PC Peripherals Dell Admits 2007WFP Image Problems, Denies Severity

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Quality Control, where are you?
DailyTech recently reported that Dell's flagship 30-inch 3007WFP was having some problems with backlight uniformity. The units began shipping earlier this year and while many have given it good ratings, there was a growing concern on whether the 3007WFPs were shipping with problematic backlights. This issue with LCDs is that the liquid crystal elements do not emit their own light, and instead rely on rear flourecence backlighting. Often times, on high density displays, impurities in the liquid crystal and result in a nematic that will not completely twist (or untwist), resulting in patches of irregular light. Costing well over $2000 USD, we expected more from Dell's 3007WFP. However, Dell was quick to act on a growing number of reports on the problem and the company has since ensured us that new batches have addressed the issue.

Although the 3007WFP seems to be recovering, another top-of-the-line display from Dell, the 2007WFP, seems to have a separate quality issue. Users on several popular forums and blogs have encountered what is now referred to as severe "banding." What users are witnessing is poor color gradients, analogus to severe false contouring on sub-par plasma TVs. The problem arrises when images with smooth color shades are displayed. Instead of creating a smooth and seemless gradient, the 2007WFP displays a choppy stepping pattern.

DailyTech brought in a 2007WFP for testing and during simple visual tests using image patterns with smooth gradients, the 2007WFP indeed exhibited the problems that many users had complained. During normal viewing of highly random images such as real life photos, the problem was not as readily apparent. During video playback, certain areas of video that had dark shades of colors with slow moving images would exhibit the gradient problem. It appears that still images with a good amount of smooth shades will show the problem in its ugliest view. Some say that with the 3007WFP's backlight or liquid crystals, the uniformity issue went away significantly over time as the unit was used, but unfortunately the same could not be said about the 2007WFP's problems.
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Dell 2007WFP Banding Firmware Patch on the Way

DailyTech previously reported on Dell's highly known issue with its latest 2007WFP LCD display. Many users including reported that when the display was used as a desktop PC monitor, noticeable banding would occur in areas that were suppose to have smooth gradiants. The problem ended up being more widespread than initially reported, and Dell's CustomerCare has been receiving calls from users ever since. Earlier this year, Dell's giant 30-inch 3007WFP flagship display also saw problems with backlight uniformity. At press time, Dell said it was addressing the 3007WFP's issues.

Yesterday, a representative on Dell's support forums made a post indicating that the 2007WFP's banding issue was in the process of being addressed. The person identified the problem to be in the color and display management system, which we originally predicted to be. The good news for owners of the display however, is that they may not need to send in their units for repair. According to the post, Dell is working on a new firmware for the display that will address the banding issues. The representative issued the following statement:

We do have a fix in place. Dell has a firmware update that adjusts the ACC (Adaptive Color and Contrast) & ACM (Active Color Management) features, eliminating the banding issue when using the Desktop mode. All of these monitors have three display modes: Desktop, Multimedia and Gaming. The firmware turns off Faroudja video processing in Desktop mode. It remains enabled in the other two modes.

Apparently, the 2007WFP uses video processing technologies from Faroudja, which is well know for high-quality video solutions. Faroudja's chips are used in many high-end video processors and home theater equipment. Dell did not indicate when the new firmware would be available but did mention that the fix is available.
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