HP ZR30w for Gaming & Movies

[GamingDaemon]

Hello,

I play a LOT of video games, and for my b-day, my wife is willing to get me a 30-inch monitor. After some research, I have chosen the HP ZR30w monitor.

According to the review of it on this site and others, it comes with no scaler, which reduces the input lag. Awesome!

Well, my office, where I play my video games, is also outfitted with Left & Right, and Rear Left & Right speakers, plus center channel and sub for a full-fledged 5.1 system. And my gaming rig has, of course, a very nice LG blu-ray optical drive reader.

So, my concern is that if were to watch a standard blu-ray movie on this monitor at 1920x1080, it would look pretty small on the 2560x1600 display, especially without a scaler. I have a nice leather chair in my office situated a good 3 feet from the monitor location and would love to sit there and watch movies after a hard-day of playing video games (tongue-in-cheek).

1) Am I worrying for no reason?

2) Would my application of choice, ArcSoft's TotalMedia Theatre, just scale it up for me to fill out the screen?

Thanks in advance!

 

[feeltch]

I have ZR30w monitor. I got it instead of LP3065 recently. The new one has pretty much better picture and I'm satisfied with it.
I don't no what's scaler. I watch movies with KMPlayer and also BluRay and picture scales to full screen no problem. Also watch often from office chair from about 3 feet and it's 40° viewing angle then (36° is recommended THX) --> http://myhometheater.homestead.com/viewingdistancecalculator.html

 

[GamingDaemon]

Ok, cool. Glad you like the monitor. It gives me confidence to buy it.

And I was worried that I would see a box on my monitor that was only 1920x1080 in them iddle of my 2560x1600 screen that was the blu-ray movie.

But if it scales the image up to the full-screen, then that is awesome!

 

[Emulex]

lol the LP3065 is fantastic - keep in mind these monitors work in two resolutions: 1280x800 or 2560x1600 so your htpc. there is no deinterlacer. no scaler its a monitor. your video card can scale if you want.

These screens are 4 million pixel (2x 1080p) and i could only imagine how large the videos that were mastered for this resolution would be.

best part of the LP3065 is the multitude of inputs

since the price is the same as the LP3065 and well i get stupid discount on hp - i will have to try a ZR and see if its any good. I've got a LP2480ZX as well which has quite good color.

You would not play games on these monitors - the video card would have to be stupid powerful to run 2560x1600.

oh yeah make sure you have a video card that is DUAL LINK. It comes with a green dual link cable. single link video (up to 2048xwhatever) will result in the alternate resolution of 1280x800 - or use displayport - better solution.

 

[GamingDaemon]

Emulex, now I am a little bit confused. I have an AIT Diamond 5870, which comes with a Displayport, two DVI ports and an HDMI port. It should be able to play games at 2560x1600, right?

So, if I am at the native resolution of 2560x1600, and I play a blu-ray movie, can the software I am using to play the movie fill the entire screen (minus the black bars at the top and bottom)?

 

[kyniskos]

Yes. DVI and HDMI can't handle the resolution over 1 cable, hence the need for dual cables. But then the smart guys thought up Display Port, which allow you to use only 1 cable again. Much better. My 5870 runs my Dell 30" on DP. Much less hassle with only 1 cable

 

[GamingDaemon]

Yes. DVI and HDMI can't handle the resolution over 1 cable, hence the need for dual cables. But then the smart guys thought up Display Port, which allow you to use only 1 cable again. Much better. My 5870 runs my Dell 30" on DP. Much less hassle with only 1 cable

Cool!

And when you play blu-ray movies, does it fill up the whole screen?

 

[Emulex]

sure the video card will upscale to 2560x1600@60hz. it is kinda sad playing 1920x1080 on a monitor with twice the pixels.

displayport supports 30bit color too. do yourself a big favor and borrow your buddies huey-pro to calibrate the monitor. its default profile is okay but not the best (for your environment).

 

[bryanW1995]

lol the LP3065 is fantastic - keep in mind these monitors work in two resolutions: 1280x800 or 2560x1600 so your htpc. there is no deinterlacer. no scaler its a monitor. your video card can scale if you want.

These screens are 4 million pixel (2x 1080p) and i could only imagine how large the videos that were mastered for this resolution would be.

best part of the LP3065 is the multitude of inputs

since the price is the same as the LP3065 and well i get stupid discount on hp - i will have to try a ZR and see if its any good. I've got a LP2480ZX as well which has quite good color.

You would not play games on these monitors - the video card would have to be stupid powerful to run 2560x1600.

oh yeah make sure you have a video card that is DUAL LINK. It comes with a green dual link cable. single link video (up to 2048xwhatever) will result in the alternate resolution of 1280x800 - or use displayport - better solution.

huh? he spends $1200 on a monitor and can't afford $400 for a video card? you don't think that a gtx 480 or sli'd gtx 460 1gb would work?

 

[Elfear]

Yes. DVI and HDMI can't handle the resolution over 1 cable, hence the need for dual cables. But then the smart guys thought up Display Port, which allow you to use only 1 cable again. Much better. My 5870 runs my Dell 30" on DP. Much less hassle with only 1 cable

A dual-link DVI cable will handle 2560x1600 just fine but won't be able to output hdcp content. An HDMI v1.3 cable can output at 2560x1600 too. Both require only one cable.

 

[GamingDaemon]

Thanks guys.

So my main concern now is how blu-ray movies will look on a 30" monitor with 2560x1600 resolution.

so:
1) Will the video card (Diamond ATI 5870) stretch the movie playback to fill up the screen (minus the black bars at the top and bottom)?

2) And if it does stretch it, will it look bad? Or will it look crisp?

 

[Elfear]

Thanks guys.

So my main concern now is how blu-ray movies will look on a 30" monitor with 2560x1600 resolution.

so:
1) Will the video card (Diamond ATI 5870) stretch the movie playback to fill up the screen (minus the black bars at the top and bottom)?

2) And if it does stretch it, will it look bad? Or will it look crisp?

AFAIK you can do both. Having black bars on the side of the screen will look better though. No weird stretching of the movie and unbalanced scenery/characters.