BenQ XL2730Z Firmware Update V002

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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Joined: 26 Mar 2014, 07:23

Re: BenQ XL2730Z Firmware Update V002

Post by Falkentyne » 24 Jun 2015, 01:11

Can you do me a VERY VERY Big favor?
I've tried to ask other people to do this, but despite many posts, one person 'started' but never replied back or finished any testing.

This will take a very long explanation however you can actually do the entire test in less than 5 minutes, ONCE you find the actual limits of the monitor

Are you willing to do this for us?

(Note: you will be testing native resolution at 120hz over DP (you can try it over DVI but I don't know if it will work--you WILL need the ToastyX pixel clock patcher if you want to test DVI, however!)

Are you willing to try?
if you are I'll write the FULL instructions for you to test for us

(tl;dr) it will be testing blur reduction with vertical total tweaks, finding the limits of what VT tweaks work, if they even work and then testing the "OD GAIN" setting in the FACTORY menu (the second service menu). Remember the combo button 3+4 for 5 seconds then power on?

troybal
Posts: 4
Joined: 23 Jun 2015, 21:39

Re: BenQ XL2730Z Firmware Update V002

Post by troybal » 24 Jun 2015, 07:02

Yes I can do this late tonight if I have the process and if I understand it is a test of the monitor.

Falkentyne
Posts: 2793
Joined: 26 Mar 2014, 07:23

Re: BenQ XL2730Z Firmware Update V002

Post by Falkentyne » 24 Jun 2015, 08:44

Ok let's see if I can write this up properly.

First you will need the pixel clock patcher if you intend to test this over DVI. I think its best that you test this over both DVI and DP, just in case the VT tweaks work over DVI but not over DP.

http://www.monitortests.com/forum/Threa ... ck-Patcher
There's an Nvidia one also, although no idea why someone would use this monitor over a gsync one on an Nvidia card, especially with the half working blur reduction at the moment.

Then you need the toastyX CRU utillty
http://www.monitortests.com/forum/Threa ... tility-CRU

There's a driver restarter there also for testing resolutions without rebooting. Unfortunately, the Nvidia control panel allows you to instantly test a resolution without applying it. AMD's CCC has a far more limited, almost worthless version of this, limited to just some custom HDMI type refreh rates, so whenever you try a custom resolution, it's best to set the video drivers to 60hz or 144hz first. (you may not be able to do 144 hz over DVI on this monitor, only over displayport, but 120hz over DVI WAS tested successfully with the pixel clock patcher on this monitor)

Even though you are going to test both DP And DVI, patch the driver anyway (you can always unpatch it).

Run the driver restarter after patching (part of CRU).

Now comes the fun part.

First, set the monitor to 60hz (or 144 hz if on displayport).
Then create a new custom "manual" resolution that should already be shown as 2560x1440, and enter the refresh rate at 120 hz, without changing the other values.
The horizontal and vertical totals shown should be the defaults for that monitor.
You can double check by also creating a 100hz manual resolution and seeing if the HT and VT (horizontal and vertical total) are the same.

On the 1080p screens, the default horizontal total is 2200 and default vertical total is 1125. This will obviously be much higher on the 1440p monitor.

Do not save or exit CRU yet (just keep it open; the custom res should not be in the registry yet).

Now, here comes the hard part.
First, open this test and open it as full screen (F11).

http://www.testufo.com/#test=photo&phot ... &height=-1
enable blur reduction and set the refresh rate to 120hz (it should be using the default settings still).

Go to the blur reduction OSD settings and set the "Area" to 000. Make sure it is NOT set to 100.

Now, as far as the Intensity, this value is different than on the older blur reduction monitors, but it serves the exact same purpose: controls persistence (dimmer screen=lower persistence=more blur reduction, smoother motion but less brightness).
On the older Z series (Before the XL2430T), this was called "Strobe Duty" and the lower the strobe duty, the dimmer the screen and the more blur reduction you would have. The dimmest value was strobe duty 001, which, at 144hz refresh rate, would have a persistence as low as 0.08 ms (!). That's very dim.

On the XL2730Z, either Intensity 001 or intensity 025 is the dimmest value, I'm not sure which. Find out which one makes the screen the dimmest, then raise (or lower) the Intensity by 6 points. Make sure OSD brightness is set to 100% so you can actually see stuff.

Now in this test:
http://www.testufo.com/#test=photo&phot ... &height=-1
Pay close attention to the strobe crosstalk you may see at the top and especially at the bottom of the screen. . Try changing the area up and down from 0 to 100 (you are doing this BEFORE making CRU changes). You should notice a big double image thick blurry mess of UFO's in a band area, move up and down the screen. I Think you will notice that above the band and below the band, it seems that the UFO's move "ahead" or "back" one frame (this is true); having an Area of 100 puts everything ahead one frame and improves input lag by exactly 1/(current hz), but don't worry about that now. After you have fun seeing the effect on the frame position, set the area back to 000 and leave it there.

Now the fun part.
Set the refresh rate back to 60 (or 144 hz), do not leave it at 120hz, you don't want an out of range error by leaving the current refresh rate as the one you are editing :)

Go to the 120hz custom resolution, in CRU of 2560x1440 that you made, and increase the vertical total by 100.
Save it and exit CRU.

Restart the driver.
Set the CCC to 120hz. If you get a valid signal, apply it and go back to the testUFO page.
Check the position of the strobe crosstalk around the bottom of the screen.
It should have moved LOWER by 100 vertical rows of pixels.
If you didn't detect any change but you at least got a screen, go back to 60hz and increase the VT by another 100.
Test again.

keep testing until you get an out of range error, then go back by 25, 50, or 75 until you find the limit to where it works.

