Question Display questions for OLED ?

[Dreadbeard]

I just got an Alienware 32” 4k qd oled monitor and have some questions:

1) One of my games won’t go full screen unless it’s windowed full screen at 4k? Is this a problem or is it okay?

2) Should I use Dolby Vision? It makes things feel kind of bright or should I just use HDR?

3) I quite often find myself playing games that have a static or somewhat static background - is this going to be a problem with an oled monitor? I don’t want to cause any significant burn in as I’m aware you only get a single replacement.

4) Is this flickering on some black menus / loading screens normal?

Video

 

[Aeacus]

1) One of my games won’t go full screen unless it’s windowed full screen at 4k? Is this a problem or is it okay?

Game issue.

2) Should I use Dolby Vision? It makes things feel kind of bright or should I just use HDR?

If you want best/most vibrant colors, then Dolby Vision. Regular/normal HDR is lesser form of it.

3) I quite often find myself playing games that have a static or somewhat static background - is this going to be a problem with an oled monitor?

Yes, and very much so.

It has been extensively tested.
E.g in-depth testing with PC monitors (OLED vs VA vs IPS): https://www.rtings.com/tv/learn/permanent-image-retention-burn-in-lcd-oled

If you look at that data, you can see OLED burn-in started to show itself as little as 6 weeks mark. With 20 hours per day usage, that's 140 hours per week, whereby burn-in stated to show after 840 work hours. At 10 week mark, or 1400 work hours, burn in is so severe that it will get into the way of normal usage of a monitor.

After that, 2nd test was made, with 6x OLED TVs.
2nd testing: https://www.rtings.com/tv/learn/real-life-oled-burn-in-test

4) Is this flickering on some black menus / loading screens normal?

Based on video, it looks like panel issue. Seems to be backlight issue since to me, it appears the backlight turning on, on higher degree than it is supposed to, hence the white flash.

To narrow down things; record gameplay video (e.g with OSB Studio) and try to catch the time when flicker happens. If there is 0 flicker on video, issue is somewhere after image is sent out from GPU.
If flickers appear on screen recorded video as well, issue is within GPU.

 

[Dreadbeard]

Game issue.


If you want best/most vibrant colors, then Dolby Vision. Regular/normal HDR is lesser form of it.


Yes, and very much so.

It has been extensively tested.
E.g in-depth testing with PC monitors (OLED vs VA vs IPS): https://www.rtings.com/tv/learn/permanent-image-retention-burn-in-lcd-oled

If you look at that data, you can see OLED burn-in started to show itself as little as 6 weeks mark. With 20 hours per day usage, that's 140 hours per week, whereby burn-in stated to show after 840 work hours. At 10 week mark, or 1400 work hours, burn in is so severe that it will get into the way of normal usage of a monitor.

After that, 2nd test was made, with 6x OLED TVs.
2nd testing: https://www.rtings.com/tv/learn/real-life-oled-burn-in-test


Based on video, it looks like panel issue. Seems to be backlight issue since to me, it appears the backlight turning on, on higher degree than it is supposed to, hence the white flash.

To narrow down things; record gameplay video (e.g with OSB Studio) and try to catch the time when flicker happens. If there is 0 flicker on video, issue is somewhere after image is sent out from GPU.
If flickers appear on screen recorded video as well, issue is within GPU.

Thank you! Will do some testing does Dolby vision not only work if supported via the game played? Or if I turn it on does it apply to everything?

I will get a video asap, the flickering issue I can only notice in menus or loading screens, when actually playing games it seems like there is no flicker at all but I will do a test to find out

Why do some black colors look more grey? / washed out, would this be because I’m using the *game hdr* mode on the monitor?

 

[Aeacus]

does Dolby vision not only work if supported via the game played? Or if I turn it on does it apply to everything?

HDR and it's forms, apply only to those that are supported.

Why do some black colors look more grey? / washed out, would this be because I’m using the *game hdr* mode on the monitor?

I think it is more to do what HDR is all about, rather than what form of HDR you are using.

Idea of HDR is to balance out brightest and darkest parts of the image, so that most of the image is seen (details won't be lost due to image being too bright or dim in certain areas). This, of course, leads to overall increase in brightness and washed out colors.

This image is nice example:

One could say that HDR is better since it showcases more info, especially in the darker parts (shadows). But i'd argue if that is really needed. In my opinion, i'd rather have vibrant colors with rich blacks, rather than seeing washed out colors and what is hiding in the shadows.

 

[BFG-9000]

OLED burn-in is logically no different than Plasma or CRT, since they use pretty much the same phosphors, just lit using different technologies. And I don't know about you, but the only Plasma burn-in I've ever seen is the sports channel chyron burned onto TVs in a sports bar, or on CRTs the Win NT login screen. So burn-in really shouldn't be an issue in normal use unless you turn the brightness up way too high to say, compensate for a daylit room (which is exactly where LCDs would excel and their lack of really dark blacks would be least noticeable). Yes, if you abuse the heck out of it, burn-in will show up relatively quickly, as not only is it dimmer there, the color shifts because blue is the least durable. But I use OLED as a PC monitor, with a fixed taskbar even and no issues--because I turned the brightness way down as is appropriate for the technology.

LCD uses the same phosphors too, whether in their fluorescent or white LED backlighting, but there burn-in can't be an issue as the whole screen goes dim evenly all at the same time (sure, the color may shift too but again, the whole screen at once). Unless it's local-dimming LED, where I suppose oddly block-shaped areas could go dimmer or different colors than others with age.

We're starting to see the first OLED panels that can produce well over the minimum 1000 cd/m^2 for VESA DisplayHDR 1000, Dolby Vision and ITU-R Rec. BT.2100 HDR standards, but I'm not sure pushing any of them that hard would be a good idea for anything but HDR movies.

 

[Dreadbeard]

Okay so under normal use, which is gaming - where I play normally about 3-6 hours a day, and then the monitor is off anytime around that *plus if left for more than 2 minutes* would I have to worry much about burn in? A lot of the games I play have static menus, but gameplay between the menus isn’t static

 

[BFG-9000]

Did you ever have burn-in on Plasma or CRT? The Win NT login screen example I gave was powered-on with a bright static image for at least 16hrs/day after work hours, and 24hrs/day weekends so 6,656 hours per year or over 50,000hrs over ~8 years, since this was before sleep modes + software like screen savers didn't work when not logged in. They were used 8hrs/day on weekdays so up to 16,000hrs of mixed PC use over that time (mind you could've had less use per day for lunch) with bright desktop icons and gray taskbar, but the only visible burned-in image was

which was clear enough to read the text.

For office use monitors have to be turned up pretty bright, but at home just control the environment + turn the brightness down and there should be no issues.