Custom Resolution Utility (CRU)

[pabloa2]

First of all, thanks to the creator of this tool, I will be donating soon. This tool helped me add many more resolutions and lower thresholds for my Acer XG270HU. I added resolutions such as 2048x1152@144hz, 1920x1080@30hz and 2560x1440@60i which were not available before and this makes me happy and want to throw money at you. Anyway, the rest of this is just miscellaneous information about this monitor that people may find helpful.

Lagom.nl LCD Calibration Test Images

If you have any banding whatsoever on the greyscale banding test it probably means you are not using pure RGB mode. If I use Ycbcr of any sort there will be clearly visible banding on this image. Ycbcr 4:4:4 DOES NOT equal pure RGB. They are not the same. 4:4:4 RGB is uncompressed RGB color data. It is different from Ycbcr 4:4:4 where chroma information is subsampled and color information is stripped. The whole purpose of Ycbcr was to cut down the amount of data traveling over the display bus while trying to keep as accurate of color as possible. In other words, COMPRESSION. This was because low spec HDMI had low bandwidth. You don't want it and don't need it anymore. Computers and monitors process data in 4:4:4 RGB anyways and now with high bandwidth Display Port there is literally no reason not to use uncompressed display data.

Note: This monitor is not a wide gamut monitor but with properly calibrated rgbymc settings and tweaking contrast and saturation settings over a period of a couple days I was able to squeeze out a nice percentage of the BT2020 spectrum. It's important to remember that most monitors come with very basic calibration from the factory and it's important to calibrate the hue, saturation, brightness and contrast with test images or a professional calibrator. If you don't do this you are left with a sub-par "factory calibration" which is never perfect.

--- My Personal Settings for Acer XG270HU ---

## In Monitor Settings ##

Picture - Brightness - 50 or 75 seem to work well.
Picture - Contrast - 73
Picture - Blue Light - Off
Picture - Black Boost - 8
Picture - ACM - Off
Picture - Super Sharpness - Off

Color - Gamma - 24

Color - Color Temp. - User

Color - R Gain - 38
Color - G Gain - 38
Color - B Gain - 38
Color - R Bias - 38
Color - G Bias - 38
Color - B Bias - 38

Color - sRGB Mode - Off

Color - 6-axis Red Hue - 50
Color - 6-axis Green Hue - 50
Color - 6-axis Blue Hue - 50
Color - 6-axis Yellow Hue - 50
Color - 6-axis Magenta Hue - 50
Color - 6-axis Cyan Hue - 50

Color - 6-axis Red Saturate - 33
Color - 6-axis Green Saturate - 33
Color - 6-axis Blue Saturate - 33
Color - 6-axis Yellow Saturate - 33
Color - 6-axis Magenta Saturate - 33
Color - 6-axis Cyan Saturate - 33

Gaming - Over Drive - This is personal preference. Normal gives you about 5 ms input lag time and is the default for gamers but introduces a very small amount of ghosting. Extreme tries to cut that time down even more and exhibits more severe ghosting. Off gives you more input lag and less ghosting.

System - DP Format - DP12
System - HDMI Black Level - Normal

## In Operating System Settings ##

Try to keep all color levels at default and keep range at full (0-255). These settings are for pure RGB.

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This will take away most of the harshness of the screen while providing a very large gamut. This screen still has it's flaws, as it's meant primarily to provide very low lag, high fps gaming, but when properly calibrated it makes it a much more pleasant experience.

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Things I learned about this monitor:

I figured out why the screen seems so harsh at most settings. I figured out through trial and error that there are a couple brightness settings that have no moire whatsoever. Remember this is a tightly packed screen with a matte finish so I knew moire might be a problem. With that said 50 and 75 seem to have no moire whatsoever that I can notice and actually look very good for dark black text and lines with a soft but not overly fuzzy look and proper black tone. That means there is something funny going on with the configuration of the led backlight pixels themselves and how the led backlight brightness is controlled from the monitor settings. I'm glad I figured this quirk of the monitor out because I was going to put a strike on Acer for this one. I don't think it is their fault really, it is probably just a flaw of the actual design of the led backlight itself and the matte finish that seem to produce eye strain inducing moire at most brightness settings above 50.

All hue, saturation, bias and gain settings must be tied together or else it will produce irrevocable color saturation problems.

Black Boost above 8 creates eye strain.

These exact numbers create a very nice image. If I deviate at all from these settings it does not look right. Don't ask why, I don't know either. I'm just happy I stumbled across these settings.


EDIT 9-16-19: Final Settings Edit 2 - These settings are as good as it's going to get, I'm convinced. It actually has a very nice picture with these settings, dare I say it. Who knows why these particular numbers work, but they do.