Recommended Xbox One Monitor

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Zulle
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Recommended Xbox One Monitor

Post by Zulle » 11 Jun 2014, 16:32

Halo 2 is coming back in HD and I'm looking for suggestions for the best 27 inch console monitors. Now I know you guys focus on 120hz+ whereas xbox one output is half that but there's really not many places online that are as fastidious about input lag and motion clarity so hopefully you can still offer some suggestions. My apologies for asking the same question that was posed here: http://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=873

But I think my priorities are a bit different, In order of importance they are Input Lag > Ghosting > Tearing > Picture Quality. I have 5 months to find a monitor so the more suggestions the merrier and the better chance I have to snag one of them on sale. The 2 main games I'll be playing on this are the Halo 2 remake and Destiny both are 1080p but H2 runs at 60fps whereas destiny will be 30fps. Not sure if 30fps games will be negatively effected if I were to use a BenQ Z series monitor paired with that Strobe Utility of yours. It would be great if blur busters did a controller input to muzzle flash test for some of these console games and measure total game latency the same way they did of PC with BF4, Crisis 3, and Counter Strike. I know the XL2720Z is the defacto recommendation for PC right now but is 144hz and the stuff it does with motion blur overkill or even able to be utilized when connected to a console?

At any rate I know console gaming is not a consideration here when assessing these monitors but hopefully you can apply that same expertise and suggest some capable current or upcoming monitors that I check out.

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Chief Blur Buster
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Re: Recommended Xbox One Monitor

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 11 Jun 2014, 18:34

Zulle wrote:But I think my priorities are a bit different, In order of importance they are Input Lag > Ghosting > Tearing > Picture Quality. I have 5 months to find a monitor so the more suggestions the merrier and the better chance I have to snag one of them on sale. The 2 main games I'll be playing on this are the Halo 2 remake and Destiny both are 1080p but H2 runs at 60fps whereas destiny will be 30fps. Not sure if 30fps games will be negatively effected if I were to use a BenQ Z series monitor paired with that Strobe Utility of yours. It would be great if blur busters did a controller input to muzzle flash test for some of these console games and measure total game latency the same way they did of PC with BF4, Crisis 3, and Counter Strike. I know the XL2720Z is the defacto recommendation for PC right now but is 144hz and the stuff it does with motion blur overkill or even able to be utilized when connected to a console?
-- Input lag is also very low with Z-Series on a console
-- Motion blur reduction makes a huge difference on the Z-Series (ghosting and motion blur are slightly different)
-- Tearing is controlled by the game (and the games refresh rate), not the monitor

If you are familiar with a CRT or plasma, you may be familiar with the 30fps@60Hz double-image effect during motion. This is just the same thing you get on the Z-Series when the strobe mode is enabled. If you don't mind that effect, then the Z-Series would not bother you.

There are also a lot of excellent low-latency choices such as the Eizo FS2333 which is IPS with excellent color picture quality, but a lot more motion blur (if you considered color quality more important than motion blur). However, if low lag *and* minimum motion blur is your number one consideration (and you don't want a CRT or big screen TV) and you don't mind flicker and 30fps-double-image effect, then the BENQ Z-Series should be very high on a console gamer's list.

For usefulness to this thread for others, crossposting the post from the other thread:
Mark Rejhon wrote:This site is mainly about "Better Than 60Hz" displays, including 120Hz displays. You won't be able to take advantage of 120Hz with a console with these computer monitors. The MX279H is a nice IPS display good for consoles, but if you came here to find ways to reduce motion blur (getting a more CRT-motion-sharp experiennce) instead of better colors, you could be interested in the BENQ Z-Series monitor 144Hz monitor also capable of 60Hz strobing with consoles including XB1 / PS4, if you are able to play a lot of 60fps games. Be noted, not everyone likes 60Hz flicker.
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Re: Recommended Xbox One Monitor

Post by RealNC » 11 Jun 2014, 19:53

You're not using a mouse on the XBone, so you might want to give input lag a lower priority.
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Re: Recommended Xbox One Monitor

Post by Zulle » 11 Jun 2014, 22:19

Chief Blur Buster wrote:If you are familiar with a CRT or plasma, you may be familiar with the 30fps@60Hz double-image effect during motion. This is just the same thing you get on the Z-Series when the strobe mode is enabled. If you don't mind that effect, then the Z-Series would not bother you.
I appreciate the quick response guys. It sucks that after a decade of 1080p being mainstream and we still have to make concessions with these monitors and TV's. I remember when i first switched from a tube tv to a new samsung plasma and was awestruck with how crisp and amazing gears of war looked on it. Then as soon my buddy passed me the controller I was awestruck again by the horrible lag that was inherit in all those early HDTV's.

I'm all too familiar with motion blur and input lag but I'm not familiar with flicker and 30fps-double-image effect that you mentioned. I know everyone's sensitivities are different but in general how much of an annoyance are those? Are they worthwhile tradeoffs to remove the motion blur? And am I correct in assuming I wont experience either of them in console games running at 60fps?

I'm pretty hesitant to drop $450 on a monitor especially since I already have a solid TV for my console and a 1440p monitor for games on pc. They are the Samsung PN51E530A3FXZA and the Dell U2713HM respectively, could you give me some idea of how much of an improvement I'd see if I moved to the BENQ? Would be an improvement in input lag for sure but are there any monitors on the horizon that might better suit my need?
RealNC wrote:You're not using a mouse on the XBone, so you might want to give input lag a lower priority.
I'm not sure I'd even notice the difference between 25 and 15 ms of lag so RealNC you might be right. Especially considering most monitors these days fall in the sub 1 frame category anyway. What do you think, should i just stick with my Samsung and it's ~39ms of input lag?

