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iPad I believe the iPad 4 has a serious display flaw.
- Thread starter WilliamG
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I have been able to replicate this on my first attempt. Picked up the iPad 4 on Sunday.
Ambient light sensor is off (as it is on all my iOS devices). Brightness was on lowest possible since my wife is sleeping.
The dimming was hardly noticeable, but didnt seem to occur until I tapped the screen to hide the timeline bar. Sure enough I click home button after sitting on movie frame for about 5 seconds and all of the icons looked really blown out.
OP I will submit a ticket reporting this as well. Fingers crossed it is a software/driver issue since the iPad 4 is only one using new gpu. In any event ill be keeping my ipad as I don't feel it will ever impact my usage, but thanks for reporting this!
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It's conceivable that its related to the driver for the new GPU that the iPad 4 uses. The same gpu is not used in any other iOS devices, so perhaps it's a bug. I have certainly experienced a fair amount of gpu driver bugs in the Mac & PC world.
EDIT: I tried this on my iPhone 5. No dimming occurred but when going back to the homescreen the icons were mildly blown out, and restored to normal contrast without 1-2 seconds.
Ambient light sensor is off (as it is on all my iOS devices). Brightness was on lowest possible since my wife is sleeping.
The dimming was hardly noticeable, but didnt seem to occur until I tapped the screen to hide the timeline bar. Sure enough I click home button after sitting on movie frame for about 5 seconds and all of the icons looked really blown out.
OP I will submit a ticket reporting this as well. Fingers crossed it is a software/driver issue since the iPad 4 is only one using new gpu. In any event ill be keeping my ipad as I don't feel it will ever impact my usage, but thanks for reporting this!
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It may be. But if it's a software issue why the iPad 3 is fine and why some people are saying their iPad is perfect?
It's conceivable that its related to the driver for the new GPU that the iPad 4 uses. The same gpu is not used in any other iOS devices, so perhaps it's a bug. I have certainly experienced a fair amount of gpu driver bugs in the Mac & PC world.
EDIT: I tried this on my iPhone 5. No dimming occurred but when going back to the homescreen the icons were mildly blown out, and restored to normal contrast without 1-2 seconds.
Come on people. Stop looking for problems while there is none.
It is clearly a feature of the os underneath, which might not be well thought out, but nevertheless is a feature in itself. Why do you think you have to make the progress bar disappear before you can observe the so-called problem? It is because the os wants to make sure that you are watching the video, which presumably is the case if you are not looking for trouble as some of you are doing. What does this feature accomplish? Two things come into my mind: to save energy, and to make the black very black in long-lasting dark scenes.
Unless this problem occurs else where and affects normal usage, I assume it is neither a software or hardware issue. It is meant to be by the os designer.
Stop looking for trouble.
It is clearly a feature of the os underneath, which might not be well thought out, but nevertheless is a feature in itself. Why do you think you have to make the progress bar disappear before you can observe the so-called problem? It is because the os wants to make sure that you are watching the video, which presumably is the case if you are not looking for trouble as some of you are doing. What does this feature accomplish? Two things come into my mind: to save energy, and to make the black very black in long-lasting dark scenes.
Unless this problem occurs else where and affects normal usage, I assume it is neither a software or hardware issue. It is meant to be by the os designer.
Stop looking for trouble.
I followed the OP's instructions carefully. Much to my surprise I can duplicate the issue exactly as described. It's quite fascinating. The ease with which I can duplicate this makes it very predictable. I'm going to have to give this some thought.
Please read the first post carefully. You'll see it does affect regular video-watching usage. Greatly.
I stand by the fact that it is greatly noticeable. To the point where it just wasn't enjoyable to watch a TV show on it anymore.
Sorry put I do not see it. Either you are abnormally sensitive or . . . .
If it were iPad 4 problem it would be all over this site. I just do not see it.
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We await all THREE of your opinions!
Just tried this out and I can reproduce the washed out colours on the home screen. I have not witnessed the "pumping" of the back light the original poster talks about.
I paused the a video on a really dark scene, hid the scroll bar and waited for a few seconds. Then I hit the home button and found the icons really washed out but after a couple of seconds they returned to normal.
The severity of the "washed out" effect will probably depends on how dark the scene is in the video before hitting home button.
The back light on the iPad must be adjusting itself while watching video (I know my Samsung TV does this). Dimming down on dark scenes to give better blacks and then going the other way on brighter scenes. Probably not a fault more just a feature that may need refining.
For me, this is not really a big deal and would no way end in me returning my iPad. It would be more of a concern if the colours didn't return to normal.
