Is backlight bleed really a big deal?

[Antidisestablishmentarianism]

I really want a 1440p, 144Hz, IPS, G-Sync monitor.(Predator XB271HU or Asus PG279Q) but they both are most likely going to have backlight bleed. I currently have no monitor because I just finished my PC. I'm not sure if I should wait for OLED since backlight bleed doesn't occur on those monitors. Should I buy a cheap 1080p monitor and wait until 2017 for OLED or deal with the backlight bleed? If the bleed is minimal, it's not a big deal, right? I plan on using my system for mostly gaming, video editing, CGI, 3D software. If I can't notice the bleed but only on a black screen, is it not a big deal, or will it distort color without me even noticing it and mess up my projects? Not sure if you need my system, but here: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ncdCjX
Thanks in advance.

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

How do you know that oled comes out 2017?

You should consider va. Only downside no gsync 169 va exist.

Wherever the bleed or glow is located it wont allow accurate colors.

Personally I use a ips tv as a monitor for vfx, which I can only use in a bright room because it's calibrated.

For dark viewing I use a dlp projector also calibrated, so I can't view it in a bright room, as it wont display accurate colors.

I would prefer a va tv but my old tv is accurate enough. Worth mentioning that an accurate display won't give you better results, they are purely a time saver for pros so that they wont have to check histogram or waveform all the time.

 

[Antidisestablishmentarianism]

How do you know that oled comes out 2017?

You should consider va. Only downside no gsync 169 va exist.

Wherever the bleed or glow is located it wont allow accurate colors.

Personally I use a ips tv as a monitor for vfx, which I can only use in a bright room because it's calibrated.

For dark viewing I use a dlp projector also calibrated, so I can't view it in a bright room, as it wont display accurate colors.

I would prefer a va tv but my old tv is accurate enough. Worth mentioning that an accurate display won't give you better results, they are purely a time saver for pros so that they wont have to check histogram or waveform all the time.

So you're saying it really isn't a big deal? So maybe go with XB271HU?

 

[RobbieT]

Hi,

I have just purchased a PG279Q and have miniscule backlight bleed - just a tiny patch in the top right corner that can only be seen on totally black screens in a darkened room. During normal use, gaming etc. it is not noticeable unless you are really scrutinising the screen during very dark sequences.

I decided to get it after reading good reviews on the professional sites, but whilst waiting for delivery I came across many forum posts regarding the backlight bleed issue and dismay began to sink in. But I needn't have worried - either I got lucky or Asus have improved their quality control. Mine was manufactured in december if that makes any difference.

If I had known at the time I might have hesitated like you, but now I have it and everything is ok I wouldn't send it back for the world - it is the best I have ever used. I have read that people have RMed until they got a satisfactory one if you have the patience for that.

If I knew I would eventually get a good one, even with a bit of patient effort, I would still be tempted to buy it now.

It's a difficult decision I know and at that price you shouldn't be having to worry whether or not you will get a 'good one'.

Good Luck.

 

[Non-Euclidean]

The issues of BLB are greatly exaggerated. Usually by people with ridiculous standards, searching for the "perfect screen".
Its also a way to measure and differentiate between monitors and as such is included in reviews.

In many cases, minor setup changes (reduce brightness which in a lot of cases is set to ludicrous levels by OEMs to enhance the colors) help. Most of the time you don't notice BLB unless its a really dark screen, and you like emulating a mushroom while you are using the monitor. Lots of people think its really cool to game in the dark. They are mostly 14, or act like they still are.

 

[Antidisestablishmentarianism]

Hi,

I have just purchased a PG279Q and have miniscule backlight bleed - just a tiny patch in the top right corner that can only be seen on totally black screens in a darkened room. During normal use, gaming etc. it is not noticeable unless you are really scrutinising the screen during very dark sequences.

I decided to get it after reading good reviews on the professional sites, but whilst waiting for delivery I came across many forum posts regarding the backlight bleed issue and dismay began to sink in. But I needn't have worried - either I got lucky or Asus have improved their quality control. Mine was manufactured in december if that makes any difference.

If I had known at the time I might have hesitated like you, but now I have it and everything is ok I wouldn't send it back for the world - it is the best I have ever used. I have read that people have RMed until they got a satisfactory one if you have the patience for that.

