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Is your display having the problem described?

  • iMac 21.5" both grey bars look identical in color

    Votes: 102 8.9%
  • iMac 21.5" the bottom bar looks more yellow

    Votes: 199 17.4%
  • iMac 27" both grey bars look identical in color

    Votes: 311 27.2%
  • iMac 27" the bottom bar looks more yellow

    Votes: 533 46.6%

  • Total voters
    1,145
That's what I would like to know also. It is there physically, not an optical illusion, because when you turn the machine on it's side the yellow maintains it's orientation with the display. It would be nice if someone who understands this technology could explain what might cause this. I am just like to know how things work.

I've said this a lot, but it gets burried in these threads. My tinge is NOT on the bottom of my screen. I wish it was, because instead there is color variation vertically. This means that when I read a sentance on this message board, the background changes from a white/grey, to a dingy yellow, to sort of a pinkish hue, and back to white grey at the edge. VERY distracting. It was much better on my first i5 with the tinge at the bottom. At least then I could just scroll to avoid reading in the yellow section.
 
I swear that if I drop my chair down so I am eye level with the center of the screen on my imac I do not see the yellow tinge. If I crank my chair up and look down at the screen I see it. Mildly but I do. So confusing.
 
Has anyone checked to see if the problem, or intensity of the problem, is affected when the glass screen is removed?
 
Hi and Merry Christmas.

Bought my 47 week build, basic 21.5" imac about three weeks ago from an Apple store. Was hesitant from switching from a pc to a mac especially after reading about DOA units, flickering, dust, noisy fans and pixel problems. Luckily I have none of these problems, however now there is this yellow tint issue which mine seems to have ever so slightly. I wouldn't have noticed it if it wasn't for this thread.

While I can understand that there will be some issues with manufactured equipment, I expected Apple products to be of a higher quality than other manufacturers. I am glad to hear that Apple is replacing defective units, but the problem is "with what?". It is best that Apple acknowledges the problem and also recommends that customers with defective products hang onto them until a proper fix is found (if they can do so). This replacing units with sometimes worse ones is bad pr especially for customers that just made the switch from pc's or planning to do so.

Fortunately, I took out Apple Care, mainly because the issues stated above and that I really didn't know what I was getting into. I guess I'll hang onto mine for now and see what Apple does about this problem. I will e-mail the sales person at the store to advise him of the issue with mine. This is so it will be "on record".

BTW, I do enjoy using my Imac.

Cheers,
 
I swear that if I drop my chair down so I am eye level with the center of the screen on my imac I do not see the yellow tinge. If I crank my chair up and look down at the screen I see it. Mildly but I do. So confusing.

The bad bit along the bottom of mine doesn't disappear wherever I look at it, it is still there. Up down left right, with and without tilting up and down :(

Though the yellow band down the right side does disappear the further away/to the side (both left and right) i go, though that may just be my eyes..
 
Yellow tint is just an optical illusion!

All you have to do is close your eyes, and it goes away! :rolleyes:
 
optical illusion

The new
iMac.
The ultimate all-in-one.
Now with ultimate "optical illusion".


That's incredible! why didn't any of my displays have that!



Hurry while supplies last. "Optical Illusion" displays are the most popular among week 43-50 models!
 
Thanks for the thread and tips on this, although as soon as I opened a webpage I could see the "yellow tint" coming up about 5 or 6" from the bottom. I called up Apple tech support and within 5 min I was sent to a "senior tech" who promptly apologized, made note of my issue and gave me a case number for the local store. I called them up and they said they have a replacement ready and waiting, again apologizing for the issue. Lucky for me I am only about 15 mins from the Apple store so it will be a quick swap for a new machine.

I guess I didn't wait long enough to avoid the screen issues :).

For the record, it is an 27" i5 stock model week 45. Going back on Sat morning to try again.
 
I swear that if I drop my chair down so I am eye level with the center of the screen on my imac I do not see the yellow tinge. If I crank my chair up and look down at the screen I see it. Mildly but I do. So confusing.

Same here. Depending on vertical viewing angle, it goes from either 'barely noticable' to 'someone took a piss on my screen'.

For reference here's an interesting observation. The following is a photo of my Apple Cinema Display 30" to the left of my iMac 27". Personally I find the ACD to be a MUCH truer gray to my eyes (with all other light sources off). I was seriously considering selling the ACD now that I got the iMac, but with things looking as they are the iMac screen just isn't up to the photo editing task for which I purchased it. Not bloody impressed - shame as it's a gorgeous computer otherwise.

