yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] ryfiphone:
I have posted on several threads about this. I have gone thru now 8 Notes both blue and white and have not found a single one that is clear of black clipping/crush, and to be perfectly honest they all looked exactly the same (none better than the other). I can say that if I download "Screen Adjuster" from the market and modify brightness from 100 to 50 I can improve the picture at the cost of making deep blacks look more grey like non-amoled phones; however this only makes the number 1 disappear and leaves me at 2.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] tenderchkn:
I just tried this, and I can still see all the way to 1. But the stock browser is 16-bit I think, and doesn't display this correctly. The colors changed as I zoomed in and out. Being that it is 16-bit, the test image might look good in the stock browser, but only because it clips before RGB 0,0,0. Unfortunately, this means that it still is clipping, instead of gradually going to black.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] borijess:
So we got 2 people that have good tests according to poll. Will like to see pics.

Sent from the TermiNOTEr! ;-)
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] tenderchkn:
Yup, just edited the OP to ask for pictures if someone has a good test. Call me a pessimist, but I do suspect that the two "no" votes are a result not doing the test properly.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] borijess:
I have a feeling they just posted no to be different! :-\

Sent from the TermiNOTEr! ;-)
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] 82801BA:
On a good IPS monitor I can't see ANYTHING on the left side, even turning brightness/contrast to maximum. I can only see anything down to up to 4 when I view from a cheap laptop's TN screen. Is the picture itself not a correct one to test for gamma?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] tenderchkn:
In normal light conditions, on my Dell 2407WFP, which is a S-PVA panel, I can't see anything on the left side either. In the dark, I can see up to 5 with the image against a black background.

The image simply shows RGB values from 0,0,0 to 20,20,20. Like I said in the OP, when viewed on properly calibrated displays, you should not see below 5, even in pitch black conditions against a black background. However, on the Note, you can clearly see up to 1, then it drops off a cliff at 0.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] Skizzy034:
I downloaded the test picture you said to try and I can barely see any of the numbers
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] tenderchkn:
Are you viewing the picture in full screen with QuickPic in a dark room?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] 00mred00:
Anyone have multiple notes for a side by side comparison like this

All were on the same brightness setting...same build information
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] 00mred00:
Quick pic or stock gallery both look the same, have now done in a dark room. Mine looks like the image on the right, not the image on the left
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] tenderchkn:
If this is the case, then your Note is fine, and doesn't have the black clipping problem. Any chance you can take a picture with the test image displayed?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] jpeg42:
I really want to see a pic of a Note that displays this properly :D Then I can secretly hate mine.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] SweetRedVoice:
On my macbook I can barely see 20 & 21 when I view the Gamma image full screen. On my gNote via QuickPic, Taptalk, Dolphin Browser and Web Browser I can see all the numbers. Only the cell above the 1 is actually black. So I guess I have a serious black crush issue!
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] Skizzy034:
Its quick pic an app?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] tenderchkn:
Yes, it's free - get it from Market/Play Store. Please read first post again for complete instructions.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] cgibsong002:
Just voted, can see all number.

I have a feeling, like you guys said, anyone that voted otherwise just doesn't know what they're doing. I highly doubt any of these phones are randomly different.

Personally, I don't care. The screen looks great. Granted, I haven't watched any HD movies and stuff on it yet. Any test videos to watch where you can see this issue in effect?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] Scythe024:
what brightness should this be set to for the test? o.O
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] Vcolassi:
Oh ok sorry this thread got so long ive skipped over certain parts :o forgive me.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] schrochem:
A few pages back I posted the sidebar from dolphin all splotchy. On the collective new ICS seraphim rom it looks much better
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] Vcolassi:
Here ya go, to the person who informed me you can't do it via screen shot, sorry bout that btw again :D. Its dark in my room & just grabbed the GF's new iPad and tried to be fast snapping!
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] schrochem:
Here's the gradient on the ics collective seraphim build
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] oka1:
When it comes to imperfections in the screen a lot of things play into it. Some is product imperfection. But another is the apps and software we use. A lot of the older apps (10months or older) do not convert correctly the screen image and pixel density, this is an issue that can affect increased banding. I have not noticed any issues on mine except for the XDA app....

