Help Horrible blue aliasing/artifacts in black areas during video playback

[akinho]

Also, when viewing the screenshots on a computer (Dell 2208WFP), they do not look the same as they do on the phone. The dimmed desk clock has a black background with white numbers and the Youtube ones do not have the blotches.
Anyway, I love this phone, but I'd really like to know if I have a defective one or not. What do you guys think? Should I try and get it replaced? I live in Brazil, so it's not quite simple to find someone else with this phone to compare. But I will try to have it replaced if this one is indeed defective.
Thank you very much for all the help you've provided through these forums. I hope I was able to provide some too. Merry Christmas!

PS: Really, really sorry if this is considered spamming. It was supposed to be one post, but I guess only one link is allowed per post.

 

[akinho]

Also, the aliasing happens a lot when using the camera. Not only on black, but whenever there's not a lot of ambient light. Seeing through the screen gives a completely different and sometimes undistinguishable image.

 

[jkc120]

Also, the aliasing happens a lot when using the camera. Not only on black, but whenever there's not a lot of ambient light. Seeing through the screen gives a completely different and sometimes undistinguishable image.

I don't think you have a defective unit. This is just how the phone's display is. Video playback is horrible unless the video is high bitrate and/or 1080p. I'm still debating returning it, since I don't think it is something that will get fixed.

 

[jkc120]

What I don't understand is why this isn't being reported more widely? And why people who have a similar display on other phones say they don't see it. E.g. someone with a fascinate doesn't see it. So is this a software/display mapping problem or is it just crappy hardware? Is there any hope of it being fixed? If not, I may return it.

 

[jkc120]

I finally found a thread on XDA of Galaxy Note owners. They have the SAME issues, and as far as I can tell it's a hardware issue. There are a few reports of users without the problem, but those seem to be a rarity (and may just be people not watching in full darkness).

There is some speculation about it being something Samsung is doing and adding too much gamma or something.

Full thread is here:

[Q] Video on Note - xda-developers

Looks like this is par for Samsung's displays now. If this is not correctable, I'm returning my Nexus and waiting for a device I truly want. I have decided not to settle for a Rezound or Razr. Although I may get the Rezound if it gets S-OFF and CM9.

VERY disappointed in this Samsung. What a joke.

 

[akinho]

What makes me wonder if I got a defective unit is the fact that a lot of people do not seem to have the issues I'm having with my GN. And I don't need to be in a dark room to see it, and bet the effects would be visible to anyone who looked at the device I have.

 

[jkc120]

What makes me wonder if I got a defective unit is the fact that a lot of people do not seem to have the issues I'm having with my GN. And I don't need to be in a dark room to see it, and bet the effects would be visible to anyone who looked at the device I have.

I think the issue is ubiquitous, but some people can't see it or it doesn't bother them. For me, I need a phone that I can watch videos on without seeing the "black crush" effect.

 

[rexdog1888]

I just got a chance to test this in a real world situation. I had a 4 hr plane ride so I downloaded a 720p movie. I watched the whole thing in dim/almost no lighting. I saw NO issues. I see the problems with the clip the op posted but didnt with the video I watched. I think it could be just a few badly encoded videos that have issues with the GNex screen

 

[jkc120]

I just got a chance to test this in a real world situation. I had a 4 hr plane ride so I downloaded a 720p movie. I watched the whole thing in dim/almost no lighting. I saw NO issues. I see the problems with the clip the op posted but didnt with the video I watched. I think it could be just a few badly encoded videos that have issues with the GNex screen

Unfortunately I think most content on hulu, Netflix, YouTube and TV shows/movies on Usenet/p2p are not of sufficient quality to hide the color banding. Higher bit rate/higher resolution videos make it less noticeable but only self-encoded videos with better encoding than what people would torrent or something will better hide it. Boosting the contrast helps a little bit with some cases of the color banding but not all the oddities I saw on my nexus screen. For ocd people like e, you are probably better off with an IPS or LCD based screen, though they have their own trade offs.

 

[sperho]

I just exchanged my phone for radio reasons (seems to be better now on the replacement model btw). I watched this clip with my other phone in a darkened room and saw the blue posterization at both low and high screen brightnesses. It was really bad and I noticed it before it was pointed out to me on the forums (I watch movies in a very dimly lit to unlit room at times as well when others are trying to sleep). The replacement phone has some posterization in the shadows under the same ambient lighting conditions, but it is neutral gray and very, very subtle - nothing surprising for the source material quality or objectionable. I would say that the only way one is going to see this is with a display with the black level capability of an OLED display. You probably wouldn't see it in an LCD display because the black levels cannot compete with OLED. I'll reiterate: I'm picky and I did not find the level of posterization distracting, nor was it royal blue/purple-ish as it was that my first phone exhibited.

