4K for $649: Asus' PB287Q monitor reviewed
techreport.com
techreport.com
http://cdn.avsforum.com/4/4c/600x376px-LL-4cd4431b_200ppdeng...
This monitor is pretty close to retina level DPI based on the typical viewing distance, but i guess a 24inch 4K would be even better.
"a subject diagnosed as having 20/20 vision will often actually have higher visual acuity because, once this standard is attained, the subject is considered to have normal (in the sense of undisturbed) vision and smaller optotypes are not tested."
Toss in compression artifacts and you want a screen at least 4x the resolution as your showing in that chart.
Your points are more about refresh rates, video compression and lightning. For example, in gaming antialising and other "smoothing" techniques are wildy used to improve image quality, but when playing in 4K resolution on a 24inch screen you wouldn't need those anymore because your eye can't see a difference.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliasing
In the end increasing resolution does help in most cases, but with the right fractal pattern there is no 'safe' resolution.
PS: It's basically the same reason that QuickSort is a O(n^2) sorting method in the worst case. Pick the wrong data and your assumptions fall apart.
To demonstrate: draw a pair of vertical black lines 1px wide, with 1px white space between them. Then, tilt them at 30° or 45°. (Or, draw a pair of circles that are 1px thick and have 1px between them at the top, bottom, and sides; then look at various other positions.) Then try the same thing with a line and space thickness of 3px and 5px.
Very curious since it looks dubious to me but gets thrown out at as cold hard fact every single time.
Umm.. I know Firefox is not fashionable these days but ignoring it completely seems bit odd, especially if both Chrome and IE produce suboptimal results.
Also can't you these days force compatibility bitmap-scaling for applications like Fraps that apparently do not work correctly with HiDPI? Sure it is one extra step that ideally shouldn't be necessary, but it is not like you need to live with broken UIs.
The bug has been reported multiple times. It always ends up being closed as wontfix, which is just burying the head in the sand. My laptop is 210dpi, and I guess we'll just go up from here.
One instance of the bug:https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=512522
Since Firefox 22 you shouldn't need to adjust it manually. See eg this bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=844604 (Status: RESOLVED FIXED). I'm not sure why you seem to think that "akin page zoom" is not the proper result, what else you expected?
Quoting Anandtech:
> Chrome is scaled 150% as Windows asked, but it is hazy and blurry. Disabling DPI scaling for the application and then scaling to 150% inside Chrome produces crisp, clear text. Firefox also didn’t scale automatically, but it has a setting to adjust to make it follow the Windows DPI scaling rules. Once set, Firefox looks very nice and crisp. For most people, that setting should already be set to follow DPI scaling.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7157/asus-pq321q-ultrahd-4k-mo...
Note that the review predates the release of Firefox 22.
edit: This is the tracking bug for Firefox HiDPI support on Windows: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/showdependencytree.cgi?id=82067... . Hardly burying their heads in sand.
> I'm not sure why you seem to think that
> "akin page zoom" is not the proper result,
> what else you expected?
It is not what I expect because it does not affect the browser chrome. See a screenshot of my current Firefox:https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/461223/screenshot.png
Notice that the i3 bar at the top has the font at the correct scale. The page itself too (via devPixelsPerPx). Chrome elements such as tab names or the URL bar are at less than half the correct size and barely usable without a hack plugin (I use Theme Font and Size Changer).
Everything other than FF or Thunderbird scales correctly. The X server is set to 210dpi and GTK reports the correct density too. It is firefox that is misbehaving.
This is FF nightly (34, I believe), so way way after FF 22. It is not fixed, and it is not a loved bug. Time will make the bug bite the developers and by then it will be fixed, I'm sure.
Edit: Here's a second screenshot, this time witout devPixelsPerPx, showing FF completely ignoring the system set DPI: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/461223/screenshot2.png
edit: Here is Firefox on Windows 7, Windows being configured at "150%", no tweaks on Firefox: http://zokier.net/stuff/firefox_150.png
here is 100% for comparison: http://zokier.net/stuff/firefox_100.png
Some of the icons etc are bit blurry, but at least they are scaled.
