BenQ XL2720Z - XL2420Z V4 firmware download

Adjusting BENQ Blur Reduction and DyAc (Dynamic Acceleration) including Blur Busters Strobe Utility. Supports most BenQ/Zowie Z-Series monitors (XL2411, XL2420, XL2720, XL2735, XL2540, XL2546)
Falkentyne
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Re: BenQ XL2720Z - XL2420Z V4 firmware download

Post by Falkentyne » 25 Mar 2015, 16:30

You need to enable BBR.
Then go to AmA, and change from high to off/premium then back to high.

You should notice a clear change on this test.
http://www.testufo.com/#photo=alien-inv ... test=photo

Try it?

matthewdg1973
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Re: BenQ XL2720Z - XL2420Z V4 firmware download

Post by matthewdg1973 » 26 Mar 2015, 17:51

Just so I get this right. I need to enable BBR and then change the AMA from high to off to premium to high again? Did I understand that right?
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Falkentyne
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Re: BenQ XL2720Z - XL2420Z V4 firmware download

Post by Falkentyne » 26 Mar 2015, 20:34

Yeah.
But you will also need to lower the contrast to get the full benefit of it. Inverse ghosting is almost completely removed but some normal ghosting patterns (usually the ghosting that is already made stronger by a high contrast) is made sometimes significantly worse when doing this AMA tweak when the contrast is 43-50. All of that is remedied by lowering the contrast. Dropping the contrast to 0 (at least on the 27", I'm not sure how the 24" will respond) actually makes the image look __BETTER__ than Lightboost mode does on the very same monitor (even at contrast 0 in lightboost mode, too). But there are obviously serious non motion blur related IQ penalties for dropping contrast that low, so you can try to find a balance.

Remember that any change to the brightness setting whatsoever instantly reverts the AMA back. Also any change the the strobe phase, duty or single strobe toggles also reverts. Changing windows resolution to a different refresh rate or a lower res that is not GPU scaled (or a game changing resolution to a hard refresh (e.g. not a GPU scaled resolution at the same refresh rate)) refreshes the brightness which also reverts the AMA.

TestUFO is massively improved even at contrast 43 compared to default (there was so many inverse ghosting overdrive artifacts before!), but you will see how normal ghosting is reduced as you drop contrast lower. (it is worth noting that dropping contrast always improves this, even in normal blur reduction or lightboost mode anyway, but not inverse ghosting very much)

I'm pretty sure the reason this new AMA is NOT the default for blur reduction is due to normal ghosting being made significantly worse on certain color transitions. This actually explains fully now why Nvidia Lightboost mode is so washed out on the 24" monitors and why the gamma shoots up to 1.8 (the 27" monitors are unaffected; they keep the same 2.2 gamma point and 900:1 contrast in LB)--They had to tank the contrast to get the ghosting decent!

With contrast 0 and new AMA, the 2720Z looks better in BBR mode than in its own (2720Z) lightboost mode, and looks better than the VG248QE's lightboost on that screen, although with an even more washed out screen (contrast 0, but no purple tint or gamma dropping to 1.8). Setting gamma to 1.8 on the 2720Z makes both monitors look identical (besides the 2720Z appearing a bit more muted and darker due to lower strobe duty (lower persistence) and internal contrast set to 0. The VG248QE seems to have its contrast artificially dropped in Lightboost mode (even at 78 contrast) than in non LB mode.

I would say that setting contrast to 10 sort of equalizes things. Great quality, and at least some contrast. So the only thing left is the strobe crosstalk at the top or bottom (VT 1500 tweak increases the distance between the crosstalk at the top and bottom, but a higher strobe duty to increase brightness lowers the top crosstalk down). So try that.

Ok did some more tests.

Inverse ghosting: almost fully removed by new AMA.
Changing contrast does not affect inverse RTA artifacts--aka "Overshoot" (neither in normal blur reduction AMA or new AMA).

New AMA: Contrast 20: normal ghosting = (about the same as) normal blur reduction's 43 contrast's normal ghosting (recommended). Normal ghosting is quite low.
So use contrast 20 if you want inverse ghosting overshoot removed and were happy with the normal ghosting of regular AMA's blur reduction at 43 contrast. If you want to use 006 strobe duty (1.0ms with a VT tweak) then this is the best setting to use, as using contrast 0 or 10 is just too dark without higher persistence, but increasing strobe duty causes the top strobe crosstalk to drop lower.

Normal blur reduction @ 20 contrast: normal ghosting becomes translucent (does not disappear).

New AMA: Contrast 10: close to lightboost levels of normal ghosting. Meaning: almost none. Nice if you can handle the muted contrast, but 20 might be the best balance. After all, it was the inverse RTA overshoots that were affecting benq blur reduction, not the regular ghosting!

New AMA: Contrast 0: better than lightboost (as good as it gets) almost no normal ghosting at all. Undetectable except on the harshest transitions (Pixperan flag test is an example of a harsh transition--white to black. so you'll get your ghosting :twisted:

Inverse ghosting: extremely faint: undetectable in games. Slight residues of it in Test UFO Alien Invasion

Normal blur reduction (not new AMA) @ 0 contrast: normal ghosting is translucent. Definitely more than a bit annoying at low contrast. Regular ghosting is probably better here at just using your 43 contrast if using old AMA.

Lightboost @ 0 contrast: Welcome to Casper the friendly ghost. Just don't even bother (VG248QE does not seem to suffer from this; I suspect the 24" benq panels that use the same panel as VG248QE act similar)

(edit)

New AMA premium mode: tones down inverse ghosting "slightly" vs the normal MBR/premium. Ghosting is better than V2's stock AMA high for comparison. Even stock V4 MBR premium has less ghosting of the chessboard squares in internet chess club's blitzin client than V2 did on "High".

boulmerbear
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Re: BenQ XL2720Z - XL2420Z V4 firmware download

Post by boulmerbear » 27 Mar 2015, 19:25

I hope that there's a v4 for XL2411Z! I like the sound of the improvements!

