Soyo 24" Topaz now TN's

[Dravic]

There had been rumors (which I cant seem to locate now..) that the Soyo LCD from office max the $279 Soyo TOPAZ DYLM24D6 LCD?s where going to switch over to TN panels.

Well.. I think I may have gotten a TN panel.

The box art looks the same but my box clearly states 3ms response time not 6ms response time. When setting it up I was surprised it looked a bit washed out from the angle I was viewing it while my wife was sitting in the chair directly in front of it, and it looked superb from there.


Is there any kind of diag software that returns data that would clearly differentiate the two?


So far,,


1. New box art showing 3ms response time..
2. Poor view angle from just above and to the left. Looks great from straight on.
3. This monitor was just received at the store, had to go in back to get it, as there were none on the floor. Salesman mentioned it JUST came in.

After buying it last night I was again looking over the reviews for it and couldn't think of why they were all mentioning a 6ms response rate while mine clearly shows 3ms. I?ll take pictures when i get home later today, and look at the rear for a production date.


original box art image


My box art image with 3ms
My box art image with 3ms - close up


Update

Had the wife verify some data..
definately says 3ms on the box now instead of 6ms
Identical model numbers

Manufactured date 12/07
shipped to Office max(left the little yellow shipping tag on it) 2/21


Don?t know if I?m going to return it or not. It looks great from where I?m going to be using it, but would really like a 8 bit panel since It?s replacing the Acer AL2051W 8 bit panel. My reason for buying the 20? Acer was because it was an 8 bit panel fast enough for gaming, and It will be doubling as a photo/Image workstation monitor soon.


update #2
added image of my box art


update after test

out performing my Acer AL2051W 8 bit panel on the test below.

what should i make out of the 3ms repsonse time?

viewing angle no worse then the 8 bit, maybe just the size difference exageratting the issue.

 

[EarthwormJim]

Glad I picked up my Soyo when I did.

 

[Atreus21]

Well that's just friggin' GREAT.

My Soyo that I bought in September was working fine until 2 days ago. Now I gotta RMA it, and I bet the farm they're gonna replace it with a TN panel version, if what you say is true.

I wonder if it's possible just to get a refund.

 

[aussiestilgar]

Look at it from a low angle, so you're looking up towards it. If the color is washed out and inverted, then you've got a TN.

 

[NoStateofMind]

Originally posted by: Atreus21
Well that's just friggin' GREAT.

My Soyo that I bought in September was working fine until 2 days ago. Now I gotta RMA it, and I bet the farm they're gonna replace it with a TN panel version, if what you say is true.

I wonder if it's possible just to get a refund.

Good question. Could you make the argument that you bought it because it was a MVA panel and now (if true) since they have changed to a TN panel you are no longer getting the same product? I sure as hell would be pissed if something went wrong with mine and they offered me a TN in replacement. If that is true (TN now) and my monitor messes up, I won't return it till either:

1) They change back to MVA

2) My warranty runs out with Soyo (1yr) and Office Max warranty kicks in. OM stops carrying it within that year.

If number two is the case, I would get credit ($300+) toward another monitor.

I will get what I paid for one way or another.

 

[gorobei]

ok, anybody want to do a little checking before we start building 100,000 ft tall supports to keep the sky from falling?

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/
skip the initial tests and go down to the color fields(big full width images of CMYK-ish colors.) look at your panel from side to side and up down. TN will have significnt COLOR SHIFT in the high/low while MPVA will just get a dimmer.
-Purple with go to magenta or azure from different angles.
-Red will go to vermillion or magenta.
-Green will go towards a yellower warmer green or a cooler blue green.

If you have never used a non-TN panel, it's not some magic as good as CRT experience that totally stomps TN into the ground, pisses in its mouth, and salts the earth for good measure. Professional Dells and some NECs are very nice and their faults don't jump out at you, but they're not perfect when compared to good old CRT. There's a reason why plasma, oled, and sed are still being developed.

