XL2411Z AMA settings with BR=ON

[bprx]

Hello All,

I'm having some issues when Blur Reduction is ON and AMA is set on HIGH. I have a primary trailing ghosting image which is a blue hue and clearly visible followed by a secondary trailing image which is much more faded. Are these called overdrive artifacts? Forgive me if I'm using the wrong terminology.
Here is an image I've seen around these forums that exactly shows my problem:


A little bit of background:
I have an XL2411Z V2 which I bought around 8-9 months ago and set it up using the instructions on the Strobe Utility Page at the time (120Hz, BR ON, VT1350 tweak). I stumbled back upon these forums a couple of days ago and realized that I haven't been using my monitor to its true potential for the last 8-9 months as I never applied the AMD/ATI Pixel Clock Patcher. /facepalm.
I've played around with the settings the last few days and settled on: 120Hz, BR ON, VT1500 tweak, Crosstalk=far left, persistence=1.0ms. With these settings, I only have some crosstalk in the very top row while the crosstalk at the bottom of the screen is virtually eliminated.

However, I still have the problem shown above. I've read that you're not supposed to touch the AMA settings when Blur Reduction is ON. I believe that I already messed this up when I first bought the monitor. Have I lost the "pre-calibrated BR AMA" settings? Currently the image looks much better when I turn AMA Off. Should I just leave it off at this point?

[zefs]

It is normal, it's called ghosting. If it bothers you set it to off, that's how I set it too. When on high or premium, whenever you "move" inside a game and whatnot everything becomes sharper which may help with visibility but can also cause "sickness" depending on games (I find it annoying in racing simulators).

[masterotaku]

Have I lost the "pre-calibrated BR AMA" settings?

No. You get that setting by simply having AMA at High. If you change that setting to something else and go back to high, you only have to toggle blur reduction off and on again.

However, even with the correct high setting, the overdrive is too strong for everyone's taste. I think I was the first that complained about that here .

Currently the image looks much better when I turn AMA Off. Should I just leave it off at this point?

If you prefer it at off, then use it. The lack of inverse ghosting is pleasing to the eyes. But there's some normal ghosting. If there were an AMA Low or Normal setting, I'd use it .

AMA High doesn't look as bad at 60Hz or lower refresh rates in general, though. You can also use Lightboost at 100 and 120 Hz if you want. The image is almost free of overdrive artifacts (it also has worse contrast). In the main blurbusters site there's information about how to unlock it (the easiest way is having a 3D Vision 2 kit).

By the way, I know a trick. Using lightboost, then switching to normal blur reduction and lowering contrast, I can make the monitor look like this:


Both the image you posted and this one are mine. Look at the difference . That's a best case scenario. Some color transitions are much better than with normal blur reduction, but some are worse.

[zefs]

@masterotaku

Is Lightboost better than 120hz and VT 1500? I use ~1.5ms persistance.

[Falkentyne]

I Just did some more tests, and I noticed that my screen looks identical or worse, in all ways, to the OP's screen if I go directly from lightboost mode to BBR mode. As a matter of fact, on my screen, it's worse in every way if I go from lightboost to regular without retoggling the monitor.

I think it's just a difference in our panels. Because even regular BBR mode directly has more ghosting.
Remember I do have the XL2720Z, after all. It's different than the XL2420Z and 2411Z (these two panels are the same panel as the VG248QE). the 2720Z keeps a 1000:1 contrast ratio in lightboost mode (at 37-45 contrast) while the 24" panels can't go past 400:1 in lightboost. So it's impossible to use this trick on the 27". It just looks horrible. And it does make sense, too.

For example: when I go into Lightboost mode on the 27", the inverse ghosting is MUCH worse and more intense than on my VG248QE's 24" (and I assume on your XL2411Z). At 37 contrast (the point where before you start getting white/yellow clipping or purple tint), the inverse ghosting at the BOTTOM of the screen looks just as bad as benq blur reduction (!) The top of the screen looks great, and the middle looks...okay.

If I drop the contrast down to 0 ,this brings the 27" contrast ratio more in line with the 24"s default contrast ratio, and the massive inverse triple ghosting at the bottom become a LOT better, matching the regular contrast lightboost settings on my VG248.

The 27" panels all have worse ghosting than the 24" panels and the 27" panels keep a 1000:1 contrast ratio in lightboost.

Also another thing that is different between your panel and mine:

The 27" panels do NOT change their gamma curve when going from 60 hz to 144 hz. They keep the exact same gamma point.
On the 24" panels (Sorry I ACCIDENTALLY wrote 27" earlier--that was a mistake. I'll say it again: the 27" panel does NOT change its gamma at ALL when increasing refresh rate!!), 2.2 gamma at 60 hz becomes 1.8 gamma at 144 hz (I tested this on the VG248QE, and a lot of XL2411Z users on OCN (and a few on here) complained about things looking great at 60 hz but horrible at 144 hz (in fact there's a recent post about this problem yet again).

Is Lightboost better than 120hz and VT 1500? I use ~1.5ms persistance.

