[matthias]

Hello @all.

For quite a few years now, I have been looking to replace my 27″ LG IPS display with a 32″ that does not have all the bugs and quirks I have to endure every day right now: very severe image retention (takes mere couple of seconds for static elements to persist), raised blacks with limited range signal level, unusable 50hz UHD due to tearing/corruption and more.

I had tried the new Acer X32 FP MiniLED last year which was a complete disaster which I posted about here: many dead pixels (and they kept on coming), really bad backlight bleed, and IPS bloom. Also the customer service was subpar as well.

Since I am physically disabled due to a major severe illness I have been fighting for the last 10 years, I cannot afford major stress due to my health. Thus ordering and returning models until I get a decent one is definitely out of the question.

The display usage is 70% work (software engineer/security researcher, Linux, lots of static elements) and the rest is media consumption (Netflix & Co) as well as gaming with my partner (MMO, platformers etc. … no shooters or anything alike).

Since I feel like the IPS market is somewhat dead and there are just no good IPS MiniLED displays coming anymore, I have been seriously considering getting a WOLED from the new generation with the updated subpixel layout but due to my usage (static elements), I am very hesitant that I might end up with burn-in rather soonish. QOLED is out of the question since the display faces a window and as such, QOLED with its polarizer issue would give me the grayish IPS look (raised blacks) most of the time.

Mainly the display should have at the very least DisplayHDR600 (IPS) or DisplayHDR True Black 400, flat and not curved, proper blacks, no dead pixels, low/no bloom, proper implementation of limited range signal level, functioning 50/60hz as well as 24hz/25hz/… if possible and fanless.

I should mention, I tend to notice panel imperfections rather easily and find them very distracting, so uniformity and such are very important to me.

I can’t believe I am saying this but price does not matter. I am willing to spent any kind of money (within reason) to finally get a good display and throw my current one out of the window. I am desperate, quite honestly. I am open to IPS with MiniLED (given enough zones) or WOLED. Unfortunately VA is out of the question since we watch media together and game together on this display, so the limited good viewing angle is a no-go.

Thanks for any help and suggestions in advance!
Matthias

[PCM2]

Hi Matthias,

Given your sensitivities, desires and previous experiences going down the Mini LED route, I’m tempted to say given the current market the WOLED options will still suit you best. I do have to give some caution about burn-in given your usage is 70% work. That in itself isn’t necessarily a guaranteed dealbreaker, it really depends how that work is broken up. If it’s continuous for several hours a day and the monitor isn’t allowed a break to run its maintenance cycles, you may well experience accelerated burn-in. It’s possible the monitor could still give you good performance for years even with that usage, but the odds wouldn’t be in your favour. If you just allow the monitor a break for say 10 minutes to run its cycles (or simply sit in standby for a while) a few times during the day it can make all the difference to that. Also, if you’re able to set the brightness some way below the maximum rather than cranking it all the way up that will help. Quite a few of the displays will provide 2 year warranties which include burn-in cover so that it least gives you some peace of mind.

My recommendation in the space would be the ASUS PG32UCDP, which unlike the competing and generally cheaper LG 32GS95UE performs well on the desktop due to lacking a forced CPC feature. Whilst I think you’ll enjoy the overall image characteristics, as pointed out in the review you can expect some dark grey uniformity issues as typical for WOLED. Nowhere near as obvious in my view as VA inconsistencies and probably less annoying (if sensitive to it) than general inconsistencies caused by a clear mismatch between zone count and pixel count on Mini LEDs or ‘IPS glow’ type issues. It’s unfortunate that QD-OLED wouldn’t work in your situation as that’s definitely an area that they’re stronger in. But with the current market I simply don’t think you’d be satisfied with any of the Mini LED options.

[matthias]

Thanks for your detailed answer- and sorry for my delay but I was trying to gather my thoughts and do some more research before replying.

I was afraid of (and also expecting) this answer. I was kind of hoping there would be some models out there with MiniLED that are just expensive but well implemented and “premium” from a quality perspective. Or at least some upcoming models like that. But with LG already having sold off its LCD TV panels fabs, it is only a matter of time before they do the same with the fabs for their smaller lcd monitor panels. And then we are left with just AUO (which I personally dread) and all the chinese manufacturers. 🙁

But back to topic.

