help me search for the perfect monitor?

yoyo59 · 26 Aug 2016 at 00:02

hey guys I love my current monitor atm (z35) but I absolutely hate that 98% of movies and videos do not scale well at all and kill the experience when watching vids

is there a monitor that isn't ultrawide, that is very good for gaming, more than 30'' and has a epic picture quality too?

or am I dreaming?

Jony27 · 26 Aug 2016 at 00:28

yoyo59 said:
hey guys I love my current monitor atm (z35) but I absolutely hate that 98% of movies and videos do not scale well at all and kill the experience when watching vids

is there a monitor that isn't ultrawide, that is very good for gaming, more than 30'' and has a epic picture quality too?

or am I dreaming?

Get yourself the ACER X34A or the Asus equivalent if money is no issue.

Surely, 21:9 is meant for movies/videos by eliminating the black bars at the top you get with 16:9?

yoyo59 · 26 Aug 2016 at 00:53

Jony27 said:
Get yourself the ACER X34A or the Asus equivalent if money is no issue.

Surely, 21:9 is meant for movies/videos by eliminating the black bars at the top you get with 16:9?

the z35 is 21:9, im trying to keep away from 21:9 ultrawide, ive already had a x34

even though it meant to be ''cinematic'' hardly any movies support it or you can use software to make it fit which looks even worse

Legend · 26 Aug 2016 at 03:15

yoyo59 said:
even though it meant to be ''cinematic'' hardly any movies support it or you can use software to make it fit which looks even worse

It's not "meant" to be cinematic, it IS! 21:9 is essentially 2.35:1 or 2.40:1, which is a commonly used film ratio. Not sure what you mean about hardly any films "supporting" it, loads are shot in that ratio, unless you're watching some bootleg pirate versions or something. Here's a list from IMDB of just under 800... yeah, that's not many is it lol.

JediFragger · 26 Aug 2016 at 08:27

I thought the XB321HK was pretty bloody incredible, but remember 4k is still v v demanding! Still, the picture quality was stunning, and no image issues with it being 16:9

RidingTheFlow · 26 Aug 2016 at 11:22

Legend said:
It's not "meant" to be cinematic, it IS! 21:9 is essentially 2.35:1 or 2.40:1, which is a commonly used film ratio. Not sure what you mean about hardly any films "supporting" it, loads are shot in that ratio, unless you're watching some bootleg pirate versions or something.

Most films are indeed shot in this aspect, but this is *film* aspect.
Unless you are procuring reels for movie theaters and jamming them in your PC

- you are watching either DVD or BluRay remastered content (and most of online content comes from these sources too). And these are 16:9 which is still mainstream aspect for most TVs and monitors.

Btw some recent BluRays indeed come in 2.35 ratio, but this is deceptive - because they are not *expanding* the resolution, they are *shrinking* it vertically by letterboxing (since they still have to support playback on all old non-UW-aware players). While with proper player it will indeed fill the whole screen on UW monitor, it does not look that great since it just magnifies pixelization and compression artefacts.

2.35 as proper source digital content may gain more prevalence in the future, but it still in its infancy.

yoyo59 said:
is there a monitor that isn't ultrawide, that is very good for gaming, more than 30'' and has a epic picture quality too?

No such thing

I've tried hands-on Z35 myself, looked at 34" 1440p, but settled to XB321HK and its pretty good - but its not *epic* and still has some issues. Unfortunately with modern displays there is no killer tech and you just have to choose which set of features/drawbacks are most acceptable to you - without being 100% satisfied on everything.

yoyo59 · 26 Aug 2016 at 11:55

Legend said:
It's not "meant" to be cinematic, it IS! 21:9 is essentially 2.35:1 or 2.40:1, which is a commonly used film ratio. Not sure what you mean about hardly any films "supporting" it, loads are shot in that ratio, unless you're watching some bootleg pirate versions or something. Here's a list from IMDB of just under 800... yeah, that's not many is it lol.

mostly blu rays and amazon prime video,

I think they are shot in 21:9 but when released to public hardly any are, also I think it would kill the vibe if everytime I wanted to watch a movie etc I had to look up on the 800 movie list, I dont want to be restricted to just a list

yoyo59 · 26 Aug 2016 at 12:00

RidingTheFlow said:
Most films are indeed shot in this aspect, but this is *film* aspect.
Unless you are procuring reels for movie theaters and jamming them in your PC - you are watching either DVD or BluRay remastered content (and most of online content comes from these sources too). And these are 16:9 which is still mainstream aspect for most TVs and monitors.

Btw some recent BluRays indeed come in 2.35 ratio, but this is deceptive - because they are not *expanding* the resolution, they are *shrinking* it vertically by letterboxing (since they still have to support playback on all old non-UW-aware players). While with proper player it will indeed fill the whole screen on UW monitor, it does not look that great since it just magnifies pixelization and compression artefacts.

2.35 as proper source digital content may gain more prevalence in the future, but it still in its infancy.

