Video playback brightness flickers iPad3

Lee,

I suffered this same problem with my new mini 4 and was completely puzzled. After sone research coming up with nothing I decided to approach the problem differently. Turns out the solution came from my habits. I regularly watch movies in complete darkness. This confused me because the auto brightness feature, you would think, would not kick in. Turns out that the issue was the style of subtitles was the problem for me. The style itself was emitting too much light and reflecting off my glasses causing the brightness on the movie to go haywire. Once I realized this I simply went into the subtitle section in settings and adjusted the default style to the classic style and I changed the font size to the lowest. After that no more problems!

Hope this finds you well.

Hi Lee,

I don't have a solution to your problem but I thought I would let you know that I have the same problem but in reverse.

My example video: A person is standing in frame with a bright background behind them. Their faces are visible and the background is properly exposed. The person walks out of frame and then the brightness on the ipad goes up a couple of notches as if I had moved the brightness setting.

The Auto-Brightness is OFF in the settings.

My iPad 1 with iOS 5.1 also does not exhibit the problem with the same video nor does myiMac.

You are not alone.

That can't be right. Talk to Apple right away or take it back into an Apple Store; in either case you will be getting a replacement so you may as well start preparing for that (backing up the current one, transferring all apps to iTunes if you need to, etc., etc.).

Thanks for your response.

FYI

I received my iPad 3rd gen on the 16th by courier delivery. I noticed the problem immediately and it's only evident on some shots in video playback. The problem is repeatable on the same shot but the error is definitely not in the encoded video.

I also had some foreign matter under the glass of the new iPad and took the opportunity to swap it out for anew one 3 days later when I visited my local Apple store. Unfortunately for me is not so local as it is 160km away.

Anyway, the video playback problem was also on the replacement unit. I only noticed this when I returned home and could load some videos on to it.

I have now logged this video playback problem and will be showing Apple personal when I next get to my "not so local" store.

I have provided a short extract of the video to a couple of friends who have 3rd gen iPads. They also have the problem when viewing it on their iPad but not when viewing it on their 1st gen ipad or iMac.

Happy to make a short extract available to you if you have a 3rd gen iPad.

Regards

Hey, I'm having this annoying issue too. Has anyone gotten a replacement that resolved the issue?

I am having this issue as well. I switched out my iPad at the Apple Store and the problem continues. I have spoken to a Senior Technician at Apple and they were not very helpful. This issue is not on their "emerging problems list". He also noted that no one from Apple has responded to this forum discussion. The Genius Bar tech at the Apple Store believes it might be a problem with the actual iPad 3. No one seems to know of a work around at this point. If this is a hardware issue then it's my suspicion Apple is waiting to see how many customers complain before taking action. No doubt many other iPad 3 users have this problem they just have not noticed it.

Regards,

Very Unhappy First Time Apple iPad User

I have the latest ipad and have the same problem, also had it on my ipad3. I guess it's just a trait of how the screen deals with the varying brightness and contrast of the film you are watching at the time.

Would be nice if it locked in a particular brightness though...

I have the ipad gen 4 and having the same problems. Strange that Apple hasnt fixed this issue.

Did u ever resolve it? Just traded in my ipad mini for the mini with retina display and paid $330 more dollars to get the new one for what was suppose to be a much better display. We'll I am fortunate enough to have this lovely problem with my screen when watching videos especially scenes filmed in low lighting where my screen just keeps flicker from brighter to darker like auto brightness is on but it's not plus I'm watching it in a area where the lighting in the room is not changing so it wouldn't be effecting the auto brightness even if it was on. I am basically completely screwed now because I got rid of my old one.

For what it's worth.

I lived with the brightness (backlight) fluctuating problem on my 3rd gen iPad since March 2012. I was on my third replacement at the end and they all had the problem. As previously stated it would happen in the middle of a shot and in the end I got very good at predicting when it was going to happen based on the composition of the shot. It was also repeatable in that you could play the same shot over and over and it would always happen at the same point.

What was really annoying was that the problem was only happening in the natve VIDEO player. The problem was not there when using the VLC player. I was therefore hoping that iOS upgrades would have reduced or eliminated the playback problem. Unfortunately they didn't.

I have now upgraded to an iPad Air and the brightness problem has gone - well, not really, it has changed.

If I play files that show the problem on my old iPad the problem shots still have problems on the iPad Air but now instead of the brightness changing in the middle of the shot they now change on the first frame of the shot or at worst the 2nd frame. It's as if the player is looking ahead in the shot and deciding that the shot needs it's brightness (backlight) adjusted and cleverly does so. The unfortunate thing is that sometimes it happens right on the shot change and sometimes a frame or so later. It is not repeatable any more and when the adjustment is late it is noticeable but not as much as my previous iPad adjusting in the middle of a shot.

Again, the VLC player does not have this problem on my iPad Air.

I have seen this behaviour on 3 iPad Airs.

I have this problem on my Air. It's definitely an issue because it doesn't happen on my iPad 1. The only workaround seems to be if you switch on the Assistive Touch button - it plays fine then with no brightness shift.

I'm starting to think they can't fix this issue which is really terrible because I love apple and I watch a lot of movies on my iPad Air. There is nothing in the settings for this issue which almost seems foolish they wouldn't have a way to turn this off. I don't need my brightness to adjust itself for darker scenes especially since it can't do it properly without flickering. Oh and I've got a replacement they all do it. It's just as the one person said if during a dark scene someone or some thing is in front of a light every time they move a little and more light gets around them the screen gets brighter and than darker again so it's constantly up and down. Oh and it is very sensitive so during a lot of scenes it's constant for, so it's way worse than you would think for example this if there was a flag in the corner of the screen blowing in the wind with a little light behind it every time that flag moves the tiniest bit the brightness goes up and then down again. Ridiculous

I thought this might be fixed with 7.06 but sadly not. Haven't checked with 7.1 yet but I'm not hopeful.

I think this is more a hardware thing than an iOS thing. Its the way the screens work, so if you have something on a movie like a night scene and they light a candle, the whole screen comes up more grey than black, but if the scene is darker the edging is more black.

I would not be surprised if any LCD TV is exactly the same, but we dont notice as its across the room.

Not sure this will ever be "fixed" as it is probably not a fault in their eyes in the first place.

It is distracting though isnt it.

Not sure about it being hardware because if you switch on assistive touch it goes away. I am a film-maker by trade so am very sensitive to these things and know for a fact that LCD TVs do not have this problem, nor do any of my other IOS devices - it's just the Air.

I will say that if you watch film in normal light levels it isn't really noticeable - I tend to have most of the lights switched off though which highlights the problem.