Sony Fixing 24P OLED Monitor Flicker

March 6, 2012 forum topics
I posted in the "Swit Monitor" thread about the PVM series Sony OLED monitors and how they flicker at 24P and other slow frame rates and how Sony was supposed to have a fix coming. Well I just received an email Monday from my dealer saying that it is done. Sony is offering to add the "flicker free enhancement" for free through the end of May. It will be an option that can be turned On and Off because it appears to have negative drawbacks and you’ll only want to use it when necessary(at least that’s the way I read it).

Here is the email from Abel(minus personal contact info):

Quote:

Hello,

Thank you for purchasing a Sony PVM series monitor from AbelCine.

We are happy to inform you that Sony now has a flicker free enhancement for the PVM TRIMASTER EL models, which tend to flicker when using slow frame rates.

This enhancement will be available free of charge starting today and ending on May 31, 2012. After May 31, 2012, the enhancement will be charged at normal service rates.

If you would like to participate:

– Please contact an AbelCIne Service Representative in NY or LA.

– Monitors must be sent to, or brought to our NY or LA facility where they will be processed for delivery to Sony.

-If shipping the monitor, please ship the monitor attention: "Service / Flicker Free"

– Abel Cine will coordinate shipping and upgrading your monitor with Sony Service.

– Please allow 7-10 business days from the time the monitor is received for the service to be completed.

– Please contact the AbelCine Service Department as listed above for status updates

– This free enhancement will expire on May 31st 2012. Any monitors brought in after May 31st 2012 will be charged at normal service rates.

What Sony is Changing:

The Trimaster EL panel has one advantage over other technologies in that the switching speeds are extremely fast – even faster than CRT. This fast switching speed allows the monitor to display movement without any smear. However, when using the monitor at slower frame rates, it will flicker. Sony’s engineers in Japan have come up with an enhancement that changes the way information is displayed on the screen. BVM models don’t have this flicker since they display 24-frame content as 72 Hz.

The PVM enhancement is different. This enhancement displays more information on the screen within one frame than before. This is closer to how LCDs are scanned, so it will also induce some smear artifacts similar to what you would experience with an LCD. However, these artifacts are minimal.

The new feature is called "Flicker Free." Flicker Free can be selected, so you will experience no smear and some flicker, or no flicker and some smear. Flicker Free is assignable to an F key so it can be selected right from the top panel.