Question Heavy ghosting on Samsung Odyssey AG320 - - - should I RMA it or keep it ?

[theateam794]

I picked up a Samsung Odyssey AG320 on offer at half price so I jumped at the chance. I like almost everything about this screen except for a few things that are gnawing at me

firstly I can't tell when the screen is running higher than 60fps, there is a smoothness feeling going from 30 to 60 but it never feels any smoother than that all the way upto 165hz, I just don't feel it and I am wondering if it may be related to my second issue ...

second issue is under the (in)correct environments the ghosting is horrific, I since googled this and found people saying its the worst ghosting they have ever seen! example a high contrast scene with whites / creams and a dark object will leave the object smearing across the screen with any kind of motion, I did google for settings recommendations which did lessen it but it's still there and every time I notice it happen in some random scenario it leaves me feeling frustrated as I am usually the first person to jup into settings and turn off motion blur when games present the option.

1/I can't seem to adjust the black balance setting and I am not sure why, I have seen suggests that this will make the blacks look grey and elevate some motion blur but in the menu its the only setting the monitor wont let me mess with ? it exists just not selectable !?

2/I asked a few people advice on this ,
2 x of them say it's just how the kind of panel is, that it's a good screen with amazing blacks, that I am too fussy and should keep it because I wont find anything better in the price range.
others said they wish they could play with the settings for me to fix it but if I am not happy I should send it back

I have 30 days to fix this setting or make my mind up so just looking for more advice on maybe how to get into the "black level" setting ? or if I should just rma or stick with it reguardless of the ghosting issues?

Thanks

 

[Aeacus]

firstly I can't tell when the screen is running higher than 60fps, there is a smoothness feeling going from 30 to 60 but it never feels any smoother than that all the way upto 165hz, I just don't feel it

Do UFO test and look what Hz your monitor is actually running at,
link: https://www.testufo.com/refreshrate

second issue is under the (in)correct environments the ghosting is horrific, I since googled this and found people saying its the worst ghosting they have ever seen! example a high contrast scene with whites / creams and a dark object will leave the object smearing across the screen with any kind of motion, I did google for settings recommendations which did lessen it but it's still there and every time I notice it happen in some random scenario it leaves me feeling frustrated as I am usually the first person to jup into settings and turn off motion blur when games present the option.

Another UFO test helps, ghosting test,
link: https://www.testufo.com/ghosting

Also, look at what response time your monitor is at. Just because marketing says it's 1ms, doesn't mean it operates at that level. It could be slower as well, whereby you need to switch it to faster one.
E.g my MSI Optix MAG241CR has 3 options regarding response time: 4ms, 2ms and 1ms. If i were to run mine at 4ms, i'd also see heavy ghosting.

As far as refresh rate and seeing the diff goes, not all people can tell a diff. Before my MSI monitor, i had old 60 Hz monitor. Once i got my MSI monitor, which is 144 Hz, i couldn't tell a diff between 60 Hz and 144 Hz. Then again, i'm not hardcore gamer and don't play FPS games. My eye isn't trained to spot the diff in refresh rates.

 

[theateam794]

thanks for the response, I decided to keep the monitor since I hooked up my old screen back and realized it also had pretty bad ghosting its just the badlow picture quality on my old screen was masking the ghosting, you are correct about the MS response time, I have it set to the second fastest (because the fastest option dims the backlight) it claims to be able to do 1ms but I don't believe it. the ufo test won't give me info about response times and refreshrates because I run linux

comparing the two side by side the new picture quality is vastly superior and the colors are amazing for doing stuff like watching animes or playing games that don't have high contrasts!

I still have one Issue though, it's supposed to have a setting "black equalizer" which should lower ghosting at the cost of making darker colors look more grey, I did find this option in the menus but it can't be selected, the selection just goes past it like the setting is disabled for some reason.

 

[Aeacus]

I did find this option in the menus but it can't be selected, the selection just goes past it like the setting is disabled for some reason.

it's either locked by refresh rate (try changing it from monitor and then check again), input port (HDMI vs DP) or cable used (HDMI has several cable versions). Could be even locked by response time. E.g if you select 1ms and get dimmer screen, check if that option is then enabled.

the ufo test won't give me info about response times and refreshrates because I run linux

Gave it a quick search and found this old topic, with same issue as you, albeit with different monitor in use and old versions of GNU/Linux distros as well,
link: https://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?t=4170

Still, the info/fixes in there may help you.