There are loads of what monitor is best for £200 threads, and the advice is usually the same: Dell U2311. I agree. It's a great screen. It does however raise some interesting points. People always advise this screen because it's not a TN panel, and therefore has better viewing angles, but also for a reason I've been contesting for some time, which is 6bit vs. 8 bit. I've always maintained that a decent 6 bit panel is visually indistinguishable from a 8 bit panel. People have often argued with me. Well.. I read something interesting on TFT central today. The Dell U2311 is a 6 bit panel. I rest my case. You can't label all 6 bit panels as crap because all TN panels are 6 bit. TN panels are crap because they're TN... not because they are 6 bit. Click here and scroll down to "A Correction - Colour Depths of Modern e-IPS and cPVA Panels"
Woah that's a fairly nice find. The Dell U2311 is awesome though. I was looking at buying a pair as I can get them at a real good price. This doesn't make any difference to me though. If it was 1 bit and still had aweome IQ I wouldn't care.
Indeed, 8-bit achieved with A-FRC. I was fooled (as TFTCentral initially) as well, until LG released the panel specification sheet. http://www.hy-line.de/fileadmin/hy-line/computer/csv/datasheets/LM230WF2-SLC1.pdf (I have corrected that on my monitor comparison tool update which I am working on, already) But, you have to consider that IPS panel (well the U2311H) have a far superior liquid crystal used than TN panels, AND has a high grade CFL lamp, AND has a real color processor, to assure accurate color reproduction. The color processor used is very good, if not excellent in managing A-FRC system, to imitate all 8-bit colors (it fooled TFTCentral... which HAVE the equipment... sooo....) The evidence is clear. The best TN panel around, even if you color calibrate is no match for an IPS panel of the same color depth. You don't need to be specialist to know this, it's night and day... ok not at that point.. but very visible none-the less. Even from far and at a quick look, I know what is a TN, what is an IPS panel (assuming the colors of the IPS panel where not changed to imitate the TN ones, and is connected to a decent GPU via digital signal) Everyone here commented or PM me, about how their U2311H is of no comparison to their older TN monitors. I had I think 2 people a while ago, who had access to a color calibrator, and still claim that the U2311H is better. Placebo?! I doubt it... I would except at least SOME people being disappointed.. but so far none. It might not be visible to those who uses facebook/e-mail once a month... hence why I don't recommend them IPS or PVA panels.. but TN panels.. but for us.. on this forum, we are all heavy computer users, and all seek for the best computer experience, from getting good keyboard and mouses, to fans, to temperature comparison, to monitors. This is the same claim that dedicated sound cards are just as good as onBoard... maybe for people who listens to Windows sounds... but for people who enjoys gaming a lot, (have the budget, of course), or listen a lot to music on their PC... not true. Even a low end Xonar or something you hear the difference between onBoard, not huge... but you can hear it (assuming you are not using 20$ speakers either, but something in 150+$ range to start with). Does my parent computer have fancy sound cards? No. I and my brothers, and some of my friends, do. You can't just look at 1 specs and assume placebo effect. A monitor has many technologies that can make the monitor provide the best color. Color processor, Text processor, LCD quality used, panel grid used, building process method (remember the tint problem), back light, back light dispersion films and system, panel coating film used, and more....
I stated this a while back in the "GTX580 with 2209WA or GTX570 with U2410?" thread as one of the reasons why I prefer the 2209WA. And that's probably why it cost more than either the U2211H or the U2311H, which consistently score lower in tests. Alas, the 2209WA is now retired.
Yes you did... Although at that time I was not paying too much attention to posts, as I had my finals. Yes, only the U2711, U3011 are 10-bit panels, based on TFTCentral claim (I did not check the LCD panel spec report) Now, one thing that bugs me, is that the GTX 200 series is supposed to support 10-bit colors, but Windows doesn't show more than 32-bit colors... I am still looking into it. Either the GTX200 series doesn't support more than 10-bit colors, and it's an error on Nvidia part, or it's because the user is not using Display Port, or something else...
I know.. I wasn't saying TN panels are great, as they're not. I was just saying that being 6bit isn't the reason they're not.
