My Screen Images seems poor and dithered...

[Shadamehr]

Just got my nice new XDA2...

And I am dismayed to find that the screen colours/wallpapers etc, all seem to be dithered images in a low colour depth.

Instead of smooth gradients, it seems banded from one colour to the next, and shades are made up of dots instead of many colours.

As this has 65,556 colours, I was not expecting this.

Its much like a real pc running in too low a colour depth - but unlike a real pc where this can easily be changed to 24bit or 32bit colour, I can find no such option on my XDA2. Anyone got any ideas, or is it really this bad (because that's how I would genuinely describe it - bad...)

 

[Shadamehr]

Bumping ^

Anyone?

 

[Tekguru]

Same problem we all have, I think it is down to pixel alignment as if one tilts the top of the Xda II backwards the pixels and display appear how one would expect.

 

[skenliv]

I feel cheated, i used to have a Dell X5 Advance. That display was flawless. Now i cant use some colors, especially blue. It gets really messed up...

Its sad

 

[Shadamehr]

I still never found a satisfactory explanation, as it STILL looks as though the screen is simply NOT displaying anything like 65K colours...

 

[rene_canlas]

Discovered this bug early on, but found a workaround. The problem seems to be a contrast issue (too high). Use the Pictures application and adjust the contrast of your pictures one notch downward.

 

[ednap]

I had an iPAQ H5555 before the XDA II (and a long list of iPAQ's before the H5555 ) I have no complaints over the display on my XDA II colours are crisp and clear, focus contrast and brightness are fine also.

Are you having problems with the default wall paper themes or other inages you have installed?

 

[Shadamehr]

I have problems with any image used as the today background.

Even those created in Paint Shop Pro.

On my PC, they are smooth, gradiented fills, and blend smoothly.

Soon as you put them onto the XDA2 however, and it gets 'Banded' terribly. Legs appear in what seems like just two colours, a light flesh pink in the mid, and another lighter colour for the outline - a sharp jump from one colour to another - no gradiented fill in between.

Alas, I can't of course attach REAL screen shots, as in so doing the images would appear fine on here, as the images really ARE fine - its only their appearance on the XDA2 that goes haywire.

A simple example of what I mean, SIMULATED however, is as attached.

I have done this simply by posting a view from my window, in true colour 24K format, and then a copy of it, with the colour depth reduced to just 256 colours, with no error diffusion used.

This is almost EXACTLY what the resultant appearance is like on my XDA2. But sure enough, as some users say, if you ANGLE the XDA2, this becomes a lot less pronounced.

I am at a loss to understand why it does it at all however, becuase as far as I know, current screen technology does not need to suffer an issue such as this.

Mmmmmm.....

 

[skenliv]

I have not found any sollution to the problem.

 

[Shadamehr]

I am saddened to say, but it seems like it's the phone to blame.

So much for 65K Transflective being the bees knees.

I have designed a batch of about 60 themes for the phone, using photos. No matter what quality I save at, or even saving as .bmp based, half of them look terrible, with skin tones such as legs being made up of a lighter outline colour, with a big pool of a darker colour in the middle - TWO colours used to make up a part of an image that should be 100's of colours.

Terrible.

Even worse, I notice now, that this applies to Windows Media Player, playing back videos too.

If you angle your head/the XDA2 a certain angle, this reduces the effect. But I mean come on.

Obviously (based on my last comment there) this is a limitation of the screen technology.

Not impressed by far is all I can really say.

 

[andyclap]

This annoys me too.
It feels like somewhere deep inside the XDA2 there's a hardcoded 4096 colour setting left over from the XDA 1. It's especially noticable on web pages.

 

[hshortt]

You should bring this device back to where you got it from and test it side by side with another XDA II using the same themes.

The quality of my screen is perfect and the colours are all vivid and no banding appears unless the theme itself has banding.

I had an iPAQ 5455 that had the same problem as yours, colours appeared to only show 4096 colours 8bit. I sent back and it was replaced with another one that had a perfect screen.

Cheerio
Howard

 

[Shadamehr]

Mmm - now this topic is getting interesting...

Anyone else think that there is a problem?

I have hinted all along that it's as if the XDA2 is only displaying images in a limited number of colours, and to now hear other people saying the same kind of thing makes for interesting reading...

 

[izeman]

hmmm

maybe i'm totally wrong, but: do you use CLEAR TYPE ???

i did activate it, and realized that eg. in the phone application the "talk" or the "number" buttons did really look awful.

so i turned clear type off, and my problems where gone... or was it all imagination ? i don't know ...

just a thought

servus ize|man

 

[Shadamehr]

I do use it, so I'm about to experiment, and report back.

 

[Shadamehr]

Was worth a try, but alas, no difference on my XDA2.

Just chose a couple of my themes that seem poorly 'dithered' and colour 'banded'.

Turned Cleartype off.

Did a reset...

And the themes look no different or better alas.

Damn.

Thanks for the suggestion though mate.

It REALLY does seem as if the 65000 colour XDA2 is forced into running with just 4096 colours - possibly even less.

But the way or angle you look at the screen makes all it look different, so then again, this could be an inherit issue, and in effect, 'feature' of the screen technology.

A very poor one if so, given the hype of how much much better this new screen is over the original XDA.

Probably one of the poorest that I have seen...

 

[hshortt]

Here's my image quality.

I took your good image and put it onto my machine and took a screen shot. Here's the sample.... no banding!

Cheers

 

[lan_xda]

Exactly the same for me: no banding, good quality.
Perhaps something is wrong with your device.. :roll:

 

[Shadamehr]

Er no guys...

Because that was just a SIMULATED screen shot, which I don't even use on my XDA2 - I just took a photo I had from my back window, and recoloured it down to 256 colours, to simulate what I see (as this is EXACTLY what it looks like with other themes).

I SHOULD have done it with a real theme I use, but in this case I hadn't.

I will post a theme file that is bad for me, and you can try that if you like...

My problem of course, is that all my many themes, are ADULT based images of my gf and her gf etc, so not suitable to post in a general forum such as this.

I have attached a screenshot of one of the 'tamer' ones though.

The screenshot, taken straight from ActiveSync Remote Display, appears FINE on a PC - it's on the DEVICE that it looks bad though.

So take a look at the screenshot, the area where I indicate bad 'banding' then run the also attached theme on your device, and tell me if you get 'banding' where I indicate, when you put the theme on your actual device?

 

[rene_canlas]

Shadamehr,

It's the result of too much contrast. Try this:

1. Take the background bitmap you used for your theme and copy it to your XDAII.
2. Load the Pictures application and view the picture you just loaded.
3. Click Edit|Brightness And Contrast and adjust the contrast one or two settings downwards until the picture looks okay.
4. Save the picture, copy it to your PC and us it in your theme.
5. Try your new Theme on your XDAII and see if the banding problem goes away.

Hope this helps,

Rene