Help trying to transition from CRT

[par]

Hi,

I've been playing FPS games on CRT monitors for quite a while (more than 10 years). I would like to transition to an LCD. I have tried a few but have had miserable experience trying to play on them. In addition to the motion blur and input lag(which are horrible), there is a noticeable feeling of being delayed or 'in mud' when I'm gaming on an LCD. Feels as if I'm almost moving my mouse underwater and strafing in game feels slow and unresponsive. Also, the smoothness of 144hz of an lcd is not comparable in my opinion to that of 120hz on a crt.

Does anyone have any tips or thoughts on what I should do to make playing on an LCD better emulate a CRT? Is it as simple as using lightboost or gsync?I have tried Asus 144hz monitor, Benq 27" 144hz, and benq xl2411z 24" 144hz. I returned or sold all of them after a few weeks of playing. I've tried the built-in motion blur reduction on the Benq and I honestly see very little to zero difference with it on or off.

I would like to hear input from former CRT diehards. Some people can get accustomed to playing on LCD's more quickly than others or may not be as sensitive to the differences as I am. At this point I highly doubt that there are any tweaks I can do that can correct crippling faults of an LCD.

[Falkentyne]

If you're trying to transition from CRT, start on this monitor
Trust me. I used CRT's and would NOT switch until the last one broke in 2012 (a Dell P1130).

Benq XL2720Z. Version v4/v5 firmware.
This will give you the SAME SMOOTHNESS you are used to.

Please trust me.
I'm a bigger CRT diehard than almost anyone on the planet. The difference between me and the others is that I'm extremely poor and in a lot of trouble. But other than that I was as diehard as they came.

Just get the XL270Z.

http://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2467

The XL2411Z, XL2420Z and XL2720Z are all in the same family and overall, show the same benefits, with the main differences being the I/o ports (displayport is rather important on the XL2720Z and XL2420Z, which the XL2411Z lacks), and the overdrive settings, which can get complicated (the 24" monitors have the exact same overdrive and "AMA low" hidden setting, while the XL2720Z's AMA low reduces overdrive to a MUCH lower level than the 24" monitors. You could even say a "bit" too low, unless you drop the contrast at the same time, HOWEVER, the XL2720Z's "AMA Low" "too low" setting causes blur reduction OFF's AMA low overdrive to look just PRISTINELY perfect, while the 24" monitor's blur reduction off's AMA low still have too much overshoot (inverse ghosting)."

Anyway, you will see a MASSIVE difference once you learn how to set up the monitor and what VT tweaks to use. I know you used the 2411Z before and didn't see much of a difference, but as a CRT diehard, I even saw CRT type motion quality even using an Asus VG248QE in Lightboost mode.

if you choose to get an XL2720Z, I'll help you set it up as long as I still have internet access. Things are a bit (Ok, extremely) difficult for me right now and I'm in a lot of trouble (NOTHING regarding anything legal or stuff like that) regarding the safety of my life.

let me know what you decide.

[par]

That monitor was actually one that I bought and returned. However, I did not try any advanced blur reduction other than what Benq had built in and I don't know what version of firmware I had.

[Falkentyne]

I was still editing my post when you replied.
How long ago did you get the XL2720Z? Do you remember the approximate date?

I do have some pictures showing what a 'traditional' (blur reduction off) LCD looks like and what the XL2720Z looks like. Theyre in my thread I linked but I can post some here.

I don't have any 120hz blur reduction off pics (and due to be being in my mother's office temporarily as I have no other shelter, I can't really take any) so here's just one example I can give you.

100hz, blur reduction off, default AMA (high) settings.
99% of Benq users will have this type of overdrive without knowing how to exploit firmware bugs to improve it.


120hz, blur reduction ON, default AMA (high) settings. 99% of users will see this:

(Note: image is dim due to -2.0 camera exposure time).

120hz, Blur reduction ON, AMA Low (toggled) settings. Contrast=43. Camera normal exposure. only learned users will see this:
Notice all of the inverse ghosting is removed, replaced by "normal" ghosting from a very low AMA level.


Here is the SAME settings but Contrast reduced from 43 to 10. Camera exposure -2.0 so dimmer than above.




144hz, Blur reduction OFF, AMA high (default) settings, what almost everyone would see.
Please notice the overdrive artifacts and inverse ghosting on the left of the UFO/main images.


144hz, blur reduction OFF, AMA LOW settings from a blur reduction ON + profile switch bug:
Notice the almost complete removal of all overdrive artifacts.

[par]

It was in January of this year, 2016.

[Falkentyne]

Ok well that probably came with V005. Hope the pictures are of some help.

if you choose not to go with one of these, your only other option is a GSYNC or FREESYNC screen. But you will STILL have to deal with motion blur. Maybe not stutters, but motion blur. ULMB (Ultra low motion blur) mode on the Gsync monitors can NOT be used at the same time as Gsync.

Only two Freesync monitors come with blur reduction:
Eizo Foris FS2735 (this might be a good monitor to try if you want) and Benq XL2730Z (I would avoid this).

