To measure and calibrate monitors, we use an i1Pro spectrophotometer and version 5.0.3 of SpectraCal’s CalMAN software.

For patterns, we employ an AccuPel DVG-5000 video signal generator. This approach removes video cards and drivers from the signal chain, allowing the display to receive true reference patterns. Connections are made via HDMI.
The AccuPel DVG-5000 is capable of generating all types of video signals at any resolution and refresh rate up to 1920x1080 at 60 Hz. It can also display motion patterns to evaluate a monitor's video processing capabilities, with 3D patterns available in every format. This allows us to measure color and grayscale performance, crosstalk, and ghosting in 3D content via the 3D glasses.
Calibration Notes
The HP ZR30w is a wide-gamut monitor designed to conform to the AdobeRGB 1998 spec. Therefore, we benchmarked it against that standard. You’ll see in the chromaticity charts that we plotted the results relative to the larger color gamut. Delta E values are also expressed using those same color points. There are no calibration controls available except for brightness. You can vary the monitor’s total light output with the plus and minus keys on the front bezel. There is no on-screen menu to let you know what the setting is. You have to adjust it by eye or with some type of meter, as we do.
Since this monitor is incompatible with the 1920x1080 signals from the Accupel generator, we utilized the CalPC Client from SpectraCAL as a substitute pattern source. All video driver settings were carefully checked to be sure the graphics card didn’t affect our readings.
The DoubleSight DS-309W is also a wide-gamut panel and has a full set of adjustments including high and low range RGB controls. We first saw this on the Asus PB278Q that we reviewed last month, and liked the fact that it allows for very precise adjustment of the monitor’s grayscale at all brightness levels.
After experimenting with the brightness and contrast controls, we found they work more like a television rather than a computer monitor. Normally, we increase the contrast to a point right before the highest-level details are clipped (blend into one another), then adjust light output with the brightness slider. The DoubleSight operates in the opposite way. Brightness affects the overall black level so we set this as low as possible while maintaining detail down to the minimum signal level. While this resulted in a fairly high black level measurement, setting the control any lower would clip information. The contrast has a narrow window of usable adjustment. Moving it more than a few clicks above the halfway point would crush top-end information and cause a visible color shift towards red. You can lower it as far as you want without harming accuracy. To dial in the max output at 200 cd/m2, we set it to a value of 33.
The sharpness control is set to a default value of 12, but because it appeared to have no effect on digital signals, we set it to zero.
Calibration Settings
| DoubleSight DS-309W | |
|---|---|
| Brightness | 50 |
| Contrast | 33 |
| Sharpness | 0 |
| Gain | Red 55 / Green 47 / Blue 45 |
| Offset | Red 54 / Green 48 / Blue 50 |
Obviously, there are no recommended settings for the HP ZR2740w. You can set the Brightness either by eye or by measuring the level with a meter.
- 30 Inches And 2560x1600: Two Big-Screen Monitors
- Measurement And Calibration Methodology: How We Test
- Results: Stock Brightness And Contrast
- Results: Calibrated Brightness And Contrast
- Results: Gamma And ANSI Contrast Ratio
- Results: Grayscale Tracking
- Results: Color Gamut And Performance
- Results: Viewing Angle And Uniformity
- Results: Pixel Response And Input Lag
- 30-Inch QHD, Is Bigger Better?
Isn't the ASUS PQ321 already out along with a few other 4K monitors? granted price is a whole other story
You seriously can't see the pixels? I can see them on a 27" 2560x1440, which has smaller pixels. The .25mm range is adequate to me, but really I'd prefer something smaller than the .233mm on the 2560x1440.
When considering something like this for games, don't forget the cost of the video card(s) needed to drive it. A HD7750 may be "sufferable" even up to 1920x1080, but I'm not sure even a HD7770 or GTX650Ti could play newer games on better than "low" settings on one of these.
I have a ZR30W myself, and I would NEVER trade it unless what I'm upgrading to has more than a 2560x1600 resolution.
I've played on all sorts of monitors, and resolution trumps all other specs, unless you're dealing with 30fps or something...
I really wish I would have spent 1200$ on it long ago. Battlefield 3 and other highly graphical games are comparable to nothing else in the world.
The 60hz is not "old tech", it's more than sufficient to run games smoothly if vertical sync is on (even still when it's off). 60 fps is fine, television (pre hd) was 28hz. Anything above 60fps you really don't notice too much.
Oh, and for those looking for 4k tv's to use (I'm way ahead of ya) they only have 30hz refresh rates over the HDMI 1.2 port. We're going to have to wait for the tv's to add another port, wait for the upgrade to HDMI 2.0, or wait for some other solution.
We aren't going to see many 16:10 in the future. the 4K stuff is going to be 16:9 unless someone makes the move to stick with 16:10. However, the difference when it comes to 16:9 with a 2560x1440 and 16:10 2560x1600 is very minimal unless you really really need that extra height!
A properly implemented OSD would blend overlay pixels on-the-fly and add less than 100ns of lag to the process, which would be undetectable. The Viewsonic VP2770 has an OSD and is on par with the fastest LCDs in this roundup for total input-output lag. Having an OSD does not equate to lag.
The art of zero-lag OSDs is very old: countless computer CRTs from the mid-90s have it and TVs have had it for even longer. The OSD locks timing with the H/V sync and substitutes its signal over the relevant areas on-the-fly. With LCDs, this is even easier to do since everything is digital.
What is more likely happening is that "laggy" LCDs are doing extra image processing/enhancement or power-saving tricks such as dynamic brightness adjustments. For dynamic backlighting (power saving trick), the LCD needs to know what the brightest pixel is and then adjust the whole image so it remains the same while matching the brightnest pixel using the dimmest backlight possible. Tricks like those might explain why the slowest panels on this roundup are almost exactly two frames slower than the fastest: one frame delay to shift the frame in the memory buffer while applying filters and searching for the brightest pixel, another frame delay to shift the frame out to the panel with adjusted brightness.
Many LCDs do a lot more than simply dumping signal straight from the input to the display controller.
I wish threads that got bumped by spammers would stop bouncing back into my "new updates" list every time spam gets added and removed. I must have come back to this thread with the above post as most recent more than a dozen times by now.
I wish the forum would delete "new update" notifications when the newest post in a thread is older than the notification after spam got deleted.