Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

New 20" 2.4 iMac

Ladybug

Ladybug

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 13, 2006
1,874
1,014
After checking out the iMac screens at Best Buy, I elected to go with the 20" vs, the 24" for several reasons. First the 24" was just too large for my desk and I would have had to either mod it or buy another one. Secondly after seeing the different screen gradient problems first hand, I felt I could live with the gradient going top to bottom a lot easier if I have to, than seeing the gradient go left to right.

I'm quite pleased with the 20" so far. I do see what everyone is talking about as far as viewing angle but it's really not a problem for me since I'm always sitting in front of the screen when I use the computer, not looking at it from odd angles. I set the background to solid for testing, and it does have a very slight gradient going from top to bottom, but so far I haven't noticed it during normal use. My eyes aren't the best so that might explain it to some degree. :D

Leopard seems pretty good so far. Anyway I'm getting 4 gigs ram from Crucial in the morning and will be upgrading the ram for the best performance possible. I'm upgrading from a 20" 2ghz Core Duo iMac in case anyone is wondering. Thanks for reading this far :)
 
congrats on the new buy.
If you want to check the gradient issue in a better way, just open itunes and watch the blue stripes getting lighter from top to bottom. I´m used to it now...
 
I got the same model a month ago. I'm a switcher. No regrets. Much happiness. Hope your experience is similar.
 
Congrats. I don't think the 20" is as bad a people say it is.
Do a calibration in expert mode - it doesn't fix with all the gradients but getting the gamma set right does help out some.
 
killerrobot said:
Congrats. I don't think the 20" is as bad a people say it is.
Do a calibration in expert mode - it doesn't fix with all the gradients but getting the gamma set right does help out some.
Click to expand...

Hey thanks. Yes I noticed that as well. I calibrated the monitor and it did seem to help it out.
 
yeah 20" 24" it's not as big as it sounds.. I would be perfectly fine with a 2.8 20" :D
 
killerrobot said:
Congrats. I don't think the 20" is as bad a people say it is.
Do a calibration in expert mode - it doesn't fix with all the gradients but getting the gamma set right does help out some.
Click to expand...

when i helped my mother buy and set up a new 20" imac I couldn't see any gradient issue at all... I wonder how many people actually are bothered by this issue until they're told they should be bothered by it.
 
QCassidy352 said:
when i helped my mother buy and set up a new 20" imac I couldn't see any gradient issue at all... I wonder how many people actually are bothered by this issue until they're told they should be bothered by it.
Click to expand...

I think you hit it on the head. I really had to look for while for any gradient issue on mine.
I also think the people that bought the 2.4 24" are the ones that make such a big fuss about it to try and justify the extra money for four more inches of screen space. ;)
 
There was supposedly a similar problem with the MBP's, where there would be a yellow-ish color towards the bottom of the monitor. When I got mine I couldn't see it at all. Maybe to the well trained eye and professional they could spot color differences in a heart beat...
 
Quick question, did your iMac come with the new thin aluminum keyboard? Or the traditional keyboard?
 
Ladybug said:
I'm quite pleased with the 20" so far. I do see what everyone is talking about as far as viewing angle but it's really not a problem for me since I'm always sitting in front of the screen when I use the computer, not looking at it from odd angles. I set the background to solid for testing, and it does have a very slight gradient going from top to bottom, but so far I haven't noticed it during normal use. My eyes aren't the best so that might explain it to some degree. :D
Click to expand...

Congrats!
I own a 20 inch 2.4 ghz iMac as well and I can confirm that the gradient isn't that much of an issue.
I also agree that the viewing is much better than what people make of it.

But may I recommend you to make a good color profile, it certainly makes the screen better and you may also want to try Shades or DarkAdapted.
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/shades
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12134

Not only do they dimm the screen but also improve the viewing angle a lot.
The improvement I am talking about concerns color shifts mainly.
With any color profile you make looking the screen from above or from aside the white (of a Finder windows for instance) shifts towards blue or yellow (dependant of which gamma setting you choose)
With DarkAdapted and Shades the whites remain white.
Try it yourself. :)
 
PMR said:
congrats on the new buy.
If you want to check the gradient issue in a better way, just open itunes and watch the blue stripes getting lighter from top to bottom. I´m used to it now...
Click to expand...
By " blue stripes " are you talking about when a line item is HIGHLIGHTED?

If so that is 'shading' intentionally done in the program, if not intentional than it is unique to iTunes. I see that same effect in iPhoto when selecting an album or other item.

I see that. but when I fill the entire screen with a solid color, I see nothing except that solid color. Of course this is on a 24" and I apologize if this response is somehow inappropriate.
 
harcosparky said:
By " blue stripes " are you talking about when a line item is HIGHLIGHTED?

If so that is 'shading' intentionally done in the program, if not intentional than it is unique to iTunes. I see that same effect in iPhoto when selecting an album or other item.

I see that. but when I fill the entire screen with a solid color, I see nothing except that solid color. Of course this is on a 24" and I apologize if this response is somehow inappropriate.
Click to expand...