 

[Dravic]

Originally posted by: gorobei
ok, anybody want to do a little checking before we start building 100,000 ft tall supports to keep the sky from falling?

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/
skip the initial tests and go down to the color fields(big full width images of CMYK-ish colors.) look at your panel from side to side and up down. TN will have significnt COLOR SHIFT in the high/low while MPVA will just get a dimmer.
-Purple with go to magenta or azure from different angles.
-Red will go to vermillion or magenta.
-Green will go towards a yellower warmer green or a cooler blue green.

If you have never used a non-TN panel, it's not some magic as good as CRT experience that totally stomps TN into the ground, pisses in its mouth, and salts the earth for good measure. Professional Dells and some NECs are very nice and their faults don't jump out at you, but they're not perfect when compared to good old CRT. There's a reason why plasma, oled, and sed are still being developed.

COMPLETELY confused now..

not only does this monitor perform as well as my acer 8 bit panel, it actually out performs it on the gradient/banding test.

They look about the same on the viewing angle and gamma test

They perform the same on the viewing angle and brightness test(big full images at the bottom), the only one that changes significantly is the puple one, and its the same color shift on both the soyo and the acer 8bit.


So its actually out performing my 8bit panel as far as my eye can tell.


What is there to make out of the 3ms responbse time issue... marketing fluff???

 

[imported_Bigwave]

Does it get dark when looked at from below? If it does it's TN. Real simple to test.

For anyone wondering if this is true, I've also seen this monitor in TN at a local big box store btw.

 

[Dravic]

Originally posted by: Bigwave
Does it get dark when looked at from below? If it does it's TN. Real simple to test.

For anyone wondering if this is true, I've also seen this monitor in TN at a local big box store btw.

no, the colors get a bit washed out at the top, but it doesnt darken.. almost lightens like the brightness is way too high

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: Dravic

Originally posted by: Bigwave
Does it get dark when looked at from below? If it does it's TN. Real simple to test.

For anyone wondering if this is true, I've also seen this monitor in TN at a local big box store btw.

no, the colors get a bit washed out at the top, but it doesnt darken.. almost lightens like the brightness is way too high

then no worries. it is not a TN. It would be first thing you would notice.

 

[ClockHound]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA

Originally posted by: Dravic

Originally posted by: Bigwave
Does it get dark when looked at from below? If it does it's TN. Real simple to test.

For anyone wondering if this is true, I've also seen this monitor in TN at a local big box store btw.

no, the colors get a bit washed out at the top, but it doesnt darken.. almost lightens like the brightness is way too high

then no worries. it is not a TN. It would be first thing you would notice.

Be worried. What's it like when looked at from the top? Darkens? Who says they aren't allowed to install the panel upside down.

Have a look at this: BenQ 2400W Viewing Angle
It's a TN panel, but it's brighter from the bottom!

 

[Dravic]

Originally posted by: ClockHound

Originally posted by: postmortemIA

Originally posted by: Dravic

Originally posted by: Bigwave
Does it get dark when looked at from below? If it does it's TN. Real simple to test.

For anyone wondering if this is true, I've also seen this monitor in TN at a local big box store btw.

no, the colors get a bit washed out at the top, but it doesnt darken.. almost lightens like the brightness is way too high

then no worries. it is not a TN. It would be first thing you would notice.

Be worried. What's it like when looked at from the top? Darkens? Who says they aren't allowed to install the panel upside down.

Have a look at this: BenQ 2400W Viewing Angle
It's a TN panel, but it's brighter from the bottom!

No its the same from above, I first saw the lightening effect when i was installing it. I've never owned an LCD other then the 8 bit acer. I was unaware of how bad the TN viewing angle was till I tested the monitors at work which are TN.

I have a three dell monitor (19" 5:4 1704fpt, 2xE198fp) setup in the office, and they all exhibit the darkening from the bottom, the soyo doesnt from any angle.

The E198FP actually do pretty well on the gradient/banding test on the lagom website. TERRIBLE on the Viewing angle gamma test, and the purple and red large viewing angle and brightness test.

