New 24" Penryn iMac owners....screen bleed fixed???

[dantay]

Hello people....I was wondering if anyone owning one of the just released 24" iMacs could look and see if the backlight and screen gradient issues have been resolved on the latest models? I got the 2.4ghz 24" "old" model within the 2 week exchange period and fancy upgrading to the 3.06ghz model as they now have a decent graphics card etc. I went through 9 of the "old" model to get a reasonable screen (still has a bit of bleed at the bottom) and wondered if the break in production had given them chance to address the screen issues? Thanks in advance for your replys.

 

[D4F]

Hello people....I was wondering if anyone owning one of the just released 24" iMacs could look and see if the backlight and screen gradient issues have been resolved on the latest models? I got the 2.4ghz 24" "old" model within the 2 week exchange period and fancy upgrading to the 3.06ghz model as they now have a decent graphics card etc. I went through 9 of the "old" model to get a reasonable screen (still has a bit of bleed at the bottom) and wondered if the break in production had given them chance to address the screen issues? Thanks in advance for your replys.

They will all have that 'bleed' at the bottom.
Ever tried to put a speaker next to a screen?
It will never go away at least till there are no speakers in this system.
Mine does have this but it's significantly less visible than in my prev 24" alu.

 

[dantay]

They will all have that 'bleed' at the bottom.
Ever tried to put a speaker next to a screen?
It will never go away at least till there are no speakers in this system.
Mine does have this but it's significantly less visible than in my prev 24" alu.

Hi....thanks for your reply, I thought speakers effected CRT screens and not LCD screens? The 20" iMacs dont suffer bleed but also have speakers?
I'm pretty sure its an assembly issue where the clips or screws are too tight. There is also screen bleed at the top left hand corner of most screens i've seen....no speaker up there

 

[D4F]

Hi....thanks for your reply, I thought speakers effected CRT screens and not LCD screens? The 20" iMacs dont suffer bleed but also have speakers?
I'm pretty sure its an assembly issue where the clips or screws are too tight. There is also screen bleed at the top left hand corner of most screens i've seen....no speaker up there

I had the 20" Alu too and it did suffer the bleed.
As for the top left corner I just checked... No bleed there.
But that 'screw too tight' theory is interesting.

 

[dantay]

I had the 20" Alu too and it did suffer the bleed.
As for the top left corner I just checked... No bleed there.
But that 'screw too tight' theory is interesting.

The reason I say that is that over 9 units there were different bleed patterns with them all.....some also had dark corners on light colour screens and a yellow tinge at the left and right far edges of the screen on white/light colour backgrounds. Its a shame as the screen it self has a decent viewing angle and nice contrast and detail in shade areas for an LCD. Its disappointing to hear that there has been no improvement in the backlight evenness department. In the UK the units from China (W plant code) went up to week 5 this year and stopped so i was hoping they may be re-tooling to try and get round QC issues as they transfered production to the Czech Republic for later production weeks to keep numbers up of the 'old' model.

 

[ceres]

The reason I say that is that over 9 units there were different bleed patterns with them all.....some also had dark corners on light colour screens and a yellow tinge at the left and right far edges of the screen on white/light colour backgrounds. Its a shame as the screen it self has a decent viewing angle and nice contrast and detail in shade areas for an LCD. Its disappointing to hear that there has been no improvement in the backlight evenness department. In the UK the units from China (W plant code) went up to week 5 this year and stopped so i was hoping they may be re-tooling to try and get round QC issues as they transfered production to the Czech Republic for later production weeks to keep numbers up of the 'old' model.

From what I have seen the panels per se were fine, indeed. The backlights / inverters were causing problems. Honestly, I have never seen a single AL 24 iMac that was able to come even close to the white 24in models.
I am keeping my fingers crossed for Apple to improve that situation in a major way as I am planning to gift a 24in iMac to my sister in Sep. for her birthday.

 

[clin86]

yea the new ones are much better even tho a little still shows

 

[inktomite]

new penryn imac - gradient screen issues?

i too am wondering if they fixed the gradient screen issues. i returned the last revision twice before ending up with an 08 mac pro quad 2.8 + dell 2007wfp (s-ips panel)

 

[DHart]

Looking forward to more reports on the new ones... the widespread reports of screen inconsistency issues have kept me from buying any aluminum iMac so far.

 

[MatWith1T]

It's there on my new iMac 24" (even w/ fancy new GPU)
But it is significantly less noticable than earlier - Didn't pick up on it until I asked myself 'I wonder if the bleed has been fixed.'

Of course, now having noticed it, I will fixate on it nonstop... dammit.

 

[dantay]

I've been checking out my new 3.06GHz 24" for a couple of hours now....no dead pixels...yay! lots of backlight bleed.....booo! Its a week 12 W-China unit and one of the worst i have seen for bleed! I purchased a £129.00 HP screen 2 yrs ago and it has zero bleed.....my partners Macbook has zero bleed and now i'm on unit 10 iMac and all I have had to a greater or lesser extent is inconsistent backlighting and the left to right gradient issue.....however you dress it up this is pretty sad on a machine costing nearly £1400! I have a white 20" core2duo iMac and that has a great screen with no issues at all. I dont think its unreasonable to expect a newer bigger more expensive machine to be the same or better in all departments.

