Purple blues on new 13" rMBP?

[glhughes]

Just unpacked my new 13" rMBP and have noticed that the blues look really purple on the screen. Links on various websites (e.g. google) look a deep purple to my eye, and it's extremely apparent when sitting next to my 2010 MBAir.

Has anyone else experienced this with either the 13" or 15" rMBPs?

 

[T5BRICK]

Have you tried calibrating your display?

 

[glhughes]

Have you tried calibrating your display?

I have just run through the built-in calibration, didn't seem to make things any better, just darker and perhaps even more purple. I don't have a screen calibration tool so can't do much more than that for now.

It's kind of strange as some range of the blues shows up just like blue but the 0/0/255 value seems to go right off into the purple space. :/

Has anyone put together a color profile for the 13" rMBP that they could share?

Thanks.

 

[glhughes]

Interestingly, I tried to take a picture side-by-side with my MBAir and the link text actually looks blue in the camera. I wonder if this is some kind of wide-gamut issue with the display? Is anyone else seeing this kind of weirdness? It is incredibly distracting to me.

 

[Beta Particle]

This is a longstanding "issue"

In short, your MacBook Air has a significantly smaller than sRGB gamut, and due to how inaccurate the panels are, blues looked "bluer" than they should have done. (shifted towards cyan)

If you were to calibrate your MacBook Air display, you would notice that blue shifts towards purple as well:

http://i.imgur.com/WY4wF.jpg[/img]
Source

Red = Uncalibrated MacBook Blue - very inaccurate, hue is not even within the sRGB gamut, and very undersaturated
Green = sRGB Target Blue - roughly where the new Retina MacBook Pro blue is.
Magenta = Calibrated MacBook Blue - hue shifted towards purple, but very undersaturated.

The blues on the new display are significantly more accurate, but that does put more "purple" in the blues.


You see the same thing when moving from the inaccurate iPad 1/2 displays to the iPad 3/4 displays.

I have just run through the built-in calibration, didn't seem to make things any better, just darker and perhaps even more purple. I don't have a screen calibration tool so can't do much more than that for now.

Unless you actually have calibration hardware, you are probably best to stick with the standard display profile. Adjusting a display by eye is disastrous.

 

[chambone]

I have just run through the built-in calibration, didn't seem to make things any better, just darker and perhaps even more purple. I don't have a screen calibration tool so can't do much more than that for now.

It's kind of strange as some range of the blues shows up just like blue but the 0/0/255 value seems to go right off into the purple space. :/

Has anyone put together a color profile for the 13" rMBP that they could share?

Thanks.

The built-in calibrator is rubbish. If you can't get your hands on calibration hardware, give supercal a try http://www.bergdesign.com/supercal/
Will produce a more accurate profile than anything that's on the computer by default.

 

[Naimfan]

I've not seen this, at least not in comparison to anything else in the house (2.4 GHz i5 13", 2.4 GHz i7 15", a couple of PC laptops, iPad 3). If anything, I thought the color was a bit better than on the two other MBPs in the house.

The screen is the last thing I have anything negative to say about on the 13" rMBP.

 

[glhughes]

Thanks for the replies.

I am planning to go out and buy a colorimeter to calibrate the display. Are there any recommendations on the best one with a reasonable price (~$200)? PC and Mac compatibility would be great; then I can use it at work too.

This is the only display I have ever seen with the purple blues. I understand LCDs typically have a narrow color gamut but I don't think my plasma TV (Pioneer Elite 101FD) shows the links as purply-blue either; I will have to check on my HTPC when I get home.

I also need to stop by the Apple store and check out the display models again. I have played with the 15" rMBP in store before and did not notice this issue at the time (but I wasn't looking for it).

 

[snoylekim]

Thanks for the replies.

I am planning to go out and buy a colorimeter to calibrate the display. Are there any recommendations on the best one with a reasonable price (~$200)? PC and Mac compatibility would be great; then I can use it at work too.

This is the only display I have ever seen with the purple blues. I understand LCDs typically have a narrow color gamut but I don't think my plasma TV (Pioneer Elite 101FD) shows the links as purply-blue either; I will have to check on my HTPC when I get home.

I also need to stop by the Apple store and check out the display models again. I have played with the 15" rMBP in store before and did not notice this issue at the time (but I wasn't looking for it).

I use an I1 Display Pro ...Price is a little higher ( 225 -250) , but it's an excellent device and works well .. Calibrated my 15" rMBP w/ an LG panel w/ excellent results . There's an earlier thread in the forum w/ some profiles and calibration reports that have already been done for both LG and Samsung Displays .. recommend one does their own, but you can always try a profile for your panel and see what difference it makes to start with ..

