, is to think about purchasing a colorimeter and calibrating it properly. You even have the luxury of calibrating it to a lower white point (like a low blue light setting) whilst maintaining appropriate gamma etc. I know it’s an additional expense and ultimately might not solve the problem – but it might help on this or any future monitor you decide to go for.

Before any of that, I’d advise resetting everything in Nvidia Control Panel to factory defaults. Make sure you’re not using any ICC profiles. And then ensure that the colour signal is set correctly to ‘Full Range RGB’ as directed in this article. It should be anyway given that it’s a 2560 x 1440 model, which I assume you’re running at the native resolution (how have you connected it up?) But it’s worth double-checking just in case.

[GiantHogweed]

I did think about putting it into this this thread, but put it off due to me never experiencing this problem before and never thought I needed a monitor to be easy on my eyes. Until today, I have never touched the computer Nvidia tweaks.

I’ll first of all mention that I use a 5 input HDMI switch. I use all of them and the monitor has the same high contrast look or gamma issues with all inputs.

I tried adjusting the gamma in the OSD which by default is 2.2. Increasing it to 2.6 does help the browser text on white to become more pleasant to the eyes, but is still not comfortable and having the gamma this high makes other activities look simply wrong. Even if this was a solution, most of the picture modes don’t allow you to adjust the gama. I think only user and Standard does and neither of which are able to be programmed as one of the hot keys. But I just can’t get it accurate enough anyway.

I am indeed using the native resolution and am getting appreciating the benefits of this. I have it connected from my PC HDMI port to the HDMI switch then to my monitor.

I can however confirm that having this side by side with my Dell S2415H that the colours just don’t look right. The Dell may not have as natural a white (a bit on the warm side) but switching between light and dark scenes doesn’t have such dramatic changes that result in me needing to change the settings all the time. It also is far easier to see the slightly different deep and light shades that just seem to partially merge into each other on my BenQ monitor.

I’m thinking that it isn’t an issue and that this monitor just has a dramatically different way of separating colours which may be an advantage for many. But no matter what I do in the OSD, the only way to stop making the colours look overly vibrant and the whites too bright is to lower the brightness and contrast right down. Browsing then looks reasonable on white backgrounds, but anything else, I seem to need to adjust it again to make it bright enough.

A colorimeter certainly would be interesting but with me being like I am (i often over think things as I am autistic) I just feel I would then end up finding issues when measuring other screens that I’m actually happy with. Probably best for me not to think about it too much as this is the only monitor I’ve had that seems so hard to look at.

The OSD seems to do incredibly different things with the brightness to any of my other monitors. I’ve noticed on all my others, the default for contrast usually is at least 70 or 80. On this it is 50 and the image looks like I can imagine my dell monitor would if it could be turned up to quite a bit over 100%. It just looks odd to me. I’ve tried making the LED strip behind my monitor brighter as well as my room light to help with this, but I don’t think I will be able to use this monitor in the long term unless I can find a solution.

It will look like I’m getting nowhere on this forum, but I have learned a lot since I’ve joined which has been really helpful. In the past, I’ve found many of the monitor reviews helpful. I can also comment on how I like that each post gets moderated first often highlighting with a link to specific model numbers mentioned. I can understand how that will be really helpful for others reading.

I just hope I get somewhere in the end. I’m not the easiest person to please!

[PCM2]

I’m glad you’ve found the information here helpful and in a format you can absorb. I assume the monitor looks the same if you get rid of the HDMI hub and just correct it directly by HDMI? And to confirm, it’s definitely using a ‘Full Range RGB’ signal in Nvidia Control Panel?

[GiantHogweed]

From my Nvidia control panel, the colour controls have these options selected:

Colour Space: RGB

Colour Range: Full

I am guessing these are the ones you are asking me to check that they are selected?

I have tried connecting my monitor directly to my PC via HDMI which seems to make no difference. My HDMI switch interestingly only claims to handle 1080p and yet it handles 1440p no problem at all.

Even when watching the news this morning, the studio lights appear so intense and then when you have a news report in an area that is not so well lit, it just seems so dark. I seem to feel the need to adjust the brightness or contrast way to frequently.

I just think this monitor could have been designed to highlight bright and dark scenes which is a positive to many, but in my opinion, it overemphasizes both as well as colour saturation by quite a margin no matter what settings I use in the OSD. Even resetting the OSD and plugging my camera into the monitor via HDMI, it seems to make the colours in the image more vibrant than reality.