If you a really want to photograph there you really need a decent camera with a macro lens to get a real truthful image. And... even that can produce false readings. My 2 cents.....
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] Vcolassi:
Not sure if you guys have seen this video or not on Youtube. But this is how it obviously should and shouldn't be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a8aIGeLERg
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] tenderchkn:
Ooh, this looks promising. It's not perfect, but definitely an improvement, compared to your photo from April 3rd. This one is significantly darker compared to the first photo, so it's not a straight comparison, but I still see improvement here.

I realize that a lot of things can cause problems. That's why I'm trying to isolate the cause here. We're not talking about banding (even though some posters are chiming in about that), as I know that is a software/app problem. We're talking about how our screens incorrectly render darker grays, which is why we notice blocking in videos.

And I also realize that is impossible to standardize how to photograph our screens to get exact apples-to-apples comparisons, given that not everyone has the same photographic equipment, and can take photos under the same prescribed set of instructions. But I'm not looking for completely "truthful" images of other people's screens, as this isn't necessary. As long as I am able to see the relationship between true black, and dark grays, I have a pretty good idea of whether the screen is displaying dark grays correctly or not. For example, compare my photo in the OP against what schrochem just posted, and also what he originally posted on April 3rd. It's obvious to see that there has been a change for the better without seeing a completely "truthful" photographic render of the screen.

Yes, that video was made by dvd7000, after reading this thread. Apparently he also tried to submit the information as a review for the Note on AT&T's website, but got rejected twice.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] Peaceful Observer:
Hi Guys,

I've been observing the major threads dealing with this issue for the past month or so; I'm using the international version of the Note and the black clipping is terrible. After going back and forth with the Samsung service staff, they told me they would forward the issue to the R&D department and that they would get back to me in 2 weeks. However, after 2 weeks, all they said was there was no problem with the phone:mad:. After a bit of arguing, they did agree on a refund though.

Anyways, I tried flashing imilka's CyanogenMod 9 v02. At first, I thought the clipping was improved because the gammatest.png was similar to the one schrochem posted earlier today. But after checking through other pictures and videos, it seems the clipping is still there and almost as bad as before. Guess I'll still go for that refund they offered, even though I absolutely love the size of the note :(
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] jjc5891:
IT'S BACK!!!
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] Reclaim:
I'm glad it's back! I hope this will get Samsung's attention.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] ChronoReverse:
Severe crush for me. Tis too bad and I hope a solution is found for this.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] wish777:
Question. Guys...what is this is build prop....I've noticed the saturation values is not 0, could this be a problem with the color black grey problems .....can someone tell me what this is...I copied and pasted this section

# calibrated values for the HSIC params

persist.csc.poll=1

persist.csc.hue=0

persist.csc.saturation=0.17

persist.csc.intensity=0

persist.csc.contrast=0.0
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] dvd7000:
AT&T Forum Will Not Allow ANY Review that Mentions BLACK CRUSH!

Update:

On my 3rd attempt, AT&T accepted my short review of the Galaxy Note. This is what I wrote:

Great Phone But For One Display Issue

By DVD7000

, April 15, 2012

Customer Rating

3 out of 5

Features

4 out of 5

Ease of use

4 out of 5

Battery

4 out of 5

Display

1 out of 5

Design

4 out of 5

Would you recommend this product to a friend? No

Pros: games, battery life, Wi-Fi capable, ease of use, good for texting

Cons: display

"I have included a video of the display screen of my Galaxy Note (on the right) and my Samsung Captivate (on the left)

Does anyone else experience this anomaly with their Note?"

Notice that I did not mention "BLACK CRUSH", or include a reference to my You Tube video.

