Help with ghosting on BenQ XL2546

Ask about motion blur reduction in gaming monitors. Includes ULMB (Ultra Low Motion Blur), NVIDIA LightBoost, ASUS ELMB, BenQ/Zowie DyAc, Turbo240, ToastyX Strobelight, etc.
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GGekko
Posts: 4
Joined: 22 Aug 2019, 03:12

Help with ghosting on BenQ XL2546

Post by GGekko » 22 Aug 2019, 03:18

Hi,

I'm seeking help with an issue I have with my new XL2546 I just bought to replace my Alienware 2518HF.
I did the ghosting test (https://www.testufo.com/ghosting) and compared it with my Alienware 2518HF monitor.
While DyAC adds a lot of clarity and I can see the UFO's white lights as well as the alien's eyes much more clearly, no matter what OSD settings I use, I get a bit more ghosting on the second and and a lot more ghosting on the third UFO row (I see a slight black/white trail behind the UFO). This isn't the case on my Alienware2518HF at all, where the UFOs are more blurry, but leave no trail at all on all rows once I configured the monitor correctly.

I'm therefore wondering if I configured my XL2546 correctly.

Here are the settings I'm using and which so far allowed to minimize the ghosting while not fixing it:
DyAc: Premium
Black eQualizer: 0
Color Vibrance: 0
Low Blue Light: 0
Instant Mode: ON
Picture Mode: Standard
Brightness: 70
Contrast: 40
Sharpness: 5
Gamma: 3
Color Temperature: Normal

AMA: High (setting it to premium made the ghosting much worse!)
I'm also using the ZOWIE XL LCD Color Profile. D6500 which I downloaded here benq.com/en-us/support/downloads-faq/products/gaminggears/xl2546/software-driver.html

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated :)
Last edited by GGekko on 24 Aug 2019, 09:36, edited 1 time in total.

alapsu
Posts: 23
Joined: 18 Jul 2019, 17:33

Re: Help with ghosting on BenQ XL2546

Post by alapsu » 22 Aug 2019, 09:29

I have the same monitor as you and think you could benefit from using the Blur Busters Strobe Utility (https://www.blurbusters.com/benq/strobe-utility/) and/or tweaking vertical totals (see the guide at https://www.blurbusters.com/faq/advance ... stalk-faq/).

You're not going to be able to improve these issues much by tweaking the options available to you in the default OSD menu. The Strobe Utility is nice because it lets you easily tweak two relevant settings which you'll otherwise only be able to access via the monitor's service menu. At 240Hz, the best you'll be able to do is move the crosstalk "band" to a more optimal position according to your goals (latency vs. visual quality). You can find some great info about that on this website. You won't be able to completely eliminate crosstalk at 240Hz on this or any other monitor.

In general, the higher the Hz, the more difficulty monitors have strobing without unwanted crosstalk. If you want to reduce these issues, the best thing you can do is lower you monitor's Hz setting and increase the vertical total. You can do this without feeling you've wasted money on a 240Hz monitor because the XL2546 will perform better w/r/t crosstalk/ghosting at a lower Hz than a max-144Hz or max-120Hz monitor attempting to do the same thing.

I've found that for more demanding single-player games, the best experience involves running my XL2546 at 102Hz with a significantly-increased vertical total (and V-Sync on). This allows me to adjust the crosstalk band so that it's pretty much totally off the screen and there's practically no difference between the top, middle, and bottom of the screen. For CSGO, I leave it at 240Hz and adjust the position of the crosstalk band.

GGekko
Posts: 4
Joined: 22 Aug 2019, 03:12

Re: Help with ghosting on BenQ XL2546

Post by GGekko » 23 Aug 2019, 06:27

Thank you for your in-depth reply. I'll try the things you suggested and report back here.

alapsu
Posts: 23
Joined: 18 Jul 2019, 17:33

Re: Help with ghosting on BenQ XL2546

Post by alapsu » 23 Aug 2019, 07:30

GGekko wrote:Thank you for your in-depth reply. I'll try the things you suggested and report back here.
Cool. By the way, to save you some trial and error, at 102Hz I have my vertical total at 2320 and the rest of the settings follow the blurbusters guide for xl2540/xl2546.

GGekko
Posts: 4
Joined: 22 Aug 2019, 03:12

Re: Help with ghosting on BenQ XL2546

Post by GGekko » 24 Aug 2019, 09:35

I downloaded and tried the strobe calibration utility from your first link:

1.The first slider (persistence) didn't change anything to the UFO's appearance, except making the whole screen brighter/darker

2. The second slider however improved things. I moved it from the default 10 to 30 and this made the center of the screen (where the crosshair is) the area where the UFO's movement was smoothest (in particular it's where its black feet leave now leave no trails at all).

I also contacted BenQ customer service about the issue and they asked for a video displaying the problem with AMA turned completely off, which I did (but I also told them that AMA on "High" actually improves things...). I'll report back when I have an answer from them.

GGekko
Posts: 4
Joined: 22 Aug 2019, 03:12

Re: Help with ghosting on BenQ XL2546

Post by GGekko » 05 Sep 2019, 19:37

Update:

After countless e-mails with Zowie BenQ customer support and between them and their "technician" I was asked to do several recordings of my monitor with my phone. Unfortunately, with my phone's slow motion camera the problem was barely visible, so I went ahead and returned the monitor to have it replaced by another one. Turns out the replacement monitor has less black/white trails surrounding moving things (but it did come with scratches on the bezel...) and so this is how the story ends. Oddly enough, the replacement monitor is also noticeably brighter than the problematic one with the same color profile/OSD/strobe calibration utility settings. Panel lottery seems to be a real thing, almost as much as silicon lottery.

wiraxbox363
Posts: 12
Joined: 20 Dec 2017, 14:52

Re: Help with ghosting on BenQ XL2546

Post by wiraxbox363 » 16 Sep 2019, 16:40

One question, you can also use this program on another monitor other than the benq brand?

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