I recently did a DIY dock station in my car. By the time I finished setting everything up it was quite dark outside. I really wanted to go for a test drive to test my GPS and new "Car Home" screen but came to a very fast conclusion. Our screens are too bright to be on during night driving!
Even at the lowest settings, the brightness is incredibly distracting. I use a black background and try to keep a minimalist style home screen but it is still too much. I remembered seeing the single color screens from Jeff Sharkey's blog and racked it down. I have seen some older posts referencing this subject and did some google searches with no major Galaxy S project results.
The concept seems simple enough and would provide benefit to so many people but I am no dev and do not fully understand the complications involved. Astronomers, Pilots, Soldiers, Drivers are just some that I would see benfitting from the ability to drop displays into Red or Blue "night modes."
I guess my concerns are:
Is this already a project?
Is it expected to be after the Froyo crisis?
Do enough people think as I do on this to make it even worth while?
NOTE: I in no way intend to reference the SAMOLED as anything less than exceptional. I rather have bright than dim any day!
I'd love to have this...I wouldn't need sunglasses to surf the web before sleeping.
I agree with you that there's a huge benefit to having "night mode" option for many apps. Due to the S-AMOLED screen, our phones are pulling over 1 watt of power for a white screen at max brightness, according to DisplayMate [1]. A black screen draws virtually 0 watts. So it makes every bit of sense for us to use dark screens whenever possible.
I haven't tried Cyanogen with RenderFX yet. Any comments on using color calibration to achieve this?
From what I understand, the usage of a primarily red display is nearly as efficient or more so than a darkened screen. Red provides awesome viewing in low light situations and does not effect your eyes after they have adjusted to low light.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
hi, unlike a lot of android users i dont have issues with my battery life. so one day i thought about my eeepc i have and recall that i have an app that has a feature to actually make my screen brighter. so its like: low-mid-max-ultra, when ultra makes like an 120% of the screen bright.
so ive started searching for that on android but with no success. anyone know some app that will make transformer screen even brighter then max brightness?
cause i can really use that outdoor, as we all know its very difficult seeing something with direct sunlight, more like impossible.
thanx by advance
I do not see why you would want the screen any brighter. even in full sunlight with the screen brightness setting on auto I can read the screen very well. far better than my laptop.
wilcovh said:
I do not see why you would want the screen any brighter. even in full sunlight with the screen brightness setting on auto I can read the screen very well. far better than my laptop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 I dont have any problems with sunlight here the screen is bright enough
I don't know if such a thin exists.
My guess is no.
wierd. well maybe its because i have a matte screen protector, although i dont remember been any different without it. anyways, i think it'll be nice to have the ability to brighten it even more because i think that we still not Exercising this ips panel full potential.
but thats only me...
Look into an app called "Lux (Beta)". I know it lets you get dimmer than stock - not sure about brigter (ask the dev - he's very responsive). Tons of other features as well. It does costs $.99, but well worth it, in my opinion - my auto-brightness now actually works!
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
I know this is a slightly old topic but I wonder if anyone found a working (and not too dangerous) way to increase the max. brightness?
look for an app called "Display brightness" by RubberBigPepper.
According to the Android developers guide, the brightness is adjustable from 0 to 255, so it's possible.
Good day.
I am generally very happy with my Infinity, ww30, rooted, and the build.props suggested here in the forum.
The only thing that drives me up the wall is the brightness thingy, it's just not bright enough.
It's generally ok when surfing the web indoors, HD movies all look darker unless I use IPS, regardless of the movie (I tried dozen).
Is it just me? Is there anything I can tweak to boost brightness?
The world looks generally ok to me, so I doubt it's my eyes.
Best regards.
I think this tablet has the bet brightness settings by far. If your tablet is not bright enough even indoors maybe you should close your curtains or something. I live in a fairly outdoor lit apartment and even I never have to put brightness on 100%. Maybe you have defective brightness? I don't know.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T
Vo01985 said:
I think this tablet has the bet brightness settings by far. If your tablet is not bright enough even indoors maybe you should close your curtains or something. I live in a fairly outdoor lit apartment and even I never have to put brightness on 100%. Maybe you have defective brightness? I don't know.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I am afraid of, just looking for some more accurate way of telling if it's just me. No one I know has an infinity I can compare too.
