Pixel Imperfection, Resolution Excellence: Hanns.G's HG-281DPB

Continued from ‘PCs Over LCD TVs: And TV Over PC LCDs‘…

In recent weeks, I’ve actually taken the exact opposite tack from Fred, which I first alluded to when I mentioned a month ago that I’d connected an Xbox 360 to the surround-sound system in my bedroom. Hanns.G’s HG-281DPB is indeed the mysterious 28" 1920×1200 pixel LCD that I’ve referred to in several subsequent posts. After I decided to stick a display in my bedroom for enjoying streamed Lost and Netflix Watch Now material, as well as optical disc-housed content, my first thought was to purchase a LCD TV since I couldn’t buy a plasma display small enough to fit in the available space.

A 26" widescreen display was slightly too small, though, and I didn’t feel like paying for the integrated DVD players that seemed to be included with almost every manufacturer and model I uncovered. Conversely, the 32" widescreen LCD TV I was eyeing would have been a tight fit, specifically by virtue of its side-mounted speakers, and a clone of my 37" bottom-mount-speaker LCD TV downstairs also would have also been a challenging squeeze (along with un-aesthetically dominating the room…believe it or not, some guys do think about these things…for similar aesthetic reasons, it needed to be black, not silver…). Anyway, an LCD TV’s integrated tuner was a don’t-care for me because, as I’ve mentioned before, over-the-air reception is a non-event here.

I knew I’d found my candidate when Dealnews alerted me to Hanns.G’s (a subsidiary of Hannspree) product on sale at Newegg for $499.99 with free shipping (it was briefly that same price a few days ago, but now seems to be back at its regular $549.99-plus-shipping level…sorry, keep an eye out for future deals!). I first attempt to tether it to an older Xbox 360 (which only offered analog video outputs) over VGA, and I ended up either with a distorted, incomplete image at the console’s 1920×1080 pixel resolution setting or a soft, ringing artifact-filled presentation at lower resolutions. This was odd, because when I VGA-tethered the LCD to my laptop at a 1920×1200 pixel setting, I got (and get) a gorgeous picture.

I solved the problem by swapping consoles for the HDMI-inclusive Xbox 360 downstairs. The Xbox 360 Elite drives the HG-281DPB just fine at a 1080p video setting and even passes audio to the display over the same single HDMI cable…though given the wimpy nature of the integrated speakers, I think I’ll stick with the Pioneer surround sound system. And the analog-only Xbox 360 drives my 37" LCD just fine over VGA cabling at a 1360×768 pixel configuration.

Now that I had resolution figured out, I needed to turn my attention to other measures of image quality. Specifically, the display’s out-of-box contrast, brightness and color temperature settings produced quite horrid results, both in their distortion of ‘true’ colors and in their muddying of low-luma details. Fortunately, from pre-reading others’ reviews, I knew what to do. By changing the color temperature setting from the default ‘user’ (which had red, green and blue all maximized) to 6500K, and by similarly dialing down the showroom-tailored default brightness and contrast settings, I ended up with a very pleasant result.

At this point, you might be thinking to yourself, what’s the catch? As far as I can tell after roughly two months of use, it’s the potential for dead (black) and stuck (red, green, blue or white) pixels. My original display has two stuck pixels (or, to be completely accurate, one stuck subpixel and one stuck pixel); a blue one towards the right side of the bezel, and a white one near the bottom of the screen, both most noticeable against a pure black background (Windows users, I recommend Dead Pixel Buddy). The blue stuck subpixel actually goes away after ~30 minutes of use, either from watching diverse-color material or after the application of a random pattern such as that generated by the Java-based JScreenFix, but it returns after the LCD has been powered off for a while.

Hanns.G attempted to send me a replacement HG-281DPB, but with eight scattered-location stuck pixels of various colors, none of which went away with use, it was worse than its predecessor (they’ve promised to try again; we’ll see if the third time’s the charm)! And I haven’t mustered the guts to try more extreme tactics for dealing with my stuck-pixel problem. Frankly, given my normal 6-foot screening distance, neither stuck pixel is discernable, anyway. Conversely, in closer-proximity viewing situations, i.e. when playing games, the display’s ultra-fast refresh speed will come in more handy than when I’m just watching low-framerate video.

Speaking of games, the Xbox 360 resolution foibles are a bit of a moot point, because my long-term plan is to drive the LCD with a Windows -powered entertainment PC, based on a Vista variant with Media Center Edition functionality included, once I belatedly get around to building it someday. To that end, the HG-281DPB’s HDCP cognizance will come in handy when I want to watch high-resolution or otherwise access-restricted content.