Calibrating the Hazro HZ27WD (it's no HZ27WA!)

[ned14]

Dear Overclockers,

I have been having trouble calibrating my shiny new Hazro HZ27WD (and it is certainly shiny indeed! Despite being the non-glass version, it has a far shiner panel than I'm used to. I certainly can see myself in it). Oh for reference, zero dead pixels, one stuck red pixel middle right. I'd have DSRed it back if it were green or white, but red, well red or blue I can live with, especially at this tiny dot pitch. You really barely notice it, even in movies.

One might think, logically, that the HZ27WD is merely a HZ27WA with added DisplayPort. After all, the panel is the same, the casing is the same, the OSD is the same, the W-LED backlight is the same and so on. One might therefore think that the settings found by TFTCentral would be very similar: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/hazro_hz27wa.htm

In short, this review suggests the following settings:

Brightness 10
Contrast 100
Color Temp User
RGB 30, 17, 25
ECO Mode 25

Supposedly the WZ27WD is calibrated at the factory. Well if it is, either my eyes suffer from seeing everything in shades of blue or their "calibrated" colour temperature is way, way too high. The TFTCentral settings are MUCH better, but they suffer from four problems:

1. The picture is too dark. No, I really mean far too dark. Even on ECO 100 the lagom test (http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/) fails to show the bottom two shades.
2. The contrast is too high. It blows out the top two shades of colour according to http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/. I have to drop contrast to about 70 and brightness up to about 35-40 to get the colours to have an even progression.
3. Without fixing either of the above, gamma is way too low hitting about 1.8 on 48% luminance according to http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/. After fixing the above luminosity and contrast problems, I get gamma going too high hitting about 2.5 on 48% luminance.
4. Even after the above, pictures are too yellowy and white's colour temperature still looks over 7000k (how too blue can combine with too yellow I don't know). Flesh tones in particular make everyone look like they have cholera. Now you can twiddle with these to make flesh tones look right, and of course you can drop the blue to get white looking like a sheet of paper under daylight, but to be honest at this stage we're getting far away from the settings by TFTCentral.

Just to be clear, you CAN get excellent picture quality with no problems. It's just I'm not self confident in what I'm choosing, so I keep resetting and fiddling. I'd like some peace of mind!

So, can anyone help me with some suggested settings for the Hazro HZ27WD specifically? Settings where the Lagom tests all pass and gamma @ 48% is 2.2 like it's supposed to be.

I'm not crazy about getting colour perfect, but getting it reasonably close is important on a €600 monitor BTW I'm using DisplayPort, and yes I get the same problem as others have had with an occasional timing problem with the signal from a Radeon 5770 causing display glitches.

Other thoughts on the Hazro HZ27WD: For such a jump in price, I'm still not sure if the extra resolution beats a high quality, IPS 1920x1200. However, I thought that about my old 1920x1200 monitor until I became used to it, then I found I couldn't use anything smaller. So maybe it'll grow on me.

I will say that the colour range is excellent even compared to the VA panel I had before. Colours are more saturated, transitions more even, and ICC profiles have a much greater effect on what you see than they did on the VA panel. Just goes to show what an 8 bit panel can deliver over a 6 bit panel. I have my old monitor next to my new monitor, and it's simply amazing the difference when showing a picture. That may well grow on me too.

Build quality wise, well it ain't great. I particularly think that the power adapter is extremely likely to die sooner rather than later. It seems to like making a loud click noise as it cuts out from time to time and the monitor flickers. OTOH, it's an external brick, so is easily replaced.

Oh, one other thing: the HZ27WD comes with a 1m DisplayPort cable. Yes, one metre. In other words, totally useless except for testing that the monitor work.s You can find a 1.8m or much, much longer cable on eBay for £5-10 inc. delivery. I'd actually support such a bargain basement monitor having no bundled cables apart from power at all personally. It's not like enthusiasts don't already have bags stuffed with cables (me, I have three so far)

Thanks in advance,
Niall

 

[PCM2]

And after reading that, one would be correct in their assumptions that the HZ27WD is merely an HZ27WA with added DisplayPort. Unfortunately you have discovered the rather annoying issue of inter-unit variation. That very niggle that means you are unable to simply use some prescribed settings that somebody else has used and replicate their results.

