BenQ XL2430T - Blur Reduction Issues

[BrianfromNC]

So I am almost a month into ownership of this monitor. It has been giving me many hours of gaming enjoyment. But an issue came up today and I can't quite understand if its my settings or my Blur Reduction setting broke.

With my blur reduction setting ON I could turn up the brightness up to around 85 and it would match the output of my motion blur off setting (around 38-44 brightness). Now today I start up the computer and the monitor has lost A LOT of brightness (motion blur on) and I checked the settings and they are the same as yesterday. I can turn up the brightness to 100 with motion blur on and it would be as dark as motion blur off and brightness at zero. It is completely unusable to me now. I unplugged the monitor, reset all settings, and its still the same.

If I turn motion blur off it works as the day I bought it. Picture is excellent. Loads of brightness.

Did my motion blur break?

[aeliusg]

So I am almost a month into ownership of this monitor. It has been giving me many hours of gaming enjoyment. But an issue came up today and I can't quite understand if its my settings or my Blur Reduction setting broke.

With my blur reduction setting ON I could turn up the brightness up to around 85 and it would match the output of my motion blur off setting (around 38-44 brightness). Now today I start up the computer and the monitor has lost A LOT of brightness (motion blur on) and I checked the settings and they are the same as yesterday. I can turn up the brightness to 100 with motion blur on and it would be as dark as motion blur off and brightness at zero. It is completely unusable to me now. I unplugged the monitor, reset all settings, and its still the same.

If I turn motion blur off it works as the day I bought it. Picture is excellent. Loads of brightness.

Did my motion blur break?

Did you try adjusting the strobe length setting? I forget what it's called exactly.

[BrianfromNC]

Yea I triple checked those settings. I have my Intensity on 10 and Area on 40. I've tried playing a few games with the brightness maxed out but its just too dim.

Yesterday these settings looked great. I have no idea what could have happened.

[Falkentyne]

This happens when you are NOT using vertical total tweaks.
Did you reinstall video drivers or run reset-all in custom resolution utility?
Without VT tweaks, the same intensity value in the OSD will have a "lower" persistence (more motion blur reduction) than when using VT tweaks, because the persistence values are different.
When using VT Tweaks, the persistence values for 60 hz refresh rate are used (EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT AT 60 hz refresh rate, the backlight flicking on/off times are based on that table). It starts at 0.167ms at strobe duty 001 (I think this is intensity 30?? in the 2430T) and ends at 5 ms at strobe duty 030. But there are only 25 intensity values on XL2430T, but in the 2730Z (new monitor) its back up to 30 values.

http://display-corner.epfl.ch/index.php/BenQ_XL2411Z
(this has the persistence values used at different refresh rates).

It looks like you are running a refresh rate/resolution without a vertical total 1350 or VT 1500 tweak.
You might want to make those resolutions again with a VT 1500 vertical total.

use the AMD /Nvidia pixel clock patcher.
create a 100 hz 1920x1080 res with these timings
front porch 88,4
sync width 44,5
Horizontal total 2200
vertical total 1500
make sure the AMD/Nvidia pixel clock patcher has been applied
save, exit CRU And run restart-all.exe from the toastyX Driver restarter.

For 120hz 1920x1080,
front porch 48,3
sync width 32,5
Horizontal total 2080
vertical total 1500

This is to drop the pixel clock a bit lower.

[BrianfromNC]

This happens when you are NOT using vertical total tweaks.
Did you reinstall video drivers or run reset-all in custom resolution utility?
Without VT tweaks, the same intensity value in the OSD will have a "lower" persistence (more motion blur reduction) than when using VT tweaks, because the persistence values are different.
When using VT Tweaks, the persistence values for 60 hz refresh rate are used (EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT AT 60 hz refresh rate, the backlight flicking on/off times are based on that table). It starts at 0.167ms at strobe duty 001 (I think this is intensity 30?? in the 2430T) and ends at 5 ms at strobe duty 030. But there are only 25 intensity values on XL2430T, but in the 2730Z (new monitor) its back up to 30 values.

http://display-corner.epfl.ch/index.php/BenQ_XL2411Z
(this has the persistence values used at different refresh rates).