If I knew I would eventually get a good one, even with a bit of patient effort, I would still be tempted to buy it now.

It's a difficult decision I know and at that price you shouldn't be having to worry whether or not you will get a 'good one'.

Good Luck.

Thanks for the thorough reply!
I'm debating whether I should get the rog or the predator. They both have the same exact specs and pretty much the same reviews so I guess I'll go with the one that looks nicer or cheaper. I hope I get one without too much bleed!

 

[Antidisestablishmentarianism]

The issues of BLB are greatly exaggerated. Usually by people with ridiculous standards, searching for the "perfect screen".
Its also a way to measure and differentiate between monitors and as such is included in reviews.

In many cases, minor setup changes (reduce brightness which in a lot of cases is set to ludicrous levels by OEMs to enhance the colors) help. Most of the time you don't notice BLB unless its a really dark screen, and you like emulating a mushroom while you are using the monitor. Lots of people think its really cool to game in the dark. They are mostly 14, or act like they still are.

Thanks, I think I'll have to pull the trigger and hope to get one without too much BLB!

 

[ubercake]

Just want to give you my personal experience so far...I'm pretty sure I got a bad Acer XB271HU:

That's against a black test screen. It makes me long for my old TN monitor. The contrast is great which is really what I wanted out of this monitor compared to the PG278Q, but what kind of quality are the panels that can exhibit this kind of defect? How do they let these leave the factory? I have a $500 IPS Asus PB278Q IPS monitor that has absolutely none of this kind of crap (although it is PLS and not high-refresh or v-sync). Now I buy a $750 Acer monitor for gaming and have to put up with this? I don't think so. If this is what we are to expect from IPS gaming monitors, it is unacceptable and I'll just go back to the highest contrast TN g-sync screen I can find. If I was Acer sending these out the door, I'd be embarrassed. And where is Nvidia at in their branding that they'd even accept something like this?

What good is color accuracy and what good are viewing angles when half the screen is washed out? Also, if the viewing angles are superior on IPS monitors, why does the XB271HU show a hue shift if you center your eyes on a corner physically moving your head while looking forward to center your view on the corner of the screen (which makes the washed out area go away for the corner in question)? I don't see this on any other IPS panel I've dealt with.

I will be exchanging my XB271HU for a different one this weekend. If the next one is the same, I will switch to the Asus PG279Q. If that one sucks too, I'll be going back to a TN option. Again, I just hope I got a bad one.

 

[Antidisestablishmentarianism]

Just want to give you my personal experience so far...I'm pretty sure I got a bad Acer XB271HU:

That's against a black test screen. It makes me long for my old TN monitor. The contrast is great which is really what I wanted out of this monitor compared to the PG278Q, but what kind of quality are the panels that can exhibit this kind of defect? How do they let these leave the factory? I have a $500 IPS Asus PB278Q IPS monitor that has absolutely none of this kind of crap (although it is PLS and not high-refresh or v-sync). Now I buy a $750 Acer monitor for gaming and have to put up with this? I don't think so. If this is what we are to expect from IPS gaming monitors, it is unacceptable and I'll just go back to the highest contrast TN g-sync screen I can find. If I was Acer sending these out the door, I'd be embarrassed. And where is Nvidia at in their branding that they'd even accept something like this?

What good is color accuracy and what good are viewing angles when half the screen is washed out? Also, if the viewing angles are superior on IPS monitors, why does the XB271HU show a hue shift if you center your eyes on a corner physically moving your head while looking forward to center your view on the corner of the screen (which makes the washed out area go away for the corner in question)? I don't see this on any other IPS panel I've dealt with.

I will be exchanging my XB271HU for a different one this weekend. If the next one is the same, I will switch to the Asus PG279Q. If that one sucks too, I'll be going back to a TN option. Again, I just hope I got a bad one.

Sorry for the delayed response, but it looks like you got a bad one, or I got a rare perfect one. My XB1 looks great with a very minimal IPS glow in the corners. Even with a solid black screen, it's difficult to make out. Good luck on the next monitor!

