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MacBook (Santa Rosa) display: Poor contrast ratio?

I say that it's worth going for. I just got mine and installed David's profile on it. Before I did, the screen looked, well, awful. Nearly gave me a headache. But the profile really helped a lot.

Remember, the MacBook screens were never really all that (refresh rates, anyone?) but the profile adjustment really makes a difference. Makes me hope that this is just a driver issue after all. But if you really want a world class screen, spring for the MacBook Pro.
 
Hi,
I have just got my first Macbook and I was also disappointed with the display which appeared dull and washed out. I calibrated it with the Colorvision Spyder. That improved the display but still it was not great. In fact I found an adjustment that I have not seen mentioned before.

Under System Preferences -> Universal Access there is a slider to adjust screen contrast. A small adjustment here and my screen is much better. :)
M.
 
How do you load the colour profiles? :-( I have downloaded Davids Colour thing, but how to I make it mine? many thanks
 
tianuk3 said:
How do you load the colour profiles? :-( I have downloaded Davids Colour thing, but how to I make it mine? many thanks
Click to expand...

Put the colour profile in:
~/Library/ColorSync/Profiles

Then open up Display in System Preferences, and choose the Color tab. You should be able to see and select the new Display Profile there.
 
mikeon said:
Hi,
I have just got my first Macbook and I was also disappointed with the display which appeared dull and washed out. I calibrated it with the Colorvision Spyder. That improved the display but still it was not great. In fact I found an adjustment that I have not seen mentioned before.

Under System Preferences -> Universal Access there is a slider to adjust screen contrast. A small adjustment here and my screen is much better. :)
M.
Click to expand...

Worked for me... quite well... I just went about 1/3 of the first section and it was more than enough to get this thing straightened out
 
mikeon said:
Hi,
I have just got my first Macbook and I was also disappointed with the display which appeared dull and washed out. I calibrated it with the Colorvision Spyder. That improved the display but still it was not great. In fact I found an adjustment that I have not seen mentioned before.

Under System Preferences -> Universal Access there is a slider to adjust screen contrast. A small adjustment here and my screen is much better. :)
M.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip! Previously was using ~David's profile alone. Now I'm using ~David's profile + contrast (one ctrl+option+cmd+. worths) and my screen looks even better. :cool:
 
update... I just compared my SR MacBook to my old MacBook with the contrast changed under Universal Access and they were exactly the same with the exception of the white point being ever so slightly cooler (I almost didn't notice it... it's that close)
 
Windows XP Screen settings

I'm also running Windows XP on my MacBook Pro. How do I adjust the screen brightness when I'm using Windows XP? Thanks
 
GRL said:
I'm also running Windows XP on my MacBook Pro. How do I adjust the screen brightness when I'm using Windows XP? Thanks
Click to expand...
The brightness keys on the keyboard should work just fine in Windows if you have the Apple drivers installed.
 
Eidorian said:
The brightness keys on the keyboard should work just fine in Windows if you have the Apple drivers installed.
Click to expand...

I tried using the brightness keys, but no responce. Are there special drivers needed when running Windows XP along with Leopard? Thanks
 
GRL said:
I tried using the brightness keys, but no responce. Are there special drivers needed when running Windows XP along with Leopard? Thanks
Click to expand...
Yes, Apple provides special drivers for the keyboards. They're found on the Leopard disc itself.
 
Perfect!!!

This new macbook is my first. I just made the switch to apple. My very first thought after loading all my software on was that the screen doesn't look so good. After installing David's color profile and using the contrast change, I must say that the screen looks awesome. Thank you all for you help and giving enough detail to allow a 15yr + windows user to be able to figure it out how to get the new changes implemented.
 
I downloaded the profile, placed it in the proper folder and selected it in the Color Profile Selector pane. But there doesn't seem to be an immediate or noticeable change in the color scheme and depth on my MacBook (SR, of course). I tried restarting too, but no noticeable change.

What am I doing wrong?
 
new macbook owner here, I also noticed the terrible contrast ratio the screen had. Some googling led me here. I installed David's color profile on both osx and windows xp and got great results. Switching between the stock profile and David's showed a amazing improvement. In windows it still needs some color tweaking but nothing serious.
 
Snow Leopard, makes displays look better

I Have my developer copy of Snow Leopard, once it was installed my screen looked a heck of a lot crisper. So I'm guessing in this test version it may have better drivers for the x3100, however apple did release a graphics update in 10.5.5. & this also improves the screen massively as well
 
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