Lightboost=less ghosting and overdrive artifacts. 2.1ms persistence at 100 hz, 1.4ms persistence at 120hz (LB=10%).
Benq blur reduction: MUCH better contrast, gamma point can be set, MUCH better colors, MUCH worse ghosting.

FPS games: Benq blur reduction.
2D side scrollers/RPG's/etc: Lightboost.

[zefs]

Lightboost=less ghosting and overdrive artifacts. 2.1ms persistence at 100 hz, 1.4ms persistence at 120hz (LB=10%).
Benq blur reduction: MUCH better contrast, gamma point can be set, MUCH better colors, MUCH worse ghosting.

FPS games: Benq blur reduction.
2D side scrollers/RPG's/etc: Lightboost.

Thanks for the answer, and your testing

[bprx]

No. You get that setting by simply having AMA at High. If you change that setting to something else and go back to high, you only have to toggle blur reduction off and on again.

However, even with the correct high setting, the overdrive is too strong for everyone's taste. I think I was the first that complained about that here .

Yes I played around with toggling it and sadly didn't notice any improvement with the "correct" settings. The overdrive is indeed very strong.

If you prefer it at off, then use it. The lack of inverse ghosting is pleasing to the eyes. But there's some normal ghosting. If there were an AMA Low or Normal setting, I'd use it .

An AMA Low/Normal setting sounds like something I would also use. I definitely like the look of AMA off in the UFO Test but I will try testing it further in game (CS:GO). To be honest, when I'm in game I haven't noticed the overdrive artifacts. However, I haven't really been looking for them as I'm more concerned about shooting heads as quick as possible .

Lightboost=less ghosting and overdrive artifacts. 2.1ms persistence at 100 hz, 1.4ms persistence at 120hz (LB=10%).
Benq blur reduction: MUCH better contrast, gamma point can be set, MUCH better colors, MUCH worse ghosting.

FPS games: Benq blur reduction.
2D side scrollers/RPG's/etc: Lightboost.

Thanks for the testing. I will definitely be choosing BenQ blur reduction over Lightboost. I prefer much better contrast and colours over some additional improvements in ghosting

[masterotaku]

To be honest, when I'm in game I haven't noticed the overdrive artifacts.

Haha, you're lucky. I can't unlearn how to look for them. By instinct, my eyes look for motion blur, ghosting and overdrive artifacts all the time .

The biggest advantage of these BenQ monitors is being able to create almost any custom refresh rate and use blur reduction with it, with precision of 0.001Hz. However, you can't create two custom refresh rates that are too close to each other, like less than 1Hz of difference (you can't have 59.940Hz and 60.000Hz at the same time, even if you try to set the first as 59Hz for Windows).

It's a pity that G-Sync monitors can't do that with ULMB.

[Falkentyne]

I wish I had a 24" one so I can test the toggled lightboost.
I found out something else, too.
If I go into lightboost mode and set contrast to 0, while Alien Invasion (testUFO) looks just like my VG248QE's lighitboost (before the VG is warmed up; once it warms up it looks a bit better than the benq), I noticed some VERY sharp 'white' ghosting (translucent) on some windows that are being dragged around. (this depends on the background color and the window transition). This does NOT happen on the VG248QE at all. It also does NOT happen in benq blur reduction mode (you can see where the ghosting pattern is still, but it's MUCH more transparent and MUCH better looking! And that's whether contrast is set to 0 or 50 (the white clipping point) in BBR mode. If I use Lightboost, using contrast 0 makes the 'triple thick inverse ghosting" in TestUFO (at the bottom of the screen) get much better than at contrast 37, but adds that weird "translucent bright" ghosting on some white color transitions (which doesn't show up like that at 37 contrast).

Since VG248QE LB=2411Z/2420Z lightboost ,I'm going to chalk that up to the 27" panel differences.

Now I want the XL2730Z. Can someone please test VT tweaks on it (with the pixel clock patcher?) :/

[masterotaku]

If I use Lightboost, using contrast 0 makes the 'triple thick inverse ghosting" in TestUFO (at the bottom of the screen) get much better than at contrast 37, but adds that weird "translucent bright" ghosting on some white color transitions (which doesn't show up like that at 37 contrast).

That's exactly the weakest part of the "LB on and then off" trick. Transitions where there are very light colors (the desktop, for example) look weird at contrast 40 (ghosting of a color that has nothing to do there), but at contrast 0 it's more like transparent and harder to see. However, medium and dark color transitions are much much better than with the normal blur reduction (and still a bit worse than LB, but better contrast, colors, etc).

LB gets away with those weird color transitions better than the trick, and I think maybe it's precisely because of the worse contrast. What if the low contrast of LB is intentional?

Now that I have 4 options (LB, MBR with AMA off, MBR with AMA High, and the LB->MBR trick), I choose one or the other depending on the game. And in many games I simply play in 3D, so LB is mandatory there.


BTW, Falkentyne, that transparent ghosting probably doesn't happen in your ASUS because it has better overdrive controls. People say it looks more perfect than in BenQ monitors.