 

[Non-Euclidean]

Just want to give you my personal experience so far...I'm pretty sure I got a bad Acer XB271HU:

I will be exchanging my XB271HU for a different one this weekend. If the next one is the same, I will switch to the Asus PG279Q. If that one sucks too, I'll be going back to a TN option. Again, I just hope I got a bad one.

How did the exchange go?

 

[ubercake]

Just as bad. Tried the 4K HK and that was not good either and was also returned. It's not hard to show the people at the return counter what it looks like. I switched to the PG279Q which also has what I used to think was called backlight bleed, but it's actually called "IPS glow". The PG279Q had a slightly smaller area with toned down glow with an amber-rose hue which is far less distracting than the almost mirror-like silver (think of the sun reflecting off of someone's glass watch face into your eye) on the Acer monitors I had.

People say all IPS monitors have IPS glow, though I've not seen it as bad as it is on these $800 monitors. The ones I have used for work don't exhibit anything like this and my $600 LG IPS TV has no glow in the corners and looks great in dark scenes. How is that?

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

I'd say it's a factory error. I haven't seen IPS monitors or TV's bleed, flashlight, cloud, glow as bad as the "gaming" monitors do. They're cutting corners I believe, but like above poster, it's overexaggerated.

With that said, the monitor market is very shady, a lot of wrong information out there. Not to mention the amount of people reviewing monitors who never mention the cons.

And, LinusTech for instance, when reviewing a VA monitor, never mentions the contrast ratio, or the low defect ratio VA offers. That's a clear indication of how dirty some YouTubers are when it comes to honest advice.

As long as VA has got a low market share, we won't see any "gaming" VA monitors that are actually affordable. It's absolutely disgusting to see.

 

[ubercake]

A PLS or OLED G-Sync monitor would be something good to see.

 

[songer121]

Just want to give you my personal experience so far...I'm pretty sure I got a bad Acer XB271HU:

That's against a black test screen. It makes me long for my old TN monitor. The contrast is great which is really what I wanted out of this monitor compared to the PG278Q, but what kind of quality are the panels that can exhibit this kind of defect? How do they let these leave the factory? I have a $500 IPS Asus PB278Q IPS monitor that has absolutely none of this kind of crap (although it is PLS and not high-refresh or v-sync). Now I buy a $750 Acer monitor for gaming and have to put up with this? I don't think so. If this is what we are to expect from IPS gaming monitors, it is unacceptable and I'll just go back to the highest contrast TN g-sync screen I can find. If I was Acer sending these out the door, I'd be embarrassed. And where is Nvidia at in their branding that they'd even accept something like this?

What good is color accuracy and what good are viewing angles when half the screen is washed out? Also, if the viewing angles are superior on IPS monitors, why does the XB271HU show a hue shift if you center your eyes on a corner physically moving your head while looking forward to center your view on the corner of the screen (which makes the washed out area go away for the corner in question)? I don't see this on any other IPS panel I've dealt with.

I will be exchanging my XB271HU for a different one this weekend. If the next one is the same, I will switch to the Asus PG279Q. If that one sucks too, I'll be going back to a TN option. Again, I just hope I got a bad one.

you def have a bad monitor.... mine looks NOTHING like that lol sorry for ur luck man! hopefully the next one looks better!

 

[ubercake]

...

you def have a bad monitor.... mine looks NOTHING like that lol sorry for ur luck man! hopefully the next one looks better!

The exchange I got was just as bad. When I see two monitors doing the exact same thing, I don't even go for a 3rd.

I returned the second one too and got an Asus PG279Q. The glow is far less distracting on that one, but similar in where the glow affects the screen. They both use the same panels.

Glad you got a good one though!

