Project: Spectrum | Improving the OSD

Development Project: Spectrum | Development
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sdtob

Hi there community!

Here we are, back with more development topics! Our Spectrum OLED development team is working on the on-screen display (OSD) menu. The OSD is the menu built-in into a display that enables users to adjust settings such as brightness, contrast, and other features.

While we already have a clear idea regarding look and function, not everything is set in stone yet. Implementing changes and/or adjustments in this development stage is much easier than later on when it matures.

As part of crowd development, we would like to start a feedback round on this topic and gather more insight into how our community feels about the current development of the OSD menu. We welcome any comment you might have on this topic.

OSD menu design

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Current OSD design we are currently working on.

Even though the main structure is the same as the current line-up, there are a few notable changes.

The major change is the addition of the top and bottom panels. The top panel will always show up-to-date information about the input signal and monitor settings. We tried to implement this on our current monitors, but it was impossible due to technical limitations. The bottom panel shows the legend of each button to aid with navigation, in addition to a small description of what each setting does.

We revamped the look using our new Dough font and stylized edges, and using a higher-resolution OSD makes the text look crisp and easier to read.

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New adjustment bar design. RGB value adjustment bars are shown on the indicator light setting

Next is the adjustment bar. Simple and clean, we want to make it easy to see and use. By adding a visual representation for settings with a numerical value, it is much easier to see where you are in the adjustment range. For settings that require adjustments on multiple values, we put them all in one place so it is easier to see the current settings (such as RGB values for the indicator light).

Please note that the firmware and OSD are still in development, and not all of these concepts may make it to the final product.

X-Ray Mode

Early last month, we ran a small poll asking you if you often have trouble finding ports on the back of your devices. Many found it inconvenient but not enough to warrant drastic changes to the design. Our design team developed a cool and innovative solution to help you find the ports more easily, which they call X-Ray Mode!

This OSD feature aims to give you a visual representation of what is going on behind your monitor. This way, you know where your ports are, which ports are connected, and which ports are currently in use. All without having to get up from your seat to look at the cables. Let us know what you think about this feature!

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Concept image of X-Ray Mode

OLED features

The fundamental functions remain the same as with our current models. However, the introduction of OLED technology makes certain changes necessary, and we need your feedback on this.

Because we don’t have a backlight, related features such as backlight strobing and dimming will not be included. Even though the low-response time of OLED tech help improves the clarity of moving images, some still find additional benefits in implementing features similar to backlight strobing. This is where features such as image strobing and black frame insertion (BFI) come into play.
What OLED performance features would you like to see in our monitor?

Burn-in is a common concern when it comes to OLED panels. It is not uncommon for OLED TVs to have features that prevent, delay, or revert the effects of image retention, and we feel that we need to include these in our monitor as well.
What OLED health features would you like to see in our monitor?

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I would like BFI. You keep bringing it up so make it happen.

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I love the UI/UX and it’s definitely much nicer looking than v107. Is this something that can also be ported over to current dough models for a future update? (Matte 4K etc)

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hi @Cas is there going to be a update for the glossy monitor 4k OSD ?

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Hi guys,

The improvements, unfortunately, will not be able to be ported over to the current Spectrum lineup due to technical limitations. It is also done by different partner.

Because of it, the development of v108 is also happening in parallel. Along with v108, there will be a slew of new features and bug fixes, but there will not be a change in the user interface.

I believe a minor change will be done to the OSD part on upcoming v101 (v108 equivalent for ES07DC9), but it will not be major compared to what is being presented here.

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Overall, I think the OSD is an improvement. More of a superficial improvement as it ties in with the branding more and will make the experience more polished.

I would work on balancing the select states to make sure it’s more obvious where I’m at when navigating. Whether this is done by shading, introduction of accent colours etc. would be worth exploring.

Sliders are a better visual aid instead of numbers solely, and makes it more obvious in terms of the joystick’s use.

Last thing I’d like to see, is some sort of CTA / indicator when looking to cycle through inputs, so maybe below the pop-up where it shows the input - have a (move â–ș for HDMI 2) - for example.

Good progress however, I look forward to updating my spectrum’s firmware when it’s ready.

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As a matte spectrum 4k owner, the xray mode looks like it would be very helpful. If you can’t backport the full screen graphic, if you could include some small image that just shows the layout to help remember which HDMI port is HDMI1 and HDMI2, that would be very helpful. With spectrum 4k’s slow input switching it can be pretty frustrating trying to get that right and waiting > 20 seconds to find out if i rolled the dice correctly.

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We’ll keep this in mind! A some kind of shading may help to distinguish current selected menu instead of just font colour change.

This is great as well!

Got it. Let me bring this up to the team.

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Is it possible to enable the OSD to be accessible even when no input is detected? Sometimes if there’s a glitch or something it makes it difficult to diagnose. On the existing models too

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It would be fantastic if the color mode showed the YCbCr chroma subsampling vales. Like “YCbCr 4:4:4” or “YCbCr 4:2:2”. It would also be a cool feature to choose the color mode and chroma subsampling from the monitor itself. It would be helpful for testing the monitor and debugging in general.
Back-porting this feature would also be appreciated.