It is a wrong assumption, and one that pegs FF to 96dpi on Linux. It is not a sustainable decision, but I guess it will only be reverted when the noise about it is enough, which will only happen when high dpi displays become more common.
Anyhow, it is not correct to assume X lies about the display density. Modern distros set the density correctly, ever since the infrastructure for xrandr was put into place. Its only fault, today, is that display density can't be set per display. It is a setting of the root window, I believe, so it is shared by all displays.
Side note: This is i3 running on top of a gnome3 session. For the sake of this problem, it can be seen as a gnome session.
Yeah, I just tested this on my GNOME3 system, and there is no simple DPI setting anywhere in sight. `xrandr --dpi 144` which seemed like the logical solution had absolutely zero effect on anything (gnome or firefox). Anyways this is what I ended up with: GNOME scale factor at 1.5 and layout.css.devPixelsPerPx also 1.5: http://zokier.net/stuff/firefox_linux_150.png . Looks pretty good to me.
edit: and just for completeness sake, I also tested this on KDE4. Before changing session I reverted GNOME scale factor to 1.0, so it did not affect my results. I again started with `xrandr --dpi 144` and launched Firefox and the fonts actually had been rescaled! UI was not, but that was fixed with layout.css.devPixelsPerPx=1.5, end result: http://zokier.net/stuff/firefox_kde_150.png
In conclusion, it seems like Firefox on Linux queries the DE for fonts (size and family). KDE4 seems to use X DPI settings in determining the font sizes, while GNOME3 is ignoring them and instead using its own "scaling factor".
edit2: this is getting bit out of hand. I also tested this with just a WM (in this case Fluxbox), without DE. `xrandr --dpi 144` had no effect but setting Xft.dpi to 144 with xrdb did adjust the font size in Firefox. Like others, devPixelsPerPx needed also to be set to 1.5 for UI to scale: http://zokier.net/stuff/firefox_fluxbox_150.png
So in further conclusion I'd say Firefox is handling the situation relatively well, considering the mess that DPI scaling seems to be on Linux.
The end result is that layouts break at densities other than 96dpi, where one CSS px is one screen pixel. The solution would be for image files to embed the display density, but from what I gather, browsers discard that information.
As I posted in the other comment, the major problem now is that the browser UI is not drawn at the correct density and ends thus tiny on high dpi displays.
Anyhow, as these displays become pervasive, it must get fixed.
There are ambiguities, of course. Perhaps the "shock" value of female sexuality is a good thing and is helping us all to get out of outmoded views about female purity. Perhaps the presentation of female sexuality as being about raunch and nudity is catering to male fantasies and is thus bad. Perhaps the problem lies with the excessively "pure" image that teenage female entertainers need to maintain in order to be deemed "family-friendly".
Personally, I interpreted the comment in the article as being one about the exaggerated nature of the image change that stars like Miley Cyrus go through once they hit the age of consent. She's neither the whore of Babylon nor Hannah Montana, but it suited advertisers to portray her as both at different times.
Is this a suitable topic for a joke or a metaphor? I didn't interpret it negatively, so for me it was fine. I can appreciate why other people would disagree, but I thought adding some context might be useful[3].
[1] Actually this is mostly an American thing, so I'm not entirely entitled to use "we" here
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna%E2%80%93whore_complex
[3] Who am I kidding? I'm just giving my 2c on an internet forum like everyone else who has nothing better to do right now
1) commodifying women is not ok.
2) comparing women as an object/product to a piece of tech is again problematic.
3) half your potential audience for your review is women. Do they want to read about other women being talked about like this?
4) using language like this makes it easier to accept it's reasonable and inoffensive. It's not inoffensive.
just saying oh well this is advertising and marketing is not enough. Questioning it's validity is worthwhile. Questioning whether we want to see this kind of exclusionary and sexist language in professional copy is worthwhile.