Turn on the super ips
What video player are you using? I believe MX player has a separate brightness setting within the app so maybe there is something there you can adjust?
i generally find the brightness on my tf700 to be plenty. I rarely turn the brightness higher than 50% (i usually use it indoors though).
When you're using MX and BS players, swipe up on the left side of the screen during play, this raises the brightness.
I use mine outside a lot. Even with the IPS+ off and brightness at 60% it's bright enough. But this is the Netherlands, and we do rarely see the sun... I imagine it's a lot sunnier at your end. That could be part of the reason.
not bright enough?!?!?!
if i crank the brightness all the way up and turn on IPS+ i can blind people across the room.
outside, in DIRECT, BRIGHT sunlight - yeah, it could be brighter, but it's totally usable IMO. better than any other portable display i have - by a huge margin.
doody.
MrDoody said:
not bright enough?!?!?!
if i crank the brightness all the way up and turn on IPS+ i can blind people across the room.
outside, in DIRECT, BRIGHT sunlight - yeah, it could be brighter, but it's totally usable IMO. better than any other portable display i have - by a huge margin.
doody.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
haha yea. i've accidently cranked up the brightness before at night while watching a movie. ended up blinding myself for a bit.
We do have way too much sun over here, it's late September and it's bright as a supernova outside.
I guess it is faulty after reading all of you here, none of this is even close to how i feel with it, I'll blind my self with it only if I punch a hole through it and stare at the sun.
[Q] Brightness not high enough [Fixed?]
I have no reasonable explanation, nothing scientific, I cannot provide proof, it's like the talking dog from memphis or homeopathic treatment, but for some unknown reason, I did the following two things:
1. Reverted to stock build.props
2. did the "...5. Disable "smart dimmer", which is the reason you can see some screen flickering when changing between light and dark backgrounds that many find annoying (described by some as "dynamic contrast", which it resembles):
To disable:
echo 0 > /sys/devices/tegradc.0/smartdimmer/enable.."
and my screen is bright as Christmas morning.
I'm not sure why or what and when, but it works.
I'll try to add build.props teaks one by one to see which has bad attitude along with the smart dimmer.
Thanks mates.
Bugger, you may have had Auto Brightness enabled. Why did I not think of mentioning that...
As it seems there are a few threads on auto brightness and color issues, i figure i should do the best i can to explain how it works on the S4, and mobiles in general. I work in Television/Film and have been shooting for almost a decade.
ANY QUESTIONS, feel free to PM me, i'll probably ask for very specific photo's (ISO/WB and other data) so i can help you in a professional manner, and i'll try to reply within 6-8 hours. No one should live with a bum screen!
To fully understand what im trying to express, load the attached image onto your phone, and on a bright sunny afternoon, print out the attached image on a small piece of decent photo paper, grab your phone, and find a room in your house that has only fluorescent lights and close any windows or shutters.
Look at the photo in the sunlight; note the colors. Now go inside to the fluorescent dark room, note the change in what the colors look like, and that white is still pretty white (thats your brain), then turn your camera flashlight on (LED), and note the changes in color again (some reds may look purplish or greens bluish), but white still looks kinda white (should look very light blue). Now repeat and look at the print out versus the same image on your phone screen; it should match best under 6500k lighting, but still be off (thats a printed image vs monitor thing though). Also depends on your printer ink type (dye/pigment), color space, etc etc etc. Your eyes take raw data in, but your brain does the magic, and says 'nope, thats white', so you perceive it as 'white' or 'white enough' and you 'know' it is meant to 'represent' white.
Hardware - This includes an ambient light sensor. The way these work is similar to metering systems in cameras; they measure the amount of light hitting a photodiode. Even in high end (DSLR) cameras, sometimes the light meters are junk. On cell phones, they are typically pretty crappy. The iPhone 5's have excellent ALS (ambient light sensors) and they ramp up/down smoothly; much better than any other device i've used.
The way the ALS works in most devices is simple; there are several photodiodes, each tuned for a specific spectrum of light. Say two for 3200k, two for 6500k, two for whatever else, etc, and they basically average the reading, apply a curve, and adjust the screen appropriately. They do NOT accurately measure color temperature very well, and 'see' brightness only in limited spectrums, meaning their idea of what 'bright' and 'dim' is may be vastly different from the human eyes' perceived 'bright' or 'dim'. Also, the 'curves' applied don't match up that well with how the human eye perceives brightness; its really amazing we can fake it as close as we can, really, but most of the magic lies in your brain.
