Blur Busters Forums

Anyone else noticed this quirk with this panel? I owned an XG2401 back in the day and noticed it, and have noticed the same thing on my new XG240R. Over the course of 3 or so hours, the gamma on the monitor gets noticeably darker. My 27GK750F with a 240Hz AUO panel didn't have this effect.

On my XG240R I originally had the gamma set to 2.6 in the image options, as that gives the best looking image OOTB, but I now have it set at 2.4 because 2.6 produces a horribly dark image after using the monitor for a few hours. At 2.4 the image is washed out when the monitor is first turned on, but after an hour of use it looks fine.

I wonder now how long I should wait before running my colorimeter on this monitor to generate a profile. 3 hours? 6 hours? Who knows. Maybe one day I'll need to sit down and do repetitive measurements to figure out how long it takes the panel to plateau and for the gamma to stop increasing.

Alas, this is normal in the wintertime.

The industry standard wait time is 30-60 minutes before calibrating.
3 hours is a bit long but not uncommon in the wintertime for more sensitive panels.

Some LCD panel tech can be quite temperature sensitive -- where ghosting, gamma, and other image attributes are affected by the temperature of the LCD. Just like a frozen smartphone or frozen LCD clock (e.g. car in winter), monitors using LCD panels are prone to being affected by cold temperatures.

The least temperature sensitive is usually IPS LCD panels.
The most temperature sensitive is usually VA LCD panels.
TN LCD is usually in between.

But all are still affected by temperature. In the winter like right now here in the Northern Hemisphere, some rooms are often very cold and a cold monitor can take a long time to warm up. One common workaround is simply to keep the display turned on 24/7 and letting it run a screensaver when not in use (though that can slowly wear down the LED backlight), or use some wake timer in the morning to warm up your monitor before you arrive at your computer in the morning. This keeps the monitor hot more continuously, but consistent temperature. Which makes it more print-friendly for color-critical work in cold environments.

If you're just aiming to "good enough ballpark" picture, you can calibrate after just 30 minutes in the winter, and then thereafter simply readjust your gamma setting slightly "as needed". You'd memorize a calibrated gamma number for a fully warmed monitor. But adjust as needed when it's not fully warmed up (e.g. early in day in winter).

Calibrate for the most common temperature you plan to use yearround, so that may require a brief wait in the summer and a longer wait in the winter.