[PG248Q] Is this normal?

[Kuishi]

Hi there, I bought the PG248Q a couple of days ago and when I plugged it in for the first time the gamma was waaaaaaay off. You could describe it as if there was a constant white fog/filter on the screen. Also when watching videos and playing games I was having serious colour banding ONLY on dark areas, like they look like a pixelated mess.

Installing the ICC profile from the support website and adjusting the colour calibration on my Nvidia control panel fixed this partly but not completely. When using built-in W10 calibration the gamma was still way off like I had to put the gamma slider all the way to the max and it still was not enough.

After 3 days of calibrating my screen its starting to look a bit decent now, the pixelation on the darker areas on my screen are 90% gone but still noticeable....
Picture here

My settings right now on the monitor: Im using a DisplayPort on a Geforce 970gtx with updated drivers. Using this website to calibrate my monitor.
160hz (viewing on 144hz or any mode just gives the same problems)
Brightness 10
Contrast 50
Color Temp Normal
Gamma: 2.5 (2.2 is not dark enough)
All other settings are Default

Nvidia Panel settings:
Full RGB output obviously
Brightness and Contrast on Default
Gamma +0,89

Am I doing something wrong? Is there a problem with the monitor or my videocard?
Also Im having some kind of backlight glow on the lower right of my screen.
Pictures: 144hz and 160hz.

edit: just checked the Gradient on this website and the gradient is not showing as smooth as it should be.

[NavierFloats]

Bahz wrote:
I shared a solution with Dmitriy before and he said it didn't fix the issue for him and I shared it with 2 other people who messaged me about similar issues with their PG248Q but it also didn't fix the issue for them.

Our display team insists that this solution should help improve or fix the issue, for those having the this color banding issue please try the following:

1) Open Nvidia Control Panel
2) Click on Display
3) Click on Change resolution
4) For the Output dynamic range drop down select the option Limited
5) Click on "Apply"

Please let me know if this helped reduce the severity of this issue or help completely fix the issue for you.

Thanks,
Bahz

Thanks for the reply Bahz.

I have gone through 3 monitors via the RMA process, all with the same issue to slightly varying degrees, all built August 2016 (Netherlands). This recommendation your team made did alleviate some of the banding, but as pointed out Kuishi, the depth and vibrancy of the picture suffers, and if I really look, the issue is still there. I have PM'd you my three serial numbers.

To be honest, I could live with this as is, but the picture is still worse than my 2013 ASUS VS248H-P, and it is double the price (partly because of GSYNC and refresh, I know), which is the really sad part.

[Album]

Funny, I upgraded from VS248H-P too! While I still had it I dual monitor'd PG248Q and VS248H-P, there was some banding issues on VS248H-P while watching that dreaded Westworld Intro but it wasn't that noticeable. The PG248Q was super noticeable, so I decided to watch Zero Dark Thirty because I remembered some black/dark scenes on it and it was horrible. Bahz fix alleviates the issue a bit for sure, but the fix heightens the disadvantage of TN panels, making it extra dull.

Also gave my S/N and hardware and Nvidia settings to Bahz, let's hope for the best!

[Bahz]

Also for those that have the color banding issue, it would really help us if you can help provide us with your Serial Number, please PM me with your SN. Our display team will collect back the units that are returned back for RMA or refund so we can try to replicate this issue and work on a solution. Currently our display team isn't able to replicate the exact issues reported in this thread on retail samples here from Taiwan.

[Bahz]

Thank you all for providing back with your feedback and also providing me with the serial numbers, our engineers are using the acquired information to gather back the monitors and try to replicate the issues mentioned in this thread. When the issue is replicated we'll be working with Nvidia and other vendors on trying to come up with a solution for the issue but unfortunately at this point in time there are no guarantees that a solution is even possible to address the mentioned issues.

[TheIslander]

Hello! I have created account here because I have similar problems with my PG248Q. I have been trying to set it up "correctly" for a week or so then figured out that something is not right then I've found this thread and I am not the only one with problems. I have designed a little helper for you to "fix" well cross it out and write hide the problem. I'm not a pro at calibrating screens but I gave it a shoot.
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to8yh83jlXg
2. Play it at max resolution with is 1080p. From 0:04 to 0:09 you have a background that goes from light greys to pure and evil blackness.
At 1st I have done it with everything reset to standard (racing mode no corrections) + icc profile installed.
It looked like this (well a little bit better we know that phone camera + screen photo will be crap anyways but still bad):
3.Then I have started to fiddle with monitor settings Bright 0; Gamma 2.5 (we skip the colors cos they are everyones preference I have stayed with normal ones cos I was fixing something else; not mentioned settings = not changed)
It made close to none improvements so I went to nvidia control panel.
4. Bahz solution to swap full range to limited made it look a bit better but washed all the liveliness from bright colors so I went back to full.
5. Then I have started to fiddle with color settings in panel. Changed from Other apps to use Nvidia setting on colors and then long process of adjusting started and finished at Bright 45% Cont 45% Gamma 0,86. Every monitor is a bit different so you will have do adjust a bit according to your own eye.
6. https://youtu.be/iNJdPyoqt8U use this video (load it at 4k; yes it will take long but it is worth) to check if you didn't go to far repairing black by destroying colors.
7. http://downloads.4ksamples.com/downloads/sample-Elysium.2013.2160p.mkv I have also used this sample (looots of dark areas) to check how it is doing and it seems that problem occures mostly on Youtube and other internet players. On Elysium it was unspottable after my tweaks so I have tried another movie now 1080p instead of 2160p.
8. http://movietrailers.apple.com/movies/sony_pictures/resident-evil-the-final-chapter/resident-evil-th... This one showed almost no problems at all so I think that the temporary "fix" is done.
9. http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ all the test showed no problems to be honest. (I don't quite get hang on the sharpness one( after laser eye correction I don't want to ruin my eyes fiddling with it; black levels - visible difference since 5; white saturation 252 from ~1 meter away; gradient looks fine; framerate (obviously) fine; angles- noone cares to be honest)
Thoughts:
There is a problem either in Monitor firmware or graphic driver.
Problem occurs mostly in compressed videos. High res is (almost always) spot on.
Lagom tests were fine.
Didn't spot the problem on Overwatch (gsynced ~115-130 fps during gameplay, possibly was to busy to spot).
Will try other games now to check how it looks.
PS: manufactured July 2016