Further, I saw the blue posterization in the display when taking pictures in very low light as well, as some others have reported. I just tested this camera under low light (read: near blackout conditions, but similar to what I had previously seen) and there is no blue posterization.

My experience here is just one data point, but it does suggest that there may have been a bad batch of screen controllers in early production runs. I have no idea when the part that I have came off the line.

 

[soy.lor.n]

I think the issue is ubiquitous, but some people can't see it or it doesn't bother them. For me, I need a phone that I can watch videos on without seeing the "black crush" effect.

I had ZERO of this on my first GNex, but I do have it on my replacement. There is at least one out there that doesn't have it. I watched the video on the first page of this thread on both phones. This one has it, first one didn't.

 

[jkc120]

FYI, for anyone still bugged by this on the nexus, someone over on xda found a way to improve things

[Q] Video on Note - Page 22 - xda-developers

I don't claim to know the technical details behind it, but maybe it's possible to do something similar on the nexus!

 

[Deleted User]

FYI, for anyone still bugged by this on the nexus, someone over on xda found a way to improve things

[Q] Video on Note - Page 22 - xda-developers

I don't claim to know the technical details behind it, but maybe it's possible to do something similar on the nexus!

All he's doing is changing the minimum black levels to be much lighter. Basically defeating the great, rich, "true black" produced by the AMOLED screen, and instead making the black levels actually produce some light/color.

So, it's not really a "fix" - more like a workaround.

Probably makes some people happy - I'd rather have the darker blacks and accept the compression artifacts for the movies that are over-compressed.

 

[jkc120]

All he's doing is changing the minimum black levels to be much lighter. Basically defeating the great, rich, "true black" produced by the AMOLED screen, and instead making the black levels actually produce some light/color.

So, it's not really a "fix" - more like a workaround.

Probably makes some people happy - I'd rather have the darker blacks and accept the compression artifacts for the movies that are over-compressed.

Ahh OK :/ Well I guess it gives people the option to tweak

 

[Deleted User]

Ahh OK :/ Well I guess it gives people the option to tweak

Yep, always good to have options. If you're interested in the details of what he did, he adjusted the gamma correction levels to be brighter. Gamma modifies dark regions to make them brighter or darker.

Wikipedia has a good example of what gamma correction does (not embedded because it's a big image):

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/GammaCorrection_demo.jpg

(note: the lowercase y is gamma)

 

[jkc120]

Yep, always good to have options. If you're interested in the details of what he did, he adjusted the gamma correction levels to be brighter. Gamma modifies dark regions to make them brighter or darker.

Wikipedia has a good example of what gamma correction does (not embedded because it's a big image):

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/GammaCorrection_demo.jpg

(note: the lowercase y is gamma)

Cool thanks for the info!

 

[WalmartSecurity]

FWIW, I've seen these artifacts at both spectrums...

1. My friend's gn does not have any artifacts with the video you posted, even in the darkest room

2. My first gn had HORRIBLE blue box-ing in the video, and was visible at dimmer levels. However, I realized that my gnex had completely washed out colors and got it exchanged.

3. The one I have now has some blue-boxing in your video, but only when it's pitch-black. It's also visible in the camera at low-light levels. It doesn't really bother me because I haven't seen it on any other video.

If it's still bugging you, there are ones out there that don't exhibit any artifacts. You could probably bug CSRs about it for an exchange.

 

[tpags]

Was just at VZW store and checked out their display model. What I noticed right away was their display was brighter. The whites were whiter than on my phone. The rep came over and I showed him and he said that maybe I had defective device.
I then loaded up the video from first post.
My phone with the lil bit darker display showed less noise on the video. Quite a bit less. Their display,being brighter, was horrible with that video. The rep was then puzzled and didn't know what to say.
Also on the recent call log screen, cleared so it is all black, the display had banding up the wazooo. Mine, being a lil darker was much better. All of this was done with the same brightness settings.
So my question is, would u rather a phone with not so bright whites and better with videos and banding or the whiter whites?

 

[jkc120]

So my question is, would u rather a phone with not so bright whites and better with videos and banding or the whiter whites?

To quote Darth Vader, "it is too late for me" (son).

But yes, ultimately, the person needs to answer that question for their own needs/wants out of a display. For me, it was enough of a problem that I went with a phone with an LCD display which I knew would more suit me.

 

[LITS]

I have just read the entire thread.

In my opinion if you are really unhappy with a device then just return it and buy a different device.

Although you will probably find a "fault" with a different device.

When are people going to realise that nothing is "perfect", if you go for an lcd you'll likely find backlight bleed, washed out blacks etc.

