[Q] Chances of official JB update fixing black clipping?

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Hi guys,

So somehow, (and I really have no idea how I even managed to do this) I went three months without noticing the horrendous black clipping on my Int. Note. Last night I was cursing YouTube's streaming and then realised something was up. After a quick look at the test PNG which I quickly discovered I'm unable to see 1, 2 and 3 which makes for a pretty ugly experience when watching darker videos.

So my question is this. Should I root and go ParanoidAndroid to try and alleviate my issue (I assume part of this process will include flashing a new kernel which is where the issue lies?) or is there a chance that Samsung will ship a new kernel with the imminent (we hope) JB update?

I'm no newbie to rooting and totally hacked my HTC Desire to within an inch of it's life (figuratively speaking, I never bricked it) and I'm always tinkering with an Advent Vega for fun. However, I'm a bit worn out by rooting and reading up on all the proper routes, new radios, kernel issues, bugs etc. I'd like a 'quiet' life with the Note where possible!

Do you think I'll 'get away' with rooting this time or is it going to be likely needed to fix this problem?

Originally Posted by DavieMarshall

Hi guys,

So somehow, (and I really have no idea how I even managed to do this) I went three months without noticing the horrendous black clipping on my Int. Note. Last night I was cursing YouTube's streaming and then realised something was up. After a quick look at the test PNG which I quickly discovered I'm unable to see 1, 2 and 3 which makes for a pretty ugly experience when watching darker videos.

So my question is this. Should I root and go ParanoidAndroid to try and alleviate my issue (I assume part of this process will include flashing a new kernel which is where the issue lies?) or is there a chance that Samsung will ship a new kernel with the imminent (we hope) JB update?

Do you think I'll 'get away' with rooting this time or is it going to be likely needed to fix this problem?

My opinion:

• Samsung correcting the Gamma table on the firmware, so dark colors appear really dark and not light gray or completly black is unlikely. They are following the strategy embraced by other manufacturers and just release a new model with a slightly better CPU and fixes for the bugs of the previous model.
• xda-developers community releasing a ROM that is realy usable and fixes this: not likely either. A ROM that has no support for camera, HD recording, FM radio or S-Pen is not going to convince many people to switch.
• I recently took my Note to Samsung technical service because the screen looked yellow (another known manufacturing defect), and they replaced the entire screen, but the new one shows the same black clipping problem.
• Apps like filter your screen just lower the contrast so the blacks become more gray, but the darkest tone of gray the Note can show is still too bright, leading to anything below RGB (50,50,50) appearing almost the same tone of gray.

I have just moved to a phone by other company and compared it to the Galaxy Note:

• Screen is IPS, viewing angle is not so ample as in an AMOLED but at least white appears white, not light brown
• The gammatest.png image is displayed correctly, top row of squares going from black to very dark gray.
• Brightness on the Note is limited to avoid burning the AMOLED too fast, and even so, I had burn-in on the top of the screen after only 3 months
• My new phone has 1 GB RAM, and 980 MB are listed, not 808, and I have 400 used normally, with 580 free. Note had usually 700 MB used
• My new phone seems to spend more time on deep sleep, no Samsung apps or services working on the background