Now the variation that exists between the TFT test sample HZ27WA and your HZ27WD is even more pronounced because, as stated in the review, their unit did NOT come 'factory calibrated'. You have stated that you were unhappy with the out of the box performance. The problem with factory calibration is that each system (GPU, in particular) is slightly different - but it could also have been that yours was not correctly factory calibrated. Either way it isn't going to be the same (calibrated or uncalibrated) as the TFT Central test sample so you can't expect to copy their settings like that.

I would assume if you don't have a colorimeter (which you may wish to invest in to help with even a hardware level calibration of such a monitor) that you aren't requiring it for any colour-critical work. As such you need to use settings which look good to you and that does mean a bit of fiddling about. I know it can be difficult but unfortunately you're just going to have to trust your eyes.

P.S. The extra 'saturation' etc. is more to do with the panel technology and screen surface than whether it is 6-bit or 8-bit colour per subpixel. Quite a few VA panels use 8-bits per subpixel but you simply won't get the same level or richness or vibrancy with the colours. The tendency towards low haze for the VA panel surface certainly pushes things a bit in the right direction but not to the level of the Hazro.

I hope this all makes sense. Posting about monitors after some early Friday night drinks is never clever.

 

[ned14]

The problem with factory calibration is that each system (GPU, in particular) is slightly different - but it could also have been that yours was not correctly factory calibrated. Either way it isn't going to be the same (calibrated or uncalibrated) as the TFT Central test sample so you can't expect to copy their settings like that.

Thanks for such a quick reply. And I appreciate about posting after early Friday night drinks, I had a sudden fancy to drink Mohitos a few weeks ago and ended up making some shall we say, uncharacteristic decisions I'm not a rum drinker at all, so maybe it was that, who knows.

I am surprised that things are that out of whack with other units. I accept that there's going to be a 10% variation or so, hence with any new monitor I tune it to what someone else with professional equipment did on the internet and I vary from there to hit what I personally like. Monitors yellow with age anyway, so whenever it occurs to me I put them through lagom again and find they've moved a bit from where they were before.

I am also surprised that the GPU would make much difference on DisplayPort. On HDMI or DVI, sure, but DP is a direct LCD driver. Of course, the TFTCentral test was on DVI. Perhaps I ought to try DVI too just to make sure it isn't the DP connection.

I would assume if you don't have a colorimeter (which you may wish to invest in to help with even a hardware level calibration of such a monitor) that you aren't requiring it for any colour-critical work. As such you need to use settings which look good to you and that does mean a bit of fiddling about. I know it can be difficult but unfortunately you're just going to have to trust your eyes.

You are correct. I mostly program or at the moment actually it's editing book manuscripts (whatever pays the bills sigh!). As I mentioned, colour correctness isn't a need for me, it's just it's nice to get it close enough, especially bad gamma which I find myself noticing in other people's monitors.

P.S. The extra 'saturation' etc. is more to do with the panel technology and screen surface than whether it is 6-bit or 8-bit colour per subpixel. Quite a few VA panels use 8-bits per subpixel but you simply won't get the same level or richness or vibrancy with the colours. The tendency towards low haze for the VA panel surface certainly pushes things a bit in the right direction but not to the level of the Hazro.

First time I've ever seen an IPS panel outside my phone (a Meizu M9. Uses the same panel as an iPhone 4), so I had nothing to compare to. I live in a rural area, don't get out much Thanks for the correction.

Niall

 

[PCM2]

It sounds as if you are generally happy with the monitor. I think most people who go for the Hazro will be upgrading from a much cheaper monitor and in many cases it will have been their first IPS monitor. It is certainly one of the more striking ones in that it combines the excellent colour reproduction of a good quality IPS panel with a glossy surface that doesn't impede its colour performance. It's a really good mix - provided you can get the lighting under control and don't mind your own reflection every now and then .

I would certainly try DVI and see if you can obtain better results using TFT Central's settings. Most GPU level differences occur between Nvidia and AMD due to different defaults and handling of colour processing - usually only significant differences over HDMI, though, which neither you nor TFT Central were/are using. I am sure it's only a matter of time before you settle on some settings which you find comfortable (and if you get others saying 'wow' as they look at the screen that's always a bonus!)