I never really cared for the 6-bit 8-bit argument. Although, to be honest it isn't surprising given the U2311's price. Regardless, dithering did do it's job well, now the good news is that the A-FRC didn't cause any input lag. Seeing as there were PVA panels which were 6-bit, this is hardly surprising. But good find pook, that'll end that argument.
Well, dithering, good as it might be, is still dithering, so you will never get the same colour space as you would with a non-dithering panel. Also, those 6 bit PVA panels were generally derided for having sub-par image quality. In the olden days you could pretty easily spot a 6 bit + FRC panel, as the colour space was stated at 16.2 million colour as opposed to 16.7 million colours with an 8 bit panel. Sadly, that doesn't hold true any longer.
i raised that TFTcentral post to Storm20200 on steam (who owns a U2311) and he refused to believe it's 6-bit. guess their FRC are so good it's unnoticeable without direct comparison.
I must admit when I bought my U2311H I had never heard of 6-bit or 8-bit. I knew that IPS would give better viewing angles than TN and hopefully a better picture as well. I wanted a screen that would give me the great colours that my old 21" CRT screen did. Having used a friends TN to tide me over I was not that impressed. Spending £240 was a massive investment for me considering I had built my PC itself on a budget for £650. I had always replaced old screens with second-hand ones for £30-40 in the past. It was money well spent. It simply is the best screen I have ever used. The colours are amazing in pictures, DVDs, Blurays and games. I still don't understand the visual differrence offerred between a 6-bit or 8-bit screen but I do know I never want to use an inferior screen again!
Interesting, I've always noticed a difference in the colours between my 2209WA (which is 8-bit IIRC) and U2311, but I always assumed it was a calibration issue (and it probably is). The U2311 is miles ahead of any TN monitor I've used and when compared directly next to an 8-bit panel I would struggle to tell them apart.
You're just plain greedy with your 2 awesome screens. You may be right about calibration. I know the U2411h and upwards come delivered with calibration reports but the U23 doesn't. I must admit I've never had the need to play around with any of the colour settings yet. I guess because it's better than what I had and I don't have a second screen for comparison. Good call.
Hmm... why was I under the impression that Dell used mostly panels made by Samsung? Could that be true only for U2410?
correction: by LG, not Samsung. to be honest, the calibration sheet is pretty useless for me. i don't really need any level of colour accuracy. all they need is a stamp say "calibrated" and i'd still be happy.
It doesn't cost more or less to print a paper that says "calibrated", or show you the details. The report is generated via software... probably from the color calibrator used. With the report, at least you know that the monitor is properly calibrated... and if you see long bars jump sky high somewhere, you know that the calibration was not done properly and exchange the monitor. So the report is useful.
This will be a pretty basic explanation, but I hope it at least gives you an idea. If you've ever used a paint application or dabbled with colour palettes for web pages you've probably seen the dialogs where you can modify colour palettes. Usually you modify colours based on the (R)ed, (G)reen and (B)lue values (or using (H)ue, (S)aturation and (V)alue, if the application is advanced enough, but that's beside the point here). Those RGB values can each take a value between 0 and 255, which equals 8 bits (1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 32 + 64 + 128). An 8 bit panel can directly show those 8 bits per colour, so it can show 16.7 million different colours (256 * 256 * 256 or R * G * B). A 6 bit panel can only show 6 bits of colour per colour channel (1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 32) or 64 shades, so in essence it can only show 262144 colours. The rest of the shades are show using socalled "dithering" techniques. To use another simple example: let's say you want a light green colour that isn't part of those 262144 colours. To show that special colour the monitor will constantly switch between two shades that *are* part of the palette (eg. normal green and white). That's what's called "dithering" and what FRC (Frame Rate Control) does. Hope that clarifies things a bit.
For about a month, yeah. Screens drift as parts change over time, especially the backlights. I calibrate once a month, and there is noticeable drift. "factory calibrated" is just a pointless gimmick.
How do you calibrate it? I have a blu-ray disc with a load of colour glassses and all that crap... will that do? How would you do it for a laptop screen? Essentially my GF just got a dell XPS with the sandybridge chip and a 2311... as a graphic designer I'm guessing she'd appreciate accurate colours.
