M17X screen is SO DIM! ?

I noticed a giant thread devoted to whether there are one or two bulbs in the lcd... Is it just me or is the screen really dark??

I have my Macbook Pro side by side and the screen difference is HUGE!

It can't be right, can it?

I don't understand why it doesn't get brighter.

 

as im thinking its not a dual bulb panel.. ive heard this from 5 other people now who are not even on this forum on how dim they think this panel is. they said it looks okay and colors are good but there is like a halo or darkness kinda like a bow sort of and as you move your head it darkens or brightens different parts of the panel. is that correct? like the bottom half is bright while the top is much darker unless you raise your head up some? plus the comments from the ones who are here.. if its a single bulb samsung panel as some have reported the sec5443 number then its only 200 nit rated brightness which sucks.. we are trying to get a actual model number to see if its really dual bulb or not. i have my doubts.

you have the m17x already?

can you post some pics side by side with the mac book im pretty sure we can tell if its single or dual bulb with some really good pics. id love to see how it is next to the macbook

i have almost always been dissapointed in dell's lcd's so i am hoping they didnt ruin it for alienware because alienware usually used pretty nice panels. imo all the 1730 panels sucked. the sharp i thought was at least a decent panel. the lg was aweful (the one dell used had really bad banding and aweful colors) and the samsung was wayyyyyy to dim

 

Yeah, my M17X came in today.

Gimme a few minutes, trying to overclock the 2.53 to 3.06 anf the system WILL not start up with this... let me set to default and get some pics.

 

also what model screen do you have? i assume the sec5443?? with the model of the actual screen off the back of someones panel i can find out for sure

 

I don't know if the new iPhone camcorder really captures the contrast between the two....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f50SxS-PC8A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCFU2_geBH0

 

You are correct in describing how the dim parts of the screen are.

 

one thing is for sure the macbook screen has way more red in it then the m17x the m17x needs the blue turned down some looking at the whites, but yeah if you wantch the first one see what i mean where the red is darker in the top half of the screen?? still seems to be a bright 17" screen though but hard to tell with the iphone vid

try turning just the blue contrast down a slight bit and see where it goes from there

 

see those are characteristics of a single lamp screen.. man i want this system so bad im still hoping im wrong, im wondering if they messed up and put the single bulb panels in some by accident and other got the dual ones..

 

well if that is the case in this rig i want it replaced..

 

i know but how to prove it to them over the phone know what i mean.. i will be for sure holding off now myself to get one till this is figured out for sure

 

how could they mistakenly put in a single lamp screen though. They require different inverters from dual lamp.

 

yeah i know that thats why im not sure at this point.. unless these use a single inverter with one common plug in and then it has dual outputs..

 

Ok, one more video.

This shows the exact same wallpaper on both.
I turned the Blue contrast down on the M17X from 50% to 40%, which is an improvement, byt you can clearly see the difference in brightness here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6cx_1pT224

 

Yeah in the last one i see it more then the other 2 , the whites are much brighter on the macbook. Cant remember how many nits the Macbook is but i know its not 400.

 

normally the macbook is under 300 usually 250-280 or so macbook screen has more green as well.. lol

looks like my dog quad.. i have a english bull.. awesome dogs

 

Could it be that ambient light sensor they have in this machine cranking the brightness down accordingly ? i know someone else mentioned this .

 

Different technology, CCFL vs LED.

I'm frankly appalled that Dellienware decided to not use LED backlighting and used CCFLs instead.

 

A 17 inch LED would driven the cost and price through the roof . They should have just made it an option though for those who wanted it like the m6400.

 

It's really disappointing that they seem to have done a "bait and switch" with the lcd screen on this by promising a dual lamp high quality LCD and are delivering some lame single CCFL 200 nit piece of antiquated garbage. The number one problem it seems with all notebook manufactures is using lousy spec outdated lcd screens--which is impossible to cover up once you turn on the machine, duh. When are manufactures going to stop recycling dated tech or exhausting existing inventory and finally offer superior quality RGB LED LCDs in any notebook? AW customers duped again.

 

Do you think it's possible for a user to mod the screen with an LED LCD?

 

no you can not use a led screen without EXTENSIVE changes. the screen itself will fit in there but you will have no way of lighting it up

 

i have a macbook air, and its really bright, sometimes uncomfortably bright... from the last pick you do knotice a slight difference but i thnk the alienware would b far more comfortable to look at than a max lit macbook air.

 

That are what brightness controls are for.

