Really weird "colour bleed" problem with Benq monitor

[JonP01 104]

I received a BENQ GW2280 from a family member who now just uses a laptop only. It is a very lightly used albeit obsolete 22 incher that was only used for very occasional web surfing.

But I am noticing something a little odd with the way colours are rendered in games on the edges or surfaces of some objects but only when I am panning around very quickly. I cannot provide a screenshot or even a video (do not own a camera) since it is obviously only the monitor doing it - I verified this by testing two other monitors and the problem did not exist in either of them). But the bottom line is I have 100% eliminated the graphics card, computer itself, software, drivers, colour settings, HDMI settings, even the menus within the monitor itself  - so the lot - it is definitely something the monitor itself is doing - perhaps by some sort of image processing that does not appear in any of the menus and can never be turned off.

Anyway, best way to describe it might be to explain what I see when it does it in FSX:SE as an example. I might be panning around the cockpit and if there is some part of the cockpit that has a very large contrast in colour on or near an edge - such as the Whiskey compass in the Milviz Beaver which has a chrome surround to the blackish compass, as I pan, the edge of the compass (so where the black meets the chrome) seems to "bleed" and I get a sort of in-between colour or halo around the edge of the compass in place of the chrome as the pan takes place. In this case a sort of blend of the chrome and a purple colour - but only if you look carefully and know what to look for. Once the pan is done, everything is fine again. And if I pan very slowly it does not happen. But I stress this is not an issue with any software - it is a hardware thing this monitor seems to do itself, since I could show you a much worse example in the Serious Sam Fusion game (which is thankfully a 100% certain way I could prove it is just the monitor - two other monitors I was able to test don't do it).

Now it does not happen in every game / sim application though. I have some older games from around 2005 that do not show any evidence at all of the "problem". But something like Serious Sam Fusion which is DX11 shows it up if you know what to look for (yes, it is one of those problems where you might not notice it at first but once it has been pointed out to you, you can never, ever "un see" it.

Now I have trouble thinking the monitor could actually have some sort of fault per se, since what can go wrong with a monitor these days? It either works or it doesn't work 100%. And the only real problems you can have is a faulty backlight or faulty pixels. It is not like the pixels "slow down" as they get older or can't produce the correct colours. This is all digital so it is right or it just doesn't work at all.

This is why I am putting this down to some sort of image processing the monitor does, however darned if there is anything in the menus I haven't tried turning on or off.

So has anyone come across this or does anyone have some sort of explanation as to what is going on? I am prepared to live with it if it is just a characteristic that some monitors have and as I say, I can't really think of what sort of fault could develop on a monitor to cause this.

Thanks

[Chock 17,769]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatic_aberration

[JonP01 104]

Awesome. You nailed it. That is exactly what is happening! We have a name for the disease! I feel better already :)

[JonP01 104]

Actually after more research I actually think it is more related to modern monitor technology (even though this is a 2018 year model) and the overdrive and constant backlight they use to eliminate flicker. I suspect given I am so sensitive to this I would now probably see it on any monitor except my old ones which pre-dated this overdrive / anti-flicker technology (not that I ever really noticed flicker on any LCD unless I was obsessively looking for it. But my old ones are just too small for any decent gaming at only 19 inches and 1366 x 768 resolution.

I just did the UFO test on every monitor I have here and they all show up pretty badly on such a "naked" test, so I am actually thinking the reason I never really noticed this before was a combination of the older monitor having a strobe backlight and being so small so much detail was missing (that is the biggest thing I noticed with the BENQ - the massive detail increase over the older 19 inch one was beyond insane - I can' t believe the difference in FSX and my other games).

https://blurbusters.com/faq/lcd-overdrive-artifacts

[JonP01 104]

Yep, here is a Youtube video showing precisely the problem (not my monitor or video but exactly the same issue).

 

[JonP01 104]

So now that I understand the technology and what is happening I disabled completely the AMA and the funny colouration went away but the result was a pretty bad image in fast moving 60 hz / 60 fps refresh rate gaming (and 60 hz is that monitor's limit). Though the colour problems went away, the cure was far worse than the disease! The AMA setting of "High" is by far the best compromise versus "Off" or "Premium" - something most reviewers it seems have said of BENQ monitors.

Does not really effect FSX that too much because like most people I run half the refresh rate and at 30 fps and with the relative lack of speed of objects in FSX versus first person shooters, etc, the problem doesn't really show up. You can still see it when panning around high quality payware cockpits but not on "basic" cockpits like the stock ones.

But I guess I have now had my introduction to "monitors really matter and this is why...".

At least I can console myself that reading old reviews this monitor was never intended for gaming. I guess next stop is to get a proper gaming monitor though the fact is they will also have these sorts of problems to one degree or another and in the end it will come down to which monitors are the least compromised and which have enough adjustments to tailor the user's taste towards suppressing what annoys them the most.