Lighting - this is kind of tricky; and i don't feel like getting into it too deeply, but what you perceive as 'white' is mostly dependent on your brain; not your eyes or the lights around you. Think about reading a book (a real book) inside a library under fluorescent lights; the pages are white, even though the color temperature might be 5000k or 6500k. Now that same book outside; thats 5800k. Now under some old incandescent lights; that might be 2800k. Yet you know it SHOULD be white. Thats your brain. And thats reflected light; its based on the ambient color temperature around you; so reflected light 'looks' white or blue or whatever.
Your phone screen (galaxy S IV) is basically white balanced at 6600k , so it will appear most white when around lighting around 6500k, which is on the bluer side of daylight/cloudy and indoors.
Screen Mode - The Galaxy S IV has a feature that allows it to dynamically change based on the ALS, or can be overridden by the user, which mostly affects color gamut, and either amps up contrast and saturation while shifting hues slightly, or flattens them to a more realistic (usually most people prefer high saturation/high contrast images) image.
Sampling frequency - i have no idea what the ALS sensor samples at, or any definitive specs on the exact sensor and how it interacts with auto brightness, its priority, etc (yet, ive emailed Samsung and i wouldn't mind coming up with a simple app to adjust this if i can figure out the sensor specs and their software). But certain lights (fluorescent mostly) flicker at either 50hz or 60hz depending on their AC current, which may, at times, interfere or give bad readings to the ALS depending on the ALS sensor reading timings (again i do not know exactly what those values are, i suspect they are long as my S III and S IV typically react about a half-second behind lighting changes).
DETERMINING IF YOU HAVE A BAD DISPLAY
All together, it works pretty darn good, if a bit slowly, but there seems to be a lot of confusion and people wondering if their screen is bad. The BEST and EASIEST way is to go to any cell store or mall, and compare YOUR screen and the SAME image to another S IV, with the same settings. The best settings for this are to turn power saving OFF, turn off ALL power saving apps, turn auto brightness OFF, turn brightness up ALL THE WAY, go to 'settings', 'display', 'screen mode', and change the setting to 'movie'. Compare several IDENTICAL images or pages. Then change the 'screen mode' to 'standard' and compare the same images.
While doing so, be sure to check out images such as the one i provided and make sure the colors match, grays are grays or at least the same slight caste of pink/green/etc, and while doing so, TILT THE SCREENS at various angles together (level surface, side by side, tilt to 45 degrees at the same time on all 4 axes), and look for discoloration or bleeding; if you see big differences between two or three other phones and yours, you got a bum screen. I haven't seen a 'bad' one yet, and i made the poor AT&T guy open up five of them and let me play with them (AMOLED also has jet black splotches with full blacks in a fully black room; i wanted the screen with the least noticeable splotches).
Thanks for this. Question though. When I pull my keyboard up to type on something or if I'm in a YouTube video and I tap the screen to bring up the progress bar the color shifts dramatically. I've tried many settings and it always does this. Also tried it on another s4 multiple ones did the same thing...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
Just hoping for a fix for it
The white balance can actually be calibrated by changing the calibration levels of the LEDs sitting under the screen
Lets hope for the best
jetlitheone said:
Thanks for this. Question though. When I pull my keyboard up to type on something or if I'm in a YouTube video and I tap the screen to bring up the progress bar the color shifts dramatically. I've tried many settings and it always does this. Also tried it on another s4 multiple ones did the same thing...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok, do me a favor, I would prefer if you had either a prosumer camera you could use, or better yet a DSLR you could borrow that i could guide you through how to take two shots of the differences with all the important variables locked down so i can figure it out for you. I believe the screenshot feature ignores the 'Screen Mode' settings, as it should (you wouldnt want a screen mode dictating recording colorimetry options), so it does require real photos to figure out.
Have you changed the standard 'Screen Mode' setting or left it at 'Adapt Display' or 'Dynamic'? Those will keep changing it; Professional photo and movie are more flat, but they do not change. Again disable power saving mode, power saving apps, turn off auto brightness, (in this case set brightness to where you want it) and check it out again; if it doesnt change colors, (which it should not), you have no issues; its a normal 'feature' of the device. The idea is to limit all variables. Try that and PM me the results. If the colors no longer shift, the issue was 'adapt display' or 'dynamic' Screen Modes. Auto brightness/powersaving mode/power saving apps should only affect brightness; we are only disabling them to limit perceived changes.
