I bought two U2414H last week (separate orders) and upon receiving the first one, I immediately noticed something off about it. The monitor seems to "clip" when attempting to display light grey/near white values, leading to a lot of dithering. I calibrated the monitor with my xrite device and noticed that no matter what I did, I couldn't get it to match my older Dell U2214 (the 2nd U2414H hadn't arrived at the time.) I can also see tiny faint horizontal lines across the monitor, but assumed it was the larger pixel pitch so figured I'd wait until the other U2414H arrived before worrying too much.
The 2nd U2414H I received calibrated without issue and looks *beautiful*. No faint horizontal lines and absolutely no dithering that I can see. I'm using the latest NVIDIA driver for my GTX 580 and have both DVI outputs set to use the full range of RGB values (0-255); this is now available as a desktop video configuration option in the NVIDIA control panel. I'm using a DVI-to-HDMI cable. I tried switching the cables around thinking perhaps one of the ports was off somehow, but the results were the same - the first monitor seems to be defective somehow. I even bought new cables thinking there might be something wrong. I tried resetting the "bad" monitor but that didn't do anything; I also compared the sRGB calibrations between the two monitors and they are drastically different.
It's a bit hard to tell from the picture below but this is an example of what I'm talking about. The blown out sun in the cloudy sky is VERY smooth on the "good" U2414H (left) and blocky on the "defective" one (right). Note: the colours are not off like they seem in this picture (just the angle of the monitor and the iPhone.)
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Unfortunately, this monitor is practically useless for its intended purpose. I also don't understand the fine horizontal banding either. The monitor on the left doesn't exhibit any of banding - I can see the pixels if I look very closely but from a working position, they are practically invisible. The right monitor on the other hand appears soft and I can clearly see the horizontal banding from a working position in my chair. It's quite ridiculous actually.
So unless anyone has any suggestions, I think I'm going to have to call Dell and get this defective monitor exchanged for a new one as it is well within 30 days.
The U2414H that is working properly is absolutely fantastic: great clarity, saturation, and colour reproduction. Nice size too. I just need two of them working properly!
Summary of what I've tried:
- new cables.
- switching DVI ports.
- ensuring NVIDIA card is outputting RGB 0-255 instead of 16-235.
- calibrated using XRite device.
- tried resetting monitor.
- tried using factory sRGB calibration.
- manually adjusted brightness/contrast and RGB values.
