Horizontal Interlaced Lines on Vaio Z

Any of you with the FHD screen on the Vaio Z notice any horizontal lines when using notepad or command prompt docked on one side or partially opened?

Try it yourself. Is it just my FHD or is it a known issue?

Attached is a screenshot. Thanks all.

 

here's another one taken from the iphone.

 

I can't see those lines on mine when I look directly at the screen. However the lines do infact show up when I take a picture of it.


update: nevermind, the lines I see from the pictures I took looks different to yours.
So no, I don't have any lines like that on my Vaio Z.

 

Interesting... have you tried the exact method i used above? Try with command prompt or notepad.. fill a few rows of "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX" across notepad, dock it to the right side, and see if there are any horizonal lines on ur wallpaper.

 

Exactly same problem as mine. The interference happens more obviously with a particular size of font (Raster Fonts 8x12) for the command line window and it happens more obviously if the text is red and desktop background is blue-ish.

 

The second post (photo with the iPhone). That almost looks like a bad case of ghosting.

When you move the notepad around (ie, click and drag around the screen), does the ghosting artifacts follow? And do you have any speakers around your Z by any chance? Or maybe a microwave?

And I'm gonna take a guess here; drag that very notepad down towards the lower part of the screen. Do you see ghosting at around 3-5cm above the bottom of the LCD screen?

I've got a VGN-Z so can't really diagnose the problem myself. But when I try your method, and concentrate VERY VERY hard to the left of that wallpaper (it's the Windows 7 Architecture one, the one you used above), I think I can see a slight flicker. But then, I relatively positive I'm seeing the flicker of the refresh rates, so no, no ghosting on the VGN-Z...

 

I tested mine no issue, no lines on the same situation!!!! If it's not something around your notebook you should contact Sony

 

same issue here,

but i never recognized it before. You have to be close and make a line of characters.

 

Yes, the artifacts follow as I move the notepad around. Even at the very bottom of the LCD screen. No microwave or speakers near my precious sony Again, this only happens with notepad and command prompt. If another program takes place on top of notepad, the artifacts disappear.

I've also noticed its MOST noticable with the sky BLUE windows architecture backgrounds. With all other colors, the artifacts very minimal to none.

Any other theories? It seems I'm not alone here.

 

Does it happen regardless of which video card is active?

 

Yes it happens in both speed and stamina. I have tried playing with different drivers as well and have experienced the same problems.

 

What happens if you disable aero? Perhaps it's a windows rendering issue? Also, does it happen on external monitor?

 

That's exactly what I thought of doing next. I will try as soon as I get home.

I am actually sitting at a Sonystyle store right now and it seems that the 1600x900 Vaio Zs also experience this problem, however not as noticable as the FHD lcds.

Glad to know I'm not the only one.

I will test with AERO off now at the sonystyle store... will update asap.

update:
Horizontal Interlaced lines are still present with AERO off. Again, this is using Sonystyle's 1600x900 unit. I'm pretty sure I'll have the same results with my FHD.

 

I'm curious. The display is all digital and uses a digital (displayport) connection but the interference reminds me of old ghosting found on analog displays (usually with a cheap vga connection).

 

This is mind boggling to me as well. I really did not take notice until I switched to the BLUE architecture and BLUE windows backgrounds. Again, this issue is only present with Notepad and command prompt (on top)... so far all other programs do not reproduce this problem.

 

It would be interesting if you could take a screenshot of the screen when this occurs, then look at the screenshot (or set it as your background). If the problem exists also when you view the screenshot, it's likely to be a problem with the 6-bit panel's internal dithering routines, and notepad + command prompt just happens to create a specific contrast/position combination that triggers this.

For what it's worth, I've seen similar problems with a Dell monitor too -- dragging black, grey and white boxes around on a colour-graded background would often create visual artefacts.

 

BTW I just tested this on my Z with the same background and everything and cannot get my display to behave this way.

