Do all or most IPS, PVA/MVA monitors have problems with gradients?

[postmortemIA]

Such as strips of non-smooth color changes or "banding"

I've tried few monitors at work that I know are PVA or IPS (Dell Ultrasharp, NEC 19")
and my own S-PVA and they all show similar banding...

Test at lagom.nl so you can see for yourself.

And what I have seen also is that most decent (I know it makes no sense) TN panels don't suffer from this issue, probably thanks to dithering that evens things out.... even my laptop screen does this test very well; way better than my Gateway desktop one.

 

[Butterbean]

It's been my understanding that "banding" and gradient detection are different yet often confused. Gradients show discrete color areas that render a mostly uniform scale up or down. Banding happens when these area do not grade out uniformly anymore but blend in together. A good monitor without dithering and with good resolution/pixel pitch etc. can show more gradients - and often causing people to think something is wrong with their monitors.

 

[MyLeftNut]

No banding on my HP f2105 (S-PVA) with that test. Perhaps you need to have the monitor adjusted. I have my monitor calibrated, but without calibration it tends to have very minimal banding.

 

[njdevilsfan87]

Initially I had some banding on my AL2051W P-MVA, but after slightly adjusting the contrast it's all gone. Like someone else mentioned, just play with the settings.

 

[clickynext]

I have Dell 2007wfp S-IPS, and no banding. I hear the earlier firmware versions had the issue, though.

 

[xtknight]

S-PVAs may have less banding just due to the nature of how they're laid out. In their configuration, they have 8 domains but each is configured to be a different brightness so you get a blending effect.

Not sure about TNs.

Since S-IPS panels are most accurate they are also the most susceptible to banding. Even when they have less contrast than S-PVA panels they can have more banding.

 

[kmmatney]

I just a new Hanns-G 28" LCD for work (this one):

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/sku....hmx?scriteria=aa71774

It is a *VA panel of some sort (not TN).

And the gradient test looks very good, no banding. In the flicker test, there is one box that flickers (the box in the middle of the grid). The flicker goes away if I scroll the screen, but then comes back if a scroll some more.

This is a sweet monitor for those who want 1920 x 1200 resolution with large pixels. I like it better than my 24" at home, but it costs $200 more.

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: kmmatney
I just a new Hanns-G 28" LCD for work (this one):

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/sku....hmx?scriteria=aa71774

It is a *VA panel of some sort (not TN).

And the gradient test looks very good, no banding. In the flicker test, there is one box that flickers (the box in the middle of the grid). The flicker goes away if I scroll the screen, but then comes back if a scroll some more.

This is a sweet monitor for those who want 1920 x 1200 resolution with large pixels. I like it better than my 24" at home, but it costs $200 more.

I doubt it is *VA panel:

1. because of price, 27" Dell S-PVA is around $1K
2. because viewing angle is 160 degrees, so typical for TN.
3. because ViewSonic has similarly prices same sized TN panel.

 

[kmmatney]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA

Originally posted by: kmmatney
I just a new Hanns-G 28" LCD for work (this one):

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/sku....hmx?scriteria=aa71774

It is a *VA panel of some sort (not TN).

And the gradient test looks very good, no banding. In the flicker test, there is one box that flickers (the box in the middle of the grid). The flicker goes away if I scroll the screen, but then comes back if a scroll some more.

This is a sweet monitor for those who want 1920 x 1200 resolution with large pixels. I like it better than my 24" at home, but it costs $200 more.

I doubt it is *VA panel:

1. because of price, 27" Dell S-PVA is around $1K
2. because viewing angle is 160 degrees, so typical for TN.
3. because ViewSonic has similarly prices same sized TN panel.

I have several TN panels at home (5 of them) and this LCD has wider viewing angles and 8-bit color. It also has better viewing vertical angles than any of my TNs at home. I have a 22" Acer widescreen TN where I can already notice the color gradients from the limited viewing angle, but I don't see this at all on this 28" monitor. I bought this specifically because I heard it had good viewing angles - if it is a TN display, its by far the best one I have ever seen, and viewing angles are much better than on 22" widescreens.

I've only had it for a day, so will look into it more tomorrow. We are using this monitor for a slideshow at a few tradeshows I'm going to, so we set it up on a stand and looked at it from various angles, and overall it looked great for this purpose.

A few minireviews:
http://forums.cluboverclocker.com/showthread.php?t=7731


Edit: I guess I should compare it directly to my Soyo, which is a p-mva panel...

 

[postmortemIA]

Sure! I don't have that panel, all I saw were 160/160 angles in specs... it is simple to determine, just comparing angles to Soyo, which should be viewable from any angle.

 

[Kirby64]

The gradient test looks perfectly fine to me. Of course, I have a NEC 20WMGX2 thats calibrated. S-IPS panel on it