Dell P2414H 24" Monitor Thread
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Soldato
I have received a lot of positive user feedback about this since reviewing it. I wouldn't continue to recommend it so highly if I didn't have others confirm my own findings. And it doesn't sound like Tom's has 'unacceptable' levels of backlight bleed at all. Unacceptable is relative - and he's quite clearly accepted it seeing as he has kept the monitor and said 'it isn't that bad' using sensible settings. Fact of the matter is backlight bleed and uniformity issues plague many LCD monitors - this one is one of the better ones out there and at this price is really a superb buy. If you're expecting guaranteed perfection on any LCD monitor at this price, or indeed higher, you're setting yourself up for bitter disappointment.
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I would agree that it's a lovely monitor apart from this one issue, but with the sample I've got, the backlight bleed really is a showstopper.Just taken delivery of a U2414H and it's a thing of beauty.... but the bottom left has moderate backlight bleed
That one corner is bad enough to be noticeable in scene transitions etc that cut to black, I'll try a dark movie on it later.
Shame, cause other than that it's really outstanding!
I'm not convinced by the "oh well, it's the nature of the technology, you just have to grin and bear it" argument either - of course I'm not expecting perfection, particularly at this price point, but I've used plenty of much cheaper monitors which haven't suffered from anything like the same problem. It looks to me like a design or manufacturing issue relating to the way this particular monitor is screwed together, or at least very sloppy quality control, rather than any intrinsic limitation of IPS or LED technology.
My replacement arrives on Monday; to their credit, the retailer completely took on board what I said and promised to check several samples from their stock and send me the best one.
gahhh, I really hate buying monitors...
Soldato
I would agree that it's a lovely monitor apart from this one issue, but with the sample I've got, the backlight bleed really is a showstopper.
I'm not convinced by the "oh well, it's the nature of the technology, you just have to grin and bear it" argument either - of course I'm not expecting perfection, particularly at this price point, but I've used plenty of much cheaper monitors which haven't suffered from anything like the same problem. It looks to me like a design or manufacturing issue relating to the way this particular monitor is screwed together, or at least very sloppy quality control, rather than any intrinsic limitation of IPS or LED technology.
My replacement arrives on Monday; to their credit, the retailer completely took on board what I said and promised to check several samples from their stock and send me the best one.
gahhh, I really hate buying monitors...
I know it's frustrating, but when you've seen and tested as many monitors as me you get very used to seeing this sort of thing. As I've said earlier many (and I mean many) modern monitors of this size can and do suffer from backlight bleed issues. When it comes to this exact panel, the main competitor to the Dells (the ASUS VN248H) tends to feature bleed not just in that bottom corner but everywhere.
Note that David Bisset was using a U2414H. And if you type pretty much any given monitor number into Google followed by 'bleed' there will be nice images on Google or forum posts where people complain. Fact of the matter is people are more likely to be outspoken when they do have a problem than when they don't. Some are more prone to it than others by design, you're absolutely right - but this model is one of the better 23-24" IPS models out there in that respect.
And what was your previous monitor, out of interest?
On the subject of back light bleed, I've tested various units of AOC I2757FM, Asus MX239H, Asus MX279H and Dell P2414H. There are some others aswell but I've forgot the models.
All replacement units I had had some degree of backlight bleed, some worse than others but overall there wasn't much difference. The best one in terms of panel uniformity in my opinion was the AOC, but due to how OCD I am I wanted something with as minimal trailing as possible and that is why I went for the Dell P2414H.
If you get to concerned about backlight bleed, it makes buying monitors a very stressful experience. Yes, I am on my 3rd Dell P2414H which still has backlight bleed on the corners but you don't even notice it in normal use so what's the point being bothered about it? And realising that every other IPS monitor is the same, there is nothing you can do about it anyway.
Just get on with it and enjoy the monitor!
(Oh and getting the Dell P2414H for £140 certainly was a bonus!)
All replacement units I had had some degree of backlight bleed, some worse than others but overall there wasn't much difference. The best one in terms of panel uniformity in my opinion was the AOC, but due to how OCD I am I wanted something with as minimal trailing as possible and that is why I went for the Dell P2414H.
If you get to concerned about backlight bleed, it makes buying monitors a very stressful experience. Yes, I am on my 3rd Dell P2414H which still has backlight bleed on the corners but you don't even notice it in normal use so what's the point being bothered about it? And realising that every other IPS monitor is the same, there is nothing you can do about it anyway.
Just get on with it and enjoy the monitor!
(Oh and getting the Dell P2414H for £140 certainly was a bonus!)
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I had a Dell U2711 which died recently - it had very little backlight bleed, but it was starting to show its age in other respects, the lay-it-on-with-a-plastering-trowel AG coating being the worst offender (the P2414H is much much nicer in this regard).
I'm a bit reluctant to spend £££s replacing the U2711 with a new 2560x1440 model when more options are becoming available in the 4K sector, so the P2414H is really a (relatively) low-cost stopgap while I see what happens in the market over the next few months.
Oh yes, I do appreciate what you're saying, but in my experience they're *not* all the same; some are clearly better than others, not just from one model to the next but between different samples of the same model. And yes, in this case I *do* notice it in normal use - for instance, scrolling this thread to the bottom it's clearly apparent around the "Posting Rules" box at the bottom left, and to a lesser extent all the way up the left-hand side. This is in broad daylight, with the backlight at 15%.
