DoubleSight DS-277W: Back to the Drawing Board
by Chris Heinonen on June 13, 2012 1:30 AM ESTStraight out of the box and set to 200 nits, the DS-277W offered pretty respectable performance with an average dE of only 6.46. Blues were the main issue, but the grayscale was pretty respectable without calibration, which is the most important aspect with the dE value.
Once calibrated to D65 with 2.2 gamma, the dE drops way down to 1.5 on average. Amazingly this is in line with the more expensive NEC PA271W that I had just tested. The grayscale was nice and flat, and the only colors with an error over 3 were those shades of blue we always see having issues. So despite those huge issues with the brightness level, if you keep yourself at a happy medium light output level, you can get good color results out of the DS-277W.
Median color error for 200 nits was the second-best that we have seen. Half of the colors have an error of 1 or less, rendering the difference totally invisible the eye, and a few poor colors are dragging the average way down. If you know what colors are causing this, this can be good as the grayscale and other colors will be accurate, you just need to know that blues will be more incorrect than other shades.
As mentioned on the brightness page, the lowest output level was 140 nits, which means the LUTs have to be adjusted down for reaching 100 nits of light output. This can be done, but shifting the levels to such a large degree can also lead to posterization, a lack of full dynamic range, and other issues with your output, and this is now video card dependant. Possibly because of this the 100 nits average dE rises up to over 2.0 from the 1.5 at 200 nits. Of course since this display only goes down to 140 nits, I would not recommend it for print work either, regardless of the dE value here.
However, it does have a panel and backlighting system with a full AdobeRGB colorspace, and can display over 107% of the AdobeRGB standard. For editing images at 200 nits or so this will work well.
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anishannayya - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
Remember, this is 1440p we are talking about. I don't know many games that a single card card can push past 120 hz. At least games that would benefit from 120 hz (FPS).DarkUltra - Tuesday, June 19, 2012 - link
At high resolution you are limited by texture mapping and pixel shader performance. I turn off MSAA and set detail levels to high and Crysis 2 looks almost the same, but runs at 100-120 fps. Much easier to enjoy the action and everything looks more solid when I look around.http://jooh.no/index.php/2012/06/17/120hz-monitor-...
This is at 1920x1080 on a geforce gtx 580 and of course 120hz. If I manage to get a 1440p 120hz monitor I might need a gtx 680, it has twice as many texture mapping units. I wish 3D card reviews would test what gpu, cpu and settings you would need to get 120fps in games.
Every game I've tried benefits from 120hz/fps except old games that cannot render the graphics and mouse cursor faster than 30/60fps like Baldur's Gate and Diablo. Smoother, more precise mouse cursor and panning in RTS games also benefits greatly from 120hz/fps. Even games like C&C 3 that are locked at 30fps can since the cursor is rendered at its own layer updating at screen refresh.
DanNeely - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
Displayport 1.2 has the bandwidth needed to do 2560x1600x120hz. I've seen reviewers report that 120hz was noticeably smoother when scrolling/moving the mouse on the windows desktop; so you should get some benefit from it even if you can't push the FPS that high while gaming.Anubis - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
anand did a quick review of the QH270 lite - which is basically the same as the catleap (same panel just cant be overclocked)http://www.anandtech.com/show/5885/the-achieva-shi...
the 120 HZ capable monitors are not really made anymore and you are taking an even bigger gamble with the ones from 120hz IMO
however even without them doing 120HZ they are one of the best deals out there, you can get 2 for what 1 HP or Dell would cost
Cattykit - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
http://brand.danawa.com/yamakasiAbove is the one that can be 'overclocked' to do 120hz.
For those who are interested in various IPS monitors, check the below Korean price search site. There, you'll see tons of IPS monitors with tons of different specs. and price point. It's quite amazing how cheap many of IPS monitors run: 27" 2560x1440 LED one being only $200.
http://www.danawa.com/product/list.html?defSite=DI...
anishannayya - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
Rather useless, considering that the entire website is in Korean.alcortez - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
All of those Korean monitors can be found on Ebay with 2 day shipping for ~$300-350.Snipe3000 - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
Holy Bezels Batman!DBissett - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
The title of the review suggests it's a pretty good monitor but not the best. The summary pretty much trashes the monitor and I was surprised. Just saying. The alternatives you suggested are good ones.JarredWalton - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
True; I probably should have thought of that before posting for Chris. I've changed it now, as while the display *tries* to do a lot of things and be a "Jack of All Trades", the reality is it fails at pretty much everything it tries. A firmware update could work wonders, but sadly that hasn't happened despite being requested.