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Unibody MBP 17 Anti-Glare Backlight problem! Help!

L

lscangus

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 29, 2003
269
0
Newcastle, UK
dsc0627.jpg


Should i return it? or Accept it?
 
return!

a little bleeding is acceptable, but at the end of the day, only accept what your happy with. it doesn't look too healthy..
 
what brightness setting is that on? half way or cranked up all the way. also how are you blacking out the screen? -- via photoshop as a black square?
 
I would try zapping the PRAM and resetting the power management (SMC). If that doesn't take care of it then send it back.
 
duffyanneal said:
I would try zapping the PRAM and resetting the power management (SMC). If that doesn't take care of it then send it back.
Click to expand...

that doesn't help either.... it appears worse on dark grey screen.

Can anyone post their own screen on there? no matter 15 or 17 please?
 
lscangus said:
That is at about 70% brigtness.

Yep. it is a black image which i created.

What i should do?
Click to expand...

70% .. so is that about 12 clicks from zero (as there is 16 to full brightness)
What is the panel model number?
 
Oh boy, if I had that problem again, I would have gone postal. The one thing you can't do is take that to the Apple Store...the geniuses there will tell you that it's within spec. The only way to rectify the problem is to call Apple and send them the photos. They may take awhile to get back to you, but believe me, they took care of my issues.
 
Just call Applecare, tell them you aren't happy with the screen, and they'll come round, collect your Macbook from you, and give you a new one, problem solved.
 
lscangus said:
I am just curious, if it is normal, then there is no point to tell them to replace it :)
Click to expand...

It looks normal to me, most Apple screens have a large amount of light bleed and yours doesn't look bad at all, but the shape of the light-bleed on your screen looks a little weird. Try putting the backlight to 100% and then taking a photo of it in a pitch black room for us, with the keyboard backlight off. I cant say how bad it is until i see that.
 
OK, well I did your test...

I had to throw away the pictures that I took because they were too blurry. I was too embarrassed to post them! And I was too lazy to dig out the tripod from the cellar!

Essentially, I don't have the problem to that extreme. I'm afraid that unless you can see that in regular usage, and with a normal desktop picture, Apple is going to determine that it's "within spec."

There is some slight light leakage along both sides of mine in the lower half of the screen when the screen is completely black and my room is completely dark with the lights off.

I made a 1920 x 1200 black JPG in Photoshop (because one doesn't exist in Apple System Preferences). I also went into System Preferences and used the solid white screen color desktop picture and it was pretty even throughout.

My Sony Bravia 46" LCD HDTV looks approximately the same under the same totally black and totally white backlit lighting conditions. Dare I say that I think this MacBook Pro panel might be a little better in this regard?

I had previous generation MacBook Pros that were not even throughout. And this unevenness or light leakage was apparent during normal usage conditions with regular images on the screen, not only visible in the dark and only when the screen was dominated by black or white.

Probably one of the more famous cases of poor backlighting was this video some guy posted on YouTube a few years ago. It demonstrated the problem well. But this video pre-dated Apple's use of LEDs to backlight their 17" MacBook Pro, which has seemed to help a little.

Combine this poor, uneven backlighting with a TN LCD panel that has limited viewing angles, and an issue with CCFL backlighting technique Apple used, and this drove me crazy to look at (it was my understanding that Apple used to use a reflective foil to get the backlight to spread across the display that sometimes wasn't properly applied that caused unevenness and backlight leakage...now they are using LEDs which have a different construction).

While I am generally happy that this is a good display for me...that's exactly what it should be for everyone. It is probably not the best panel out there...I think Apple sometimes skimp here because they spend so much money on the rest of the computer's design (*cough* unibody MacBook). This is just my opinion, not that it is bad or anything, but probably what is true.

Now that Apple's got a long-term contract with panel supplier LG, I'm hopeful that some consistent panels will start coming from the factories.
 
try a 255 red color from photoshop.. and set the screen to max brightness and check all the way down to lowest brightness..does it show any blue or greenish smudges anywhere ? especially around the corners ?




DHagan4755 said:
OK, well I did your test...

I had to throw away the pictures that I took because they were too blurry. I was too embarrassed to post them! And I was too lazy to dig out the tripod from the cellar!

Essentially, I don't have the problem to that extreme. I'm afraid that unless you can see that in regular usage, and with a normal desktop picture, Apple is going to determine that it's "within spec."

There is some slight light leakage along both sides of mine in the lower half of the screen when the screen is completely black and my room is completely dark with the lights off.

