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SR MBP LED LCD yellowish and gradients issue
- Thread starter issic
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Most MBP LCDs regardless of manufactures will show some kind of banding between gradient color change due to the 6-bit dithering effect. It's not the problem with your MBP LCD. The image I attached from previous post was the result from running LCDTest 2.0 on C2D MBP. You may try that on LED MBP.
Agreed. But they might make some displays look a bit more normal. The default profile - at least for the Samsung panels - is pretty bad.
I don't know about Samsung panels but my LG panel's profile is almost spot on. I'm comparing to a calibrated 23" ACD and it's very close + it has more vibrant colors.
Hey guys, here is an objective way to test the bottom yellow tint:
1) Open two blank documents on Word (or another program that has WHITE windows). Resize them to about a width of 1/5 the height of the screen. Put one on top of the screen and the other at the bottom. Change your desktop background to neutral gray.
2) Photograph your screen with a digital camera (preferably on a tripod) in a dark room. To avoid the "viewing angle" aim the camera on the center of the display (which should be exactly vertical).
3) Open the photo on the Mac and use Digital Color Meter to accurately measure the colors on the two different windows. Digital Color Meter is a program that comes bundled in OS X, you open it and it tells you the color anywhere in the screen. It's in on Applications/Utilities.
Keep in mind that this is very sensitive and may pickup stuff that your eyes don't.
1) Open two blank documents on Word (or another program that has WHITE windows). Resize them to about a width of 1/5 the height of the screen. Put one on top of the screen and the other at the bottom. Change your desktop background to neutral gray.
2) Photograph your screen with a digital camera (preferably on a tripod) in a dark room. To avoid the "viewing angle" aim the camera on the center of the display (which should be exactly vertical).
3) Open the photo on the Mac and use Digital Color Meter to accurately measure the colors on the two different windows. Digital Color Meter is a program that comes bundled in OS X, you open it and it tells you the color anywhere in the screen. It's in on Applications/Utilities.
Keep in mind that this is very sensitive and may pickup stuff that your eyes don't.
I also have a calibrated 23" ACD. Using the default profile, my MBP has a noticably warmer (i.e. more yellow) whitepoint than the ACD. After calibration, the two displays are nearly identical in this regard.
Here are a few more observations I've made:
- The ACD does better on gradient tests. This is no surprise considering it employs an 8-bit S-IPS panel.
- The ACD has more contrast, but the MBP is actually more vibrant and does better with shadow detail. I'm pretty surprised by this.
- I've always thought the ACD looked a little grainy. It's now quite obvious next to the ultra-smooth display in my MBP.
- Both displays have some degree of uneven illumination. My MBP is a little darker along the bottom and also in the upper right corner. The ACD is a little darker all the way around the edges.
- On a totally black screen, the ACD has considerable backlight bleed coming up from several places along the bottom. The MBP has virtually none. Also, blacks on the MBP are a bit deeper, but that's likely due to the glossy finish.
Alloye, how old is your ACD. I thin they upgraded the panels on these about 9 months ago.
I haven't noticed any graininess on my ACD. It's beautiful. I did have a problem with my first ACD having a warmer left side that I replaced and I haven't had any problems since. It's a beautiful monitor both in performance and aesthetics. I calibrated using a monaco optix sensor and their software.
OK, so I was under the impression that all laptop screens have relative the same type of issues with gradient banding due to the fact that they can't display 8-bit color. However, I just got a crappy Dell Latitude D610 from my job yesterday and I loaded up the same gradient (http://att.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=76372&d=1181664671) that was posted here earlier and it looks incredibly smooth. Not as good as my desktop screen but FAR FAR better than my new MBP. 😕
Seriously, how can this be? I'm now tempted to take the Dell and take the MBP down to the Apple Store and have a Genius explain it to me because honestly there's no excuse why a laptop that is supposed to be deemed as a "professional" machine should display colors worse than a generic Dell laptop, especially since Macs are targeted more towards the creative \ artistic kind (like me) and since my MBP is probably double the price of this crappy Dell. I don't believe it's just my MBP either because when I first encountered the gradient banding I went down to the Apple store the next day, loaded up the same image on a couple of the units they had on display and they all appeared exactly the same.
