DoubleSight DS-277W: Back to the Drawing Board
by Chris Heinonen on June 13, 2012 1:30 AM ESTMost of the 27” monitors that have come through have been able to get incredibly bright, as the backlighting systems need to be pretty powerful to light up a 27” panel well and keep uniformity. Here the DoubleSight comes in closer to the NEC PA271W than to the other 27” or 30” monitors we have tested and can only put out 271 nits at maximum brightness. With the brightness set to minimum we only get down to 145 nits, which is much brighter than anything else we have tested, and it means that our 100 nits dE testing required lowering the output level by adjusting the LUTs in the video card, which can cause posterization and other issues.
The black level at the minimum backlight is 0.29 nits, which is pretty reasonable. I also engaged the dynamic backlighting system and that dropped the level on a black screen down to 0.189 nits, which improves the contrast ratio quite a bit. Unfortunately, you can clearly see the dynamic backlight in use, and the screen fluctuates in brightness very clearly, which I found to be very annoying in use. The main issue is looking at the black level at maximum brightness, as it is over 16 nits! That’s over 32 times as bright as the closest display and really out of the ordinary, so what is going on?
The answer lies in how TV and Monitor controls work. On a TV, brightness controls the level of black, and contrast controls the level of white, and on a flat panel TV there is typically a backlight or cell light control to adjust the light output. On a monitor, there is no backlight or cell light control; brightness handles that. Since computer displays use the full 0-255 RGB gamut, unlike video that uses 16-235, there is no need for a black level adjustment. On the DoubleSight, the electronics are designed to work like on a TV, so instead of adjusting the light output, we are adjusting the black level. Similarly Contrast serves the purpose now of controlling white and the maximum light output. Basically, for use as a computer display, these controls are not designed correctly.
Given that black level, we would expect to see the contrast ratio at maximum light output be pretty poor, and it clocks in at 13:1. At minimum it was a respectable 499:1 and even at 200 nits I measured around 400:1, but once the brightness gets too high, your contrast ratio goes away.
Suffice it to say, the DS-277W was not a good performer on the brightness and contrast testing here. Hopefully that doesn’t carry over to every aspect of the display.
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Gunbuster - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
Why would anyone buy an off brand monitor with a meager 1 year warranty for $950?When are they going to figure out there is a group of people that want once step above the catleap. US warranty and a 50% less fugly bezel and stand. for around $450
p05esto - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
How come no large, IPS monitors use LED backlighting? I've been waiting and waiting for this feature. My office gets HOT and I'm trying to convert all lighting to LED and things that don't get so hot. My monitor is the last hot-box that needs to be replaced. For my work I require a large and high quality display, IPS.cheinonen - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
The HP ZR2740w uses LED backlighting and is a 27", 2560x1440 monitor. Lots of the 27" and 30", higher resolution monitors are aimed towards graphics designers and other that are after the AdobeRGB color gamut, and I believe that in the configurations that LG offers the panels in you have your choice of LEDs with sRGB coverage or CCFLs with AdobeRGB coverage. Since people needing AdobeRGB are their target, that is much of the reason for using CCFL over LED I imagine.There might be other 27" or 30" models that use LEDs (Apple Cinema Display is one as well I believe), but I don't know them off hand.
Oxford Guy - Thursday, June 14, 2012 - link
That HP also has a constant control backlight instead of a PWM backlight so there is no flicker.I've been waiting for Anandtech to mention this in reviews. Some monitors have especially bad flicker, especially at lower brightness levels, because of the way they implement PWM.
vol7ron - Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - link
"there was nowhere to put an internal power supply"Do you really do that?
It seems to me that these nice SmartTVs have all the hookups that computers need and the resolution is *starting* to match. With how thin they've gotten, it's questionable how monitor companies are going to continue their lines.
Origin64 - Thursday, June 14, 2012 - link
Why do we need Displayat all? There's nothing it can do that Dual-link DVI can't, as far as I know. It can steer my 1920*1080 120Hz monitor just fine.I don't get why everyone needs a new connector every five years. I know why VGA isn't up to todays standards, and I can see why one could want Thunderbolt (daisychaining isn't possible with DVI) even though I prefer to hook everything up directly. But DP is just another useless standard I don't want or need, just like HDMI. Don't want it, don't need it.
cheinonen - Thursday, June 14, 2012 - link
DisplayPort can drive multiple displays using a hub/repeater (if these are even available yet), use a much smaller cable over longer distances than DVI, carry audio as well as USB signals, has no royalty for VESA members (unlike HDMI which has a royalty still I believe), and is better suited for notebooks.DVI still works fine for most people, but as fewer people need analog support (one main advantage of DVI over DP) I'd expect to see DVI be replaced by DP for the reasons mentioned above. It's pretty hard to stick a DVI adapter onto a laptop at this point compared to MiniDP.
Zoomer - Saturday, June 16, 2012 - link
It gets rid of the TMDS, which is getting problematic in silicon. Further, DL-DVI pretty much maxes out at 25601600 @ 60 Hz. There needs to be something that supports a higher res and/or higher refresh.AdamK47 - Saturday, June 16, 2012 - link
The conclusion states: "there was no way to adjust the backlight that I could find"Did you go into the MISC menu and set ECO to 100? That gives full backlight brightness.
jigglywiggly - Wednesday, June 27, 2012 - link
review that catleap monitor ;x