Uneven black when watching video clips

Er, does anyone know why my 2.4 Ghz Macbook Pro displays uneven black when watching video clips? Like, the black isn't uniformed, I see patches/squares of lighter black all over the place. But when I watched the video clip on my home PC or work PC, the black is completely uniformed and I see no lighter black squares.

For example, here's a print screen I took of my laptop display playing a video clip:



However, when I play the EXACT same clip on my home PC (LCD) or my work PC (crappy display, like not even LCD), I don't see ANY patches of lighter black that stand out.

Could anyone please help me w/ a solution? T_T

That looks like a uniform black to you? I think your screens need adjusting, because that's very blocky.

The blocks come from poor encoding/compression, and there's nothing you can do to get rid of them (short of re-encoding the source) other than adjusting the contrast on your display (but then all your colours are out). That will lessen the difference between black and white, making "true black", "blackish" and "dark grey" colours all look the same (and the same with "off white" colours looking more white).

Levi said:

That looks like a uniform black to you? I think your screens need adjusting, because that's very blocky.

The blocks come from poor encoding/compression, and there's nothing you can do to get rid of them (short of re-encoding the source) other than adjusting the contrast on your display (but then all your colours are out). That will lessen the difference between black and white, making "true black", "blackish" and "dark grey" colours all look the same (and the same with "off white" colours looking more white).

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I am using a computer at work right now, and that screenshot up there looks perfectly black without any lighter patches/blocks.

I got this answer from another forum:

sxzm said:

The Macbook Pro's have a very common problem with uneven backlit illumination.

Since yours is the 2.4ghz SR model which one do you have the 15.4" or 17"?

The 15.4" uses the new LED as backlighting as opposed to the old CCL cathodes.

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Reckon it's true? Are you on your Macbook Pro right now?

Does anyone think this the source of the cause?

suneohair said:

Your problem is a likely a calibration problem. Compressed video cuts out color and detail where it can. Your MBP screen is calibrated in a way that shows the non-uniformity of compressed video.

The rest of the black in that windows is uniform. Suggesting the problem is inherent in the video itself, as it is in most compressed video. The fact that the screenshot includes the patches you see further suggests that the problem is inherent in the video and not the panel. It is most likely not a screen problem.

Hope that helps.

Experiment: Up the brightness on the other displays you have and see if you can see the squares.

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I doubt it's the MacBook Pros display; they have some of the best displays of any laptop (this is coming from a photography website; personally I've never compared).

If you go into your System Preferences>Displays>Color>Calibrate and tweak your display until the video looks uniform. It will save the new profile without changing the default so you can go back and forth when you want to watch video.

As a side note, Macs use a 1.8 Gamma profile (I'm sure I'm not using that in the right context) as default, whereas PCs use 2.2 (more colour saturation). I'd already set my display to use 2.2 (so when I'm sharing pictures with Windows users I know they won't look too dark). When I went to your screenshot and turned it back to 1.8 (probably what yours is set to) the blockiness/lightness got a lot worse and the watermark to the right of the white logo became more prominent. If you change your display to 2.2 you should be seeing things more like they are in Windows (although since I can still see the blocks with a 2.2 profile, you'll still need some contrast/brightness fine tuning).

That screenshot looks blocky on every system in my house. I can play a Movie on the same system and find a totally black scene and it's perfectly black.

I have never seen a perfect LCD, at least not to me.

That screen shot looks blocky on my Windows run Dell Dimension 4,600 with this Envision 19 inch widescreen display. Your Macbook Pro isn't messed up, your PC is inaccurate to display properly, giving you false ideas that that black is uniform. your Macbook Pro is actually MORE accurate as to what that file truly looks like. It's just bad compression. I guess you could set your MBP to mimick your PCs off settings if you don't mind non-true-to-life coloring (shouldn't matter unless you are a photographer).