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OSD Setup & Calibration
The U3277PWQU’s OSD is AOC’s familiar strip across the bottom of the screen. It offers most of the needed options but omits a couple of things we feel are important. Our main gripe is that you can’t calibrate the sRGB mode. The DCI-P3 mode offers more flexibility, however.
In the Luminance menu, you’ll find brightness, contrast, dynamic contrast, three gamma presets, overdrive (weak, medium, strong, or off), and the Eco modes. There are six picture options that correspond to various uses. The one we’ll be most concerned with is Standard. It’s the default, and unless you select sRGB in the color temp menu, the U3277PWQU will operate in its native DCI-P3 color gamut.
If you connect an analog source to the VGA port, the Image Setup menu becomes available. There you can adjust pixel clock, phase, sharpness, and image position.
Any calibration (and only the DCI gamut) must be performed in the Color menu. Fortunately, the sRGB preset is very accurate, although output is locked at a bright 245cd/m2. We’d prefer to have the brightness slider available at the very least. It also locks gamma at 2.4, which is correct for most situations, but if you need 2.2 with Rec.709, you’re out of luck. The color temp’s user mode allows for precise adjustments and can dial in grayscale to a high standard, but again only in DCI mode.
AOC’s unique Bright Frame feature can be accessed in the Picture Boost menu. It lets you isolate a portion of the image, then adjust brightness and contrast within the resulting window. It’s a handy way to focus on a particular part of the picture, and we're not aware of another monitor brand with this feature.
OSD Setup offers 16 language choices, timeout up to two minutes, menu position, a break reminder, and a selector for DisplayPort and HDMI versions. 2.0 is the default for the latter, but if you have an older video board, you may need to switch it to 1.4 to see an image.
The U3277PWQU’s large screen is well-suited for PIP and PBP. You can view two sources at once in either a side-by-side or windowed configuration. Said window can appear in three different sizes and occupy any corner. You can also swap the audio source to decide which image produces sound.
The Extra menu has an input selector (Auto worked fine for us), off timer (up to 24 hours), five aspect ratio options, and a factory reset. It also shows the input signal’s resolution and refresh rate.
Calibration
As we said earlier, calibration options are limited to the DCI-P3 mode only. In the Standard Eco mode, with color temp set to User, you can dial in excellent grayscale tracking and choose between three gamma presets. Two of these—Gamma 1 and Gamma 3—correspond to BT.1886 and 2.2 power, respectively. Our settings below correspond to that configuration. If you need to work in the sRGB/Rec.709 gamut, it is fixed with 245cd/m2 output and a gamma of 2.4. White balance is accurate, which is good since you can’t make any changes. The ability to perform a full calibration in all color modes is something AOC should consider adding to the U3277PWQU, perhaps via firmware update.
| AOC U3277PWQU Calibration Settings | |
|---|---|
| Eco Mode | Standard |
| Brightness 200cd/m2 | 69 |
| Brightness 120cd/m2 | 36 |
| Brightness 100cd/m2 | 27 |
| Brightness 80cd/m2 | 18 |
| Brightness 50cd/m2 | 6 |
| Contrast | 50 |
| Gamma | 1 |
| Color Temp User | Red 50, Green 48, Blue 49 |
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