Dell Alienware AW3418DW IPS-glow typical? Owners please chime in.

Omegaman007 · 02 Dec 2018

Hey all,
Wasn't sure if this needed to go under "Driver's and HW" category, which sounded like troubleshooting those types of issues so I'm posting here instead. Mods feel free to move if topic is more appropriate elsewhere.

I posted about this on Dell's community forums but have received no response and I'm under some time constraints. I've also gone and looked at the same monitor in MicroCenter but can't get any feel for it there since it's bright enough to get a sun tan from the lights in there.

Onto my question ->
I picked up a new, A04 revision, of the Alienware AW3418DW ultrawide monitor this week. Upon turning down the brightness to 30 in the OSD I'm still seeing what to me is an unacceptable level of "IPS-glow", especially in the lower-left, from the appropriate viewing distance specified in the manual. I have to pull my head back to beyond 38" from the screen until it no longer becomes bothersome, which is something I cannot do if I still want to be able to use it as intended. I want to ask if this is a typical amount of IPS-glow from this (or similar ~$800) monitor, in which case I'll just ask for a refund, or if I received an atypical example, in which case I'll ask for an exchange and hope the second is better.

I should also mention that this monitor does have some other issues which I'm giving a pass to including: flickering issues at 120Hz, IPS glow in the other corners, and a slight left-to-right cool-to-warm color shift.

I've included some photos with the understanding that what you see may be a bit different due to your monitor settings, etc. I tried to make the photo as representative as possible as to what I see when I look at the screen (I didn't try to exaggerate the effect by over-exposing the images). To me these photos look quite accurate.
Thank you in advance for your help.

bro67 · 02 Dec 2018

Backlit monitors are notorious to have that issue along the bottom. Dell Alienware AW3418DW Review - TFT Central Linus Tech Tips is the best place for info on hardware. Backlight Types As Fast As Possible - YouTube LED TV Backlight Bleeding - How much is too much? Part 1 of 2 - YouTube Adjust Backlight not Brightness. The Evolution of LED Backlights | PC Monitors

Just a FYI "most modern LED backlight solutions involve placing a border (or in some case clusters) of ‘white’ LEDs behind or at the side of the LCD matrix, often near the edges and using a diffuser to spread the light across the screen." This has been known for a long time to be a issue with LED and LCD displays.

fireberd · 03 Dec 2018

Just a reminder, if you are not happy with it and want to return, its a short time period. So make up your mind quick.

Personally, I would send it back, considering the price they get for these.

Omegaman007 · 03 Dec 2018

fireberd said:

Just a reminder, if you are not happy with it and want to return, its a short time period. So make up your mind quick.

Personally, I would send it back, considering the price they get for these.

I already decided that I would return it; I was hoping to get input on if I should try for an exchange in hopes of getting a better one or just give up and wait until the next model comes out that is hopefully better in this regard.

bro67 said:

Backlit monitors are notorious to have that issue along the bottom.

....
Just a FYI "most modern LED backlight solutions involve placing a border (or in some case clusters) of ‘white’ LEDs behind or at the side of the LCD matrix, often near the edges and using a diffuser to spread the light across the screen." This has been known for a long time to be a issue with LED and LCD displays.

I'm familiar with LCD bleed and glow, I've just never had a monitor that had it quite this bad/affected me as much. Seems like the IPS glow situation could be better if they extended the diffuser deeper into the bezel as the effect does go away if I back away sufficiently (but too far for productivity use at that point). Wonder if the curvature exasperates the issue and I should look into flat alternatives. Love that widescreen aspect-ratio on an computer monitors the curve actually makes sense (if they could get done right), vs on a TV on which it's just detrimental.

bro67 · 03 Dec 2018

IPS has nothing to do with it. The problem stems from how the LED's are placed along the bottom and top with diffusers and cause that glow. Try turning down the backlight and tweaking the other settings. Once it is calibrated, the problem should go away.

bobkn · 03 Dec 2018

If that sort of thing really bugs you, I'd suggest getting a monitor with FALD (full array local dimming). That uses an array of LEDs as a backlight rather than lines of LEDs along the edges of the screen.

(I wasn't sure whether FALD PC monitors existed, but a quick web search suggests that they do. They may be expensive, though.)

The "glow" that you refer to is a form of blooming (light diffusing to where it isn't wanted). FALD displays still have it, but it affects smaller areas of the screen than with edge lighting.

As for IPS having "nothing to do with it", that's mostly true, but not 100%. The contrast of an IPS display is lower than some LCD types (like VA, vertical alignment), which probably increases the strength of the blooming. IPS has a wider viewing angle than VA, and it seems to be more common in high-end monitors.

In TVs it can be avoided entirely with an OLED (organic LED) display. However, I know of no OLED monitors. The smallest OLED TVs have 55" diagonals. There may also be burn-in issues.

Omegaman007 · 03 Dec 2018

Even turning the brightness down to 0 does not get rid of the IPS glow; there are no other settings that effect it AFAIK, at least not on this monitor. I don't know if there are any G-Sync monitors with FALD but will check. I'm willing to sacrifice both the screen curve and some (reasonable) amount of color accuracy to get something w/o or much less glow.

bro67 · 03 Dec 2018

Omegaman007 said:

Even turning the brightness down to 0 does not get rid of the IPS glow; there are no other settings that effect it AFAIK, at least not on this monitor. I don't know if there are any G-Sync monitors with FALD but will check. I'm willing to sacrifice both the screen curve and some (reasonable) amount of color accuracy to get something w/o or much less glow.

Again, IPS tech for the panel has zero to do with this. Adjust the Backlight down and tweak the other settings. It is always going to be a issue with edge lighting with LED & LCD monitors, for that glow to happen, until you turn down the backlight.