WOLED feels like a compromise through and through, from my perspective. It is not really outstanding in any areas and the technology is clearly inferior (imho) to QD-OLED. If it weren’t for the missing polarizer and the glossy coatings on all the (3rd gen) QD-OLEDS, I would consider the ASUS 32″ with Dolby Vision.

Back to the PG32UCDP. It seems they fixed things up a bit with the recently released MCM103 firmware in terms of the visibility of darker gray shades but according to TFTCentral, in HDR, everything from 7 and below is still crushed to black. That’s quite a bit of black crush. It might be fixed in future firmware updates, but who knows.

Also, you mentioned in your (excellent!) video review something along the lines that the gamma changes with the refresh rate? Did I get that correctly? This was really something odd to hear. Since I would mostly use 60Hz (or even below for streaming), I am somewhat worried how the display behaves in that range in terms of black crush/gray reproduction and so forth. Recent high refresh rates displays seem to do really well at those high refresh rates and rather poorly at a more standard 60 Hz. Also, is VRR flicker still an issue (or even more so) with 60 Hz and below when gaming?

The most major point, though, still is burn-in risk. I am a rather disciplined person, so running the pixel refresher periodically is not a problem at all. If I researched it correctly, the default is every 8h? Would every 4h have any advantages/disadvantages or even be advised against? I just really have no idea how good (or badly) the display would hold up with my usage pattern before burn-in becomes a noticable issue for me. And everyone seems to have their own opinions (and experiences) with it, which cover all the spectrum. I would naturally use all the care options, run the pixel refreshers, use dark mode (I already do because I do not like starring in a light bulb all day) but still… there are many static elements left that I either need or cannot control. At least, from my understanding, the 3 year warranty in Germany covers burn-in.

Are dead pixels the same (imho) major issue with (QD/W)OLED as with their IPS counterparts today? Or are the chances of getting a “perfect” panel a lot better here? So far, all OLEDs I have got were perfect (including the Tab S9 Ultra).

Also the rather limited height adjustment for the stand has me worried as well. Do you happen to know what the distance from the bottom edge to the desktop is on its lowest and heighest setting? Due to my unique sitting setup (see health above) here, I am not that flexible and have me current display set rather low.

In terms of the fringing, I do not like the color fringing with improperly implemented subpixel rendering and I am really bothered by it, so that has more somewhat worried as well. But it seems drastically improved by this generation WOLED as confirmed by your video review and TFTCentral. So there is hoping at least with that.

In general, I am having a really hard time deciding what to do. I really cannot and do not want to use my current display any more but everything I can buy today, comes with major compromises that are partly hard to perdict how they will play out and partly also hard to swallow for the price point. I would like to use a display for a few years.

But WOLED seems to be my best bet, like you already said. It would have been nice if ASUS included Dolby Vision and HDR10+ as well as an ambient light sensor and hardware calibration. Especially the latter two would have been high on my must-have list.

As the PG32UCDP is not in stock in Germany anywhere, I still have time to ponder about this. I just hope it does get available again in a reasonable timeframe and doesn’t delay to Q1/2025 or something like said. Not unheard of with ASUS.

Oh, before I forget: Can I change the signal level (video/limited, full) manually if it is detected and set to a wrong value? Also, the display does properly handle video/limited range?

Thanks again for your patience- and sorry for my rambling. This is really tough to decide. I would rather pay more and get something more overall fitting/safe.

[PCM2]

No worries. 🙂 I’ll try to address your points (sorry if I miss anything). And I appreciate it’s a difficult decision as there are indeed compromises with any monitor and it can be tricky weighing them all up if you’re potentially sensitive to quite a few of these issues.

– There could be some inter-unit variation going on here in terms of HDR calibration. This isn’t uncommon in the monitor space and ASUS are certainly no stranger to that. But TFT Central’s unit showed this odd cut off for blacks in the DisplayHDR TrueBlack 400 mode as well, whereas if you look at Monitors Unboxed unit that wasn’t observed. Meanwhile, my take on it (as shared in the review) is that it was a relatively minor issue – at least on my unit.

