What is an acceptable backlight bleeding/leaking? (with photos)

Picked up my 30" ACD and a Mac Pro yesterday and I'm very happy. I could test the display in the store (they unpacked it in front of me) for dead-pixels and they let me a lot of time to decide.
As far as I can tell, I've got a very good one, not a single dead-pixel and no noticable backlight bleeding under normal use (we watched a DVD and the black-borders at the bottom and at the top were as black as it gets), however I'll have to test it with a black image in complete darkness this weekend.

Thanks for convincing me not to buy online!

I have some backlight leakage in the lower left corner of my 30" ACD, but it's slight, black overall is more consistant than my Dell 2405 which has virtually no backlight leakage. One stuck blue pixel. I'm keeping it, it blows the 2405 away in color rendition and I'm only running it a half res till my MP gets here.
PS I thought my 2405 rocked until I set this next to it.

The overexposed images (original post) resemble quite well what I saw in a dim room with black background at a brightness level of about 60% with all 4 (four!) 30" displays I went through before requesting a full refund.

The other 3 had the infamous dancing pixels as well. All of them were manufactured in July or August 2006. What's the matter with the bleed. Why is it such a big deal getting it right. The MBP has it too (even worse than on the ACD). Maybe it's only my perception but starting 2006 Apples QA seemed to have went south.

I'll try it again in a couple of weeks. Maybe they have fixed the problem till then.

I have had four 23 inch monitors, some old, some new. They all have reallt bad backlighting when on black. Otherwise they look beautiful. I decided to keep the last one as it was the best of a bad bunch, but on black it is still terrible. Half way through I got a dell 24 inch. There was no backlight at all on it, but the picture was dull in comparison to the apples. I don't know what had happened to apple quality control.

I've just got a new 23" ACD. Would like to check it out for poblems so I can get a replacement in the 10 day DOA period if it's not upto scratch. Could someone kindly detail the steps to go through to check for backlight bleeding, as it's no obvious to me.

Thanks,
Mark

Check out the photo links that the creater of this post, posted. It shows the monitor when it is all black (all pixles on), in a dark room, have light spots on the sides. That is backlight bleed. Ideally, when the screen is all black, there should be no lighter spots. If there is, then it is defective. Some screens have it worse then others. It doesn't bother some people. My ACD 23" has it somewhat, but after returning four previous for image persistence and backlight bleed, I decided that is one is pretty good. No dead pixels, it's perfect except for the backlight bleed. I could have brought it back again, but it was becoming an obsession. If I didn't learn about it on this forum, I wouldn't ever known about it, because I rarely have a all black screen in a dark room. Here are some links on the subject.

The ACD 23" that I use:
http://web.mac.com/johnereis/iWeb/Site/Backlight%20Bleed.html

PiXel Check, that turns the screen black.
http://homepage.mac.com/macguitar/FileSharing.html

Back light bleed on other forums:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1032268

Mac Pro 2.66 Dual-Core Mac OS X (10.4.7) Running Adobe CS2

I just sent my 2nd ACD back to Apple and they decided to keep it for overnight stress test. Eventually, I have learned this backlight bleeding problem should be part of Mura Defect ( http://bluloo.wordpress.com/2006/04/24/visual-defects-in-tft-lcd-panels/). Every monitor has different level of Mura Defect and is still within specs. What I can't accept is I paid more for Apple's monitor, but I didn't get better quality. I thought ACD is more professional, but it looks like it's using B grade or C grade panel.

ACD 23" + Mac Pro 2.66 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I have just received my Mac Pro and an ACD 23" monitor. I've run pixel check and clearly see significant backlight bleeding from all four corners. My question is if this really represents a problem for the way that I utilize my monitor. My primary usage is photo editing in a well-lighted room. I can't think of a situation where I would have an all black screen on. Why are people so concerned about this issue?

If it does not affect your work, I'd say by all means keep and enjoy it. It's an awesome screen otherwise.

Personally, it bugs me because the bleeding is so intense that it shifts colors to dirty-yellowish in an area about as large as a Letter sized sheet of paper (originating from both edges). At least that's what happend on the ones I've had on the table. And if other issues come into the play as well (like ghost images, dancing pixels), I can understand people being cut up about it. Especially for a screen advertised for pros and charged over 2500 bucks (what they charge over here for the ACD30).

Well, I decided to take my ACD 23 back to the Apple Store. They set it up in the store and had a guru look at it. It was very bright in the store, so it was difficult to see, but his input was that this is normal and Apple does not consider it a defect. This is different than some of the earlier posts. I'm torn about whether to return it, or just keep it. I did a comparison to my Dell 1905, and the Dell has much blacker blacks, and no backlight leakage. I can not see it in my normal lighting, but wonder if I will find issues later.

