i have been reading a lot about people complaining about their macbook screens not actually displaying millions of colors. from what i gathered, all laptop LCD screens only display 262k colors, but some do a much better job than others at dithering. well i bought a macbook about 2 weeks ago, and noticed that the screen was extremely bright and vivid. i had no dithering issues, and had looked at grayscale images and could not notice any patches. in fact the screen was so bright, i usually kept it at half brightness or below.
however, just yesterday i got an exchange for a brand new unit due to issues i was having with heat and the superdrive. the LCD on this unit is not NEARLY as bright as my last one. I am keeping the brightness all the way up and it doesnt seem to be as bright as my last one even at half brightness. Furthermore, I can very clearly see pixelation and color patches when looking at gradient images. i also noticed uneven backlighting along the edges, and when looking at a solid color, the edges look darker. I looked up the model of my LCD and its B133EW01. the full profile is here:
DDC block report generated by SwitchResX for display
Color LCD
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
-----------------------------------------------------
0 | 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 06 10 5C 9C 00 00 00 00
1 | 0D 10 01 03 80 1D 12 78 0A 50 C5 98 58 52 8E 27
2 | 25 50 54 00 00 00 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01
3 | 01 01 01 01 01 01 BC 1B 00 A0 50 20 17 30 30 20
4 | 36 00 1E B3 10 00 00 18 00 00 00 01 00 06 10 20
5 | 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0A 20 00 00 00 FE 00 42
6 | 31 33 33 45 57 30 31 20 56 30 0A 20 00 00 00 FC
7 | 00 43 6F 6C 6F 72 20 4C 43 44 0A 20 20 20 00 B7
-----------------------------------------------------
Valid DDC block: checksum passed
EDID Version........1.3
Manufacturer........APP
Product Code........23708 (5C9C) (9C5C)
Serial Number.......0
Manufactured........Week 13 of year 2006
Max H Size..........29 cm
Max V Size..........18 cm
Gamma...............2.20
DPMS Supported Features:
------------------------
Display type:
-------------
RGB color display
Input signal & sync:
--------------------
Digital
Color info:
------------
Red x = 0.595 Green x = 0.320 Blue x = 0.155 White x = 0.313
Red y = 0.345 Green y = 0.555 Blue y = 0.145 White y = 0.329
Established Timings:
--------------------
Manufacturer Reserved Timings:
------------------------------
Standard Timing Identification:
-------------------------------
Monitor Description blocks:
---------------------------
Descriptor #0 is Timing definition:
Mode = 1280 x 800 @ 60Hz
Pixel Clock.............71.00 MHz Non-Interlaced
Horizontal Vertical
Active..................1280 pixels 800 lines
Front Porch............. 48 pixels 3 lines
Sync Width.............. 32 pixels 6 lines
Back Porch.............. 80 pixels 14 lines
Blanking................ 160 pixels 23 lines
Total...................1440 pixels 823 lines
Scan Rate............... 49.31 kHz 59.91 Hz
Image Size.............. 286 mm 179 mm
Border.................. 0 pixels 0 lines
Sync: Digital separate with
* Negative vertical polarity
* Negative horizontal polarity
Descriptor #1 is Manufacturer specific data (not interpreted here)
Descriptor #2 is ASCII data:
B133EW01 V0
Descriptor #3 is Monitor name:
Color LCD
So i called applecare and they made me go through a buncha crap like restarting and checking the profiles, and all this junk, and she said i could go in for another exchange. but now im worried because what if the next one is just as bad, or worse? i also though about taking it to the genius bar and having them look at it, but then im worried theyll say nothing is wrong and refuse my exchange. what should i do?
