Thinkpads Forum

I've been looking in to how I can improve my mediocre lcd screen. I recently tweaked with the color settings quite a bit and that seemed to help. But perhaps the real culprit is just a poor backlight?

The test on this site say that you should be able to tell the difference of the black box shade somewhere around 5-6 on a normal computer and if you can't tell the difference until 11-12 then you need to adjust your backlight on an lcd. Well, I don't see a difference until level 12-13.

Apparently the backlight is related to black blacks and white whites. Well, a big problem I have is dim whites.

Could you guys check out the test and report back so that I can tell if my lcd is really that out of whack?

Thanks,
Daniel

Firstly make sure that your ThinkPad is plugged into mains power before doing the test. Using the default setting, it will reduce in brightness when you are running on battery - you can change this setting in the BIOS so that it is always running on full brightness.

On my T40 I can tell the difference at 5-6 when running on mains power, with full brightness.

Yes, testers make sure that your computer has the backlight optimized for this test.

Even plugged into AC at full brightness with reasonable color settings my monitor doesn't see anything until 12-13. I am starting to think that I have a lemon backlight on this otherwise awesome new computer. The monitor is clearly dim and the whites are yellowish, every other laptop monitor I've seen is better, and now I have this test as some sort of empircal evidence.

I'd be interested in hearing more reports of how well their lcd's fair with this test.

hi i noticed changes at level 4

R51 1830KA3

greyhound wrote:hi i noticed changes at level 4

Same here, and I'm currently sitting behind a heavily used, four year old ThinkPad 570E, in a bright, neon-lighted room. When I turn down the brightness of the backlight to the minimum, I can still see all changes from level 8 onwards.

I see a difference at 4 with my X21...

-=B-=

On my T42 (14.1" SXGA)

Full brightness I see a difference at 4.
Lowest brightness I see a difference at 7

--Adam

I see a first change on level 2/3 on an SXGA T40p.

However, I used the LCD screen setup tool to recalibrate contrast and gammas. (Helped a lot !!!)

BTW: I found out that most LCD screen have to be recalibrated, their default settings are wrong most of times.

2-3 @ brightness 7
3-4 @ brightness 5

4 @ full brightness

I'm getting 4 if I'm in a well lit room, 3 if I'm in the dark.

Full brightness, plugged into mains (AC).

Thanks for posting this very interest link, Daniel. Hope you can get your situation resolved.

My TP365 scored a 5, with brightness all the way down, in a dimly-lit room, running off AC power. No software-adjustable graphics settings (the machine is almost 9 years old).

My desktop computer, with a pretty good NEC 18" LCD monitor and good Matrox graphics card, was way off!!

FWIW, the optimum settings, as described on that web site, are important for graphic artists designing "for print." But if you spend most of your day looking at type (word processing, e-mail, spreadsheet, etc.), IMHO, those settings tend to be hard on your eyes. (I was able to adjust my desktop so it scored a 2, but there's no way I could live with those settings long-term!)

I'll edit this post when I get my X21, but I saw it at 4 on my Dell (full bright, AC - not that it matters, because it doesn't drop brightness when it's unplugged...)

On my dekstop, I can see change at level 4... (CRT anyways)
I'll see if I can run this on a friend's R52 and test... (As long as they allow me)

I was seeing things by about 5 or 6, but this is highly dependent on room lighting conditions as well.

My 9 year old 760E (12.1" SVGA) showed a difference in black at level at 2 with the brightness all the way up. Level 4 with the brightness down.

I'm going to try that same test later on with my desktops CRT and see how well it does. Since it's new and good quality, I expect it to show at a low level.

For anyone who got results they weren't hoping for, try calibrating your monitor. There's lots of software to help you do this, just do a search on Google. If anyone here uses Photoshop or Illustrator, then you should have Adobe Gamma in the Windows control panel. If anyone uses a Mac, you should have ColorSync software on your machine.

The changes were more subtle on the X21, FWIW.

I could tell that there was SOMETHING at 3. At 4, I could definitely see the change, although it wasn't nearly as drastic as on the Dell. I think that means that the Dell has brighter whites, but the X21 has better contrast.

Also level 4 on my T43 (Face infront of LCD)