Quality of LCD screens...?

the blue meaniethe blue meanie
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
The Blue Meanie is planning to buy one of the fine and dandy new G4 iMacs to replace his ageing DV soon, and saw one in all pearly curvaceousness for the first time in a UK PC chain store on Friday. His retinas were suitably massaged by the sight - but what about the LCD screen?! The Blue Meanie is not used to colour LCD screens and was shocked by how pale and washed-out and fuzzy the 15" floating wonder seemed in comparison to the crisp sharpness of CRT? It can't be that bad!! Tell the Blue Meanie the usually clueless assistants in the store had set the monitor brightness wrongly, or he was looking at it from the wrong angle or that it was all down to the harsh lighting in the store or something! LCD screens have to be better than that.... <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 32
    applenutapplenut Posts: 5,768member
    obviously something was screwed up as the iMac's screen is very bright and sharp and IMo has very good color reproduction.. better than Apple's own 15 inch ASD.





    Perhaps they had it on a lower resolution which WILL make it look a little blurry
  • Reply 2 of 32
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    i've seen a few of the new iMacs, and every one had a better looking picture than my Sony trinitrons.



    they rock.
  • Reply 3 of 32
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    The iMac's LCD is amazing. Something had to be screwed up.
  • Reply 4 of 32
    macsrgood4umacsrgood4u Posts: 3,007member
    Sounds like the brightness was way down and as stated above the resolution was wrongly set. I saw the iMac last week at a local Apple re-seller and it was extemely bright and sharp... as sharp as the Cinema Display to these eyes, and this was in a bright flourescent ambiance.
  • Reply 5 of 32
    mackiemackie Posts: 13member
    i should have looked at this thread before starting mine. I just saw the new imac yesterday for the first time. I also thought that the screen was pretty washed out. I checked the resolution... it was at 1024x768... the color sync profile was set to "imac LCD" and the brightness was a little more than 3/4 of the way up. I watched the video for the new imac (for those of you who think we've gone to far...) on the new imac and it seemed completely washed out when it came to light colours. This is something that really concerns me and was wondering if someone else with the new imac could watch this video and tell me if they see what I'm seeing.
  • Reply 6 of 32
    papiliopapilio Posts: 20member
    True, I also was shocked when I saw the pale colors on my 2nd hand Powerbook. Especially the light tints. I can't even make websites with it, I bought an Apple Colorsync Display to do the work. The lcd displays are very sharp though and the new iMac lcd is much better then my powerbook lcd screen. But it's still not good enough for me.
  • Reply 7 of 32
    supersuper Posts: 82member
    I find it hard to believe that you can't design web sites on an LCD screen. While colour accuracy is important in web design it's hardly critical. Consider the myriad of end users viewing your site on everything from a TV to a 15inch display at 640x480 to someone viewing it on a cinema display. Now print design is another matter entirely. I find the 17inch LCD and cinema display to be fine for colour accuracy.
  • Reply 8 of 32
    mackie9mackie9 Posts: 17member
    I would like some more input from those who have the new imac. If you're working in photoshop... and you make a light blue... really light. Like 3% cyan. can you see this colour on a LCD screen or does it just stay white? Are these screens good enough for you designers out there?
  • Reply 9 of 32
    macsrgood4umacsrgood4u Posts: 3,007member
    I'm sure you are aware that LCD screens have less viewabiity range then CRTs. If you look at an iMac screen standing up and the screen was facing forwards and not tiltled up then it would look washed out. The two LCD iMacs that I have seen, one at CompUSA and one at a Mac Reseller had excellent brightness and sharpness. Both were titled up for best viewing. Just a thougtht.



    [ 03-04-2002: Message edited by: MacsRGood4U ]</p>
  • Reply 10 of 32
    serranoserrano Posts: 1,806member
    just repeating... excellent quality on both the imac and 12.1 ibook- both screens are very sharp and bright... more so than their Ti and larger counterparts.
  • Reply 11 of 32
    the blue meaniethe blue meanie Posts: 405member
    Hmmm, I'm not quite sure whether I'm reassured or whether mackie has got me worried again. I don't find it difficult to believe that the idiot assistants at this particular store (PC World for you Brit readers) might have set the monitor wrongly. On the other hand, perhaps it was just the angle - I'll go back to the store and have another look...
  • Reply 12 of 32
    katekate Posts: 172member
    [quote]Originally posted by The Blue Meanie:

    <strong>..... - I'll go back to the store and have another look...</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Do it, the viewing angle is very critical with these. Apple usually uses Samsung TFTs, which provides the best among the industry these days in TFT quality. If looking from more or less than the required angle of +-60 degree with respect to the surface it sure looks blurred washed out, blue-ish (which sort of fits your overall style then ) and faded.



    I have a Sony 15" TFT and the viewing angle is outstanding, but others I saw were much less convincing when bent or swiveled .



    Give it a try!
  • Reply 13 of 32
    bodhibodhi Posts: 1,424member
    Maybe it was the third person talk that caused the iMacs screen to get washed out.
  • Reply 14 of 32
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    I think you people need to calibrate your displays. Never once have I unpacked an Apple display and been happy with the default color profile. Go into the display calibrator assistant and customize it for *you*. It should also be noted that the Mac default gamma settings produce a much lighter picture than Windows default gamma settings... yet another reason to customize that color profile.



    I've been using my SGI 1600SW displays for years, and they've been just fine for the interactive work I do. When I have print work, I get it as close as I can on my LCD, and let Andrews (The big local printhouse around Boston) match it up with their printers, and I tweak it on site in their color rooms from there.
  • Reply 15 of 32
    the blue meaniethe blue meanie Posts: 405member
    [quote]Originally posted by Bodhi:

    <strong>Maybe it was the third person talk that caused the iMacs screen to get washed out.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    You what? <img src="confused.gif" border="0">
  • Reply 16 of 32
    the blue meaniethe blue meanie Posts: 405member
    Some interesting points there M3D Jack ...cheers



    [ 03-05-2002: Message edited by: The Blue Meanie ]</p>
  • Reply 17 of 32
    the blue meaniethe blue meanie Posts: 405member
    The Blue Meanie went back to the store - at the esteemed Kate's suggestion - and yes, positioning yourself directly in front of the display, rather than viewing it from a standing position - does make a big difference. It still seems a little pixelated compared to CRT monitors but I suppose I just need to get used to that
  • Reply 18 of 32
    alpha macalpha mac Posts: 463member
    The angle of light hiting the monitor can sumtimes effect the brightness of the screen,

    especially the flourescent lighting used in most shops now.
  • Reply 19 of 32
    taqtaq Posts: 76member
    I agree there with alpha mac. I've found color fidelity to be great on my flatscreen iMac. IMHO the lcd on it is the brightest I've seen, almost annoyingly so. I've also found the vertical tilt angle important for color (this is where I agree with alphamac). Anyhow, the Taq loves his flat screen iMac's LCD. I hope blue meanie hasn't started a third person talk trend in "AI ! <img src="graemlins/surprised.gif" border="0" alt="[Surprised]" />
  • Reply 20 of 32
    the blue meaniethe blue meanie Posts: 405member
    [quote]Originally posted by Taq:

    [QBI hope blue meanie hasn't started a third person talk trend in "AI ! <img src="graemlins/surprised.gif" border="0" alt="[Surprised]" /> [/QB]<hr></blockquote>



    And why not?

    <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
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