No such thing
I've tried hands-on Z35 myself, looked at 34" 1440p, but settled to XB321HK and its pretty good - but its not *epic* and still has some issues. Unfortunately with modern displays there is no killer tech and you just have to choose which set of features/drawbacks are most acceptable to you - without being 100% satisfied on everything.

yeah I did have a look around and it seems the acer 32'' 4k may be the only gaming choice, but how much of a gaming monitor is it if its only 60hz? I think ive seen some 4k VA 32'' panels which also do 4k and are about 5ms response, I had my rog swift for over 2 years and barely used g sync as for me it introduced very very slight input lag when I needed very fast response times in certain games, but on the z35 I just leave it on and it seems fine, so its a weird one

XeNoNF50 · 26 Aug 2016 at 12:03

yoyo59 said:
yeah I did have a look around and it seems the acer 32'' 4k may be the only gaming choice, but how much of a gaming monitor is it if its only 60hz? I think ive seen some 4k VA 32'' panels which also do 4k and are about 5ms response, I had my rog swift for over 2 years and barely used g sync as for me it introduced very very slight input lag when I needed very fast response times in certain games, but on the z35 I just leave it on and it seems fine, so its a weird one

Is the z35 good for gaming? Do you have any issues? Particularly when the image displayed is black? Keep hearing about it and keep making me hesitant on buying.

RidingTheFlow · 26 Aug 2016 at 12:09

yoyo59 said:
yeah I did have a look around and it seems the acer 32'' 4k may be the only gaming choice, but how much of a gaming monitor is it if its only 60hz?

Depends on your preferences. You can crank up either resolution or FPS. I prefer getting more resolution, utilising G-sync to keep things smooth even if framerate dips below 60.
Also you can use Fast Sync getting low latency even with 60Hz monitor.

I think ive seen some 4k VA 32'' panels which also do 4k and are about 5ms response

Which panels are these? I am not aware of any monitors released as such yet - there are only plans.
Also I'd take manufacturer-declared response times especially for VAs with large grain of salt, since VA responses are wildly varying depending on transition and they just pick the best. What Z35 "specs" were, like 8ms? While it in fact had from-black more than 50ms and black smearing was very noticeable.

VincentHanna · 26 Aug 2016 at 13:20

Getting movies to be displayed correctly on the Acers can be problematic. There's no option for vertical crop and zoom, so non-anamorphic scope content like Blu-rays and some PS4 games (such as The Order 1886 and The Evil Within) do not fill the screen correctly. Both the Acer XR341CK and the X34 Predator only offer options to horizontally stretch a 16:9 image to fill the screen at the sides, or to display this at the correct aspect ratio - but that's it.

Essentially, this means it's impossible to hook up a PS4 or Blu-ray player to the monitor and enjoy ultra-wide gaming and movies with content produced in wider aspect ratios - the black borders are part of the 1080p 16:9 image and remain at the top and bottom of the screen. In order to get around this issue, you'll need to play back Blu-ray movies on a PC and use software such as VLC media player to crop out the black bars and get a true 21:9 full screen image.

yoyo59 · 26 Aug 2016 at 17:22

VincentHanna said:
Getting movies to be displayed correctly on the Acers can be problematic. There's no option for vertical crop and zoom, so non-anamorphic scope content like Blu-rays and some PS4 games (such as The Order 1886 and The Evil Within) do not fill the screen correctly. Both the Acer XR341CK and the X34 Predator only offer options to horizontally stretch a 16:9 image to fill the screen at the sides, or to display this at the correct aspect ratio - but that's it.

Essentially, this means it's impossible to hook up a PS4 or Blu-ray player to the monitor and enjoy ultra-wide gaming and movies with content produced in wider aspect ratios - the black borders are part of the 1080p 16:9 image and remain at the top and bottom of the screen. In order to get around this issue, you'll need to play back Blu-ray movies on a PC and use software such as VLC media player to crop out the black bars and get a true 21:9 full screen image.

I thought it was a hassle trying to get blu rays to work on VLC? I use powerdvd 13 atm well atm I dont use it at all but you know what I mean lol

yoyo59 · 26 Aug 2016 at 17:31

XeNoNF50 said:
Is the z35 good for gaming? Do you have any issues? Particularly when the image displayed is black? Keep hearing about it and keep making me hesitant on buying.

there is some smearing here and there but its easy to live with most of the time I don't even notice it as im too engrossed in the game, and its usually only in very fast paced games also it usually only happened in dark areas/scenes, I had the X34 before it and its a beautiful monitor but its no good for FPS compared to the the Z35, I can barely play Grid 2 like I know how on the X34 on the Z35 I can play like my best, its the extra frames that really does shine also g sync and 200hz, only downside is browsing and desktop use the X34 is much better its like if only they fused them together it would be a perfect match, imo something like TN 3440 X 1440 144-200hz might be the best monitor if the ultrawide stuff got sorted also reason I said TN is because its got the best responses and transitions when it comes to fast paced games that IPS and VA can't compare

RidingTheFlow said:
Depends on your preferences. You can crank up either resolution or FPS. I prefer getting more resolution, utilising G-sync to keep things smooth even if framerate dips below 60.
Also you can use Fast Sync getting low latency even with 60Hz monitor.