– There were gamma changes with refresh rate, but as noted in my review 60Hz was actually the most accurate without masking SDR dark detail in the same way as higher refresh rates. As I noted there it wasn’t a major issue in my view, but performance was still better at 60Hz in that respect.

– VRR flicker is an issue at any static refresh rate you select on the monitor if you’re using VRR and the frame rate isn’t all that stable (refer to this post as well). If you can maintain a solid 60fps or the fluctuations from that are really slight, it shouldn’t be an issue.

– I’m not sure there would be an advantage to running the cleaning cycles more frequently than advised, though perhaps ASUS chose 8 hours between runs to try to minimise disruption rather than optimise for longevity. Some manufacturers will use 4 or 6 hours for the cycles, if I recall correctly. Giving the screen some off time would be sufficient in my opinion and you don’t want to run the cycles far more frequently than recommended as it can actually degrade the panel (very slowly and by a tiny amount, but it adds up).

– I’ve yet to observe dead pixels on any OLED I’ve tested and anecdotally they don’t seem to be reported very frequently compared to LCDs..

– There isn’t a way to select the signal range manually, but it should detect this automatically and respond properly for a limited range RGB signal. I don’t routinely test that, but I have with some ASUS models in the past and they always seem to handle the signal well.

[matthias]

Hi.

Thanks, again, for taking the time to answer my questions!

I have gone ahead and made the jump last week and ordered a PG32UDCP. They should have it in stock by Wednesday/Thursday, so there is a slight chance I could receive it already this week– but since this retailer is based in Denmark (they have a very good reputation and I am not so keen at all to order at the big A), delivery could slip to next week. Please keep your fingers crossed it is a good unit because I doubt I would take the stress to order a second one when sending this one back.

It is interesting, quite a few retailers received units last week ahead of what was announced by ASUS as delivery day to the retailers and they have sold out within hours (mostly retailers, btw, where I personally wouldn’t order).

So, I will report back when I have my unit and have given it a spin and gathered some experience with it. I don’t remember the last time I was actually excited and looking forward to getting something new, so that is nice. 🙂

In the meantime, I hope you don’t mind a couple more questions:

– Is the height adjustment 8cm or 11cm? Some reviewers report 8cm, some 11cm. The manual I downloaded says 8cm and the ASUS website shows 11cm. This is really confusing and chaotic.

– The short compensation cycle should probably run every 4h, just the reminder seems to be set to a default 8h. The 4h interval also pretty much seems to be the agreed upon default amongst all (QD/W)OLED devices. What I find strange and a bit worrying though, there is no mention of a long compensation cycle– neither for the ASUS, nor for the LG model with the same panel. I thought the long compensation cycle was also very important for the panel longevity and should run every 1500h to 2000h hours, depending on panel and model. One clearly cannot run a long compenstation cycle by oneself– and both manuals also don’t say anything about it running automatically. Do you happen to have any information about this?

– Also, I have gone ahead and made my Linux environment even more OLED safe already (black background, no window title bars, taskbar gone, …). The only thing really bothering me is the missing background image. For the rest, I mostly use the keyboard and shortcuts anyways, so that’s not really a bother. But I am a bit worried now that I have gone too far and risk reverse burn-in that way. Any thoughts? 🙂

– Is there any news if ASUS is working on a new firmware to fix the remaining issues?

– Last but not least. Does LG now use deuterium in all of its panels– TV and monitor or is this (still) only for the larger TV panels?

Have a great start into the new week!

Thanks,
Matthias

[PCM2]

I do have to step in at this point and say that I’ve been very generous with my time. I will answer these questions but won’t be answering further questions as I do make it clear in the forum rules that this isn’t a free technical support service. Also consider how you can support the time I’ve spent assisting you, but be assured that any feedback you can give after using the monitor is also valuable. And I sincerely hope you enjoy the monitor and get a good unit. 🙂

– It’s 80mm (~3.15 inches) for height adjustment, which is also confirmed on some of their product pages (including their main one).

– Very few models have or require a ‘short’ and ‘long’ compensation cycle. That’s only something I recall seeing on early models from the likes of Dell Alienware models. Might’ve been through an abundance of caution and it turned out to be unnecessary or not useful.

