Text ghosting problem on new monitor HP Omen X 25f

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Dober
Posts: 4
Joined: 09 Nov 2019, 07:21

Text ghosting problem on new monitor HP Omen X 25f

Post by Dober » 06 May 2020, 00:28

Hey guys,

I have a specific problem with a new monitor. I hope the term "text ghosting" is the correct one to describe my problem. I was quite happy with the monitor after setting up brightness, colors, sharpness and so on and I was also happy with performance in game. I came to see a problem while browsing the web. I use the Firefox browser with smooth scrolling enabled. The problem is that when I gently scroll through a website I think I can see the black text start to get either overly sharp or overly soft depending on the font and size of the text. When I scroll faster I also get either a greenish or redish shadow behind the black text while scrolling depending on the monitors overdrive setting (called "response time setting" on this model). It has 4 levels and it is kind of redish on Level 3+4 and greenish on Level 1+2. The monitor does not have an "Off" setting for this feature. I did also play around with other settings of the monitor to see if it makes any difference but without any luck. I made some testing on the ufo test website (240Hz/FPS looks so smooth 8-) ) and I am actually happy with the performance in all those testing areas but when scrolling a website it gets really annoying and it actually even tires and hurts my eyes to see the text always fade away so overly sharp/soft.

I did check my old monitor (BenQ XL2720Z) just to confirm I am not imagining a problem that is not really there but after browsing websites on my old monitor (144Hz) it made the difference even more clear. On my old BenQ scrolling through websites is incredibly clear and I could even read the text while (gently) browsing without the text changing sharpness or colors.

Can anyone confirm that this is normal or not normal for the HP Omen monitor? I might send it back for good if that is normal or get a replacement if mine is faulty in that area.

Thanks for reading, stay safe. :)

Max_hz
Posts: 118
Joined: 25 Jul 2019, 09:46

Re: Text ghosting problem on new monitor HP Omen X 25f

Post by Max_hz » 06 May 2020, 09:28

@ Dober

"Can anyone confirm that this is normal or not normal for the HP Omen monitor?"

The 2 units I've tried before did the same as you describe while scrolling the webbrowser however with the first one it was more
visible than with the second. I did notice when you disable adaptive sync in monitor menu it become less also with the contrast below 76. You can give it a try!
I send the first one back for the same reason, the second I ordered month's later showed the same but much more less.
In use: Asus VG259QM IPS 240-280hz - Hanns-G HS233 TN 120hz
Used before: LG 24LG600 TN 144hz - HP Omen X 25f TN 240hz - ViewSonic XG2402 TN 144hz - Asus VG259Q IPS 144hz

masneb
Posts: 239
Joined: 15 Apr 2019, 03:04

Re: Text ghosting problem on new monitor HP Omen X 25f

Post by masneb » 06 May 2020, 19:33

Pretty sure this is a artifact of 240hz. You're seeing response time artifacts. My XF252Q has this as well. This is why I switched from the PG258Q. Even though they're both 240hz, if the pixels don't transition fast enough so you end up starting to bump into the artifacts from the pixels themselves. 144hz for instance your response times are generally faster then the refresh rate.

This is also why variable sync can hide this effect or make it very inconsistent whether or not you're seeing it. Lower refresh means the pixels have more time to reach their final state. Also why I'm still hunting for the fastest possible response times and consider OLED to be the holy grail.

I'm guessing BFI would probably fix this. I hate BFI so I haven't went out of my way to test it, however BFI covers up the transition state for pixels. BFI in my opinion adds like a film grain effect to everything and find it super annoying and poor implementations give me a headache.

Keep in mind this is just text and is easiest to see with text, this effects everything in video games and can harm your ability for threat recognition (being able to notice silhouettes and things that may harm you).

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Dober
Posts: 4
Joined: 09 Nov 2019, 07:21

Re: Text ghosting problem on new monitor HP Omen X 25f

Post by Dober » 06 May 2020, 20:00

Thank you guys for your responses.

I used the monitor today for several hours and it didn't get better. Tried contrast on 60, no Adaptive sync and refresh rates on 144, 100, 85 and 60. All the same. So masneb, I don't think this is a 240Hz side effect. I had this issue on another 144Hz Dell monitor I purchased last year as well but I thought it was because of a bad panel with very few settings available (you couldn't even set Gamma for example)

I'm not so much into the technical aspects of monitors so I don't understand much of the technics behind them, but I also don't get it how I am the only one who gets bothered by this so much. I have informed myself before purchasing the HP Omen X 25f and I didn't read anything about this anywhere. I even tried to copy settings from a review site (rtings) where they used Overdrive Level 3 which is absolutely atrocious visually. I don't get it how you can actually use the monitor with those settings. Maybe when you run testing sequences okay, but in everyday use it's unusable for me. Browsing websites is a choire. Sadly I will return this monitor for good.

But is there maybe another user who can give input on why this effect occurs? I think it must have something to do with overdrive because it gets better with lowest overdrive settings (still bad though) And more importantly why it seems that almost no one seems to be bothered by it?!

Mr1991
Posts: 142
Joined: 24 Nov 2019, 10:10

Re: Text ghosting problem on new monitor HP Omen X 25f

Post by Mr1991 » 06 May 2020, 21:16

Might be your panel, I’ll check mine tomorrow but from what I remember it was mostly only on level 4 response time

Max_hz
Posts: 118
Joined: 25 Jul 2019, 09:46

Re: Text ghosting problem on new monitor HP Omen X 25f

Post by Max_hz » 07 May 2020, 05:17

At the end I send both back, indeed for the blurry text while scrolling but also (more important) for the annoying vertical lines when moving your character in game (cs:go). I also tried other refresh-rates 120hz-144hz-200hz-240hz it made no difference.
The blurry text was worst with the first unit indeed visible at all OD levels (like yours) the second unit was better and OD 2 for desktop and OD 3 for gaming was acceptable but the annoying vertical lines when moving in game (also at all refresh-rates) made me send the second one back.
In use: Asus VG259QM IPS 240-280hz - Hanns-G HS233 TN 120hz
Used before: LG 24LG600 TN 144hz - HP Omen X 25f TN 240hz - ViewSonic XG2402 TN 144hz - Asus VG259Q IPS 144hz

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