Asus PA279Q monitor with nMP (and other Thunderbolt Macs)

[lesferdinand]

After evaluating various screens for my nMP, I ended up choosing the Asus PA279Q. It was one of the screens with consistently high reviews and supports both sRGB and aRGB, was $200 cheaper than the Apple Thunderbolt Display, more current and it has a reasonable response rate so that it shouldn't ghost too much on the occasional game.

I received the monitor earlier in the week, before the nMP and used it with my Windows work laptop and was very happy with it. When connecting it to the nMP however when it arrived yesterday, the screen looked horrible. Turns out that OS X doesn't provide an RGB signal over Thunderbolt by default. Therefore, sRGB and aRGB modes were not working over HDMI and DisplayPort connections (didn't try out DVI as I don't have the appropriate cable).

In standard mode, the screen looked bad as well. This was fixed by turning off the sharpening on the monitor. But the colours were still a bit too saturated. And I got the screen for its sRGB and aRGB colour accuracy.

I started looking for a way to force RGB output via the Thunderbolt port and found this page: http://www.ireckon.net/2013/03/forc...-external-monitor/comment-page-3#comment-9491

I followed the instructions, created a display override profile and am now able to use sRGB and aRGB modes over both HDMI and DisplayPort. When selecting the standard monitor color profile in the OS X display settings, the colours were not saturated enough. This was fixed by selecting the sRGB profile.

Now I'm trying to find out if I can get the audio controls to work in OS X, rather than having to rely on the monitor's controls. Not a big issue but it would be more convenient.

I was a bit naive in thinking that screen drivers were consistent across OS X and Windows. With reviews pretty much alway focussing on the latter, it's hard to get good information beforehand on recently released screens.

But anyway, I hope this information is useful for others with this screen and those who considering to get it.

 

[rjbenson83]

why the extra expense for a 10 bit panel that mac doesn't support?

 

[lesferdinand]

why the extra expense for a 10 bit panel that mac doesn't support?

Wide gamut and 10 bit color support are two different things. It is one of the few wide gamut panels that also has a very accurate sRGB mode, making it ideal for photo work, as well as other software and the occasional game.

And if Apple does ever decide to implement 10 bit support in OS X, I'll be able to take advantage of that as well. I'm not holding my breath but with perhaps Apple will give it some more attention with the nMP's and their FirePro branded graphics cards.

Besides, the monitor was $800. Not really that much more expensive than other 2560x1440 27" screens.

 

[lesferdinand]

I found a solution to be able to control volume of the monitor through OS X:

http://www.vanetta.net/2012/07/enabling-hdmi-audio-controls-on-2011.html

The quality of the screen is great and the colors are beautiful. As a long time iMac user, I didn't care too much about glossy vs. non-glossy when making my buying descion. However, after using the monitor for about a week and a half, I wouldn't want to go back to glossy.

 

[razer]

Thanks for the update

 

[Bad Leopard]

After evaluating various screens for my nMP, I ended up choosing the Asus PA279Q. It was one of the screens with consistently high reviews and supports both sRGB and aRGB, was $200 cheaper than the Apple Thunderbolt Display, more current and it has a reasonable response rate so that it shouldn't ghost too much on the occasional game.

I received the monitor earlier in the week, before the nMP and used it with my Windows work laptop and was very happy with it. When connecting it to the nMP however when it arrived yesterday, the screen looked horrible. Turns out that OS X doesn't provide an RGB signal over Thunderbolt by default. Therefore, sRGB and aRGB modes were not working over HDMI and DisplayPort connections (didn't try out DVI as I don't have the appropriate cable).


In standard mode, the screen looked bad as well. This was fixed by turning off the sharpening on the monitor. But the colours were still a bit too saturated. And I got the screen for its sRGB and aRGB colour accuracy.