[par]

They were helpful thanks. I'll have to read your thread more closely to figure out exactly what you did. All I tried was the stock motion blur reduction on/off setting in the menu. That wasn't nearly good enough for me.

Was thinking of trying lightboost. I will read into what you did though.

Thanks.

[Falkentyne]

Lightboost is the predecessor to Benq blur reduction. Benq actually USED some of the lightboost circuitry and reverse engineered it to make the parameters adjustable, but with much worse overdrive artifacts. But the lightboost per-line overdrive settings were done with hardware that required a special video mode that was triggered through Vertical Total values in a custom resolution (100hz=VT 1138, 110hz=VT 1143, 120hz=VT 1149), and this was designed to be used with 3d glasses, but could be kept on in 2D as what we cared about was the strobing.

Lightboost uses (internally) the same Vertical Total (done internally instead of through a custom resolution; the custom resolution that was used just "turned on" lightboost, with a much lower VT) that the Benq Vt tweaks do, when we use the VT 1497-VT 1502 range (I tested this pixel for pixel. Crosstalk is EXACTLY the same with VT 1497-VT 1502, as it is in Lightboost (3D mode) enabled.

Yes, without knowing how to adjust settings, Benq blur reduction can look quite horrible, while Lightboost is already set for low overdrive and "Vertical Total 1500" type tweak and Strobe Phase 009 (internally) all set up for you. Especially when the monitor defaults to strobe duty =020 and strobe phase =100 after a firmware hard reset or a flash. The V001 UNADJUSTABLE settings before Chief Blur Buster asked for them to be adjusted, were Strobe phase 020 and strobe duty 100, which combined with the overdrive artifacts, looked WORSE than lightboost, except having control over gamma and color/brightness/contrast.

[par]

Interesting, do you think I should have noticed a big improvement when turning on the standard Benq blur reduction?

[Falkentyne]

Yes. You should have felt like you were using your old CRT again, but with worse colors.
However strobe phase=20 is not much better than no blur reduction at all.

Once you learn about persistence (each point of strobe duty adds 0.167ms persistence when using a Vertical Total tweak, but if NOT using a Vertical total tweak, each point of strobe duty adds (refresh rate persistence / 100) ms persistence.

Yes you guessed it.
Using a VT tweak forces the scaler to use the 60hz persistence values. This is probably an error check safeguard that keeps the scalar able to sync the strobing to "unknown" vertical totals. 16.7ms divided by 100 is 0.167. This applies whenever any VT tweak of an unknown value is used, even at 85hz, 91hz, 100hz, 100hz, 125hz, etc.

That's because each refresh rate has a designated vertical total. 60hz is VT 1125 (but with different front porch than higher refresh rates(88 pixels, 4 lines) and sync width values (44 pixels, 5 lines), 75hz is VT 1119 (front porch 48,3), (sync width 32,5), 85hz is VT 1124, 100hz is VT 1133, 120hz is VT 1144, for example. If you created a custom 100hz refresh rate with a VT of 1124, the monitor would report 85hz in the OSD, causing some bizarreness in the strobing. If the Vertical Total deviates too far from an established known value, the monitor defaults to the safe (60hz) values. This is why when using a VT 1500 tweak, the OSD reports 60hz.

Example: 120hz without a VT tweak adds 0.083ms of persistence per point of strobe duty.
120hz = 8.3ms persistence, 8.3/100 = 0.083.

120hz with a VT tweak adds 0.167ms, for example. The LOWER the persistence, the darker the screen but the more blur reduction you have. The higher the persistence, the brighter the screen but the more blurry the image.

1.0ms persistence (Strobe duty=006 with a VT tweak, e.g. Vertical Total=1500) is like a typical high end CRT, but not as bright. 0.5ms persistence (Strobe duty=003 with VT tweak) requires a pitch black room, but is like using a CRT with a 0.18nm dot pitch.

A persistence of 1.5ms should be fine for lit room daytime usage (Strobe duty 0.167 x 009 with VT). This is equal to the old Lightboost 10% persistence. I would not go any higher than this or you start noticing blur being added.

Once you know how to use a HIGH strobe phase, and you find the limit where the backlight shuts off (when blur reduction is enabled), then you can go backwards, to lower input lag by 1 frame, e.g. 100hz + VT 1500 tweak: Strobe Phase 054 CAPS the maximum strobe duty at 006 or lower (this is all explained in my VT thread as well as other posts I've made recently to people). At 120hz+VT tweak, Strobe phase 044 caps the MAXIMUM Strobe duty at 006.

The old Lightboost mode would go down to 1.4ms persistence at "10%" setting at 120hz and 2.1ms at 10% setting at 100hz.

Depending on if you were using a VT Tweak or not, if you had default strobe phase of 20, your persistence could have been as low as 1.66ms or as high as 3.34ms.

The service menu setting "Single Strobe" must be set to ON when using refresh rates lower than 98 hz.