Dell Ultrasharp U2311H 23" - user experiences?

[Sushi Cat]

What are playback software are you using? Could that be an issue?

VLC. The thing is, I just gave Half-Life 2 a go, and Left 4 Dead too and didn't notice any issues. I think I might have just gotten unlucky with what I tried first - Crysis doesn't run at 60FPS, so that might be why, and I probably just chose a couple of video's that have been compressed somewhat. As I said, Kill Bill Vol. 2 works fine, and Half-Life 2 and Left 4 Dead are flawless. Maybe I'm just getting used to it .

appart from the usual juddering you get when watching 24fps movies on a 60hz screen

You know, I could be getting this. The video I had the juddering effect on was 24FPS. FRAPS reported Kill Bill was 25FPS...

I think this monitor is such good quality I'm noticing it more than on my old monitor. As I said, it's a no-name Chinese monitor. I don't know who made it. When I search the serial number thing I found using PC Wizard using google, I come up with some weird chinese sites and one spanish one. The old monitor broke on me twice, and then magically repaired each time. I think it was so bad I didn't notice the flaws in 24fps video.

 

[minhbh]

@Sushi Cat: try use Media Player Classic from Klite Codec packing.

I view HD movie (720, 1080), all them is 24FPS, and don't see any suttering.

Compare to DELL SE198WFP panel TN 5ms, LG 2ms before, I don't see major difference, I play all game: Crysis, Call of Duty, Metro, Dirt 2, Need For Speed Shift... and don't bother with responsive time!

Only see if I try to test and find by test program (monitor test), but I'm comfortable in daily using with it, that is important thing

 

[Sushi Cat]

@Sushi Cat: try use Media Player Classic from Klite Codec packing.

I view HD movie (720, 1080), all them is 24FPS, and don't see any suttering.

I think I'm just sensitive to it. Tried using MPC, still the same but it seems slighter than before - I'm probably getting used to it.

 

[rickh]

I just got it and initial impressions of build quality are excellent. It's mostly plastic, but it's the hard as wood type of plastic and feels very sturdy and solid, with no 'creaking' sounds you normally get when handling cheaper monitors. The stand is very well built and very intuitive to use, and provides pretty much all the adjustments I need (height, tilt and rotation). The screen surface has a smooth matte texture and gives off no reflections or glare. Also the styling is spot on, very professional, sleek and clean looking.

As for the screen itself, as soon as I turned it on (without any calibration), I instantly noticed a big difference coming from my 22" TN panel (3 yrs old). The blacks look very black, almost like ink and whites look more white. Colours look impressively vibrant and deep, but more importantly, everything looks much more consistent across the whole screen. In comparision my old TN looks dull and washed out, with blacks looking a complete mess. Plus the slightly tighter pixel pitch makes everything look a bit mroe crisp.

Movies look jaw dropping, literally. Just watched a good 30mins of Avatar (1080p), even though I just put it on for a quick test, it looks that good. As SushiCat said, everything that is colourful, looks beautiful and really catches your eye.

Response times seem more or less the same as my TN panel (2ms), though there does seems to be slightly more blurring when dragging windows across the screen; nothing major though. Using a HD5870 I haven't really noticed any stuttering at all in movies, appart from the usual juddering you get when watching 24fps movies on a 60hz screen. Haven't tried any games yet, but I expect a similiar story.

Thankfully, viewing angles are superior to my previous monitor and while there is a reduction in contrast when viewing from an angle, it's nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be and the main thing for me is that there's no noticeable colour shift. From extreme angles I did notice a slight purple tint in the corner, but it's not huge and from a such a stupid angle, it's irrelevant to me. This is all in dull daylight conditions (not very bright).

Unfortunately I recently moved into a converted loft and haven't had the time to install curtains, so I can't really tell how the panel will perform under dark conditions, but so far I'm very impressed.

When it's in portrait is there any difference in colours/tint accross the panel?
If not, i'll buy one (to use as a portrait monitor!).

 

[Sushi Cat]

When it's in portrait is there any difference in colours/tint accross the panel?
If not, i'll buy one (to use as a portrait monitor!).

It's still daylight outside, so it's just a quick test, but on a black image fullscreened, I can only slightly see a purple tint in the bottom left hand corner. I can try again when it's dark for you.

EDIT:

Ok it's dark now, so I gave it a try. On a black background with brightness set to 70 (at factory settings on Game mode, dynamic contrast off), the panel uniformity is not great at all. Each corner has a yellow or purple glow, and the radius of some (like the one in the bottom right hand corner) is quite large. However, turning the brightness down to 0 mostly gets rid of this - while you can still see it, it's mostly restricted to the extremities of the corners. On a white background, at brightness 70, there's no difference at all. It's like paper, almost. If I toned the brightness down while I had the white background on, I could probably get it to look almost just like paper. The screen quality is amazing.

