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NYGEO18 · Dec 27, 2003, 06:08 PM

This is VERY disconcerting....
I was using my girlfriends brand new ibook G4 and noticed the aquarium screen saver looked very bright and colorful...more so than my powerbook's screen. When I examined the two side by side I was AMAZED at how much richer the ibook's screen is and how washed out and colorless my NEW powerbook screen looked!!!
What's the deal?!?!?
Is my screen dying? Is the new ibook's screen different? I never would have noticed that my screen was washed out until I saw hers. I am very annoyed right now.
I did a display calibration and things got a bit better on my powerbook. I used the advanced settings too...the 5 steps to a properly colored screen...and it got a bit better....but NO WHERE NEAR hers!!!!
what to do?!?!?!?
Advice?
thanks....

jessejlt · Dec 27, 2003, 06:28 PM

Have you calibrated your PBs monitor in any way? When I bought my 17" iMac, I had a similar experience in that my iBook's monitor was much more crisp and vibrant than the iMac's. After a simple calibration my iMac now puts my iBook to shame.
jesse ;-)

kertong · Dec 27, 2003, 06:39 PM

something must be wrong.

I had a g3 500mhz icebook before upgrading to my current rev. A 12" pb, and lemme tell you, the difference was night and day! the iBook had a much dimmer screen. The 12" pb's just blows it out of the water. Not too sure how big of a diff. there is between the g4 ibook and the g3 ibook... hmm.

Maybe because the ibook's image is set in a bright white border, as opposed to the powerobok's duller, silver border?

11011001 · Dec 27, 2003, 07:46 PM

Someone should correct me if I am wrong, but it seems to me that LCD screens get dimmer as time goes by. I don't think either my towers LCD, or my PBs LCD are as bright as they used to be.

CeRtiFiedSkitZo · Dec 27, 2003, 08:56 PM

I got an Apple iBook G4 and I had the same wash out look, and it would give me headaches when I was lookig back and forth from my computer monitor and iBook. I ended up changing the Display Profile from Color LCD to sRGB and everything seems fine now.

bkb · Dec 27, 2003, 09:20 PM

Originally posted by CeRtiFiedSkitZo:
I got an Apple iBook G4 and I had the same wash out look, and it would give me headaches when I was lookig back and forth from my computer monitor and iBook. I ended up changing the Display Profile from Color LCD to sRGB and everything seems fine now.

Same here with my PowerBook.

NYGEO18 · Dec 28, 2003, 02:13 AM

Originally posted by jessejlt:
Have you calibrated your PBs monitor in any way? When I bought my 17" iMac, I had a similar experience in that my iBook's monitor was much more crisp and vibrant than the iMac's. After a simple calibration my iMac now puts my iBook to shame.
jesse ;-)

I used supercal and the calibration app in utilities. Its "better" but still not close to the ibook's. When I researched this a bit more I discovered one post that mentioned the powerbooks screen is made by samsung...and the ibooks by phillips. So its not the same screen according to him...whomever he is.

kertong · Dec 28, 2003, 04:05 AM

I read this thread, so I got curious and calibrated my display with the "expert" settings.

It's strange - on default "Color LCD", the display is almost *too* bright, and the whites have an almost beige tint to it.

After I calibrated my display, the display now looks too blue. Hmmm.

Anyone have any tips for calibrating the 12" powerbook's display? It's tough, because viewing angle *really* makes a difference on the apples you look at, to calibrate..

Dr.Michael · Dec 28, 2003, 04:15 AM

Hi NYGEO18,

your impression is correct. I have read a comparison between the G4 iBook (12) and the 12 inch Powerbook in my favorite computer magazine.

The result is indeed that the screen of the Powerbook is dimmer than the iBooks (I think it was 105 cd/qm vs 136 cd/qm). And, yes, the lcd screens get dimmer with age.

The result of the test was that the powerbook screen is so dim that it does not have enough aging reserve!

But thanks to mac parts provider you can buy replacement backlights. Just wait until your powerbook is old enough. For the Pismo the backlights are already available :o)

all2ofme · Dec 28, 2003, 07:06 AM

This behaviour is exactly the same as it is on my 12". From too yellow to too blue and nothing in between. I prefer the look of the uncalibrated one, as I do a bit of photo work and too warm is more pleasant than too cool in my opinion.

This wasn't the case on my 17", though - the screen was lovely on that.

Originally posted by kertong:
It's strange - on default "Color LCD", the display is almost *too* bright, and the whites have an almost beige tint to it.

