Vaio Z Diagonal lines on screen

So, any good (or bad) news with the current line of z's?

 

The lines are still there but less noticable.

 

still wonder why in my past 2 vaio tz's 150 & 195 never had that problem?
could be some cheap manufacturing process that's really saving lots of $ to sony.

 

@xer47
OLEDs are still a few years away (for Sony at least).

I understand Samsung is pretty close to releasing OLED lappies this year, but that's just a rumour. Sony did lose huge grounds to Samsung the past few years in LCD technology, most notable being in mobile phones. Seeing their plasma and LCD TVs getting pawned by LG and Samsung these days... I never would have imagined back in 2000...

AMOLED is pretty much old technology to us Koreans, considering we see 'super' AMOLED displays being rolled out on most phones now. OLED has benefits in refresh rates and power consumption, and AMOLED (and OLED too I think) has the additional benefit of huge colour spectrum reproduction (16M min) with superb contrast ratios. Though I still think the diagonal lines will still be there, if Sony did come up with some cheap method of putting the new displays together.

I think we'll be seeing flexy screens before OLED becomes mainstream. The buying average Joe today considers LED new technology as it is, and I doubt OLED will get off the ground quickly enough to make manufacturers (Sony and Samsung included) consider it as a viable product. I've researched in flexible electronics technology, and I'll tell you now it isn't far off from reality.

 

I know there's a lot of frustration with the diagonal lines, but there are few viable alternatives anywhere close to the z's weight/performance ratio with better screen quality. I came to the z after over 8years of thinkpads and i can tell you there are worse things than these diagonal lines, as far as laptop screens go. thinkpad screens have gotten worse each time i bought a new model, and that's what drove me to the z.

 

Not all Z's have diagonal lines. I replaced my 610 with a 540 (which is just about the same thing, same specs) and the later did not have any lines

 

A bit less noticeable, but they are clearly there. Also, on mine (Full HD) and in another one I've seen there are vertical lines on the left side of the screen, visible only over light colors.

Not my photo, but look at the white bar on the top, vertical lines are visible on the left side. In my screen there are vertical lines like that.

Viewing angles of the FullHD screen are kinda bad, at 30-40º from below the colors are completely inverted. There isn't an angle in which colors are uniform: there's a clear gradient on the top or on the bottom side, depending on the angle you are watching it. And from side to side they get a yellow-brown tone at 40-45º or more.

Nice res and nice duraview finish, but apart from that, I won't rate it over 5/10. It's really a shame. If I didn't need a machine with this type of specs right now, I would probably return it.

 

Hi,
just want to let you know that I just received a new screen for my Z11 because of some pixel errors. I had theses lines too, now with the new screen they are gone

 

? You received a new laptop or did they repair it?

 

Well, according to the theory that this thread is pointing towards, your new screen will start showing the lines again once it 'ages', with the polarised layer slowly wearing off. I got a replacement screen on my old Z a few weeks back under warranty (from Sony New Zealand) and saw the diagonal lines straight off, and it just spread.

My previous screen had the lines primarily on the lower left, lower and upper right, whereas this new screen has the lines primarily on the centre of the screen and the middle and lower left.

 

What a shame, I expected much more from sony with this new Z line. I mean the FullHD screen on a notebook worth 2k> with some lines? They must be kidding! BTW, little off topic, but do you see any battery drain on your new lappy by any chance?

 

So talkin' about gettin' a new screen. Could be possible if I get a 1366 x 768 display, the diagonal lines would be almost invisible because of the lesser resolution?

 

Resolution doesn't matter.

The only things that affects diagonal lines are the frequency of the display (Hz) and your own sight.

 

I went to a Sony Style store, and I was able to see the diagonal lines...really disappointed since this is the laptop I really wanted. Is there a way to get rid of the lines?

 

I have the lines, but only in the very corners, and its very hard to notice. I just saw it one day because my face was 1' away from the screen and I moved the screen.

 

I checked out the facelift Zs and it seems that both the 900 and 1080 models have glossy screens. Well, they are alot more glossy than the older Z. And I thought there were no glossy 900 screens...? I am talking about the Oceania models by the way...