I hate this attitude that makes people watch their words. It may be true of public and influential personalities, but who cares your choice of words as long as you convey the message? I believe that everything and everyone can be laughed at.
Sure, you may feel offended inside. But you should at least understand that it makes no sense and refrain from sharing your "I'm offended" feelings. Same thing goes for the other end of the spectrum by the way: you can be sexist but as long as you don't act on it, I don't see a problem. That's what freedom is about.
I'm a man, I can walk down the street without being wolf whistled, leered at or otherwise feeling threatened.
Every single woman I know has been hassled in public by men with sexist, threatening language like this. walking down the street they will get an unwanted comments about their appearance, if they ignore them or complain, they get called the kind of things you call "simple words".
Because this kind of language is in the everyday lexicon of of some men, it's used to hurt, threaten and intimidate women.
but y'know, please don't get upset by my simple words yeah.
Some women have criticized Ms. Cyrus's image-transition as cynical and self-destructive – see for example Sinead O'Connor's "open letter" [1]. Those women might appreciate, rather than take offense at, a sly nod to the accelerated, commercial nature of Cyrus's sex-it-up-for-a-buck makeover. The review's throwaway line, to the extent it expresses any viewpoint at all, can equally be seen as embracing one particular feminist critique of sexualized-marketing.
So if some people find a word choice "offensive" based on a simple checklist of dos-and-don'ts, but others find the same phrasing a usefully vivid and possibly even progressive turn-of-phrase, which side should have its preference respected in future writing? Do we take a majority vote? Does one iota of declared offense, from the most easily-offended, always win, ensuring gray committee-vetted prose from here to eternity?
[1] http://gawker.com/everyone-needs-to-read-sinead-o-connors-op... – One of O'Connor's points is: "The message you keep sending is that its somehow cool to be prostituted.. its so not cool Miley.. its dangerous. "
If you're complaining about obscenity, you should know that that was a reference to the Bible, of all things.
EDIT: As an aside, I've been refreshing the page frequently and the dynamics of which comments are rapidly going gray and back to black are very interesting. Not to mention the order of comments on this page. Clearly there's some strong opinions here. I feel like an analysis of post voting frequency and vote type could be performed and would be very insightful.
[0] https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=whore count the women depicted, count the men depicted.
It's pertinent to the topic, in any of the above cases, as they all make you wonder if you can thus trust the rest of his review/opinion.
I disagree. And so do a lot of other people. Look up the word in the dictionary. It's an accurate definition.
I'm more bothered by the fact that as soon as I read that sentence in the review, I knew someone who loves to be offended by everything would have already commented about it on HN.
(That said, I have no clue what Hanna Montana was. But Miley Cyrus is hardly extreme, even for mainstream music.
[Edit: And if copying black music culture should be condemned, I don't know how much will remain? :-) Not only in the US. I guess the jokes are about the contrast with Montana? Sure women often gets the short stick in criticism, but don't throw the baby out with the water. Enough discussion, please. ]
)
Let's google "whore definition" :
> noun, derogatory, a prostitute.
She's not a prostitute (you can google that definition too), so it's not an accurate definition. And, as you're keen on definitions, it's defined as derogatory, so that really does indicate at least meanness of spirit in the writer, yourself, and "a lot of other people".
> I knew someone who loves to be offended by everything...
Personally, I'm not offended by "everything", and when I am offended, I don't enjoy it. His statement simply was offensive.
> as soon as I read that sentence in the review...
You clearly show a level of awareness of what is potentially offensive. Perhaps you could try using a little empathy towards others when you come across something that triggers that awareness, and you might find yourself enlightened.
____P is no less of a marketing label than 4K, just a different one. Any monitor should be defined by its resolution; however this is clunky as hell- as demonstrated by the sheer mass of people keen to inappropriately use the ____P nomenclature.
