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

Sep 22, 2004 12:21 PM in response to Michael Scaramozzino

QUOTE: "but I really like the new pedestal much better than the old easel base... as well as the usb-2 and firewire... "

Me too. The old style easel base gets you one angle only. New one is much better. I just called Apple Tech support to see if they know anything about a fix or any changes. The tech I spoke to didn't know a thing about this issue with the 23" monitors......

This is very uncool.

Sep 22, 2004 7:27 PM in response to Michael Scaramozzino

In reality what can they do? It sounds like a hardware issue. That means they have to change hardware parts in order to get things right, and that sounds like something that will take time.

Sep 23, 2004 8:00 AM in response to Robin Teo

That's exactly what I suspect they'll have to do...

This is how I wish Apple would deal with the situation.

1) Acknowledge the problems with the 23" ACD and explain that they are working on a solution.

2) Offer a free replacement once the issues have been resolved for any owners with any of the affected screens.

But don't keep sending out replacements that themselves are problematic...

-MikeS

Sep 23, 2004 11:42 AM in response to Michael Scaramozzino

<< Can anyone out there with a new 23" ACD perform the white/gray desktop tests and see a consistent white/gray across the entire screen? >>

I got my ACD last week (Europe) hooked it up to a PC and do a lot of color critical multimedia work like I did with my CRT before. It has a tendency to pinkish colors - but since I calibrated it with my GregMcBeth Eye-One-Display the colors look like they should.

I did a lot of fullscreen dark-grey mid-grey and white tests now and I am unable to spot any blue or yellow areas. I also have a G4 with an "old" 20" ACD running next door - the picture quality regarding color consistency is about the same.

However, there is a ghosting issue: especially when I switch to dark-grey fullscreen I am able to see traces of the desktop image for about 1 to 2 minutes. This ghosting problem does not exist on the "old" 20". But I can live with it as it is not too dominant during daily work.

Many greetings
Dominique

Sep 23, 2004 11:57 AM in response to Dominique Mueller

That's great news Dominique,

Can you see the yellowish sides and bluer band in the photos I posted?
http://dreamlight.com/insights/bugs/hd23.html

Just to make sure that you can see the subtle color casts when they do exist... Some people couldn't see it in the photos, in which case they also couldn't see it on their monitors, even when it may be there...

Also, you are testing the 23" Aluminum Cinema Display, right?

If there are indeed new ones coming out without these problems, then it might be time to return mine again... I'll have to take a trip to my local Apple store again soon to see if they have any from more recent batches...

Thanks,
-MikeS

Sep 23, 2004 2:02 PM in response to Michael Scaramozzino

Hi again,

your photo - I guess due to the used wide angle lens - shows quite a luminance shift in addition to the color shift. Indeed I see the colorshift - especially the blue band is eye popping. Regarding the yellow sides it is a little hard to judge how much of it is caused by taking the picture (if you take a photo of an 20" ACD out of a distance of a meter with a wide-angle-lens there is also some color and luminance shift visible on the picture - which is not present while sitting in front of the screen) and how the screen looks in reality. Unfortunately I have not seen any other 23" ACD other than mine yet.

I took three pictures of my screen ( http://www.cybermagic.net/temp/grey.jpg white.jpg and desktop.jpg). There is a color and luminance shift visible in these pictures again caused by the camera - but especially the blue band is not visible to me. (All 3 pictures are taken with the same shutter speed and aperture to keep them somehow comparable)

If I move my head to the far left of my screen and look to the right corner - a yellow color shift like in your picture gets visible. But if my head is positioned right in front of the center of the screen, it looks perfect compared to your picture.

I buy my hardware as my own dealer at one of Germanies biggest distributors - so I guess my screen is from one recent batch.

However, good look for getting a better screen - and please don't proof me to be color blind 😉

Many greetings
Dominique

PS.: The screen is one of the new 23" aluminium ACDs

Sep 23, 2004 3:14 PM in response to Michael Scaramozzino

Michael-

The top picture in your link is exactly what I noticed in the store this week. 😟

Sep 24, 2004 8:02 AM in response to Dominique Mueller

Hi Dominique,

The current replacement screen I have also has the same problems (though not quite as bad), the sides are yellowish and slightly dimmer... There is a darker/bluer vertical band just to the left of the center.

