Bought new iMac 20" Faded Screen

Yeah I'm still in the 14 day window. I'm going to call tech support and hopefully get some sort of valid response out of those guys. It's probably going back though. Then I'll just wait until they acknowledge the problem and confirm that it's been fixed to buy another one. Bummer, I love everything else about it but everytime i look at the screen, all i see are fading graphics/text.

I just wanted to update my findings

(I already posted under the username "nout", but I lost my password and answering the personal question to get my password back didn't work, I had to make a new account)

The gradient is still there but only when I look for it.
While using the iMac, just working with it is no longer an issue for me.
The screen is just beautiful, colors are nicely saturated (of course you have to properly calibrate the screen) and the gloss finnish is something I got used to pretty soon.
The viewing angle is good enough, in fact much better than the Macbooks and PC laptops I tried/used.
No not as good as the 24 inch alu iMac and white iMacs, but definitely NOT MUCH worse as some on this forum complaint.

The very bright, too bright screen is easily dimmed by the application "Shades" and since most LCD-screen loose their brightness quite a bit over the years, the ultra-brightness may be a good thing in the long run.

nout72 wrote:

The very bright, too bright screen is easily dimmed by the application "Shades" and since most LCD-screen loose their brightness quite a bit over the years, the ultra-brightness may be a good thing in the long run.

A typical CCFL decays to half its initial intensity in about 60k hours
of service. That's nearly *7 years* of 24/7 operation -- for about the
same amount of change as you get with the anemic brightness
adjustment on the keyboard.

Looby

Hmm...okay.
Thanks for the enlightenment 🙂

That is exactly how I feel about my iMac now.

For those trying to decide whether or not to keep theirs, or to buy one, your progression of posts on this thread would probably be worth viewing.

I just made appt with the genius bar to return the machine. I'm not wasting any time with replacements until apple comes out and says that there's something wrong and that the replacement will have a different screen.

Notice that the list includes many 'prestigious' products such as Acer's AL2016W ...

According to the specs, Acer's AL2016W monitor is a 24-bit panel with TC'99 certification, it's not a TN panel with TC'03 certification.

http://www.epinions.com/AcerAL2016_W_20IN_TFT_LCD_600_1_1680X1050_300CD_M2_BLK_VGA_8MS_Monitor_1/display_~fu llspecs

"There is no character, howsoever good and fine, but it can be destroyed by ridicule, howsoever poor and witless."
\- Mark Twain

You might want to read this thread first:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1073705&start=0&tstart=0

The vast majority are TN panels -- easily confirmed at http://tftcentral.co.uk.

I tried their TFT Selector for 20-21 inch displays using a variety of options but not a single TN panel came up in any category.

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/selector.htm

"Even the clearest and most perfect circumstantial evidence is likely to be at fault, after all, and therefore ought to be received with great caution. Take the case of any pencil, sharpened by any woman; if you have witnesses, you will find she did it with a knife; but if you take simply the aspect of the pencil, you will say she did it with her teeth."
\- Samuel Clemens

capaho wrote:

Notice that the list includes many 'prestigious' products such as Acer's AL2016W ...

According to the specs, Acer's AL2016W monitor is a 24-bit panel with TC'99 certification,
it's not a TN panel with TC'03 certification.

http://www.epinions.com/AcerAL2016_W_20IN_TFT_LCD_600_1_1680X1050_300CD_M2_BLK_VGA_8MS_Monitor_1/display_~fu llspecs

*So, epinions.com knows better than Acer what Acer's specs are?*

http://us.acer.com/public/page4.do?sp=page9&dau22.oid=23375&UserCtxParam=0&Group CtxParam=0&dctx1=25&CountryISOCtxParam=US&LanguageISOCtxParam=en&ctx3=-1&ctx4=Un ited+States&crc=1939111438#inu57_41899

Note the 16.2M colors (a.k.a. 6 bit + dither) and 160x160 viewing angles (a.k.a. TN panel)

*...and epinions.com knows better than tftcentral.co.uk what LCD panel is used?*

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/widescreen.htm

Acer AL2016W 20 1680 x 1050 8ms CPT TN Film

*...and epinions.com knows better than the certifying agency what the certs are?*

1) http://www.tcodevelopment.com/ > Language: English
2) Search Certified Product > Product Type: Displays > Size: 20 > Certification: ALL > Search

Acer's AL2016Wxxx line of monitors (all of them) are certified to TCO'99 \ AND TCO'03.

