Что такое Black Smearing и как его проверить?
Объясняет black smearing на VA-матрицах, симптомы и правильный способ проверки.
Black smearing is the dark trailing effect that often appears on VA monitors when dark shades transition quickly across the screen. Many people describe it as normal ghosting, but the signature is different: the smear is usually most visible in black and dark gray transitions rather than in bright edges. It becomes especially obvious in dark games, night scenes, subtitles, and dark desktop themes.
Why does it matter?
Users usually notice the issue during camera movement. The artifact is not just blur from motion; it is a heavier dark trail that follows contrast-rich objects and makes moving textures look muddy. Because of that, one random clip is not enough for a fair judgment. A controlled test page is much more reliable than trying to guess from a game trailer or compressed video.
How do you check it with MonitorTest?
The easiest workflow is to open the Ghosting Test first, then compare the behavior with the Screen Tearing Test and the notes in the guides. If the dark trail appears mainly in black transitions and changes character when you raise or lower overdrive, you are probably looking at black smearing rather than a generic blur problem.
What is normal and what is a defect?
Not every VA panel behaves the same way. Panel generation, manufacturer tuning, refresh rate, overdrive quality, and even scene brightness all influence the result. That is why it is important to test in more than one condition. If you only see the effect in a single extreme case, it may be acceptable. If it is obvious on the desktop, in games, and in test content, it becomes a more meaningful buying decision.
What should you do next?
When the effect becomes much worse on one overdrive preset, choosing a more balanced setting is often the best fix. If it remains distracting in everyday use, the return window matters more than endless tweaking. In short, black smearing is a real and useful thing to test for, but it should be judged with controlled pages and normal viewing conditions rather than panic after one dark screenshot.
Conclusion
Black smearing is not automatically a deal-breaker, but the only sensible way to judge it is with a controlled test, a fair comparison, and an honest look at how much it affects normal use.