23" Cinema display poor color consistency

I just hooked up my brand new aluminum Apple Cinema HD Display 23 after waiting for weeks for it to arrive. I was pretty disappointed when I immediately noticed the far left and right edges had a dingy yellow tint to them when viewing white windows (such as Finder windows). I also noticed a darker bluish vertical band just to the left of the center when working in LightWave which has a gray background.

So to test the color consistency I then switched the desktop to a medium gray and hid everything else. Sure enough, there was a subtle, but noticeable bluish vertical band about 3" wide just to the left of the center. I then switched the desktop to white and could also see that the far right and left edges were slightly dingy yellow about 2" wide on each side.

I recalibrated the display 2 - 3 times and tested various brightnesses and viewing angles. No matter what I did, the color problems persisted...

I had this $2000 23" Apple HD monitor attached to the Mac with a $400 17" Sony DVI LCD right next to it as a second monitor. The Sony wasn't as good at wide angle viewing, but performing the same gray/white desktop tests showed nice consistent color across the screen. For $2K this HD monitor should have at least as good color consistency as a $400 DVI LCD...

I'd be curious to see how other people's HD 23 monitors hold up with these simple tests. Set your desktop to solid color gray and see how consistent the color holds across the screen. Do the same with solid color white...

Since I run a high end multimedia studio, I need consistent color across the screen. I bought the Apple Cinema display because I thought it was the best I could get...

I packed the monitor up and my associate has just gone to the closest Apple store to see what can be done... I hope this is just an isolated problem that can be quickly resolved. Hopefully I just got a bad monitor and hopefully Apple will just replace it with one with better color consistency...

I'll post the results here...

Thanks,
-MikeS

Posted on Aug 17, 2004 12:15 PM

349 replies

viper0066

Level 5

5,257 points

Feb 19, 2005 10:04 AM in response to Michael Scaramozzino

Add my just-arrived new 23" Aluminum ACD to the list. I may have gotten-off relatively lucky, as mine only 'suffers' from an overall yellowish dingy appearance to the picture. This yellowish dinge appears to be quite uniform, almost as if the display were designed on-purpose to be yellowish.

I see the dinge more clearly when comparing the 23" to my 20" G5 iMac (which looks very white compared to the 23" unit).

Given the posts detailing stories of replacement units often appearing worse than the units they replaced, and the uniformity of the yellowish dinge on mine, I am not sure about keeping this one or asking for service help from Apple.

I will be installing the ATI 9800 Pro SE, and will be curious to see if there is any difference.

Zebra1

Level 2

290 points

Feb 19, 2005 11:25 AM in response to viper0066

Unless you have calibrated both to the same color temperature using the expert level calibrate function in the Displays menu, you cannot make such statements.

The iMac display is blueish white by default and that is why it looks "white" to you when compared to a more true white default the 23" is set at.

viper0066

Level 5

5,257 points

Feb 19, 2005 4:54 PM in response to Zebra1

The 23" looked yellowish right away to me (a little like an old newspaper fades yellow over time).

The bluish-white color of the iMac is a far-truer white than the yellowish 23" unit.

I'm not following your protest of my observations absent any "expert level calibrate" activities, but I expect the display to look right out-of-the-box, and this one looks dingy, and yellowish - to me that's not a true white.

Zebra1

Level 2

290 points

Feb 20, 2005 9:39 AM in response to viper0066

Like I said: Open System Preferences, click on Displays, click on Color, check "Show profiles for this display only," select Cinema HD Display, click Calibrate, check Expert Mode and proceed to follow instructions on how to do it. Squinting helps when setting the left control box. After you do same for both, then let us know how they look. Try the iMac first. That should set you straight real quick. Displays have infinite color temperatures from cold(blueish) to warm(yellowish.) Unless you set them to a close range, you can't tell what's "yellow" or " white."

As it is right now, you have no reference point for comparison. You're in arbitrary mode.

Feb 23, 2005 6:37 AM in response to Michael Scaramozzino

Hi,

I'm a digitial imaging student, with a lecturer who is one of the foremost practitioners in this art. He is fanatical about color calibration, profiles, etc. We discussed this problem in class today because we just upgraded the 15 computers in our digital darkroom to G5s with these 23-inch displays

basically, he calibrated every monitor, and every monitor had the pink color cast on the sides (so you have a middle grey square in the centre of your monitor, and about 15cms of the left and right edges are pinkish. if you want to see this, just turn your desktop background to grey in the preferences setup)

apparently this is a hardware problem. Do not disregard it!! Every 23-inch display has this problem, even when perfectly calibrated, because it is not a software problem. I've noticed the ghosting effect as well... it is a manufacturing fault that exists in all 23'. The 20 and 30-inch displays apparently do not exhibit these problems.