If you do not get an out of range error, but you start getting strange shimmering images over the DVI port, switch to displayport, you're probably exceeded what the DVI cable (not the monitor, but the cable) bandwidth can send. Or you can just test directly over DP, but I was just curious if the 120 and 144hz only strobe bugs might be fixed if using DVI.

Once you find the Vertical Total limits (I'm guessing it should be close to "2000"), test it and compare the strobe crosstalk at the bottom of the alien invasion screen, with the "default" (without a VT Tweak) crosstalk.

This will tell us if VT tweaks work with this monitor.

IF they do, then try the same thing but at 100hz refresh rate, and see if the monitor will strobe without stuttering. (On current firmware and default settings, 60hz and 100hz will strobe at 120hz pulses, causing a stutter, unpleasant and worthless image, even on V002, only 120 and 144hz seem to work correctly).

troybal
Posts: 4
Joined: 23 Jun 2015, 21:39

Re: BenQ XL2730Z Firmware Update V002

Post by troybal » 24 Jun 2015, 10:26

That does seem like alot of work. I will attempt to do that this weekend.

Bishi
Posts: 78
Joined: 20 Feb 2014, 17:23

Re: BenQ XL2730Z Firmware Update V002

Post by Bishi » 01 Sep 2015, 10:15

Falkentyne - I'll try this for you tomorrow when I receive my monitor.
I'm getting one of these as a potential sidegrade from my PG278Q as I really miss (bright) Blur Reduction that I used to get with the XL2720Z. The PG278Q is great but in blur reduction mode it is so dark. I can probably live without G-SYNC.

Falkentyne
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Joined: 26 Mar 2014, 07:23

Re: BenQ XL2730Z Firmware Update V002

Post by Falkentyne » 01 Sep 2015, 11:11

Let us know the results.
I don't expect a positive outcome...100hz strobing strobes at 120hz, out of sync, causing repeated jitters and lag, and 60hz double strobes with no option to enable single strobe, so it will be interesting how this monitor responds to VT tweaks or custom refresh rates with or without VT changes.

Will it strobe in sync at a custom refresh rate like 125hz? The XL2720Z would strobe at 125hz with a 1498 VT (1500 and 1502 would cause strobe sync errors).

Bishi
Posts: 78
Joined: 20 Feb 2014, 17:23

Re: BenQ XL2730Z Firmware Update V002

Post by Bishi » 02 Sep 2015, 10:15

Well I've been testing this but I can't see much difference in the crosstalk all the way from 1481 VT to 1981 VT (maximum before frequency field turns red) using CRU
I've been following your instructions and restarting the driver (and even rebooting) without noticing much change.

If i try the Nvidia custom resolution creator it actually has a different vertical 'total pixels' and starts with 1525 instead of 1481. The highest I can make it here is 1825 before the monitor goes out of range

980 TI SLI on Windows 10

Image

Falkentyne
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Joined: 26 Mar 2014, 07:23

Re: BenQ XL2730Z Firmware Update V002

Post by Falkentyne » 02 Sep 2015, 11:27

Thank you Bishi :)
So this monitor does NOT respond to vertical total tweaks at all like our older Z models did.

Is the crosstalk (set Area to 000) the same as our older Z models WITHOUT the VT tweak, or does it look like our older Z monitors with the VT 1500 tweak?

Is it possible to take a full screen "motion capture" picture of testUFO alien invasion to show the crosstalk (Area=000, intensity at a persistence for pretty dim but readable screen).

http://www.testufo.com/#test=photo&phot ... &height=-1

Then we can see how the bottom side crosstalk is at 120hz (I suspect 144hz will be bad).

Bishi
Posts: 78
Joined: 20 Feb 2014, 17:23

Re: BenQ XL2730Z Firmware Update V002

Post by Bishi » 02 Sep 2015, 12:10

Tried to take some shots but im not sure if my phone camera is up to a motion capture shot, it comes out a bit blurry :)

Crosstalk seems a little better than what I remember my XL2720Z with v2 firmware and VT1500 was, it is mostly restricted to the lower part of the screen (about 3-4 vertical UFOS of noticeable crosstalk @ 144hz, 120hz has about 2-3)

Nice and bright in blur reduction mode though and the colours barely change, definitely better than the old xl2720Z was in blur reduction mode even with all the tweaks, and a lot brighter than the PG278Q in blur reduction mode.

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PanzerIV
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Joined: 17 Apr 2014, 12:55
Location: Canada > Quebec

Re: BenQ XL2730Z Firmware Update V002

Post by PanzerIV » 04 Sep 2015, 02:29

I'm lucky that I'm gonna get my XL2420Z exchanged for free during my RMA process, for an XL2730Z because BenQ made a big error with me... but long story short, if the trick for the VT1500 doesn't apply anymore to that new XL2730Z then what is the best new custom resolution setting to use?

I'm just quite ***** off that my crossfire of R9 280X which is really powerful and better than 1x R9 390, won't be able to support Freesync so I'll have a hard time keeping 100Hz/fps with Blur Reduction like I used to do, at 1440P over 1080P this time. I'd just have a few questions:

- What is the point of using HDMI 2.0 over Display Port 1.2a?
- Is it me or Freesync works down to 44Hz/fps with DP1.2a but 50Hz with HDMI 2.0?
- What's the diff with Blur Reduction v2.0 over the v1.0 from my XL2420Z?
- If I read right, when you're going high with the refresh rate, the freesync start to lose it's advantage and be less noticeable so am I better using freesync for games where I only get an fps between 44-85fps but for games where I can maintain 100fps for a matching 100hz, use the Blur Reduction instead for better results?

PS: I only play First Person Shooters such as BF4 and Quake Live. Thanks in advance guys :)
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