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MBPr 15" : Is my screen defective? (Black level issue)

H

haafling

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 12, 2014
33
0
Hello,

I just bought the last 15" MPBr (a fantastic machine!) and I've noticed a big problem :

the black level on the retina screen is strangely high. I've tried to watch a movie and the dark scene were unwatchable, there was barely something visible ...
The navigation in the finder, itunes is fine though. I've tried several calibrated profils but the black level never changed. I do a lot of photography work and it is very annoying. I showed the issue to my reseller (I live in Belgium, there's no apple store here) and he told me that is normal for a retina display ... I've bought this mac cause I've read excellent review of the retina for photo related work ...

I've made a search and found this : http://lagemaat.blogspot.be/2014/01/serious-color-management-bug-in-mac-os.html
Any ideas?

Can someone with a retina display take this test http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/black.php and write the results please?

Thank you,
 
I can't see any difference on the 5 first cubes, however the website tells me that its normal if you are using an Apple Mac.
 
Intelligent said:
I can't see any difference on the 5 first cubes, however the website tells me that its normal if you are using an Apple Mac.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply.

Same for me, 5 cubes. I can see from the second square with my old 17" Mpb.

It surprises me a lot .. When I watch a video, there's a lack of details in the shadows zone. Does that bother you too?
 
Same here and the first 5 cubes, though it doesn't disturb me a bit. Everything looks good, and I do quite a bit of work with images too, albeit not professionally. I haven't noticed the lack of details in the shadow zone when watching movies but then again I haven't been looking out for it.
 
Lachhh said:
Same here and the first 5 cubes, though it doesn't disturb me a bit. Everything looks good, and I do quite a bit of work with images too, albeit not professionally. I haven't noticed the lack of details in the shadow zone when watching movies but then again I haven't been looking out for it.
Click to expand...

Do you think it's my screen ?

I've made some search and there's a few people that have the same issue. Can you tell me if you can see the details in this picture?
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/16597600/

Thank you all
 
haafling said:
Do you think it's my screen ?

I've made some search and there's a few people that have the same issue. Can you tell me if you can see the details in this picture?
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/16597600/

Thank you all
Click to expand...

I see them all perfectly, though I had to zoom in a lot to do so. (That's because my eyes suck.) The display seems to be showing me everything, though. (The grilles at the darkest areas, etc. all there.)
For what it's worth.
 
Lachhh said:
I see them all perfectly, though I had to zoom in a lot to do so. (That's because my eyes suck.) The display seems to be showing me everything, though. (The grilles at the darkest areas, etc. all there.)
For what it's worth.
Click to expand...

Once again, same for me :D With the zoom, everything's ok.

I don't need to zoom on my old 17" though. Maybe that's just the way the retina is build I don't know. I do a lot of B&W photo editing and it's a pain with that screen.

There's a couple of resellers near to my position so I think I'm going to visit them to compare with the in-store model.
 
haafling said:
Once again, same for me :D With the zoom, everything's ok.

I don't need to zoom on my old 17" though. Maybe that's just the way the retina is build I don't know. I do a lot of B&W photo editing and it's a pain with that screen.

There's a couple of resellers near to my position so I think I'm going to visit them to compare with the in-store model.
Click to expand...

Alright. Sorry about not being able to help you re: what it looks like unzoomed.
If it worries you, by all means take it in. Good luck.
 
Apple's default calibrations seem to tend to be done like this. My 2010 17" (1920x1080 TN anti-glare) is calibrated out of the box so that the first 4 bars are invisible. Well, technically they're not invisible as you can see some dithering if you look at it from an extreme angle, but there's no actual grey properly visible. I get the same result when I plug it into a 27" cinema display because it's a software calibration profile.

With a meter you could easily change this, however just going by Apple's calibration software I think you're likely to simply make things worse. Never hurts to try since it doesn't overwrite the default calibration. If you run Bootcamp (and have an NV GPU) you can use the Nvidia calibration controls, which are simple sliders, but I don't know of anything like that for OSX.
 
Atomic Walrus said:
Apple's default calibrations seem to tend to be done like this. My 2010 17" (1920x1080 TN anti-glare) is calibrated out of the box so that the first 4 bars are invisible. Well, technically they're not invisible as you can see some dithering if you look at it from an extreme angle, but there's no actual grey properly visible. I get the same result when I plug it into a 27" cinema display because it's a software calibration profile.

With a meter you could easily change this, however just going by Apple's calibration software I think you're likely to simply make things worse. Never hurts to try since it doesn't overwrite the default calibration. If you run Bootcamp (and have an NV GPU) you can use the Nvidia calibration controls, which are simple sliders, but I don't know of anything like that for OSX.
Click to expand...

I don't have the NV GPU, just Iris Pro (it fits my need)

Can you give me more informations on the hardware you used to calibrate the screen please?

