New XL2720Z..

[erictan357]

Hello All!

New here.. and even newer to the professional gaming monitor scene..
A bit of background:
Just bought a new XL2720Z from Amazon, the Zowie version.
Playing on Xbox One console, specifically game Overwatch which plays @ 60Hz

Been trying to follow along with the forums in here but there is just a lot of terminology I am not understanding..
http://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2693

1) How do I check to see exactly what firmware version I am running?
2) Right now I am playing with Blue Reduction ON and AMA set on HIGH.. but.. my eyes are not trained enough to know what it is I am looking at exactly... Can someone give me a breakdown on what it is I am looking for? I've heard of "ghosting".. but at the current setting, I don't think I am seeing it.. but regardless, I just want to make the best use of this monitor.

I was debating whether or not to go for the XL2730Z but I heard reviews saying that the XL2720Z is better in terms of playing at specific HZ for it properly refreshes @ 1HZ or something.. I'm sorry for sounding ignorant, I hope someone can shed some knowledge

Thank you in advance!

**EDIT** More background.. I've been gaming on an LG 55" TV for a long.. long..long time.. Going from 35ms to 1ms display is kind of a big change, but also means I don't have experience with higher-end displays.

[erictan357]

Okay.. After some more research, I found a great link that explained some things more clearly!
I was able to apply the AMA low setting tweak after following: http://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2590

I hooked up my PC to the monitor and was able to launch the testufo.com site so after following the steps, I was able to notice the "Ghosting" effect!

Now through some personal tests, it seems like even just turning the monitor on/off will reset the AMA low setting.. Is this normal behavior?

Also, the aliens in the test.. I've seen people posting images of their actual alien looking clear.. my aliens look distorted almost as if it has 3 eyes and 2 heads... What effect is this called? Would this just be my computer and not the display?

Thank you!

Okay.. just realized this is the effect of the Blur Reduction.. SO when I use Preset #1.. this goes away..

When playing FPS games.. what is the desired effect?

[Falkentyne]

Hi, ok just to clarify a few things
As you have read, you can set the AMA from "high" to "low", both with blur reduction on and blur reduction off.
Doing it with blur reduction on is simple--just enable blur reduction and then set the AMA to high and overwrite it afterwards.
This is a temporary setting: turning the monitor off will reset both the blur reduction on and the blur reduction off setting (explained below), but the AMA low thing for blur reduction on is reset by many things: Changing monitor brightness (even by 1 point), changing any monitor setting which "blanks" the screen (e.g. picture or display modes), changing ANY Strobe setting in the service menu, even by 1 point, changing single strobe, or changing resolution or refresh rate.

If you want to apply the "AMA low" to blur reduction off, it's more complicated.
you need to apply it to blur reduction on (as above), then you need, instead of DISABLING blur reduction (this won't work, this will always reset the AMA), you need to activate a preset that already has blur reduction disabled. This is easiest to do if you previously have saved a copy of "Standard mode", with blur reduction disabled, into a Gamer 1, 2, or 3 preset.
For some reason, activating a preset that has blur reduction disabled, when you currently have blur reduction enabled, causes it to use the "current" active AMA setting, instead of using the defaults for MBR disabled.

If you get it to work with MBR disabled (you can tell by the pictures in my thread), you CAN change monitor brightness freely, and of course, changing strobe settings won't revert it, since blur reduction isn't even on. But again, refresh rate or resolution changes, or turning the monitor off, will revert it.

Just take your time and mess around with it. You'll get the hang of it.

And about the aliens looking clear vs having 3 eyes and 2 heads, pictures can be taken by using "pursuit camera", which I can't explain (there's articles on the main page). But if you are getting a triple image only on a small part of the screen, that's probably strobe crosstalk. If it moves up and down when you change the "Strobe Phase" setting in the service menu, then that's what it is.

Strobe crosstalk can be reduced by using the "vertical total" custom resolution tweaks. Just make sure you don't set the strobe phase too high with a VT Tweak. that's all explained already.

[erictan357]

Just wanted to thank you for your insight! AMA low with Blue reduction off is great!

[Falkentyne]

Oh you got it to work. Some people have trouble understanding it.
You're exploiting a bug in the firmware, where if you "Disable" blur reduction by changing the Picture Mode preset, it does not reload the AMA level for blur reduction off. Instead it uses the last active level. People complained heavily about the terrible overdrive settings back on V2 firmware, and on the Z series predecessors (The T series Lightboost monitors). And the blur reduction "AMA low" overwrite (setting AMA to low after enabling MBR) wasn't "added" until V003 firmware. Masterotaku was complaining about the overdrive getting even worse if you set AMA to high after enabling MBR on the (at the time) V2 firmware. V3 was never dumped (well it was, but Chief didn't trust the file, and the link went dead quickly). When someone dumped V4, one of the first things I tested was setting AMA to high after enabling blur reduction, just to see if Benq had finally "fixed" that, and was quite surprised.

Getting the low setting to work with blur reduction off was a complete accident. I was messing around with the Photo and Movie modes when I realized somehow the ghosting was lower and had to find out what I did....

[wazer]

Oh you got it to work. Some people have trouble understanding it.
You're exploiting a bug in the firmware, where if you "Disable" blur reduction by changing the Picture Mode preset, it does not reload the AMA level for blur reduction off. Instead it uses the last active level. People complained heavily about the terrible overdrive settings back on V2 firmware, and on the Z series predecessors (The T series Lightboost monitors). And the blur reduction "AMA low" overwrite (setting AMA to low after enabling MBR) wasn't "added" until V003 firmware. Masterotaku was complaining about the overdrive getting even worse if you set AMA to high after enabling MBR on the (at the time) V2 firmware. V3 was never dumped (well it was, but Chief didn't trust the file, and the link went dead quickly). When someone dumped V4, one of the first things I tested was setting AMA to high after enabling blur reduction, just to see if Benq had finally "fixed" that, and was quite surprised.

Getting the low setting to work with blur reduction off was a complete accident. I was messing around with the Photo and Movie modes when I realized somehow the ghosting was lower and had to find out what I did....

Perhaps you should record it with a webcam to show exactly what you do, i have been trying for months to try understand what you exactly are doing and yet I failed to do it, if you do it, please let me know, i just made this account to tell you, I want to test it but yet I dont understand properly how to do it, you dont need to say anything in English if you do not want to, just that you should and maybe add text to screen what you exactly do. This way we can get rid of the confusion, and maybe somebody else can do a proper video if you don't like to do it, lets say my self.

[Falkentyne]

It's extremely easy. And if you cant understand my instructions, I doubt a webcam (which I don't own) will do anything.
There's a video already made which shows you how to enter the service menu. He also talks about how to "improve" the AMA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib8rLMPr6ew
Starts at 3:15.

But you don't need a video to do these very simple instructions!

1) Enable blur reduction. (You know how to do this already).
2) set AMA to high. (You know how to do this already).

Presto! You're done.

Now if you want this "AMA toggle" to work with blur reduction OFF, then you add ONE more step.
3) switch directly into a gaming preset that ALREADY has blur reduction off, and presto ! (if you don't have one, then make one and save it in a Gamer 1/2/3 profile).

Boom. Done.