I just decided to hook up my old monitor as a cloned display, to compare the quality between my old TN and the new IPS. The results are... just wow. My old TN looks pathetically washed out in comparison - on this, blacks are black. On my old one they're a fuzzy sort of grey. Everything on the old TN was washed out - I watched some of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (not a great film, I know). The main character has blond hair, but on the old monitor, it wasn't even blond-looking in some scenes! I can't believe I didn't notice it before! The colour reproduction on the U2311H is stunning. And the "stuttering" I was talking about earlier? Turns out it's on my old monitor too - I just noticed it more on this because it's much higher quality - the screen is bigger (23" vs. my old 18"), there are more pixels (1920 x 1080 vs. 1440 x 900), and the colours are just so much more vivid. When I got it I felt a bit disappointed but now I've used it extensively, it's brilliant. The few criticisms I have revolve around a small bit of ghosting (ignorable, but it's there in fast games like FPS), and the panel's poor uniformity on dark colours thanks to it's backlight. Once they make an affordable 120Hz, 3D-capable LED backlight IPS panel, TN panel monitors will be dead to all but those who want a cheap monitor for word processing. It really is just a step up from TN in almost every way. Just a few more refinements and it's there. In 2 years, I think IPS panels will (hopefully) have improved a lot to the point there's not much to complain about. Unless you want to use dark colours at night often in portrait mode, I recommend getting one of these. Try and get it from a place that accepts returns within a week if you're not happy. I think PCBuyIt do that, which is where I purchased it from for £249.10 inc. VAT (direct link: http://www.pcbuyit.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=1154). If you want to know anything else, feel free to ask. When looking to buy one I was a little frustrated with a lack of solid info and contradicting posts by different people without much explanation, so if you feel the same way just ask me and I'll try to help.

 

[titaniumx3]

For those who are interested, I bought the monitor from OcUK and on the back it says that it is Rev A00.

I also just hooked up my old monitor as clone, side by side and I'm pretty shocked. The whites on my old monitor are actually more like a light shade of yellow, lol. In all fairness though, it's had heavy usage for over 3 years, which has probably taken it's toll on the backlight as I'm pretty sure the whites looked much more cleaner when I first got it.

Gonna play through Mirror's Edge again.

 

[minhbh]

Even new TN LCD-I tested, the white in panel IPS and PVA is alway white and brighter, for example white color in TN LCD brightness set at 80 is still yellow when compare IPS set at 30. To take more deep and actual color, adjust brightness to 30-35. At night (all light turn off), I can not work at brightness default setting, it is too bright for my eyes, I set it to 35!

@Sushi Cat: try calibrate it. All monitor need to calibarate! My setting:

Brightness: 35 (default 75)
Contrast: 75
Mode: graphic
Custom RGB:99-95-98

 

[adrichardson81]

Possibly a silly question, but what exactly do you mean by calibrating? Are you just playing with the monitor's built settings or are you using some sort of external calibration tool?

Also, can't I just use someone elses calibrated settings for the same monitor?

Calibrated using an Xrite i1.

I can give you my RGB and contrast/brightness settings, but using somebody else's ICC profile is just asking for problems (depends on ambient light etc).

I use 30% brightness, 75% contrast.

 

[titaniumx3]

Also just noticed that my old monitor had very bad inverse ghosting, which this monitor does not have (or at least, none that I can notice).

I wonder, how long do the backlights in these monitors last. It would be a shame if after a year or so I don't get the same level of whites as I did before.

 

[minhbh]

Also just noticed that my old monitor had very bad inverse ghosting, which this monitor does not have (or at least, none that I can notice).

I wonder, how long do the backlights in these monitors last. It would be a shame if after a year or so I don't get the same level of whites as I did before.

Theory is 30000 hours! To check backlight ontime with U2311H: power off monitor, press button 2 and 4 (from top to down) simultaneously, and press power on, when power on unpress button 2 and 4. You will see backlight time use like that:

 

[anything I don't mind]

I want this monitor realy bad. :/

How is it for fps gaming ?

I found this nice review. -> http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2311h.htm

 

[dpajur]

I just took delivery of the U2311H and it's quite a beastly monitor compared to my old 19" Samsung. It's A01 dated July 2010.

