This thing is gorgeous as the following photos will show you. Lots of real screen state to work — the ability to have many different, non-overlapping editors and terminals open at once is very convenient — and great to watch videos. But it has a "small" problem (I want it fixed!) that I'll explain after them...
So here are two photos of the MacBook Pro working in clamshell mode, connected to the new monitor:
And here are a couple of images showing the PlayStation 3 in action:
OK, this last image is the one I wanted to discuss. It is showing the "PlayStation Store", accessible directly from an option in the XMB interface. It is easy to see that the image is cropped on the four sides: some letters are cut, and the top and bottom buttons are shown extremely close to the screen border's. This is not what I expected.
Even more, booting Linux reports that the framebuffer's dimensions are 1688x964 even though the screen says it is working in 1080p mode (1920x1080). If I force Linux to go to full 1080p, then the terminal is also cropped on the four sides, making it unusable. According to this thread, this is caused by the monitor assuming that the HDMI input has overscan hence it crops the image. (Note that the image is being slightly scaled up to fill the whole screen, because the visible area is smaller than the displayed one! And I certainly don't want that.)
It looks like that a firmware update released on May 2007 adds an Overscan tunable option on the settings, which allows you to disable this feature and thus get the whole image. But unfortunately my monitor was manufactured on April 2007, so it has the old firmware. Grr. Will call BenQ support tomorrow and see if they can do anything about it (I guess they'll be able to do a firmware upgrade, but they may need to take the monitor for several days^Wweeks.). Otherwise I may end up returning this unit. Heck, I searched 1:1 pixel mapping like crazy and now I find this other, unexpected problem. No way.
Other than that, great display. Now, if only I had a Mac Pro to accompany it... ;-)
9 comments:
This fbset "trick" might help you with Linux's screen size:
http://forum.beyond3d.com/archive/index.php/t-43859.html
I wanted to ask you if you have considered at some point the dell Monitor. Here at the US is 360US or something so it is a pretty good deal. Did you see anything you didn't like when you were reviewing it?
P.S: we should start an irc channel. :)
Lluis: no, it didn't work. It is the monitor's fault, and I'm already in contact with BenQ to get it fixed.
Anonymous: yes; see the comparison table in the previous post. I guess there are multiple models though and I only analyzed one. But most of those cheap ones do not have a wide variety of inputs (which I needed) and... 360USD seems too few... maybe the monitor does not have digital input at all, as is the case for some Acers.
I'm about to buy a 24" too and the BenQ 241 is at the top of my list. Did you get your issue resolved?
Also, did you take a look at the Samsung 244T? It's gotten great reviews.
Hi,
Thanks for pointing out this issue. I am getting the same thing with my PS3 hooked up to my BenQ FP241W (not Z) via HDMI. It's really annoying eh? Did you get a response from BenQ?
I also find that when I set my computer to 1920x1080 via DVI, the monitor stretches the image to fill the whole screen making it the wrong aspect and blurry.
Please drop me a mail at angustulla at hotmail dot com if you have the time.
Great blog btw
Gusta: I called BenQ RMA and yes, I did get an answer from them. They were very kind and agreed to fix the monitor for me. I'm now waiting for the transports agency to call me... which is being delayed too much.
As regards bad aspect ratio, newer versions of your flat panel also have an option in the configuration to choose how to deal with it. You can choose between Full (what you do now), Aspect (fill but maintaining aspect ratio) and 1:1 (do not change the image at all). If you ask for a firmware update you'll get the two fixes.
Julio: Thanks for the advice. I'm going to call BenQ's RMA dept tomorrow.
I hope they fix yours quickly.
I have started to search for a monitor from my computer and PS3 and
FP241W or FP241W Z looks like a good dispaly. But I have a question.
How does the monitor handle 720P, I have some problems to find any info about that.
Jonas: You can use 1:1 mode, which will render the image centered on screen with big black borders around (no scaling). Alternatively, you can use one of "aspect" or "full" modes: both will scale the image up to fill the screen, the former maintaining the aspect ratio while the latter using the whole screen.
I always use "aspect" and the resulting image is great for 720p.
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