Right now I'm pretty disappointed being that this is my first mac (which I waited very very long for), but more so I'm just confused.
Seriously, how can this be? I'm now tempted to take the Dell and take the MBP down to the Apple Store and have a Genius explain it to me because honestly there's no excuse why a laptop that is supposed to be deemed as a "professional" machine should display colors worse than a generic Dell laptop, especially since Macs are targeted more towards the creative \ artistic kind (like me) and since my MBP is probably double the price of this crappy Dell. I don't believe it's just my MBP either because when I first encountered the gradient banding I went down to the Apple store the next day, loaded up the same image on a couple of the units they had on display and they all appeared exactly the same.
Right now I'm pretty disappointed being that this is my first mac (which I waited very very long for), but more so I'm just confused.
I think that the reason has to do with these displays being many times brighter and with much higher contrast than the old ones. My old Pismo looks better in terms of gradients than my new SR MBP, but it's also much much more dim. The contrast and brightness seem to accentuate the inherent limitations of LCD technology. To those in the know: does that make sense?
I bought my ACD in October 2006. It was one of the newer ones with updated specs. I agree it is an awesome display. One of my favorites, as a matter of fact. I just wanted to point out that the new MBPs are nice as well.
has anyone else noticed this too? If you turn off the backlit keyboard then your screen looks more uniform with less yellow tinting in where ever you noticed it in? Because for me I dont have the bottom yellow tinting but on the left side it seems to have a pink/yellowish tint and when I turn off the backlit keyboard it seems to become more neutral color.
for those of you (including me) who are waiting for the 7200 rpm. we have to deal with this yellowish bull-crap too right? we are screwed, aren't we?
no there is hope though, my cousin picked up a 2.4ghz matte yesterday and it was near perfect. Only problems I see with the screens that dont have the yellow tinting on the bottom seems to have a brighter left side of the screen that makes the whites look a big brighter than the right side of the screen, which is hardly noticable. I'm actually thinking about returning my mbp and just getting a ACD 23" with the new core 2 duo macbooks(still very nice).
so if you are lucky, then you'll get a not-too-screw-one. Well, we are still screwed. whatever... pretend to be colorblind, i guess.
Many thanks! 🙂
I still got the yellow going on though I think I'll swing by the Store and see if all the other glossy's have it. If they do then no biggie but if I see a non-yellow one I'm exchanging.
Also at my local Apple store, the manager informed me that they do not have very many glossy mbp's because apparently apple said there was a defect with the glossy displays and their not shipping anymore to the store. Because my cousin wanted a glossy yesterday.
I had followed all the threads on the yellowish tint to the screen since this model was released. I finally decided to buy one three days ago. I have the-8 screen which I believe is a Samsung. I have tried to see the yellow and so has my wife. I have tired to convince myself I see it. (why I don't know) I have put this machine next to my 17" and my wife's 15" CD on identical web pages. Sometimes you swear you see it but just can't be sure. I think the screen is sooo much different than the previous one its hard to make a comparison. When the screen is calibrated its much much better. Wonder if Apple even changed the standard LCD color profile when they started using the LED screen. In my opinion its a beautiful screen, At any rate I'm hanging on to this till the end of my two weeks to see what developes.
no its not only the glossy its more of a hit or miss thing. But when I first had my matte mbp it had a very noticable yellow right above the dock area but when I had it exchanged for my current one(without the yellow tint on the bottom) I was thinking of getting the glossy but they told me that they had no more in stock. And a week later which was yesterday my cousin wanted a glossy and that's when they told me they have not gotten any more shipped since the first day they received the new mbp's and apple will not ship anymore because of some problem with those( perhaps more with the yellow tinting or other issues).
If there is any truth to this that might explain why my MBP is taking so long to "build" maybe they had to wait to better screens?