ZR30W [Color Problem] and my epic quest with HP

[st0ned]

I bought a ZR30W from HP a few days ago, but I'm already on the 3rd panel. Hp support is very good to work with ( I've to give them that ) but they lake, imo, quality control...

For the 1st panel it had 1 stuck/dead pixel ( allways green ) and, here goes the major problem, the "white balance" wasn't uniform for the whole monitor. The left side has more "colder" colors and the right side "warmer" ones...

I went for the 2nd panel, it had the 1st "color problem" yet much less visible and 3 stuck/dead pixels ( 2 green + 1 red ). And the aluminum frame around the monitor was bent in one of the corners... Hp support again bla bla bla...

3rd Pannel... No dead/stuck pixels so far but the same annoying color problem the 1st one had. I didn't expect this at all from a S-IPS panel.

Can this stuff be kind of normal ?

This is really annoying when trying to get something out of some pictures, but also when web browsing... for example the grey bars in the side of XS forum although they have the same color ( in paint ) the left one seems much brighter then the right one. Also in XS when you are browsing the topics the left side is clearly "colder" then the right side.

To show this I took a sucky photo with my cell

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/1557/img0223mq.jpg

But I also made a video movie show this. When moving XS window around you can clearly see the colors changing...

Movie! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oztgPXiN500)

Is this "normal" ? Should I RMA again ?!? ( 4th time... ) Ask for refund and go for Dell ( the panel is the same... )

[st0ned]

Called HP, 4th incoming...

[WangChung]

If I remember from the Anand review, the ZR30s have to be calibrated to get the best picture. Do you have a screen calibrator?

[[XC] Oj101]

Regardless of calibration, colour should be consistent across the screen.

//thanks for making me acutely aware that the grey on the left of XS is much lighter than on the right when using my work monitor

[st0ned]

Oj101;4953017']Regardless of calibration, colour should be consistent across the screen.

//thanks for making me acutely aware that the grey on the left of XS is much lighter than on the right when using my work monitor

On my 4th monitor it's even worst... Top left and right are ~the same but... button is clearly "warmer"... Grr I dont know what else to do...

@wanghung

You can't calibrate this, if you calibrate a certain part of the screen with the colorimeter you will get the other part "not calibrated"...

[WangChung]

Ah, I see it now (can't see pics at work). I understand better what's going on. If you go with the Dell monitor, the performance of the monitor has been reported to be much poorer because of the OSD.


And now I see my right side is a lot lighter grey than the left on my NEC :( CRT too, grr....

[st0ned]

Ahahah Dahm me! If you can I would advice you to watch the movie, you can really see the color changing there...

[lutjens]

NEC LCD3090WQXi...best monitor(s) I have ever bought...;)

[cx-ray]

There's always going to be some color grading from left to right and or top to bottom, especially on a 30" LCD. The larger the monitor the harder it is to manufacture with consistent color and brightness across the screen. It's not just the screen technology that determines your color experience. The regulating electronics for the back light and screen are just as important, if not more so. The LCD itself is just a starting point. If you're color critical I'm afraid you'll have to look for a 30" LCD in the range of $2500 - $5000 by NEC or Eizo...and even those aren't as consistent as the Eizo CG221 22" color grading screen.

[stevecs]

/OR/ these manufacturers can get the lead out and actually put in some LED back lights on their 30" monitors which would not only help solve this issue with bad CCFL's but improve colour accuracy; lifespan; power consumption and waste heat. I've been waiting for 5+ years for this.

[cx-ray]

LED back lights have their own set of problems that have to be taken care of. For color accuracy and brightness uniformity a full screen array is required. Power consumption of such a design isn't much better than CCFL. The cheaper edge lit solutions will not suffice. Just as with CCFL, uniformity correction, temperature compensation, and aging correction circuitry are required for consistent performance. It's by no means a more cost effective or an all round easy fix to inherent difficulties of LCD monitor design.

[stevecs]

This is a LED backlight display only (i.e. the LCD/filters do the colour). Most manufacturers that I see are using white LED matrix panels (besides the ones using edge-lit displays which is not really back-lit). Doing this change does require voltage/current control (and some more if you want dynamic contrast based on signal (dark scenes get less light for example). But that's pretty simple and has already been deployed on numerous sets already in the joe-6pack market for LCD/LED back-lit tv's. Since the resolution is controlled by the LCD pannel not the LED, the only real work is if you want to do the fancy dynamic contrast (which IMHO is not really needed for users of high density panels who tend to use them for photo editing or computer/application work.)

having taken some of the monitors apart here (granted not a full industry sample) I've not really seen the complexities that you're insinuating. Can you give some links or examples for edification?

[cx-ray]

You could look into the Quatographic Intelli Proof 240 LED or the broadcast Barco RHDM-2301B reference monitor. Regulation of those units definitely isn't simplistic. For the technical aspects of LED color stabilization I'm sure there are lots of white papers available through a simple search.

As for the LCD full LED TVs...I haven't see one yet that doesn't display halos around small high contrast areas. Dynamic contrast regulated in such a manner by local dimming isn't for computer monitors. You'd probably need RGB LEDs in a 1:1 scale pixel orientation if that's even feasible.

[WangChung]

I just bought this monitor, for the price I couldn't pass it up. I'm experiencing the same color "disparity" that you've mentioned. It appears it's just an anomaly with these monitors. For my $800 though and 2.5 year warranty I'm not too irked. Not doing photo retouching, but CAD work and gaming.