Screen dithering?

[gilesjuk]

Anyone seen the news about a class action suit?

It is alleged that the Macbook and Macbook pro use dithering to show 24-bit and that the displays are unable to display 8-bit per channel colour.

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9720735-7.html

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/21/apple_display_lawsuit/

Just wondered if anyone has noticed this on theirs?

I'm a bit worried as I was contemplating selling mine and don't want the price to plummet.

 

[dtravis7]

Why you thinking of selling your Macbook?

That article is a lot of FUD. I would not worry about it. I have been in many discussions about it all over the net.

 

[gilesjuk]

I'm not sure I need a laptop at present and I could do with paying off some credit

After reading into it a bit more it does seem like a load of rubbish. It doesn't bode well for the image of Mac users if some of them don't appear to be able to configure their screen settings properly.

 

[Aptmunich]

Well, I checked and the panel in my Macbook is apparently really only 6-Bit. And after running one of those gradient generator tools, I can definitely see a difference between the Macbook's screen and my external display. Whether or not the difference is due to the dithering, I can't say.

But I'm not a graphics professional and any photoshopping I do is on the external display, so I'm not too bothered.

If you look hard enough, you can find fault with anything, but I do think Apple should make a note of this somewhere on the specs page. If you bought a Macbook Pro specifically for accurate graphical work, you might be upset.


(Edit: more info here: http://www.colorblindmac.com/)

 

[gilesjuk]

Well the case in lodged on the basis that Apple states the display can display 24-bit colour.

So the whole case revolves around interpretation of colour. A dithered colour isn't a real colour.

I will do my own tests later, my macbook display is calibrated.

Apple really are ruining their reputation. Seems to be a lot more problems with Macbook and Macbook pro than previous generations.

 

[gilesjuk]

Well I found the panel model in my Macbook and it's a 262,000 colour (18-bit) panel.

Therefore it's simply not up to the job of being used for photo editing or photoshop.

While this is nothing new (most laptop panels seem to be 18-bit or 6 bit per channel), I expected Apple would have known this limitation and would state it in the advertising.

There we have it, for accurate image editing, don't get a laptop.

 

[Kash]

Apple really are ruining their reputation. Seems to be a lot more problems with Macbook and Macbook pro than previous generations.

That's simply not the case. The only reason it seems like there are more problems is because more people are buying the Intel Macs compared to the PowerPC Macs. So naturally it would seem as though there are more problems with the newer models.

Say, for example, Apple has a 3% rate of manufacturing defects. Now, when you're selling 1 million units, those 3% of people doesn't seem to be very large. But once you start selling 10 million units, that 3% becomes a bigger number. So while the percentage stayed the same, the overall number grew, and thus, it gives the illusion that the newer computers have a higher defect rate.

 

[knightlie]

Apple specs claim that the display "supports" millions of colours - I'd guess that this means the monitor can be set to "millions of colours" mode and it will dither accordingly. This is as opposed to a monitor that can only display 262,000 colours and won't allow a higher bit level to be selected.

The industry is full of statements like this - most laptops are only 6-bit display, apparently, and other manufacturers make similar claims, or use terms like "hi-colour". Sounds like typical class action nonsense to me.

 

[gilesjuk]

But you buy a printer and it dithers, yet they say 5 ink or 3 ink etc.., the pictures it produces are capable of looking like millions of different shades. The printer manufacturer doesn't say 16 million inks.

We've been decieved by manufacturers on this front. If the screen can only show 18-bit the OS should indicate this when you configure the display bit depth.

There's no way I would buy a sound card that claimed 24-bit audio if it was 16-bit dithered to sound like 24-bit.

 

[WebLOCH]

I'd like to be kept up to date on this, if they do some kind or re-call, re-issue or re-funding, I want to know.

 

[knightlie]

I can't see them doing a recall - what do they replace them with?

Working on the theory that the specs saying "Supports millions of colours" doesn't imply 24bit - and 24bit colour is not mentioned - then I can't see this going anywhere.

I don't know what the fuss is about - I've always assumed my MacBook has a 24bit display. If it weren't for this story I never would have known otherwise.