Used 24" Cinema Display with yellow tint, anything I can do?

[Steak&Eggs]

Hello everybody,

I'm new here, this is my first post.

Well, a couple of months back I bought a used 24" ACD from a seller on CL. I paired this display with another that I bought used, and later when I got around to upgrading my graphics card (so that I could use them side-by-side with my MacPro), I soon noticed that the second 24" ACD has a yellowish tint.

After noticing this problem, I went through the calibration steps in the "Expert Mode" calibration found in Display Calibrator Assistant under the System Preferences/Displays/Color/Calibrate directory. This seems to only calibrate both screens to the same calibration, so even if I was able fix the yellow on second display, it would mess up the calibration on the first (but this is my first time messing with screen calibrations).

I did some quick googling around and it seems this is a known problem with some of the apple displays, and from what I read the solution usually offered was to return/exchange the display while it is still under warranty. Since I bought the display used, and it is already some years old, I don't think that is an option for me.

I can live with it, but would prefer to get it fixed. If there is a cheap solution for this problem please let me know. Thanks.

 

[SDAVE]

Is it the 23" Aluminium or 24" DisplayPort version?

I know that there are yellow tint issues with the 23" but not the 24" since it uses a very good IPS display.

Maybe you can resell it and buy a refurb.

 

[Steak&Eggs]

Is it the 23" Aluminium or 24" DisplayPort version?

I know that there are yellow tint issues with the 23" but not the 24" since it uses a very good IPS display.

Maybe you can resell it and buy a refurb.

It is the 24" Mini DisplayPort ACD. I suppose I could resell it, but I'm really just looking for a way to fix the one I've already got. It isn't horrible, but it bugs me to notice the difference. On the other hand, it is like I have one display that is 'warm' and another that is 'cool'. Would be best to have the truest representation of colors though.

 

[SDAVE]

Not sure.

Can you try another computer?

I've used many of these 24" ACDs without any yellow tints.

I know for sure the 23" ACD Aluminium panels have the yellow tint.

 

[thelead]

Your choices are to deal with it or sell it. Fixing it isn't an option unless your going to replace the LCD panel.

 

[SDAVE]

deal with it

 

[CWallace]

...I soon noticed that the second 24" ACD has a yellowish tint.

Known issue with some of the 24" and 27" LCD panels used on the iMacs, ACDs and ATDs.

 

[MCAsan]

Can't you just color calibrate it with Sypder or ColorMunki? The calibration solftware cam generate a color profile for each display.

 

[thelead]

Can't you just color calibrate it with Sypder or ColorMunki? The calibration solftware cam generate a color profile for each display.

Not if the yellow tint only affects a portion of the screen.

 

[MCAsan]

Is the problem all or portion of the display?

 

[Steak&Eggs]

Is the problem all or portion of the display?

It affects the whole display.

 

[thekev]

Can't you just color calibrate it with Sypder or ColorMunki? The calibration solftware cam generate a color profile for each display.

They generate a profile that does two things within a reasonable tolerance. One part describes the behavior of the device in terms of reference values (LAB, xyz) while the other assigns output adjustment curves for the gpu to normalize the behavior as much as possible.

It affects the whole display.

This is an old display with an unknown number of hours on it. All displays shift and degrade with time. This includes LED displays like the newer, although they're somewhat more stable. You can profile it with a hardware device, but this is an older display. If it has a lot of hours on it, it's just past its prime.

You can try to match two displays, but remember that different hardware can have different native white points and things. Just saying one is yellow relative to the other really doesn't mean anything. I'm typing on my macbook pro at the moment. Its display is extremely cold relative to my desktop displays, and that is normal for this display. When you try to match them, it's not a very sophisticated or perfect process. It has to attempt to come up with shared value points that both displays produce. Using a typical bradford matrix profile as most of these programs do, it means a lot of interpolation from a smaller number of fixed data points which are further limited by the sensitivity of the device. It can also generate weird behavior due to the values which are dropped due to the non-linear output graph behavior.

TLDR on that last part.... matching displays isn't a perfect science.

One last thing, stay away from that stupid "display calibrator" assistant. It is one of the worst designed I've ever seen, and Apple really should have dropped it long ago. I don't feel like explaining it in detail, but knowing what you're doing in that situation means that you know enough not to bother with it. It is one of those points that really doesn't help the user at all regardless of skill level or prerequisite knowledge.

 

[Steak&Eggs]

One last thing, stay away from that stupid "display calibrator" assistant. It is one of the worst designed I've ever seen, and Apple really should have dropped it long ago. I don't feel like explaining it in detail, but knowing what you're doing in that situation means that you know enough not to bother with it. It is one of those points that really doesn't help the user at all regardless of skill level or prerequisite knowledge.

Thank you for the reply. I get what you are saying, but I don't have any experience with calibrating displays. What would you recommend as a starting point for me then, for recalibrating these displays. I'm not going to be super picky about, but I do notice the difference now... so if there is another program or device I can use to troubleshoot it, please point me in the right direction.

Is there a way to calibrate each of the displays separately AND use them in a dual display configuration; i.e., if I can correct for the yellow tinge on the second display, can I then pair it with the first display without distorting the color on the first display.

 

[thekev]

Thank you for the reply. I get what you are saying, but I don't have any experience with calibrating displays. What would you recommend as a starting point for me then, for recalibrating these displays. I'm not going to be super picky about, but I do notice the difference now... so if there is another program or device I can use to troubleshoot it, please point me in the right direction.

Is there a way to calibrate each of the displays separately AND use them in a dual display configuration; i.e., if I can correct for the yellow tinge on the second display, can I then pair it with the first display without distorting the color on the first display.

This is something typically used to maintain a stable target, not negate the effects of aging. If it's gotten too yellow, you're going to lose a lot of values when it attempts to generate output curves to normalize the behavior. It basically loses a portion of the gamut which isn't being addressed at that point. The chances of these precisely matching are not that great. If you're still interested, your best cheap options are a spyder 4 or a colormunki display. They're both in the $100-150 range. They should last a few years, but whenever display technology changes, you typically have to update as colorimeters are filtered for a very limited range. Some people have reported better results with spectrophotometers, but there isn't one worth owning under $1000.

Bleh I forgot to mention, the yellowing is just an aging thing. People in the thread can claim "known issue", yet given its age, this is normal. I'd probably buy from a place with a lenient return policy in case you still don't like the results. If you like the results, be prepared to do it every couple weeks to maintain the look with an older display. With newer ones, you can do it monthly, sometimes bi-monthly. It depends on use. Prior to running it, leave the colorimeter plugged in at least 10 minutes, ensure the display has been on at least 30 minutes and that any screensavers, auto brightness functions, or energy savers are disabled, and block out as much light as possible in the surrounding area. You will have to calibrate both displays to similar targets if you want them to have any chance of matching.

Even if you do everything perfectly, you're comparing two different displays that are different models and ages. It's not an exact science. With the old 23" cinema displays, if you put 3 side by side, none would match in color or uniformity.

Edit: Edit: I know how irritating it is dealing with this kind of stuff, but I try to emphasize that this isn't a flawless turnkey solution. If you don't feel like spending money on it, you're better off not touching it at all. The system preference method has a tendency to screw up shadow values and cause weird behavior at certain range. It's just attempting to visually set gamma by means of adjusted instructions with the assumption that the channels will behave perfectly based solely on a rudimentary gamma correction.