is there any way to reduce IPS Glow?

[whiteknights]

hey guys, i have Asus VS239HR IPS 23 inch monitor, and the Glow is noticeable in the dark screen at all the 4 corners, Especially the right corner ..i lowered down the brightness and it didn't help much .. in games like Metro (2033/Last Light) and Minecraft (moody brightness, unlit caves) where light is important and most parts are dark, it's noticeable. To a certain extent also annoying. The same applies for movies.

i don't know in my case should i contact the manufacturer or that's normal? i only see the glow in a dark screen but its noticeable and kindda annoying ..is there any way else to fix this issue?

 

[Someone Somewhere]

If it's very non-uniform, contact Asus. However, some non-uniformity and visibile blacks is normal for any LCD. Only way to avoid it is a plasma or OLED.

Pics?

 

[whiteknights]

If it's very non-uniform, contact Asus. However, some non-uniformity and visibile blacks is normal for any LCD. Only way to avoid it is a plasma or OLED.

Pics?

can't have a pic right now..but its something like that> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDe8i1SctZw

i notice the glow on the credits when watching a film..or in a really dark scene.
its on the 4 corners, but the right top corner have more glow, like 1/3 of the screen or less. however its not very non-uniform .. but still a kind of distraction, don't know..maybe because i just bought it 3 days ago..so dunno if I'm gonna used to it or not.

I'm also worried the glow might increase by time, because I've heard from some people that after a while the glow become more noticeable

 

[Someone Somewhere]

That's not too abnormal - the colour shifts off axis are normal for TN panels.

I doubt it will increase over time, but I'm not too sure.

 

[whiteknights]

That's not too abnormal - the colour shifts off axis are normal for TN panels.

I doubt it will increase over time, but I'm not too sure.

thanks, i know that colour shifts maybe be normal in IPS Panel..but when sitting straight to the monitor and noticing a glow in the corner when screen is dark..this is normal?

 

[KevinAr18]

deleted

 

[whiteknights]

* While this issue is commonly called "backlight glow" I wonder if this is really just viewing angle problems that occur at very low viewing angles. *

I have experienced various levels of this issue between panels on the same model.... so it does vary even on the same model. As a last resort, you could try an exchange (but you might get an even worse one instead of a better one). Anyways, here's some things to consider:

* Try moving your head up or down (slightly above or below the monitor). Do the black levels get better? If so, try adjusting the tilt of the monitor so that it is aligned at that particular angle and you will have better black levels in normal use.

* To answer your question, the manufacturing of IPS recently switched to a new technology called e-IPS or H-IPS. The pixels are rectangular shaped instead of the old chevron shape IPS used to have. (BTW, PLS seems to be the same as e-IPS/H-IPS, just a different name.) However, what most people don't seem to mention is that the quality of this IPS type is worse than the old IPS. It is cheaper for them to make (thus they can sell you cheaper monitors), but it has the bad black levels and angle viewing problems like your are seeing.
I have an IPS television and it does not have this issue; it has great black levels and no viewing angle issues. But the e-IPS/h-IPS monitor I have has very bad black levels and viewing angle issues. Unfortunately, this cheaper IPS seems to be the norm now, so it is gonna be very hard to find a good one just by looking for "IPS" monitors. 🙁
You can read about it here: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/monitors/display/dell-eips-roundup_4.html#sect0

Sorry, I can't offer a solution. I'm not sure what I will do if I ever get another monitor either. I guess you just have to pick one you can study in person or find one where people show off videos/pictures in a dark room of the monitor (to confirm is has good black levels & no viewing angle issues).

In terms of technology, there are fixes (if only the manufacturers would actually implement them).
* For IPS monitors, an A-TW polarizer can drastically (and I mean drastically) help with black levels, but the manufacturers seem to refuse to put it on monitors (although they will put it on cheap phones and tablets where it doesn't matter so much!)
* An alternative solution is an MVA panel, which has excellent, excellent black levels and good viewing angles. The downsides to MVA are (1) MVA monitors are rare (2) as the viewing angle changes, the colors shift, whereas on an IPS monitors, the colors only lose brightness/saturation. This means on a big MVA screen, the color in the corner might be a slightly different hue whereas on an IPS monitor, the color in the corner might just be less bright or saturated, but still be the correct hue. This makes MVA less desirable for image editing and it is probably the single-most reason that most people chose IPS instead. (3) A third problem can be response time. If the manufacturer does not implement good overdrive/underdrive, the response times can be very bad... on the other hand, if they implement it right, the response times can be good enough. (4) A fourth (so called) problem is people claimed the shades of black merged together so that they could not be distinguished on MVA panels. I had an MVA monitor, and I can tell you this was absolutely not true on the one I had. It had excellent, deep blacks, and each little shade of dark black/grey was discernable. Maybe this was a problem with very, very old MVA, as I can't tell where this "claim" comes from.

