Are this black-grey artifacts-squares in dark areas normal?

[lorcav123]

I bought 27" 1080p monitor and I didn`t paying attetion to these things before. Maybe it is all normal, just a bad quality of video or bigger monitor and lower PPI....


Video and images

http://imgur.com/a/LBZu2

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://imgur.com/a/9QbwM

Here first is in 3:18 and other is on 4:04


What do you guys think?

 

[BiggieShady]

Low quality video compression artifacts made more easily visible by possibly wrong brightness/contrast setting on the monitor

 

[Vya Domus]

Hard to tell , looks like compression artifacts.

 

[lorcav123]

Low quality video compression artifacts made more easily visible by possibly wrong brightness/contrast setting on the monitor

Hard to tell , looks like compression artifacts.

Do you see them on your monitors when watching these videos?

 

[Vya Domus]

Do you see them on your monitors when watching these videos?

Sometimes, when watching stuff on YouTube for example.

Only way to know for sure there if there is something wrong with the monitor is to check if this happens if you play a game or something of the sort (not videos).

 

[Vayra86]

Do you see them on your monitors when watching these videos?

This is mostly a monitor setting, and on crappy/badly calibrated monitors, yes I can easily see this. Even on uncompressed content you can see color banding and artifacts (which is part of what you're seeing as well).

Lower the brightness, set the contrast such that you don't 'crush' the brightest and darkest tones of the image, and aim for a warmer color temperature (5600k - 6000k), it will help alot. These three things are a basic calibration method. As for brightness: very low settings yield best results in terms of how 'black your blacks' will be. Deeper blacks will make other colors pop more, and low brightness is less strain on the eyes. You get used to it and it helps a ton.

 

[lorcav123]

Sometimes, when watching stuff on YouTube for example.

Only way to know for sure there if there is something wrong with the monitor is to check if this happens if you play a game or something of the sort (not videos).

I tested it shortly in Metro Last light and I didn`t notice anything like that. Today I will test it more. So you think this is only software problem? I would be very disappointed if my new monitor is faulty - broken.

This is mostly a monitor setting, and on crappy/badly calibrated monitors, yes I can easily see this. Even on uncompressed content you can see color banding and artifacts (which is part of what you're seeing as well).

Lower the brightness, set the contrast such that you don't 'crush' the brightest and darkest tones of the image, and aim for a warmer color temperature (5600k - 6000k), it will help alot. These three things are a basic calibration method. As for brightness: very low settings yield best results in terms of how 'black your blacks' will be. Deeper blacks will make other colors pop more, and low brightness is less strain on the eyes. You get used to it and it helps a ton.

I didn`t believe it but installing new GPU driver helped a lot I can still see some artifact but way less than before. After that I installed monitor driver and set custom resolution problem returned so I delete driver and reinstalled it again. Now I won`t set up custom resoultion or install monitor driver.


Before I installed driver on this picture I had very nasty artifacts in left uppper corner and now they are barely visible.

http://imgur.com/XEquFFe

In this pictures I can still see color banding, I tryed that on another computer (monitor was only 22") and it was there. Can you guys see it?

One picture has horrible color banding so I marked it in paint where I see color shift- waves.

http://imgur.com/a/kvFVA

I was worried about color banding in some videos, pictures but in this test everything seems smooth.

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


Here is one more picture about artifacts, on picture form mobile phone look a little worse.

http://imgur.com/qW9EGdb

I am changing GPU soon (currently I have ATI 7770, I will buy some Polaris card), could this all be GPU problem? I am little in panic because if my monitor is faulty there will be hard to prove if I RMA monitor, they could simply tell that I change some mode that has more of black crush.

 

[Vya Domus]

I tested it shortly in Metro Last light and I didn`t notice anything like that. Today I will test it more. So you think this is only software problem? I would be very disappointed if my new monitor is faulty - broken.