I did however, upload the same You Tube comparison video that shows the black crush problem, but AT&T conveniently did not include it in the review.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] bigfau:
So thats why a have a bunch of lines on my unlock screen. When I hold the lock button with a black wallpaper there are about 100 grey lines that are horizontal. From top to bottom.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using AEON beta and Tapatalk 2
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] senfinger:
Wanted to add my 2 cents = ) I went from a Captivate to the Note... I saw this thread and the one I purchased didn't show the chart properly at all; just like the picture of some users... left side being the same darkness and the right side all the same lightness. no gradient change... However! I went to AT&T and looked at 4 on-display demos... went and grabbed the chart off XDA and viewed it on all 4. (The display near the window was actually yellow = ( UV FTL. Those three looked just like mine. However there was a white one on display that was 100% perfect like the wifey's Iphone and my Captivate- I then thought hey go back to BB and have them get one that displays properly. The lady at BB was awesome we pulled around 6 out of a fresh box and only one looked better and it wasn't as perfect as the display at ATT. The sad part was it was white and I couldn't do it... So I'm sitting with my carbon blue one and loving it- Vid looks fine but lock screen grey lines and horrible gamma gradients for sure.

I believe there are some out there... wondering if the user had changed the display settings on the demo at att but doesn't explain the white one at BB fresh out of the box looking almost perfect too though. :o
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] bigfau:
It seems a lot of the white Galaxy Notes has a better screen from what Ive read.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using AEON beta and Tapatalk 2
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] senfinger:
I know... it was two white ones (1 from ATT and 1 from BB)

I wish I would have taken it one step further and looked at the Country of Origin. China vs. Korea... I guess it's up in there- Still hoping it's Soft, time will tell I guess = )
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] bigfau:
I don't want to give up my carbon for a white Note. I will just deal with it. Lol :D

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using AEON beta and Tapatalk 2
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] Techimplant:
Severe black clipping

Mine is totally balcked:( ou:mad:t above 4..cant see 1,2,3..but from 4 onwards its very bright..all grey
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] jjc5891:
Where in build.prop do you see this? I can't find it anywhere in the ICS build.prop...
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] jpg71:
OK, I tried to overexpose my shot as best I could. I think I may have overdone it, but I thought I'd add another picture of my phone, now running the Seraphim ICS ROM on it.

You can clearly see the drop from 1 to 0 on this one, but as you say - what you see in this pic is not what you see in real life. I guess I see what you guys are talking about now that I've overexposed the shot, but in "real life", it works well enough for me that I'm going to hang on to this one. Dark Netflix/Youtube videos come through fine for me.

Again, I understand what you're saying now, and I agree that all of these Notes appear to have some deficiencies in rendering a smooth fade from black to grey from 0 to 1 and beyond.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] wish777:
/System/build prop I opened it as a text editor.....strange but those are color values but to what???

#calibrated values for the HSIC params

persist.csc.poll=1

persist.csc.hue=0

persist.csc.saturation=0.17

persist.csc.intensity=0

persist.csc.contrast=0.0
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] sweetboy02125:
In my naked eyes, I don't see the point of this testing. My screen still looks beautiful much better than other phones out there.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] jjc5891:
It must be a gingerbread thing. These aren't there in ICS.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] tenderchkn:
I think something must have changed, either with ICS or QuickPic. On the left is a photo I posted a few weeks ago. This was stock GB. On the right is a photo that I just took. I'm on DAGr8's alpha 2. Same phone, same exposure. Clipping is definitely reduced. Dark grays are definitely darker compared to what they were in GB. This reflects with your new photo, and schrochem's photos show. This is definitely a step in the right direction.

