HP z27x Review
by Chris Heinonen on December 2, 2014 4:00 PM ESTThe HP z27x offers a feature that no other monitor I have used before does: self-calibration. I’ve used many displays that include calibration software, but that is driven from the PC and not by the display itself. The HP z27x has the ability to directly interface with the Klein K-10A colorimeter. This is a high-end, professional meter that can read faster and more accurately at low light levels than almost any meter out there. Klein Instruments was nice enough to loan me one for an extended period of time to work with the HP.
Usually a colorimeter wouldn’t be the ideal choice because it needs to be profiled from a spectrometer before using it on a display. The Klein is different as it has built-in profiles that you can create and edit to make it work correctly without a meter. One of the internal profiles now is for the HP z27x, so it can be hooked directly up and work.
The self-calibration is very easy. You enable the HP z27x calibration in the menu system, plug in the K-10A, and the process starts. An aiming target is on-screen and you have full control over the settings you want to use. Our normal calibration target at AnandTech is 200 cd/m2 of light, a 2.2 power gamma, and the sRGB color gamut. I can set these all up using the z27x and the K-10A will calibrate a preset to those settings in under 10 minutes. If I want to use an XML file on a USB drive, I can even rename that setting and take that to multiple displays to calibrate them all the same.
A feature like this can be overkill for the home user, to a degree, but can be essential to a company that has a large number of HP z27x displays for production. You can move from display to display with your flash drive and K-10A, quickly calibrating all the presets to the same standards and same name. This removes the PC from the equation as well, so the video card LUT will have no effect on the calibration quality. Using the advanced management features in the HP z27x, an administrator can even tie a color profile to a user. People working on a Blu-ray disc will see the Rec.709 gamut while those working on a theater release will see the DCI gamut. It makes it easy to ensure accurate, consistent color without the ability to make a mistake.
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bobbozzo - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
Hi,It wasn't clear to me which is preferred - using (renting?) a Klein K-10A colorimeter and doing the self-calibration, or doing software calibration?
Thanks for the article
cheinonen - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
Doing it inside the monitor is best, as you don't need to worry about the PC LUT being correct, it will just be accurate on any computer hooked up to it.Samus - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
A worthy successor to my Dreamcolor LP2480, moar resolution and USB 3.0!Oubadah - Sunday, December 21, 2014 - link
Plus no A-TW Polarizer and inferior backlight array. This monitor isn't in the same class as the last gen Dreamcolor. Not to mention it's bugs and abysmal quality control. http://www.liftgammagain.com/forum/index.php?threa... I wouldn't touch this monitor with a barge pole at the moment.tyger11 - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
When are we going to see monitors with HDMI 2.0 and DP 1.3?cheinonen - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
Once we have chipsets. The issue with HDMI 2.0 is that all the current HDMI 2.0 chipsets with the full bandwidth don't have HDCP 2.2 as well. The HDCP 2.2 chipsets only use a subset of HDMI 2.0 and so they can't send as much data. Hopefully at CES next month we'll see products announced using new chipsets.wolrah - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
Does HDCP actually matter to PC users? Aside from legitimate playback of Bluray/HD-DVD content what else on a PC ever gave a shit about it? I think iTunes did at one point, no idea if it still does.I mean there are technically roles a PC can fill for which it matters, but personally even among those I know who have BD-ROM drives in their PCs (a slim number, optical drives altogether are a dying breed) I don't know anyone who actually uses their PC to watch movies from disc. Anyone who uses discs uses a hardware player or more often a console, and anyone who uses a PC just sources from the internet in one way or another.
For TVs HDCP is a big deal, but for a computer monitor I'm finding it hard to care.
cheinonen - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
I don't know that it's a big deal for straight PC usage, but it's also likely to upset people if they buy an HDMI 2.0 monitor, only to discover when they try to hook up their other 4K devices to it that they won't play back a 4K image. Since the chips are expected to be at CES, I don't think we will have to wait too long for them and IMO I'd rather have a display that can do that, without needing MST for a 60Hz refresh rate, than have a monitor today that will be out of date that fast.chaos215bar2 - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
On a Mac, at least, iTunes most certainly still does care about HDCP. Even Netflix manages to check it when using the HTML5 player. HDCP may be silly, but it's still important if you want to watch videos on your computer without the hassle of stripping DRM.DanNeely - Thursday, December 4, 2014 - link
As of about 8 months ago (last time I tried using it) Amazon Instant Video also required HDCP for higher quality streams.