This is what I mean:

This display has been "eye" calibrated and this is the best profile for me.
My macbook seems to be a bit better, but my brother's 20" ACD and 17" MBP are near of perfection.
 

Attachments

  • ishot-2.jpg
    ishot-2.jpg
    842.9 KB · Views: 198
nout72 said:
Congrats!
I own a 20 inch 2.4 ghz iMac as well and I can confirm that the gradient isn't that much of an issue.
I also agree that the viewing is much better than what people make of it.

But may I recommend you to make a good color profile, it certainly makes the screen better and you may also want to try Shades or DarkAdapted.
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/shades
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12134

Not only do they dimm the screen but also improve the viewing angle a lot.
The improvement I am talking about concerns color shifts mainly.
With any color profile you make looking the screen from above or from aside the white (of a Finder windows for instance) shifts towards blue or yellow (dependant of which gamma setting you choose)
With DarkAdapted and Shades the whites remain white.
Try it yourself. :)
Click to expand...

Hey thanks for the recommendations...I'll be sure to check those apps out.
 
I checked out the blue stripes in iTunes. I can see a slight gradient but it's not really obvious unless you're looking for it, at least not on this machine.

Just wondering if Apple addressed this issue, at least partly since these computers first came out? Anyway thanks all for the input...
 
PMR said:
This is what I mean:

This display has been "eye" calibrated and this is the best profile for me.
My macbook seems to be a bit better, but my brother's 20" ACD and 17" MBP are near of perfection.
Click to expand...


OK ...

First thing I notice in your photograph is that the iMac screen surface and the camera sensor plane are not parallel.

I tried to duplicate what you are showing on my 24" and to be honest I was unable to do so.

I then use a digital camera ( Canon EOS 30D ) and took 3 images.
LCD surface plane parallel with the camera sensor plane, and it looked fine to me, there may have been a hint of gradiation when the LCD was angled to either extreme and the camera was not moved.

I also tried this on a Power Mac ( G4 ) with a Dell LCD display. That display has some color adjustability to it and though I was able to make changes IF there is any gradiation it appears tied to viewing angle.

As I stated earlier I ran some tests on my 24" filling the screen with solid colors and could not replicate any issues.

Maybe tomorrow I will remove the LCD cover and view the LCD without the cover over it.

Maybe I am just lucky, but so far I have not been able to duplicate what your pic is showing.


EDIT: in a post earlier someone mentions DarkAdapted - give you screen gamma adjustibility - when I was fiddling with the Dell LCD on the Power Mac if I adjusted the gamma settings the display obviously changed.


EDIT - SHADES is a 'must have' :D
 
The brightness gradients on 24" imacs are reported to be from left to right and 20 inchers from top to bottom. This only messes with me when I'm editing photos.

Apple has admitted the error but I won't send this baby unless the assure that the one they'd send was perfect. I'd rather buy a 20" ACD or Dell as second monitor.
 
harcosparky said:
OK ...

First thing I notice in your photograph is that the iMac screen surface and the camera sensor plane are not parallel.

I tried to duplicate what you are showing on my 24" and to be honest I was unable to do so.

I then use a digital camera ( Canon EOS 30D ) and took 3 images.
LCD surface plane parallel with the camera sensor plane, and it looked fine to me, there may have been a hint of gradiation when the LCD was angled to either extreme and the camera was not moved.

I also tried this on a Power Mac ( G4 ) with a Dell LCD display. That display has some color adjustability to it and though I was able to make changes IF there is any gradiation it appears tied to viewing angle.

As I stated earlier I ran some tests on my 24" filling the screen with solid colors and could not replicate any issues.

Maybe tomorrow I will remove the LCD cover and view the LCD without the cover over it.

Maybe I am just lucky, but so far I have not been able to duplicate what your pic is showing.
Click to expand...

Why would you trouble yourself with a quest for a (hidden) gradient issue, which your iMac obviously doesn't have.
Remove the LCD cover?
I definitely wouldn't do this.

EDIT: in a post earlier someone mentions DarkAdapted - give you screen gamma adjustibility - when I was fiddling with the Dell LCD on the Power Mac if I adjusted the gamma settings the display obviously changed.
Click to expand...
How did it change?
You can dim the brightness without altering the gamma values with the option "Gang sliders" set to "Maintain relative values"
(Oh yes I forgot to menstion, DarkAdapted is shareware, but only if you want to use the "pro" options, using it it to only to control the brightness you don't have to buy a serial)

EDIT - SHADES is a 'must have' :D
Click to expand...
Shades eats more CPU than DarkAdapted, other than that it works just as good as DarkAdapted.

A warning though.
With Shades you can dim the brightness to such a low level you no longer can control the desktop/system.
It happened to me and because I had set Shades to automatically start up at login I panicked for a moment.
A hard reboot didn't work, there just wasn't enough time to quit Shades via the Finder Menu: before I had reached the bar the screen was completely black.
Luckily I had read about the short-keys in the preference pane and by pressing some combinations, other than those by the system (I think it was Command - Enter) I was able to quit Shades and reset the systems brightness.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back