The internet is full of threads of people complaining about every device out there, what's worse is some people who see no issue in normal viewing then set up un natural scenarios to find "faults"

Now before anyone flames me or accuses me of trolling, I'm not. If something is an "issue" then I'd exchange it, if the next device suffers from the same "issue" then it's "normal". Some people do like ten exchanges and think they are just unlucky and all the units are faulty. That is NOT the case.

Life is far too short, rather than complain and be unhappy just try another device.

Although I believe that some people will find something to moan about with any device, honestly if you are looking for a "perfect" device you will NEVER find one, no screen technology is perfect.

For me personally I can't stand backlight bleed, and washed out blacks, so lcd is NOT an option I want to take.

I'd rather live with the limitations of oled.

 

[ghosthunter]

I thought it was my imagination and was seeing it on certain videos where scenes were very dark. But was nowhere near as bad as this video that the OP posted/ I think what you saying about codec that some have mentioned makes sense.

Also I tried the same videos on my fascinate which has this same type screen right? and it looks perfectly fine.

 

[EarlZ]

The post ahead is contains lots of colorful pictures and really pushes the issue in your face, if you dont have such problems on your screen after doing the exact steps/test/scenario then by all means be happy and dont be a thread griever.
*** WARNING LONG POST AHEAD****


If you guys are using the web browser or youtube application or any other streaming app then you will never see this problem since the deepest black those applications can go is only and RGB value of 16 instead of a full 0, the issue happens between RGB 8 to 1.

To prove my point watch this video using your web browser or the built in youtube applications and use keepvid.com to download the said video and play it back on your Galaxy Nexus/Note and see the difference in black levels and blocks/banding.. So that we can have a very objective viewing experience it recommended you do this test in a dark room or in a place with minimal reflections.

Another sample to download:
Batman-Rises.rar

It contains the new batman (2012) trailer, both clips are identical but one is using a full color range of 0-255 while the other one is limited to 16-255. Take note this issue only happens with both Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Note, playing this video on any other superamoled device will not show any issues.


Sample images on how it looks like on the Galaxy Note, 99% this is how it would look like on the Nexus as well.. to a certain extent

Here is a sample clip of ironman2, Idk if i've posted his one here before

How it looks like on the Galaxy Note/Nexus then follow by how it looks like on ther non HD SAMOLED device like the Galaxy S2.

Do you want to contribute something to the discussion aside from saying I dont have such issues then by all means post a picture showing the test clips with the same scenario, your contribution can help those who have this issue and forward it to Samsung. In my case they've replied to me that they see the issue but with only a single report from my country the ticket is just pending away.

EDIT:

RealSteel clip test
http://www.mediafire.com/?039z1im6koqh5bn

 

[jkc120]

Another sample to download:
Batman-Rises.rar

So comparing these two, I see it in both, but it's definitely more profound in teh 0-255 video. Even on youtube with this clip I can see the "purple->gray->black" halo effect around :30 into the clip in the sky in the upper left and right.

I've kind of given up on watching video on this phone at night which is kind of a shame. I'll have to use my trusty old dinc for that I guess or save up for a tablet.

How did you report this to Samsung? I'd like to do so anyway, on the off chance they decide to actually address it.

 

[EarlZ]

So comparing these two, I see it in both, but it's definitely more profound in teh 0-255 video. Even on youtube with this clip I can see the "purple->gray->black" halo effect around :30 into the clip in the sky in the upper left and right.

I've kind of given up on watching video on this phone at night which is kind of a shame. I'll have to use my trusty old dinc for that I guess or save up for a tablet.

How did you report this to Samsung? I'd like to do so anyway, on the off chance they decide to actually address it.

I showed them a picture of it playing back on a Galaxy S2, Galaxy Note(mine) and on a friends Galaxy Note that didnt have such a horrible clipping+banding as mine, the person said that they can understand the issue and forwarded it to the 'HQ' but theres been no development anymore since Im actually the only one who reported in my country.

From there I demanded to get a refund and Im hoping it gets approved. They did refund my Galaxy S2 w/o a fuss.

 

[BlueBiker]

The post ahead is contains lots of colorful pictures and really pushes the issue in your face, if you dont have such problems on your screen after doing the exact steps/test/scenario then by all means be happy and dont be a thread griever.
...
Do you want to contribute something to the discussion aside from saying I dont have such issues then by all means post a picture showing the test clips with the same scenario, your contribution can help those who have this issue and forward it to Samsung. In my case they've replied to me that they see the issue but with only a single report from my country the ticket is just pending away.

Fantastic post EarlZ! Thanks for doing the hard work of finding a detailed reproducible test case for Samsung to work with. I have a suspicion that they were already aware of the strengths and flaws in the panels, and you might not even be the only one to have reported it to them (denial being a common response from many manufacturers), but you've highlighted the problem in a concrete and irrefutable manner.

FWIW, we're pretty good about handling griefers around here, but all are invited to press the

button to let us know about any hostile or disruptive messages.