Both have been calibrated with a Spyder3 within the past 10 days.

ACD 30" left, iMac 27" Week 45 right.
imac&acd-3043.jpg
 
Same here. Depending on vertical viewing angle, it goes from either 'barely noticable' to 'someone took a piss on my screen'.

For reference here's an interesting observation. The following is a photo of my Apple Cinema Display 30" to the left of my iMac 27". Personally I find the ACD to be a MUCH truer gray to my eyes (with all other light sources off). I was seriously considering selling the ACD now that I got the iMac, but with things looking as they are the iMac screen just isn't up to the photo editing task for which I purchased it. Not bloody impressed - shame as it's a gorgeous computer otherwise.

Both have been calibrated with a Spyder3 within the past 10 days.

ACD 30" left, iMac 27" Week 45 right.
imac&acd-3043.jpg

That is really freakin bad for the iMac there....

Since you have both the 30 inch ACD and the iMac 27, can you comment on the comparative sharpness of the screens? I know the pixel pitch on the 27 is smaller so should be a little sharper looking, but is it really a big deal in person?
 
Same here. Depending on vertical viewing angle, it goes from either 'barely noticable' to 'someone took a piss on my screen'.

For reference here's an interesting observation. The following is a photo of my Apple Cinema Display 30" to the left of my iMac 27". Personally I find the ACD to be a MUCH truer gray to my eyes (with all other light sources off). I was seriously considering selling the ACD now that I got the iMac, but with things looking as they are the iMac screen just isn't up to the photo editing task for which I purchased it. Not bloody impressed - shame as it's a gorgeous computer otherwise.

Both have been calibrated with a Spyder3 within the past 10 days.

ACD 30" left, iMac 27" Week 45 right.
imac&acd-3043.jpg

Thanks for the picts. My 21.5 looks like your ACD. Identical.

Look at the lower right corner at the bottom. That is what I see on mine. Is that the yellow everyone is talking about. It's not actually yellow, but just a shade darker.
 
Same here. Depending on vertical viewing angle, it goes from either 'barely noticable' to 'someone took a piss on my screen'.

For reference here's an interesting observation. The following is a photo of my Apple Cinema Display 30" to the left of my iMac 27". Personally I find the ACD to be a MUCH truer gray to my eyes (with all other light sources off). I was seriously considering selling the ACD now that I got the iMac, but with things looking as they are the iMac screen just isn't up to the photo editing task for which I purchased it. Not bloody impressed - shame as it's a gorgeous computer otherwise.

Both have been calibrated with a Spyder3 within the past 10 days.

ACD 30" left, iMac 27" Week 45 right.
imac&acd-3043.jpg

The gray on the top part of the screen on my iMac looks like the gray on your ACD. The gray on the bottom part on my iMac screen looks like the gray on your iMac screen.

I calibrated my screen with the Spyder3, I did it in a completely dark room, as I work in a dark room.
 
That is really freakin bad for the iMac there....

Since you have both the 30 inch ACD and the iMac 27, can you comment on the comparative sharpness of the screens? I know the pixel pitch on the 27 is smaller so should be a little sharper looking, but is it really a big deal in person?

The pixel density isn't so much the deciding factor as much as the monitor finish. The glossy iMac screen looks a hell of a lot sharper than the ACD at first glance, and is in fact quite a bit sharper. The matte surface of the ACD tends to diffuse a lot of details.

And yeah, I don't know what's up with the iMac screen. Not only does it not seem to calibrate well by my eyes, but worst of all it isn't even consistent with itself...

The gray on the top part of the screen on my iMac looks like the gray on your ACD. The gray on the bottom part on my iMac screen looks like the gray on your iMac screen.

If mine were that bad I'd tie it to the front bumper of my car and plough it at speed into & through an Apple store.
 
I have iMac 21.5" (week 39) and when I put my iMac off from sleep the screen turns on and it's lighter and after few seconds the screen became a slightly darker and stays like this.

Is this normal?

Thanks
 
I have iMac 21.5" (week 39) and when I put my iMac off from sleep the screen turns on and it's lighter and after few seconds the screen became a slightly darker and stays like this.

Is this normal?

Thanks
I just noticed this too. It's brighter for like 2 seconds, even though my screen is on full brightness already. Doesn't always happen though. only after it's been sleeping for quite a while.
 