Larry

The Apple Care guy on the phone told me it's a defect. I even him a picture and little video. He said it looks "aweful" and definitely DOA. I still consider it a defect as long as it disturbs or distracts work. With all info I got so far, I speculate it depends on the combination of factory and how careful QA was.

Over the past 6 years I've had a Dell 2405, Xerox 19" and a Hercules 15,4". By no means high-end screens. Never noticed it. They're still with people I know, so I went down checking out just to be sure. Not a single one has this. The oldest one a tiny little bit, yes. But barely noticeable in a pitch black room.

Then again maybe my the discoloration has nothing to do with the backlight bleed and it just appears to be associated? Do you have this yellow problem too? Like when moving a white or light blue window (iTunes or so) to the left/right/top/bottom of the screen. The white/blue becomes dirty yellowish?

I got a 23 inch display for Christmas and the bleeding issue was very bad. It had three bad pixels. The next day, after returning the first one to the Apple, I purchased a second one at the Apple Store in Cleveland. It also had three bad pixels and the bleeding issue wasn't as severe but was still present. I was told if I wanted to return this one there would be a 10% restocking fee? I guess my next one, if I choose to return it will be $1100, the next $1200, and so on. Yes, I agree that we should not tollerate this.

After going through two Apple 23 inch cinema displays, I threw in the towel and purchased a ViewSonic 23inch cinema display. I am very pleased with it. Absolutely none of the backlight bleed that was a problem with the Apple monitor. They accepted the return without any restocking fee, leading me to believe Apple is aware a problem exists with them.

Hey Guys. Here's my long but relevant story 🙂
I'm a HUGE apple fan and was gearing up to buy my new 23" ACD when my buddy said get the Dell 24" (2407WFP), he swore they were as good as the Apple ones, obviously not as nice looking but the price tag being quiet a bit lower, card slots, and a very adjustable stand made up for that. After reading a ton of reviews and based on price I grabbed the Dell 24" ver 03. I was impressed for the most part until I brought up an all black screen. I noticed the left side of the display was a tiny bit brighter than the right. It was very subtle, livable for most people, others would never even notice it. More importantly to me there were dead pixels which I was very happy about. So back to the brightness issue...I know that with these LCD panels it's a crap shoot and they're hard to make perfectly so I was willing to forgive and forget UNTIL my anal side kicked in 🙂 You see I'm a film editor and my eyes are really sensitive to these things.

Needless to say I called Dell and told them what was going on and they sent me a replacement. FYI Dell's customer service is great and their displays come with a 3 year warranty unlike ACD which only has a 1 year warranty, you can pay more for an extra 2 years coverage. Anyway the new Dell 24" came with the same brightness issue AND some dead pixels. I knew I only had a few days left before I could get my money back from Dell so I ran out and bought a 23" ACD just to see if I would be happier. I had to pacify the little voice in my head saying "YOU SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT AN APPLE!" I knew that the Apple display would probably be the keeper unless of course I ended up getting one with dead pixels. If that were to happen and if they were unwilling to exchange it based on that issue (the 10 dead pixel rule) I would just return for my cash back. I was going into this venture fully prepared to pay the 10% restocking fee.

Anyway so I got the 23" ACD home and was so excited, until I plugged it in and set it to a black desktop. I was getting heavy backlight leakage in my bottom right and left corners. I was shocked and annoyed that I'd have to drive all the way back to the apple store to get them to exchange it, which they did. I got the new one home and that one had the exact same problem PLUS dead pixels. The slight brightness issue I mentioned about the Dell was nothing like this. The ACD looked BAD!
I couldn't believe apple would take so much time making such an amazing looking monitor and than let something like that happen. Oh and I also noticed that the gray safari window looked gray on the left side but than that gray had a pinkish tinge on the right hand side. I had read about this issue on here.

I thought these monitors were supposed to be made for professionals ex: photographers colour correcting their photos. It would be annoying to do that kind of work on the ACD.

I took the ACD back to apple and explained what was going on and the manager explained that it was very natural for there to be light leakage at the bottom corners of the ACD because that's where the backlights are. I told her in that case exchanging for a 3rd was pointless and that I would be more than happy to pay the 10% restocking fee to get rid of the problem. This is the cool part, she waved my restocking fee. I didn't even ask her too. I was very grateful and left feeling pretty good.

I'm not ****** at Apple more disappointed. I really wanted to be happy with the ACD. I'll still, without a doubt, buy my computers from them but will definitely think twice about getting a display from them. Anyway I'm very happy with my Dell. I think I have a few apple stickers laying around here somewhere that I can stick over the Dell Logo 🙂

j

I noticed a few spelling mistakes in my posting. Sorry! I'd fix them but the system won't let me edit it at this point. also early on I report that the Dell had dead pixels, but it should read "More importantly to me there were NO dead pixels which I was very happy about."

thanks
j