Lenovo is selling only 6bit displays ? WTF ?!

I just got a wide screen 14'' T61 and i couldn't pin-point why i'm getting a headache looking at the screen.

So at first i thought it was screen door effect.... turns out no... its a freakin 6 bit display that uses dithering to "get" the extra colors.



I got the WXGA+ (turns out its a samsung)

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You should be able to adjust the color depth in the video card control panel.

 

^^ its a hardware thing, not software.


That does suck a lot. Call and b*tch

 

How did you determine this btw?

 

What if i ***** ? what are they going to do ?


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Most LCD panels are now TN panels that are 6-bit but achieve 8-bit via dithering. You'll rarely ever find S-IPS panels anymore because of cost. Its not just a Lenovo-thing; it's an industry thing.

 

I downloaded the gradient test from http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/6bit_8bit.htm

on the patch that's supposedly not blocked you can see it it being broken up to little pieces of vertical colors.

 

I'm not 100% sure that site is accurate. I have a 15" 16x12 Flexview IPS screen and it shows "dithering" based on those tests. That doesn't seem right... the IPS screens are 8 bit.

 

There's 1 line that is blocked
and another thats gradients, on a 6 bit the 2nd line will show blocks as well. (they are not as obvious as the first line, very suble vertical blockes where you can see the dithering)


is that what you see ?

I ran that test on 3 other laptops and they all were fine


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Hmm. My IPS screen shows banding on these images... which isn't right since I'm almost sure it is 8 bit. Hmm.

 

There are not really many 8Bit panels out there...and barely any on laptops...6Bit is the standard these days and the reason why we can get large monitors for cheap (not like the older days where anything over 15" was over $500 or more)

That test is funky as well....I am on my cheap monitor right now and the gradients look flawless even though I know it is a 6 bit panel.

 

Well i wouldn't care... but it bother my eyes


I'm going to install XP and see maybe its a driver issue.



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lowspeed, how would you describe this headache-causing screen? kind of sparkly? like a thin cloud of dust over everything? is this dithering? because it sure is noticeable. I thought dithering was supposed to be subtle.

 

All lenovo LCD's are 6 bit unless you have IPS...

 

It's very hard to describe... its like there's flicker. when you move your eyes away and back and it takes some time to get focus, makes me squint more..


This actually really reminds me of the days of my old EGA display where it would dither stuff to look VGA.


Now i'm like how do i return this without a restocking fee... grr.




P.S i installed XP and it is the same.... sucks.

 

I don't think this is a color depth issue. Otherwise, you're going to be allergic to a lot of computers because all new ones pretty much use 6-bit TN panels. It seems as if your screen's refresh rate has been set too low.

Right-click desktop --> Personalize --> Display Settings --> Advanced Settings --> Monitor --> Screen Refresh Rate --> set it to 60 Hertz

 

It is on 60... it's not that kind of flicker.

 

Have you tried asking people around you to check out your screen and see if they have the same issue? If they don't, then it is nothing more than a personal problem.

 

lowspeed,

Your patience must be wearing thin. First you have to retun the T61 4:3 8895CTO or whatever that was you had due to poor build and other issues.. Now, this T61 is making you sick.

I do remember you saying you might order another T61 std. screen w/ 5400 rpm HDD. What changed your mind?

After tiring of waitning for the T61 4:3 to go mainstream, I decided to go for a T60. Of course, 2 weeks later Lenovo rolls out the T61 4:3. No regrets here though as I really like the T60 and I feel the T61 is an incremental improvement rather than a leap forward. And, the T60 is well put together and was about $600 less than what a T61 4:3 would set me back.

 

My wife agreed there's something funny about the display she couldn't describe it though.

 

Well......RMA

 

Well i tried the vostro1500. It has an amazing screen (WSXGA+). But the thing was just too big for me (the thickness and weight)

This T61 was so bargain discounted... i thought what the heck, i'll give them another chance. (i'm a big THINKPAD fan)



Oh and btw i've decided to see what happends when i choose 16bit under the screen properties... and guess what... the dithering "screen door" effect disapears...

 

I would try playing with the refresh rate some more. Thats kinda what it sounds like to me after you are describing it more.

and changing the color depth to 16bit to make the problem go away could again point to something funny with the refresh rate.

 

I think that it is in fact the hardware dithering thats causing the problem. When i switch the screen to show 16 bit there's no problem, i can also see there's a different pattern in the gredient test.

Where as the software causes the smooth gredient to become distinctly blocky, the hardware one actully tries to emulate the shade but it doesn't do it too well.... so you can see the blocks but much narrower and with dithering effect to them.

 

Then why doesn't anyone else have that issue? This seems like more of an isolated instance to me, and it's hard to blame isolated instances on hardware design.

 

Frankly ... i have no idea. The sad part is that the SXGA+ was much better than this one.

I may have to wait for T63 or T73.

3 is that magic number...

 

Here's a sample image

http://tel3deal.com/pics/T61/IMG_4002.JPG

You can see that instead of showing a shade they create the shade using brighter pixels...

This thing really bothers me. It makes everything looks like ****.


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That does look like crap!

 

Oh, so that's what those horizontal lines on my screen are. I thought it was the screendoor effect that you brought up earlier.

Hm. I think I've learned to live with it though. It's the antiglare coating that's annoying to me.

 

I don't see how you could live with it, unless you don't do any photo or video editing.


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Well since most laptops these days have 6-bit screens, I guess you can't really do anything but buy an external or get a Flexview T60.

 

Are the Flexviews still 8-bit?
I think it's just an incorrect assumption cause LG seems have cheapened them also in order to boost the response times.

 

By "flawless", do you mean you DON'T see discrete borders from one shade to the next?

 

I have a 15" 1600x1200 IPS T60p that is definitely 8-bit.

 

The late Flexviews have been shipping in the form of the 1400 x 1050 LG Philips screens.

 

Flexview IPS panels are 8 bit...