[Soss_be]

Hello,

I experienced the same kind of problems as many of you in this thread althought not that pronounced.
When connected via HDMI (full range enabled) I got the same 'colour banding / gamma / brightness' - issue but when connected via display port it was much better althought not perfect.

I described in this thread what I did to fix it, as well as fixes for other issues:
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?90845-ASUS-PG248Q-Calibration-(gamma-brightness)-Scan-line...

I do think however that some people here, are drawing the wrong conclusions when using youtube-movies as reference. The content quality is a major factor here. For example I can make the Westwold intro movie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRi3ULhyQq0) look as bad on any monitor when the calibration is off. Or the other way around, that movie might look good on another monitor because it's calibrated badly and hides the problem. Just use another monitor and play with the gamma setting (for example).

Nonetheless the default settings of this monitor are awfull, I can't believe this monitor would have released like this, so there must be something wrong (a monitor, panel or driver issue)

[TheIslander]

Soss I have fiddled more and more with settings and checked your setup. Well it was a bit too bright and blue for me (each screen is different) and also the other settings there to eliminate/hide problems even more. To get it even better someone should use a proper calibration device (it costs a bit unfortunatelly) with software to set it up but still monitor from the factory should come almost ideally set. . . Like take out from the box plugin adjust brightness and fiddle 5 min in settings not hours to get it looking good. ;/
About quality tho I admit youtube videos aren't best to check but the bad/insufficient quality of content allows to spot the bad settings easier. As I wrote before on Elysium 2160p (so it is scaled down to FHD by player) the problem is non existant (after a bit more "fun" in settings).
I hope there will be some answer from Asus by recall and firmware fix or just door to door with calibrator ;/

[Album]

While I agree that we shouldn't just use Youtube videos as the sole reference, we've to consider that a huge portion of our media intake comes from Youtube and it should be at least decent given the premium spent no?

I've observed that in games, color banding isn't there. I could be too focused playing though. Don't really have dark games, so if any of you got some horror/dark games and give it a shot that'll be great!

[Soss_be]

I think the expectations for this monitor are just a bit too high ... yes we paid a lot of money but that is mostly for the G-SYNC functionality.
In the end this is still a 6-bit TN-panel (with dithering to reach 8-bit). It will show color banding! How much depends on the content or the game's implementation.
I get it, that one-time you paid a lot of money for a monitor you might be a little more critical. But people are comparing it with old monitors that don't even support full-RGB. If you really can't stand the banding in dark areas, set RGB to limited ...

However I still think that if they don't fix the default settings for this monitor (brightness + gamma + scanlines/moire, G-SYNC tearing), people will keep complaining, it's just crap out-of-the-box.

[JustinThyme]

Soss_be wrote:
I think the expectations for this monitor are just a bit too high ... yes we paid a lot of money but that is mostly for the G-SYNC functionality.
In the end this is still a 6-bit TN-panel (with dithering to reach 8-bit). It will show color banding! How much depends on the content or the game's implementation.
I get it, that one-time you paid a lot of money for a monitor you might be a little more critical. But people are comparing it with old monitors that don't even support full-RGB. If you really can't stand the banding in dark areas, set RGB to limited ...

However I still think that if they don't fix the default settings for this monitor (brightness + gamma + scanlines/moire, G-SYNC tearing), people will keep complaining, it's just crap out-of-the-box.

You hit the nail on the head. Expectations are always too high. In the grand scheme of things $350 is chump change for a monitor. Good ones run upwards of $1000 and more.

Toss the internet color contrast and gamma websites. You are creating problems. Its impossible to calibrate based on a web image that changes based entirely on which browser you use and whats the HTML color settings are set for. If you really want to calibrate for accurate color, contrast and gamma you have to spend more money. For my imaging I use a colormunki. It represents true colors and ensures that what you are looking at on the screen is what comes out of the printer and is 100% accurate. Youtube compressed garbage is a horrible reference! Worse than the web pages as it is looking at original footage, compression factor and playback.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=550833&gclid=CO6I1K3KhdICFY-KswodkOMFXQ&is=R...