I made a 1920 x 1200 black JPG in Photoshop (because one doesn't exist in Apple System Preferences). I also went into System Preferences and used the solid white screen color desktop picture and it was pretty even throughout.

My Sony Bravia 46" LCD HDTV looks approximately the same under the same totally black and totally white backlit lighting conditions. Dare I say that I think this MacBook Pro panel might be a little better in this regard?

I had previous generation MacBook Pros that were not even throughout. And this unevenness or light leakage was apparent during normal usage conditions with regular images on the screen, not only visible in the dark and only when the screen was dominated by black or white.

Probably one of the more famous cases of poor backlighting was this video some guy posted on YouTube a few years ago. It demonstrated the problem well. But this video pre-dated Apple's use of LEDs to backlight their 17" MacBook Pro, which has seemed to help a little.

Combine this poor, uneven backlighting with a TN LCD panel that has limited viewing angles, and an issue with CCFL backlighting technique Apple used, and this drove me crazy to look at (it was my understanding that Apple used to use a reflective foil to get the backlight to spread across the display that sometimes wasn't properly applied that caused unevenness and backlight leakage...now they are using LEDs which have a different construction).

While I am generally happy that this is a good display for me...that's exactly what it should be for everyone. It is probably not the best panel out there...I think Apple sometimes skimp here because they spend so much money on the rest of the computer's design (*cough* unibody MacBook). This is just my opinion, not that it is bad or anything, but probably what is true.

Now that Apple's got a long-term contract with panel supplier LG, I'm hopeful that some consistent panels will start coming from the factories.
Click to expand...
 
Other than returning it, I have no real tip for you. I don't know how much of an effect this is in the LCD world. I've never checked an external display, or external TV for this sort of problem.


Good luck getting it sorted though. :)
 
You can see the fading during a text editing or some other normal cases for me ... easily spot it. And for my case, i can spot it when the background is quite plain...
 
Hopsdaballa04 said:
Is that a stuck pixel half way down on the left side of the screen?
Click to expand...

Yeah and his monitor has a problem with stuck pixels even OUTSIDE the screen! Check just to the left of the screen about 1/5th of the way down from the top!

In all seriousness, I'm guessing both of those are actually hot pixels from his camera.
 
tobyg said:
Yeah and his monitor has a problem with stuck pixels even OUTSIDE the screen! Check just to the left of the screen about 1/5th of the way down from the top!

In all seriousness, I'm guessing both of those are actually hot pixels from his camera.
Click to expand...

U are absolutely spot on XD

They are the hot pixels, at ISO3200 my D200 is not handling it well.
 
this looks like all the LG versions of the 2008 MBP 15.4 - the LGs all have it if you look at the screen with a dark background in a dark setting. We have to face the facts: TN technology is crap and the display manufacturers Apple uses (samsung, LG and Chimei) have awful Quality control.
 
I've got the same light bleed issues wit all three unibody MacBook Pro 17-inch antiglare i had so far (original + 1st and 2nd replacement units)

please check my thred:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/662049/

Since I am on my 3rd unibody MBP 17-inch with antiglare screen option (2nd replacement) , I honestly do not think that swapping it out with another will actually resolve the issue.

I noticed when laptop is cold - the light bleed issue less obvious but still screen too far from the perfection and still there is lack of color accuracy and pinkish/reddish tint at a certain angles that causes the the colors to be saturated towards a more of a purplish look + constant slight flickering effect that actually tires out the eyes

on top of this all I've got DEAD PIXELS on my 2nd replacement unit's screen (3rd MacBook Pro 17-inch antiglare unit I had so far)

I don't want to exchange for another unit with the same problems anymore but at the same time I need 17-inch MacBook Pro for my projects and just before buying unibody MBP17" - got rid of my previous generation of MBP17" with PERFECT LED ANTIGLARE/MATTE DISPLAY :(

P.S. I have updated link to my PicasaWebAlbum + uploaded new photos for all three units I had so far (original + 1st and 2nd replacement) + uploaded MacBookPro17_DisplayTest_Black_1920x1200_300dpi.jpg file I use to test display quality (you all are welcome to download this file in its full resolution using Picasa "Download" menu above image preview).

http://picasaweb.google.com/freelancer.by/MyUnibodyMacBookPro17Inch?authkey=Gv1sRgCNnWzdax-cGeggE#

I've left some comments in similar thread on Apple Discussions forum: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1923032&tstart=0
 
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