The BenQ EW2420: Too good to be true?

It's the monitor to go for if you're aware of the 'variability' issues and are aware of your rights under DSR. The price on this week only makes up for that and you'll only know once you take the plunge. It's the same for any monitor really but this one is just that little bet special if you get a good unit. :) I happily use one alongside a high-end CRT and high-end LCD with LED backlight array so it has a lot to live up to. It's very impressive for the price to be honest.
 
I got mine yesterday, not really had chance to have a good look at it yet

Initial Thoughts...

Screen door effect pretty bad

Even backlight, maybe a tiny bit on both sides but nothing to worry about

SPEAKERS!!!! How bad are they? I mean, not bad but useless. My mums £8 logitech 2.0 ones blow these out of the water. Somethings wrong here, they are too bad if you know what I mean. It's the same story when you use the headphones. They also pick up quite a bit of interference.

Play music on black screen and you can just about hear it, then fire up a white screen and the noise gets worse :mad:

Shame really as I actually wanted to use the onboard speakers as I have both PC and PS3 connected. I'll keep it as it doesn't have any dead pixels and I can't be bothered messing about boxing it back up and sorting a courier. Not sure what I can do now as I'd like to take the audios out of both HDMI cables. Grrrr!!!

If I buy a better pair of speakers I still have to connect to the monitor, which I fear will result in poor audio. The only thing I can come up with is the Z-5500 and use optical from PS3 and 3.5mm jack from PC. Don't want 5.1, and don't want all the cables. What I want is to use the HDMIs, the main reason I got this model of monitor to be honest.
 
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glen8 said:
Screen door effect pretty bad
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It's been many years since I've heard of this term.

I'm quite surprised that you are saying that SDE is present. At 1080p resolutions (with a decent source), I would've thought that SDE would be negligible. I can honestly say that I have never seen SDE on a computer monitor...and this includes some of the lap top screens which IMO rank amongst the worst on the market.
 
It's because it's a term that is tied to digital projectors rather than monitors. It is not something that your EW2420 will suffer from unless it is faulty and it is not something I have ever noticed on a monitor of this pixel pitch. If you are noticing the individual pixels (which is possible) and your monitor isn't faulty you are too close to the screen and that is your fault, not the EW2420's. It is also possible that you have the gamma set up poorly and are noticing some kind of gradient or dithering issues.
 
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You can generally notice them if you look hard enough at certain colours (usually lighter colours such as white) from about 20-25cm from the screen if you have 'normal' near sight. I know because I've measured this with a number of other people for a project some time ago on screens of around this pixel pitch. I just measured it on my EW2420 and it's the same as any other screen.
 
PCM2 said:
It's because it's a term that is tied to digital projectors rather than monitors. It is not something that your EW2420 will suffer from unless it is faulty and it is not something I have ever noticed on a monitor of this pixel pitch. If you are noticing the individual pixels (which is possible) and your monitor isn't faulty you are too close to the screen and that is your fault, not the EW2420's. It is also possible that you have the gamma set up poorly and are noticing some kind of gradient or dithering issues.
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ah, perhaps I have used an incorrect term.

I am seeing horizontal lines running across the screen, probably around 2cm apart going from top to bottom. Kind of like banding?

To be honest my machine is well ready for a rebuild so I'll see what it's like after I have installed windows and the latest graphics drivers.
 
Just to clarify, screen door effect:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Screen-door_effect.jpg

SDE: this where you see the square blocks on the screen, when looked up close. I used to see this on my CRT TV and this can also be seen on my Panasonic 720p plasma. I cannot see this on my Panasonic 720p Projector, though.

On my Sony CRT monitor, I have never seen screen door effect. On my Dell U2311H or DGM PVA screen, I have never seen this. I would be pretty horrified if I saw this on a 24" screen, as it would be VERY distracting.
 
PCM2 said:
Let me know how it goes. Sounds like horizonal banding and could be related to the gamma. Does it show up well on photos?
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I haven't had time to have a good look at it to be fair. Only got it late last night so by the time I had cabled it up and done the obligatory dusting of the desk it was getting very late.

Noticed it very clearly on plain coloured wallpapers but not once I'd put something with a pattern on. Didn't see it at all on the PS3 but again I only had it on for a few minutes.