 

[ned14]

It sounds as if you are generally happy with the monitor. I think most people who go for the Hazro will be upgrading from a much cheaper monitor and in many cases it will have been their first IPS monitor.

The old one with the VA panel is the (in)famous Digimate L-2442WD for which I originally paid £200 back just before I left the UK. It, like most of the same model, blew its PSU about two years in but Digimate replaced it under their 3 year warranty. Now it's got the very common "black screen of death" problem where it overheats after a few hours of use and cuts out. Power cycling it brings it back. It just passed out of warranty last month, so I had been looking to buy a new one before the DGM dies for good.

Agreed that the Hazro is very likely for first time buyers of > 1920x1200 crowd. The Dell U2711 can be found for £580 new inc VAT if you time your purchase to Dell's outlet offers right and apply the coupon codes of the time. It's the only viable alternative considering how disappointing the Samsung S27A850D is. Apart from these three, for the next price jump you can get the Dell U3011 and get that 16:10 aspect ratio back.

It is certainly one of the more striking ones in that it combines the excellent colour reproduction of a good quality IPS panel with a glossy surface that doesn't impede its colour performance. It's a really good mix - provided you can get the lighting under control and don't mind your own reflection every now and then .

Agreed. I have 7000 lumen in my work room (equivalent to about 500W incandescent), so reflections are commonplace. Keeps you working longer though

I would certainly try DVI and see if you can obtain better results using TFT Central's settings. Most GPU level differences occur between Nvidia and AMD due to different defaults and handling of colour processing - usually only significant differences over HDMI, though, which neither you nor TFT Central were/are using. I am sure it's only a matter of time before you settle on some settings which you find comfortable (and if you get others saying 'wow' as they look at the screen that's always a bonus!)

Agreed. Once I settle and stop changing them I'll post my settings here, if nothing else for reference if I ever need to reset the settings.

Thanks once again for your input.

Niall

 

[Baddass]

Hi. As PCM2 has said, the sample of the HZ27WA we received at TFTcentral was a pre production unit without any factory calibration at all. I would disregard the settings used for that particular model as they will not match any of the actual stock models which all come factory calibrated. In fact you might even be better trying the settings from the WC part of the review as that unit was factory calibrated and may well be closer to the initial set up of your screen. You may also want to try combining those OSD settings with the calibrated ICC profile from the review too.

As said though there could still be variation between units and computer set up so calibration of your own, either just by eye using lagom, or preferably with a calibration device would be preferred I expect.

 

[ned14]

My best attempt at settings

I had thought that factory calibration simply sets what the default "warm", "normal", and "cool" settings are? Manually setting R,G,B ought to be somewhat similar on the same model.


For reference, for anyone else finding this thread later off Google, the default, factory reset defaults for the Hazro HZ27WD are:

Brightness 50
Contrast 50
Sharpness 50
Color Temp Normal (this is RGB 30, 30, 40)
ECO Mode 50

There is absolutely NO difference between DVI and DisplayPort. The images and settings are identical.

The out of the box settings produces an easy on the eye brightness, if a little blue for my tastes. Lagom shows excellent colour contrast with all graduations easily visible. Gamma is off though, with 48% luminance coming in at ~1.95 rather than 2.25 and 10% luminance coming in at ~2.10 rather than 2.17.

I would say that subjectively speaking, there isn't much colour saturation or static contrast out of the box. Photos are not lively. I have a hires picture of some coral reef fish and the picture is fairly dead.

I tried dropping RGB and raising brightness, and tried having a very high RGB and zero brightness. Here are the best balance of settings I found which pass all the Lagom tests and white looks like a sheet of paper under outside daylight to me:

Brightness 40
Contrast 67
Sharpness 33
Color Temp RGB 35, 30, 35
ECO Mode 50

Gamma at 48% worsens to about 1.90. Gamma @ 10% has definitely improved though to nearly 2.20.

Finally, knowing how you all like pictures, here are the old and new monitors together:

You'll note the redness of the Digimate. This is because after three years the monitor has become yellow as they often do (especially the CCFL ones, the W-LED ones just get dimmer), so the blue has been cranked so RGB is 40,45,60 to try and even it out. While you gain the white balance, you over-egg the red unfortunately.