My previous U2711 had no such problem - yes, there was a little bleed on the right-hand side, but it was only visible if you went looking for it on dark backgrounds in a darkened room. Obviously the P2414H is a lot cheaper, but that's no excuse for it to have this "feature" in my opinion, whether it's due to a design flaw in the model or simply poor quality control.
I'm hoping I just got a particularly bad one... I'll find out soon enough I guess.
Soldato
I do hope your new P2414H is better! There were quite widespread backlight issues on the U2711 in general as well. You got a good sample - but there are good P2414Hs out there as well. It's annoying having to play this lottery, I agree, but it is just how things are with LCDs at the moment.
Soldato
Yes it's completely PWM-free (i.e. flicker free) as mentioned in my review. And you can overclock it to 72Hz+ comfortably (unlike the U2414H which doesn't like going beyond 65Hz it seems).
Thanks.
I'll just have to try and find somewhere decent (incase I have any issues with the one I receive and have to send it back) to buy it from as OcUK doesn't seem to have it listed.
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So sorry to hijack this thread a little but I'm in the market for a new 24" monitor. I used to have a NEC Multisync ea231wm which was a fabulous monitor and I am looking for similar but improved quality. Tech has moved on I hope!
I'm tempted by the U2414H, the only thing putting me off is an alleged issue with the monitor being recognised on Nvidia as a HD TV rather than a monitor which causes some calibration issue. Any thoughts on this? There is a hack but it means reverting to HDMI.
Also apart from better looks is the U2414 worth the extra premium over the P2414?
Are Dell bring out a 1920 x 1200 version of these monitors?
Main uses will be gaming and work, Excel, Access, Visual Studio.
thanks
I'm tempted by the U2414H, the only thing putting me off is an alleged issue with the monitor being recognised on Nvidia as a HD TV rather than a monitor which causes some calibration issue. Any thoughts on this? There is a hack but it means reverting to HDMI.
Also apart from better looks is the U2414 worth the extra premium over the P2414?
Are Dell bring out a 1920 x 1200 version of these monitors?
Main uses will be gaming and work, Excel, Access, Visual Studio.
thanks
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Well, the replacement is a *lot* better - still a bit more bleed in the bottom-left than I'd ideally like, but it's minor enough for me to chuck into the "life's too short" pile, particularly at the price.
Not sure what you're referring to here - the NVidia limited range (16-235) over HDMI
PCM2 apparently ran into a similar problem using the U2414H's DisplayPort input with a GTX780, but is there any reason you particularly want to use DisplayPort rather than "reverting to HDMI?"
Or is this another problem entirely (if so a link or further details would help)?
Soldato
I've been using one of these since Novemberish. Gotta say it is pretty nice (in portrait next to a U2713HM). Got a little bleed in the corner but I'm not sure it is worth RMAing it, seeing as it has no faults anywhere else and as I'm past 30 days, I'd just get a refurb.
Oh well.
Oh well.
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Well, the replacement is a *lot* better - still a bit more bleed in the bottom-left than I'd ideally like, but it's minor enough for me to chuck into the "life's too short" pile, particularly at the price.
Not sure what you're referring to here - the NVidia limited range (16-235) over HDMIbugfeature is well documented, and it's easy enough to get round using NV_RGBFullRangeToggle or the madNvLevelsTweaker utility bundled with madVR. Or you could just pick up a DVI>HDMI adapter for a couple of quid and use a DVI output on your graphics card, bypassing the problem entirely.
PCM2 apparently ran into a similar problem using the U2414H's DisplayPort input with a GTX780, but is there any reason you particularly want to use DisplayPort rather than "reverting to HDMI?"
Or is this another problem entirely (if so a link or further details would help)?
No its the same problem described much better in PCMs review. I'll find out soon as I ordered one!
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Well mine arrived same issue as described regarding the monitor default to 1080p and not having a pc resolution. Fixed it by creating custom res at 65hz. I'll see if it drops to 1080p on the games I play.
Other than that its an impressive looking monitor. I personally cannot see any backlight bleed at all on mine unless it is hiding itself as ips glow. Pretty impressed I can only describe the quality as natural.
Other than that its an impressive looking monitor. I personally cannot see any backlight bleed at all on mine unless it is hiding itself as ips glow. Pretty impressed I can only describe the quality as natural.
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I'd say yes based on my own experience, it grows on me every day.
How does it compare to your old NEC?
My understanding is that the NEC was a class leading monitor (of its time).
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It's been a while since I last used that monitor so this is solely from memory. The anti glare on the NEC was far more pronounced than this so colours seem a little more vivid on the Dell.
Contrast balance is far superior on the dell, i.e. blacks are blacker and there is decent graduation on the gray scale. The NEC struggled producing a decent black (it was more a dark gray glow) and there was little graduation on the scale.
As I said I above the things that strikes me most is that the picture is natural. Nothing to bright, no neon orange sticking out like a sore thumb etc.
The only thing which strikes me as worse than the NEC is viewing angles; especially on the vertical, the dell seems to become a little paler if you look of straight from vertical.
This is the calibration from TFT and either their ICC profile or that provided by Dell if you grab the driver. The DDM manager may be useful to some too.