To try to trouble shoot this, change screen mode to a static setting like 'professional photo' or 'movie' in Screen Mode and turn off auto brightness, turn off power saving and turn off all power/battery saving apps/etc, bring up a Youtube video and play it, then bring up your keyboard and see if the color shifts (it shouldnt if you have changed Screen Mode to Pro Photo/Movie and disabled powersave/all battery apps/auto brightness). Then let me know if that fixes it via PM.
rapaholic999 said:
Just hoping for a fix for it
The white balance can actually be calibrated by changing the calibration levels of the LEDs sitting under the screen
Lets hope for the best
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
problem is most calibration settings/programs and methods i know of are non-pentile and are mostly software fixes for what ive used; AMOLED is different PenTile (RGBG) than what i tried to fix before which was Motorola Atrix 4G PenTile (RGBW, red green blue white), CCFL LCD is way different (more what im used to, as well as LED LCD and even IPS is easier as it is still RGB), and all the curves software etc are all proprietary to manufacturers. Granted controlling just the R/G/B/G LED's would help, but getting the curve right and correcting might take longer than the Galaxy S V arrival. I spent months calibrating all my gear; most of it is 2-3 years old, and at least 6-12 months old before i get it all settled and can rely on it for a given job. Usually i rely on calibrated displays, knowing my own color limitations, RGB histograms, vector scopes, etc (i have a very slight red/green color weakness, but extremely sharp vision and i know how to work around my limitations).
I actually emailed Samsung about this for as much information as i could get (not much so far but im digging). I have a friend playing with LUT curves on his S IV and he says its a close second to the iPhone screens for AdobeRGB in 'movie' mode, which i happen to agree with; its pretty flat, but the contrast on greens is still high, which again is a PenTile RGBG specific issue; we are both vets of backlit RGB panels. My friend also works with the same company i consult/represent; it took him almost three months to properly calibrate LUT curves between a single sensor and a simple 480P CCFL LCD display, and that was with full manufacturer support. Colorimetry is a science.
jetlitheone said:
When I pull my keyboard up to type on something or if I'm in a YouTube video and I tap the screen to bring up the progress bar the color shifts dramatically. I've tried many settings and it always does this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. Thanks for the write up but I'm seeing the same thing.
I dim the display with the Screen Filter app for reading in bed and whenever my keyboard pops up (SwiftKey, TouchPal or stock) the entire screen gets a green cast. Under these conditions it is very dramatic.
I use manual brightness and turned off the Autoadjust Screen Tone setting
Some other apps exhibit a fluctuation in color cast when I put my finger near the screen which is double weird. :-\
-darren
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
Yes it's weird I don't know what's happening. Anyways I'd toy turn the brightness up past half way the color cast goes away. .. Not sure what it is
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
If you go to a settings menu and scroll up and down fast, my phone gets a purple tint and leaves like a shadow of the words behind... Kinda annoying.. Anyone else notice this?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
Yes smearing
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
MrPlNK said:
If you go to a settings menu and scroll up and down fast, my phone gets a purple tint and leaves like a shadow of the words behind... Kinda annoying.. Anyone else notice this?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats because AMOLED usually have a slower response time, upwards of 20ms
jetlitheone said:
Yes smearing
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yep, i have some old LG CCFL LCD monitors with a claimed 2ms (more like 6-10ms) response time from 2006; they were about $300 each back then. i also have a new IPS with 30ms response time; it is annoying.
also some pentile displays are slower between subpixels; my Atrix 4G had very slow blue white pixels (RGBW) so you had a weird dimming as well when scrolling through texts.
Settings, Display, disable Auto Adjust Screen Tone' as well, its a power saving thing i forgot to mention in the first write up.
Slade8525 said:
thats because AMOLED usually have a slower response time, upwards of 20ms
yep, i have some old LG CCFL LCD monitors with a claimed 2ms (more like 6-10ms) response time from 2006; they were about $300 each back then. i also have a new IPS with 30ms response time; it is annoying.
also some pentile displays are slower between subpixels; my Atrix 4G had very slow blue white pixels (RGBW) so you had a weird dimming as well when scrolling through texts.
