Eizo FG2421 + Mame + Strobe mod + HLSL == CRT+

[ZeroPoint]

I would like to share with you my experience with the new Eizo Foris FG2421 and Mame.

The first MVA monitor with 120 hz refresh rate. 

Itīs got high contrast, great black level and a beautiful semigloss surface. Just perfect for (retro) gaming.

This monitor doubles the refresh rate to 240 either by displaying each frame twice or inserting black frames (Turbo mode) without loosing picture quality.

For a MVA panel it is just as fast as my other 120 hz TN monitors and there is no PWM in the backlight >20%.

This is the best monitor I have tried, but there is always the struggle for something better when dealing with LCDs.

I have been using the strobe mod for mame on my 120 hz TN for a while and thought I should give it a go on this.

For those of you who donīt know, this strobe mod for mame inserts a black frame every other frame intended to run on 120 hz monitors with or without "lightboost". On TN panels this lowers the brightness and makes the picture look washed out.

To my surprise the Eizo looks amazing with the strobe mod, resulting in a really good CRT like feeling. The brightness is lowered but still more than enough. The colors and contrast are still very good and motion blur are nearly eliminated. Whatever is remaining looks more like real phosphor trails.

Together with HLSL this is the closest I have ever gotten in my struggle for a perfect CRT replacement.


Heres is my current monitor-settings:

Brightness 100%

Black Level 50%

Contrast 70%

Temperature OFF

Gamma: Power

Gain: R-100 G-100 B-100

Contrast Enhancer OFF

Turbo on


Note! When Turbo is ON you get very good colors. If using Turbo OFF (a little less ghosting), you should increase gamma in mame to about 1.5.

Too bad EIZO did not include 60 + 60 turbo mode so we could enjoy this without a mod, but still the best monitor around to date anyway. 

[ZeroPoint]

Hereīs a nice user review from Vega at hardforum:

http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1040363261&postcount=556


Just to make things clear...this monitor already use "black frame insertion" when turbo is enabled...

but...that is 120 frames + 120 black frames / sec

using mame with strobe patch gives

60 frames + 180 black frames / sec

and it still looks amazing. 

[Xiaou2]

Eizo makes medical / Radiology monitors.   Radiology monitors have to be very high spec, calibrated often, and if they fail calibration... they are no longer legal to be used as medical monitors.   If the images are off, even a little.. it could lead to a patient getting poor diagnosis, hence the legal / quality issues.

 I worked a temp job, where I was dealing with these monitors... and they are quite awesome.  But very expensive... even when used.

 The most notable thing to me, was the amazing level of color depth.  It almost seemed like they expanded the ranges, so that the output was more vibrant ... yet even so, it was not over saturated.