Otherwise, I think I'm done tinkering. If anyone else gets some values using a proper calibrator, please post them here!

Niall

 

[kenster]

just bought a 27WD myself and had some pain realising (so it seems) the HDMI ports do not like to go above 1920 x 1080 and even then i couldn't get clear text and smooth video on desktop.

Using dual link cable (Supplied) with DVI is good now.

Anyway ill try your suggested settings and see, first impression of this monitor are ok im not wow'd by the picture quality the colours aren't exactly vibrant like i expected maybe it needs some good adjustment, i upgraded from a Samsung Syncmaster 245b (24inch) which ive had a few years now and i must say i dont see 500quid well spent! Maybe i will after tuning this.

 

[ned14]

just bought a 27WD myself and had some pain realising (so it seems) the HDMI ports do not like to go above 1920 x 1080 and even then i couldn't get clear text and smooth video on desktop.

Using dual link cable (Supplied) with DVI is good now.

Personally I wouldn't use anything but DisplayPort unless your monitor is within 1m of your computer. At 2560 x 1440 one is pushing the timing tolerances of dual-DVI and the longer the cable the worse timing mismatch gets. For example, I have a 1.8m dual-DVI cable and it produces garbled text with the Hazro - whether that's the cable or the Hazro or is what I think it is (the distance) I can't be sure. The 1m dual-DVI cable works fine, but isn't long enough for me.

HDMI is definitely a non-starter over 1920 x 1200. I think it needs a different plug and socket for the "other" version of HDMI which can do super high resolutions. The Hazro doesn't have one of those, but neither does any graphics card.

Anyway ill try your suggested settings and see, first impression of this monitor are ok im not wow'd by the picture quality the colours aren't exactly vibrant like i expected maybe it needs some good adjustment, i upgraded from a Samsung Syncmaster 245b (24inch) which ive had a few years now and i must say i dont see 500quid well spent! Maybe i will after tuning this.

Some of the lack of vibrancy is W-LED over CCFL. If you show a completely white screen on both, the CCFL one always has more "punch" to it, even at similar levels of brightness - why, I don't know, but it's always been the case so far in my experience. Can it be that the CCFL has a wider spectrum of white more similar to the sun whereas the W-LED only uses three phosphors or something?

Where the Hazro is superior though is dark colours. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I have a VA panel I'm retiring and it's rather good. I also have an old TN panel I normally use as a second monitor. Where that TN panel simply looked worse against the VA panel, it looks positively dreadful against the Hazro. Colours look smudged, almost painted on, there is no subtlety or graduation, even black on white text looks like the contrast is at bottom when in fact it's almost at its highest. The Hazro absolutely demolishes the TN panel. And it's not something you'd notice without them being side-by-side.

So regarding my earlier statements about my lack of "wow", all I can say that when put side by side with a TN panel I'm definitely going "wow" a lot. There is a tremendous difference, much more so than with the VA panel.

Try side by side with your Samsung and see how you get on.

HTH,
Niall

 

[PCM2]

Some of the lack of vibrancy is W-LED over CCFL. If you show a completely white screen on both, the CCFL one always has more "punch" to it, even at similar levels of brightness - why, I don't know, but it's always been the case so far in my experience. Can it be that the CCFL has a wider spectrum of white more similar to the sun whereas the W-LED only uses three phosphors or something?

A white LED backlight will show a similar level of vibrancy, all else being equal, to a CCFL backlight with a standard colour gamut. The 'punch' of the white at any given point is dependent almost exclusively on the white point and luminance. If you have calibrated the white point to the 6500 kelvin daylight point (or whichever particular point you're after) they will look equally 'brilliant'. In practical terms CCFL-backlit monitors tend to have better out of the box white points. The overall contrast of a uniform PVA panel (be it LED backlit or CCFL backlit) will always make whites appear particularly bright and brilliant in comparison to most other monitors.

