SR MBP LED LCD yellowish and gradients issue

[otispunkmeyer]

View screen from the sides: That's because of the viewing angles, and as long as it's a TN-panel it will always look that way, and it seems like there are no other panels in laptops, even thought the Lenovo T60p or whatever someone said earlier have had IPS.

You will have even worse viewing angles vertically and it you look from the top it will probably look bright and from the bottom black. This is have the technique used in them work and there is nothing you can do about it.

Straight in front of it would be another issue, but you don't have it so yours are just fine.

Banding in gradients: This is because it's an 18 bit TN-panel, no "millions of colors", only 262k of them. It will be that on all of them and thought it suck and Apple also lies about the amount of colors it can't be fixed.

Spent half a day: Obviously you haven't tried many other OSes, I've spent waaay to many weeks on annoying computer things. (No I'm not talking Windows, atleast not mainly, Windows works just fine.)

well its a 6bit panel, thats 18bit colour and its a TN so that means you get low range of colour depth and naff viewing angles, but decent speed.

i think the viewing angle issue can be so bad at times that even looking head on you'll notice colour shifts in the corners (which will be at an angle to your line of sight and not perpendicular to it like the center)

but then again nearly all laptops use this type of display. but some are better than others. my dads sony 15.4 inch laptop has a great display, bright colours, even lighting and the back light is incredibly bright....but its CCFL and kills the battery pronto. its only 1280x800 but it still shows you can have a pretty decent 6bit panel

the 6bit TN panels use dithering to emulate millions of colours....it comes out to about 16.2 million. standard 2x2 dithering is the worst type, but there is a new dithering technique know as Hi-FRC, its available on those Chi-Mei 22inchers and apparently it aint half bad...certainly improving the case for such panels.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

So, basically, if you intend to do professional graphics and photo work, it will piss you off, so get an external monitor, but if you're programming, using Cad, games and various other normal "civilian" things such as word processing, internet, music and watching DVDs you'd never notice?

And by noticeable, do you mean the colours will look different on the 6 bit dithered screen when compared to a 8, 10 or 12 bit screen, or that you can actually see the colours rapidly switching back and forth?

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/macmason/IMG_2454.JPG

8bit IPS panel next to MBP 15inch LED

also i must point out that i havent noticed a yellow tint issue, just usiing the standard colour profile mind, but mine was a CTO from china.

i wonder if all these problems have just been with the store bought ones?

 

[crap freakboy]

This is making me rather nervous about our MBP when it FINALLY arrives (Pudong 50 member).

 

[ShStylo]

after reading these posts.. i went to check my new MBP to see if I do infact see a yellow tint... and i must say unlike most ppl on this thread... I don't seem to see the 1/3 yellow tint.. as i tried hard to look for it.. however.. from the side viewing angles.. its undeniable.. that the yellow tint is there..

so... is this something that can be fixed through the profile settings and things like that? or is that just a limitation right now with the new LED screens?

 

[AngelGuy7]

I picked my MBP up on Saturday and I also see a yellowish tint toward the bottom of the display. I've tried playing with the viewing angle but its still there. Also, I viewed the gradient image that was posted earlier on this thread (http://att.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=76372&d=1181664671) and I see some definite banding going on.

In the red corner I have a decent solid red triangle, same in the blue. In the green area (about 35%-40% from the bottom of the image to the top) there's a solid line (about 2 or 3 pixels thick) that spans from the left to the right.

Do these two issues point to a defective LCD? I've been reading on here that the units with the LG LCD seem to be better in that they don't have the yellow tint toward the bottom.

Do the LG screens exhibit the same gradient issues that I've mentioned?

 

[aliquis-]

after reading these posts.. i went to check my new MBP to see if I do infact see a yellow tint... and i must say unlike most ppl on this thread... I don't seem to see the 1/3 yellow tint.. as i tried hard to look for it.. however.. from the side viewing angles.. its undeniable.. that the yellow tint is there..

so... is this something that can be fixed through the profile settings and things like that? or is that just a limitation right now with the new LED screens?

You shouldn't be looking from the sides, a TN-panel will always have the yellow / washed out / dark tint there, the issue some people have is that they see a separate bottom field which is more yellow even when looking straight on the screen, if you don't have that there is nothing wrong with your screen.

You would however have had better picture quality with an mva/pva/ips panel.

 

[aliquis-]

I picked my MBP up on Saturday and I also see a yellowish tint toward the bottom of the display. I've tried playing with the viewing angle but its still there. Also, I viewed the gradient image that was posted earlier on this thread (http://att.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=76372&d=1181664671) and I see some definite banding going on.

