According to an embodiment of the invention, signals coming from a number of pixels or sub-pixels are compared and those signals from pixels or sub-pixels, which are substantially brighter than the other pixels in the comparison, are excluded from contributing to the output signal, to suppress direct detection events in X-ray detectors. For this an X-ray detector apparatus (101) can comprise: —an array (102) of pixel arrangements (303), —each pixel arrangement (303) comprising at least one radiation collection device (311) for converting incident radiation into a collection device signal, —switching arrangements (313, 324, 314, 142; 313, 315, 314, 352, 142; 313, 315, 314; 361) for providing to respectively one output element (141) a signal derived from the collection device signals of a plurality of radiation collection devices (311) of at least one pixel arrangement (303).