Out of the box settings are just beautiful, maybe a bit over saturated but still it looks amazing. I went on to google and used the color profile from TFT Central and it was absolutely rubbish! Turned everything green

Then I tried mingh's settings from this thread and it's much much better. Another review site used the same settings as him. Dunno what drugs TFT Central were on where they calibrated this monitor

Games are simply amazing in 1920x1080 and my initial impressions are great.

 

[titaniumx3]

I went on to google and used the color profile from TFT Central and it was absolutely rubbish! Turned everything green

Then I tried mingh's settings from this thread and it's much much better. Another review site used the same settings as him. Dunno what drugs TFT Central were on where they calibrated this monitor

I think the calibration process also modifies some settings in windows (ICC profiles), hence changing the monitor settings alone will not yield proper colours.

 

[PCM2]

I've said it before and I'll say it again... Every single panel is different. Different revisions or versions of the same model number and even use can have a dramatic impact on how the screen responds to given values in an ICC profile. TFT Central most likely were not on drugs at all - if anybody knows a thing or two about calibrating monitors it's them. Their settings worked for their particular panel and they made no secret of this.

If you don't own a colorimeter yourself then a 'by eye' calibration is the way forward - you make it so the image looks good to you. If very good colour accuracy is important then there is really no alternative to your own colorimeter. Also - make sure you have the white point set correctly as detailed by TFT Central. Sometimes you need to manually set it to 6500K rather than 'native'.

 

[mothermachine]

Just a heads-up: every single monitor ever released will not have correct colour calibration, or anything even remotely close. even these newest dells that claim to be factory calibrated. and trying to do it manually yourself is just daft tbh.

you either get a proper calibration tool like a spyder or colormonkey or eyeone etc and do it properly or don't bother at all tbh.

personally i couldn't stand the thought of knowing for sure that what was displayed on my screen wasn't even close to how it should be. this is the case for every single screen in existence. when you're spending hundreds of squids on a new screen why not throw an extra 50 at it and get the thing working properly?

and my strongest possible advice would be to stay well clear of making manual adjustments based on someone else's calibration on someone else's screen. every panel is unique - it's a bit like overclocking your PC based on someone else's overclock on a totally different rig. you wouldn't do it

just my own personal take on this.

edit: the same goes for laptops. they are absolutely awful from factory.

 

[PCM2]

As I said - a by-eye calibration is fine if you don't have a colorimeter to hand and don't need crucial colour accuracy. If things look good to you (and anybody else who has to see the screen) THIS is what is important. If you sit there thinking that something just isn't right then you can't get the image looking the way you want and will need to use a colorimeter. If you are happy with it then you've succeeded. One or the other. Simple as that.

This is an especially important mindset if you are considering broad gamut IPS monitors. By utilising the 'full' colour gamut they offer games and movies can have that extra layer of immersiveness and an impressive range of shades - but trying to get those shades correct in every application, especially those that ignore your ICC profiles, is an exercise in futility. Colorimeter or not it's simply not going to happen. And before anybody spreads the 'oversaturated' disease any further, please read an alternative view.

 

[mothermachine]

sorry but by-eye calibration is just never fine, ever.

if you want to guarantee that everything you're looking at is either slightly or massively different from how the creator intended it to look then that's cool. i can't think of a single reason why anyone would put up with that having shelled out good money on a good screen.

simple choice really. do it properly or don't.

 

[PCM2]

Well that's just your (fairly closed-minded) perspective. I've said everything that needed to be said above, to be honest. If you don't like the way things look without a colorimeter calibration then that's a personal thing, and then for you; a colorimeter is the way forward. It puts your mind at ease. This isn't a mindset that everyone shares - I couldn't do my job if it was.

 

[mothermachine]

how is it close-minded to insist that your screen is properly calibrated?

it's like spending 100k on a new sports car and not bothering to pay for a decent service to keep it tuned. just doesn't make any sense...

confused....

 

[PCM2]

It isn't! It's personal choice. The closed-minded part is assuming that it is essential for everyone to calibrate using a colorimeter. A good car needs a proper service because without it, it is not optimal for its job. Without a colorimeter, a monitor still can be optimal for its job - the whole point in the monitor is to output a (preferably pleasing) image to the viewer. My point is that if exceptional colour accuracy is not essential (i.e. you're not doing photographic/CAD-CAM/design etc.) then there is nothing wrong with a bit of 'as you like it' in the image department. In my opinion (one shared by numerous 'colour professionals' I work with) broad gamut monitors bring a lot to the table for games and movies. But colorimeter or no colorimeter the colours are not going to be entirely accurate. Pleasing, nonetheless.