Bad gradients - screen.

[Zenor]

Hello everyone.

I am using a Unibody MBP 2,4.
Everything seems fine and I had no issues with it - or the screen.

But today I noticed a weird thing about the screen. I created a radial gradient on Photoshop, and it seems really bad. Circular lines appear inside the radial gradient, which makes it look not smooth.

I also tried several calibrated profiles but none seem to have solved the problem.
Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Zenor]

I also tried reseting the PRAM but it didn't seem to fix the problem.
Is there any solution for this issue?

 

[Hydroxs]

MBP uses 6-bit TN panel so there are going to be bad color gradients.

 

[Pivzavod]

To the best of my knowledge, this is a problem of Samsung panels. The LG/AUO screens on pre-unibody doesn't have this issue(or at least it is much less visible).

 

[Ivan P]

I have an LG panel in my UMBP and it does the same thing - when it gradients between two or more colours there's a noticeable 'band' separating the middle.

 

[Dreamail]

Zenor, there are at least 3 threads about this already. Search is your friend!

Look here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/683777/

Here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/681012/

Or here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/677825/


Summary:
MacBooks and MacBook Pros have crap screens.
Not much you can do about it.


Although I assume it's a firmware issue.
At least my age old PowerBook does not have a banding issue nearly as bad.
Yet I'm sure it must also have a 6-bit display.
So the current MBs and MBPs must have a worse dithering algorithm than previous PowerBooks...
Hopefully something Apple can fix at some point.

 

[Zenor]

Well I paid for the "millions of colors" that the product claims it has, but it seems to be having really less than that.

How come only few people complaining about it although it's such a huge issue?

 

[Dreamail]

How come only few people complaining about it although it's such a huge issue?

That is a brilliant question!

I don't understand it either.
Let me know if you find out!

I presume most people are just complacent...
Or blinded and mesmerized by the product design.

I for one am hesitant to spend $5,000 on a fully speced MacBook Pro that has a worse screen (at least in regards to gradients) than my 5 year old PowerBook.
Don't like to take steps backwards.


I for one am not impressed with the new MBP screens.
And it's one of the reasons I haven't upgraded my old PowerBook yet.

But maybe I'm just demanding too much?
Perhaps my standards are too high?
Paying for 'millions of colors' - only to get a few hundred thousand?

Most people would argue 'But all notebooks in the world have 6-bit displays'!
So?
Still no reason for false advertising IMHO.
Still doesn't explain why my 5 year old PowerBook displays gradients smoother than the current top-of-the-line super expensive 17" MacBook Pro.


Apple should do better.
(Especially as it has done better in the past.)


[Apologies for the whiny post - it's just a sensitive subject...]