– I use OLEDs the same way I do LCDs, just making sure the screen has regular breaks as I mentioned before. I personally wouldn’t go as far as removing the desktop background. That’s only really a problem if it’s going to be visible for long periods of time without moving, but I don’t see why it would be as you’ll either be running programs on top of it or the screen should have set itself to standby or similar.

– Not aware of any upcoming firmware.

– No idea about LG’s panel materials, specifically.

[matthias]

I am sincerely very sorry. It was never my intention to exploit your generosity / goodwill. I have made a small donation via PayPal. And naturally I will no longer bother you.

Once I have tested the monitor and do have something meaningful to say about it, I will report back to help other users decide who might be in a similar predicament than me.

[PCM2]

I appreciate your support and I look forward to your thoughts on the ASUS when you’ve had a chance to test it out. 🙂

[matthias]

So, I finally received my unit yesterday and we set it up this morning.

It really feels like a premium device from top to bottom. I am not a big fan of the connections being on the bottom side, this makes it very tough to insert cables when the monitor stands on the desk. I would have rather preferred to have this somewhere in the middle of the back and easily visible and angled somewhat. Also, the menu is ridiculously small– at least the position can be changed. And if you use the monitor in its lowest position, it can get tough to use the joystick and buttons which are located on the back. Again, would have preferred a different position. Last but not least, like others have mentioned, turning the power led off, will also prevent you from seeing when the device is running its cleaning cycle. Hopefully they fix this with a firmware update.

The blacks are gorgeous– never imagined saying that. I always hated the grayish blacks from IPS panels. When I bought my first IPS monitor, I came from a Eizo with a PVA panel and the grayish blacks were a hard pill to swallow. And I never got used to those even after all those long years. It is like night and day.

The panel has no dead / defective pixels, which is nice.

But, being me, I didn’t quite hit the panel lottery. The color temperature is uneven across the panel when looking at whites or grays. I would say the the left 2/3 – 3/4 is too warm with a slight reddish hue and the right 1/3 – 1/4 is a rather cold white. Since my boot manager uses a rather bright solid gray, that was immediately obvious to me when booting up the machine. And to my eye, it is rather distracting since you also see it in other instances like when browsing the web or using a spreadsheet. So I am now fighting with myself if it is a dealbreaker or not and if I return the device or not. This has really made me quite miserable today since I was hoping to finally have some luck. Also, since not a single review of the device had this problem, it just shows how unlucky I am– again.

What else is there to say? Oh, the screensaver option with its CPC. I forgot about it and wondered if I had a defective panel. Who can actually tolerate that? Luckily at one point it came back to me. This really shouldn’t be on by default (or even forced on a user), without proper explanation. I can see how this could cause returns that could have been avoided.

I can also clearily see the DSE. I knew what I was getting myself into. I can see how some people could be really bothered by it. But that is, for me, easier to tolerate than the uneven color temperature.

Ok… that’s it for now. If there is anything else to report, I will update this thread. Same goes if I decide to keep it or return it.

Oh, and I should mention: HDR content looks amazing on this panel. Since I have no comparison, this should naturally be taken with a grain of salt. But to me eyes, it is really fantastic.

[PCM2]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the PG32UCDP you received. Whilst it sounds like a bit of a mixed experience (that’s to be expected with any monitor, of course, especially if you have a keen eye) I’m happy to read those very positive observations you’ve shared as well.

Whilst QD-OLEDs tend to be relatively strong when it comes to white uniformity, in my experience WOLED models like this can be a bit more hit and miss. It’s certainly difficult to ‘accept’ if it’s going to constantly annoy you, but please don’t feel this is some sort of rare defect on your unit. It’s not always something that reviewers will comment on because it’s extremely common on monitors in general and it does vary between units. And if uniformity measurements are made, the inconsistencies could exist beyond the measured points. Furthermore, sometimes reviewers will only look at brightness uniformity but not consider colour temperature uniformity. That’s not to say some units won’t be better in this respect than yours is, but it’s just to highlight yours might not be as much of an outlier as you think.