As I mentioned earlier, the only way I can make browsing more comfortable seems to be turning the gamma down on the Nvidia program itself. But then this clearly makes a lot of other things appear even more off.

The other option I have is using the user setting and then going to colour temperature and selecting user define. This lets me reduce Red Green and Blue and if done equally, this does allow me to go more dim than minimum brightness and it does seem to reduce the overly saturated / contrast look. But at the same time, due to how dim it is by now, it is too hard to see in bright conditions and you also start to see the back light coming through giving all the colours a grey tinge to them. But at such low light, this is to be expected. I just can’t go much higher without it appearing too harsh.

As I’d mentioned earlier, I have found some reviews about this specific monitor mentioning brightness / contrast and eye pain having not experienced it with other monitors. They also mentioned that they had tried doing all sorts with the OSD with no success. The majority seem happy with it and I don’t think it is a defect. I just think there must be something about it that makes it produce the images differently. I just can’t describe what I mean very well.

[PCM2]

I think you’re describing the situation very well. I appreciate how difficult it can be trying to convey what you see on a monitor into words! Regardless of what BenQ have done or have intended to do, it really sounds like you’re describing a monitor with a messed up gamma curve. All you can do in Nvidia Control Panel (or with OSD settings, it would seem) is to shift the curve to the right or left. But if it has some regions of the curve that are above the ‘2.2’ target and some that are below, this isn’t going to solve the issue as some areas of the image are just going to look overly dull as you describe. I always tell people to be very cautious of manufacturer claims when it comes to factory calibration – all too many times I’ve tested monitors with a supposed high level of factory calibration only to find the monitor completely ‘off’ in practice. Especially with respect to gamma. And the only way you can really solve that properly, if no OSD option helps, is by profiling with a colorimeter or spectrophotometer.

[GiantHogweed]

It could well be the case that I find a solution for my PC use using Nvidia, but then this makes adjusting the brightness and settings in games more difficult. The other issue is that I watch TV from my Freview HD box nearly as often as using my PC and that doesn’t have any way to adjust these issues. Also using my blu-ray player, NowTV box and camera means I will just run into this issue too often even if i get it sorted in Nvidia.

Something I have noticed is that when I turn the gamma right down using Nvidia to around 0.750 from 1.000, the black browser text on white looks much more pleasant to the eyes. It in a way looks a bit broader and is easier to separate from the white without focusing my eyes too hard on the text. But as I’d described, this makes everything else look simply too deep and dull. However, I can use it like this without getting too much eye strain or head aches. But as soon as i set nvidia back to default, the browser text somehow looks narrower and is significantly harder to focus on due to how bright the white appears compared to the black text. Incredibly hard to describe.

I can find a way that makes it a bit easier for my eyes both in nvidia for pc use and the OSD for other inputs, but both really ruin many other aspects of the colour accuracy and distinguishing different dark shades so I can’t really see an acceptable way round it unfortunately. Having the screen like this effectively to reduce the eye strain I’m having makes the picture worse overall than any monitor I remember having over the past 10 years or so. I have to say that by default, It does look bright, clear and sharp, but not in a good natural way to my eyes.

Adjusting the gamma in the OSD only can be done in 2 modes. Standard and User. In the browser, 2.6 seems to look best and makes browser text look a bit broader and easier to focus on, but when I look at images or play games, the depth to the blacks is just gone and it is too grey. In some applications it looks best at 1.8, but then dark scenes are just so dark that IPS glow starts to become almost too visible. 2.2 which is the default doesn’t look right either but it probably the best out of the options.

At the stage I’m at now, I just wish I could buy my Dell S2415H new again. I’m just not having any luck with others at the moment. QHD is very nice but although it will be a bit of a loss, I think I could accept going back to full HD if there is a wider option of monitors. Learning that IPS glow can more present with a matte finish makes me also wonder if I should just wait for more glossy monitors to become available. It also may not be helped that I’m still sat just as close (can’t get further back) and I got a 25″ over a 24″. Just under 3 feet is the furthest back i can get when using my chair due to my limited space.

[PCM2]

Yeah that’s true, you can’t rely on calibration with a colorimeter even if you want to be using the monitor with things other than a PC as well. I don’t think your viewing distance should be a problem. If you’re sitting at least 70cm from the screen (you will be as you said just under 3 feet) then it’s a perfectly reasonable distance and some people would even be fine sitting closer than that. It just sounds like a funky calibration that can’t be corrected in the OSD, which is a real pain. And I also wish there were some glossy alternatives, I keep needling manufacturers and have even spoken to some product managers about it in person and over the phone. But it doesn’t seem to have made a difference, the panel manufacturers seem to default to matte these days.