In the red corner I have a decent solid red triangle, same in the blue. In the green area (about 35%-40% from the bottom of the image to the top) there's a solid line (about 2 or 3 pixels thick) that spans from the left to the right.

Do these two issues point to a defective LCD? I've been reading on here that the units with the LG LCD seem to be better in that they don't have the yellow tint toward the bottom.

Do the LG screens exhibit the same gradient issues that I've mentioned?

Gradient issues comes from the fact that the display is 18 bit colors, nothing to do about that.

 

[AngelGuy7]

Gradient issues comes from the fact that the display is 18 bit colors, nothing to do about that.

I completely understand the limitation of laptop LCD's in terms of color reproduction. However, a friend who owns a previous revision MBP does not see major banding when looking at the same image. He see's small solid color triangles in the corners but he says the green area on his screen looks pretty normal. My SR MBP shows a pretty thick line of darker green in the green area which leads me to believe something might be wrong with my screen.

Out of curiousity can some of the issues be a result of the video card? Bad drivers maybe? I'm just wondering.

 

[ShStylo]

You shouldn't be looking from the sides, a TN-panel will always have the yellow / washed out / dark tint there, the issue some people have is that they see a separate bottom field which is more yellow even when looking straight on the screen, if you don't have that there is nothing wrong with your screen.

You would however have had better picture quality with an mva/pva/ips panel.

Thank you very much for your response.. now I can rest easier..

 

[aliquis-]

My SR MBP shows a pretty thick line of darker green in the green area which leads me to believe something might be wrong with my screen.

Ok, I have no idea, I don't even know how it looks at your screen. I guess the easiest way to be sure is to view the image on another mbp and compare.

I don't have a MBP, I where going to get one, last revision or this one, but the 128MB vram issue might but me off from it again

I just wonder WHEN I will get my macbook , stupid Apple.

Also I have a 17" CRT atm and ordered the Dell 2007 WFP 2 days ago so I have nothing to compare and see banding with.

 

[aliquis-]

Thank you very much for your response.. now I can rest easier..

You can easily see how TN looks from the side here:
http://www.behardware.com/articles/662-4/22-inch-lcd-monitors-the-second-coming.html

Your screens shows similair performance? Right?

Compare that to the IPS

 

[Shaddow825]

damn i almost had a heart attack when i switched my 15inch MBP on for the first time

i had small ripling waves travelling down the screen from both upper coners!

thankfully once OSX had set itself up it cured itself, and now it only happens ever so slightly on only one website i visit and even then its just the front page.

www.finalgear.com

the dark grey design that uses patterned squares i get that moving wave effect, oddly it travels right to left for the left hand side and left to righ on the right hand side.

if i put that part of the web page in the screens center though it goes away. pretty odd. but its only one website and on a page that gets displayed for as long as it takes the forums to load up so its not a big deal.

my concern is the colours....rather washed out. but i guess i have been spoilt with my 8bit IPS panel in my dell 2005FPW

I noticed the same thing as far as the rippling. I saw the same thing on different pages with my original MBP but it happens so rarely that it doesn't concern me much.

To get around the contrast issue I set my gamma to 2.2 in the colorsync calibration wizard and nudged the whitebalance down slightly below 6500K and that seemed to make thing a bit more contrasty for me.

 

[ShStylo]

You can easily see how TN looks from the side here:
http://www.behardware.com/articles/662-4/22-inch-lcd-monitors-the-second-coming.html

Your screens shows similair performance? Right?

Compare that to the IPS

Yea.. mine looks just like the TN 5ms.. I guess this is normal then... gosh.. >< even my old Laptop looked better from the side.. Toshiba Trubrite Technology.. ftw..

 

[ryan42]

I'm glad that it's not just me. It is a little annoying sometimes. I usually prefer bluish tint than yellow. Bottom half of the screen looks a little yellow/darker on white. You can test by place 2 browser windows with http://www.apple.com/. One on top half and one on the bottom. The white "Leopard" text look different isn't it?

Eerrr. Not quite. Imagine you had a big scratch on your display. Imagine you wanted to show this scratch to us, and you took a screenshot and sent it to us. That's what you just did.

The yellow is in the display, not the rendering.

 

[powerocool]

Eerrr. Not quite. Imagine you had a big scratch on your display. Imagine you wanted to show this scratch to us, and you took a screenshot and sent it to us. That's what you just did.

The yellow is in the display, not the rendering.

Let's move on. I already explained in a later post that it is just to show people how to check if they have the problem, not to show my problem through a screenshot, which is impossible of course.

To update, I took it back and got one that does not have the screen problem.