Will have a proper look tonight and I so chuffed it hasn't any dead pixels :D Thanks for the help though
 
Unfortunately mine has also got to be returned :(

The speakers are shockingly bad and I just can't jusify spending more money on an HDMI/Optical compatible speaker set. Shame really.
They must have done something to the internal circuitry as a lot of the audio frequencies seem to be cut off.
 
PCM2 said:
Can't you just plug a simple pair of powered stereo speakers into the headphone socket? :confused: Sorry sound isn't really my area ;).
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BenQ have done something to it as even a seperate pair of speakers, or even headphones sound terrible. When I say terrible I mean just that. My wife who is utterly tone deaf even said they were rubbish. Now that really is saying something. My god, if the wife thinks they are bad god help us!! I'd say the quality is about on par with a mobile phone (I mean an old one btw nothing as good as an iphone or HTC)

Initially I thought maybe I had a faulty set but reading up on a few other forums it's the same story. Don't get me wrong, my expectations are not high. I'm not expecting Z-5500 levels of quality, or even £8 logitech 2.0 cheapies, but jesus.....at least make them sound half decent.

So....BenQ have created a monitor with 2 HDMI ports for what reason? HDMI is for carrying video AND audio. They should have either installed basic speakers rather than ones which don't work or replaced the HDMI with DVI.
 
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Sounds like some serious cost cutting going on. From various experiences people have had HDMI has been nothing but trouble for a lot of monitors. To clarify how was everything connected up to your EW2420? PC to DVI and PS3 to HDMI or both through HDMI. Just wondering if this had someting to do with the image quality issues you were experiencing. I assume you tested audio with just one thing connected VIA HDMI, too.
 
PCM2 said:
Sounds like some serious cost cutting going on. From various experiences people have had HDMI has been nothing but trouble for a lot of monitors. To clarify how was everything connected up to your EW2420? PC to DVI and PS3 to HDMI or both through HDMI. Just wondering if this had someting to do with the image quality issues you were experiencing. I assume you tested audio with just one thing connected VIA HDMI, too.
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I have tried:

PC > HDMI1
PC > HDMI1+3.5mm Jack
PC > DVI+3.5mm Jack
PS3 > HDMI2

I've had each one connected on its own as well and it's the same story.

If you ask me they have cut frequencies out to reduce interferance. I've just played an MP3 with the headphones on and noticed if the screen is dark I can hear very faint interance. When I maximize something bright such as say the google homepage which has a lot of white in it the audio interferance goes up quite a bit to such a level you don't want to carry on listening to it. It really is that bad!

I'm stuck with what to do now. Do I keep it and blow £150 on some logitech Z-5500 (the only ones with optical I know of). Probably is that I don't really have the room for all those speakers not to mention the massive sub (owned one a few years back).

or do I DSR it back and spend even more money on something like a 32" 1080p HDTV which will also have 2 HDMI sockets and some useable speakers. Then again I could pick another monitor with DVI and HDMI with speakers and do it that way. Maybe won't cost me that much more.

Didn't really want to spend a lot you see which is why I went for the benq. £180 is good for a monitor with 2 HDMI and speakers. Just a shame it sounds so horrible.
 
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That really is a shame. I'm afraid I don't really have anything I could advise as an alternative that is of a similar calibre but with better speakers. I know ViewSonic make some good quality TN panels such as the VX2450WM that feature integrated speakers. They are LED-backlit and designed to be pretty thin though so I am not sure the sound quality will be too hot. The Samsung FX2490HD I found had pretty good speakers and the monitor itself is very good. It retails at about £270 though and if you don't want the DVB-T tuner it's a waste. I wish I could be of more help but sound isn't really my area (even if it's coming from a monitor ;)) as you can probably tell.
 
PCM2 said:
That really is a shame. I'm afraid I don't really have anything I could advise as an alternative that is of a similar calibre but with better speakers. I know ViewSonic make some good quality TN panels such as the VX2450WM that feature integrated speakers. They are LED-backlit and designed to be pretty thin though so I am not sure the sound quality will be too hot. The Samsung FX2490HD I found had pretty good speakers and the monitor itself is very good. It retails at about £270 though and if you don't want the DVB-T tuner it's a waste. I wish I could be of more help but sound isn't really my area (even if it's coming from a monitor ;)) as you can probably tell.
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I really appreciate your help, just been looking at speakers :p There is only the z-5500 with optical :( mmmmmmmmm

Cant really be bothered with sending this monitor back to be honest
 
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