I wish I'd held out for a 30-inch... now I'll have to raise **** with Apple and hope that they will honor our trust in their products and set up a repair program for them (like the fiasco with the LCD's on the 15-inch powerbooks)

Dan-o

Level 2

403 points

Feb 23, 2005 8:48 AM in response to jedichick79

This is discouraging news to say the least. I work in the post-production world (commercial photography) and we have the older 23" models with no casts at all. My only question through all these posts was "how many people actually used a ColorVision or Gretag colorimeter to profile the monitor, before determining there was a pink / yellow cast (or blue streak)?"

Obviously this has nothing to do with lousy OEM ICC profiles and has directly to do with the quality of parts and/or how the things are build / fused together.

I have been waiting a couple years to get my own high-end LCD and have always wanted a Cinema Display. I guess my options are get a 20" model and have only slightly more real estate than on my 22" CRT, or plunk down the money for an Eizo or LaCie 321 (currently the best options available for color work.

That NEC model with the Luxeon backlight (and 104% Adobe RGB) is vaporware. It never arrived last year and won't arrive until late this year, in limited quantities.

: (

Feb 23, 2005 9:17 AM in response to jedichick79

Stephanie

Thanks for this information. Are you aware of the serial numbers' of your monitors? The first four digits are fine.

reagrds

nigel

Feb 23, 2005 9:33 AM in response to Teg Goh

This morning I popped into the Apple Store on Regent Street, London. There were half a dozen (or so) 23" ACDs in use. Having explained my interest in the display to a shop assistant, we performed the usual tests to look for the colour "defects" (if that is the right word).

The monitors with a 2A43/2A44 serial number all suffered from the known problems. The single 2A46 monitor was fine, to my untrained eye, at least. That is, there was no magenta on the borders, even backlighting, no yellowing, no blue bands left of centre.

Nigel

Feb 23, 2005 7:55 PM in response to Michael Scaramozzino

Looks like I'm joining the long line of dissatisfied 23" owners. I have the same pink problem as well as a bunch of faint squiggly striation looking lines that are most prominent on a gray background.

I'm also running the 23" side-by-side with a 20" and it's just silly how different the colors are between the two regardless of how much calibrating I do.

I guess if we are to get any kind of recall then everyone with this problem will have to make some noise. I'm taking mine in to the downtown Chicago Apple store next week. Even if I get another bunk 23" in exchange at least it's one more person bringing this problem to their doorstep.

Seriously Apple, I've been using your gear for 15 years. It's time to own up to this problem.

Feb 24, 2005 6:44 AM in response to Michael Scaramozzino

I'm glad I could shed some light on the matter... as I was so overly excited about getting my new setup (G5 2.5ghz dp, with 23" monitor) that I didn't even notice the problems (I saw some striations, ghosting, but that faded, and I changed the backgound to something complex, so the subtle color inconsistencies weren't very noticeable) until now.

I was shocked when I saw the problems on the 16 displays that we just installed in our digital darkroom (having 16 monitors sitting side by side exhibit the exact same problem was eye-opening), especially when they had been professionally color-calibrated with a high-end colorimeter by a very strict, fanatical digital artist...

enough said. He has some inside info that suggests that Apple know about the problem (how could they not???)... let's hope they do the right thing.

Feb 24, 2005 12:42 PM in response to Ken Boudakian

Ken,

If you read Apple's refund policy, you will see that there is a restock fee if the item is opened, even if it is returned within 10 days. The 10 day-no fee policy only applies if you do not open the box. So unless you were suggesting that Bob had 10 days to decide if he was satisfied with the box, he was going to get hit with a fee no matter how soon he returned the (opened) product.

Check out the policy here:

http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/salesrefund.html#Return%20Policy

Feb 24, 2005 3:18 PM in response to Michael Scaramozzino

Peter,

I just returned an ADC reconditioned 23 Cinema HD because I was not satisfied and there was NO CHARGE.

They said usually you need to call tech support, have them write up a case number, then contact Returns and they will issue an RMA for a DOA or defective product such as mine was.

The operator I spoke with was very helpful and sent me FedEx tags for return within minutes.

Good luck.

Feb 25, 2005 12:06 PM in response to Christopher Jennings

I agree it's time for them to own up...and also own up to removing posts! I just had yet another topic/post removed, Whoo Hoo Apple, you think no one is noticing this? And by the way, talking about the 23" defect IS a technical problem. What else could it possibly be???

Feb 27, 2005 4:16 AM in response to Michael Scaramozzino

ATTENTION - those of you with the problem! What video card are you using? I just discovered this problem as I am in the market for a 23" display with a new G5. I saw another thread, and it made me think to ask... Is this happening with all Apple video cards, or just the ATI 9800 Pro?

Dan-o

Level 2

403 points

Feb 27, 2005 8:02 PM in response to Merlin Lucas

I'd be very surprised if all this was caused by a video card chipset and not something particular to the way the screen was made. I'd be willing to bet there's a decent cross-section of machines that have 9600, 9800, and Nvidia cards - all with the same problem.

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23" Cinema display poor color consistency