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iPhone 5 display interlacing?

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panopticblue

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 21, 2011
10
0
I swear I see what looks like the screen is displaying an interlaced image. It's really noticeable if I move my eyes around a screen displaying a solid color. It's very jarring, I'm coming from a launch day iPhone 4 that actually had a near-perfect screen, and never saw any such issues with it. Never seen this on my retina iPad either.

It's a black 32gb and is literally perfect in every other way:( This screen is not an upgrade from my 4, imo the "interlacing" that I'm seeing is a downgrade. Is it possible this is a side-effect of the in-cell display they are using? Or is it just a bad display?
 
bandofbrothers

bandofbrothers

macrumors 601
Oct 14, 2007
4,779
328
Uk
panopticblue said:
I swear I see what looks like the screen is displaying an interlaced image. It's really noticeable if I move my eyes around a screen displaying a solid color. It's very jarring, I'm coming from a launch day iPhone 4 that actually had a near-perfect screen, and never saw any such issues with it. Never seen this on my retina iPad either.

It's a black 32gb and is literally perfect in every other way:( This screen is not an upgrade from my 4, imo the "interlacing" that I'm seeing is a downgrade. Is it possible this is a side-effect of the in-cell display they are using? Or is it just a bad display?
Click to expand...


This has obviously un nerved you so look at a friend or colleagues iPhone screen ,and if they are different then the best avenue is to visit your Apple Genius Bar
 
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bigcstyle4

macrumors 6502
Sep 22, 2012
342
139
Get it swapped out. As I posted in the other thread, save that image as your wallpaper and show it to the Genius. My new display is perfect.
 
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idiotkkid

macrumors newbie
Feb 5, 2010
7
0
bigcstyle4 said:
Get it swapped out. As I posted in the other thread, save that image as your wallpaper and show it to the Genius. My new display is perfect.
Click to expand...

It's not something that can be captured in a screen shot. It's a property of the display itself.

I see this effect too. It's like looking at vertical lines on the screen on solid colors as the screen moves, or when your eyes move. Stop the movement and everything looks solid. Start typing and the vertical lines show up in the gray background of the keyboard. Move icons from side to side and vertical lines appear. It's very noticeable and bothersome. None of my other apple devices showed this quality. I even swapped a phone out due to the issue, genius couldn't see it but swapped it anyway. The new one is exactly the same.

I've seen it on my Harmony One remote too, except those are horizontal lines. If you own one, you'll know what I'm talking about.
 
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bigcstyle4

macrumors 6502
Sep 22, 2012
342
139
I'm not sure if my replies to your PM are going through since they don't show in my outbox, but basically no, the replacement phone doesn't flicker at all, it's perfect. The new display is noticeably better in every way, not just the scan lines. While you wait for your appointment you can save the image on a floor model to show the comparison.
 
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zybersniper

macrumors member
Jan 2, 2013
90
0
What all of you are experiencing is called pixel walk inversion. It's a common limitation in most LCD. Not just your iPhone, but your desktop monitor will experience it too. For more info: see the link

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/inversion.php

In a pixel on an LCD monitor, the amount of light that is transmitted from the backlight depends on the voltage applied to the pixel. For the amount of light, it doesn't matter whether that voltage is negative or positive. However, applying the same voltage for a long period would damage the pixel. Do you remember how electricity decomposes water into oxygen and hydrogen gas in chemistry class? Similar things could happen inside the liquid crystals that are in the pixels. In order to prevent damage, LCD displays quickly alternate the voltage between positive and negative for each pixel, which is called 'polarity inversion'. Ideally, the rapid polarity inversion wouldn't be noticeable because every pixel has the same brightness whether it a positive or a negative voltage is applied. However, in practice, there is a small difference, which means that every pixel flickers at about 30 hertz. In order to make this less noticeable, pixels with positive and negative voltages are interleaved, such that on average the screen as a whole keeps the same brightness – at least for normal images. The interleaving does not work for the inversion test images, at least for the one(s) where the pattern matches the interleaving pattern of the monitor. In such cases, the monitor will flicker if the positive and negative voltages are not tuned very well.....
Click to expand...

