Your iMac (late 09) screen is NOT fine

[The General]

You're taking a photo of a flat LCD with a camera. The viewing angle for every pixel of the display is different. Slight discoloration is going to happen for pixels viewed from not directly straight on.

This is a limitation of LCD technology, not a manufacturing defect in your LCD panel.

On top of this problem, there's also going to be slight discoloration/darkening in parts of your photograph because cameras are not capable of capturing the precise color in every area of the frame.

This is a limitation of photography technology, not a manufacturing defect in your camera.

If you can see discoloration with your eyeballs, then head directly to the Genius Bar. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.

If you can not see discoloration with your eyeballs, then quit worrying about having a defective display, and quit conjuring up completely inaccurate tests to prove your theory, a theory for which you have already made up your mind.

 

[TennisandMusic]

You're taking a photo of a flat LCD with a camera. The viewing angle for every pixel of the display is different. Slight discoloration is going to happen for pixels viewed from not directly straight on.

This is a limitation of LCD technology, not a manufacturing defect in your LCD panel.

On top of this problem, there's also going to be slight discoloration/darkening in parts of your photograph because cameras are not capable of capturing the precise color in every area of the frame.

This is a limitation of photography technology, not a manufacturing defect in your camera.

If you can see discoloration with your eyeballs, then head directly to the Genius Bar. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.

If you can not see discoloration with your eyeballs, then quit worrying about having a defective display, and quit conjuring up completely inaccurate tests to prove your theory, a theory for which you have already made up your mind.

Yup you heard it here first folks! The screen is perfect! It's your eyeballs, your perception, and your fancy cameras that are all defective!

 

[The General]

Yup you heard it here first folks! The screen is perfect! It's your eyeballs, your perception, and your fancy cameras that are all defective!

I didn't say anything about anyone's LCD panels being defective or not defective. Nor cameras, nor eyeballs, nor perception (in fact, I didn't even use that word at all).

Try reading my post again. Using critical thinking, you'll see that all I did was debunk the OP's non-scientific, completely inaccurate test.

The results that the OP found would be found on any LCD panel.

 

[SilenceBe]

The person that mentioned the Eizo monitor obviously understands the difference between a consumer machine and a professional monitor.

Yeah because color consistency is a "pro feature" So my 200 euro costing samsung TFT monitor (yeah I'm so lucky to have an older imac with the gradient problem ) is a "professional monitor" ?

You are aware that the existence of "professional monitors" has more to do with that what you see (color wise / color calibration) on the screen is the same what rolls of the presses ? You will for example not see many professional web designers/developers (hello btw) working on expensive EIZO monitors, that is just plain overkill. But yellowing does interfere with their work as it also has an impact with regards of contrast on pages and other things.

There is nobody in his mind asking for perfect gamut or support for Adobe RGB colors. Just that white is displayed as white at the top and the bottom.

For hell sake lets drop the ultimate display thing but just think for a moment. We are talking about LED backlited S-IPS panels, you cant expect anything less with this kind of displays then consistent colors. I don't see a lot of reasons why the technology would exists otherwise. Something that Apple also advertises with on the imac pages "EXCELLENT color CONSISTENCY from every angle". You think that the color distance between white and yellow is something anybody in his right mind would call "excellent" ?

 

[Fishrrman]

I don't have one of the new iMacs (have a 2nd revision white Intel 24" that's doing fine), but a few thoughts:

- The "yellowing" is generally towards the lower-right-hand quadrant of the screen, is that correct?

- If correct, what _components_ lie _behind_ that area of the screen, back in the rear of the case?

- Could they be emitting some EFI that could account for the slight discoloration of the screen?

I work on the railroad, and at one station the crew quarters are over the tracks. The trains are powered by 11,000 volts a.c., the wires mounted over the tracks (directly under the floor where we are). When an engine goes by underneath (which uses a LOT of electrical current) there will be color distortion on video screens upstairs. EFI interference to be sure.

Could something similar be happening with the iMacs - granted, on a much smaller and more subtle scale, but happening nonetheless? It's simply a fact of life that the iMac design requires that the display be located in close proximity to a host of electrical devices capable of generating EFI, if even in small doses....

 

[archipellago]

I don't have one of the new iMacs (have a 2nd revision white Intel 24" that's doing fine), but a few thoughts:

- The "yellowing" is generally towards the lower-right-hand quadrant of the screen, is that correct?

- If correct, what _components_ lie _behind_ that area of the screen, back in the rear of the case?

- Could they be emitting some EFI that could account for the slight discoloration of the screen?

I work on the railroad, and at one station the crew quarters are over the tracks. The trains are powered by 11,000 volts a.c., the wires mounted over the tracks (directly under the floor where we are). When an engine goes by underneath (which uses a LOT of electrical current) there will be color distortion on video screens upstairs. EFI interference to be sure.

Could something similar be happening with the iMacs - granted, on a much smaller and more subtle scale, but happening nonetheless? It's simply a fact of life that the iMac design requires that the display be located in close proximity to a host of electrical devices capable of generating EFI, if even in small doses....

so you're asking if Apple completely screwed up the design of the new imac?

probably...