 

[jordanb]

I just got my new SR MBP yesterday, and am pretty sure I have the yellow 1/3 problem. I can definitely see it, however only about 2/3 of the people I've showed it to agree that it's there. I can't tell when I'm playing a game, but it is noticeable and irritates me on web pages with light grey to white backgrounds. This is my first Mac and I really love it with the exception of the screen.

Can anyone tell me the process of trying to get this fixed (I've tried the different profiles and they only make the problem more apparent), or getting a replacement. Unfortunately I picked a CTO (2.2 Ghz with 160GB Hard Drive) so I figure I'll have to ship it back to them, but I'm afraid of getting a worse one.

So, anyone got any advice? Also it seems that my yellowing isn't definite where it starts, it's more of a gradual increase from the bottom 1/3 to the very bottom, but the further down it goes the more obvious it is.

 

[Habusho]

A little update to mine. I used to have the 15" glossy that had the 1/3 yellow problem which was a loaner. My main replacement came in and I'm typing on it right now. It has a 9c67 type panel (matte) which I think means it's manufactured by LG and no problems whatsoever on this monitor. It looks phenomenal. Even the stock color profile is pretty good. This thing is very comparable to my 23" ACD in color rendition. I'm going to have it calibrated this week and see if I can get it even better.

 

[wako]

To those people who traded it in...



Was the discoloration VERY apparent? Mine seems to be on the lower 1/3 half but isnt too apparent. Im afraid they will just blame viewing angle or pull something out so that they wont service it. What convinced them that it was indeed discoloration? It is a very slight discoloration after all...

 

[aliquis-]

Was the discoloration VERY apparent?

I haven't seen them myself but from everyones comments it seems like it's just a very slight tint (some people says many probably wouldn't notice it), in any case just ask them for a new one and tell them that there are many people who have the same problem on the Internet who have got it replaced with others which had flawless screens.

 

[PDE]

To those people who traded it in...



Was the discoloration VERY apparent? Mine seems to be on the lower 1/3 half but isnt too apparent. Im afraid they will just blame viewing angle or pull something out so that they wont service it. What convinced them that it was indeed discoloration? It is a very slight discoloration after all...

It's discoloration because with the same background it looks different in the lower third compared to the rest of the display. OBVIOUSLY, the displays are suppose to look the same everywhere and Apple never intended for one part to be yellowish.Exchange it! I did and now have a display that is much better.

 

[HFU]

Please call Apple before your exchange/return

After reading many posts regarding to LED LCD issues for people who have gone through exchanges/returns, it's recommended for people to call Apple service before return/exchange. This will make a valid case in Apple customer support which will get escalate into manufacturing channel when Apple release the next batch of MBP. If people just keep on exchanging/returning without informing Apple, Apple won't notice this is a wider issue, and chances are people will end up getting the same repackage unit through exchanges until Apple seriously look into this issue.

 

[Mr Fusion]

I got my 15" Glossy screen in the mail yesterday, and it has the yellow. It doesn't really bother me though so I'm hesitant to trade in an otherwise perfect machine.

I've heard a lot of people exchanging matte screens and having good results, does anyone have a flawless [or exchanged for a flawless] glossy display?

 

[anothermacaddic]

it looks like someone pissed on my screen.

Thats not an issue, thats a feature! You figured out what the l is in the new lcd's! Piss!

 

[Alloye]

I've heard a lot of people exchanging matte screens and having good results, does anyone have a flawless [or exchanged for a flawless] glossy display?

My glossy Samsung is nearly perfect after calibration with an Eye-One Display 2. Prior to that, the entire display was yellow. I didn't really notice it until I compared my calibrated profile with the default one. Now switching back and forth between the two reveals a very definite yellow cast with Apple's "Color LCD" profile. Calibrated, I have bright, crisp whites and neutral greys that approximate those of my 23" ACD.

The only minor imperfection I see is a slight bit of uneven illumination along the edges. For example, on my display, the bottom edge is slightly less bright than the rest of the screen. And the top left is slightly more bright than the top right. But I have yet to see any LCD that was 100% perfect in this regard, so I'm actually quite happy. My machine has no other issues, no flickering, no dead pixels, and great fit and finish. I'm keeping it.

 

[Mr Fusion]

My glossy Samsung is nearly perfect after calibration with an Eye-One Display 2. Prior to that, the entire display was yellow. I didn't really notice it until I compared my calibrated profile with the default one. Now switching back and forth between the two reveals a very definite yellow cast with Apple's "Color LCD" profile. Calibrated, I have bright, crisp whites and neutral greys that approximate those of my 23" ACD.

Could you please send me your calibrated profile to see if that has any affect on my display? I agree the Color LCD profile is too yellow and the other .icc files I found floating around the boards turned my display purple.