Or will the xl2420z v4 work?

Falkentyne
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Re: BenQ XL2720Z - XL2420Z V4 firmware download

Post by Falkentyne » 27 Mar 2015, 19:44

I think someone should try the 2420z f/w in the 2411z, since the Linux thread has people who recovered from flashing 0-byted dummy firmware into the monitor. If they can recover from that, recovering from flashing a firmware for the exact same panel (2420z and 2411z are the same panel, just the 2420z has more outputs) should be easy. And you have a backup called backup.bin from the instructions on the 'blog' page, too.

matthewdg1973
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Re: BenQ XL2720Z - XL2420Z V4 firmware download

Post by matthewdg1973 » 27 Mar 2015, 21:54

I'm still not noticing any difference :(
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Falkentyne
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Re: BenQ XL2720Z - XL2420Z V4 firmware download

Post by Falkentyne » 27 Mar 2015, 22:47

What did you try exactly, matthew?

Can you outline the steps?
And also were you on THIS test?
http://www.testufo.com/#photo=alien-inv ... test=photo

Set contrast to 43.
Turn on blur reduction. Make sure AMA is on high BEFORE enabling BBR (so you are using the normal "MBR/high" for now).

You should see THREE pattens of UFOs and three patterns of the vertical red bar.
1) The main UFO, 2) an inverted (but not super thick inverted like on V2; its more like fainter and almost transparent like) ghost copy, and 3) a lightly speckled copy.
The red bar will be 1) red bar, 2) cyan 3) faint grey-cyan

On the old V2 firmware, the inverted ghosting was significantly more intense on High. Masterotaku even has a picture of it In his thread.
On V4 this is more like premium now.
I actually found a picture he took.

http://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=560 <--V2
Do you see this?
Do you see how thick and inverted the UFO is ? it looks like a 'negative' full copy and looks REALLY bad.
That's how V2 looked.
On V4, it looks far more muted like the way I described.

OR, does your V4 look like this:
http://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic ... 6&start=30

(this is the 2430T blur reduction).
My 2720Z looks "inbetween" both of those pictures on normal BBR (still MUCH better than V2!)
When I activate the new AMA high, it looks more like the 2430T picture!
A massive difference!

With NEW high AMA and contrast 43 (go to AMA, press enter so high is highlighted green, then just press back. that should automatically set it)

you should see two patterns.
The main red/yellow UFO and a inverted 'speckle" behind it (very faint inverse ghosting. The best way for me to describe it would be a COMBINATION of normal and inverted ghosting. Much better than before. Does that make sense?).
the third pattern should be almost fully invisible. Basically the "third" faint speckle becomes the second pattern now.
The red vertical bar is affected similarly, but not as much. The second red vertical bar becomes a faint cyan instead of normal cyan. the third is even fainter grey.

(Note: contrast 43 will intensify normal ghosting on some surfaces; very noticeable in call of duty black ops 1. Contrast 20 will fix this right up).

With new AMA and contrast 0:
Third ghost UFO is completely invisible. Third red ghost bar is almost completely invisible.

The same thing works on premium AMA but to a much lesser extent. Turning on Blur reduction and then setting AMA to premium afterwards (new premium) makes the inverted ghosting very slightly less, and makes it look a lot like V2's regular high. Even turning on BBR After setting AMA to premium (normal premium) has V4 improvements just like normal high does (overall less normal ghosting everywhere except contrast 50).
----------

Can you describe exactly what you see?

Keep in mind that the 2420Z and 2720z are different panels, so its still very possible that your V4 has these changes by default, due to how the 27" monitors react differently (the 27" monitors all have more ghosting than 24"s (including in lightboost mode; this also applied to the older Asus VG27H and Benq 2720T), they keep 900:1 contrast ratio in Lightboost mode instead of dropping to <400:1, and the 2720Z does not lose any gamma or color fidelity from going to 60 to 144 hz refresh rate; gamma remains spot on at 2.2 at gamma 4. On the 2420Z, gamma 2.2 at 60 hz becomes 1.9 at 144 hz and 1.8 (!!) in Nvidia Lightboost mode! Asus VG248QE reacts the same way).

matthewdg1973
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Re: BenQ XL2720Z - XL2420Z V4 firmware download

Post by matthewdg1973 » 28 Mar 2015, 19:35

I tried exactly what you instructed but didn't noticed any significant improvement. On a side note I never have been able to use the BBR as I found that it was too dark and had bad double imaging for my taste. Maybe I just don't get how to do it properly. Who knows.
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boulmerbear
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Re: BenQ XL2720Z - XL2420Z V4 firmware download

Post by boulmerbear » 28 Mar 2015, 20:22

Just ordered an MSTAR tool, going to try flashing the XL2420Z firmware on my XL2411Z. Hope it doesn't screw it up! I will report back here with results if any. It's coming from China so it'll probably be a while until I get it.

squidey
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Re: BenQ XL2720Z - XL2420Z V4 firmware download

Post by squidey » 29 Mar 2015, 10:20

matthewdg1973 wrote:Well I received my monitors back from BenQ (props for getting it done so quickly) with V4 installed. From what I can tell it definitely fixed the no signal detected issue that I was having when turning off the monitor and turning it back on using DP. I can now enter the service menu again. :) Now I have a different issue. One of my monitors (both with V4) gets recognized by the Blur busters utility and the other doesn't. Kind of frustrating.
Whereabouts are you? I'm looking into sending my monitor in to benq for an update as I'm still on v1, do you know if they do it in the UK? thanks

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