Which panels are these? I am not aware of any monitors released as such yet - there are only plans.
Also I'd take manufacturer-declared response times especially for VAs with large grain of salt, since VA responses are wildly varying depending on transition and they just pick the best. What Z35 "specs" were, like 8ms? While it in fact had from-black more than 50ms and black smearing was very noticeable.

I could have sworn I thought it was the 32'' BenQ but after looking again its IPS

yoyo59 · 26 Aug 2016 at 17:34

also an update..

ive ordered a Acer B326HUL which was too good of a price not to buy

its no way my new monitor yet nor am I getting rid of the Z35, im going to test it out and see how I go, but it was basically half the price of the list price

32'' 2560 x 1440 VA 60hz 6ms .. lets see how to go... lol will keep you guys updated

EDIT: just thinking to myself.. would be so cool if I could have the monitor above mine and use some kind of swivel solution to get them to trade places so I can watch content etc on it when not gaming

anyone know if that sort of thing even exists lol

RidingTheFlow · 26 Aug 2016 at 17:41

yoyo59 said:
there is some smearing here and there but its easy to live with most of the time I don't even notice it as im too engrossed in the game

Well, fast paced games the whole point of fast refresh, and on any fast-moving dark objects I've seen motion becoming very "shimmery".
Have you actually seen 144Hz on another monitor with *truly* high response panel? Because Z35 looks atrocious in comparison, its 144Hz in number only.

Also Z35 has very bad viewing angles, even for VA. Contrast shifts like crazy even for text windows toward edges.

I could have sworn I thought it was the 32'' BenQ but after looking again its IPS

I believe BenQ has 4K VA in plans (using same panel as planned AOC u3277pwqu). But we will see how they manage response times and how good viewing angles will be when its out.

yoyo59 · 26 Aug 2016 at 20:40

RidingTheFlow said:
Well, fast paced games the whole point of fast refresh, and on any fast-moving dark objects I've seen motion becoming very "shimmery".
Have you actually seen 144Hz on another monitor with *truly* high response panel? Because Z35 looks atrocious in comparison, its 144Hz in number only.

Also Z35 has very bad viewing angles, even for VA. Contrast shifts like crazy even for text windows toward edges.

I believe BenQ has 4K VA in plans (using same panel as planned AOC u3277pwqu). But we will see how they manage response times and how good viewing angles will be when its out.

ive had the rog swift for 2 years then the X34 now then Z35, and no regrets, the Z35 is very good at fast paced games otherwise it would have gone back a long time ago

what monitor what did suprise me is the xb1 27'' 165hz TN version which 99% don't know about it was very very good, but going back to a 27'' looks like a dot on my desk

RidingTheFlow · 26 Aug 2016 at 20:50

XeNoNF50 said:
Is the z35 good for gaming? Do you have any issues? Particularly when the image displayed is black? Keep hearing about it and keep making me hesitant on buying.

Its only "good" if something like this won't bother you. Personally I couldn't stomach it (since I play space sims a lot):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfNDLFQ3IO0

yoyo59 · 26 Aug 2016 at 22:47

RidingTheFlow said:
Its only "good" if something like this won't bother you. Personally I couldn't stomach it (since I play space sims a lot):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfNDLFQ3IO0

mine doesn't do this to this extend, its very very small on mine, might be that the monitor in the video is a refurb/repaired monitor also its not the exact same model so panel quality control could be less strict also its only its only 144 not 200 and g sync could be helping the z35 maybe who knows

was this your monitor?

RidingTheFlow · 26 Aug 2016 at 22:59

yoyo59 said:
mine doesn't do this to this extend, its very very small on mine

One question - do you use ULMB? This without ULMB (I can't really stand it how it makes backlight pulse and my eyes ache, eliminates whole point of flicker-free backlight).

Please show similar video how it on yours then. I doubt your monitor somehow has faster response times but I would love to be proven otherwise that at least some variance exists.

This video not from mine but Freesync model. But mine looked exactly the same and I've noticed it straight away, since its panel (M350DVR01) characteristic. Black-to-gray transition was measured by at least two independent reviewers above 50ms. At 144Hz (7ms) this will create trails ~10 frames long and this pretty consistent with what visible in this video.

yoyo59 · 26 Aug 2016 at 23:06

RidingTheFlow said:
One question - do you use ULMB? This without ULMB (I can't really stand it how it makes backlight pulse and my eyes ache, eliminates whole point of flicker-free backlight).

Please show similar video how it on yours then. I doubt your monitor somehow has faster response times but I would love to be proven otherwise that at least some variance exists.

This video not from mine but Freesync model. But mine looked exactly the same and I've noticed it straight away, since its panel (M350DVR01) characteristic. Black-to-gray transition was measured by at least two independent reviewers above 50ms. At 144Hz (7ms) this will create trails ~10 frames long and this pretty consistent with what visible in this video.

I dont use ULMB I actually prefer the higher fps

but tbh I have not given it a good go

will try get a video up soon, what do you want me to be moving around lol? also any particular background you want to see