Cannot get CRT clarity. Custom Res etc tried

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)
blakedc
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Joined: 11 Jul 2014, 23:40

Cannot get CRT clarity. Custom Res etc tried

Post by blakedc » 11 Jul 2014, 23:47

So I have both the 2411Z and the Asus 248.

I just got the BenQ and hooked it up tonight and Strobelight stopped loading. Looks like the monitor was still strobing so i ignored that.

Moving on to the BenQ monitor. I can't get the ghosting to stop on the motion test. It's a good quarter inch behind the actual image when running the 960 test.

Steps taken:
Unplugged the Asus as the Strobelight utility wouldn't run anymore with the BenQ plugged up.
Installed BenQ utility.
Configured blur reduction to "ON" on the monitor.
Slid the sliders both all the way to 0 on persistence/crosstalk.
Set a custom resolution of 1920x1080 with all suggested settings
custom rez.png
custom rez.png (24.94 KiB) Viewed 7639 times
custom rez 01.png
custom rez 01.png (16.09 KiB) Viewed 7638 times
Rebooted and then used the "Restart" utility since i'm on Windows 8.1.

The blur test runs at 60FPS and I can't confirm if I'm running at 120hz with reduction via the test. As a basic confirmation, text looks HORRIBLE when I scroll a webpage when comparing to the Asus.


Going to try a few more random ideas, but does anybody else have any good pointers?

AMD Hardware
Windows 8.1
BenQ XL2411Z - V2 firmware

Please Help ;) Don't really want to return the monitor for a 2nd Asus, although I'm leaning towards that right now...

Thanks in advance. Your free help is always appreciated and very much so respected! You guys rock!
Last edited by blakedc on 12 Jul 2014, 12:08, edited 1 time in total.

Falkentyne
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Re: Asus with BenQ

Post by Falkentyne » 12 Jul 2014, 00:20

If you're using internet explorer, IE can NOT run at 120 fps. You need a different browser to get that working.

It works at 100 hz, though. So just add a 100 hz resolution with a vertical total of 1350 (1502 is better, but you may need to use the toastyX amd/Nvidia pixel clock patcher for high vertical totals). Use total 2080 for horizontal and 1502 for vertical and 100hz.

Using a 1502 vertical total accelerates the scanout enough to make the crosstalk boundaries (strobe artifacts) look almost identical to lightboost (which has its own accelerated scanout). 1503 won't work; the screen will blank. You can use 1502 VT at 120hz also but you WILL need the pixel clock patcher. 100hz may also need it, although I'm not sure; it will need it if the default horizontal total is 2200 (its 2200 on the 27" monitors and usually 2080 on the 24"'s).

blakedc
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Joined: 11 Jul 2014, 23:40

Re: Asus with BenQ

Post by blakedc » 12 Jul 2014, 10:45

Yeah i'm in chrome. It works fine, 100%, no questsions on the Asus. These BenQ's seem a little more finicky.

Testing the 1502 now.

blakedc
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Joined: 11 Jul 2014, 23:40

Re: Asus with BenQ

Post by blakedc » 12 Jul 2014, 11:37

Here's a new issue. When I don't do a custom resolution, the monitor reports that it is running at 1920x1080 @ 120.

Once I do a custom resolution, reboot, and then do the reset64 (windows 8.1), it says it's running at 60hz.

I need to figure out why that's bugging and running at 60hz instead of 120 (altho, the alien invasion seems to say it's at 120hz, AMD says it's at 120hz and windows says it's at 120hz).

I don't know if it's not reporting right on the monitor or in windows.

Sigh, so much effort...

Falkentyne
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Re: Cannot get CRT clarity. Custom Res etc tried

Post by Falkentyne » 12 Jul 2014, 12:23

The vertical total changes put the monitor out of specifications. If you read strobemaster's page, he mentions that the monitor runs at a 60 hz backlight (voltage) timing (or something along that effect) instead of a 120hz timing, so the monitor reports 60 hz.

nvm: found the explanation: (vertical lines=vertical total/tweak)

http://display-corner.epfl.ch/index.php ... g_behavior

"As mentioned above, the monitor timing can be tweaked in order to speed up the update process of the LC panel. This is done by virtually making the vertical synchronization phase longer while preserving the vertical refresh rate, as described in the guide to the aforementioned BlurBuster's Strobe Utility. For 120 Hz, the maximal possible total number of vertical lines is 1350, for 100 Hz it is 1500 (empirical findings). These timing modes push the limits regarding pixel clock frequency and it might be worthwhile reducing the total number of pixel columns from 2080 to 2020 in order to lower the line and pixel clock frequencies. Depending on the graphics card it might be necessary to use different sync polarities and within-sync timing values (back porch, front porch, sync duration) in order to make the monitor accept the unconventional timing. It is not fully clear yet, whether at all or in how far the image quality depends on the sync timings. It should be noted though, that whenever the monitor timing deviates too much from any standard timing – which is clearly the case for the timings mentioned here –, the monitor adopts the 60 Hz backlight pulse widths. This is somewhat problematic as it allows to choose pulse durations which could shorten the lifetime of the LEDs. At 120 Hz, for example, the pulse width can be set to 5 ms, which is the intended maximum for 60 Hz though and, thus, pushes the average LED current at 120 Hz way beyond the limit considered safe by the manufacturer. Moreover, the tweaked monitor timings might not work at all (i.e., black screen) if the value for the pulse phase is too high. So, know what you are doing!