When it comes to colours it pretty much depends how it is set up but the two main limits on 'vibrancy' will be the colour gamut and screen surface. Obviously you can get CCFL backlights with broad colour gamuts whereas white LED backlights are restricted to roughly sRGB (some modern WLED backlights extend a little further but are never broad gamut). The Hazro combines a slightly broader than sRGB colour gamut with a glossy screen surface so once correctly set up colour vibrancy should be excellent. It sounds as if Hazro aren't calibrating these very well in the factory or something else is going awry. Don't underestimate the effect of bright ambient light 'bleaching' the image, either - this is a particular problem on glossy monitors with relatively 'weak' anti-reflective coatings where bright lights are present. This is a particular area where Samsung is the 'one to beat' at the moment with their Ultra Clear Panel coatings.

 

[ned14]

A white LED backlight will show a similar level of vibrancy, all else being equal, to a CCFL backlight with a standard colour gamut. The 'punch' of the white at any given point is dependent almost exclusively on the white point and luminance. If you have calibrated the white point to the 6500 kelvin daylight point (or whichever particular point you're after) they will look equally 'brilliant'. In practical terms CCFL-backlit monitors tend to have better out of the box white points.

I only said what I said about the difference because of my knowledge of LED versus CFL lighting. CFL is much more mature, so you can get reasonably broad white spectra such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Spectra-Philips_32T8_natural_sunshine_fluorescent_light.svg by using extra phosphors to fill in spectrum gaps. In contrast, W-LED might only achieve a specific RGB spectrum such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Red-YellowGreen-Blue_LED_spectra.png.

Now I have no idea where the W-LED used in monitors uses phosphors, and if it does then it's little different to CFL. However from simply my own experience with three ownerships of CCFL monitors and three ownerships of W-LED monitors, the CCFL ones have always had whites which "sparkle" more than the W-LED ones. That could entirely be my eyes of course.

The overall contrast of a uniform PVA panel (be it LED backlit or CCFL backlit) will always make whites appear particularly bright and brilliant in comparison to most other monitors.

Does this apply to TN as well? I have had three CCFL monitors, two TN and one VA. I have had three W-LED monitors, two TN and one IPS. I had thought that the white "sparkle" difference was down to backlight, but it could be panel as you say.

And am I right that as CCFL ages, it gets more yellow/brown as it dims whereas as W-LED ages, it just gets dimmer?

When it comes to colours it pretty much depends how it is set up but the two main limits on 'vibrancy' will be the colour gamut and screen surface. Obviously you can get CCFL backlights with broad colour gamuts whereas white LED backlights are restricted to roughly sRGB (some modern WLED backlights extend a little further but are never broad gamut). The Hazro combines a slightly broader than sRGB colour gamut with a glossy screen surface so once correctly set up colour vibrancy should be excellent. It sounds as if Hazro aren't calibrating these very well in the factory or something else is going awry. Don't underestimate the effect of bright ambient light 'bleaching' the image, either - this is a particular problem on glossy monitors with relatively 'weak' anti-reflective coatings where bright lights are present. This is a particular area where Samsung is the 'one to beat' at the moment with their Ultra Clear Panel coatings.

Agreed about the Samsung 27". If it weren't for that backlight bleed I'd have got one, because all its other features were really handy e.g. have a proximity sensor turn it dim when you're not in front of it. That's the kind of sensible addition any reasonably high end monitor should have.

All my calibration and testing was done at night time with the lights turned off so it was as dark as possible. My 7000 lumen work room light generates reflection on even the most anti-reflective coating though it's a first with the Hazro that I can actually see in it if I haven't shaved at night time.

I'm sure that Hazro are calibrating them in the factory because the RGB balance is almost spot on (as in, RGB=30,30,30 is indeed white as is RGB=90,90,90). The only thing which is majorly out is the gamma curve, so it's got a wrong, over curved, shape to it. Unfortunately, ATI's Catalyst only lets you affect the whole gamma curve, not parts based on luminance, so I can fix luminance at 48% only by making it too high at 10%. A shame.

I don't suppose you know of a fix for setting a custom gamma curve on Radeon by any chance?

Thanks,
Niall

 

[PCM2]

Does this apply to TN as well? I have had three CCFL monitors, two TN and one VA. I have had three W-LED monitors, two TN and one IPS. I had thought that the white "sparkle" difference was down to backlight, but it could be panel as you say.

