Samsung 2233RZ 3D Display timings

[NarcoticV]

Hey everyone,

This is not going to be an easy one to solve (i think), but I hope someone on these forums can help me out! I have a Samsung 2233RZ monitor that is compatible with 3D Vision. However, I decided to implement my own 3D system for the hell of it (see this thread).

Results have been positive and I am now gaming happily this way. However, there is still some slight ghosting in the top of the screen. I have done some research, and found out that with 3D vision, the 2233RZ enters a special display mode that is normally inaccessible. This mode has a higher horizontal refresh rate than normal, meaning the frame has more time to stabilize and the shutters can be open longer without getting ghosting due to the next refresh cycle. Normally the monitor runs at 120Hz vertical, 129kHz horizontal. In this special mode, it turns into 120Hz vertical, 185kHz horizontal!

I need to access this display mode if I want my ghosting issues completely gone. I can tweak every aspect of my own shutterglass system (timings for each eye, duty cycle of shuttering, eye switch), but have noticed that it is simply impossible to eliminate ghosting completely without this special display mode used by 3D Vision.

The closest I have seen anyone come to deciphering the exact display timings for this mode was in this thread: NVidia Forums. Here the topic was on how to activate the 3D Vision mode under Linux. One user (Keitht) managed to make Powerstrip do a readout of signal parameters during 3D operation, although the resulting data seemed to be faulty.

I am still hoping someone knows how to figure out the exact display timings I need to make the monitor operate at the aforementioned frequencies! Any geniuses out there?

[NarcoticV]

I myself am not an owner of a 3D Vision kit, nor an Nvidia card. I tried reading out the EDID of the monitor, but I couldn't find any info about resolution modes and timings supported by the monitor that way (all the other info was retrieved, but somehow the timings were all 0).

Maybe you need an Nvidia card to find this information. I contacted NVidia customer support and they said that in the Nvidia graphics drivers, there is an option to view all the EDID display modes supported by the monitor.

Could someone on this forum who has a 3D Vision kit with a Samsung 2233RZ maybe dive into his drivers for me, and try to find the timings supported by the monitor?

...Or are there any other clever ideas?

[ShawmK]

I have the Samsung 2233 with Nvidia 3D vision, and I can confirm that when the 3D mode is activated it goes into a frequency of 185.2kHz. In 2D operation, the value is 129.5. As to how to activate this mode without the Nvidia drivers, I'm afraid I won't be much help, unfortunately; I've had a look around the Nvidia control panel and there is nothing obvious that I can see that allows you to control it manually.

On a side note, I would say that this monitor is very prone to ghosting when running in 3D mode. A number of reviewers have noted that it is worse on this monitor than on many other models, so it may be that you will not be able to improve the picture that much. (This is one of the reasons I will always prefer Head-Mounted Displays: no loss of brightness and no ghosting!)

Good luck with your project; it sounds really interesting!

[NarcoticV]

Too bad, i guess it would've been too easy if the information was simply listed in the Nvidia control panel... Thanks for trying though!

I also read that this monitor has some ghosting issues on 3D Vision. I might not be able to eliminate it completely, but I'm guessing it will at least improve!

[NarcoticV]

Hello Sander,

Thank you for the update,

I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, however, the issue information you are looking for is proprietary and not available for the end users.
Please get in touch with us, if you need further assistance and I would be happy to help you.

Best regards,
Farzana,
NVIDIA Customer Care

Well, no surprises there...

--edit--: I also got my hands on a service manual, but that didn't mention anything about display modes at all. Samsung tech support here in the Netherlands didn't know anything.
I had a quick look at the capabilities of the DDC line. I didn't know that it can not only be used to read out EDID, but it does other stuff as well; f.e. set brightness/contrast and such from the computer. Could be that that's the way monitor settings are locked by NVidia, but it seems highly likely that they added some proprietary communication sequence over DDC to get the monitor in 3D mode - in that case i'm basically screwed.

[NarcoticV]

Hey guys,

I realize how dead this thread was. But, I just wanted to post some new information. This project kind of got stuck on not being able to get the 3D Vision monitor into "3D Vision mode". I am now certain that this mode exists, and quite sure it should improve the 3D performance for this DIY project significantly.

Still no-one has been able to solve this, but something else happened that is interesting:

In the new 3D Vision 2 hardware, many monitors have a LightBoost feature that is used by 3D Vision 2. Like my problem here, it is a special mode that for some monitors can only be enabled in 3D Vision mode by NVidia.

A guy called ToastyX managed to "crack" the Lightboost enabling protocol - just google his Strobelight utility. From what I've read it involves a proprietary handshake with the monitor over the DDC line - and after that some custom display timings.

I have a feeling that a variation on this protocol is very likely being used for the 2233RZ and possibly other older 3D Vision monitors as well. So, we can maybe learn from these efforts and reverse-engineer this thing!



Then there is the problem of discontinued IZ3D drivers - but I'm sure there must be a way to use other (Tridef?) drivers and somehow sync to the monitor frames, which is all this project really needs. Like building a DVI sync box for example.

[NarcoticV]

I realize how personal this project has become now that I see I am still posting here 4 years after starting the topic But again, some progress!

I have finally found the display timings to enable the 2233RZ's 3D mode with a LOT of help from ToastyX and Lightboost enthousiasts.

Behold the modeline:

HORIZONTAL
Active: 1680
Front Porch: 20
Sync Width: 20
Back Porch: 60 / Blanking: 100 / Total: 1780

VERTICAL
Active: 1050
Front Porch: 3
Sync Width: 6
Back Porch: 485 / Blanking: 494 / Total: 1544

Both sync polarities positive.

I tried this mode at 120Hz and 119Hz refresh rates, both work.

Use the Custom Resolution Utility by ToastyX, or Powerstrip, or a custom INF/EDID file with these settings and you should see your screen go into high-brightness, low-ghosting 3D mode. I have gone a step further by now and also made an INF file that tricks my AMD card into thinking this display is made for AMD HD3D 120Hz mode. It's attached if you need it - but I take no responsibility for damage! Using this INF, I can go into Tridef's HD3D mode and silky smooth stereo images appear when running Flatout 2.

Since IZ3D no longer exists, I still don't have a way to get a sync signal for my shutter glasses. Now I'm contemplating building a small app that uses Tridef's weapon of DirectX injection against itself; hooking into its HD3D calls to render a "marked shutter square" in the corner of any game that is being run through Tridef.