I posted this question on the Apple Support forums section, but so far, I have no answers. I'm trying to determine if I actually have a defective screen or whether or not what I'm experiencing is "normal" 
given the nature of LCD panels.
Last night, I was watching Sleepy Hollow on my new 24" alum. iMac. I just downloaded the movie from iTunes and wanted to check out how things worked with iTunes, downloading, etc. with the new Leopard 10.5 OS I upgraded to last Friday. I took delivery of this iMac on 09/22, so I've had it for a little over a month now.
Anyhow, when I was watching the movie, I went ahead and turned out all the lights (scary movies are better in the dark, after all!). Anyhow, when I turned out the lights, I had the movie set to double size so that it filled up most, but not all of the screen. It was at that moment that I noticed spotlights towards the bottom right and left hand corners. These areas of brighter whitish light weren't exactly in the corners, but were a few inches away. Also, I noticed a little light bleeding in from the top left area - again, not exactly in the corner, though.
I've been familiar with mura defects as I went through an ordeal with my Sony 40XBR2 almost a year ago. I wound up returning six Sony tvs due to the mura or clouding defect those units suffered from. I never thought I would even need to worry about it with my new iMac and I wasn't really looking for it when I discovered it last night.
After a quick Google search, I found that some people are experiencing problems with regards to a yellowish color/tint on their screens. Some have also noticed an uneven brightness with their panels as well. I changed my background to a solid white color and saw no yellowish spots or blotches. I also tried using a solid gray and a solid blue background. Everything looked good to me. I opened several finder windows - one in top left, one in the middle and one in the bottom right. Apart from the shading that happens to the menu bars in Leopard, I didn't notice any differences in color or brightness with these. With the lights on, I didn't see any spotlights. With them off, I can see them. In the dark, the spotlights are only visible on a black background, too. For instance, when I displayed the movie at it's normal size and the rest of the background of the desktop displayed my desktop picture as the background, I couldn't see spotlights. So is this a problem that's just inherent with LCD panels and do all of the 24" iMacs have this problem? Since I don't seem have the problem with discoloration or the uneven brightness, I'm worried about trading my iMac for one that might have this issue and still not solving the spotlight issue.
Any infomation on the spotlights (this isn't the same mura/cloudiness I experienced with my Sony tv) and whether this is something that is considered "normal" would be greatly appreciated. In reading the threads about the uneven brightness/discoloration, I learned a trick about taking a screen shot by pressing shift/command/3. I took several screen shots of my iMac with an a solid blue, solid white and solid grey background. I also took a few screenshots of the movie Sleepy Hollow. Upon looking at them, I was surprised to find that when I previewed the screen shots of the movie, the corners were jet black and the spotlights weren't there in that picture at all.
Thanks in advance to all the help from the Mac community!
PS. Other than this issue, I'm a happy switcher who isn't missing the Sony Vaio or the PC world at all!
given the nature of LCD panels.Last night, I was watching Sleepy Hollow on my new 24" alum. iMac. I just downloaded the movie from iTunes and wanted to check out how things worked with iTunes, downloading, etc. with the new Leopard 10.5 OS I upgraded to last Friday. I took delivery of this iMac on 09/22, so I've had it for a little over a month now.
Anyhow, when I was watching the movie, I went ahead and turned out all the lights (scary movies are better in the dark, after all!). Anyhow, when I turned out the lights, I had the movie set to double size so that it filled up most, but not all of the screen. It was at that moment that I noticed spotlights towards the bottom right and left hand corners. These areas of brighter whitish light weren't exactly in the corners, but were a few inches away. Also, I noticed a little light bleeding in from the top left area - again, not exactly in the corner, though.
I've been familiar with mura defects as I went through an ordeal with my Sony 40XBR2 almost a year ago. I wound up returning six Sony tvs due to the mura or clouding defect those units suffered from. I never thought I would even need to worry about it with my new iMac and I wasn't really looking for it when I discovered it last night.
After a quick Google search, I found that some people are experiencing problems with regards to a yellowish color/tint on their screens. Some have also noticed an uneven brightness with their panels as well. I changed my background to a solid white color and saw no yellowish spots or blotches. I also tried using a solid gray and a solid blue background. Everything looked good to me. I opened several finder windows - one in top left, one in the middle and one in the bottom right. Apart from the shading that happens to the menu bars in Leopard, I didn't notice any differences in color or brightness with these. With the lights on, I didn't see any spotlights. With them off, I can see them. In the dark, the spotlights are only visible on a black background, too. For instance, when I displayed the movie at it's normal size and the rest of the background of the desktop displayed my desktop picture as the background, I couldn't see spotlights. So is this a problem that's just inherent with LCD panels and do all of the 24" iMacs have this problem? Since I don't seem have the problem with discoloration or the uneven brightness, I'm worried about trading my iMac for one that might have this issue and still not solving the spotlight issue.
Any infomation on the spotlights (this isn't the same mura/cloudiness I experienced with my Sony tv) and whether this is something that is considered "normal" would be greatly appreciated. In reading the threads about the uneven brightness/discoloration, I learned a trick about taking a screen shot by pressing shift/command/3. I took several screen shots of my iMac with an a solid blue, solid white and solid grey background. I also took a few screenshots of the movie Sleepy Hollow. Upon looking at them, I was surprised to find that when I previewed the screen shots of the movie, the corners were jet black and the spotlights weren't there in that picture at all.
Thanks in advance to all the help from the Mac community!
PS. Other than this issue, I'm a happy switcher who isn't missing the Sony Vaio or the PC world at all!