UNSOLVED
Dell 2007FPW - Advanced Advice needed
I spent roughly $400 to get this monitor on special (including tax and shipping). I am trying to determine whether to keep the monitor or get a refund in the coming days. I am using A02 Dell 2007FPW made in Mexico at 1680x1050 resolution, 60hz refresh rate (vsync forced on), and using the DVI-D connection.
My issues:
1) Possible banding
2) Overt Brightness of the display (need calibration advice)
3) Response rate in games
I am concerned mostly about banding at the moment. I have run several different gradient tests but the results have been inconclusive...at least to me. If anyone could provide any further insights on testing for banding, please let me know. Is banding present when using Picture in picture with desktop mode turned on?
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_monitor&message.id=61311
The above thread makes reference to different tests I ran on this monitor. For those trying to help me determine whether or not I have banding, please refer to that thread and my second to last reply.
Are there any other general 2007FPW issues I should know about besides banding?
Upon entering the advanced services menu, I took note of the monitor type: LPL WSXGA LM201W01 with bios: V1B11. Can someone confirm if bios V1B11 is revision A02? My sticker claims I have A02 but I am dubious of all things relating to this monitor at the moment. Bios V1B11 on the 2407FPW is NOT bios A02. However, I realize I have the 2007FPW.
Does this monitor have an autosync function? What does the "auto color" feature of the advanced menu do? I ask because when trying to peform a calibration on this monitor, I was asked to locate the monitor's auto-sync function.
Also, Will doing a factory reset from the basic menu also reset the advanced menu settings?
Thank you.
My issues:
1) Possible banding
2) Overt Brightness of the display (need calibration advice)
3) Response rate in games
I am concerned mostly about banding at the moment. I have run several different gradient tests but the results have been inconclusive...at least to me. If anyone could provide any further insights on testing for banding, please let me know. Is banding present when using Picture in picture with desktop mode turned on?
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_monitor&message.id=61311
The above thread makes reference to different tests I ran on this monitor. For those trying to help me determine whether or not I have banding, please refer to that thread and my second to last reply.
Are there any other general 2007FPW issues I should know about besides banding?
Upon entering the advanced services menu, I took note of the monitor type: LPL WSXGA LM201W01 with bios: V1B11. Can someone confirm if bios V1B11 is revision A02? My sticker claims I have A02 but I am dubious of all things relating to this monitor at the moment. Bios V1B11 on the 2407FPW is NOT bios A02. However, I realize I have the 2007FPW.
Does this monitor have an autosync function? What does the "auto color" feature of the advanced menu do? I ask because when trying to peform a calibration on this monitor, I was asked to locate the monitor's auto-sync function.
Also, Will doing a factory reset from the basic menu also reset the advanced menu settings?
Thank you.
- I am making this reply, fairly soon after making my last reply. The issues above remain unresolved so please reply to them if you have any insights.
Upon entering the nvidia color correction tab, by default, DESKTOP is set to 100% brigthness, contrast 100%, gamma 1.00 with digital vibrance and image sharpening on off. OVERLAY is set to the same above settings except contrast of 90%. When looking at the gradients from the below thread, I have a few possible insights:
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_monitor&message.id=61613&jump=true#M61613
If I set contrast to 101% or to 99%, I see banding on ALL of the gradient tests. However, if I leave contrast at 100%, I do not see banding in the MAJORITY of tests (possibly on all of them). I went ahead and changed the OVERLAY defaults to 100% contrast (since I think overlay affects things like videos and games), since leaving it at 90% contrast leaves major banding.
So for my question, do I really have banding?
Referencing the thread above with the gradient images, I only see possible banding on the grey gradients, the one with the vertical and horizontal bars (2 pictures). However, on the grey sphere, I do not see any banding. ON the vertical grey bar picture, I see horizontal banding starting at x6 to x16. On the horizonal grey bar picture, I see vertical banding starting at x6 to x16. The banding is more spread out at the higher numbers. On all the images, the bars are fairly evenly spaced. Out of all the gradient tests I have observed, those two images are the only ones that hint that I have a banding problem. Does anyone have any further insights or some other grey gradient tests I can look at that are possibly more definitive? What I see is anything but definitive. Thanks. My 2007WFP is flawless in all the 3 areas you ask about.