In terms of OLED specifics you should look at what LG already do with their monitors and TVs to get some inspiration. But I would also like to 2nd BFI support.

Maybe also reach out to the youtube channel HDTVTest for some tips and to see what features he would like to see out of this monitor. He has been covering displays for years and could probably give you some good pointers.

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Just having a faster boot time in general would be great. I have an old Samsung monitor that boots in under a second, but my spectrum takes over 5 seconds. Probably contributing to the monitor sync issue.

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I would like possibility to turn off “Temporal Peak Luminance Control” or any other form of screen dimming feature. If i paid for the product i want it to perform how i like
 even if it’s bad for the panel itself.

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I would agree if it was in a secret menu, like in the debug menu. Giving nontechnical users the ability to accidentally fry their monitor isn’t really a great idea. It would result in a lot of RMA’s so it would definitely have to void the warranty if it was ever turned on.

I like the choice, but if implemented it would have to be done very carefully and purposefully.

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I am not sure if this is something that we can implement on the current model, but for sure this is another point of consideration when building the OSD for Spectrum OLED.

and this too. Definitely on our list of things to improve.

I am not 100% sure at this stage if this is something that comes with the panel as an inherent feature (although it seems like it is part of LG OLED panel feature)

Just wondering, is there a specific concern for you when it comes to this feature? It is important for us in order to pursue this idea and how we can better implement it.

This sounds like a great idea! Either we can do this, or have a pop-up whenever someone tries to adjust these kinds of settings. What do you think about that?

Where it shows ‘RGB’, it would show 4:4:4, etc in YCbCr mode.

Back-porting may not be possible due to technical limitations. But we are always looking to see what we can improve on the current lineup.

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I also wan’t to remind Dough that open source firmware is still a feature people want if possible. I know it’s not likely at this point. If you could eventually release a display with one, other people would be able to maintain and add to your older products for free.

I know why firmware companies keep things a secret, but keeping things locked down only hurts ODM’s like Dough and consumers by reducing their choices.
Hopefully when you have the capital you can invest in something like this yourself or find a partner who also wants this.

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Everything I’m seeing in the OSD development requests looks good to me, some key concerns I have in the OSD and software side include:

  1. OSD accessibility at all times for ease of diagnosis

  2. Pixel shift or whatever terminology you use seems like a must for OLED, especially one targeted at gamers as things like in game HUD elements will be present in the same general area for extended periods. I imagine this feature along with other burn in protections are inherent in the LG panel, but clarification/reassurance that the feature set will be present would only help sales.

  3. positive identification of what OSD item is currently selected is a must, for example I have had the experience on many monitors where you get into an OSD menu with only 2 options and the color or whatever scheme they use to denote what is selected is so ambiguous you end up clicking the wrong menu item. Perhaps put a box, maybe a pill shaped box for aesthetics, around the menu item. I think everyone would intuitively be able to recognize where the “cursor” is pointing with this type of strategy. The light vs dark highlighting you have now in these pictures is great and plenty for me, but if you’re really chasing an “idiot proof” layout


This is more a hardware side request, but I dont think it warrants opening a new topic. I hope the development team is focusing heavily on cooling, apparently it’s one of the biggest factors in mitigating burn-in/image retention/safe peak brightness. ASUS makes a point of advertising their cooling solution for this panel. I certainly would not mind the Spectrum panel being a bit thicker than the LG and ASUS if necessary to acheive best in class cooling performance. The glossy screen is what attracted me to Dough, on top of that I’d much rather have the best performance for the price than seeing part of that investment going toward a bunch of superfluous RGB LED lighting and a design aesthetic that screams “GAMER!” like the ASUS and LG to a lesser extent.

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Yes, they still need to have the same burn in protection features that other brands do. Having the Global Sticky Reduction and other features are essential. Some of them are mentioned in this article here.

I also forgot to request they put in am ambient light sensor like ViewSonic does so the monitor can have a comfortable brightness output level to protect our eyes.

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Thats an interesting burn-in protection feature, GSR, I could see it potentially interfering with cross-hairs but great for HUD items overall. I suppose most games do have a more active crosshair for hip firing, and you only get a fixed image for short bursts in ADS aiming, that could work well right out of the box. I hate to add complexity to the dev teams workload, but maybe a feature to change the interval timing on static pixels for when gamers are aiming down the sights could be advantageous. Most gaming involves less than a minute spent “looking through a scope”.

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This is something that we would definitely try to pursue.

Cooling would be something that we are looking at once we have appropriate testings in place. We do implement additional heatsink into the current design, but expect things to be adjusted as the product slowly matures.

We do want to cram as many options as we can, but we also really need to know what features have more value for our end users.

GSR is indeed a very interesting OLED health feature to have. Even though it may not be so helpful on normal desktop use, it can minimize the risk of burn-in from static HUDs.

This may require a hardware change that deviates from the current design. However, I will bring this to the team and see if this is something that we can add.

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Is an Adobe RGB mode being considered? If you can get over 90% Adobe RGB I would include it.