Samsung 700D black colours lighting problem

Martini1991 · 12 Aug 2012 at 22:11

Ever since I've had my Samsung 700D, whenever there's a scene with lots of blacks, specifically at the bottom half of the monitor, the lighting goes stupidly weird with it.

I really can't explain, basically it becomes a blocky shiny black, details are lost and only highlighted by minor variations of the shiny blocky black.

It hasn't bothered me too much, but recently I was playing Amnesia and I couldn't see a thing.

Was watching House earlier, and I stepped to the right and got on my knees, I could see everything perfectly fine, there wasn't an issue with the black lighting.

If I moved where I usually sit, the black lighting went weird again.

Has anyone got this issue or a method/settings to fix it? I'm really half tempted to change to an IPS 1920x1200 monitor because of it, shame as the colours are brilliant and I love the 120HZ.

Martini1991 · 13 Aug 2012 at 15:06

BuMp.

PCM2 · 13 Aug 2012 at 19:11

That is strange indeed. I know it can be difficult to describe exactly what you're seeing and I'm not sure I'm visualising this correctly but it could be caused by a number of things.

A few questions:

1) What GPU are you using?

2) What monitor settings are you using? Have you made any modifications in the graphics driver or applied an ICC profile?

3) How are you positioned relative to the monitor?

Martini1991 · 13 Aug 2012 at 19:15

I think it may be a gamma related problem.
In amnesia there's an ingame gamma setting, when I alter it, it seems fine, but the change only lasts a second before it reverts.

I'm using a 7970 DCII (BIOS with the dual link DVI enabled)
I'm only using the group view magic setting.

I'm looking down slightly at it, pretty much straight infront of it.

EDIT : Just noticed my CCC is pretty whack (By whack, I mean it's tripping out, as if settings are being changed constantly, similar to amnesia), let me try getting rid of my drivers and reinstalling.

EDIT 2 : Even with completely fresh drivers, I'd remove any trace, these drivers are still wigging out in CCC, it's going mental.

PCM2 · 13 Aug 2012 at 20:36

So CCC is constantly adjusting settings on its own? That sounds very odd indeed. Let me know if you find out what's going on. :eek:

Martini1991 · 13 Aug 2012 at 22:44

PCM2 said:
So CCC is constantly adjusting settings on its own? That sounds very odd indeed. Let me know if you find out what's going on.

Basically, everything that you could click ; Apply,Default,Discard (And then if you click a different pane, their respective clicky buttons) are just flashing like they've been clicked or whatnot.

Would you guess it's a gamma problem or not?

I can't tell if it's monitor or GPU.
I'll throw my Xbox 360 on it.

PCM2 · 14 Aug 2012 at 08:21

What do the blocks on this page look like? How many are visible? http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/black.php

And you haven't touched the contrast or colour channels?

Martini1991 · 14 Aug 2012 at 11:05

When I'm looking at it head on the first 5 I can't make out, if I scroll my mouse to the top (So only the first 3 rows are visible) I can make out 4 and 5, with 3 very slightly.
Haven't touched the contrast or channels.

PCM2 · 14 Aug 2012 at 11:34

Interesting. You should be able to make out the 5th block and perhaps 4th on that monitor using the settings you are using if the blocks are centre of the screen. It could be that reflections are preventing you seeing the 5th block? What about if you disable MagicAngle and set the monitor to Gamma 3? And does the problem persist on Amnesia with this setting? The S23A700D has a gamma of around 2.5 on the darker shades under the GroupView setting. If your model is suffering from a bit of bleed at the bottom and particularly given reflection on the glossy screen then the low-end distinctions will be quite poor anyway. IPS models would suffer from additional glow in the peripheral sections so if you find this bothersome that wouldn't be a cure for you.

Martini1991 · 14 Aug 2012 at 17:16

Reset my monitor, set to gamma 3, I can see those squares better now.
Scrolling again lets me see them better.

Looking straight on I can see 4 and 5.
Scrolling I can see them all clearly.

But around the squares the "black" is quite light, like backlight bleed.

EDIT : Just put it on the 360, same issue, using "Custom" mode fixes it but makes everything look weird colour wise, and standing mode 1 also fixes the issue, but again makes everything look awful.
Custom mode looks different than using reset.

I really don't know what to do.

Merlin5 · 15 Aug 2012 at 00:39

Kinda sounds like either the amd drivers or the gpu. I just loaded amnesia and changed the gamma and it didn't revert. Have you tried an earlier version of amd drivers or even the latest if you don't have those? Are there any traces of nvidia drivers on your pc? I know you once messed around with nvidia 3D vision when you first got the monitor which made me wonder. I always use driver sweeper personally to make sure everything is gone.

Martini1991 · 17 Aug 2012 at 17:57

Just updated new drivers.
My CCC is still going whack. I've got a 660Ti with me, so I'll try it with that in a bit.
In The Sabetour, when I changed the gamma there wasn't an issue, so it definitely looks like a gamma issue.