Display Enlightment by NCX

Questions about PWM dimming

1). Is PWM flickering caused by the panel, or the backlight?
2). Is the panel part of the backlight? 
3). Can you replace the panel to get rid of PWM flickering?
4). If not, what part of a monitor can you replace to get rid of flickering?

Thanks.

Today I've tested the 4K monitor in a room with light from the side. On black background I can still see my reflection (blurry) and part from the room. It seems that the 4K monitors aren't really matte. 

All of them are more reflective compared to older monitors like DELL P2213 or DELL P2417H. I was hoping that newer models from DELL, EIZO or HP are less reflective but videos on youtube are showing that this is not the case.

Most matte monitors use the same light coating now aside from a few mediocre TN panels with grainy matte coatings and very expensive professionally oriented monitors from Eizo.  Control your room lighting (get a less bright ceiling or lamp bulb and/or don't have your monitors facing a lamp or window) to reduce the amount which shines on your displays.  Bias lighting (lights placed behind the display) is the best way to eliminate glare and reflections and increase the perceived black depth.

Display Brightness & Room Lighting: The Importance Of Light article and extended video version

Added the Review by NL Hardware to my Best Reviewed Flicker Free 32" 4K AHVA/IPS/PLS buying guide.

Matte fully adjustable 3840x2160, wide gamut/HDR panel with Back-light Dimming, Displayport, Hardware Calibration (Asus ProArt which does not work properly), 3x HDMI 2.0, 2x Thunderbolt USB-C (1 In & 1 Out), 3x USB 3.1 and Uniformity Compensation which reduces the contrast and does not work very well.  The PA32UCX-K is quite accurate (2.14 out of the box gamma is disappointing), but needs to be set to the accurate but too red REC 709 (Tom's Hardware preset color accuracy section) or sRGB mode to prevent the over-saturation of SDR (HDTV/REC 709 & sRGB) content since the PA32UCX-K uses a an HDR-capable wide gamut panel which is preset to use the native DCI-P3/HDR color space, and unfortunately locks the color controls when the HDR mode is enabled.  According to NL Hardware, the PA32UCX suffers from sharpness problems when the sRGB mode is selected.

The PA32UCX-K's color temperature changes and normalizes over a period of two hours when turned on after calibration, as well as suffers from varying color accuracy depending on how long it is turned on and which settings are changed.  The Asus has low input lag and fast pixel response times (for a 60hz non-TN panel) with minimal overshoot ghosting when the preset Trace Free 60 setting is used, and almost full HDR support thanks to the 1152 zone back-light dimming, 1500cdm/2 maximum brightness and wide gamut panel. The PA32UCX-K is a good 60hz gaming and media viewing display, especially once calibrated, but is not suitable for professional use over monitors from Eizo and NEC due to the Asus's improperly working hardware calibration (ProArt) and Uniformity compensation modes, and color-changing issues which occur over time after being turned on, and when settings are changed.



Added the Review by PRAD to my Best Reviewed Flicker Free 144-165hz 1440p Monitors and Best Reviewed Flicker Free 27" 1440p AHVA/IPS/PLS buying guides.

Fully adjust-able, matte, semi-wide gamut, 170hz, 2560x1440 IPS (probably AHVA) panel with AMD Free-Sync, ELMB (back-light strobing), Displayport, 2x HDMI 2.0, 2x USB 3.0 and 3.5mm Audio Out.  The XG279Q has 1100:1 contrast, and is quite accurate DCI-P3 color space coverage (91%; it over-saturates SDR color by over 25% and does not have a good sRGB mode) and colors aside from a minor blue tint (6900k measured color temperature) and slightly too low and downward-sloping gamma which averages around 2.09.  The XG279Q has negligible input lag, great 60hz and 144-170hz overdrive with fast pixel response times and minimal overshoot when the Overdrive 3 setting is used.



Added the Review by NL Hardware to my Best Reviewed Flicker Free 27" 4-5K AHVA/IPS/PLS buying guide.

