Hi community!

It’s been quiet around Spectrum of late. The project is currently in the hands of the engineering team which is affected by the Coronavirus outbreak in China, more specifically by the associated quarantine. This delays them, and prevents us from traveling there ourselves. Rest assured we are still on track to ship the monitor on schedule as intended. As far as we know none of our partners in China are personally experiencing this horrible disease, but we wish everyone affected a quick recovery to good health.

Meanwhile, there is something we can do to further the project: it’s time to dive into the OSD!

On-Screen Display

A monitor’s on-screen display (OSD) is a menu that is superimposed over the image on the screen that allows the user to change settings and gather information. These used to be crude, monochrome, text-based menus that offered access to basic image settings, but in recent years have become more elaborate and offer additional features.

Spectrum needs an OSD for you to access its settings, and we would like to ask for your assistance to make sure the menu we end up with is the best it can be!

Menu structure

Though many manufacturers try to come up with the most spectacular shapes for their menus, we believe that function is more important than pretty looks. After exploring many different options, a simple menu that categorizes settings in logical groups and presents them in a structured manner makes most sense to us.

We can also use the OSD to display static information. Things that aren’t options or menus, but information that could be useful like the currently active input port, the resolution, color space, that kind of thing. Those could be hidden in an information sub-menu somewhere, but why not feature them at the top of the OSD? That way you can see whether or not you actually need to change a setting before diving into the menu to find it.

That sounds about right

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Controls

Spectrum has three controls. The power button is straightforward: it turns the monitor on or off. That leaves a control stick and a programmable button. They are placed on the back of the device in such a way that you can reach them with your fingers by reaching around the bottom edge of the display. The Eve logo on the front bezel forms a convenient arrow pointing where the buttons are.

Outside of the OSD

When the OSD is not active, the function of the programmable button is clear: it does whatever it is programmed to do. By default, that is to switch to the next active input signal. But you could change it to something else, like muting sound, switching color spaces, or some other feature that occurs often in your particular use case.

That leaves the control stick to open the menu. Conveniently, that also puts your finger right where it needs to be to navigate the menu! Just push the stick in any direction, and the OSD menu pops up!

That sounds about right

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Navigating the menu

Once the OSD is active, things change. With a menu where the categories are structured left-to-right and the menu options are structured top to bottom, we can easily navigate with the control stick to change settings.

Moving the stick up and down will change the highlighted menu option, or adjust a slider like those for brightness, contrast, or overdrive. Moving the stick to the right will enter the highlighted menu or activate the highlighted setting. Moving the stick to the left returns to the previous menu.

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Closing the menu

When you’re done with the menu you’ll want it to go away. There are two ways to go about this: firstly, you can simply wait. The menu will disappear by itself if you’re not using it, after a pre-determined delay that can be adjusted in the menu itself.

Alternatively, you can press the programmable button. It’s not doing anything else when you’re in the menu, after all! Also, your finger conveniently passes it on the way back from reaching for the control stick.

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Optionally, we can make it so that moving the control stick left when you’re already in the main menu also closes the OSD. Like going back to the previous menu until you’ve run out of menus to go back to, as it were. This lets you control every aspect of the OSD with just the control stick, which some people may prefer. It also means that if you’re too excited pressing left repeatedly to get back to main menu, you might accidentally close the menu if you press left once too often…

I think this would make my life easier

I don’t know how this would affect me

I think this would make my life harder 0 voters

The actual options

When it comes to the actual menu, there are many options that need to find a home. We’ve made a few diagrams showing what we think makes sense, but of course it’s not about what we think makes sense. So please have a look through these suggestions. Tell us if a feature is missing or in the wrong submenu by leaving a comment!

The Main Menu

Video Input Select USB Input Select Features Presets Color Image Monitor Setup

Within each main menu option, submenu options exist. The menu options are ordered so that often-used features (like switching inputs or turning features on and off) are at the top for easy access. Less-used categories featuring options like changing the color of the power indicator LED, that a user is likely to set once and then never touch again, are further down the list.

Video Input Select menu

On a monitor with multiple ports for video input, switching between active inputs is often a common action. For that reason, we figure that it makes sense to put it at the top of the menu!

VIDEO INPUT SELECT > DisplayPort 1 DisplayPort 2 USB-C HDMI Auto switch input On Off

That sounds about right

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USB Input Select menu

Our monitor has built-in USB ports, and to use them the monitor needs to be attached to a computer. That can be done traditionally though the USB-B port, but we also have a USB-C port available for this. Some people may want to connect both, for example using USB-B alongside DisplayPort to connect the monitor to a desktop computer, whilst connecting it to a notebook through USB-C.

When automatically switching, Spectrum’s USB hub will use USB-C to drive the USB ports when the video signal comes in over USB-C, and use the USB-B port when DisplayPort or HDMI are used. But users can also switch manually if they prefer…

USB INPUT SELECT > USB-B USB-C Auto switch input On Off

Both the Video Input Select category and USB Input Select category are pretty small, and it would be possible to combine them into a single Main Menu entry. That would make this submenu more complex, but it would make other Main Menu entries quicker to reach.

That sounds about right

That sounds about right I’d rather see Video- and USB Input Select combined into one subcategory

I’d rather see Video- and USB Input Select combined into one subcategory An important feature is missing, I’ll leave a comment 0 voters

Features menu

Our monitor can do some cool stuff, some of which have nothing to do with the image displayed. Because these are things that incidentally get adjusted or switched on or off, they are up next in the Main Menu so that they are quick to reach.

FEATURES > Volume Increase Decrease Frame Rate Counter On Off

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Presets menu

When you’ve got the monitor set up just right, it helps to create a Preset. That way you can easily get back to how you like it after experimenting with the settings. The default preset allows you to return to factory settings.

PRESETS > Load default Load user preset 1 Load user preset 2 Load user preset 3 Save preset Save user preset 1 Save user preset 2 Save user preset 3

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Color menu

Now we’re getting into the realm of ‘set and forget’ settings. Most users will decide on a setting they like, and then never adjust it again. They are a bit lower down the Main Menu.

COLOR > >> >>> Brightness Increase Decrease Color space DCI-P3 Emulated sRGB sRGB Contrast Increase Decrease Color Temperature Cool Normal Warm User Defined Red Increase Decrease Green Increase Decrease Blue Increase Decrease Gamma Increase Decrease

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Image menu

More image quality settings…

IMAGE > >> Max Refresh Rate 144Hz 165Hz Variable Refresh Rate Off On Overdrive Off Normal High User Defined Increase Decrease Backlight strobing On Off Backlight dimming Off Global Aspect Control 1 : 1 Pixel Perfect Fill Stretch

That sounds about right

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To conclude…

This is just our first dip into the OSD, and based on your feedback we may be very far along or we just barely started. Did we miss any important features? Did we misplace your favorite setting? Do you have ideas on how to improve the on-screen menu to make a more useful tool for getting the most out of Spectrum? Leave a comment and let us know!