23" Cinema display poor color consistency

There are some good reports in this thread:

http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?128@@.68b240a4

For what its worth, there are some good reports in this thread:

http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?128@@.68b240a4

And an interesting comparison review of the ACD 23 / Dell 24:

http://www.barefeats.com/lcd.html

Mine's the same way. I'm just going to return it and order another one. And again, and again, until I get one that I'm happy with.

Also I noticed that with my Radeon X850XTPE video card on my windows machine, no text modes are visible.

Bueno voy a dejar mi opinión en español para que lo recojan los buscadores,
También tengo el mismo problema, en los laterales los colores pierden, este problema lo tengo desde que me lo han traído.
Me puse en contacto con el servicio técnico y me han contestado que no hay ningún tipo de incidencia parecida con respecto a los Cinema Display 23", pero he dejado mi queja de este problema, con esto me han querido decir que cuanto mas incidencias abiertas se harán cargo del problema.
Desde aquí pido que llamen apple y que abran una incidencia para que se hagan cargo.

En el siguiente foro también se discute el mismo problema.

http://www.macuarium.com/foro/index.php?showtopic=108123

David,

I am delighted to report that I took my monitor to the Apple store, described the pinkish tint problem, and they fixed it in just three business days with no hassle whatsoever. I'm not sure what they did to fix it, but it is now perfect. I must say that I am quite impressed by this experience. I suggest you rush to your nearest Apple store and do the same!

Chris

Was at Fry's yesterday. Saw two 23's, one connected to a G5 looking pink as a rose and one running off a Mini that looked fine. Don't know why but this seems to be very consistant. Even at the Apple stores I see the same thing....

DD

Was at Fry's yesterday. Saw two 23's, one connected to a G5 looking pink as a rose and one running off a Mini that looked fine. Don't know why but this seems to be very consistant. Even at the Apple stores I see the same thing....

DD

I am a recent convert to Mac. And, I have been looking at the G5s since the 1.6 single was news. I had noticed this weirdness on some of the displays in the stores as I got closer to making my purchase decision.

(Note: this is in Japan) I kept asking questions and getting more or less two answers. 1) What color problem? We don't see no color problem. AND 2) That the system was just not calibrated at that time.

After seeing posts regarding this, I went back to some of the major distributors (No Apple store in Osaka) and they began admitting there was a problem about two months ago. But, note that in Japan, returns are always for repair, never refunds.

So, I decided not to take a chance. I wanted the 30", but could not risk getting stuck with the down time while shipping it around and hoping it came back alright. So, I went a totally different route.

The 30" display is almost USD4000 here. So, I started looking at LCD televisions with DVI-D input. Holy Toledo! The sharp IT-26M1 (26" TV) that I am looking at now. Blows the Apple displays out of the water for color balance, and is less than HALF the price of the 23" monitor. Also, the great design fits in perfectly with the G5.

The point: consider a digital television for your next monitor. They are just as good as dedicated monitors, and you can also watch TV full screen or in a little window if you like. All for less than half the price of an AD.

For what its worth.

I was there at Fry's at Automall too and that 23" that's connected to the Mac Mini is a return from a customer. If you look on the back of the display there's a very unpleasing scratch and the salesman tried to get me to buy that one off the floor since they were out of stock. I went to another Fry's and bought one. It's not pink but it's not perfect. I don't think we will see anymore 23" ACD's pink but through 3 exchanges all of them inlcuding the one I settled with have a slightly dark vertical band off to the left of the center of the screen. It's straight from the top to the bottom.
It's not something noticable unless it's against a solid white or solid grey background but eventually I will have to have Apple replace the LCD on mine. Hopefully they will address this issue publicly but I am not holding my breath.

Maybe a stupid but certainly a rhetorical question, but why do you people put up with this, for a display that's >$1500?

Hello Phil Ta,

Yep, that was certainly a rhetorical question. But mine isn't.

From what I've read you had/have Dell, or Samsung or Apple Cinema but I'm not sure which you do recommend.

While I've ruled out the ACD's (20") I'm really wavering on the Dell 20" LG panel. From everything I've been able to research, it does not exhibit the problem of a non-white (pink-blue-darkstripe) color aging.

Your opinion is respectfully requested.

Bill Gallagher

I have the Dell 2405 LCD and highly recommend it for several reasons:

(1) It's $804 right now with coupons.

(2) The LCD panel itself is made by Samsung.

(3) The S-IPS panel used in the Apple display is touted to have better color accuracy, but reports with actual measurements indicate that the Samsung PVA panel in the Dell produces color very very accurately, more so than the Apple display.

(4) Dell service. 21 or 30 day return policy, no restocking fee, but you pay postage on returns. For exchanges, like if you get a bad display or one with some dead or stuck pixels, call Dell or use their online chat, and ask for a replacement to be sent overnight to you at no charge, and they will also include a pre-paid airbill for you to send the old LCD back. It sounds unbelievable, but one dead pixel is a valid reason for an exchange. Apple can't touch that, and their restocking fee is very hefty since the LCD is priced high.

(5) Inputs and adjustment options. DVI-D is useful for recently new computers, but I think the world is still using analog a lot too. Component video, S-video, and composite video may be useful now or later on for other things. Analog input is especially important because you can easily connect two computers to the display without buying a KVM switch (added expense and bulk or clutter), for example my PC and Mac mini are connected to the Dell via DVI and analog, respectively, and to switch between them I just press a button on the LCD. Also, analog KVM switches can be had for 15x cheaper than DVI KVM switches ($20 vs $300) and are more reliable/easy to get working.

(6) Adjustments. You can adjust color which may be important. But moreso is the ability to adjust how the image being displayed is scaled. I think on Apple LCDs, the image is scaled to fit the entire screen. That may work most of the time, but for things like iPhoto slideshows, OSX outputs a lower resolution than the native resolution of the LCD, and this is where you shouldn't scale the image because it'll look stretched and distorted. In other words, when viewing a photo at fullscreen on a 4:3 on a widescreen display, you want to see black bars on the sides to preserve the aspect ratio of the photo rather than stretching it to fit the screen. There seems to be no way to turn off scaling on the Apple LCDs.

(7) The two problems I've read about with the Dell is that there's a high-pitched buzz (but you can exchange it easily) and that brightness is too high (but you can turn down the brightness and colors to reduce to where it's pretty dim for those who like dim).

(8) Grainy-ness or glitter. Due to the nature of S-IPS panels, they have a slight sparkle, grainy, or glittery appearance. This is especially evident when viewing a white window and moving it around, so you can see that the grainy-ness stays in place. It's not too bad as I've seen on other displays, namely the Dell 2001FP, but it's there more than PVA/MVA panels.

(9) Swivel. I use the swivel on the Dell a lot. I think it's useful. I never rotate the display 90 degrees though.

(10) Built-in power supply. It doesn't require a separate power brick.

(11) Built-in flash memory card reader. I at first thought it was totally useless since I already had a cheap and convenient USB card reader that I use for SD flash memory, but I recently bought a Canon Rebel XT that uses compact flash cards. The card reader on the Dell display performs many times better than the other card reader for CF cards, so I've found a use for it.

The downsides of the Dell compared to the Apple are no firewire hub (I don't know how important that is, but I have a few iPods and use USB) and maybe less aesthetically appealing.