Not all LCDs are created equal. Some electronics like the Nintendo DS Lite actually had a port screw on the motherboard that could change the flicker rate for different screens and it was common knowledge that it had to be adjusted if a LCD swap was made. I believe that Apple may have not calibrated the LCD properly on some phones and so some of you experience more flicker than on other phones. And it's true that not all eyes are created equal. Mostly people with very good eye sight would be more sensitive to the flickering.
 
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samven582

macrumors 6502a
Jan 2, 2009
753
65
zybersniper said:
What all of you are experiencing is called pixel walk inversion. It's a common limitation in most LCD. Not just your iPhone, but your desktop monitor will experience it too. For more info: see the link

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/inversion.php



Not all LCDs are created equal. Some electronics like the Nintendo DS Lite actually had a port screw on the motherboard that could change the flicker rate for different screens and it was common knowledge that it had to be adjusted if a LCD swap was made. I believe that Apple may have not calibrated the LCD properly on some phones and so some of you experience more flicker than on other phones. And it's true that not all eyes are created equal. Mostly people with very good eye sight would be more sensitive to the flickering.
Click to expand...

I own many LCD based products and none of them exhibit this problem expect the iPhone
 
sulpfiction

sulpfiction

macrumors 68040
Aug 16, 2011
3,075
603
Philadelphia Area
Sounds like you'd be better off giving up on the iPhone and moving on. I have never experienced this interlacing problem on my phone, and my launch day 5 was perfect out of the box. So I'm happy. But if I had to get 5 replacement phones, and I still wasn't happy...I'd throw my hands up and go look for another device.
 
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samven582

macrumors 6502a
Jan 2, 2009
753
65
sulpfiction said:
Sounds like you'd be better off giving up on the iPhone and moving on. I have never experienced this interlacing problem on my phone, and my launch day 5 was perfect out of the box. So I'm happy. But if I had to get 5 replacement phones, and I still wasn't happy...I'd throw my hands up and go look for another device.
Click to expand...

I already have and will moving on to the S4
 
thadoggfather

thadoggfather

macrumors P6
Oct 1, 2007
15,548
16,279
I had a few of them that did it as well.

It seems to be fairly common at the very least. Some exhibit it more intensely than others believe it or not, and others don't exhibit it at all.

Given that the LG Nexus 4 I played with at the T-Mobile store had the same vertical interlacing (easily visible against the blue of the Facebook app that was already loaded on it).

Therefore, given this and LG's terrible track record with displays in Apple products in general, I'd say it's just an 'inherent characteristic' of all LG iPhone 5 panels and varies.

Really annoying, imo. If you notice something weird about the screen without first researching and knowing about the issue, it's an issue.
 
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eh270

macrumors regular
Mar 19, 2009
166
2
This is happening on my 5s too. I don't think it is a defect. The 4s screen didn't do this. I think they just use a different type of screen. My wife's iPhone 5 (both, actually, because she had her first one replaced for an unrelated reason) is the same. I think it's something about your eyes. I've also noticed that I can detect the red/green/blue lights during fast motion on a rear projection or DLP tv, so there might be a similarity. (Others have no idea what I am talking about when I bring that up). Maybe our eyes' "refresh rate" is higher than average?
 
M

madKIR

macrumors 6502a
Feb 2, 2010
849
801
NYC
eh270 said:
This is happening on my 5s too. I don't think it is a defect. The 4s screen didn't do this. I think they just use a different type of screen. My wife's iPhone 5 (both, actually, because she had her first one replaced for an unrelated reason) is the same. I think it's something about your eyes. I've also noticed that I can detect the red/green/blue lights during fast motion on a rear projection or DLP tv, so there might be a similarity. (Others have no idea what I am talking about when I bring that up). Maybe our eyes' "refresh rate" is higher than average?
Click to expand...
Don't fool yourself. My current iPhone 5 doesn't have it at all. However, some replacements that I had experienced this issue big time.
 
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