EDIT: I first noticed the dithering when i visited this website: www.solaraguy.org, while looking from left to right on the main page. then i found some gradients and noticed banding there too: http://www.wuphonsreach.org/Games/SimCity4/HbgPA/24x16_GradientHeighMap.png . if someone doesnt mind looking at their screens and seeing if you get the same banding, i would appreciate it. there is also a neat little program out there called LCDTest (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/2416) that allows you to view solid colors and gradients on your screen.
however, just yesterday i got an exchange for a brand new unit due to issues i was having with heat and the superdrive. the LCD on this unit is not NEARLY as bright as my last one. I am keeping the brightness all the way up and it doesnt seem to be as bright as my last one even at half brightness. Furthermore, I can very clearly see pixelation and color patches when looking at gradient images. i also noticed uneven backlighting along the edges, and when looking at a solid color, the edges look darker. I looked up the model of my LCD and its B133EW01. the full profile is here:
DDC block report generated by SwitchResX for display
Color LCD
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
-----------------------------------------------------
0 | 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 06 10 5C 9C 00 00 00 00
1 | 0D 10 01 03 80 1D 12 78 0A 50 C5 98 58 52 8E 27
2 | 25 50 54 00 00 00 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01
3 | 01 01 01 01 01 01 BC 1B 00 A0 50 20 17 30 30 20
4 | 36 00 1E B3 10 00 00 18 00 00 00 01 00 06 10 20
5 | 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0A 20 00 00 00 FE 00 42
6 | 31 33 33 45 57 30 31 20 56 30 0A 20 00 00 00 FC
7 | 00 43 6F 6C 6F 72 20 4C 43 44 0A 20 20 20 00 B7
-----------------------------------------------------
Valid DDC block: checksum passed
EDID Version........1.3
Manufacturer........APP
Product Code........23708 (5C9C) (9C5C)
Serial Number.......0
Manufactured........Week 13 of year 2006
Max H Size..........29 cm
Max V Size..........18 cm
Gamma...............2.20
DPMS Supported Features:
------------------------
Display type:
-------------
RGB color display
Input signal & sync:
--------------------
Digital
Color info:
------------
Red x = 0.595 Green x = 0.320 Blue x = 0.155 White x = 0.313
Red y = 0.345 Green y = 0.555 Blue y = 0.145 White y = 0.329
Established Timings:
--------------------
Manufacturer Reserved Timings:
------------------------------
Standard Timing Identification:
-------------------------------
Monitor Description blocks:
---------------------------
Descriptor #0 is Timing definition:
Mode = 1280 x 800 @ 60Hz
Pixel Clock.............71.00 MHz Non-Interlaced
Horizontal Vertical
Active..................1280 pixels 800 lines
Front Porch............. 48 pixels 3 lines
Sync Width.............. 32 pixels 6 lines
Back Porch.............. 80 pixels 14 lines
Blanking................ 160 pixels 23 lines
Total...................1440 pixels 823 lines
Scan Rate............... 49.31 kHz 59.91 Hz
Image Size.............. 286 mm 179 mm
Border.................. 0 pixels 0 lines
Sync: Digital separate with
* Negative vertical polarity
* Negative horizontal polarity
Descriptor #1 is Manufacturer specific data (not interpreted here)
Descriptor #2 is ASCII data:
B133EW01 V0
Descriptor #3 is Monitor name:
Color LCD
So i called applecare and they made me go through a buncha crap like restarting and checking the profiles, and all this junk, and she said i could go in for another exchange. but now im worried because what if the next one is just as bad, or worse? i also though about taking it to the genius bar and having them look at it, but then im worried theyll say nothing is wrong and refuse my exchange. what should i do?
EDIT: I first noticed the dithering when i visited this website: www.solaraguy.org, while looking from left to right on the main page. then i found some gradients and noticed banding there too: http://www.wuphonsreach.org/Games/SimCity4/HbgPA/24x16_GradientHeighMap.png . if someone doesnt mind looking at their screens and seeing if you get the same banding, i would appreciate it. there is also a neat little program out there called LCDTest (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/2416) that allows you to view solid colors and gradients on your screen.