 

[sparkie1984]

I don't have one of the new iMacs (have a 2nd revision white Intel 24" that's doing fine), but a few thoughts:

- The "yellowing" is generally towards the lower-right-hand quadrant of the screen, is that correct?

- If correct, what _components_ lie _behind_ that area of the screen, back in the rear of the case?

- Could they be emitting some EFI that could account for the slight discoloration of the screen?

I work on the railroad, and at one station the crew quarters are over the tracks. The trains are powered by 11,000 volts a.c., the wires mounted over the tracks (directly under the floor where we are). When an engine goes by underneath (which uses a LOT of electrical current) there will be color distortion on video screens upstairs. EFI interference to be sure.

Could something similar be happening with the iMacs - granted, on a much smaller and more subtle scale, but happening nonetheless? It's simply a fact of life that the iMac design requires that the display be located in close proximity to a host of electrical devices capable of generating EFI, if even in small doses....

kind of like when you used to put a magnet near a crt screen? theres an ifixit article on the web with the imac disassembled, if someone could find that it may help us out!

edit: might be the bluetooth antenna or something down there??? heres the article:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iMac-Intel-27-Inch/1236/2

 

[DarwinOSX]

As such I'd like to ask all those that believe they have perfect iMacs to take upon this challenge and actually PROVE to us that their screens are free of any problems.
If you can't bother to actually test your display, then don't talk about it.

I feel no need to prove anything to you or anyone else. I will certainly talk about how my screen is fine all I want whether it passes your "test" or not.

My screen is fine.

 

[DarwinOSX]

Agreed.

This whole thing has turned into a cluster. Anyone that sees something claims the problem.

Most of these are placebo affect problems, IMO.

Exactly right.

 

[robotkiller]

Exactly right.

 

[slicecom]

Exactly right.

 

[msw123307]

Many users (like myself) are actually interested to see a display with good consistency. I don't consider myself picky at all, and don't use photoshop heavily or anything like that. I definitely don't have a good eye for color. But I noticed this discoloration on both of my 27" iMacs on first boot up/loading screen.

Regardless if those of you with perfect screens need to "prove" something or not, it's really not about that. Some of us are just interested to see your screens, so we know they are out there.

 

[Wang Foolio]

Just a quick note on the "placebo effect" at play here. Placebos refer to a fake treatment causing people to report that their symptoms have disappeared. Interestingly, there are tons of cases where actual honest-to-goodness objective measures show that the problem is gone even when you didn't do anything to treat it.

Someone hearing about a problem and deciding that they too suffer from it, that's more like a somatoform disorder or hypochondriasis. I don't know what the desktop computer equivalent is, but anyway placebo isn't the right term. Since everyone is so interested in getting technical, I thought I'd throw my overpriced education into the mix for the sake of making the semantics argument even more amusing

Anyway, long story short: Ordered a 27" i7 in December. Week 50 manufacture. Noticed a very subtle discoloration pattern on the screen, wasn't concerned much because it was so very slight and I've seen much much worse in the past. Fast forward 2 weeks or so, and the problem seems to be getting worse. I hop online, see threads like this, and think "Wow, clearly I'm not the only one."

I am currently in the process of deciding how to handle the thing, the issue was reported within 14 days of my delivery date, and since I have Boot Camp and tons of stuff installed on both partitions I am loathe to enter the lottery of refurbs/replacements and then earn the privilege of installing everything over again. If they can get somebody to pop the HD out of my old one into a replacement with a better screen, I'll happily take them up on the offer.

For the sake of completion, I'll describe my discolouration pattern. Imagine a W shape extending all the way to the corners of the screen. The top half of the shape, basically the two wedges with the fat ends at the top, are fine. The bottom of the W pattern, ie. the three wedges which are widest on the bottom, are all yellow. Over 2 weeks the problem worsened quite a bit, most noticeably near the center of the screen. Before I would have estimated that 25% of the area of the screen had the tinge, now it's closer to 40-50%.

 

[Dino1956]

Of course you could simply just take a photo & copy they bottom Gray Bay next to the Gray Bar on the Top in Preview & see there is definitely a Yellow on bottom of Screen. Slightly Amatuer But It Clearly Shows my 21.5 NVidia Week 45 iMac's Screen.


Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch

 

[Sir Cecil]

You're taking a photo of a flat LCD with a camera. The viewing angle for every pixel of the display is different. Slight discoloration is going to happen for pixels viewed from not directly straight on.

This is a limitation of LCD technology, not a manufacturing defect in your LCD panel.

On top of this problem, there's also going to be slight discoloration/darkening in parts of your photograph because cameras are not capable of capturing the precise color in every area of the frame.

This is a limitation of photography technology, not a manufacturing defect in your camera.

If you can see discoloration with your eyeballs, then head directly to the Genius Bar. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.

If you can not see discoloration with your eyeballs, then quit worrying about having a defective display, and quit conjuring up completely inaccurate tests to prove your theory, a theory for which you have already made up your mind.

Excellent post. Some sense being heard over the wails of the zealots at last.