All I am saying is the content you showed which exhibit these artifacts consists of compressed video/images. Poor contrast can make these things very evident , if you said you haven't noticed anything while playing games I'd say the monitor is fine.

In this pictures I can still see color banding, I tryed that on another computer (monitor was only 22") and it was there. Can you guys see it?

I don't see color banding but I see typical compression artifacts , like these :

 

[lorcav123]

All I am saying is the content you showed which exhibit these artifacts consists of compressed video/images. Poor contrast can make these things very evident , if you said you haven't noticed anything while playing games I'd say the monitor is fine.



I don't see color banding

Wait you don`t see any color banding on this picture, everything is black on your monitor?? Couple of these slowly shifting black waves??

 

[Vya Domus]

On that one I can see color banding.

Again , your monitor is fine.

 

[silentbogo]

It's compression artifacts. Both videos you posted are OK on my PC, so the only 2 remaining suspects are:
1) Low bandwidth of your internet connection (youtube drops the bitrate to the point of having black squares from JPEG compression)
2) Bad codecs or lack of hardware acceleration on your PC (or a simple misconfiguration).

 

[Vayra86]

Wait you don`t see any color banding on this picture, everything is black on your monitor?? Couple of these slowly shifting black waves??

View attachment 95732

This picture shows no color banding on my monitor with my CURRENT calibration (which is near-perfectly adapted to my monitor). But if I change the brightness, black level, or contrast, yes, I will see color banding occur. Most of that will then occur in the darkest hues from black > dark grey.

Note: this is not a sign of a broken monitor but rather the limitations of the color space it uses, the panel itself (6bit+FRC, or 8bit) and the color depth setting you choose in your GPU driver menu.

As you pointed out the driver reinstall 'fixed' things: this may be a sign that your custom resolution settings also use a different color depth (lower than it should be), and you can manually adjust that while still using custom res.

Another setting worth looking at is your gamma curve. It should be set at or around 2.2

As for NVCP: it should look like this; 'Volledig' = FULL

Also take a look here, and play with the gamma curve to find the best, most neutral setting that does not crush any blacks or highlights. NOTE: always START with the monitor itself; if you cant get it right from within the monitor OSD menu, then refer to these screens here.

 

[lorcav123]

This picture shows no color banding on my monitor with my CURRENT calibration (which is near-perfectly adapted to my monitor). But if I change the brightness, black level, or contrast, yes, I will see color banding occur. Most of that will then occur in the darkest hues from black > dark grey.

Note: this is not a sign of a broken monitor but rather the limitations of the color space it uses, the panel itself (6bit+FRC, or 8bit) and the color depth setting you choose in your GPU driver menu.

I can`t belive that you see any banding. Lucky you

Here is the picture of my settings:

http://imgur.com/a/oqFuI

I tried some things in CRU, but nothing better. In settings everything seems fine to me - FHD, 60hz, 8bpc, 32bit.


For monitor settings I used settings from this site (his test settings - I trust this guy, this should be the right settings for this monitor):

https://pcmonitors.info/reviews/samsung-c27f591fd/


Yesterday I compared games Sins of a Solar empire and Outlast with my friends monitor. He have Samsung 22" - 1680x1050 - TN panel. For some things I was worried but those things appeared on my friend monitor. Pictures from my monitor (sory for bad quality pictures, I haven got a better phone):

- Sins of a solar empire - I was suspcius about some artifacts and color banding

http://imgur.com/a/4iNLk

Sins of a solar empire from my friend monitor - similar situation just like on my monitor

http://imgur.com/a/mh8Vn

- Outlast - some suspicious rough shadows, some circle color banding in shadows but that was also on my friend monitor. I played almost on all high details and this game has some of the ugliest object shadows

http://imgur.com/a/qMnkL

What I didn`t check, look suspicious

this video from outlast, when I return to main menu you can see here slow color banding - I think that this wasn`t on my friend PC

Outlast and Mass effect 3 - they share similar rough too dark shadows what is very suspicious to me

https://imgur.com/a/euP8C

Friend game me movie Interstellar- around 3gb, 1080p. This is picture from movie in space.

https://imgur.com/a/6CqCV



I found this picture on internet, look horrible on my monitor:

- original

https://marshallceilings.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/night-sky-ceilings.jpg?w=2000

from my friend monitor

https://imgur.com/a/Zvkia

Didn`t take picture of that on my monitor but look similar to Interstellar.


