Monitor has a washed out look...

BoB3rt · 17 Apr 2017 at 12:16

Hi,

I've owned a SyncMaster 223bw for several years.
I needed a second monitor for work at home and decided to source the same monitor but with the 2ms Response which is the 226bw.

Ive hooked both up and my original monitor just cant produce the same crisp white colour the 'new' one can. Ive checked the leads firstly and then spent a few hours messing with the monitor settings and then even fine tuning with the Nvidia pannel.

Im not an expert by any means on colour and settings but if I had to describe it - my original monitor has a subtle washed out filter over it, like the contrast/gamma is too high and the colours cant be set as vibrant (unless using the nvidia pannel).

Most noticeably is the white is off and not as white as the 'new' monitor.
I have it about as close as i feel i can get it now but wondering if this is just age/use of the monitor or am I missing a trick?

Thanks

CaptainCrash · 17 Apr 2017 at 13:16

BoB3rt said:
I have it about as close as i feel i can get it now but wondering if this is just age/use of the monitor or am I missing a trick?

It's possible, they do tend to lose brightness over time.

How is each monitor connected - DVI, HDMI, VGA?

BoB3rt · 17 Apr 2017 at 14:09

Both connected by DVI.
Tried swapping cables just incase.

sadbuttrue · 17 Apr 2017 at 14:55

Your monitor uses a CCFL backlight. Dimming will become obvious at around 10,000 hours of use. With some models it could be upto 50% dimmer.

CaptainCrash · 17 Apr 2017 at 15:04

Have you checked that both monitors are receiving full range (0-255) RGB?

There should be an option in the NV control panel (under Adjust video colour settings > Hwo do you make colour adjustments > With the NVIDIA settings > Advanced tab) which allows you to toggle full/limited range for each monitor, but it doesn't always work reliably - to be sure of getting the right setting, you could try a third party tool such as madLevelsTweaker, bundled with the madVR renderer: http://madshi.net/madVR.zip

Or you might just have a clapped out monitor...

BoB3rt · 18 Apr 2017 at 11:38

CaptainCrash said:
Have you checked that both monitors are receiving full range (0-255) RGB?

There should be an option in the NV control panel (under Adjust video colour settings > Hwo do you make colour adjustments > With the NVIDIA settings > Advanced tab) which allows you to toggle full/limited range for each monitor, but it doesn't always work reliably - to be sure of getting the right setting, you could try a third party tool such as madLevelsTweaker, bundled with the madVR renderer: http://madshi.net/madVR.zip

Or you might just have a clapped out monitor...

Thanks for the replies.
I'll have a look at this later once home.

Cheers!

DrBombcrater · 19 Apr 2017 at 12:12

It could be the backlight in your 223BW dimming over time, but I suspect you're just seeing a bad LCD panel compared to a good one. In the days when they made the 'BW' series monitors Samsung were notorious for sourcing panels from multiple manufacturers with wildly varying quality and tolerances. I have a pair of 225BWs of similar age and they look completely different in use, one has yellowish whites and low contrast while the second is visibly whiter and more vibrant. Even hardware calibration can't get them looking even remotely similar.