After I calibrated my display, the display now looks too blue. Hmmm.

all2ofme · Dec 28, 2003, 07:09 AM

I think one thing to bear in mind with this is that there's nothing which says Apple won't (if they haven't already) switch over to using better screens on the PB. I've seen 23" Apple screens which are far, far better than the ones I looked at when deciding between a 20" and the 23". Apple are like any other manufacturer - if they can get better quality parts for the same price, or similar quality parts for less, they will. It's a pity we can't be sure which we're getting when we buy them, but that's life.

I guess one way to increase your odds might be to order from the Apple Store where they may have newer stock, but that's only a hunch - I've no evidence to back that up.

Originally posted by Dr.Michael:
The result is indeed that the screen of the Powerbook is dimmer than the iBooks (I think it was 105 cd/qm vs 136 cd/qm). And, yes, the lcd screens get dimmer with age.

KidKit · Dec 29, 2003, 11:35 AM

I noticed that when I first got my PB 12" Rev B, the LCD screen was like as NYGEO18 described, washed out. Now I'm not sure about the issue of aging PB screens and their brightness, what some of the above posts mentioned is entirely plausible.

But I thought I should make a point that colour quality, brightness and gamma correction can have very different effects on the rendering of colours on your LCD screen. You definitely should at least do a colour calibration using the control panel with the full advanced features activated. Secondly, you should keep in mind the brightness settings of your screen and the ambient light conditions which you usually work in... it does affect colour rendering to some point. Lastly but not to be overlooked, the built in calibration programme also lets you set the gamma correction setting for your LCD screen.

Now changing the gamma is not just altering the brightness setting, it applies a curved function correction and that *alone* can make your screen colours appear warmer or cooler or even washed out. Unfortunately, the built in calibration utility in the control panel asks you to set the gamma correction point arbitrarily. I remembered that the recommended default setting looked very terrible, but you can tweak around to get the colours bright. If you are bothered, you can use a third party calibration software... Its not my opinion that the PB screen is washed out. I do some image editing on my PB for journal publication, and the calibrated PB screen renders the colours well.

Good luck!

DekuDekuplex · Dec 29, 2003, 03:06 PM

Originally posted by kertong:
something must be wrong.

I had a g3 500mhz icebook before upgrading to my current rev. A 12" pb, and lemme tell you, the difference was night and day! the iBook had a much dimmer screen. The 12" pb's just blows it out of the water. Not too sure how big of a diff. there is between the g4 ibook and the g3 ibook... hmm.

Maybe because the ibook's image is set in a bright white border, as opposed to the powerobok's duller, silver border?

No. I just visited the Apple Store SoHo yesterday to be sure, and they had a 14-inch iBook G4 next to a 15-inch PowerBook G4. Sure enough, the iBook's screen appeared indeed more luminous, although somewhat fuzzier (although that part may have been just my quick impression), than the PowerBook's. The 12-inch iBook G4's screen looked just as luminous as the 14-inch iBook's (and seemed somewhat crisper than the 14-inch's, although, again, that may have been just my feeling).

I remember the old 14-inch IceBook iBook G3's screen--it was unmistakably dimmer (although its casing looked more fashionable--again, though, this is just my subjective viewpoint).

--DekuDekuplex

Jbroad572 · Dec 29, 2003, 05:14 PM

Which srb profile are you guys using?

jerry1 · Dec 29, 2003, 08:53 PM

Originally posted by DekuDekuplex:
No. I just visited the Apple Store SoHo yesterday to be sure, and they had a 14-inch iBook G4 next to a 15-inch PowerBook G4. Sure enough, the iBook's screen appeared indeed more luminous, although somewhat fuzzier (although that part may have been just my quick impression), than the PowerBook's. The 12-inch iBook G4's screen looked just as luminous as the 14-inch iBook's (and seemed somewhat crisper than the 14-inch's, although, again, that may have been just my feeling).

I remember the old 14-inch IceBook iBook G3's screen--it was unmistakably dimmer (although its casing looked more fashionable--again, though, this is just my subjective viewpoint).

--DekuDekuplex

Although I'm new to the world of Macs, thought I'd add an input as well.

I think the 12" iBooks and the 14" iBooks have the same resolution but the 12" iBook has smaller pixels. Which might have been the reason to look more crisper.

Dr.Michael · Dec 30, 2003, 03:10 PM

Hi again,

did you use the build in calibration tool?
If yes, please try supercal (http://www.bergdesign.com/supercal/). Its one of the first things I use on a new Mac and its definitely worth its shareware price. Has much more options than the apple calibration tool.

It won't make you screen brighter but it enhances the quality a lot.