23" Cinema display poor color consistency

G'day Teg,

Yes

Spot on!
I sold mine today with a loss of $ 200, still left me with enough to buy a HP L2335 with standard 3 year warrenty, it is perfect, MUCH better than the ACD 23", and... they are using the same LG Philips panel.
So something must have gone terribly wrong with the Apple displays.
I hope that all of you can get a good service from Apple for your displays, I didn't want to wait: rather loose $ 200 than waiting for Apple to acknowledge the monitors are defective and replace the monitor (if that is gonna happen ever...)

Hi all,

I brought my ACD 23" back yesterday and will get a completely "new" one, which of course could just be a repaired one. I hope that it will be ok, but after reading all posts on this I don't have much hope. 😟
Will let you know when it arrives...

Björn

well

according to all the reviews i have read about your HP L2335 versus apple cinema 23"....the cinema wins all over. But i can understand your frusstration, but that dosent make the HP a better screen ;O)

according to all the reviews i have read about your HP L2335 versus apple cinema 23"....the cinema wins all over

Funny, I keep reading reviews that say just the opposite: macintouch, xlr8, znet: all favour the HP...

Hi all,

I just read through "all" the posts on this topic, (whichever that is not deleted yet, 42 posts "missing in action"). here are my view on some issues:

1. Is APPLE a 'stand up' company?
Look at those dates stated in the following link:
http://www.apple.com/support/powerbook/displayprogram/
15-inch PowerBook G4 Display Repair Extension Program
These computers were manufactured from July 2003 through November 2003....
This notice was posted on Friday, September 24, 2004.
It took them almost a year to come up with this Repair program!!!

2. Learn from the fact above, I would not want to wait for another year or so for Apple to acknowledge their ACD problem. Can any member please recommend or share their experience on other brand 23"? Thank you.

3. It seems like 20" ACD have less problem than the 23". Maybe that is the reason why the biggest Apple centre here only dare to have their 20" on display and not their 23". When I ask them to show me the 23" before I purchase, they told me to just look at the 20", for their different is only in size!?!?!?

Any other input on these issues from other member?

G'day Bjoern,

there are no replaceable parts in the ACD's, if something fails in the display, it's thrown out in the bin, so you do have a new one.

Then, what do you suggest is done when they are 'repaired' - as many have posted here they were directed to do? No sarcasm, now, seriously, what is your understanding of what the 'repair' is on displays?

G'day Viper,

(used to belong to a MOH clan called viper)

Only repeating what an Apple store guy told me, said there are no replaceable parts - it's thrown out and replaced. He cited an example of a 23" being dropped, the foot was bent, got thrown in the bin and a new one sent to replace it.

To continue my early post:

I'm now on my 2nd new 23" displays, a 2A44... serial number unit that I had shipped to me so that I could evaluate it vs. the 2A43... that I'd written about here several days ago.

(That one had the usual pinkish area near the center. It seemed a bit better after a few days of use but that was probably just because I was tolerating this better)

The more recently manufactured unit (sn 2A44...) is better. Native color temp is about 6600K vs the 7100K of the 2A43... unit (good!) and, interestingly enough, the brighness +- buttons will take about 30 touches to go halfway across the scale (on the 2A43... unit, only a few touches to go halfway, overly sensitive and hard to adjust). Something is definitely different here. The darker/pinker area just to left of center no longer exists, or so subtle it's not noticeable. When I first started testing this one I was pleased and hopeful that the 2A44... unit was going to be good enough. But:

There are still big problems near the edges. About 1.5" of the left side is darker/greener when you're looking at flat white, as in Safari windows, Finders windows, text documents, etc. with white backgrounds. Pretty much all the way to the Edit menu on the menubar. The right edge isn't as bad, but the color shift is still there, just less noticeable and only to about 1" or less. Some of this is also visible in the corners. Essentially, you end up with "good" color consistency on an area that's a little larger than a 20" display; for the extra $800, the rest of the visible area has this darker/greener problem.

Better than the first 23" display; at least the main part of the screen looks good; but still not acceptable. Very disappointing, I was hoping that the 2A44's were going to solve these issues completely, but (in this case) apparently not.

Can anyone else comment on the HP L2335? It's starting to look like a more desirable option than trying to go through Apple 23" displays in the hopes of finding a "good" one. The only other option is to downgrade to an Apple 20" and eventually switch that over to a secondary display when/if the 23"s are up to snuff, but I -really- wanted to have the larger screen.