 

I remember such problems existed in older LCD monitors, like a Pentium 2-era laptop I have. Having a vertical row of black pixels had an effect on the other non-black pixels in the same row, things like that. Newer LCDs have this problem to a much lesser degree.

I think I've noticed that it happens on my Z12 a little as well.

 

Thanks for all your input guys. It really helps to know that people are actively trying to help out.

@arth1, yes the artifacts still appear on the screenshot but with less intensity. Do you think this is an LCD or software issue? Or maybe a little bit of both?

@beaups, I noticed that it only happens with:
1. a blue background
2. notepad or command prompt being on top and active
3. Font has to be set at Lucida Console, regular size 10, all other sizes and other fonts won't replicate the problem.

To everyone, is this worth the hassle of getting it fixed? It seems that all the Vaio Zs in sonystyle store have this problem too.

 

The font/font size did it. I could not reproduce the problem until I set the font size to Lucida Console/10.

I don't see the artifacts on my external screens (either the one driven by the dvi output, or the one driven by my usb-dvi display link adapter). The two external screens are identical Acer 22". Looks like an issue with the Z's LCD itself.

-Peter

 

I set my background the same as yours and set the font size the same, etc...I cannot reproduce this.

If everyone is having the issue (maybe I'm blind) then I can't see there being a "fix"...sounds like a design flaw of some sort.

 

@Psyang, sorry I should have mentioned the font/size as another condition. I find it amusing that the problem only appears under such specific situations.

@Beaups, Well that's a real bummer. It's a pretty expensive machine to have such a flaw :/ But at least I now know that I'm not completely alone with this problem.

I guess the only solution is to stop using notebook or command prompt with that font, lol. I highly doubt Sony will do anything about this.

 

I'm not questioning whether or not they "will" do anything about it, it's whether they even "can".

 

Yes, that's true. I really don't think they can.

 

Out of curiosity have you tried changing refresh rates, bit depth, resolution, etc?

 

Beaups, good question. Yes I did..

-1080 resolution with 59 and 40hz - artifacts..
-1080 resolution with 16 and 32bit - artifacts..
-I tried with the 1600x900 resolution (everything under 1080 for that matter)on my FHD - no indication of artifacts..

 

For the record, I concur with these findings as well. I did find that 40hz seemed to minimize the artifacts a bit, but they were still visible. I also adjusted dpi settings (100%, 125%, and 150%) and turned on/off clear type, all to no avail.

These were visible using the dark grey Vaio Theme (VAIO Theme 2 on my machine).

I also opened up Paint.NET, and filled the screen with different colors, then placed my notepad window over half of it. Brighter colors seemed to make the artifacts disappear (bright green, bright red, very light grey). Darker colors show the artifacts much more (dark green, dark red, dark grey). Black and white do not show the artifacts.

Also, it looks like the artifacts are most visible when the notepad window covers half the screen. When it covers a quarter of the screen, they are still visible, but much less so. 1/8 of the screen, and the artifacts are not visible at all.

It looks to me like a limitation of the LCD. After all this, I can say that it doesn't bother me at all.

-Peter

 

Thanks for your findings Psyang, you really went above and beyond with that. Sad to say, but I think I can sleep better now that I know I'm not alone, lol.

 

It happens to me at 1600x900 (native resolution) on my Z12 when I type iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii in Notepad, Lucida Console 10 size font. However, it is barely noticeable. Anyway, it's just some interference at the LCD level.

 

I have this problem with my vpcz1 (13 cto) but instead of horizontal it's vertical xDD and its more noticeable with blue background, red fonts and max brightness

 

this is quite interesting

I can replicate this on mine, (but only with the Lucida Console font)

Z1290X with FHD 1080

 

Just tested mine. Same problem here as well. Barely noticeable though. Only visible in 1080p native resolution. Not visible when 125% dpi scaling used. I wish SONY could comment on this...