Re: Benq XL2430T Settings
Posted: 28 Sep 2015, 20:28
I'm eventually going to write a post and ask Chief blur buster to sticky it, so people can use the strobe phase setting to get the most out of the input lag of the monitor. But anyway:
Strobe phase 000 has 1 frame (1000 divided by refresh rate I milliseconds) higher input lag, but this is optimized for LOWEST amount of strobe crosstalk at the bottom of the screen, with minimal crosstalk at the top of the screen (increasing strobe duty will increase the amount of crosstalk at the top (slightly) while moving the bottom farther down, (again, although slightly). Example: Strobe phase 000 at 60hz refresh rate (single strobe forced ON in the service menu) will have 16 ms higher input lag than strobe phase 100. (1000 / 60)=16.7ms. Strobe phase 000 at 120hz refresh rate will have 8.3ms higher input lag (1000 / 120)=8.3ms.
WITHOUT a Vertical Total tweak active, strobe phase at 100 (max) will have a LOWER input lag by exactly one frame, compared to strobe phase 000. Again this is 1000 / refresh rate in milliseconds. At 144hz this is 1000 / 144=6.9ms improvement (one frame). At 120hz it's 8.3ms, At 100hz it's 10.0ms, etc.
The drawback to having a strobe phase set to 100 is there is MORE crosstalk at the bottom of the screen than strobe phase 000. This makes strobe phase 100 not ideal for anything requiring full screen vision, like 2D side scrolling games or general desktop use. Games which have a gigantic HUD covering the bottom of the screen (E.g. call of duty, CS:GO, etc) will work well with this.
*WITH A VT TWEAK*, the maximum strobe phase is LIMITED due to the backlight switching to 60hz pulse widths, despite the refresh rate NOT being 60hz (I think the XL2430T will show the true refresh rate regardless of a VT 1350/VT 1500 / VT 1502 tweak being in use; the XL2420Z and XL2720Z will report 60hz in the OSD). The maximum strobe phase allowed is dependent on the VT tweak and the refresh rate:
Assuming VT 1500:
The maximum strobe phase before the backlight shuts off is:
125hz: 047
120hz: 049
100hz: 059
91hz: 067
85hz: (I forgot but higher than 067)
Strobe phase is the same as "Area" in the service menu.
When using a Vertical total tweak, when you increase the strobe phase past a certain point, you wil notice the backlight eventually start getting dimmer and the amount of blur reduction becoming stronger. This is because the strobe duty is starting to decrease internally(even though the actual set value for strobe duty (aka "Intensity" in the OSD) isn't changing. The point right before the backlight shuts off is equivalent to strobe duty 001 (this MIGHT be reversed in the XL2430T and may be intensity 25 instead), which is equal to 0.167ms persistence. (Since a VT tweak is active the 60hz backlight pulse widths are used).
the backlight shuts off because if the strobe phase is increased any more, the persistence becomes 0.0ms (aka strobe duty 000) and the lowest value is 001 (0.167ms persistence).
So for absolute LOWEST input lag in FPS games, you want the strobe phase as high as possible while still maintaining a decently bright screen, but at the expense of more bottom side crosstalk.
No one knows WHY the strobe duty starts decreasing as the phase increases with a VT tweak active, but we DO know that the reason the vertical total tweak works in the first place, is due to how the scaler interacted with Lightboost mode internally to lower Lightboost crosstalk; Apparently lightboost sends a VT 1502 tweak signal to the monitor scaler internally, causing it to strobe with a screen size of 1440 vertical rows (note : the actual VT that tells the monitor to switch into lightboost mode is differnet, e.g. 1138, 1143 and 1149). But Lightboost uses accelerated scanout which is basically doing the exact same thing as the VT 1500 tweak is doing--causing the scaler to work with a longer blanking interval, which makes it think that the screen size is 1280x1440 (long story, but the factory menu shows this as the scaler resolution).
Anyway now that you know how strobe phase and having 1 frame of improved or worse input lag works, you have to balance it for your game. You can use this full screen test to see how much strobe crosstalk you have with a VT 1500 tweak, then test different "Area" (strobe phase) values.
http://www.testufo.com/#test=photo&phot ... &height=-1
Remember you can set "Single Strobe" to enabled in the service menu for refresh rates lower than 100hz.
