Dithering. Am I the only one?

I mean, am I the only one who notices and is slightly annoyed by the manufacturer's choice to use 18bits LCDs? Am I the only one who notices it?

I don't know why they are so popular, it's so much a step behind, I mean, even my el-cheapo TTX notebook with a 15" SXGA+ LCD had a true 24 bits matrix.

I just wanted to have your opinion on this.

Toshiba Satellite M40 - Pentium-M Sonoma 1.6ghz - 512mb DDR333 - 60gb 4200rpm - GeForce 6600 128mb - 15.4" BrightView WXGA TFT LCD

 

Aha. So I am not the only one seeing "grainy" screen. I had Compaq R3320ca and the screen on it was "smoother" than the one M40 has. The screen of Toshiba M40 might be brighter than many screens but it more "grainy" to me. Just for thar reason I may go back to Compaq/Hp. Way better battery life as well. Have you noticed that the text on M40 screen are a bit more "edgy" - meaning not that smooth as on other laptops?

 

Where can I find info about 18bit Toshiba M40 lcd screen?

 

The screen looks gorgeous to me. Compared to my Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2060u, and the LCD on my Medion P4, this screen has much better clarity and image quality. I think its on-par with Sony screens from what I've seen @ Futureshop...

 

Bluemax43: I actually don't know, most manufacturers hide this "particularity" of their LCD screens, but not all. And to find out this info, we would have to know which company's LCD Toshiba used in their M40, you see.

For example, if you go on BenQ's web site and check for their LCD screens, if you go in the detailed specifications, you'll clearly see that most, if not all, of their screens have this mention: "Color depth: 24 bits (with dithering)". There's the catch. I have one of these BenQ screen and it's REALLY noticeable. Toshiba's is not as bad but I can see there's some dithering present.

macming: It's not about the clarity or quality, because this Toshiba screen is one of the best on these terms. It's about some small "graininess", as Bluemax43 noticed, or if you're used to checking 16bits screen modes, it's some dithering that's present in the display. Try to display a life-like picture, try a couple of them, and look closely and carefully at skin tones, natural colors, you'll notice pixel patterns, that's dithering. It's easier to notice in gradients too.

For instance, in desktop LCDs, BenQ use dithering, while LG does not, it makes for a noticeable difference in image quality.

Oh yeah, and Bluemax, edginess of text isn't necessarily a bad thing, it can mean that the screen is pixel-perfect Active cleartype to work around this "feature" of LCD screens!

Toshiba Satellite M40 - Pentium-M Sonoma 1.6ghz - 512mb DDR333 - 60gb 4200rpm - GeForce 6600 128mb - 15.4" BrightView WXGA TFT LCD

 

Thanks for the info. I need more information about the LCD screen. I cannot find anywhere the information about bit depth. Does anyone know if there is a difference between PSM40C-JM300E and PSM40C-YP300E lcd screens, if any. I am pretty confident that Toshiba guys won't know that but I will ask them. The grainy screen is pretty annoying to me and I can see the pixels when I look at the pictures. Does anyone know if Toshiba M40 screens are all the same? Is it possible that the screen might be different on different unit? Is M40 screen is any different than other Toshiba models with "true bright"? I haven't notice the graininnes of the screen with my first M40 I had. Maybe because I was upset with the problems I had with it. You guys here on this forum are the only people who can understand my concerns. Toshiba people or sales people in the stores know nothing advanced about the laptops. Thanks for your help.

 

Don't ask their tech support, this kind of issue will leave them speechless or they'll start babbling useless oddities Unless you could get up in the hierarchy to the conceptors of the machine, hehehe... The same goes for salesperson, all they care is selling their stuff, whatever it is and whatever it does!

As for different M40 units, don't count on it, they must use the same screen on all of them. They must have used the lower bit depth because I can easily guess that it must be cheaper. Well, hey, we have to come down to the evidence, 1900 CAN $ for all that stuff, they had to cut some fat somewhere It must be as you said, you were probably too annoyed by your other problem to notice.

If I were you I wouldn't care too much about this "problem", it is common now to find this feature on LCDs, and as you must have noticed, not many people notice it, so that's how manufacturers can get away with it. If you try not to stress about it, you'll stop noticing it too much, becasue I can tell you, it is not nearly as bad as it seems. As I said in my previous response, my BenQ LCD is 3 times more annoying with its dithering, it's a plague on this one, hehehe!

Toshiba Satellite M40 - Pentium-M Sonoma 1.6ghz - 512mb DDR333 - 60gb 4200rpm - GeForce 6600 128mb - 15.4" BrightView WXGA TFT LCD