Is this normal for an IPS panel?

Barry_Sheen · 18 Feb 2011 at 15:56

Hi

Just got my first IPS monitor, a Dell U2311 H. It look great except it doesn't seem to be able to handle black and white gradients very well at all. Now I've read that gradient banding can be present on IPS panels but any sort of drop shadow just looks like a semi-transparent soft black border rather than a gradual transition. Black to white gradients are fine until it gets towards 100% white, then it jumps from light grey to pure white, so it in effect looks like a black to light grey gradient, with a chunk of solid white next to it. I've only calibrated the monitor from some suggested profiles I found on the forum here but I was surprised that this kind of thing is so noticable, compared to a normal tn monitor.

The monitor is connected to a Dell Studio 17 with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 (not ideal I know) via hdmi to dvi. It also happens when connected via VGA.

I've tried several different color profiles and settings but haven't been able to make much of an improvement. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Barry

PCM2 · 18 Feb 2011 at 16:02

Be aware that this kind of behaviour has been observed by a number of U2311H users. It was recently revealed by Baddass who frequents this website (and runs the fantastic TFT Central) that the U2311H actually uses 6-bits per subpixel and uses dithering on top to create the remaining shades. Another issue with the U2311H is that the backlight uniformity is very poor and whites can look very uneven and 'dirty' in places - check out a blank Powerpoint slideshow if you want a good representation of this. I certainly wouldn't advise using anybody elses ICC profiles as each indivual monitor is different.

crackerbear · 18 Feb 2011 at 16:26

I don't think it's particularly normal, I have two U2311H and I don't have that gradient problem on either. There's visible bits of banding on gradients such as in this test, but otherwise the gradient from black to white is smooth - it doesn't "jump".

This isn't a particularly great photo (I can definitely see more shades than that pic shows) and could well be pointless showing it to you if you can't see gradients on your own monitor, but at least you should be able to see the banding going on.

Baddass · 18 Feb 2011 at 17:16

could be that it's not well calibrated, gamma could be off as well. have you tried any form of calibration on the screen yet?

PCM2 · 18 Feb 2011 at 17:28

Have you had a fiddle with the monitor OSD settings (and other people's ICC profiles) alone or also had a play with the Windows 7 (I assume you use) calibration tool? It is difficult to gague the severity of the issue from what you say - is it noticeable on the Lagom gradient Crackerbear used and if so how does it manifest itself on there?

Marvin · 18 Feb 2011 at 17:37

My U2311H didn't suffer from this problem - I guess the screens are a bit hit and miss?

PCM2 · 18 Feb 2011 at 17:50

I have helped install around 30 U2311Hs in a local University department recently (at different times and from different batches). There were many imperfections and a bit of variation between them but the handling of gradients was never particularly bad even before calibration - especially not compared to your average TN panel. If you're using photo editing software make sure it isn't trying to overwrite or use some strange colour profiles.

Barry_Sheen · 18 Feb 2011 at 19:56

Thanks for the replies so far, very interesting. Well I got a replacement U2311H this evening and I'm still having the same problems. Obviously this makes me think it's unlikely both monitors would have exactly the same fault. I've attached a picture to try and demonstrate the problem. It's not that easy to see in the image, but in reality it is very noticeable.

That's another stange thing I can't explain, when I tested the Lagom gradient when I first got the monitor, it displayed perfectly, but every other black/white gradient I come across does not. The problem is present in both colour managed and non colour managed software.

Apart from within Windows 7 display preferences, the graphics card preferences and the monitors own options, is there anywhere else I would need to modify to possibly resolve this?

rickh · 18 Feb 2011 at 20:16

Try using the drivers/profiles on the driver cd.

Barry_Sheen · 18 Feb 2011 at 20:20

The only drivers that were on the CD that came with it, was a color profile. No actual drivers to speak of. I have tried that profile also.

crackerbear · 18 Feb 2011 at 21:14

On this page, the top image, can you see each individual segment?

Also, do you have another computer to try the monitor on? I might be related to your graphics card and the way it's handling gamma.

Barry_Sheen · 18 Feb 2011 at 21:20

Yes I can see each individual segment in the image at the top image, it's really strange. I haven't another computer to try it on at the moment, hopefully in the next day or so.