Unfortunately, this improvement shows in QuickPic only. Gallery, browser, video players, etc, still show hard clipping between 6 and 7.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] dvd7000:
Just installed QuickPic on my Note (stock gb). No difference. Nice app tho.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] jjc5891:
Confirmed with quickpic not showing clipping in ics. I can very faintly still see the 1 block in a completely dark room, but the transition to pure black is very good and probably unnoticeable in anything but a dark room. Much better than before, although the stock gallery shows clipping at 7
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] tenderchkn:
Same here. Can see box 1 in completely dark room, but the transition is much better. Since this change is only present in QuickPic and ICS (latest QuickPic in GB apparently results in no change), the evidence here is beginning to point to a software problem.

Now, how do we begin to figure out why the combination of QuickPic and ICS shows improvement, and how can we apply this system wide?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] paleh0rse:
Does QuickPic still have the 32bit setting ("Force true color deciding") on ICS? If so, does selecting it change the results?

Menu -> Settings -> View
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] jpeg42:
Yes... and I tried that a few times. Even with a reboot. Didn't change anything for me at least.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] paleh0rse:
Hmmm, have you messed with any of the other settings that are on or off by default?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] paleh0rse:
If we can determine what makes Quickpic unique, we would be one step closer.

Perhaps we could/should contact the Quickpic author to see if he/she/they would help us...
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] jpeg42:
I checked out the site of the author, it is all in Chinese. But might be worth a shot. I dunno, I am a bit stumped. I even tried to remove Quickpic, clear my cache, and revert to my old TiBu backup of the previous version, but couldn't recreate the clipping.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] tenderchkn:
Changing the force 32-bit rendering setting doesn't change anything, nor did it change anything in GB. So I don't think it's a 32-bit vs 16-bit issue. After all, we're not dealing with banding here.

Also, since the gamma test picture is rendered with each box different than the next, this is proof that it is rendered in 32-bit. 32-bit color is 8-bits per channel, which means 256 different levels of gray. 16-bit color has 4-bits per channel, or 16 levels of gray. If the test image was rendered in 16-bit, then boxes 1-4, 5-8, etc, would look identical. Since they're all unique, I think we can conclude that it is rendered in 32-bit.

So it's a completely different reason why QuickPic works and stock gallery doesn't.

Edit: Yup, just confirmed this by setting my computer to 16-bit color.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] jjc5891:
If you look closely when the image first loads with quickpic, the first few milliseconds the image is displayed, it shows clipping at box 8 and under and then boxes 1-7 are renderred shortly after load. It's almost like some sort of setting is turned on or something.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] Bataga:
Hows abouts deez apples?!? Looks like were getting closer to a fix!

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=23967106
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] cgibsong002:
yup, same here. However there's still a clip at 1. It looked fixed to me once again until I looked at it in the pitch dark then I could clearly see the clipping.

Sent from my Samsung Nizzote
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] tenderchkn:
Well, there is always going to be a "clip" at 1. Because 0 is supposed to be completely black. If you look at any display in the dark, it will show a slight difference between black and the darkest gray.

The results that I'm seeing currently in QuickPic is very much acceptable. Do you see improvement compared to when you were on GB?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] sepdx:
screen dimming issue