I started looking for a way to force RGB output via the Thunderbolt port and found this page: http://www.ireckon.net/2013/03/forc...-external-monitor/comment-page-3#comment-9491

I followed the instructions, created a display override profile and am now able to use sRGB and aRGB modes over both HDMI and DisplayPort. When selecting the standard monitor color profile in the OS X display settings, the colours were not saturated enough. This was fixed by selecting the sRGB profile.

Now I'm trying to find out if I can get the audio controls to work in OS X, rather than having to rely on the monitor's controls. Not a big issue but it would be more convenient.

I was a bit naive in thinking that screen drivers were consistent across OS X and Windows. With reviews pretty much alway focussing on the latter, it's hard to get good information beforehand on recently released screens.

But anyway, I hope this information is useful for others with this screen and those who considering to get it.

Hey Les

Haven't been on the forum for a few days and just saw your reply in the other thread regarding RGB over Thunderbolt, and thanks to your research, I just downloaded and ran the script and am now on aRGB on my PA279Q's!!

Thanks Much!

 

[handheldgames]

...SIGH
AMD and Nvidia have have the ability to change color depth from YUV/RGB 4:2:2 to YUV/RGB 4:4:4 on Windows for over 10 years, yet on 10.9.2, we have to hack the OS to enable the feature? I have the same issue with a Seiki 39" UHD display. Perhaps the Project Manager in charge of the video drivers at Apple should wake up and take note of what the minimum standards for a leading platform should be.

Note: If your monitor has built in speakers, do they still work **after** applying the patch? When you enabled the additional color palette with the patch, you also disabled many features communicated through the EDID using the limited template.

----------

I found a solution to be able to control volume of the monitor through OS X:

http://www.vanetta.net/2012/07/enabling-hdmi-audio-controls-on-2011.html

The quality of the screen is great and the colors are beautiful. As a long time iMac user, I didn't care too much about glossy vs. non-glossy when making my buying descion. However, after using the monitor for about a week and a half, I wouldn't want to go back to glossy.

With the updated display driver, HDMIU audio is completely disabled. It would be interesting to hear if this re-enables it.

 

[lesferdinand]

...SIGH
AMD and Nvidia have have the ability to change color depth from YUV/RGB 4:2:2 to YUV/RGB 4:4:4 on Windows for over 10 years, yet on 10.9.2, we have to hack the OS to enable the feature? I have the same issue with a Seiki 39" UHD display. Perhaps the Project Manager in charge of the video drivers at Apple should wake up and take note of what the minimum standards for a leading platform should be.

Note: If your monitor has built in speakers, do they still work **after** applying the patch? When you enabled the additional color palette with the patch, you also disabled many features communicated through the EDID using the limited template.

----------



With the updated display driver, HDMIU audio is completely disabled. It would be interesting to hear if this re-enables it.

Yes, I have audio working through the monitor's speakers over HDMI. The patch didn't impact audio over HDMI for me. Just needed the soundflower app to be able to control volume through OS X, rather than via the monitor's buttons.

----------

Hey Les

Haven't been on the forum for a few days and just saw your reply in the other thread regarding RGB over Thunderbolt, and thanks to your research, I just downloaded and ran the script and am now on aRGB on my PA279Q's!!

Thanks Much!

Glad it was useful!

 

[lesferdinand]

Here's a quick update on getting OS X volume controls to work: soundflower crashed sometimes or caused audio distortions after the computer went to sleep. I uninstalled it, installed an older version, removed that one as it didn't work, and reinstalled the latest version again but ever since then, I can't get it to work anymore. The app hasn't been maintained in quite a while, so it may not play nice with the latest versions of OS X.

If anyone has experienced something similar and has a solution, let me know.

 

[puckhead193]

After evaluating various screens for my nMP, I ended up choosing the Asus PA279Q. It was one of the screens with consistently high reviews and supports both sRGB and aRGB, was $200 cheaper than the Apple Thunderbolt Display, more current and it has a reasonable response rate so that it shouldn't ghost too much on the occasional game.