Settings, Display, disable Auto Adjust Screen Tone' as well, its a power saving thing i forgot to mention in the first write up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it can be fixed with color adjustment though so maybe a software update can fix it as well
I bought the s4 the first day it came out, after using it for couple of days i started noticing weird stuff on my photos, especially on low light photos... i went to att and one of the rep said its a known issue its called "elephant effect" im into photography and i havent heard that term before, he also said that it will be fix on the next update... so i went home and did some research about "elephant effect" unfortunately i cant can find anything related with my issue... i also did some pixel peeping and im 100% positive there's something off on the display of my phone.
Sample photos
These photos are just screenshots
You can see those weird artifacts on the pictures, i also compared my screen display to my coworker's phone and my phone was way off...
What i would suggest for those who wants to buy the new s4 or currently users, is to check the display by taking a photo on a low light and do some pixel peeping...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda app-developers app
Has anyone else noticed a color and contrast shift from the top to the bottom of the screen? In very low brightness settings my screen gradients from crushed black levels and a reddish hue at the top of the screen to a acceptable black levels and an more green hue at the bottom of the screen. I can try to get some pictures with my DSLR tonight to illustrate. I'll have to compare to other S4's in the same scenario. In every day use its not too noticeable, but while watching video in a completely dark environment with the brightness all the way down it now bothers me some.
Anyone have a similar experience? Thanks!
Yes I notice it. It fixes itself if you change the brightness with an app. so I'm guessing its a weird kernel thing. It only happens when the keyboard is up
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
jetlitheone said:
Yes I notice it. It fixes itself if you change the brightness with an app. so I'm guessing its a weird kernel thing. It only happens when the keyboard is up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I notice it with or without the keyboard. I use the Display Tester app to display a full screen white or 50% gray and now that I look at it, the red hue at the top of the screen is visible at all but 100% brightness levels. What app were you using to dim the screen, I would like to try it out.
Here is an exaggerated image I made showing the gradation (50% gray). The top of the screen would be to the left. Black levels get crushed at the top of the screen also.
(Sorry for the bad image compression, my screen doesn't have the extreme banding in it!)
WestonWW said:
I notice it with or without the keyboard. I use the Display Tester app to display a full screen white or 50% gray and now that I look at it, the red hue at the top of the screen is visible at all but 100% brightness levels. What app were you using to dim the screen, I would like to try it out.
Here is an exaggerated image I made showing the gradation (50% gray). The top of the screen would be to the left. Black levels get crushed at the top of the screen also.
(Sorry for the bad image compression, my screen doesn't have the extreme banding in it!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
screen adjuster, lags like hell but you can see it fixes it.
set values +5 for each color.
batanuenio said:
I bought the s4 the first day it came out, after using it for couple of days i started noticing weird stuff on my photos, especially on low light photos... i went to att and one of the rep said its a known issue its called "elephant effect" im into photography and i havent heard that term before, he also said that it will be fix on the next update... so i went home and did some research about "elephant effect" unfortunately i cant can find anything related with my issue... i also did some pixel peeping and im 100% positive there's something off on the display of my phone.
Sample photos
These photos are just screenshots
You can see those weird artifacts on the pictures, i also compared my screen display to my coworker's phone and my phone was way off...
What i would suggest for those who wants to buy the new s4 or currently users, is to check the display by taking a photo on a low light and do some pixel peeping...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ill check that out; it looks like compression artifacts; what settings are you using when you shoot? also to internal or external SD card? and speed rating/brand/type of external SD card?
jetlitheone said:
screen adjuster, lags like hell but you can see it fixes it.
set values +5 for each color.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that and it made little to no difference on my phone. I went to the AT&T store on my lunch and compared my phone to the display unit. My phone has a noticeable difference. The rep at the AT&T store suggested I take it to the local repair depot... I've never been there before but I hope they don't try to pawn a refurb phone off on me to replace my 17 day old S4. I'll let you guys know what I find out.
Slade8525 said:
ill check that out; it looks like compression artifacts; what settings are you using when you shoot? also to internal or external SD card? and speed rating/brand/type of external SD card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was using auto mode on my camera and used the internal mem.
batanuenio said:
I was using auto mode on my camera and used the internal mem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did you zoom in, and what size (pixel wise) did you use? thats textbook macroblocking.
Hi my s4 have a yellow tint, i compare with other s4 and my s4 screen have much yellow in white screen, is faulty? Is possibile to fix it with gamma correction?