 

[DHart]

Dantay... your report of light leak issues with the new iMac 24" is very distressing news. TO have various screen issues on what is otherwise an amazingly wonderful machine is truly disheartening.

With that news, it looks like my next Mac won't be the new iMac afterall, but rather will be the soon-to-be-upgraded new MacMini ====> driving a high quality 24" external monitor, like HP's 2465LP, which I am currently using with a MacBook 2.2 GHz C2D and totally thrilled with.

Apple once understood that the essence of an experience with a product was user interface and screen quality is key that regard... the screens in my older white plastic 20" CoreDuo iMacs are amazingly high quality... my only complaint about those machines is the slower processor and 2 GB RAM limit.

My hopes that Apple would address the screen issues with this newest revision of iMacs are seemingly dashed. DAMN!

 

[mhnajjar]

What bleeding are you talking about? I just replaced my 2.8 with a 3.06 iMac yesterday and neither have any bleeding issues

 

[SaSaSushi]

I imagine the LCD panel has not changed for the new revision aluminum iMacs but if someone who has one can just enter the terminal command Leon Kowalski pointed out in another recent thread:

ioreg -lw0 | grep IODisplayEDID | sed "/[^<]*</s///" | xxd -p -r | strings -6

The 24" aluminum iMac has always used the LG-Phillips LM240WU2-SLB1 panel.

I just got my mid-2007 24" aluminum iMac back from Apple two days ago after a second LCD panel replacement. There was some discoloration on the first panel. That one had gradient issues. The replacement panel ended up with backlight flickering issues and also had a minor gradient.

However, this latest replacement has almost no gradient at all. When I get around to it I will try some digital photos to measure the luminance consistency left to right. I could easily see the issue on my last two panels though and I cannot eyeball it at all on this one.

This test now shows perfectly even grey on the left and right. It was much darker grey on the right side with both panels I had before this:

aluminum iMac gradient test

There is unfortunately backlight bleed though, on the bottom left and right in particular. It was less noticeable after a SuperCal calibration but it's definitely there. Still, I am way pleased with this latest panel.

 

[dantay]

What bleeding are you talking about? I just replaced my 2.8 with a 3.06 iMac yesterday and neither have any bleeding issues

Having been through 10 units I can say from personal experience that if you have had 2 units without bleed of any sort you should rush out and get a lottery ticket! If you want to check download pixel check and set to a full black screen in a darkened room.......i'm sure you will find your screen bleeds on the bottom left and right hand sides of the screen and the top left also.....the top right on all screens I have seen is pretty much acceptable. I have had better and worse units, but they have all displayed the same faults to a greater or lesser extent. I wish I could say it was fixed for the new 24's but its surely is not.....come on Apple!

 

[mhnajjar]

Having been through 10 units I can say from personal experience that if you have had 2 units without bleed of any sort you should rush out and get a lottery ticket! If you want to check download pixel check and set to a full black screen in a darkened room.......i'm sure you will find your screen bleeds on the bottom left and right hand sides of the screen and the top left also.....the top right on all screens I have seen is pretty much acceptable. I have had better and worse units, but they have all displayed the same faults to a greater or lesser extent. I wish I could say it was fixed for the new 24's but its surely is not.....come on Apple!

How does this affect you?
Why should we care about something that we do not see unless we do all kinds of strange checkups that we will never encounter in real life?!

I'll give it a shot as soon as I finish my finals and let you know

 

[KGB]

I imagine the LCD panel has not changed for the new revision aluminum iMacs but if someone who has one can just enter the terminal command Leon Kowalski pointed out in another recent thread:

ioreg -lw0 | grep IODisplayEDID | sed "/[^<]*</s///" | xxd -p -r | strings -6

I was hoping the same. Could someone run the Leon Kawolski command (in the terminal) on thier new 24 ALU and paste the results so we can see:

ioreg -lw0 | grep IODisplayEDID | sed "/[^<]*</s///" | xxd -p -r | strings -6

Results on my 20" ALU:
M201EW02 VB
Color LCD

Thanks for your help!

 

[Nordichund]

How does this affect you?
Why should we care about something that we do not see unless we do all kinds of strange checkups that we will never encounter in real life?!

Thing is that if you game or watch DVDs (especially if you work with them) or use some other apps you DO encounter the backlight bleed and I found it VERY irritating. I had three 24" iMacs of which all were returned. Trust me I'm really angry about that, because in every other way the 24" is a beautiful machine.

Quite honestly I think when you shell out all that money for a top of the range product you should get at least a screen that works as it was designed to do.

Anyway I'm really happy now with my 23" ACD (no backlight bleed) and Mac Pro.

 

[dantay]

How does this affect you?
Why should we care about something that we do not see unless we do all kinds of strange checkups that we will never encounter in real life?!

