Is there a way to unlock/use ALL settings (BenQ XL2420Z)?

[VarHyid]

Hi Everyone,

I've bought the BenQ XL2420Z monitor recently and although I am quite happy with it for the most part, there is one issue that bugs me a lot - the lack of being able to use all settings at all times and I'm wondering if there's some kind of "trick" or any hidden menu to unlock them.

What I mean is, there is no "true" way to have fully custom settings on it. You must always start with a preset profile - Standard, FPS, Photo, sRGB etc. and then you can adjust some settings and save this as one of 3 custom profiles. The problem is that depending on what preset you start with, some settings will be blocked or even not there at all.

That said, I find that the "Photo" preset offers the best color vibrancy/saturation, but I'm unable to use blur reduction in this mode at all. Which is IMO stupid... does anyone know of any technical limitation why would I not be able to turn on Blur Reduction in this preset? Anyway, it can be used if you start with the "Standard" preset, but here I find the colors to be a bit washed-out or... I can't get the "deep blacks" (as deep as a TN panel goes, that is ) as I can in Photo mode.

I don't want to have to choose between good colors and half the options available or bad colors, but a few different options, that's insane.

Now, as if this wasn't bad enough - 3D mode is just beyond horrible. When the monitor goes into 3D mode, I have 2 (yes, TWO, it's not a typo) options - LightBoost and Contrast. What's worst is that in this mode, even with LightBoots OFF and Contrast = 0, the screen is so brutally bright and the colors so washed-out that it makes 3D just laughable. Why can't a set up everything like I did in 2D also in 3D - colors, brightness etc.? Also, I'm missing a "backlight" option I had in my old screen to set the strength of the backlight. Now, I could address this with the strobing persistence, but... I can't use Blur Reduction in my profile and I don't want to sacrifice colors for having Blur Reduction enabled

So again - it there some hidden menu or "trick" or service mode or something that will allow me to change every setting the monitor can offer in ANY mode - 2D, 3D and regardless of the "preset of reference"?

[Chief Blur Buster]

Hello VarHyid:

Welcome to Blur Busters Forums!
Are you using the "3D Mode" with shutter glasses, or for the purpose of motion blur reduction? 3D mode, uses LightBoost by necessity (see LightBoost FAQ and strobe backlights are also used for the purpose of reducing 3D crosstalk, but at the cost of quality degradation.

If you are using 3D mode to eliminate motion blur during 2D, one can use BENQ Blur Reduction instead... It can be much better colors and contrast (after tweaking with Blur Busters Strobe Utility). You can customize the picture a lot more during BENQ Blur Reduction. But since you say "3D Mode", I presume you're using shutter glasses. Unfortunately, there's no way to adjust picture colors/contrast/etc while you're in LightBoost mode, since LightBoost is optimized for use with 3D glasses.

The Photo preset can be duplicated with a user preset, and then you can enable blur reduction. I know it's a hassle, but that's the only way at the moment.

You're lucky you didn't get a LightBoost-only model; you are completely unable to adjust picture during LightBoost on all of them. It's a vendor requirement, because picture adjustments can increase 3D crosstalk massively, and the vendors has locked LightBoost adjustments to be stuck at optimized settings.

Hope this helps!

[VarHyid]

Thanks Chief I was referring to 3D mode for the purpose of 3D. Maybe I would enjoy it more if I had the chance to manually set up the screen as I like. I can make some adjustments in Nvidia's control panel, though, but... it would have been better to be able to set it up in the monitor and then, if anything, use the panel for some very minor tweaks.

For 2D I am using Blur Reduction and again, after some software tweaks (Nvidia's panel), I finally found a good setup that I can use based on the Standard mode. Speaking of modes, I'm afraid you're wrong reg. duplicating a user preset (or maybe I misunderstood you). Even though you have 3 "slots" for custom presets in this monitor, you can only start with a fixed preset, make your adjustments and then save it as a custom one, but if you start with Photo, for example (which doesn't allow Blur Reduction), then there's no way you can enable it by saving your custom preset (it will just save only with the options available in Photo).

Anyway, I'm "good" for now (though still annoyed by the fact that some functions are only available in some modes), big thanks for making the strobe utility, with it I can turn on Blur Reduction and have absolutely 0 loss in brightness thanks to the persistence settings

[Falkentyne]

I Think what chief is saying is you can use another mode that does allow blur reduction (aka standard mode) and then change the settings to get to the same type of quality as in a photo mode preset.

Unfortunately, while you can come somewhat close, duplicating a preset mode from standard mode is close to impossible.

What I found out, is that the DEFAULT color gain and saturation values are actually DIFFERENT in each preset than in standard mode, and there is no way to actually change those adjustments manually. You will have to use the video card driver control panel and combine that with the "sharpness" setting in the OSD, and then you can recreate any mode that way.

For example, the RTS mode has some very bizarre changes to the blue channel, and simply changing the blue level in standard mode will not replicate this at all. Basically, in RTS mode, normal blue becomes a HOT sky light blue even at 100/100/100, and attempting to replicate this in standard mode, or 'adjust' RTS mode to look like standard, winds up destroying the other colors.
It appears to be an actual individual color gain to each channel that the user has no access to. There are also different white points and deltas as well.

FPS 1 and 2 are identical modes (the only difference being the default Black Equalizer setting), but the FPS modes have a different default saturation and gamma value than standard, and no matter what you do, you cant get the color saturation levels of FPS mode by tweaking anything in standard mode. Likewise you can't directly tweak the saturation levels in FPS mode either, although there is a sort of a bug you can exploit to change the FPS saturation of the RGB channels together.

First, hook the monitor through HDMI (instead of DVI).
Then go to FPS mode, and if Saturation (in picture mode) is greyed out, go to the video card panel and adjust the HDMI PC range or the YCBCR range (One of the two settings will allow Hue and Saturation to be unlocked; changing the other one will lock saturation but will then unlock the HDMI PC color range in the OSD (you can't have BOTH unlocked at the same time).

Then change the saturation level of FPS 1/2, set your desired brightness and color settings, etc, and then SAVE it to a gamer preset.
Then switch back to DVI.

Saturation will be greyed out again, BUT The changes you made to saturation will 'stick' in the preset gamer profile (or FPS 1/2) that you made yourself. e.g. if you went crazy and set 100 saturation in HDMI, saved it to gamer 1, and switched back to DVI, the gamer 1 preset would have 100 saturation (but be greyed out).

This does not work in standard mode at all. You CAN Change saturation in standard mode through HDMI, but if you switch back to DVI, it uses the default 50 saturation at all times, regardless of what you set it to in HDMI. But for FPS 1/2, it uses your custom saturation even if you set it back to DVI.

That's the most you can adjust. There is no way to set independent color gain, however--you will have to use the video card control panel for that.

In VGA (Dsub) mode, you DO have full color gain controls through the monitor, but only through the factory service menu (not the normal service menu, but the one that also has the burn-in option). Then you can adjust each channel and replicate anything possible (but any changes made in VGA mode are ignored in any other video connection).

[VarHyid]

Thanks a lot, I didn't know that at first and wondered how come the FPS mode be so horribly bad that I couldn't get yellow right without boosting red to the point where it's so over-the-top that even I didn't like it (and I tend to like having more reds than blues).

Right now, I've already managed to get the picture in Standard just like in Photo. Well, not just via the monitor's settings, though, I gad to lower the Gamma and slightly increase "digital vibrance" in the Nvidia panel - now I can't even tell when I switch between Photo with no adjustments and Standard with these adjustments which is good as I can use Blur Reduction