iMac 24" Display too bright

Doesn't bootcamp come with a Brightness.exe you run at startup to adjust brightness? If I remember correctly you can run it in compatibility mode in vista. You probably get better answers by posting in the bootcamp forum:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1165

A recent Apple software update for the Alum iMacs may be addressing the brightness issue. In a previous post the following was said regarding the details of what's in the update...

After opening the installer package in "Pacifist" (an installer package viewer /extractor) utility), I >noted that revised ATI drivers (last revisions in iMac Software Update 1.0 a few weeks back) are the >main feature. The GLEngine translate item also updated together with a DisplayProductID-9c6a file.

The above may mean that the ATI HD2600 PRO video card may now run at full specification (a la >Vista)! The display product file may mean improvements to the 20" Al iMac's display..."

And in another post someone was also asking...

anyone notice their brightness lowered recently?

which also referenced this same Apple Update. Please let us know if it helps! 🙂

Here's a link to the update.... http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imacsoftwareupdate11.html

I would start by using a different color profile.

The default profile has a system gamma of 1.8, which is what is generally used in the print industry. Windows uses a default gamma setting of 2.2 and folks working on video typically use a gamma setting between 2.20 and 2.25.

The 1.8 gamma is brighter and lower contrast.

Personally, I have two manually calibrated profiles: one for print and one for video (which I use by default), with gamma settings of 1.8 and 2.2 respectively.

If you want to do this, go to System Preferences >> Displays >> Color LCD and click on the "Color" tab. Click on the "Calibrate..." button, and then follow the instructions. The results are a much crisper display (to me anyway) and one that isn't nearly as bright.

However, that will only get you so far.

The next step is to use a utility like BrightnessControl: http://www.splasm.com/products/productbrightness.html

... that adjusts the actual display brightness.

This seems to be only for the 20 inch imac, though. For the 24, your best bet is a program like shades, or to calibrate with color eyes software, which lets you set the luminance (you need a colorimeter to use color eyes, and it is expensive beyond the trial period).

Unfortunately, overly bright displays that cannot easily be lowered to a proper level are not unique to the alu-imac.

A large part of the problem is insufficient range of brightness adjustment. I was amazed to discover that there's less than a 2x change in brightness from min to max. You can easily verify this on your own with (almost) any digital camera. On my 24" Al iMac, there's (slightly less than) 1 EV difference between min and max brightness adjustment via the keyboard...

...that's prolly why they labeled them keys 'f1' and 'f2' ...huh?

Looby

I've tried a few third party apps to try to get the brightness down on the new 24" Intel iMac, and in my opinion "Shades" is BY FAR the best:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23370

It's a VERY simple (and FREE) app, and I LOVE having it in the menu bar with its own brightness slider and setting the prefs to automatically launch it with each reboot. I can't imagine anything simpler that does such a perfect job solving such an irritating problem! The brightest setting it offers is whatever you currently have the Mac's brightness control set to, and the lowest setting is PURE BLACK (i.e., brightness = ZERO)! Can't ask for more than that, folks!

Shades. Go for it.
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23370

Phil.
phil@micinfo.com

Message was edited by: Phil Femano

I use Spyder2 from Color vision on mine. It gives quite a bit of room to customize if you with so. I have mine calibrated for photography use. The software is bot Mac and Windows on the one disk so you can run it on the Mac side as well as the Windows side. Another suggestion is to play with the screen temperature. Going warmer will reduce the brightness too.

If the brightness is turned all the way down, and it's still too bright for you, I think the problem is with your eyes, not your iMac. Try some sunglasses.

No the display is too bright, there is nothing wrong with the poster's eyes and frankly your comment is unhelpful - the purpose of this forum is to help people not criticise them!