I received the monitor earlier in the week, before the nMP and used it with my Windows work laptop and was very happy with it. When connecting it to the nMP however when it arrived yesterday, the screen looked horrible. Turns out that OS X doesn't provide an RGB signal over Thunderbolt by default. Therefore, sRGB and aRGB modes were not working over HDMI and DisplayPort connections (didn't try out DVI as I don't have the appropriate cable).

In standard mode, the screen looked bad as well. This was fixed by turning off the sharpening on the monitor. But the colours were still a bit too saturated. And I got the screen for its sRGB and aRGB colour accuracy.

I started looking for a way to force RGB output via the Thunderbolt port and found this page: http://www.ireckon.net/2013/03/forc...-external-monitor/comment-page-3#comment-9491

I followed the instructions, created a display override profile and am now able to use sRGB and aRGB modes over both HDMI and DisplayPort. When selecting the standard monitor color profile in the OS X display settings, the colours were not saturated enough. This was fixed by selecting the sRGB profile.

Now I'm trying to find out if I can get the audio controls to work in OS X, rather than having to rely on the monitor's controls. Not a big issue but it would be more convenient.

I was a bit naive in thinking that screen drivers were consistent across OS X and Windows. With reviews pretty much alway focussing on the latter, it's hard to get good information beforehand on recently released screens.

But anyway, I hope this information is useful for others with this screen and those who considering to get it.

How's the monitor holding up? Are you still liking it? Besides the audio issues with the built in speakers any issues? Besides this what others did you look at?

 

[lesferdinand]

How's the monitor holding up? Are you still liking it? Besides the audio issues with the built in speakers any issues? Besides this what others did you look at?

I love the screen and its many connection options. The built-in speakers are terrible and I suspect one may be broken (there's a weird clicking sound if there's a lot of bass in the signal). But I was planning to get external speakers anyway and don't want to go through all the return hassle just for that.

Others I looked into were the Apple Thunderbolt Display and some of the Dells. This was the screen with the most consistent positive feedback, has the wide gamut, ergonomic configurability and a reasonable price, so I went for it. It's not perfect (for example it has some ghosting due to the overdrive but it doesn't bother me much; I don't see it in games and only really notice it when I start looking for it), but then, what is?

 

[thekev]

why the extra expense for a 10 bit panel that mac doesn't support?

There's much more than that to a monitor comparison.

Others I looked into were the Apple Thunderbolt Display and some of the Dells. This was the screen with the most consistent positive feedback, has the wide gamut, ergonomic configurability and a reasonable price, so I went for it. It's not perfect (for example it has some ghosting due to the overdrive but it doesn't bother me much; I don't see it in games and only really notice it when I start looking for it), but then, what is?

Look at the documentation for the device. Some allow you to disable overdrive.

 

[puckhead193]

I love the screen and its many connection options. The built-in speakers are terrible and I suspect one may be broken (there's a weird clicking sound if there's a lot of bass in the signal). But I was planning to get external speakers anyway and don't want to go through all the return hassle just for that.

Others I looked into were the Apple Thunderbolt Display and some of the Dells. This was the screen with the most consistent positive feedback, has the wide gamut, ergonomic configurability and a reasonable price, so I went for it. It's not perfect (for example it has some ghosting due to the overdrive but it doesn't bother me much; I don't see it in games and only really notice it when I start looking for it), but then, what is?

have you noticed it when viewing video? I plan on using it for video editing..

 

[lesferdinand]

have you noticed it when viewing video? I plan on using it for video editing..

I haven't done any video editing on it yet. I'm still trying to catch up with all the pictures I took since August of last year. But photo editing is a dream on the nMP - Asus combo in my opinion.

I've viewed some streaming video, such as the Olympics, and I didn't notice any ghosting there. And I didn't notice it with Bioshock, Crysis 2 or Skyrim. The only game where I noticed it is Football Manager. But I'm not sure if perhaps that's just the engine screwing things up as it doesn't occur consistently.