Regardless, I saw the lines on the 900 model but they were kinda hard to see because of the glossiness. The 1080 model, I didn't have much time to play around but couldn't see anything (I was rushed so can't confirm that). I also noticed that the new Zs have LESS colour saturation than the older Z, considering that the new Zs that I saw have that 96% Adobe Gamut feature. There was an AW side-by-side next to the new Z (the AW haveing the gamut feature as well), and I switched both wallpapers to identical images and saw practically no difference; all three (AW, and the 900 and 1080 new Z) looked the same in regards to colour and screen glossiness...

I'm guessing that the type of coating is actually helping reduce the lines somewhat...

 

I saw the lines on both the 1600x900 screen and the 1920x1080 screen. They are however a lot less noticeable the the old Z.

 

I've got the 1920x1080 display and I recognise this as the same minor thing I'm getting.

For me the striping only really appears in the top half of the display, it's impossible to get it to appear in the bottom third. It's most noticable in the titlebars of applications, so I think it might be to do with interference (like the Task Manager Performance tab thing I mentioned in the other thread).

But it's a minor issue for me and only noticable when I move my eyes around, if I stare at a region it disappears after about 2 seconds.

 

Hm, so we're getting some mixed reports. FullHD seems to be better than the lower model, I'm wondering about what company is making them for sony? Hitachi? LG?

 

@W3bbo
The issue does get worse and worse from my point of view; my old LCD before I had it replaced under warranty started showing the lines from the bottom right, and it kinda spread to everywhere else except the middle.
With my new replacement however, I see the lines everywhere except the upper left... Would have prefered the middle to remain lineless but hey, at least I don't have any dead pixels no more...

@xer47
The older Z had panels that were manufactured by Toshiba. I'm just trying to remember where I found that out from the top of my head but struggling... But I can fully (I think) confirm that the older models' LCD were made by Toshiba.
The newer Zs. There is no 'reason' for Sony to stray away from Toshiba with the FullHD panels. I mean, back in mid-08 the old Z's LCD was trulely remarkable (from a 'looks' point of view, and it still is), as is the new Z's LCD panels.

Either that, or considering the AdobeRGBGamut thing, it might be the same manufacturer who used to make the screens for the AW series (which I think was Samsung).

 

So... it's kinda confusing, a few people say they saw those lines on FullHD, some people say there are none whatsoever? I bet manufacturing process vary between toshiba and samsung (never liked toshiba, they always make low-quality stuff), so could that be a reason why there are no lines on some FullHD at least, and there are lines all the time on the lower model, which is obviously made by toshiba as in older models that you and i have?

 

so in other words.... we should not get a z because of this?

i am correct

yes?

 

Well, most of us don't actually see these lines... So it sort of depends on whether you are one of those in the minority that actually sees, and is bothered by these so called "lines".

 

The key word is "see", because they are on every single older Z out there, there are no exceptions. Some cases are worse than others but every one has those lines, could you see it or does it bother you much is a completely different story.

At the same time I'm very interested to hear from owners of the newer ones with fullHD screen if they see the lines 1-2 months into use.
Thanks

 

Yea, I guess I was referring to the newer one.

Also, I think I meant to throw some smilies in there...

 

I've seen the lines on a Korean Z26 and Z57 (2nd and 5th gen respectively), and my own Oceania Z26. Though it is most visible on mine, less visible on the Korean Z26, and even less on the Z57. Something to note, the Z57 was 2 months old the last time I saw it.

I also see it on the new Z11 (non-full HD), but it is barely visible. Though, the new Zs have screens that are alot 'glossier' than the older Zs, so I guess the screen coating theory (as mentioned earlier in the thread) comes into play again.

 

Ok, so have you seen the fullHD one (the newest model, of course)? My guess is that the non-fullHD model is still toshiba-made, and the fullHD is samsung. Almost everyone who reported in this thread with non-fullHD has the line, so I just wanna find out if the fullHD is truly lines-free

 

I think I have seen the fullhd one but was unable to check for the lines as I was a wee bit busy chasing up something else... But I was able to confirm with the non-fullhd variant of the new Z; the lines are there, just harder to see.