Another thing to keep in mind is we have 1 display, but 2 graphics adaptors ( Intel 4000 and the Nvidia ) .. in theory, that means separate profiles if you're a real stickler .. Are you seeing the purples with both Graphics options , or .. ?

 

[glhughes]

I use an I1 Display Pro ...Price is a little higher ( 225 -250) , but it's an excellent device and works well .. Calibrated my 15" rMBP w/ an LG panel w/ excellent results . There's an earlier thread in the forum w/ some profiles and calibration reports that have already been done for both LG and Samsung Displays .. recommend one does their own, but you can always try a profile for your panel and see what difference it makes to start with ..

Another thing to keep in mind is we have 1 display, but 2 graphics adaptors ( Intel 4000 and the Nvidia ) .. in theory, that means separate profiles if you're a real stickler .. Are you seeing the purples with both Graphics options , or .. ?

Just bought an I1 Display Pro myself (bought before reading this, go figure 🙂). We'll see how this goes when it arrives. BTW, if anyone else is interested there is a $50 rebate available on it through 12/31.

I have the 13" rMBP so it is just the HD4000 GPU that I need to worry about.

 

[b0fh666]

nice name for a band... 'purple blues' 😀

 

[glhughes]

Got the i1 Display Pro and calibrated the displays on my MBAir and the rMBP.

The blues on the MBAir are deeper/darker now and they about match what the blues look like on my plasma TV (Pioneer Elite 101FD). Everything is calibrated to D65.

Dark blues on the rMBP still look obviously purple. 🙁

Also noticed some image retention from the dock when rebooting the machine (grey background) to install the drivers for the colorimeter. There is also some red tinging towards the LHS of the screen.

Really quite disappointed in the rMBP at the moment. I am going to have to see what the other rMBPs look like at the Apple store before I can make a decision about whether to keep this thing.

 

[snoylekim]

Got the i1 Display Pro and calibrated the displays on my MBAir and the rMBP.

The blues on the MBAir are deeper/darker now and they about match what the blues look like on my plasma TV (Pioneer Elite 101FD). Everything is calibrated to D65.

Dark blues on the rMBP still look obviously purple. 🙁

Also noticed some image retention from the dock when rebooting the machine (grey background) to install the drivers for the colorimeter. There is also some red tinging towards the LHS of the screen.

Really quite disappointed in the rMBP at the moment. I am going to have to see what the other rMBPs look like at the Apple store before I can make a decision about whether to keep this thing.

Sorry to hear that ..you might have gotten a bad one ..out of curiousity, did you run the validation report on the calibration for the RMBP ..would be interesting to see what delta Es it hit ..especially on the darker blue reference patches ..

 

[iLukeJoseph]

How is/was your PIO calibrated? Did you pay for a professional calibration (BestBuy ones do not count). That TV deserves a real high quality calibration 🙂 Which now with your colorimeter (good pick), and if you buy a copy of Calman you will be rockin!

The real reason I ask is since you are trying to compare your rMBP to your MBA (which I am not even sure it can hit proper gamut points with calibration), and to your Pioneer. But you need to make sure at least one of them is properly calibrated.

This is what I would do. Ditch the X-Rite software. It's not bad, but there is better. And download BasicColor5 (full trial for 14 days, it makes your profile which is all you need). Run through the calibration (use advanced, 6500k, L* or sRGB or whatever other gamma you want, white point of around 100-120, and native black level). Once done it will kick out an easy to read report (see my sig). If you are seeing large deviations (bars on the graph being high, getting ign DeltaE numbers), I would bet something is wrong.

If you don't want to go through all that, set the profile back to default and take it to the Apple store. Go to another 13" rMBP and compare.

 

[glhughes]

Sorry to hear that ..you might have gotten a bad one ..out of curiousity, did you run the validation report on the calibration for the RMBP ..would be interesting to see what delta Es it hit ..especially on the darker blue reference patches ..

I've attached the results for the standard set and the first spot set.

The patches actually seem to be closer on the rMBP than the MBAir. Some of the values for the blues seem to have large delta-Es (3-8+) though. 🙁

 

[ixodes]

Fortunately we have top of the line pro grade calibration tools at work. It does make a world of difference. My MBA's & MBP's all responded nicely.

Here's a link.

http://xritephoto.com/ph_product_overview.aspx?ID=1913

 

[iLukeJoseph]

Fortunately we have top of the line pro grade calibration tools at work. It does make a world of difference. My MBA's & MBP's all responded nicely.