[GiantHogweed]

It is good to hear that you are making the effort to try and get manufacturers to make a wider variety of monitors with a glossy finish. I’ve since done a bit more research and found my S2415H from a seller on amazon UK. It is new but will obviously be old stock. It is a bit of an extreme price so I will see if I can question the seller why it is so high. But If I manage to get that close ish to my original purchase price, I think I will go for this as I know I was really happy with it before it got a load of faulty sub pixels and some ghosting. I will lose the extra inch and the QHD resolution, but I’ll be honest, I never really felt a strong need for an upgrade for either.

This can get moved to the other thread if you think it is more suited there. I was just partially replying to your previous post.

[mindless]

Hello PCM2, thank you for the great forum you are running and priceless reviews. I have a question about Temporal Dithering (FRC) in the context of
Philips 278E1A:

1. Is there a way to disable it altogether from the monitor’s ODC
2. Would decreasing color saturation from Intel Graphics Command Center essentially decrease the number of colors displayed and eliminate the need of Dithering for the display altogether?

Thanks!

[PCM2]

I’m not familiar with Intel’s graphics driver, but with Nvidia and AMD’s drivers you simply select ‘8-bit’ and that will as good as eliminate the dithering stage. A very small amount will still be used because you can’t just completely shut it off if it’s integrated into the monitor like this. But this would be extremely low down on my list of potential viewing comfort issues to concern yourself with.

[mindless]

Thank you for the quick response. Asus laptop, my nvidia panel has only 3D settings and nothing for colors. Intel’s HD 530 is the only hope – it offers Brightness enhancement for the separate channels R-B-G, Contrast enhancement for the separate channels R-B-G, Hue and Saturation. Windows 10 has no settings for color bit either. I was googling color saturation and its effect on the number of colors but no info found. I am very sensible to pwm. Have used only one 10 bit (8 + FRC) display prior this one – PD2700U – it has DC dimming but still was not very comfy for me.

Have used U2518D for several years and U2721DE for a month – both are absolutely comfortable for me but 109 PPI is somewhat choppy, so I am after an UHD display. After reading your viewing comfort issues article I figured out FRC might be the reason for my problem with PD2700U.

Following your recommendations I decided to give a try to 278E1A. So now I am trying to exclude FRC from the equation so I could compare this display to my favorite for comfort U2518D. After reading so much information and connecting dots in my head it is very well possible I might deem 278E1A unbearable just on self-deception :)).

Long-long post and I forgot to mention the important things – I use the monitor for excel tables, web browsing and youtube. Do not play games, do not watch movies on it. One side point – having relatively high minimum brightness I intend to dim it down with a filtering dimmer (Careueyes) – is this a legit method? Have been using it with U2518D as well because of the flicker below 10%. Thanks again.

[PCM2]

To be honest I’m not even sure Intel’s HD 530 would support beyond an 8-bit colour signal. As you’re aware from the article, there are so many viewing comfort factors to consider that it’s very difficult to isolate something like dithering in particular. And it’s very unlikely that a 2-bit dithering stage on a 10-bit monitor (especially if largely disabled due to 8-bit signal) is going to cause any issues. So it’s probably worth continuing on with the 278E1A. You can use whatever method you like to reduce the luminance further, be it digital brightness or a software program that has a similar effect. But you’re going to lose contrast in doing so, because it doesn’t affect the monitor’s backlight nor does it reduce the black point.

[mindless]

Thank you for your help. 278E1A is great for my use – the only issue is the insanely high minimum brightness which is problematic in the evening. On the other hand the maximum brightness is great for the early mornings.

[PCM2]

In the context of this thread it is useful to note the high minimum luminance, but I wouldn’t say it’s “insanely high”. Most users would set the brightness above that level under any lighting conditions. But yes, certainly higher than it should be for light-sensitive users and it’s never a good thing having a lack of flexibility to dim the monitor further. To add some context for others reading, from our 276E8VJSB review: “The highest white luminance recorded was a rather bright 447 cd/m², with a minimum white luminance of 89 cd/m² recorded on the table. This gives a luminance adjustment range of 358 cd/m², which is good. Although the minimum is somewhat higher than highly light-sensitive users might like.”

[Author]

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