HP ZR30w for Gaming & Movies

[GamingDaemon]

Hello,

I play a LOT of video games, and for my b-day, my wife is willing to get me a 30-inch monitor. After some research, I have chosen the HP ZR30w monitor.

According to the review of it on AnandTech's site and others, it comes with no scaler, which reduces the input lag. Awesome!


Well, my office, where I play my video games, is also outfitted with Left & Right, and Rear Left & Right speakers, plus center channel and sub for a full-fledged 5.1 system. And my gaming rig has, of course, a very nice LG blu-ray optical drive reader.

So, my concern is that if were to watch a standard blu-ray movie on this monitor at 1920x1080, it would look pretty small on the 2560x1600 display, especially without a scaler. I have a nice leather chair in my office situated a good 3 feet from the monitor location and would love to sit there and watch movies after a hard-day of playing video games (tongue-in-cheek).

1) Am I worrying for no reason?
2) Would my application of choice, ArcSoft's TotalMedia Theatre, just scale it up for me to fill out the screen?


Thanks in advance!

[Carfax]

I think it's not a big deal really. If you want to see how the movie will look without scaling, just run a game in windowed mode @ 1920x1080. Of course, it won't take up the entire screen (unless you stretch it), but it will still look great.

I watch DVDs on my 30 inch monitor all the time, and the size discrepancy has never bothered me because I'm sitting much closer than I would to a T.V.

[GamingDaemon]

So it is possible to stretch the movie playback to fill the whole screen (minus the black bars at the top and bottom of course)?

Does it look bad when you do that?

I'd like to be sitting 3 feet away in my leather chair when watching movies, rather than as close as I do when I play games.

Am I making sense? :shrug:

[Carfax]

So it is possible to stretch the movie playback to fill the whole screen (minus the black bars at the top and bottom of course)?

Does it look bad when you do that?

I'd like to be sitting 3 feet away in my leather chair when watching movies, rather than as close as I do when I play games.

Am I making sense? :shrug:

Yeah, it definitely doesn't look as good stretched, so I wouldn't do that if I were you.

3 feet is still very close regardless of whether you're playing games or watching movies. When I watch movies, I'm about 3 feet away from my monitor, and the proximity in combination with the fact that your eyes are focused on the image negates the size discrepancy.....at least for me :shrug:

[GamingDaemon]

Yeah, it definitely doesn't look as good stretched, so I wouldn't do that if I were you.

3 feet is still very close regardless of whether you're playing games or watching movies. When I watch movies, I'm about 3 feet away from my monitor, and the proximity in combination with the fact that your eyes are focused on the image negates the size discrepancy.....at least for me :shrug:

Hmmm, so if my video card, the ATI Diamond 5870, stretches or scales the movie playback to fill up as much of the 2560x1600 resolution as possible, it won't look good?

Will it look fuzzy and blocky? That is my main concern. :(

I really want to watch Blu-Ray movies on this monitor without having to lean forward to see a small-ish 1920x1080 image on my 30" monitor.

[HWaddict]

With Cyberlink PowerDVD 10 you can watch Blue-Ray movies using True-Theater HD scaling.

Better than PowerDVD 8 Ultra I used before witch was too blocky in my opinion.

As in my childish SIG I use a HD4870X2 with a DELL U2711

[GamingDaemon]

With Cyberlink PowerDVD 10 you can watch Blue-Ray movies using True-Theater HD scaling.

Better than PowerDVD 8 Ultra I used before witch was too blocky in my opinion.

As in my childish SIG I use a HD4870X2 with a DELL U2711

Do you know if ArcSoft's TotalTheatre media player has a similar feature?

http://www.arcsoft.com/en-us/software_title.asp?ProductCode=TMT3P

[iddqd]

Can't you scale the 1080 movie to any arbitrary resolution? Including ????x1600

[Mikey7c8]

I thought the lack of scaler only really mattered if you were sending a 1080p signal at the panel, though I could be wrong?

[YukonTrooper]

I thought the lack of scaler only really mattered if you were sending a 1080p signal at the panel, though I could be wrong?
All digital displays need to scale any incoming signal to its native resolution. If a 1080p signal is being fed to a 1080p display, then no scaling needs to be done.

@ OP: A software solution will scale your movies much more efficiently. Monitors have a LONG way to go before rivaling the scaling capabilities of consumer TV's, if ever.

[hecktic]

this monitor vs. LG W3000H ????

[Silverion77]

this monitor vs. LG W3000H ????

All 30" monitors come from LG basically.

The HP LP3065 (old) and ZR30w, Dell 3007, 3008 and new U3011 as well as the LGW3000H use a panel that comes from LG. Just their own packaging

[zalbard]

Does anybody have one properly calibrated and is willing to share their ICC profile with me? :)

[zalbard]

Does anybody have one properly calibrated and is willing to share their ICC profile with me? :)
Anyone?