(Power off, hold button #4 for 5 seconds, power on, release button #4. Button #4 will then enter the service menu. The factory menu is button #3 and #4).
Strobe phase 000 has 1 frame (1000 divided by refresh rate I milliseconds) higher input lag, but this is optimized for LOWEST amount of strobe crosstalk at the bottom of the screen, with minimal crosstalk at the top of the screen (increasing strobe duty will increase the amount of crosstalk at the top (slightly) while moving the bottom farther down, (again, although slightly). Example: Strobe phase 000 at 60hz refresh rate (single strobe forced ON in the service menu) will have 16 ms higher input lag than strobe phase 100. (1000 / 60)=16.7ms. Strobe phase 000 at 120hz refresh rate will have 8.3ms higher input lag (1000 / 120)=8.3ms.
WITHOUT a Vertical Total tweak active, strobe phase at 100 (max) will have a LOWER input lag by exactly one frame, compared to strobe phase 000. Again this is 1000 / refresh rate in milliseconds. At 144hz this is 1000 / 144=6.9ms improvement (one frame). At 120hz it's 8.3ms, At 100hz it's 10.0ms, etc.
The drawback to having a strobe phase set to 100 is there is MORE crosstalk at the bottom of the screen than strobe phase 000. This makes strobe phase 100 not ideal for anything requiring full screen vision, like 2D side scrolling games or general desktop use. Games which have a gigantic HUD covering the bottom of the screen (E.g. call of duty, CS:GO, etc) will work well with this.
*WITH A VT TWEAK*, the maximum strobe phase is LIMITED due to the backlight switching to 60hz pulse widths, despite the refresh rate NOT being 60hz (I think the XL2430T will show the true refresh rate regardless of a VT 1350/VT 1500 / VT 1502 tweak being in use; the XL2420Z and XL2720Z will report 60hz in the OSD). The maximum strobe phase allowed is dependent on the VT tweak and the refresh rate:
Assuming VT 1500:
The maximum strobe phase before the backlight shuts off is:
125hz: 047
120hz: 049
100hz: 059
91hz: 067
85hz: (I forgot but higher than 067)
Strobe phase is the same as "Area" in the service menu.
When using a Vertical total tweak, when you increase the strobe phase past a certain point, you wil notice the backlight eventually start getting dimmer and the amount of blur reduction becoming stronger. This is because the strobe duty is starting to decrease internally(even though the actual set value for strobe duty (aka "Intensity" in the OSD) isn't changing. The point right before the backlight shuts off is equivalent to strobe duty 001 (this MIGHT be reversed in the XL2430T and may be intensity 25 instead), which is equal to 0.167ms persistence. (Since a VT tweak is active the 60hz backlight pulse widths are used).
the backlight shuts off because if the strobe phase is increased any more, the persistence becomes 0.0ms (aka strobe duty 000) and the lowest value is 001 (0.167ms persistence).
So for absolute LOWEST input lag in FPS games, you want the strobe phase as high as possible while still maintaining a decently bright screen, but at the expense of more bottom side crosstalk.
No one knows WHY the strobe duty starts decreasing as the phase increases with a VT tweak active, but we DO know that the reason the vertical total tweak works in the first place, is due to how the scaler interacted with Lightboost mode internally to lower Lightboost crosstalk; Apparently lightboost sends a VT 1502 tweak signal to the monitor scaler internally, causing it to strobe with a screen size of 1440 vertical rows (note : the actual VT that tells the monitor to switch into lightboost mode is differnet, e.g. 1138, 1143 and 1149). But Lightboost uses accelerated scanout which is basically doing the exact same thing as the VT 1500 tweak is doing--causing the scaler to work with a longer blanking interval, which makes it think that the screen size is 1280x1440 (long story, but the factory menu shows this as the scaler resolution).
Anyway now that you know how strobe phase and having 1 frame of improved or worse input lag works, you have to balance it for your game. You can use this full screen test to see how much strobe crosstalk you have with a VT 1500 tweak, then test different "Area" (strobe phase) values.
http://www.testufo.com/#test=photo&phot ... &height=-1
Remember you can set "Single Strobe" to enabled in the service menu for refresh rates lower than 100hz.
(Power off, hold button #4 for 5 seconds, power on, release button #4. Button #4 will then enter the service menu. The factory menu is button #3 and #4).