PVA/MVA Colour shift - does it vary from monitor to monitor?

Emp.Man · 15 Dec 2006 at 20:11

Since I bought (and returned) the 21" Gateway monitor using the same panel as the Samsung 215TW because of it's colour shifting I've totally discounted getting a monitor using a PVA or MVA panel, which is making life difficult as I'd really like a monitor with a component input and S-IPS/TN film models including it seem very thin on the ground, especially in the UK market.

Just wondering if the severity of it can vary from monitor to monitor in the same way, say, backlight bleed or banding can. I guess I'm really hoping for someone to tell me I just had a bad apple.. There are that many people raving about the 24" Dells and Benqs that I'm doubting myself, even though to me the Gateway was unusable for movies or Photoshop because of the darkness in whatever part of the screen you were directly in front of. If I was editing a black and white photo I'd have to move my head over to the side in order to see the shadow detail I should be seeing.

In case anyone's unsure of what I mean, here's a photo I found on another forum of a 2007WFP with a S-PVA panel which demonstrates it really well:

Any thoughts? Or do I have to keep up the wait for new models to come out?

tom_e · 15 Dec 2006 at 21:26

ive never noticed anything like that on my monitor which is a dell 2007wfp or on my laptop tft

Emp.Man · 15 Dec 2006 at 21:31

That could be down to you having the S-IPS panel on the 2007WFP, I think the image was posted by someone disgruntled at getting the S-PVA version

Baddass · 17 Dec 2006 at 18:31

Hi Emp.Man, thought I'd pop in on your request in that other thread. The colour shift you've experienced is a "feature" of VA panel matrices, and is down to the liquid crystal aligment and structure. It's not something which is widely discussed as only a few people seem to find it an issue in real terms. I've noticed it on the MVA/PVA panels I've tested as well, including my personal screen which is the Dell 2405FPW (Samsung PVA). However, in practice, for me, I don't really see any adverse affects of it. It's the kind of thing which onyl a few people notice, probably the same amount of people who might notice the characteristic purple tinge at angles on S-IPS panels

If you find it an issue, then I'd suggest staying clear of PVA/MVA. I've spoken to others in the past who have also noticed this and found it a problem. You may find it varies slightly from one panel to another as PVA and MVA LC structure varies and other factors like the type of AR coating used can come into play as wel. I'd suggest you try and see some other screens which fit your requirements if you can, before ruling them out altogether though. If you can't find one which is satisfactory, maybe something like the S-IPS based Dell 2007WFP would fit the bill, since it has external inputs as well?

The other thing I alluded to in the other thread was a current trend I've seen of people jumping on the bandwagon of S-IPS >>> MVA/PVA. It seems some people are hearing this and assuming that the S-IPS panels are much better than anything else. I think both panel technologies have their place in the market, and both hold advantages over one another imo. Apart from a couple of recent S-IPS based screens (Dell 2007WFP, NEC 20WGX2 for instance), response times of S-IPS are still a little behind the times. Movie playback is noticably more noisy than MVA and even sometimes worse than TN Film as well. Black depth I found a little lacking on the Dell as well (and NEC to a lesser extent).

S-IPS does offer slightly wider viewing angles, and is free of the contrast shift anomaly which some notice on VA panels. Some modern panels are very responsive (NEC 20WGX2 is arguably one of the fastest available today), and colour accuracy is considered to be superior. Indeed, S-IPS is the technology of choice for most professional graphics displays. However, for most people, they will never really achieve this colour accuracy since they are without expensive calibration tools. PVA/MVA and even TN Film can offer perfectly good colour accuracy and colour depth, free from banding and with a good vibrant rendering suitable for their real needs. Black depth is better on VA based screens, quite noticably in some cases, and there are a wider range of screens with good response times at present.

These are some of my feelings about the S-IPS vs PVA/MVA arguement, I'm just trying to say to ppl not to jump straight on what some people say about one being better than the other

mrk · 17 Dec 2006 at 18:51

I found on the 2007WFPb (IPS) that movies being noisy is not an issue at all and purely down to the format being played. If I fire up a 1080p or 720p HD video for example then the picture is 100% noise free and as crisp as a game running with 4xFSAA and 16xAF.

However some 1080p trailers off the quicktime and BBC showcase/WMVHD sites have noise and I discovered they were encoded/recorded this way and the sharpness of the IPS panel brings out the flaws in the video much like how a good pair of headphones and speakers will bring out the flaws in poorly mastered music.

It's your choice however at the end of the day, for me the Dell has no issues with black depth (I use a brightness of 40 over DVI and due to overlay issues with nvidia drivers increase the overlay gain for videos to 105brightness and 95 contrast which solves any video issues perfectly) or in gaming where the brightness is on level with the in-game brightness/gamma checker by default (HL2 for example has this feature).

I also use it for photo editing, most people are sold on IPS the moment they see a vibrant scene on a photograph jump to life when viewed fullscreen

I've had TN widescreen and have compared the PVA Viewsonic too and could never see myself getting into a non IPS panel anymore -one of the main reasons I did not save 4 more weeks to get a 24" Dell - shame they don't use IPS on larger panels in that price range!

Emp.Man · 18 Dec 2006 at 15:25

Thanks a lot for the help guys, very much appreciated

I came across this component to VGA converter on my internet travels, apparently it does a really good job and it's incredibly cheap compared to the others I've seen, so that eliminates the main problem I was having in choosing a monitor.

I think I'm going to go with the 2007WFP or the LCD20WGX2 as I seem to be one of the unfortunate few bothered by the colour shift, it's a pity there doesn't seem to be any sign of the NEC and LG 24" S-IPS screens coming out over here though.

Baddass · 18 Dec 2006 at 21:37

the NEC certainly isn't planned for Europe, but the LG may appear at some point. The Dell 2007WFP and NEC 20WGX2 are good models though

fish99 · 18 Dec 2006 at 23:45

After reading about this colour shift, I had a look at my old PVA Samsung 172T, which my parents now use, and sure enough it is there. Looking straight on, the centre of the screen is noticeably darker than the corners, and details appear and disappear as you move your head left and right. I did used to notice it a bit when I was using that screen, but never knew what it was.

I don't think IPS is necessarily that great either though, I personally find the black depth and dark detail on my 2007WFP dissapointing, especially when using the screen in a dark room, and the so-called 'IPS effect' (where the corners of the screen go strongly red/orange at significant viewing angles) effectively limits the usable viewing angles somewhat.

Not a lot of computer monitors with component since it just adds expense for a feature most users won't use. Maybe you could use VGA instead, or even HDMI->DVI. What's the device in question you want to connect via component?

Emp.Man · 18 Dec 2006 at 23:55

It's for the Wii, VGA output was always promised for it but for some reason seems to have fallen by the wayside. It's no problem now I've managed to find a converter that does the job at a good price though, all the ones I'd seen before had been well over £100.