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docprego

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 12, 2007
1,243
106
Henderson, NV
I know being a TN panel that color shifting is considered normal when your viewing angle changes. But has Apple addressed the problem where the screen fades significantly as you go from the top to the bottom? This is NOT a TN charachteristic but rather an LCD flaw. I am wondering if the most recently shipping 20" iMacs still exhibit this?
 
I know being a TN panel that color shifting is considered normal when your viewing angle changes. But has Apple addressed the problem where the screen fades significantly as you go from the top to the bottom? This is NOT a TN charachteristic but rather an LCD flaw. I am wondering if the most recently shipping 20" iMacs still exhibit this?

I received my 20 inch iMac last week and yes it has the screen gradient problem from top to bottom.

I calibrated it using the system prefs display app and then played around with fonts, it really is much more bearable after doing this. I do not do any professional stuff so it really has not to be that perfect, I have also found that if you have wallpaper that is slightly darker at the bottom and blends up the screen to darker, this also eases the problem. Makes you wonder why the Apple wallpapers are designed this way.

I look at it like this, I would rather have this superb fast machine with a slightly iffy screen than an MS driven bug, trojan, worm, malware, spyware, key logger, zombie nightmare they call a PC (yuch) with a slightly better screen. Thing is since messing with computers since the Spectrum days I have never owned what I would call a perfect monitor, all I have owned have had there own quirks.

Can you imagine what a machine of this caliber with a top of the range 100% perfect 20inch flat panel would cost ? It would be out of my affordability.

Somebody used my machine tonight for the first time and did not even mention the screen other than saying wow thats a nice screen, how big is that. When I asked what they thought of it, they just said "Yea really nice" I did not even tell them about the gradient, and they did not notice.
 
I look at it like this, I would rather have this superb fast machine with a slightly iffy screen than an MS driven bug, trojan, worm, malware, spyware, key logger, zombie nightmare they call a PC (yuch) with a slightly better screen. Thing is since messing with computers since the Spectrum days I have never owned what I would call a perfect monitor, all I have owned have had there own quirks.

Can you imagine what a machine of this caliber with a top of the range 100% perfect 20inch flat panel would cost ? It would be out of my affordability.
My only problem with your logic is that the iMac even at $1199 for the base model is not an inexpensive machine. It should have included a quality display, even TN panels can be high quality. The 20" iMac panel is NOT high quality. And at $1499 an inferior panel is just inexcusable. You might be willing to settle but that does not mean you should have had to.
 
The 24" may be the best deal at 1799 but it also has a 800 mhz bus thats not used and a xt running at pro speeds and leopard is coming down to earth soon so im waiting just a lil longer.:apple:
 
However, for that kind of money, you graphics folks should demand better screen quality as well. The Imac is hardly a "cheap" computer...


What about getting a Mini and a nice LCD flatpanel? For graphics work, does the GPU chip matter much since it is 2-d?
 
Can you imagine what a machine of this caliber with a top of the range 100% perfect 20inch flat panel would cost ?
I didn't hear anyone askin' for a "100% perfect" -- but in the case of the new iMacs, just bargain-basement-grade mediocre would be a HUGE improvement.

Go to newegg.com and check their least expensive 20" widescreen monitors. Several of the very cheapest, (for example, the Acer AL2016WB -- yours for the princely sum of $179.99), is certified as TCO'03-compliant, and thus guaranteed by the manufacturer to have a (worst case!) brightness gradient at least three times better than any of the several 20" (and 24") Al iMacs that I have personally checked with a light meter.

Nobody's askin' for Eizo-quality displays, here -- just something that approaches the ordinary, garden-variety ergonomic performance of 'prestigious' brands like Acer, ViewSonic, Samsung, Dell, ...and PackardBell !!

And BTW, the $179.99 Acer monitor has exactly the same TCO'03 ergonomic screen-uniformity specs as the iTrueBeliever's Apple Cinema Displays. See: http://www.tcodevelopment.com

"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."
-- Mark Twain
 
Exactly how many people in this thread have been using the screen for the last 7 weeks? And how many have just read a few negative posts and had a quick look in the Apple store?

If you don't like it, don't buy it.

approaches the ordinary, garden-variety ergonomic performance of 'prestigious' brands like Acer, ViewSonic, Samsung, Dell, ...and PackardBell !!

The unit is an LG Philips - a fairly prestigious brand.
Why not fire off an email to them instead of Apple?
 
However, for that kind of money, you graphics folks should demand better screen quality as well. The Imac is hardly a "cheap" computer...

But it is in fact the cheapest AIO on the market with the most features and the highest specs.
 
I didn't hear anyone askin' for a "100% perfect"

Nobody's askin' for Eizo-quality displays, here

Um, yes many people here are asking for "Perfection". Judging from every post of unhappy customers of the displays on the iMacs. Some of the posts are just downright picky and unless Apple used Eizo displays the iMac will continue to be highly criticized.
I mentioned this earlier, the iMac is still the cheapest AIO on the market bar none and kicks ass on specs against the competition.
 
The unit is an LG Philips - a fairly prestigious brand.
Why not fire off an email to them instead of Apple?
Yeah, and please don't forget to email the guys who supply LG.Philips with glass ingots and jugs of nematic goo for the panels, and cold-cathode backlights, and the inverter, and the diffuser, and the connectors, and the wiring...

...and the miners who dig the copper ore,

LK
 
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