Grey Lines Mar MacBook Air Displays

adamengst writes "Numerous users have been complaining about grey lines that muddy the crispness of the displays of the recently updated MacBook Air. Doug McLean explains the problem in TidBITS, along with what Apple appears to be doing about it."

Comments

"Muddy the crispness"?

[Anonymous Coward]

What, is this an audiophile forum now? I can only assume the lines fluff up the felty softness too.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[Lumpy]

The problem is that these users are not conditioning their laptop displays before use. It's well known you need to play a very diverse video before any actual use so that the screen is "exercised" and ready for use. they get stiff after sitting off for a while.

Also using directional USB cables as well as cleaning the keyboard with a gold based cleaning solution will help enhance the crispness of the display.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[LMacG]

Also, marking around the edge of the display with a green felt-tip pen will keep all the pixels in proper alignment.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[AdamPee]

You can't start out with too diverse video, your computer could pull a driver. Instead, start off gently, something like a screensaver, and move on to something a little more rigorous as it warms up.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[Lumpy]

Gold is passe now.

Platinum coated Low Oxygen titanium with iridium tips are what is needed now.

Also be sure that your Ethernet cables are of quality. http://www.usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3429.asp# is the only cable that is worthwhile for any performance computing.

using a lesser cable will cause muddyness.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[elrous0]

My wife flipped out and left me when I bought those instead of paying the mortgage last month. Too bad for her that she's not here to enjoy the cleanest USB signal I've ever seen!

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[DrinkDr.Pepper]

For just $49.99 (+S&H) I will send you my patented green felt-tip pen pixel alignment tool. It's alcohol-free ink is designed maximize the pixel aligning properties associated with green felt-tip pens.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[Registered Coward v2]

Gold is passe now.

Platinum coated Low Oxygen titanium with iridium tips are what is needed now.

Also be sure that your Ethernet cables are of quality. http://www.usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3429.asp# is the only cable that is worthwhile for any performance computing.

using a lesser cable will cause muddyness.

Agreed. It is also very important to ensure you use teh uni-directional Ethernet cable properly. It uses a special extruding and annealing process to line up all the electronic data pipes properly so that you get maximum data throughput in the download direction while limiting upstream traffic within ISP limits. If you install it backwards, as one of my cow orkers did, you'll severely limit your connection speeds since you are now throttling the download speed. His connection went from 2400 baud dialup speeds to past T1 after I simply reversed the cable. Don't bother to buy any of the special oxygen blocking gels that people tout for covering the connectors to prevent corrosion and maximize conductivity. They actually are harmful - you need a little bi-metallic corrosion between the connectors to ensure a nice, tight electrical bond; that's why your speeds go up after you've warmed up the cable and let it break in. I never disconnect my Ethernet cable from my MacBook for that very reason. I always disconnect at my router and carefully wrap the cable around my MacBook for travel. I hope this helps. HAND.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[theaveng]

>>>Thank you, Captain Obvious, for that enlightening post.

That's alright. Captain Obvious trumps Seaman Asshole.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[_Sprocket_]

The nuances come from the computer DAC chip's ability to turn 1's and 0's into sound, and that's where audiophiles should spend their money, not on a $500 gold-plated cable.

I believe you missed this particularly helpful feature:

Additionally, signal directional markings are provided for optimum signal transfer.

Your 1's and 0's aren't getting anywhere without some directional markings to let them know which way they're going. Of course, Denon made a mistake by showing the directional marking (a double-sided arrow) in their product picture. Now all manner of hardware hackers will be simply using a magic marker to apply this wonderful feature to their bargain-basement cables. It won't work quite as well as the professional screen-printed version Denon provides. But then that level of quality is beyond the hardware hacker.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

It's all how you look at it

[iamdrscience]

I for one, think that a few grey lines make a display look distinguished.

Re:It's all how you look at it

[Rude Turnip]

Clearly, they are speed lines to make the Mac even snappier!

Re:It's all how you look at it

[je ne sais quoi]

No, you can use for the point releases for the OS and the finder too. For example: "Apple just released OS 10.4.x and even though the patch notes say there were only unrelated security and bug fixes, the finder feels snappier!" This is attributable to well-documented ability of the chips in Apple computers to overclock themselves by sensing the level of smug satisfaction and air of superiority of the user. :)

Quit Complaining!

[decalod85]

My Mac SE from 1988 had all grey lines! You kids and your 'color' monitors...

Re:tag: appleispants

[TheRaven64]

Note this only makes sense in English. In American, the phrase means 'x is trousers,' which is quite nonsensical.

Re:tag: appleispants

[foo fighter]

And "x is rubbish" is a British phrase meaning "x sucks".

Re:tag: appleispants

[Lemming Mark]

Note this only makes sense in English. In American, the phrase means 'x is trousers,' which is quite nonsensical.

Nope, it's not English versus American. You're thinking of British versus American. In the English dialect, the correct phrase would be "jolly bad show, old chap" or the alternate form "cor blimey, guv'nor, one is not amused".

Re:Not fair

[value_added]

You PC-using commoners just don't understand good design ascetics.

Some days, there just aren't enough words ...

Re:tag: appleispants

[David Gerard]

In Modern English, one would throw in a few "faakin caarnt" as well, or risk not being understood.

Re:tag: appleispants

[Anonymous Psychopath]

In California it means an evil baseball team.