I have iMac 21.5" (week 39) and when I put my iMac off from sleep the screen turns on and it's lighter and after few seconds the screen became a slightly darker and stays like this.

Is this normal?

Thanks

Yes, it's normal for everyone's eyes to work that way.
 
I just noticed this too. It's brighter for like 2 seconds, even though my screen is on full brightness already. Doesn't always happen though. only after it's been sleeping for quite a while.

Yes, exactly! I have my screen on full brightness too. And yes, it's only happen when it's been sleeping not just for a while.
 
Photoshop and the yellow tinge.

I had a closer look at the 21.5" and 27" iMacs in the store and the screen of the 27" unit WAS yellowish at the bottom (the 21.5" unit was clean).
I was curious of how much of the yellow shift it is, so I tried to create similar effect with Photoshop (using the Gradient tool).

I got surprising results:

To get effect similar to the one I've seen in the store I had to use 10% of the Y component saturation (yellow in the CMYK color space), very close to R = 255, G = 255, B = 233 in the screen RGB color space!

In other words the color shift at the bottom of the screen is really around 10% of the missing BLUE and IMHO it is HUGE.
The reason more people don't complain about it is the way we see yellow as a very bright color (almost white). Screen with similar percentage of missing red, or missing green would be totally unacceptable (I tried it)!

Did anybody do similar experiments to confirm?

Tom B.
 
There is a issue here for sure, im on my second unit week 41 & 44 I think and both 21.5s couldnt display white at the bottom 3rd of the screen, Apple though has been fanatastic with support etc. I think im going to wait and get a 27" or look for a high end refurb 24".
 
Been evaluating this replacement iMac for the last 2 weeks (original returned due to excessive loud 1TB Seagate HDD) - this one is now a week 50 unit. I have to say there is a definite yellow tinge on the bottom of the screen, more so on the right hand quarter. I think my yellowing is more subtle than some posters on this thread but it is definitely there. I would have to say as a whole the whites on this iMac are definitely "warmer" and not as "cold" as other monitors (this is demonstrated effectively in El Jacks posting, post number 612). I have now asked several friends and family and, in the main, most have commented, albeit subtle, on a yellow or even sepia hue on the white and grey bars in the bottom right hand quarter without any prompt from myself.

So far I have registered the yellowing with Applecare within the 14 days replacement period and was instantly offered the replacement / repair option (think this is more of an automatic action rather than a reaction to a "known issue") - however I said I would continue to hold onto this iMac for a little longer to see if this issue is acknowledged by Apple and then consider my options. There seems little point in returning unit after unit until we know that Apple has addressed this "problem".

Part of me is considering keeping hold of this iMac and then in a couple of months time just getting a repair done (most likely a replacement screen) as then they will be checking solely for this issue and, if it was a faulty batch of LG screens, they should be out of the supply chain - what do others think of this as an option?

As an aside, is it my imagination or did the yellowing become more prevalent over a period of time having the iMac or was a just dazzled by all the other plus points of this machine I didn't notice the yellow tinge?
 
So far I have registered the yellowing with Applecare within the 14 days replacement period and was instantly offered the replacement / repair option (think this is more of an automatic action rather than a reaction to a "known issue") - however I said I would continue to hold onto this iMac for a little longer to see if this issue is acknowledged by Apple and then consider my options. There seems little point in returning unit after unit until we know that Apple has addressed this "problem".

Part of me is considering keeping hold of this iMac and then in a couple of months time just getting a repair done (most likely a replacement screen) as then they will be checking solely for this issue and, if it was a faulty batch of LG screens, they should be out of the supply chain - what do others think of this as an option?

As an aside, is it my imagination or did the yellowing become more prevalent over a period of time having the iMac or was a just dazzled by all the other plus points of this machine I didn't notice the yellow tinge?

I was thinking the same. It is no use replacing my iMac as long as Apple doesn't have a final solution. Apart from the yellow tinge, my iMac is perfect, so I have no other reason to exchange it. I decided to wait and see when things are solved.

Maybe the yellow tinge becomes more prevalent over time. I also have the impression that the yellow tinge is somewhat less after the iMac has been off for a while.
 
do you think itll ever get sorted? the thing that concerns me is those who have very minor yellowing, as its a visual thing how can it ever be proved?

i think mine may have minor yellowing towards the bottom, 3 people in my house cant see it. 1 can....me! i wish there was some form of diagnostic you could run... i know you cant but im sure if id never read this thread then id never have noticed it..... now i have what do i do??? machine seems ok apart from this.
 
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