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Re: Cannot get CRT clarity. Custom Res etc tried

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 13 Jul 2014, 03:28

Falkentyne - this is only relevant to the monitor display of 60Hz and isn't the cause of the visual/visible problem of the original poster. The problem is persisting regardless of the VT tweak.

I have seen it being a Microsot Windows/driver problem for many 120Hz monitors only appearing to run at 60Hz.

blakedc
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- did you reinstall your graphics drivers?
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blakedc
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Re: Cannot get CRT clarity. Custom Res etc tried

Post by blakedc » 13 Jul 2014, 21:44

Ugh...!

I just:

Uninstalled via AMD Removal utility.
Rebooted.
Installed CCC 14.4 drivers.
Rebooted.
reinstalled monitor driver
rebooted.
set 1920x1080@120hz as resolution.
Turned on Blur Reduction.
still seeing ghosted. Game seemed choppy. Was running at 120FPS tho.
Created a Custom Resolution 1920x1080@120 with 2080 x 1350 @ 120HZ.
Rebooted.
Did UFO test and got these results...middle of screen...
UFO Test.jpg
UFO Test.jpg (235.83 KiB) Viewed 7526 times

blakedc
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Re: Cannot get CRT clarity. Custom Res etc tried

Post by blakedc » 13 Jul 2014, 21:46

Guess it really doesn't come out that well in that picture that I resized from 3.1MB to 230kb :(

Anyways, ghosting is clearly seen via space ships. The monitor is also hellishly dark when compared to the Asus one although everything says you can go brighter with BenQ vs Lighstrobe but I'm just not getting these results :(

Falkentyne
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Re: Cannot get CRT clarity. Custom Res etc tried

Post by Falkentyne » 14 Jul 2014, 02:56

That's how it's supposed to be.

What you need to do is to actually play a game. 2D simply exaggerates that type of ghosting because of the gray and sharp transitions. You don't usually see transitions like that as often in usual gaming scenes.

If you run the Benq in lightboost mode (if you have an NVidia card and a way to enable LB on the benq; you can use the "3d vision emulator" and the INF override btw), you will see that the type of trail ghosting is MUCH reduced, and the image looks much better, EXCEPT at the bottom of the screen (where it looks quite bad); actually looks worse than with BBR and the V1502 tweak.

Lightboost uses accelerated scanout and per line overdrive, so the image overall looks much cleaner in motion, but it still looks worse on the Benq than on the Asus panels (with their superior tracefree RTC).

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masterotaku
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Re: Cannot get CRT clarity. Custom Res etc tried

Post by masterotaku » 14 Jul 2014, 03:14

blakedc wrote:Anyways, ghosting is clearly seen via space ships.
That inverse ghosting almost unavoidable. Even Lightboost has that, but to a much lesser extent. You have some options:

1- Deal with it :P . While playing games it isn't as bad as in motion tests.
2- Turn AMA off, if you prefer ghosting instead of inverse ghosting. It helps in some situations where inverse ghosting was ugly, but in others you'll notice the slower response time of colors.
3- If you have a 3D Vision 2 kit, use Lightboost. It has worse colors and it's a lot less tweakable. Use this if not having overdrive artifacts is your number one priority.
4- Again, if you have a 3D Vision 2 kit, there's a special trick. Enabling Lightboost and then disabling it (going to a normal resolution with BenQ MBR), the monitor enters a state in which it's using MBR but it's like it's using some Lighboost internal settings. Ghosting is different. If you disable and then enable MBR, the monitor will return to normal. In some situations, it imitates correctly the lack of inverse ghosting that Lighboost has, but sometimes colors are weird in movement in the lower part of the screen (it also happens in LB, but it's a lot less noticeable). In my opinion, it looks good in Bioshock Infinite and Borderlands 2, for example.
blakedc wrote:The monitor is also hellishly dark when compared to the Asus one although everything says you can go brighter with BenQ vs Lighstrobe but I'm just not getting these results :(
That's weird. Are you using the Blurbusters utility?
CPU: Intel Core i7 7700K @ 4.9GHz
GPU: Gainward Phoenix 1080 GLH
RAM: GSkill Ripjaws Z 3866MHz CL19
Motherboard: Gigabyte Gaming M5 Z270
Monitor: Asus PG278QR

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