Sony New Zealand used to stock 2x of the 1st gen new Zs, but it seems that they now only stock one model (one 2nd gen Z, which unfortunately is the non-fullhd variant).

I would stress that these lines are almost neglible on the new Z; I had to actually try and see them. Whereas on the older Z (my Z26 in particular), working with numerous video editing suites and watching movies from an arms length, the lines are blatantly obvious.

Though if I turn down the brightness to 50% or lower, those lines disappear. But as I do work with videos for extended periods of time, that's not too good for my eyes so I gotta suffer through the confusion those lines sometimes cause me... I'm pretty close to suspending my lappie mods to go buy myself a decent IPS monitor right now...

 

I have a 16x9 display and I can hardly see it. The only reason I ever saw it is because I had the screen 3" from my face, additionally I only noticed it in the corners so Don't worry about it.

 

yeah but is the vaio z display Xbrite technology? like on AW? nice sharp and bright screen?

 

deleted (double post)

 

Aren't they pretty much all 16x9 these days?

 

why? doh .

 

Probably meant 1600x900....

 

I have a fullhd vaio z11 bought on sonystyle france, and the lines are there. It just depends on how you look at it and if your eyes are strained ets. moving your head and concentrating on the screen itself instead of what the screen is displaying helps to see the lines.

Its not a problem though, i barely notice them anymore, you really get used to it !

 

I just received my Sony Vaio z11x9e/b (1600 x 900) today and noticed the diagonal lines. The reason I bought this notebook is because of the great display...

 

Looks like the lines are still there on fullHD... I'm rather disappointed now, I was thinking about replacing my last gen Z with this one, but looks like there is no point: the same battery issue, the same screen issue

 

Are these "lines" impossible to capture on a photograph or something? :\ It's like some sort of a Loch Ness monster. :|

 

Well damn. I've been debating between the HP Envy 14 and the VAIO Z (I have them both at the moment). I noticed the diagonal lines today while watching several videos. I can only see them while playing video content. I don't see them with anything stationary on the screen. Sounds like a refresh rate problem to me, but I it when I try to up it to 60hz in control panel it goes back down to 59.

Are there other workarounds that people have tried?

 

The lines are almost impossible to capture with cameras. They are hard to find (personally) on newer machines. I think arth1 described it as aging; the panel starts displaying these lines as the machine gets older.

@jsanjose
The problem is NOT solely seen on videos. Try other (stationary) colours; you will see them. If not now, then later on three months down the track maybe...
That refresh rate issue you described on the nVidia control panel is a known issue. To check what rate you are running, right-click desktop, Screen Resolution, Advanced Settings, and click on the Monitor tab at the top.

 

I actually see them, but you have to look really hard. An easier way to spot these diagonal lines is try to imagine your notebook as a steering wheel. Steer it left or right. With motion, it is easier to spot these diagonal lines, it is like you are moving with the lines.

I guess it is the nature of these LCDs or the inverter as someone mentioned earlier in this thread. This doesn't look like a defective issue and I can understand why some people might not notice it. I didn't notice it initially too.

Edit: yes, this is the FULLHD monitor. and the reason why some people don't notice it is because it depends on how sensitive your eyes are.

and yes, it is easier to see at the top of the screen because Windows "aero" has some diagonal effects/lines

 

you are definitely bang on about the battery life. i played around with the brightness and observing battery bar. on maybe 80% brightness the discharge rate is 18mW and a lower brightness (roughly 40%), the discharge rate is 13mW and an even lower brightness (30%), the discharge rate drops to 11mW/

 

so I guess I am in the minority that sees the lines during video playback. According to these posts, it's not fixable by Sony? so for the ones that can see it, did u guys end up keeping ur laptops or returned?

Man and I thought this was the laptop with really good screen.

 

All the LED screens that I saw from various manufacturers have these diagonal lines.

 

My Envy 13 1600x900 also has them.

 

Had them on a T61, returned that, same thing here, and just lived with it. It only appears with panning and solid-color videos, so not too bad.