Update:
After doing a quick search it would appear other tablets experience the same washed out effect when watching video. This leads me to believe it is just part of the back light feature.
I paused the a video on a really dark scene, hid the scroll bar and waited for a few seconds. Then I hit the home button and found the icons really washed out but after a couple of seconds they returned to normal.
The severity of the "washed out" effect will probably depends on how dark the scene is in the video before hitting home button.
The back light on the iPad must be adjusting itself while watching video (I know my Samsung TV does this). Dimming down on dark scenes to give better blacks and then going the other way on brighter scenes. Probably not a fault more just a feature that may need refining.
For me, this is not really a big deal and would no way end in me returning my iPad. It would be more of a concern if the colours didn't return to normal.
Update:
After doing a quick search it would appear other tablets experience the same washed out effect when watching video. This leads me to believe it is just part of the back light feature.
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Your videos showing this are no good as the camera in your iphone is adjusting the exposure/brightness as well.
To demo it properly you need to use a video camera/dslr with fixed exposure settings .
All I see on your video is the camera adjusting for the darker and brighter images .
I'm not saying you don't have a problem , but the video proves nothing to me
To demo it properly you need to use a video camera/dslr with fixed exposure settings .
All I see on your video is the camera adjusting for the darker and brighter images .
I'm not saying you don't have a problem , but the video proves nothing to me
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Mr.damien
Guest
That's not possible. We all know that the iPad 4 screen is the best and that the iPad mini's one just suck.
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syd430
Guest
This is in all likelihood related to power management within iOS.
There is an old thread on notebookreview.com about the exact same behavior on certain vaio Z laptops.
The issue was traced back directly to Intel's power management driver. Disabling the driver eliminated the issue completely.
My laptop would experience the exact same high contrast/washed out effect and then taking several seconds to gradually return to normal as in the video posted.
If anyone wants to read that thread I can try and dig it up again.
There is an old thread on notebookreview.com about the exact same behavior on certain vaio Z laptops.
The issue was traced back directly to Intel's power management driver. Disabling the driver eliminated the issue completely.
My laptop would experience the exact same high contrast/washed out effect and then taking several seconds to gradually return to normal as in the video posted.
If anyone wants to read that thread I can try and dig it up again.
Taking this and what else I have read about it I highly doubt that it is a fault and more so just the behavior of the iPad's display/back light.
It is not seem like a backlight issue, but more like a contrast issue. That's why things look blown out and not just brighter/dimmer. The dynamic contrast, which does make dark scenes in movies look better, is not disabling quickly in some instances like it should.
If you carefully watch the dark scene of the video you paused on after you tap to remove volume/seek bars, you will see the image slightly sharpen / colors crisp as the dynamic contrast locks in for the scene. That is it enabling.
Note that the ipad mini doesn't do this in my testing - it does not sharpen / crisp the dark scenes, or blow out contrast when hitting home, hence probably doesn't have this dynamic contrast enhancement. Might be same with all A5 and earlier based devices (ie they don't have that feature to expose the bug in disabling the feature).
If you carefully watch the dark scene of the video you paused on after you tap to remove volume/seek bars, you will see the image slightly sharpen / colors crisp as the dynamic contrast locks in for the scene. That is it enabling.
Note that the ipad mini doesn't do this in my testing - it does not sharpen / crisp the dark scenes, or blow out contrast when hitting home, hence probably doesn't have this dynamic contrast enhancement. Might be same with all A5 and earlier based devices (ie they don't have that feature to expose the bug in disabling the feature).
S
syd430
Guest
As my post above, this was confirmed to be a power management driver issue on certain lines of laptops. I am able to replicate the issue *exactly* as the OP has shown on my laptop if I enable a certain power management driver.
Also, now that i go back and read this thread in full, I can see atleast 2 other people in this thread have also independently suggested that this is likely a power management issue within iOS.
I am willing to bet my left nut that this is not a hardware issue.
Edit: just reread your post and it seems that you were agreeing with me. Sorry mate!
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Exactly! Even android devices with tegra3 cpu's have this. This is called 'smart dimming'.
Though I still believe there is a serious quality problems with iPad4's screen. Light leakage, uneven backlight and tint, dead pixels...
Same quality issues with every iPad release it would seem.
I had endless issues with my iPad 3 and ended up just getting a refund. This time round I've been lucky.
There is no question that this problem is specific to your iPad and the other iPad's you tested.
I can say affirmatively that I am unable to replicate this issue on my iPad 4 or my wife's iPad 4.
This is not an inherent problem in all iPad 4's.