Strobe Utility crashing as soon as I open it

[whitestar]

With those settings (0, 6, 100hz, VT1500) , and comparing side by side, I would say the following:

The center row of UFOs om my monitor looks about the same as the bottom row in your image, or maybe the row above the bottom row in your image.

The second row from the top on my monitor looks perhaps slightly better than the top row (not counting the cut-off UFO at the very top) in your image.

So given that observation it seems the image on my monitor is a bit better, yes. But of course, I don't know how much artifacts, color distortion or noise the camera that took your image introduced.

[masterotaku]

I updated my monitor 50 minutes ago. What I noticed:

- AMA High looks exactly the same as before.
- AMA High reenabled after blur reduction gives less overdrive artifacts than the normal AMA High!!! However, I expected something better . It's most noticeable at low refresh rates. At 60Hz, the street map and alien invasion look great.
- As Falkentyne said, changing the strobe duty, strobe phase or refresh rate reverts it to the normal AMA High.
- Lowering contrast to 0 only makes it a bit better, if anything. And mostly in the lower part of the screen.
- The Lightboost -> BBR trick remains the same.
- AMA Premium keeps being the worst option. I don't know if it's a bit better or not, but it wasn't going to be a worthwhile option anyway .

Overall, I'm happy about the update. My 60Hz games will be happy .

[whitestar]

Strange that I don't notice any difference when doing that.

Just to make sure, what I do is this:
-Turn off BBR (AMA is always on High, so I don't touch that)
-Turn on BBR
-Go into the monitor menu and select Display -> AMA. Now I press the checkmark (V) to select it even though it's already selected. While I do this I'm closely watching the UFOs in the background. And I don't notice any difference when I reselect High.

Am I doing something wrong?

[Falkentyne]

Yeah, when you reselect high, the screen refreshes, so its VERY difficult to notice a change if it isn't drastic.
On my XL2720Z, there's a MASSIVE change when I reselect high, it's literally in your face type of change (a WOW moment). I don't have a camera, however.
It sounds, from yours and masterotaku's description, that your screen changes on AMA high similar to how mine changes on AMA premium now. (if I toggle on AMA premium, the inverse ghosting remains inverted, but becomes --slightly-- less intense, it's very hard to notice, however I CAN notice it if I change brightness after toggling (brightness changes reset the AMA without refreshing the screen)...it seems to match how V2 firmware was on untoggled AMA high.

However I did find a screenshot that captures EXACTLY what my XL2720Z on V4 looks like.



The top right picture (top line) is what V2 firmware 2720Z looked like on AMA high (without toggling). Pretend the picture is brighter, and then you'll get a good idea of how intense the overdrive was (Toggling this on V2 just made things much worse). Fyi, that top right picture is how V4 looks on 2720Z after toggling "AMA premium."

The middle right picture (middle line) is what V4 2720Z looks like on AMA high (without toggling).
You can see the inverse ghosting is still there but has been toned down.

The middle picture (middleline) is what V4 2720Z looks like AFTER toggling AMA high.
You can see a massive difference now.

All the inverse ghosting has been shifted into regular ghosting.
This might not seem like "Much", but on testUFO, this literally removes almost all of the ghosting of the vertical red bar that separates the UFO's, making it look a lot like lightboost quality.

However there's a catch-22 with this.
This also INTENSIFIES any existing normal ghosting, which can make those transitions look WORSE Than an untoggled AMA high.
Basically if you are using contrast 43 (the perfect white balance point; clipping occurs at contrast 51), your picture is going to look worse in many situations, except on the TestUFO alien invasion test. To fix this, lower the contrast (lowering contrast helps with normal ghosting). Lowering the contrast down to 0 eliminates almost all normal ghosting, except ghosting that isn't exactly in the middle, or ghosting because of the strobe pulse crosstalk areas (when you get close to the bottom). There is NO 'translucent' transparent ghosting when lowering contrast to 0 after toggling.

Lowering contrast to 0 does NOT work if you do not toggle. You will get 'casper the friendly ghost" translucent glowing ghost trails that will look uglier than anything on untoggled. But after toggling, you get none of that translucent ghosting anymore.

[captainbromo]

So did anyone find an actual fix for his problem??

[error-id10t]

You need to run it as Admin. 2 ways, either go to the file and make it run as Admin or right click and choose run as admin.

[hollywood]

Hi, I just got this monitor myself, and to my surprise it also seems to be using the V4 firmware :
.

I'd like to help you guys get the firmware. However, I'm trying to wrap my brain around those instructions. In a nutshell, is it like this:
1. Connect a laptop to the XL2411Z.
2. Install Ubuntu to a USB stick and boot the laptop with it.
3. Dump the fw onto a USB stick using commands in the terminal.

Is that the essence of it? I don't really understand what an i2c bus is though, and I only have a pretty old laptop (at least 6 years).
I might need a fair bit of handholding to get this done.

About BBR on my monitor:
To my eyes it looks really good. When I use Mark's Strobe Utility I use earliest strobe phase (leftmost position) and persistence at 3 or 3.5 when gaming. This puts the crosstalk at about the top 1/5 or 1/6 of the screen when using VT 1500. Which is best I think, as in most games you are on the ground and need the ground to be as ghost/crosstalk free as possible. The crosstalk then happens often in the sky and is not really noticeable.

Now, it IS possible to get an almost perfect screen with just a tiny bit of crosstalk at the bottom. This is done in the service menu on my monitor. If I put Strobe Duty at full (30) and Strobe Phase at about 58 or 59 then I get the absolutely best crosstalk result. BUT, there is a price to pay, and that is reduced brightness. The brightness starts to drop at about 50 and at 58 it's a bit dark (regardless of Strobe Duty value). It kinda reminds me of LightBoost on my old XL2411T actually, but with better colors.

So all in all I actually prefer to just leave the service menu alone and leave the default values there. And just use Mark's excellent Strobe Utility with the values mentioned above. This works really well in most games, especially in games where you are on the ground or in racing games. I have tested Skyrim (at 64hz), Just Cause 2 (at 90hz), Trials Fusion (at 60hz (locked framerate - boooo!!!)) and Assetto Corsa (at 90hz and 100hz).

Very happy with the screen and the BBR. The flicker at 60hz is very noticeable on the desktop on bright backgrounds, and the crosstalk is very noticeable in the UFO test. But both of these are hardly noticeable in the games, which is really nice. It's almost like a CRT only with adjustable hz in steps of one.

Order it from directly from Benq?

[Falkentyne]

You copied his whole post which included the image too o.o
Were you asking if he ordered the monitor directly from Benq, and they blind shipped him a V4 unit brand new?

[hollywood]

You copied his whole post which included the image too o.o
Were you asking if he ordered the monitor directly from Benq, and they blind shipped him a V4 unit brand new?

Correct