UHD seems a valid shorthand of this resolution; and to be fair it tends to get used; although often alongside 4K.
CRTs of course never had meaningful horizontal pixel counts but had very meaningful line numbers so that was what was used in the TV industry.
The broadband situation is sort of similar and has always historically been measured in bits.
With hard drives I don't know if there is a reason they can't put 1000GiB on their "terabyte" hard drives which might be reasonable.
As for hard drives, it's unfortunately not even 1000GiB. It's 1,000,000,000,000 bytes; or 931.32GiB. Of course usually it's actually a bit higher based on the design, and they 'round down'. My OS is reporting my WD Reds as 976GiB, so I'm 'only' missing around 48GiB.
And on that note, I understand the whole 'humans like base 10', but computers like base 2. And now half of my apps use base-10, half use base-2. And I pretty much have to use base-2 for all older stuff, like ROM sizes from old game cartridges.
And I doubt people actually cared about 1000-vs-1024 when they said their file was "three megs", but now instead of consistency we have a mess.
> The SMPTE first released Standard 2036 for UHDTV in 2007. UHDTV was defined as having two levels called UHDTV1 (3840×2160 or 4K UHDTV) and UHDTV2 (7680x4320 or 8K UHDTV). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4K_UHDTV
and
> The television industry has adopted ultra high definition television (UHDTV) as its 4K standard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4K_resolution
$699 in Canada
$1000 in UK <- What on earth is going on here - even with 20% VAT?
Although, having said that, checking Quebec[1] gives me CAD803 which is ~GBP443 -- ~GBP150 lower than Amazon's UK price of GBP599.99
[1] http://helpsme.com/tools/free-gst-hst-pst-sales-tax-calculat...
Why? Because they can.
$721 in Sweden (without VAT, http://www.prisjakt.nu/produkt.php?p=2596044)
$836 in UK (without VAT, http://pricespy.co.uk/product.php?p=2596044)
Although probably better to buy in country for warranty reasons.
http://cdn.avsforum.com/4/4c/600x376px-LL-4cd4431b_200ppdeng...
> The one thing that may freeze you from pulling the trigger right now on the PB287Q is, oddly enough for the monitor market, the promise of better things coming soon.
Any guesses about how the market will progress in the next year or two? I have an old 30" 2560x1600, bought for £1200 6 years ago - good enough for my uses (coding). Would like to get a second similar screen, when they are cheap. At the moment I see e.g. 27" 2560x1440 for £420 [1] - would buy it today, except maybe I can get something cheaper and better soon ...
[1] http://www.cclonline.com/product/95902/U2713HM/Monitors/Dell...
I wish there was a standard -- perhaps over USB -- where ordinary people who don't play games and just want a machine to work on (emacs, xterms, web browsers, word processors, rather than gaming) could make many monitors and large monitors work plug-and-play.
You mean like DisplayPort? If your system supports DisplayPort (1.2 or later), you should have no issues getting image on screen. EDID/DisplayID can be used to autoconfigure DPI/PPI scaling, so ideally the experience should indeed be just plug-and-play.
Hmmmm... I need something that can do a little better than "closer to". Guess $650 and color accuracy is too much to ask at 4k.
These displays are fantastic, but I'd worry about touch models being released in a couple of years. If you use Windows, or OS X gets good touch support, you might regret the purchase.
http://news.lenovo.com/images/20034/ThinkVision%20Spec%20She...
http://www.amazon.com/Seiki-SE39UY04-39-Inch-Ultra-120Hz/dp/...
What am I missing? UPDATE: I transposed digits and looked at the PB278Q not the PB287Q.
[1] https://www.apple.com/displays/specs.html
[2] http://www.amazon.com/PB278Q-27-Inch-LED-lit-Professional-Gr...
A bit like how a carrier one sold me a phone with EDGE as 3G. I mean, 2.75G is pretty much 3G, right?
Pretty much any "<something>p" and similar marking is misleading in terms of marketing anyway.