Solutions?
* try tilting up/down to see if it helps (just a few degrees can help a lot)
* try an exchange?
* get a different model e-IPS/H-IPS... or get an S-IPS... or get one you can see in person

thank you ..actually it helped a little, tilting down the monitor helped with the glow..and also when I'm 3 feet far from the monitor The Glow Disappear .
i don't have an issue with the Viewing angle..Just the blacks only .. the thing is that this kind of monitor doesn't consider to be a cheap monitor here in Egypt.
so i guess i have to live with it and hope that i can do that..Because I'm a CRT user..and with CRT monitor there was no problems.
i stayed away from TN Panels because of its bad viewing angles..and thought when having an IPS monitor i won't face any problems..but unfortunately i find out that there is no perfect monitor.
and i don't know which will be more annoying..bad viewing angles with perfect black levels..or good viewing angles with "white Glow" , which will be easier to live with? because I'm thinking about having a TN Panel, As long as the IPS is not Perfect

 

[whiteknights]

and i don't know which will be more annoying..bad viewing angles with perfect black levels..or good viewing angles with "white Glow" , which will be easier to live with? because I'm thinking about having a TN Panel, As long as the IPS is not Perfect

I know the feeling. In the end, you just have to figure out what aspects are the most important to you and what are the least important. I'd say go into the store and look at some TN monitors and see how bad/or good the viewing angle affects you and if this will be a big deal for you.

Also, you might try looking at other IPS models/brands. I have actually seen several ultra-cheap IPS in-store that did not have the black glow issues and had good black levels. [Except, I forgot to check if it had dynamic contrast turned on.]

Dynamic Contrast: This is how you get all those fake contrast ratio numbers. Basically, when the monitor is mostly dark with just a few light areas, it turns the brightness of the backlights down. When the stuff on-screen is mostly lighter color, it turns up the backlights. So the same grey rgb(30,30,30) looks brighter or darker based on whether most of the screen is bright colors or dark colors.

This is good for televisions and probably for watching videos as it really does make things look better (more contrast and deeper black and brighter whites), but it's rather questionable behavior for monitor use because the colors are constantly changing brightness. If you do any type of design or work that requires you get the colors right, you probably want dynamic contrast off.
Summary: If you check out the monitor in the store, turn off dynamic contrast if you plan on keeping it off when you use it; otherwise, don't worry about this little detail.


BTW, let me add one more note about viewing angles:
Keep in mind that the problem is not just about looking at your screen from different angles ... that's the obvious problem with viewing angles, but there is a second, equally important problem:

Even if you sit at your monitor straight on. and look at a certain color on-screen, with some monitor types the colors in the corner of the screen may look different than the colors in the center. This is another thing you need to check for when considering "viewing angles" Open up mspaint and put up a solid color like a blue on-screen and see if it changes colors in the corners. This is an easy way to check real quick when you're in-store. Whether this matters to you once again depends on what you use the computer for. For productivity work, image editing, etc... this can be annoying; but for just gaming or movies, the color shift might be so small you will never notice it (thus this aspect doesn't matter to you).

Thanks for your help, i appreciate it..and i will take your advise and go to stores to try and see by myself (Although its hard here to try monitors in stores., they usually refuse & also we don't have good warranty ) but i'll give it a try.

one last question .. i heard that IPS Glow can increase by time and the glow become more noticeable.. is that true?

 

[Someone Somewhere]

I haven't noticed any real difference over the last ~year I've had my U2412m, which uses an E-IPS panel.

 

[whiteknights]

one last question .. i heard that IPS Glow can increase by time and the glow become more noticeable.. is that true?

Sorry, I didn't realize you had asked this weeks ago. If you are still wondering about this, my best guess is that the answer is: NO.
I think the IPS glow is part of the design of the LCD and has nothing to do with the backlight or any parts of the monitor that change over time. Thus, in theory, I don't think it's possible for it to change over time.

(Maybe somebody just got a new chair that sat lower or higher (which changed their viewing angle by a few degrees) and suddenly saw the IPS glow on their old monitor. but that's pure speculation.

Hmm, maybe private message would have been better for such an old thread, but can't delete my post now. 🙁

thank you very much for your big help..i appreciate it

 

[cyb34]

Yes there are. The Eizo CG series.
EV and CX series might have units with glow, since they're the cheaper ones.

Eizo uses a polarizer similar to A-TW.