Here's a link.

http://xritephoto.com/ph_product_overview.aspx?ID=1913

So the MBA can actually hit rec 709 color gamut? I dont like referring to sRGB as a color gamut spec, cause in reality sRGB does not have its own "color gamut", it uses BT709 color gamut, and its own Gamma curve, which is what makes is sRGB.

And please don't take this the wrong way. But what you linked isn't "pro-grade, top of the line". And while the i1pro2 is freaking awesome. It's actually an entry/mid-grade level spectro.

 

[glhughes]

How is/was your PIO calibrated?

It has not been professionally calibrated (I know, I know 🙂). The elite PIOs are supposed to be pretty good out of the box so I was mainly worried about color temp. I also tend not to calibrate my displays unless I notice something jarring about them. In any case, most of them have generally looked the same except for whitepoint and saturation. The outlier is the rMBP.

<snip>

The real reason I ask is since you are trying to compare your rMBP to your MBA (which I am not even sure it can hit proper gamut points with calibration), and to your Pioneer. But you need to make sure at least one of them is properly calibrated.

Agree. I may try the colorimeter on the PIO (if I can find a USB extension).

This is what I would do. Ditch the X-Rite software. It's not bad, but there is better. And download BasicColor5 (full trial for 14 days, it makes your profile which is all you need). Run through the calibration (use advanced, 6500k, L* or sRGB or whatever other gamma you want, white point of around 100-120, and native black level). Once done it will kick out an easy to read report (see my sig). If you are seeing large deviations (bars on the graph being high, getting ign DeltaE numbers), I would bet something is wrong.

May have to try this.

If you don't want to go through all that, set the profile back to default and take it to the Apple store. Go to another 13" rMBP and compare.

I did stop by the Apple store last night (without my rMBP) and noticed that the blues did seem about the same as on mine. Even the 15" screens looked a little purpley.

There is a bit of a pinkish discoloration on the LHS of the screen that may be making things look more purple than they should be. I need to go back and look at the color purity of the rMBP displays to be sure.

 

[Beta Particle]

Post your profiles. I am quite certain that the issue is you being used to the inaccurate blue of the old MacBook Air, rather than the new MacBook Pro being purple.

 

[glhughes]

Post your profiles. I am quite certain that the issue is you being used to the inaccurate blue of the old MacBook Air, rather than the new MacBook Pro being purple.

Will do when I get home. I am almost there on the blues, but I think the pinkish hue on the LHS is not helping since text is usually grouped there.

BTW, I have seen various people plotting their gamut charts. Is there a utility to do this from an ICC profile or otherwise?

 

[Idefix]

now that you know you're getting a purple cast, you should calibrate it once more.

pay special attention in the calibration to NOT getting a purple cast.

the second calibration should turn out better, use it for awhile, see what part is objectionable, you can redo the calibration with the necessary correction in mind.

 

[iLukeJoseph]

It has not been professionally calibrated (I know, I know 🙂). The elite PIOs are supposed to be pretty good out of the box so I was mainly worried about color temp. I also tend not to calibrate my displays unless I notice something jarring about them. In any case, most of them have generally looked the same except for whitepoint and saturation. The outlier is the rMBP.

<snip>



Agree. I may try the colorimeter on the PIO (if I can find a USB extension).



May have to try this.



I did stop by the Apple store last night (without my rMBP) and noticed that the blues did seem about the same as on mine. Even the 15" screens looked a little purpley.

There is a bit of a pinkish discoloration on the LHS of the screen that may be making things look more purple than they should be. I need to go back and look at the color purity of the rMBP displays to be sure.

Yeah dude, do me a favor and do a calibration with BasicColor and either post the .pdf report here or shoot me a PM. If you can get me that info I can tell you in about 10 seconds if there is a real problem 🙂

You can also click the link in my sig and look at the graphs for reference. The screen at least on the 15" is pretty much reference quality (I.e. can be used in professional work environments). I would hope the 13 is of similar quality.

Oh and man oh man. Now you have your colorimeter look into getting Calman and do a proper calibration on your TV. I am sure you are aware, but TV's are just now coming close to the picture quality of the Kuro's. Freaking amazing TV's.

 

[glhughes]

Will do when I get home. I am almost there on the blues, but I think the pinkish hue on the LHS is not helping since text is usually grouped there.

BTW, I have seen various people plotting their gamut charts. Is there a utility to do this from an ICC profile or otherwise?

Ok, here are the profiles generated by the i1 software -- have not tried BasicColor 5 yet.

I also noticed that the built-in Color Sync utility does low-rent gamut charts, so I've included an overlay of my 2010 MBAir and the 13" rMBP. I don't know how to get it to plot the HD colorspace otherwise I'd have overlaid that too.