Great thread; thank you to all the very knowledgeable and dedicated members contributing here. I've had my stock Note for three weeks now, and for me the screen issue is most noticeable when I dim it down for e-book reading in bed (night mode, no ambient light). My Captivate would maintain a black background and the text would dim to a nice low-contrast charcoal gray. When dimming the Note, however, the black background becomes light grey and is blinding in a dark room. Small issue, but it's on the verge of being a deal-breaker for me...only one week to go on my return window to figure out if this will be resolved by ICS and/or a third-party app, or if I'm better off jumping ship to another GS2 variant or the One X. I have no issues with rooting or custom ROMs, but don't want to jeopardize the return option.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] nstong:
I bought my phone on ebay and was curious so I used the test image. I am already on unofficial, don't know if that makes a difference
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] Nightforge:
I followed all the instructions on my Note and on my Evo 3d, looked at them both with the lights on and they looked pretty much the same (could read the numbers 8 and up on the Evo and 7 and up on the Note). Turned off the lights and viola, could see the numbers all the way to 1 on the Note (very hard to read the 1,2&3 however 4 is the first clearly visable number and it is still very dark) and guess what the Evo didnt change at all, still number 8 first readable number. I went and grabbed my wifes Iphone 4 and it blew the other two away, 10 was the first readable number and that didnt change in the dark.I traded in my Iphone 4 for the Note and I watch Netflix and Hulu+ all the time on it, I'm gonna be bummed out if this isnt a software fix.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] Gaugerer:
The wording of the question for this Poll is flawed. It polls for evidence of black clipping/black crush using test images. However, what is important to most people is whether there is a dark image problem in normal daily use and with 5 million Notes sold already there is no need for a Poll here to answer that question.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] paleh0rse:
wrong. The problem is that most owners mistakenly believe it's a source issue whenever they do see it. I'd be willing to bet that more than 90% of the Notes have this problem...
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] senfinger:
FYI, I have handled 9-10 notes... 2 of them out of 10 were perfect- with the GAMMA CHART. SOooo it worries me this is a hardware over software issue.

2 happened to be white... wish I would have check Country of Origin to add as well- However, it still shows the majority of these devices all have the issue; and have no idea they have an issue :o
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] crawt1:
Compared Note and SkyRocket to Titan II, Vivid and my Captivate

I want to buy a Note but I caught this thread and read the posts and decided to go down to ATT and see what the deal is. I hate to buy something and then have to return it.

Note and Sky

I saw colors on white vids

Resolution not as sharp

Blocking and banding is obvious

Another strange thing is I noticed a faint yellow halo in the middle of the displays. The ATT rep saw it too. Weird.

Captivate

The colors are solid with minimal banding and blocking. Blacks like ink, fire engine reds. No color on whites.

Titan II / Vivid - the Super LCD is incredibly accurate. I'm not an HTC lover but I'll be looking at the One X on Sunday.

So basically AMOLED does have display issues if compared side by side with Super LCD. Also, the ATT rep told me that the LG display is superior which makes sense, they make the best TV's. (I install digital signage systems and LG is the standard, Samsung next.)
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] paleh0rse:
I was with ya right up until you claimed LG makes the "best TVs." The correct order from 2011, in terms of picture quality, is:

1. Sharp (Kuro)

2. Panny (VT series)

3. Samsung (8 and 9 series)

4. LG or Vizio (yes, that's right, I said Vizio!)

...With the old Pioneer Kuro's still having better PQ than all of the above!

Everybody knows this... ;)
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] sepdx:
The Captivate has a Super AMOLED screen, while the Note has the HD Super AMOLED (both PenTile matrix). I agree that the Captivate's screen seems much better with the color rendering and deep blacks.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] hyukki:
Just a tad bit off topic, but is our AMOLED screens supposed to be turned on at all while displaying black? I was never sure if AMOLED pixels actually turn off completely or barely enough to be able to tell that it's on?

I was looking at the screen in total darkness (i.e. laundry room/bathroom) and I could tell there was light coming from the screen albeit it displaying a completely black image.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] ChronoReverse:
AMOLED screens still have a minuscule amount of light when on but set to pure black. You should only be able to see this if you're in total darkness.

Sent from my Galaxy Note
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] hyukki:
Thank you for clearing that up. :D
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] tyshemi:
Figured I'd post this try this video and see the bad bad blacks :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t39cclsYR9o&feature=youtube_gdata_player
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] b3asty:
I viewed it and the first number I see on the left is the #7.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] paleh0rse:
Are you on an ICS ROM? If so, Samsung tried to apply a bandaid in the leaked build of ICS and simply shifted the severe black clipping point to between 6 and 7. Sadly, doing so didn't fix the problem at all... :(
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] b3asty:
Yes. I am running NOTEworthy.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] b3asty:
Wouldn't this mean they're at least attempting to resolve the issue via software and that returning the Note to the store would be fruitless? Perhaps we just need to be a little patient.