1. No banding, or very very minor, definitely no worse than my LG LCD.
2. My display came with blinding brightness 50 (monitor setting, not driver), reduced to zero, still too bright, reduced further in ATI drivers. No change in banding after control panel adjustments (besides from the whole thing looking darker) but now I'm back to 100% in all driver menus (still 0 on monitor) cos I'm used to it. But now some games appear to dark even with their game setting brightness on max so I just switch to gaming mode as a bit of a "brightness quick-switch" but luckily I've only had to do it to 2 games so far, and both were shooters.
3. I haven't noticed any ghosting. I'm not a l33t gamer or anything though. Again though it's no worse than my 8ms LG LCD. The 2007WFP is 16ms Black-to-white and I think 6 or 8ms grey-to-grey (which is what most brands/shops quote)
Haven't touched the color settings yet so I can't give feedback there.
skibum5000
2 Intern
•
150 Posts
620
0
Posted July 18th, 2006 06:00
do you see less banding on the 2007 than the guy who posted those 2407 banding photos?- ok my above reply was deliberately vague cos I didn't test it again to refresh myself - have now with the Patel monitor test thingy.Firstly to simply the answers, both vertical and horizontal directions showed the same magnitude of banding.Banding is visible as thin strips with the grayscale gradient (consistent with previous feedback from users). You can see dividing sort of lines every 4 to 5 pixels, so very thin strips only. I took a snapshot and dragged across onto my 17" LCD I upgraded from; there is banding (I think it's only a 6 bit panel), but in a different fasion. The banding is less prevelent but the bands are much thicker and the whole image in general is grainier, and in the regions where the 2007WFP doesn't band, the image is far superior/clearer/smoother than the LG. Also as a comparison, in Multimedia/gaming mode, the main difference (although we all know what it looks like :smileysad: ) is that the bands are very wide, and sorta go dark/light/dark/light (like each band has it's own gradient pattern in it) while with "fixed" Desktop mode, these "internal" gradients are much less visible so, as stupid as this sounds, it bands "cleaner" :smileytongue: than original A00.In terms of the three colors, banding is most visible in the same "tiny-strip" form in the Green spectrum (not to the same level as the grayscale though), very very hard to see in blue, and practically non-existant in red. Also, kinda consistent with the above previous observations with poor blacks, the color-to-black gradients show more (barely) banding than the color-to-white gradients.*phew*, hope this helps (got no camera)
- Venomous,
I have 2007WFP RevA00. (A02 being delivered today). My nVIDIA v91.31 settings on FX5200EP are:
* Brightness: +50%
* Digital Vibrance: 0%
* Contrast: +46%
* Image Sharpening: 0%
* Gammaa: +9%
These are default settings - I haven't changed anything. I have to say that my display looks great. Not too bright, easy to read text. Banding is similar to everyone else.
Monitor brightness is default 50% on OSD.Message Edited by gpro on 07-18-200607:44 PM
Venomous
22 Posts
620
0
Posted July 17th, 2006 23:00
I got some interesting results looking at these images...
Suprisingly (given the above results), I was expecting to see banding in the grey gradient tests. However, in the two grey gradient tests, I saw no banding.
However, in the dark versions of the blue, red, and green, I saw definite banding, with the least amount of banding being on the dark blue picture. Banding is most visible on the green picture. Is there any hope of trying to tweek these color settings myself in the advanced services menu? heh. Unless these tests are flawed or impractical, I am strongly leaning towards going for a refund. I look forward to replies.
Do all LCDs have this many problems or is this pretty specific to Dell? I'd hate to go for refund on this thing only to order something else that I hate more....