 

[Wang Foolio]

You know what else isn't capable of capturing perfectly uniform light over its entire field of view? Your eyes.

You know what else can't see every pixel on your screen from the exact same viewing angle at the same time? Your eyes.

Even the arguments over whether the argument is too technical are getting too technical. LOL

I agree wholeheartedly with the final statement though, nobody on the forum here can fix the problem for you. Talk to Apple and see what they can do for you, it's in their best interest to make you happy so you can spend thousands of dollars on their next shiny new toy, perhaps the one which is going to be announced on the 27th?

 

[gb1631]

so you're asking if Apple completely screwed up the design of the new imac?

probably...

archipellago, in looking at all your posts on here, it makes me wonder if you have ever owned and operated a MAC, much less a 27 iMac. I have never seen a post by you, that contributed to any of the problem solving with Mac issues or for that matter anything of real value to other posters here in this Mac forum.

It make me wonder what your real motives for posting here are, are you just a troll or do you have other hidden agendas?

If you hate Macs as much as your posts indicate, why not stay on a PC forum?

My 2 Cents!

 

[SaSaSushi]

I agree wholeheartedly with the final statement though, nobody on the forum here can fix the problem for you. Talk to Apple and see what they can do for you, it's in their best interest to make you happy so you can spend thousands of dollars on their next shiny new toy, perhaps the one which is going to be announced on the 27th?

I read on the Apple Discussion forums that Apple is offering visual cortex replacements and in some extreme cases is even replacing the occitipal lobe in the brain of some affected users.

I think they should offer some users full frontal lobotomies.

 

[Sir Cecil]

archipellago, in looking at all your posts on here, it makes me wonder if you have ever owned and operated a MAC, much less a 27 iMac. I have never seen a post by you, that contributed to any of the problem solving with Mac issues or for that matter anything of real value to other posters here in this Mac forum.

It make me wonder what your real motives for posting here are, are you just a troll or do you have other hidden agendas?

If you hate Macs as much as your posts indicate, why not stay on a PC forum?

My 2 Cents!

Rather than see a photo of his screen, I'd rather see a receipt for any iMac purchase of his. Of course, no such thing will be forthcoming. He's only here (like several others too) to inflame and further his anti-Mac agenda. It's so easy to do of course and it is nothing unusual in these days of Internet industrial subterfuge. No different to an unscrupulous company sending moles to post bad reviews for a competitor's products on the Apple Store site.
The unfortunate experience of those with genuine screen problems is like tasty red meat for such characters to prey on.

 

[Dino1956]

Why do PC Users Hate Apple so much ? I don't get it! I drive a Mazda, you drive a Mercedes. I don't hate Mercedes! It's immature & ridiculous. It's a preference & everyone has their right to buy what they want. All PC Users think we buy Macs because thy are Pretty & because of the shiny Apple Logo. They have this passionate hate towards Apple & Macs. I tell you what. I know I don't hate PC's as much as they hate Macs. And most of them never even owned a Mac. I can say that most of us here have owned PC's & that's WHY we are Mac Users. Haters!

 

[Bryan Bowler]

archipellago, in looking at all your posts on here, it makes me wonder if you have ever owned and operated a MAC, much less a 27 iMac. I have never seen a post by you, that contributed to any of the problem solving with Mac issues or for that matter anything of real value to other posters here in this Mac forum.

It make me wonder what your real motives for posting here are, are you just a troll or do you have other hidden agendas?

If you hate Macs as much as your posts indicate, why not stay on a PC forum?

My 2 Cents!

Bravo! I couldn't agree with you more. archipellago has been trolling on here for a very long time. He even admitted that he doesn't own a Mac and thinks that PCs are superior. I don't mind at all that he prefers PCs over Macs...that's totally cool. But what's not cool, is him sitting on this forum and doing nothing but stirring the pot.

Bryan

 

[SaSaSushi]

archipellago, in looking at all your posts on here, it makes me wonder if you have ever owned and operated a MAC, much less a 27 iMac.

I'm afraid Archipellago won't be able to answer you right away as he appears to be on a forced holiday thanks to his trolling.

I highly doubt he's ever owned a Mac.

 

[mistraldk]

EXACTLY! I just want to see a good screen but nobody with a "good" screen is willing to post pictures. Coincidence? I think not.

It's strange at the least...
I'm now awaiting my 4th...iMac. (one doa, two flickering&yellow screens).
In all stores i've visited and all iMac's (27inch) i've seen so far there has been an yellow tinge, some worse than others but all were afflicted.
I'm also awaiting a viewing of a perfect screen!

 

[SaSaSushi]

It's strange at the least...
I'm now awaiting my 4th...iMac. (one doa, two flickering&yellow screens).
In all stores i've visited and all iMac's (27inch) i've seen so far there has been an yellow tinge, some worse than others but all were afflicted.
I'm also awaiting a viewing of a perfect screen!

Strange how this lie is propagated.

I posted pics of my i7's tinge-free screen two weeks ago.

 

[mistraldk]

Strange how this lie is propagated.

I posted pics of my i7's tinge-free screen two weeks ago.

Thanks!
I must have missed your post in that thread.