It looks like you are running a refresh rate/resolution without a vertical total 1350 or VT 1500 tweak.
You might want to make those resolutions again with a VT 1500 vertical total.

use the AMD /Nvidia pixel clock patcher.
create a 100 hz 1920x1080 res with these timings
front porch 88,4
sync width 44,5
Horizontal total 2200
vertical total 1500
make sure the AMD/Nvidia pixel clock patcher has been applied
save, exit CRU And run restart-all.exe from the toastyX Driver restarter.

For 120hz 1920x1080,
front porch 48,3
sync width 32,5
Horizontal total 2080
vertical total 1500

This is to drop the pixel clock a bit lower.

I usually go back and forth between 100hz and 144hz depending on the game. I'll give what you wrote a go tonight and see what setting I'm supposed to be at. I already tried reinstalling drivers and the reset all method.

The weird thing is after I tried all of that I unplugged the monitor for 30 minutes and the brightness came back on the motion blur setting.

[BrianfromNC]

"If, by some mishap, the monitor stays black and does not revert back to a working mode by itself anymore, the only way to disable MBR mode might be to power off the monitor, disconnect it from the power line and possibly even from the computer, let it rest for a while until fully discharged (trying to switch it on in the disconnected state helps with discharging), and then reconnect it again"

Thank you for that link. Now im learning!

For the strobe utility is there a monitor I can use to setup since my model isn't listed? The XL24 you listed should be fine?

[Falkentyne]

The XL2430T does not support the direct DDC commands that the older Z series supports. So you need to use the service menu in order to change the settings. The only thing the service menu allows you to change that is NOT in the OSD is "single strobe." SIngle strobe MUST be enabled in order for area and phase blur reduction tweaks to work, when using Vertical Total tweaks (this is IMPORTANT). It's disabled by default.

The hotkey to enable the service menu is the same as on the 2720Z and 2420Z. I mentioned it several times in other posts.
bleh ill write it again
power off
hold menu button (usually button #4 on xl2720z and xl2420z) for 5 seconds, press power while holding menu, release both. then menu enters the service menu.

Menu and Enter for 5 seconds unlocks the factory menu #2.

About that comment about the screen turning black:
This happens if the strobe phase is set too high when a vertical total tweak is active.

it's actually VERY logical why.

Lets say you have a 1125 vertical total line size. We can assume this is a VERTICAL BLANKING interval time of 0.5 miliseconds (ms).

Now let's say that assuming the top of the screen's strobe crosstalk is completely off screen at the top (so the perfectly clear part of the screen is at the top, going towards the middle), and lets say the bottom 10% of the screen has the super ugly double thick strobe crosstalk (this is basically the pixels not finishing a transition before the next "vertical blank" happens. You're seeing a bunch of pixels caught in transition (that's the strobe crosstalk).

Now let's say we make the vertical total LARGER, from 1125 lines to 1500.
What this has done is it in effect, EXTENDS the vertical blanking period from 0.5 milliseconds to ~4 milliseconds.

We have, by extending the vertical blank, given the physical panel size (the 1080 p) more time to complete the pixel transitions. The effect is now, that the strobe crosstalk is pushed DOWNWARDS (since the vertical total is larger). Quite logical (you can even imagine a physical real world increase or even draw the effect on paper).

Now, what does the AREA (aka strobe phase in service menu) do? It moves the position of the START and ending of the vertical blanking period. BUT when you increase the vertical total, you naturally INCREASE the distance that the "phase" will change. Pretend you have a rubber band. And I tell you to draw a line that's 1/10th of the rubber band's length. Then you stretch the rubber band out so its 50% larger. Then you draw another line that's 1/10th. right? The second line is LONGER even though its still 1/10th of the size of the rubber band.

That's basically what is happening to strobe phase here.
WIth a VT total tweak active, the strobe phase will move FARTHER Down the screen per "point" of change, than it would WITHOUT a VT tweak active.

Eventually, you reach the "limits" of the physical screen that Strobe phase was designed to change, but since the VT tweak has been increased, the strobe phase keeps changing downwards. But since its past its limits, what starts happening is, to keep the monitor in "Tolerances", it REDUCES the STROBE DUTY (INTENSITY) value (note: this is based on 2420z and 2720z values ; for some reason the 2430T has the intensity (strobe duty) values inverted. After a certain point, around Area (phase) 059 at VT 1500 and 100 hz refresh rate, the persistence (duty/intensity) drops to 0.167 miliseconds. Then one more point of strobe phase goes past the duty limit, the persistence drops to 0 ms, and the backlight shuts off.