I only really used VA panels as an example because of their high native static contrast ratios (~3000:1). I tend to find that whites stick out really nicely on these and are perceptively very bright due to the contrast. TN panel monitors can also have very punchy whites but this is limited by common issues with luminance uniformity and viewing angle limitations. As such you may achieve a nice bright 'on point' white in the centre of the screen but elsewhere the temperature will appear off and the white just won't appear truly white. Some smaller CCFL-backlit TN panels had quite good uniformity and if you're comparing these to some newer (perhaps larger, thinner, comparatively cheap) WLED-backlit TN panels the whites will probably appear brighter and more 'crisp' for this reason. Comparing modern TN panel monitors to modern CCFLs of a given size I have probably seen the 'best' whites come out of LED backlit models (especially from Samsung). Also some of the worst whites have come from a minority of modern WLED monitors I've tested due to some pretty dodgy gamma and white bleaching issues.

And am I right that as CCFL ages, it gets more yellow/brown as it dims whereas as W-LED ages, it just gets dimmer?

Yes. The 'colour temperature' of CCFLs will change depending on the temperature of the lamps (which is why they have a warmup period of around 20-30 minutes) but also the age of the lamps. WLED backlights tend to just drop in luminance at a relativley slow rate as they age.

Agreed about the Samsung 27"....
All my calibration and testing was done at night time with the lights turned off so it was as dark as possible. My 7000 lumen work room light generates reflection on even the most anti-reflective coating though it's a first with the Hazro that I can actually see in it if I haven't shaved at night time.

I am sure Samsung are going to expand their range of 'Ultra Clear Panels' in the future. It would be brilliant to see that as an option for a more refined version of their PLS monitors, for example. The surface can be made even less reflective by adjusting the concentration of 'silver nano particles' that are used and apparently this is something they have done with the SA750 series compared to the SA950 series. I have so far only managed to test out a member of the 950 series but I was relatively impressed with how they have implemented the 'anti-reflective' properties. Yes it was still a bit of a mirror in certain circumstances but it handled bright lights during the night and moderate daylight a lot better than regular anti-reflective coatings. The image didn't lose intensity in such light in the same way it does with Apple Cinema Displays, Dell TrueLife, ASUS Color Shine (and I'd imagine the Hazros).

I'm sure that Hazro are calibrating them in the factory because the RGB balance is almost spot on (as in, RGB=30,30,30 is indeed white as is RGB=90,90,90). The only thing which is majorly out is the gamma curve, so it's got a wrong, over curved, shape to it. Unfortunately, ATI's Catalyst only lets you affect the whole gamma curve, not parts based on luminance, so I can fix luminance at 48% only by making it too high at 10%. A shame.

I don't suppose you know of a fix for setting a custom gamma curve on Radeon by any chance?

Other than setting an ICC profile using a colorimeter I'm not sure how this would be done. How are you finding the colours in general now you've had a bit of a play about with the settings? I haven't got around to using the Hazros (yet) but I found that in the right light the similar Apple LED Cinema Displays display excellent colour vibrancy using the 'out of the box' settings. I wouldn't comment on accuracy, specifically, but it was great for film watching and gaming. The image did become 'flooded' and bleached (as mentioned previously) relatively easily which dampened the image a bit but this was only under quite bright light.

 

[ned14]

Other than setting an ICC profile using a colorimeter I'm not sure how this would be done. How are you finding the colours in general now you've had a bit of a play about with the settings? I haven't got around to using the Hazros (yet) but I found that in the right light the similar Apple LED Cinema Displays display excellent colour vibrancy using the 'out of the box' settings. I wouldn't comment on accuracy, specifically, but it was great for film watching and gaming. The image did become 'flooded' and bleached (as mentioned previously) relatively easily which dampened the image a bit but this was only under quite bright light.

By the way, thank you for all that information earlier and the time to type it all in. Useful to know, and there isn't a massive amount of it easily findable with google.

To answer your question, I'm still fairly underwhelmed by the colour and vibrancy. There is still something very "flat" about the display, and maybe it's that lower static contrast you mentioned. I am increasingly loving the extra resolution though - I had two 300dpi book covers on the screen yesterday trying to match up their spines. On a 2560 x 1440 monitor you can just shove them up there at actual size no trouble - something even the 1920 x 1200 just didn't quite have the space for.