I'll give it a shot as soon as I finish my finals and let you know

Backlight bleed is a fault that some lcd panels suffer from....it is clearly visable when watching a film as soon as there is a dark scene (lot of films with those) and also on anything with a dark or black background. This is a multi media/entertainment all in one so should have a screen able to give even backlighting to make watching a movie enjoyable. Pixel check is just a quick way to check.....the fault is clearly visable on apple's own earth wallpaper. Others have responded to this thread and there are a zillion other posts on the subject if you google "24" imac backlight bleed". I wonder what the motivation for your post is? as it has nothing to offer this thread

 

[dantay]

Thing is that if you game or watch DVDs (especially if you work with them) or use some other apps you DO encounter the backlight bleed and I found it VERY irritating. I had three 24" iMacs of which all were returned. Trust me I'm really angry about that, because in every other way the 24" is a beautiful machine.

Quite honestly I think when you shell out all that money for a top of the range product you should get at least a screen that works as it was designed to do.

Anyway I'm really happy now with my 23" ACD (no backlight bleed) and Mac Pro.

I'm thinking I may have to go down the same route as you with a basic Pro and a 23"....think the matt finish on the screen would be preferable too.

 

[hexonxonx]

Anyway I'm really happy now with my 23" ACD (no backlight bleed) and Mac Pro.

Same! The 23" ACD is a beautiful thing. No backlight bleeding whatsoever and the lighting is even.

 

[DHart]

I'm disheartened by the many samples of "slipped quality" IPS panels in the 24" iMacs which seem to have become widespread since the aluminum iMac made it's first appearance. And it's starting to appear that the situation isn't any different with the newest generation of iMacs. Bleeds and screen gradients are totally unacceptable in a high quality computer like the 24" iMac using an IPS panel. After reading all the reports, I'm incredibly hesitant to take my chances on one knowing that I may have to attempt to return it time and time again in an attempt to get one with even a decent screen when it comes to bleeds and gradients. Therefore...

I'm thinking I may have to go down the same route as you with a basic Pro and a 23"....think the matt finish on the screen would be preferable too.

Consider too the possibility of using the soon-to-be-released Mac Mini, presumably 2.4 GHz C2D loaded with 4 GB of RAM... with a quality external monitor. That would make a very respectable 24" widescreen workstation... for less than $1500.

I know this because at present I use my 2.2 GHz MacBook with 4 GB RAM and HP LP2465 24" widescreen (S-PVA) monitor in a professional portrait photography studio for all production work and offset print prep. Works magnificently! A very nice and exceptionally versatile set-up. Cool to have a great desktop set-up and with just pulling a few plugs, the MacBook follows me to the sofa, bed, or on the road. I did install a 250 GB Hitachi TravelStar internal drive in the computer.

This HP LP2465 monitor uses the same Samsung S-PVA panel that Eizo puts in some of their higher end monitors selling for about three times the cost of the HP and has a very wide viewing angle, no bleed, no gradient. Very accurate colors. Easy to dead-on calibrate. And no iMac required! Of course it's not a brute tour-de-force powerhouse, but then again, for Photoshop use, RAM tends to make a bigger difference, generally, than processor, once you get up to and above 2.2 GHz. I'm a very happy camper with this set-up, but will like the next gen MacBook or upcoming Mac Mini with this monitor even more. I'm eagerly awaiting the new Mac Minis and the soon to arrive redesigned MacBook as a moderate speed bump replacement for my 2.2 GHz MacBook.

 

[covertsurfer]

Excuse my ignorance because I am still waiting for these issues to be sorted before I take the plunge.

I am keen to get the new 24" 3.06Ghz iMac but am not going to bother if there are still issues.

I also thought Apple fixed the gradient issues with a software update some time ago however that was with the old graphics card.

Does the new 3.06Ghz have bleeding and the gradient issue?

 

[dantay]

Excuse my ignorance because I am still waiting for these issues to be sorted before I take the plunge.

I am keen to get the new 24" 3.06Ghz iMac but am not going to bother if there are still issues.

Is bleeding only an issue when your in pitch black room or is it more obvious?

I also thought Apple fixed the gradient issues with a software update some time ago however that was with the old graphics card. The gradient would be a big problem for me but the bleeding not so much if it is only visible when its dark.

However some posters are correct in that we should not have either problem if we are paying all that money.

The gradient is very much still there....its less noticable on max brightness but is still there.....problem is if you max the brightness the bleed is REALLY bad.....its a very sad state of affairs for what is otherwise a stunning all in one machine

 

[DHart]

Covert... light leakage is not at all uncommon with TFT panels; Apple doesn't have a monopoly on it. ;-) But with top notch IPS panels, light leakage should be very little. And there should be NO gradient!

Under many circumstances (bright room, light colored images on the screen), minor light leakage may not be noticible at all, but as mentioned, under other circumstances, in a dim room where much of the screen is very dark (such as while watching a movie) light leakage is much easier to notice and be bothered by.

Using Pixel Check in a dark room is a great way to evaluate light leakage. I just tested my HP LP2465 (shown above) and saw no leakage whatsoever... just exceptional even ness throughout the screen. So it is definitely possible to achieve without having to spend huge money. The HP LP2465 runs around $600. Not a cheapo, but not exorbitant either. One of the best choices for a graphics pro or consumer who wants a color accurate 24" widescreen of great quality at a reasonable price.