Aliasing/Fringing Display Problem

[Rob Bloomfield]

Hello,

I received a Samsung S24E510C monitor today and noticed a strange issue with the way text/images are presented on it. Rough jagged lines and fringing artefacts are evident on the edges of certain on screen elements. These blemishes appear on images/graphics but are particularly apparent on text. It looks as if aliasing has been completely disabled resulting in a massive reduction of visual clarity. I have explored every option in the on screen display as well as every option in my graphics card settings. I have even tried adjusting clear type settings, pixel format settings, screen scaling settings, etc. Additionally I have tried multiple DVI and HDMI cables too but the issue still remains…

I have taken some photos of the problem and produced a diagram that illustrates the issue as best as I could.

1) http://i.imgur.com/EiEqO0p.jpg

2) http://i.imgur.com/QEvBD4U.jpg

3) http://i.imgur.com/ZdV5pjm.jpg

The first image compares a slight diagonal line displayed on the Samsung monitor and my old LG monitor. This shows how hard the jagged edges are on sloped or circular shapes. The second image provides a good example of how text appears on the Samsung monitor, with letters displaying ghostly shadows and strange horizontal halos on top and bottom. Finally the third image illustrates exactly what the problem looks like.

At this point I am starting to think that this could be a defective monitor as there is absolutely no mention of this problem anywhere online. I’m not sure what else can be done to fix this issue as I feel like I have tried everything. Please advise me on whether or not this problem can be resolved.

Thank you for your time,

Rob.

 

[rhysiam]

Firstly I just wanted to say well done on one putting together of the clearest issue descriptions I've ever seen around here!

That sort of issue could be caused by a lot of things and I don't claim to know exactly what's going on. The images you've posted do suggest that something is wrong and you're justified in sending the monitor back. I'm assuming you've tried running your (working) LG monitor off the same cable and output from your graphics card as the new Samsung display. So you can just swap the cable back and forth between displays and see the issue on your new monitor but not the old? Essentially, if that works perfectly for one monitor, and not for your new one, it's grounds to blame that new monitor and take it back or submit an RMA request. That's what I'd be doing in your shoes.

As a matter of curiosity, do the artefacts appear on the display's menus/OSD when no input is connected? Because that would unquestionably implicate the monitor. Even if it doesn't though, it's still probably the monitor, just something in the signal processing chain before the OSD is displayed.

 

[Solandri]

The fact that it works fine on your old monitor pretty much eliminates your computer, OS, and cables as the culprit.

If you zoom way in on your first picture (like 400%), you can actually see the individual pixels and barely make out the subpixels. If you scroll over to the jagged area, you can see that the striping/fringing is actually half a pixel in height. Somehow the top half of the pixel is displaying something different than the bottom half. I wouldn't have believed an LCD was even capable of doing that if I wasn't staring at photographic proof.

I'd return the monitor as defective. There's something seriously wrong with it. In fact I'd pin an enlarged crop of your first photo onto it with a note telling Samsung that they may want to send it to R&D to figure out what's going on. Maybe they've accidentally discovered a way to address half-pixels on an LCD instead of full pixels, that could drastically drive down the price of 4k displays.

 

[Rob Bloomfield]

Firstly I just wanted to say well done on one putting together of the clearest issue descriptions I've ever seen around here!

That sort of issue could be caused by a lot of things and I don't claim to know exactly what's going on. The images you've posted do suggest that something is wrong and you're justified in sending the monitor back. I'm assuming you've tried running your (working) LG monitor off the same cable and output from your graphics card as the new Samsung display. So you can just swap the cable back and forth between displays and see the issue on your new monitor but not the old? Essentially, if that works perfectly for one monitor, and not for your new one, it's grounds to blame that new monitor and take it back or submit an RMA request. That's what I'd be doing in your shoes.

As a matter of curiosity, do the artefacts appear on the display's menus/OSD when no input is connected? Because that would unquestionably implicate the monitor. Even if it doesn't though, it's still probably the monitor, just something in the signal processing chain before the OSD is displayed.

Thanks for the kind comments .

I have indeed tried swapping the cables around between each of the monitors with no success. That's a very good point regarding the OSD, looking at it now it's hard to note any glaring oddities. Text is particularly jagged but it's fairly standard for text on OSDs to be low res and blocky. I'm going to test the monitor out on another computer soon to satiate my curiosity but I am 99% sure the fault lies with the monitor itself.

The fact that it works fine on your old monitor pretty much eliminates your computer, OS, and cables as the culprit.

If you zoom way in on your first picture (like 400%), you can actually see the individual pixels and barely make out the subpixels. If you scroll over to the jagged area, you can see that the striping/fringing is actually half a pixel in height. Somehow the top half of the pixel is displaying something different than the bottom half. I wouldn't have believed an LCD was even capable of doing that if I wasn't staring at photographic proof.

I'd return the monitor as defective. There's something seriously wrong with it. In fact I'd pin an enlarged crop of your first photo onto it with a note telling Samsung that they may want to send it to R&D to figure out what's going on. Maybe they've accidentally discovered a way to address half-pixels on an LCD instead of full pixels, that could drastically drive down the price of 4k displays.

You are absolutely right, only half of each row of pixels is covered! Iv'e experienced some weird display anomalies over the years but this may take the cake... Believe it or not this is actually the fourth monitor I have had problems with in the last month! The first monitor I got was an LG IPS display which presented a very strange problem displaying banding bars and thin vertical stripes on specific colours. The next monitor I tried was an ASUS IPS display which had the exact same issue (plus some pretty bad backlight bleed). After this I decided to give up on IPS and try a Samsung PLS monitor instead. This display was the best of the three with absolutely no traces of vertical lines/visual flaws however the backlight bleed was on another level (it was absolutely absurd). So after sending back those other monitors I finally decided to try a VA panel (the current Samsung monitor). I was very happy to see almost no traces of backlight bleed or weird vertical lines, but instead we have the problem in question :/ (AND a stuck pixel smack bang in the middle of the screen!). So other than backlight bleed issues I seem to be cursed with either strange vertical or horizontal anomalies! At this point its getting exhausting dealing with the various retailers and manufacturers...

I've contacted Samsung (including the images above) to explain the situation to them in detail but I'm still waiting for a response. I'm just hoping something can be resolved relatively soon 🙁.