Hello reddit!
This is my follow up to this post.
So, I have been investigating an odd behavior with the AW3225QF monitor, ever since getting one I noticed a gamma raise and banding in HDR and SDR after performing the first pixel refresh (see 3rd picture).
I reached out to Dell, returned my unit directly to them for investigation and they released the M2B110 update which solved the banding issue but not the gamma raise.
The 1st and 2nd pictures are from a brand new monitor before/after the pixel refresh with the new M2B110 firmware. The gamma raise is quite noticeable in SDR and is the direct cause of these issues reported in these other posts: blocky shades in sdr, blocky shades 2. YouTube compression does play a role but it isn't near as bad like this in other OLED monitors.
While I tested this in True Black 400 for HDR and Creator sRGB for HDR, this affects every SDR and HDR mode, including Dolby Vision. After the refresh near blacks on all modes are raised.
As far as I am aware I was the first to contact Dell about this and to present video + testing data showing the first pixel refresh caused this. The oldest monitor I found with this issue was manufactured in Sep 2024.
This means this issue has been ongoing for more than a year, and it isn't reproducible on extremely older units (April 2024), like RTINGS observed. It is also impossible to revert the monitor to out of the box state, only a firmware update can somewhat fix it, like the partial fix with M2B110.
Every post I see with a problem similar to this for the AW3225QF is downvoted or people say it's a non issue (like the two links above for blockiness). However, this is a very real issue, as with my previous post I also have video proof recording the entire refresh process and pictures of before/after pixel refresh in various scenarios. RTINGS also remarked that a pixel refresh should not significantly change a monitor's EOTF response (as one would expect).
I understand this issue may not bother a lot of people, especially people who play in well lit rooms or are used to the P1000 Bright mode. As someone who mostly uses the monitor in the dark in TB400 mode, this is a huge deal for me, since the near blacks are just not accurate.
Thanks to everyone who replied to my previous post, I have reached out to Dell yet again, let's see where this goes.
PS: SDR test image is from eizo-monitor gradient test. HDR test image from my previous post instructions.