Can anyone else comment on the HP L2335? It's starting to look like a more desirable option than trying to go through Apple 23" displays in the hopes of finding a "good" one. The only other option is to downgrade to an Apple 20" and eventually switch that over to a secondary display when/if the 23"s are up to snuff, but I -really- wanted to have the larger screen

I have sold mine, with a 200 dollar loss 😟
I'm getting a HP L2335 tuesday instead, will report how that one is that day, stay tuned.
I could not accept the bad quality of the display, Apple still says there are no known issues and would only repair the backlight - wich has no use as this is not the problem...
Very bad indeed...

Sigh,... Obviously, Apple's response only show the following possibilities:

1. They can't solve the problem so they decided that they can not see the problem!!???
2. They really can not see the problem. So they are not that professional after all...
3. The problem is too costly for them to acknowledge.

What other possibilities? Anyone else?

Good, I'd really like to hear about how the HP L2335 compares, from someone who is contributing to this thread.

I did some research, reading about this on the web last night. There are some user reviews up on places like Amazon and Buy.com (which seems to have the best price, $1577 including shipping, and they have a 20 day return policy in which they'll take it back without a restocking fee as long as you return it in original condition and packaging). But the people who are writing these reviews may not know what "good" vs. "bad" really is, compared to the people here who know enough to tell the difference.

In general, most of the reviews of the HP are highly favorable; and there are some advantages: more than just a DVI input, you can also bring in analog through S-video and component; there's PIP; and you can swivel it 90 degrees.

From something else I read, I was hoping that CompUSA might have it in stock so I could drive out and see one hooked up, but their web site doesn't list it, unfortunately enough.

PC World did a January 2005 review of large LCDs which included both the 23" Cinema HD and the HP. (Google and you'll find it). What's making me reluctant to take another stab at switching is the fact that their review (while hardly detailed) gave the 23" Cinema HD a better rating than the HP. The knock on the HP was that it didn't do very well playing video, so it makes you wonder whether there are some response time issues with it. It would be supremely annoying to go through the process of getting the HP in here to try and then finding it was better than the Apple display in some ways but worse, again, in others.

I'm starting to think about living with this 2A44... display. I now have it set up side-by-side with the 2A33, and the differences and similarities are interesting. Near the center, the 2A44 is definitely better, to the point of being acceptable. Both of them have the same problems near the left edge (gets slightly darkier, "dirtier", greenish yellow for the 1-2" strip and in the corners), but on the 2A44 it is just a -little- bit dirtier looking there and the transition from "clean" to "dirty" is less gradual, so it stand out more.

I keep my dock on the left edge of the screen and I keep it fixed size, so one thing I -could- do is take some icons out and size it up larger to keep my windows a little further off the left edge. (Talk about making compromises).

I've been thinking along the same lines myself. It seems that the ACD 23" has a major design flaw( whether in the panel construction, or 'protective coating layer') that might not be totally repairable. Out of all the posts I've read and displays I've seen in person, I have yet to hear a story of a long term,perfectly working display. On one hand, Apple's silence would make sense since they can't really come out and say, " we know there's a problem with our $1800-$2000 monitors but that's just the way they are..." But it's amazing that there wouldn't be better quality control before these things left the plant.
Personally , I really hope that they fix them somehow. I've been dying to get one but color accuracy is a must for my job and the 23's don't seem to be up to snuff yet.

I recently purchased a 23" ACD from the Apple Store. After reading some of the same posts on this website I was concerned, so I took my PowerBook to the store and hooked up the new display while I was there to give it a test drive before I left. One caveat, I am simply a home user without sophisticated video/photo editing needs. Therefore, my viewpoint is that of the average user (not a high-end video expert). The ACD looked good to me in the store, so I brought it home and am happy with the purchase. For reference, my serial number also begins 2A44.

Before I went to the store to test the 23" ACD, I also looked into the HP L2335 which has lots of nice features (portrait & landscape capability, etc.). However, it will not display the maximum 1920x1200 resolution if you are a Mac user (only for Windows users). Read the fine print in the specs and you get this info. To be honest, I'm not sure how much that matters to the average user but it just didn't sound as though (I called HP also) I was getting the maximum quality with that LCD given I would have been hooking it up to a Mac. Also, I seem to recall that the HP display was short on USB and Firewire ports (but I'm not certain). However, the HP display does have a 3-year warranty and no matter how you try to slice it, unless you're buying a new computer from Apple at the same time you can only get a 1-year warranty on the 23" ACD (which is pretty skimpy for an $1800 purchase).

In any event, I'm happy with the 23" ACD so far. At the risk of potentially offending some that have posted (hopefully not), I will say that while there are likely defective ACD's out there (seems that was the case with your first one), I think it probably requires a "professionally discerning eye" to pick that up in most cases.