Thank you all, it helped me a lot :)
 
It's called black crush, and is a problem for many types of LCD screens. My LG LM7600 had terrible black crush. Many Samsungs have the problem too.
 
NovemberWhiskey said:
It's called black crush, and is a problem for many types of LCD screens. My LG LM7600 had terrible black crush. Many Samsungs have the problem too.
Click to expand...

Before my purchase, I've read a lot of tests carefully and they never mentionned that problem, all giving 4 or 5 stars .. That's why I was a bit surprised/disappointed. Hope that the calibration can correct that.
 
haafling said:
Before my purchase, I've read a lot of tests carefully and they never mentionned that problem, all giving 4 or 5 stars .. That's why I was a bit surprised/disappointed. Hope that the calibration can correct that.
Click to expand...

If they are not specifically testing for that, then they wouldn't report it and it wouldn't affect the rating.

Even many TV reviewers don't mention black crush in their tests. Only the really geeky ones.

Be wary of reviews. I've seen lots of "professional" television reviews completely fail to mention a thing or two.
 
NovemberWhiskey said:
If they are not specifically testing for that, then they wouldn't report it and it wouldn't affect the rating.

Even many TV reviewers don't mention black crush in their tests. Only the really geeky ones.

Be wary of reviews. I've seen lots of "professional" television reviews completely fail to mention a thing or two.
Click to expand...

The more and more time that goes by the more and more I distrust reviews. :confused:

Still I tried to watch a dark movie like The Dark Knight Trilogy and it was unwatchable on the retina screen in comparason with my others laptops (but then the blacks are a bit washed out).

I'm going to try to calibrate it but I was excepting more of one of the best laptop available.
 
Go to system prefs > displays > color and calibrate it. Among other settings, you can choose a lower gamma, which will reveal more things in the dark areas. It's all configurable.
 
clamnectar said:
Go to system prefs > displays > color and calibrate it. Among other settings, you can choose a lower gamma, which will reveal more things in the dark areas. It's all configurable.
Click to expand...

Will this not mess up with the color calibration? I've read that the screen is made to use a Gamma 2.2 but I'm not pro so it would be nice to have the opinion of one.

Thanks for your advice.
 
haafling said:
Will this not mess up with the color calibration? I've read that the screen is made to use a Gamma 2.2 but I'm not pro so it would be nice to have the opinion of one.

Thanks for your advice.
Click to expand...

If the current settings don't properly display your colors, you don't really have to worry too much about messing it up, do you? Try to fix it. If it doesn't work, go back to the default settings. You can save all the different calibrations.
 
clamnectar said:
If the current settings don't properly display your colors, you don't really have to worry too much about messing it up, do you? Try to fix it. If it doesn't work, go back to the default settings. You can save all the different calibrations.
Click to expand...

I've got a profil made with an hardware solution (that isn't mine), is it possible to change the gamma of the profil and not redo the whole calibration?
 
Retinas crush blacks

This was widely reported at the time they came out in many reviews, it's one of the prices you pay for the detail. Other than this the screens are excellent but it is their one flaw (unless you have IR).
 
Honestly, I can tell the differences between all of the panels even the very first row, the darkest one is on the left and they get progressively lighter as you go along. I am running Yosemite so that may be making a difference for me. Do you have the LG panel or the Samsung panel? When I first got my retina MacBook Pro, it came with an LG panel. I usually hate it when people on this forum nit pick about very tiny things, but the LG panel was truly awful, had several dead pixels. They replaced it with a samsung panel and it has been absolutely perfect for over two years now.

I reallllllly have to strain to see the difference between that top left box and the background, but it is still distinguishable.
 
AxoNeuron said:
Honestly, I can tell the differences between all of the panels even the very first row, the darkest one is on the left and they get progressively lighter as you go along. I am running Yosemite so that may be making a difference for me. Do you have the LG panel or the Samsung panel? When I first got my retina MacBook Pro, it came with an LG panel. I usually hate it when people on this forum nit pick about very tiny things, but the LG panel was truly awful, had several dead pixels. They replaced it with a samsung panel and it has been absolutely perfect for over two years now.

I reallllllly have to strain to see the difference between that top left box and the background, but it is still distinguishable.
Click to expand...

I've got a Samsung. I've checked on two different resellers and same results on the in-store model ... My screen is a bit yellow too (corrected with a profil but still it's disappointing for a high-end laptop)

Do you know if the 14 days return are available for me? Knowing that I didn't buy it on a Apple Store (Not yet in my country)
 
MacInTO said:
+1 same here.

I just got my screen replaced because of the IR issue. It's all good now though.
Click to expand...

Do you watch movies on your Macbook ? Is everything ok ? I just find it too dark (especially in the shadows, for example near the eyes) but I don't know if my MPB has an issue or if it's normal. Just checked the in-store model and compared with a video on youtube, they had the same issue (yellow tint too ...)
 
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