BTW, I only picked on Acer 'cause that was the absolute cheapest 20" monitor from newegg;
but since I posted, newegg bumped the price $10 -- knocking it out of the cheapest spot.
But never fear! It's still a TN panel, it's still TCO'03 AND TCO'99 certified, and it's still the
absolute-dirt-cheapest 20" monitor available from this ultra-prestige high-tech vendor:

*...[hey, big spender -- $184.87 at WallyWorld!|http://www.walmart.com/search/browse-ng.do?ic=24 0&ref=125875.138069+500847.4293870320&search_sort=1&selecteditems=&catNavId=37802"]*

Looby
.

*"An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish.*
*Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head."*
\- Eric Hoffer

.

capaho wrote:

I tried their TFT Selector for 20-21 inch displays using a variety
of options but not a single TN panel came up in any category.

So, you're tellin' us you couldn't find one TN panel in all of TFTcentral?

For some strange reason, that reminds me of a famous TX fratboy...

...who couldn't find oil in the Premian Basin,

Looby

Well, let me throw in a new set of comments. My aluminum iMac 20" arrived last week, and:
* there is a substantial gradient top-to-bottom, no matter how I calibrate
* if I tilt the screen, or kneel on the floor, or whatever, I can change the appearance - but the top is always noticeably darker than the bottom
* I have a fairly new LG 19" LCD connected to the mini-DIN port, with extended desktop. Its image has far less gradient; its text is darker and crisper; and if I span a picture across both monitors it looks better on the iMac until about 2/3 of the way down the screen

I've settled on using the LG monitor for anything I need to read or work on as a graphic.
The iMac is my workbench, where I keep all the other stuff - the tool palettes, the Dock, etc.
And I'll watch widescreen movies on it.

I expected better, and it annoys me that people with older iMacs GOT better.

Well I just went to the Apple Store in Allentown, PA (Lehigh Valley Mall) and set up a time with the so-called 'Genius Bar.' I was the only one at the bar with 4 or 5 technicians and I explained the problem with the screen gradient.

Every single one of them played dumb and said this is the very first time that they've heard about it and that there isn't a gradient issue at all with the new screens.

At this point, I requested a refund. I'm not going to go through the trouble of explaining the problem to several of Apple's own technicians. These guys should know about this already and have a suitable response or they're just playing dumb.

Not good.

It's goin back for a full refund.

Tim Hicks wrote:
Well, let me throw in a new set of comments. My aluminum iMac 20" arrived last week, and:
* there is a substantial gradient top-to-bottom, no matter how I calibrate

That's a bummer, sorry to hear that. I have absolutely no proof of this, but I swear that my screen had some kind of burn-in period. I went to BB and calibrated the screens there, which had been sitting there for months, and they looked better than my screen, calibrated right out of the box. I have had this computer for over a month, and I get more and more satisfied with it all the time, and my machine looks just like those BB screens now. Maybe it will get better for you, and maybe you could do the same with a store near you.

So, your LG has far less gradient, but it still has a gradient? Listening to some people hear you would think that the iMac is the only screen that ever had a gradient effect. I'm surprised that the text is darker and crisper on your LG, though, because I've always thought my iMac has excelled in that department.

Whether or not the older iMacs had a better screen seems like a matter of opinion, to me. I've never seen the older screen, but I've heard from people on this thread that the new iMac's screen has much more vibrant colors, and is much brighter; and that's by some of the same people that complain about the gradient. I personally value the colors and brightness, and I prefer the glossy screen as well, so I don't see the older screens as being better.

Message was edited by: AceDew -- typos

Thanks for all the references. If you feel the Acer AL2016W is a perfect example of what the 20" iMac display should be, I'll see if I can get my hands on one and do a side-by-side compariosn with my iMac.

"It is my belief that nearly any invented quotation, played with confidence, stands a good chance to deceive."
\- Mark Twain