Given the recent price drop of the Dell U2711 down to less than £100 more than the HZ27WD (this is Dell Ireland, and typically happened just after I bought the Hazro), I do have to wonder if I'd purchase the same again. You get the wider gamut with the Dell, guaranteed no pixel faults and I suppose the USB stuff and other extra tat might be useful. I'd assume the Dell would be less likely to need a warranty episode during the next three years too.

I will say there is one HUGE advantage with the W-LED backlight in these large area monitors - that of heat. The old Digimate would warm your face after a few hours, an effect I never stopped getting disconcerted with. The Hazro is absolutely cool on the front, only slightly warm on the top vents though somewhat warm on the back where the electronics are. It means I can stick my face real close for detail work and not feel an instinct to recoil

Niall

 

[cib24]

Did anyone find a happy calibration with the WD? I recently purchased a WD and I also found the TFTCentral calibration settings to be waaaaaaaay to dark. I am currently using their color profile settings but my contrast and brightness are as follows:

Contrast: 79
Brightness: 36

The gamma is way off though, and I have to turn it down to 0.50 in the ATI control panel in order for it to look like 2.2 on the lagom site, which must be wrong as that makes the picture way to dark afterward.

Last question, does anyone know of any software which you can use to calibrate the colors and gamma from a software perspective that forces the settings to remain when you fire up a game? Usually you can set the colors and all but once you go into a game anything software related goes back to default values.

 

[ned14]

In my experience, for the picture to be calibrated it'll look dark. Part of that is because IPS monitors are much, much better at shade reproduction, so the considerably extra dynamic range "looks" dark relative to VA or TN. Part of that though is because the Hazro doesn't belt out much from its W-LED backlight, so there simply isn't the light output.

My Hazro has grown on me. For viewing ultra high res pictures (75MP 6000 x 4000) there really is no alternative, and games - if your GPU can take it - look so good you can see the defects very clearly . It isn't as worth the extra as moving to 1920 x 1200, but all in all I'm satisfied. Even if the picture still looks very "cold" to me. I'd love another 2560 x 1440 monitor to compare against ...

Niall

 

[cib24]

But if you can't see any of the black boxes above the bottom row on a calibration screen then it must be too dark. Same with the contrast being too high if you can't distinguish anything past white box 250 when it should go to at least 253 of 255.

Either way I just purchased a Pantone Huey Pro and we will see if that can help at least a little bit.

Does anyone know of any software which will keep whatever settings the patone huey pro gives out for the ICC profile to insure that the software settings stay locked on even when you open a game?

 

[PCM2]

It isn't possible to lock in ICC profiles. It is overriden at the DX/OGL codepath on the GPU as some games simply 'need' to use their own gamma values. With some titles things will appear 'different' but may actually look worse if you run them and have an ICC profile enabled. This can be particularly frustrating and isn't because your calibration is bad, simply that the game title misreads it. There are other issues if the calibration is too heavily software-based (gradation issues and reduction in shade variety) which will occur if things are particularly out of kilter on the hardware side. To that end it's always best to get the most from the monitor using the OSD and if it doesn't have one or is limited in its functionality then you should just hope that the claims of factory calibration are accurate. If that clearly isn't the case (as with your Hazro) then there is not an awful lot you can do really.

 

[cib24]

Found a programme called Color Clutch which seems to do exactly what I have been looking for in most cases but does not work with OpenGL games and may end up showing up as a cheat in any games with Punkbuster.

It's free

http://sourceforge.net/projects/colorclutch/

 

[cib24]

Calibrated Hazro settings with the Pantone Huey Pro are:

Color Temp Normal: R 30 G17 B 25

Brightness: 34

Contrast: 79

Eco: 25

Dynamic Contrast: Off

Also, if anyone knows how I can export the ICC profile I will put it up on a file transfer website like Rapidshare or Megaupload for you guys to try out.

In terms of colors switching during games I downloaded PowerStrip and used this guys methods to lock the color for each game I play. I think it works in most cases as long as you don't alt+tab like crazy (but sometimes it still works):

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=280096

 

[realistic]

Hello to all, I am a noob here.

I want to buy an Hazro HZ27WD but cannot find anywhere to buy one. Even Hazro's own website has no way to buy and no list of dealers either. Where did you guys get yours?