 

[aussiestilgar]

Then they probably just added response time acceleration, or fudged the 3ms number. You're worried for nothing if the viewing angles are fine.

 

[Steve]

Mine arrived today, and the box says 6ms. I haven't taken it out yet. I'll report what I find in a day or two, I just got in the door.

 

[kmmatney]

Sounds like your display is fine. Besides the Soyo, I have 4 other TN displays at the house, and the Soyo blews them all away. They do make 8-bit TN LCD displays - I have an Acer TN panel (22" widescreen) which is an 8-bit. I have no idea about the 3 ms, though...

 

[david9999]

I received my Soyo 24" DYLM24D6 yesterday. Manufacture date 12/07, box indicates 3ms response time. Based on the web page testing provided by Dravic:


http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

(in particular the "viewing angle and gamma" test):

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/#angleGrey

and darkening of my screen when viewed at an angle from below (but not from above), this appears to be a TN panel.

I do not claim to have any expertise in this.

David:brokenheart:

 

[bradsh]

the colors invert from an extreme low angle, they do not "darken". beware of inverting colors from extreme low angle.

i have one of the good soyos, and the colors simply do not change from any angle. maybe a tiny tiny bit, but really they dont change

 

[david9999]

Follow-up note: Since I was unsure exactly what was meant by "color inversion" I visited BB this morning to have a look at some large flat panel monitors. (Interestingly, I asked 3 salesmen in that department to direct me to a TN panel and none of them had a clue what I was talking about). It was immediately obvious to me which were the TN panels, when viewing them at a steep angle from below. The color inversion was unmistakable in the TN panels, which also darkened when viewed from below. The non-TN monitors did not change whatsoever (the one I specifically remember was a 24" Westinghouse).

So I came back home and looked again at my new Soyo 24" and it definitely has color inversion. Back it goes.

David

 

[aussiestilgar]

There you have it. The Soyo deal seems to be over, grab the last 6ms panels while you can.

 

[Dravic]

Originally posted by: david9999
Follow-up note: Since I was unsure exactly what was meant by "color inversion" I visited BB this morning to have a look at some large flat panel monitors. (Interestingly, I asked 3 salesmen in that department to direct me to a TN panel and none of them had a clue what I was talking about). It was immediately obvious to me which were the TN panels, when viewing them at a steep angle from below. The color inversion was unmistakable in the TN panels, which also darkened when viewed from below. The non-TN monitors did not change whatsoever (the one I specifically remember was a 24" Westinghouse).

So I came back home and looked again at my new Soyo 24" and it definitely has color inversion. Back it goes.

David

woah.. mine doesnt have the color inversion, It just lightened.

maybe we should look at some data from the back of the panel like Serial numbers or something. Anything that might indicate a panel change.

I'll check again when I get home, but maybe I was shipped a 6ms panel in a 3ms box. Maybe i dodged a bullet and got left over stock before the conversion.

I'll let you know what I find out tonight. I'm still in my 14 day return window, so back to testing I go.

 

[NoStateofMind]

fingers crossed here.

 

[Zap]

Soyo LCD monitor list

I see two different 24" monitors, a Topaz S and a Topaz LC. The S is what I have (though mine has a different stand than in pictures). The S is 3ms while LC is 6ms.

 

[toslat]

Obviously Soyo has been upto something as even the brightness spec has gone down from 500 to 400 Nits

 

[Dravic]

So mine def looks ok, no color inversion.

OK so here is the data from that back of the panel...


Product Name: TOPAZ S
MODEL No: MT-GW-DYLM24D6
Manufactures 2007.12

Serial #
SCU7511E3570641


looks to be an 8-bit panel

 

[krighton]

soooo....i have one on a raincheck at OM...picking up tomorrow...so I
m guessing I should be looking for a 6ms on the box...and if not I should just leave the monitor there? (locked in at $279.99 with the raincheck). Is the 6ms really the good one and the 3ms the TN version? OM lists the model number for the 3ms as the 6ms..i'm guessing they're confused.