It is better to have a screen capable of high-brightness, for daytime use (especially if glossy); you can always turn it down at night. You can't do the opposite with a low-brightness screen.

 

you can only turn up brightness so far before it washes out the screen or starts to invert colors. same for the contrast controls. no way possible you can turn up the brightness all the way in the color controls

 

I am talking about hardware brightness of course

 

Wait, my M1730 has SEC5443 display. Does that mean M17x is using the same display?

Its not dim by any mean, and the contrast ratio of this panel is great for indoor(650:1); though its outdated panel, can't deny that, I won't be susprised if MBP is brighter; Apple made pretty loud noise about the monitor on Unibody 17.

 

SEC5443 is a generic identifier from what I can tell.

(My SXPS 16 w/RGBLED was a SEC5443).

Also see this and scroll down - someone's M6400 covet screen has the same identifier.

 

maybe its just me, but in the videos the difference didnt seem all that bad

 

From the video there's barley any difference.. And the macs have a premium screen, the Alienware is not a mac. It's used for gaming, not mac stuff.

It's not like they advertised their screen to be better than the macs, and if you spend a large amount of money on a computer you should research it. I know people who bought cars for cheaper than a maxed out M17X. If you can't wait a week or two after release to see some videos of use, you should get a different brand.

 

I'd pay extra to have a premium screen in the M17x

 

Well Alienware doesn't want to waste their time working on screens. They want you to waste yours.

 

Check your bios settings to see if they limited the brigntness. Dell did it with the 1640 RGB led screen. Its amazing but not all that bright

 

Go away, I have not seen you make ONE single insightful or informative post in the Alienware section. BTW your the guy if I recall that was stupid enough to think you could force a QX9100/QX9300 into your Lenovo W500, I think that tells everything we need to know about you.

 

It is the moderators job to polce these forums.

If THEY decide someone is behaving inappropriately or violating forum rules it is up to them to deal with it. NOT other forum members.

 

Negative for the bios... no options to change screen brightness that I can see.

 

It's in the Nvidia control panel but anything over 50% looks washed out.

 

There are the Standard FN+ keys though for brightness right ? IE FN+arrow up or down ?.

 

I was gonna mention that but figured they already tried it.

On the M17 it's FN+F7 to lower and FN+F8 to brighten.

 

can I point something out here, and I feel like I'm repeating myself over and over again.

there's probably two DIFFERENT lcd panels for this system.

just like the m15x.

in the m15x, they had a Brightview (dual CCFL) 1440x900 15.4" screen, and, the option of "upgrading" to a non-brightview (single CCFL) 1920x1200 15.4" display. also, the larger display was matte, rather than the glossy screen with the smaller res.

I've seen a side-by-side of the two screens for the m15x, since I have the "1200p" screen any my friend has the 1440x900 screen... his is brighter, but has much less screen real estate than mine...

just my $.02 (again, and again)

 

Yeah, FN + F4 and F5 on the M17x...

Ok, so in the Nvidia panel I did the following:

Color Channel Blue = Reduced to 40%
Brightness = 60%
Digital Vibrance = 20%

Am I totally cracked out or does this make the screen better?

Not saying it's the way it should be, but I think this is an improvement!

 

Yes but it will only go as bright as the max you have it set in the Nvidia control panel.

 

That would fine but the 1920x1200 panel is advertised as having Dual CCFL and not the other way around . everyone complaining has the WUXGA screen. Im not sure if the WXGA screen is supposed to have 2 bulbs or not.

 

It only matters how you think it looks. If you like it keep it!

 

where in the advertising jargon did you see it say specifically that the 1920x1200 screen is either "Brightview" or "dual CCFL"?

I saw "dual ccfl" and all the HD marketing BS ("1200p" and junk), but never together.

 

Thats weird then because the brightness from the nvidia control panel and the panel itself should be totally different . Hardware brightness vs Software .

 

Every interview, preview and just about anyplace inbetween states that the WUXGA screen is Dual bulb.

 

yeah I love the 15inch 1440x900 lcd on my m15x. Hmm this is interesting as I am still looking into getting one of these by selling some things. hmm...

Sounds like what I'd want (and all of us really) is a dual cffl wuxga possibly using LEDs.

 

I just looked over all of the marketing promo materials online, including the specs page, and the ordering page, nowhere does it state WHICH display is Dual CCFL.

 

See images below

 

They are both supposed to be dual lamp ccfl, to my knowledge.