Please don't take offense at my asking to be sure you could see the color shifts I was talking about. Early on in these threads there were some people that said they had perfect screens, but they couldn't see the color shifts on my photos... so it's quite possible that they also couldn't see any color shifts that may have been on their screens as well... Sometimes graphics professionals can see subtle changes that the average user may not notice... So, I just had to be sure you could see what I was seeing on this end... 😉

-MikeS

Sep 24, 2004 8:06 AM in response to Dominique Mueller

If you spend some time with it you will eventually see that it is the same effect as a viewing angle problem, but it actually exists independently of viewing angle. There is no doubt in my mind that this display universally has a defective backlight and a color problem. Michael is a lot more patient than I am, I'll say straight out I've never seen one without both of the problems and I am 99% sure anyone who is saying they don't have the problem isn't looking carefully enough/doesn't care. I will say that pink cast problems appear to be coming to some resolution for people who are able to get an .icc file to stick. Fact remains Apple released an expensive piece of equipment that is defective as far as professionals are concerned. Still no word from them either (besides "deal with it dude") as far as I've seen. . .hate to say it but it's a company that makes mp3 players at this point.

Sep 24, 2004 8:26 AM in response to Michael Scaramozzino

I've have these problems in each of THREE 23" screens I've had from Apple over the last two months (the 1st I bought, the next two were replacements).

I'd be willing to accept that I could get one bad screen.

Two would be unfortunate.

But three? Come on...

I would suggest anyone who's not sure should repeat the test described, but draw bands of various colours across the screen (I used photoshop with a full-screen white document). Fill a horizontal rectangle with bright turquoise and make sure it extend past the left-hand edge of the screen. You will probably notice that it starts to become green.

(Apologies if this has already been suggested but I found that if you stare too long at a perfectly white screen, it can be difficult after a while to tell if the colour is consistent across the whole picture.)

Sep 24, 2004 8:52 AM in response to Matt Smith1

Yes, I had two bad ones as well... and saw more bad ones in the Apple store...

I haven't yet returned this second one, since I haven't yet had any hope that another replacement would be any better... However, I looked at Dominique's photos, and they do indeed look much better than what I'm seeing here on my replacement. So, maybe there is hope yet. If the latest units are better I'll return this one again...

I'd like to see a good one in a local store though, before going through the trouble to send this one back...

-MikeS

Sep 24, 2004 10:08 AM in response to Michael Scaramozzino

Well after a using this replacement monitor for a while, it looks pretty much the way the first one did. The yellow is a little better, but the pink left side is worse...

I've shot new photos of my replacement monitor and updated my original page about this problem which clearly shows the problems on my first and replacement screen, as well as the tests to find/show these problems...

http://dreamlight.com/insights/bugs/hd23.html

Please have people run these white/gray (and any other solid colors too) tests on as many of the new 23" monitors (and older plastic ones for comparison) as you can to see if this is a limited or widespread problem. Also, make sure to retest the screen after a couple of weeks of use, if it appeared fine at first. My replacement started out much better than my first one, but after a while, it's just as bad...

If anyone says they can't see the problems on their screen, verify that they can indeed see the problems on these photos. If they can't see the color shifts on these photos, then they probably just aren't very trained to see subtle color differences...

Thanks,
-MikeS

Sep 24, 2004 10:18 AM in response to Michael Scaramozzino

I just went to a local store tonight and found the problem as described, the subtle pink overtone on the new display. Though the only display the store has is the 20" display. This is in Western Australia by the way. Looks like I will be looking for the clear plastic display.

Sep 24, 2004 10:29 AM in response to Michael Scaramozzino

Has anyone looked at the Sony 23" panel display? Is it worth considering as an alternative?

Sep 24, 2004 10:50 AM in response to Dominique Mueller

Hi Dominique,

Be sure to retest your monitor in a couple of weeks. My replacement monitor looked better when I first hooked it up. But after a while of use, it ended up just as bad as the first one. The yellow isn't as bad, but the pink left side is worse... If yours is still good after a couple of weeks, it could be a good sign...

I've added new photos of my replacement monitor to my page...
http://dreamlight.com/insights/bugs/hd23.html

-MikeS

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23" Cinema display poor color consistency