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Re: Recommended Xbox One Monitor

Post by RealNC » 12 Jun 2014, 00:53

Zulle wrote:
Chief Blur Buster wrote:
RealNC wrote:You're not using a mouse on the XBone, so you might want to give input lag a lower priority.
I'm not sure I'd even notice the difference between 25 and 15 ms of lag so RealNC you might be right. Especially considering most monitors these days fall in the sub 1 frame category anyway. What do you think, should i just stick with my Samsung and it's ~39ms of input lag?
Any monitor is going to provide significantly lower input lag than that. Which is pretty much what I meant; when you buy a new monitor, don't consider its input lag as being the most important thing about it, since it's not going to be a problem. Monitors don't have the amount of input lag TVs do. Unless you're specifically looking for the slowest IPS monitor out there.

However, it's safe to assume that most monitors will not compare favorably to a plasma TV when it comes to picture quality. Especially monitors with TN panels.

For a console, I'd simply recommend looking at current models with all available panels, and simply getting the one that looks best to you. Sites like prad.de and tftcentral should help in narrowing down the candidates.
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Re: Recommended Xbox One Monitor

Post by Haste » 12 Jun 2014, 10:01

Zulle wrote: I'm all too familiar with motion blur and input lag but I'm not familiar with flicker and 30fps-double-image effect that you mentioned. I know everyone's sensitivities are different but in general how much of an annoyance are those? Are they worthwhile tradeoffs to remove the motion blur? And am I correct in assuming I wont experience either of them in console games running at 60fps?
There are two ways to go about it:

Strobbed monitor running at 120Hz
- No visible flicker for the average person.
- Double image effect for 60fps games.
- Quadruple image effect for 30fps games.

Strobbed monitor running at 60Hz
- Visible flicker for the average person.
- No double image effect for 60fps games.
- Double image effect for 30fps games.

About the double image effect: The number of repeated images you will see is n = (refresh rate/frame rate) - 1
I haven't found a photograph of it on the site. (Hint for Mark ;p)
But the "PWM artifact" photograph looks similar:
Image

My opinion about it: Neither solutions are ideal. With 120Hz strobbed you get double image artifacts and with 60Hz strobbed you get harsh flickering.

Hope this help.
Monitor: Gigabyte M27Q X

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Re: Recommended Xbox One Monitor

Post by RealNC » 12 Jun 2014, 11:33

This is an XBox One. Many of the games on it will have artificial motion blur added to them, and which you can't disable, rendering any motion blur reduction tech from the monitor useless.
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Re: Recommended Xbox One Monitor

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 12 Jun 2014, 21:31

Consider the genre and games you are planning to play, and whether there's enough 60fps games to enjoy. There's a lot more 60fps games this generation than during the last generation. Not enough, but a lot more during this cycle (XB1 and PS4).
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Re: Recommended Xbox One Monitor

Post by Zulle » 15 Jun 2014, 10:30

Chief Blur Buster wrote:Consider the genre and games you are planning to play, and whether there's enough 60fps games to enjoy. There's a lot more 60fps games this generation than during the last generation. Not enough, but a lot more during this cycle (XB1 and PS4).
So if the majority of the games I'm playing are 60fps go with a BenQ Z-Series set at 60Hz? But if I want the best experience on 30fps games what is the best solution?

I really wish they made a 27 inch version of the cheaper BenQ 11Z I don't need all those inputs and the extra bit of input lag I'm sure they add. Is there any reason to get the 2420Z over the 2411Z besides the inputs and the slightly slimmer case? I'm tempted to get the 2411Z since it's on sale on newegg for $250 right now.

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Re: Recommended Xbox One Monitor

Post by Trip » 15 Jun 2014, 17:53

Zulle wrote: So if the majority of the games I'm playing are 60fps go with a BenQ Z-Series set at 60Hz? But if I want the best experience on 30fps games what is the best solution?
30fps games tend to be slower paced in general then 60fps.
Single player games are a lot of the time 30fps for consoles since devs have the chance to show off their engine and reaction times usually arent that important since these games are not played competively usually anyway. For this I would recommend a nice monitor/tv that aims for image quality over responsiveness (ips, va etc) screen size is also a factor since you can relax on a couch.

60fps games usually are the other way around faster paced and less details. If you want the best experience(competetive advantage) in these games a fast monitor/tv is usually more important then the image quality. So you could consider an old tube-tv(crt) or a fast monitor less recommended would be flatscreen tv's since these are usually slower but there are some which are quite responsive.

Maybe the easiest question to ask yourself is are you predominantly a player who wants any advantage in competion and mainly plays to win or are you gaming to relax.

I believe it is rather hard to switch lightboost on and off from a console but I dont know for sure and considering it is only 60hz it may be really harsh for the eyes. At 30fps lightboost also suffers from double image artifacts so you might want to disable it then which can be a nuisance if you switch games a lot.

I dont want to talk you out of buying this monitor since it is still a great monitor if you are serious about your games but I dont think lightboost is a good idea for all-round console usage in its current state.
You said you had 5 months time who knows what will be released in 5 months. The gsync tsunami is coming with a mode called ulmb which may be easier to turn on and off via a switch.
Maybe a 27 inch will be released which does not cost as much and will be easier to look at from a distance. Just consider these things I mentioned before you make a purchase. I dont want to hold you off of purchasing since playing the waiting game can be really tedious and sometimes you just have to make the choice. But if you do not need/want it right now I would wait a bit. In 5 months the chance is really high this monitor will still be around at the same price and will probably be guaranteed a v2 firmware.

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