[matthias]

After much back and forth with myself, I decided to (reluctantly) order a second one after I talked to my retailer and explained everything to them. They were completely supportive and sympathetic of my situation. Unfortunately, the monitor is, again, out of stock and they hope to have it in stock again sometime next week. I can keep using this one until I get the new one and decide then which one
I will keep– or if I return both. Really, this is something I normally would not do nor consider. 🙁

The reddish hue is really nothing I can get used to. For example, looking at the black levels at lagom, everything starting from level 20 and below has a clear and distinct reddish/brownish hue which is very noticable at 11-12. And whites also in general do have a red hue. This, in combination with the cooler area to the right, is just all over the place noticeable for me while using dark themes and sometimes having to use non-dark themed sites or apps.

I tried playing around with the settings to lessen the effect somehow, but to no avail.

Thanks for your help, btw, and I get what you were trying to tell me, I really do. And I really tried getting used to this to avoid any kind of trouble. But this, imho, is a bit much too swallow for a device this expensive. Looking at the reviews from rtings or guru3d, they had “perfect” panels (with regard to color/brightness/gray uniformity). And I bet you would have noticed those red hues on the lagom black level
test instantly as well and mentioned it.

I just hope I have better luck with the next panel because there most definitely won’t be a third try. I will report back naturally…

[matthias]

Adam, I hope you don’t mind, if I kindly ask if I could pick your brain one more time– you don’t have to write a lengthy answer, just point me into the right direction.

I was thinking of getting a colorimeter to calibrate the next display. The idea being that if it is not within the range of what I can tolerate, I can calibrate it to hopefully even/average out some deficiencies, so in total they are less obvious/distracting. Naturally, I know, I cannot fix uneven brightness but everything color related should be improvable. Also, with the PG32UDCP having a good selection of settings available, that should improve things and my desktop environment also supports ICC profiles, if needed.

I lean towards the Calibrite Display Plus HL. I read a lot of good things about it and it seems to be vastly superior to Datacolor’s Spyder.

So basically, my question is: Do you think this is misguided or this can work and the Calibrite is a good choice?

Last but not least: Two more things I noticed about the PG32UDCP.

1.
From time to time, the brightness shortly flickers or adjusts slightly. I cannot really tell, only that it changes. And with shortly, I mean, really just a flash. This is with uniform brightness on, the brightness set to 35% and screensaver off. It doesn’t really seem to make any difference what is displayed on the screen. This is rather annoying and strange. The DP cable used is one included with the monitor.

2.
Ever since I experimented with the color/color temperature settings to lessen the effect of the red hue, the firmware tends to switch the color temperature from 6500k to user… without me doing anything. I have to set it back. And after some time of usage (on/off, input switches), I noticed the color temperature is odd and once again, the display switched to user again by itself. Also, rather annoying.

[PCM2]

The Calibrite units are good calibrators. Though the ‘Plus HL’ might be overkill for what you need to use it for given the ‘Pro HL’ offers the same core capabilities up to 3000 nits. Either option should help address grey neutrality issues or general red channel issues that can’t be fine-tuned appropriately via the OSD.

With that said, I’m not sure what issue you’re describing with your final point there. If you’re adjusting the colour channels in the OSD then you have the ‘Color Temperature’ set to ‘User’. You can’t adjust colour channels with that set to ‘6500K’ as that uses its own preset values. Unless you mean you want it set to the ‘6500K’ preset and it keeps switching it over to ‘User’ without you asking it to, which does sound a bit annoying.

[matthias]

Sorry for the confusion: Yes, it keeps switching to user all by itself from time to time. I haven’t yet figured out if there is a common trigger. I just tend to notice after a while that the image feels wrong. The firmware is generally a bit wonky and not that hard to trip up / confuse, imho. That part doesn’t feel too premium and a bit rushed.

Also, it runs the pixel cleaning way more often than every four hours. I was curious and looked it up in its statistics view, and as of some time this afternoon, it had run 17 cycles with 17 hours of display usage. It also calculated that it ran a cycle every zero hours. And no, I don’t run those cycles every hour myself. 🙂

Regarding the short brightness fluctuations, I haven’t figured those out yet but I I will test if the pixel moving (set to strong) is causing it. That would be rather unfortunate.

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