Ultrastudio mini Monitor with BenQ SW270C monitor setup

Hi guys,
i am afraid I made a mistake by purchasing the BenQ monitor. I am trying to set it up as a reference monitor via Blackmagics ultrastudio mini Monitor.(which supports 1080p and goes from thunderbolt 2 to HDMI)
I am working with a MacBook Pro 2015 Modell using thunderbolt 2 to hook it up.

The native resolution of the monitor is 2.560 x 1.440. I guessed that I could downconvert the resolution to 1920 x 1080 via monitoring setting in os but when I am doing that, resolve still is not putting out any image.

I am on MacOS Mojave and using the latest software of blackmagics desktop video (which Supports Mojave). For now I am using the clean feed option via hdmi to get a full screen output. But my GUI is not capable of displaying true colors.

I was thinking about buying the decklink 4k but I do not know if that would solve the problem. Because of the resolution of the BenQ. Do you guys have a solution for this problem? Thanks in advance!

I have no experience with setting up Ultrastudio but what I do know is that you shouldn't use a 2560x1440 as reference monitor. This resolution is not a 1:1 or equal increment of the standard video output resolutions meaning pixels would have to "fight" for who gets displayed.

If you only output content in HD 1920x1080 get a monitor with that resolution. If it's 4K get a 4K monitor.
If you want to be future proof get 4K anyway because 1080 can map evenly across those pixels as it's exactly 2x increment.
Not sure if the Ultrastudio setup would still work though or only with the 4K version.

Personally I've used the Decklink Mini Monitor 4K to a 4K tv. (pcie card outputting HDMI) I was still able to output 1080p or any other resolution from software to that display.

Hope that helps.

Hi shebbe,

thanks for your reply. Seems quite logic regarding the pixel “fight”. Sadly I do not have the budget for a 4k Monitor, maybe I can return the BenQ but besides the resolution monitor I think it’s a great monitor.
Blackmagic is saying that the 4k Monitor Modell only supports 4kdci or UHD. Guess that makes it not relevant.

Best regards and thanks again.

I have no experience with setting up Ultrastudio but what I do know is that you shouldn't use a 2560x1440 as reference monitor. This resolution is not a 1:1 or equal increment of the standard video output resolutions meaning pixels would have to "fight" for who gets displayed.

If you only output content in HD 1920x1080 get a monitor with that resolution. If it's 4K get a 4K monitor.
If you want to be future proof get 4K anyway because 1080 can map evenly across those pixels as it's exactly 2x increment.
Not sure if the Ultrastudio setup would still work though or only with the 4K version.

Personally I've used the Decklink Mini Monitor 4K to a 4K tv. (pcie card outputting HDMI) I was still able to output 1080p or any other resolution from software to that display.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the tipp. Makes totally sense to the pixel "fight" that way. Sadly i can't afford a 4k monitor right now. Besides that the 2k is really a great monitor. Maybe there is workaround. I wrote Blackmagic aswell regarding this topic. Thanks again dude.

I’m using the SW270C with the UltraStudio monitor 3G. I only recently set this up but it appears to be working. The reason why I’m here though is because it’s time to calibrate the monitor and I’m just wondering if the calibration process is the same.

In the past when calibrating the BenQ monitor, I think it created a profile using my MacBook or something. So I’m wondering if that would make it essentially useless...since the whole point of me getting the UltraStudio was to bypass the OS and get a straight signal from Resolve to my monitor.

If anybody here could help that would be fantastic

I’m using the SW270C with the UltraStudio monitor 3G. I only recently set this up but it appears to be working. The reason why I’m here though is because it’s time to calibrate the monitor and I’m just wondering if the calibration process is the same.

In the past when calibrating the BenQ monitor, I think it created a profile using my MacBook or something. So I’m wondering if that would make it essentially useless...since the whole point of me getting the UltraStudio was to bypass the OS and get a straight signal from Resolve to my monitor.

If anybody here could help that would be fantastic

Hi there,
thanks for your response. Really appreciated. I had a chat with black magic support because of this and it turns out that the BenQ has some EDID HDMI issues when working with that older mini monitor. Great to hear, that this will be solved when using the 3G.
For calibration I am using Benq’s Master Elements, which is great for calibrating, since you get a hardware calibrated profile inside your monitor. You have up to 3 preset calibrations you can set up. So you don’t need to calibrate it via resolve. Check out “Art is right” on YouTube. He has a lot of good calibration content only for BenQ monitors.

Hope this helps.
Regards Manuel.