 

[Lonerunner1]

I have never seen an IPS monitor without some amount of BLB or IPS glow even if minimal. Some people coming from a TN panel to a new IPS panel freak out because they are not used to it and think it is a defect. It is not, but by nature of IPS design. Granted some BLB is worse than others and it seams the PG279Q and XB271HU have had some bad ones. IPS glow should not be noticeable until you start viewing at an angle and is really bad if viewed from a vertical axis. With BLB, brightness setting make all the difference. If you play in a bright room, you will naturally have your brightness up higher but the bright room offsets the BLB. When folks do their monitor tests, they generally forget to dim the monitor down so it looks like it has terrible BLB on a dark screen in a dark room. You can make any IPS look to have horrid BLB if you crank the brightness up. Depending on the room, most IPS monitors should be set below 40% brightness. My current IPS monitor is set around 22% brightness for a slightly below average lit room. I don't see any BLB but if I crank up the brightness, yeah its there. For those looking for perfect dark screens with no BLB, I ask how often are you playing a game with a completely dark screen and looking in the corner specifically for BLB?? Probably never. IPS has its problems, but once you get one, you never want to go back to a TN panel.

 

[ubercake]

The benefits of viewing angles on an IPS monitor become a moot point when the IPS glow has as much of an effect (although different in a way) on viewing angles as that of a TN monitor. These IPS G-sync monitors also exhibit glow in the corners even when the screen is not dark. If you center your head on the corner of the monitor the glow goes away in that corner. This means the color is affected when your head is on-center with the IPS screen. How is this a better viewing angle? With the TN screen, the color is affected when your view is off-center. How often does someone game with their head off-center with the screen?

Color accuracy is also no longer an advantage of this type of IPS monitor when the glow affects the hues in the corners of the screen when your viewing angle is on-center with these IPS G-sync monitors.

The advantages of IPS are all but gone on these monitors due to the high level of glow from the corners (especially the bottom-right).

After using these IPS gaming monitors, from a gaming standpoint, I'd easily go back to a TN G-sync monitor if they could make one with a higher contrast ratio than the IPS G-sync monitors. I care what it looks like with my line of sight centered on the monitor and no other angle when it comes to a gaming monitor.

I have not seen an iPhone with terrible glow in the corners like these gaming monitors. In fact, glow is not even noticeable on any phone I've seen with an IPS screen.

I also have a 55" LG television with an IPS screen that has zero glow on the screen whatsoever. The only time there is a glow of any sort is when there is a bright object on a dark background. It will exhibit a mild halo-type glow around the bright object, but that's it.

I have used quite a few different IPS monitors at work and none have exhibited the glow of these IPS G-sync monitors.

I've seen the possibilities with an IPS screen and am not impressed by the use of this technology with any G-sync gaming monitors released to date, though for some reason they do have better contrast than the TN G-sync monitors and this is why I have chosen one of them for my gaming rig. But am I impressed? Not really. They can definitely do better.

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

Backlight bleed is bright light on the eges around the screen, it doesnt affect anything but the edges. If the bezel doesnt cover it up its bleed. IPS glow, clouding, flashlighting are different.

Yes, ubercake is correct, IPS monitors shouldnt be this bad. They're cutting corners which shows. Pro IPS monitors don't glow or bleed, and neither do TV's which are 2x, 3x, 4x larger than these monitors, as in it's not as noticeable.

Here's an important note about color accuracy, which a lot of people have absolutely no clue about and are experiencing nothing but placebo.

1. If a monitor has got some type of defect over the screen where colors aren't identical to other areas of the screen, then those areas can't display accurate colors.

2. If a monitor is placed in a room where the color temperature is dynamically/constantly changing, then the monitor won't be able to display accurate colors. It's simply not possible, because if you calibrate in a room and you then let in sun light, or change lamps to a different color, moonlight during the night, you have to calibrate your monitor for literally every single color temperature change, people don't do that.

3. You have to calibrate monthly.

4. Accurate colors are absolutely pointless to all consumers, including photographers and video makers, because 1% or less of the viewerbase are truly watching the content on properly set up and calibrated displays. Even what browser they use matters. So, people buying "IPS" monitors thinking it improves their videos are seriously mistaken.

5. Cheap calibrate tools often don't do a good job. It's likely that what you end up with is an accurate graph, but the colors still look off. To a professional, this is a big deal, to a consumer, it's the placebo effect, and lack of experience in the field.


To summarize, it's only worth spending the money on truly accurate colors if you're doing content for the THX standard for instance, or along those lines. Otherwise consumers throw away money, for no return other than placebo. Buying a cheap IPS/VA monitor is better than buying a more expensive monitor, and calibration tool, if you can't ensure it's accuracy throughout the day or night.