Any advice?

 

[eidairaman1]

Replace gpu.

 

[erocker]

Any advice?

Don't compare pictures of a picture on a monitor with a digital file of an image. If you want US to compare, take a picture of a monitor that is working correctly, with a picture of your monitor both displaying the same image. Things look fine for the most part. Your monitor is of low quality... I'm guessing. Fill out your system specs.

 

[lorcav123]

Replace gpu.

For 1-2 months I will buy RX 580 8GB and then reinstall windows. That will rule out GPU and software problem.

Don't compare pictures of a picture on a monitor with a digital file of an image. If you want US to compare, take a picture of a monitor that is working correctly, with a picture of your monitor both displaying the same image. Things look fine for the most part. Your monitor is of low quality... I'm guessing. Fill out your system specs.

I just wanted you to see how that problem looks, to recognise it.

I tested some other games today, everything seems fine. Also those images(those round stange shapes) from Outlast game are also on my friend monitor. Didn`t check that for Mass effect 3. Is it possible that these problem could be only on videos and pictures, not games (as far as I know)? Or that excludes monitor from problem?

Could you guys post how this scenes in this song looks on your monitor so I don`t have always compare with my friends 22" TN?


This one is from 01:44

http://imgur.com/sgHsYC9

01:59

http://imgur.com/1yByOEk

00:01

http://imgur.com/ttl6E6N

Tommorow I will try my monitor on some Android box from a friend.

 

[erocker]

Yep, looks bad.

 

[lorcav123]

I tried watching that video on 3 different browsers, turn off HW, nothing helped. Then I went to my friend and tried this on his monitor. I can see pixelation on his, maybe little less visible because he got 22" monitor, much smaller than mine. So I was wondering, maybe my monitor is fine but I can`t belive that this is the quality of black color in 2018 year! So I don`t know what should I do? Could you give me link of some high quality video with dark scenes so I can test it?

I also tried connecting my monitor with andorid box, same blocky artifacts.

Also could someone post a picture from his monitor of that youtube video? Common people!!

 

[Batou1986]

I recently bought a 27" acer monitor that did the same thing and it went right back to the store, the color artifacts in your pictures is not normal and I agree with you that this is not acceptable.
This is a picture of my 130$ 23" TN dell monitor that I bought like 4 years ago its nothing fancy and as you can see it does not do that.

 

[eidairaman1]

Replace your gpu

 

[lorcav123]

Replace your gpu

Why are you so sure that GPU is the problem?

 

[eidairaman1]

You tried another monitor, replace it. Lets stop going in circles over this.

 

[lorcav123]

You tried another monitor, replace it. Lets stop going in circles over this.

BUt I also wrote 2 post above:

"I also tried connecting my monitor with andorid box, same blocky artifacts."

so not compleatly sure

 

[Swamp Monster]

What is the model of your new monitor?
These artifacts can be caused by sh!tty implementation of "Black equaliser". Dependidng on implementation, it can also create artifacts that are moving around in desktop enviroment, adjusting to level of blacks of the pictures.

 

[lorcav123]

What is the model of your new monitor?
These artifacts can be caused by sh!tty implementation of "Black equaliser". Dependidng on implementation, it can also create artifacts that are moving around in desktop enviroment, adjusting to level of blacks of the pictures.

Samsung C27F591. This should be one of the best 1080p VA panel, high quality stuff.

there is option HDMI black level (normal, low) but it has been grayed out since I put monitor to 72hz. Normal should be full RGB, low should be limited. On low there is a lot of black crush but black looks deep.