Full adjust-able, matte, wide-gamut (partial HDR support), 98hz (8 bit +FRC=10 bit with full 4:4:4 color) to 144hz (8 bit with 4:2:0 color) 3840x2160 IPS (probably AHVA) panel with Nvidia G-Sync, 2x Displayport 1.4 (G-Sync), 2x HDMI 2.0, 2x USB 3.0 and 3.5mm Audio Out.  The XG27Uq has 950:1 contrast, 92% DCI-P3 coverage out-of-the-box, and over-saturates SDR (HDTV/REC 709 & sRGB) color, as well as has a red tint (5827k color temperautre; RGB measurements) unless set to the sRGB mode which is more accurate, but is also too red and has high (220cdm/2), and locked brightness controls.  The XG27UQ's HDR mode is fairly accurate, but is also too red and lacks a true 10 bit signal and local dimming.  The XG27UQ has negligible input lag (2ms), and minimal overshoot, but slower than average pixel response times (5-12.6ms range versus 2-8ms) versus the fastest non-TN competitors.



Added the Review by Rtings to my Best Reviewed Flicker Free 144-165hz 1440p Monitors and Best Reviewed Flicker Free 27" 1440p AHVA/IPS/PLS buying guides.

Matte 144hz, 2560x1440, wide gamut (DCI-P3/HDR coverage) IPS panel (unsure if AHVA or IPS) with AMD Free-Sync, Displayport, 2x HDMI 2.0, a remote control, USB-C and 3.5mm Audio Out.  The BenQ is preset to the M-Book mode which has very high, black crush inducing 2.6+ gamma and is not very accurate, but can be improved by switching to the vthe Standard Picture Mode which uses the native wide gamut which over-saturates SDR color (HDTV/REC 709 & sRGB) by 33%.   The REC 709 mode locks the color controls, has high, slight black crush inducing 2.4 gamma and is limited to 93.6% sRGB color space coverage which combined with the locked color controls, is below average.  The BenQ has negligible input lag (<4ms measured with the SMT Tool) and fast pixel response times when the preset AMA High Response Time setting is used, but it's not as fast as IPS competitors like the LG 27GL850 which Playwares measured a 3ms pixel response average time compared to the BenQ's 6-7ms average.



Added the Review by IT Hardware PL to my Best Reviewed Flicker Free 144hz 1080p Monitors buying guide.

Matte, curved, 144hz, 1920x1080 VA panel with 48-144hz AMD Free-Sync, Displayport and 2x HDMI 1.4.  The LC-M27 has 3,500:1 contrast (good for a VA panel), covers 95% of the sRGB color space, but over and under-saturates some colors, and has a slight preset blue tint.  The LC-M27 has low input lag, and good 144hz overdrive, but IT Hardware did not provide much detail or test the 60hz performance which is important for those who want to play both console and PC games.



Added the Review by Rtings to my Best Reviewed Flicker Free 144hz 1080p Monitors buying guide.

Matte, 1920x1080 165hz VA panel with AMD Free-Sync (48-165hz), Displayport, 2x HDMI 1.4, and 3.5mm Audio Out.  The MSI G27C4 suffers from a preset red tint, has washed out colors caused by the low preset gamma (1.98 Measured by Playwares versus 2.1 by Rtings ) and over-saturates the colors of SDR (HDTV/RED 709 & sRGB) media by over 20%.  The MSI G27C4 has fast pixel response times and low input lag, but has bad image quality and some overshoot ghosting (Rtings).

So i receved my XG2041.

So about pixel inversion/scan line/ interlaced pattern artifacts, i dont notice them

But i encounter a problem that i didnt have when testing other TN monitor
I have, at the bottom right corner and half low right edge of the screen, a kind of glow or reflection. It is only visible on dark content and of course, i followed your post on correct viewing position

The glow disappear if i move my head to the right, and black doesnt look anymore different than the rest of the screen

Pcmonitor.info mentionned TN Glow if user is viewing at sharpers angles or off center viewing angle, which wasn't my case

So could it be a defect in the product or bad black uniformity ?