yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Nexus One General] Makaijin:
Just tried this myself. Went on link using the default browser and saved the NASA pic, open the gallery, I see banding. Used the built in picture viewer from Astro File Manager, no banding. Actually I didn't see any banding with the default browser either, only in the gallery. I running stock firmware with the 2.1 OTA update if that makes any difference.
[Nexus One General] flarbear:
I see the banding in:

- the gallery app (we already knew this was a bad app)

- the browser (except when moving)

- Astro's built-in picture viewer

I do not see any banding in:

- the camera app's preview mode (you have to use a File app to move it into dcim/Camera to view it with that app)

- the B&B gallery app

I think prior Android devices may have been 16-bit and so the built-in apps may have been designed around using 16-bit images for their in memory usage to save memory. The reviewers really should design their own viewing software to ensure that they are comparing apples to Apples.

Though, they do have a point in that your web browsing and picture browsing experiences will be hampered by this software deficiency for many images with subtle gradients.
[Nexus One General] flarbear:
I'm running the same software setup, but I do see banding/dithering in Astro and the browser (except when panning in the browser).

I don't see them when I use the B&B gallery or when I have Astro load the pictures using B&B gallery's picture viewing service. Did you by any chance load the B&B (or some other higher quality gallery) and set Astro to use it by default?
[Nexus One General] flarbear:
Here are some old test images that I used when I was evaluating my Plasma display banding issues. I hope they help people evaluate their displays (more specifically, their display software apps ;-).
[Nexus One General] Talderon:
OLED Displays (and AMOLED Displays) are inherently High-Definition displays. Technical specifications found all over the web show that all AMOLED Displays have a higher luminescence, higher contrast ratio and are all made to display "True Colors".

You can find this information with minimal searching and effort, so reports of this nature (and I take everything from Gizmod with a grain (or 50) of salt) are over stated and to just get ratings, page views and freak out the competition.

As stated in this thread already, this really just amounts to a software/OS issue.
[Nexus One General] JanetPanic:
The problem has nothing to do with color reproduction and everything to do with the crap scaling techniques used by the N1 (and maybe android in general).

Simple test and example. I chose the color slide from flarbar (thank you) and rotated it 90 degrees so that it would fit on the screen without scaling or rotation.

Open the image using astro image viewer in portrait mode. Then open it using the gallery. The Gallery and browser seem to use similar techniques for scaling, astro image viewer does not scale it though so reproduces it accurately. If you try and view the image in landscape it will not fit without scaling and you will see the banding effect in both gallery and astro image viewer.

It is still a problem, but it is not a hardware one.
[Nexus One General] musashiken:
Hi, I just want to add that the problem exists also while setting wallpapers from pictures. Apparently, choosing a random picture from gallery and setting it as wallpaper also shows banding on your newly selected wallpaper.

I was trying out the HTC Desire's wallpapers and I see crappy color banding on the wallpapers especially the default one with rainbow bubbles. This sucks as I can't really have a nice and colorful wallpaper.

Back to using live wallpapers. At least those look crisp and colorful enough.
[Nexus One General] :
i get the banding in the browser to the sunset on mars picture... but only when the picture is seating still, if im moving around the picture i don t get it
[Nexus One General] Makaijin:
I didn't tick the "make default" box, so when ever I open a pic in Astro it always asks me which viewer I want to use. If I select the gallery I get banding, Astro pic viewer no banding.
[Nexus One General] seanhassars:
try wallpaper set and save from the market, it's free and works beautifully.
[Nexus One General] BrooklynAvi:
I won't even bother to read the entire article or every response here but considering the source is Gizmodo and they are comparing the N1 to an iPhone, I'm pretty sure they are full of it. The N1 is clearly a better device and the iPhone fans can't stand that they have to wait until they have something that more than likely won't even be able to compete in the N1 arena.
[Nexus One General] musashiken:
Wow, that does work! Thanks for the tip :D

Now I can have crisper wallpapers although swiping across the 5 home screens does seem a wee bit less smoother...

Now it makes me feel that Google intentionally downsize the quality of pictures to increase responsiveness of the UI..
[Nexus One General] MrPendulum:
If you had read the GIzmodo link, you would see that they are citing a source.

If you had read the source, you would see that their is scientific method to their process.

If you had read the responses here, you would have seen that the results of the article are indeed accurate, and that the underlying flaw in their conclusion would appear to be a glitch (or unexpected result) in the way that at least the Applications Gallery and Browser scale images. A completely software problem that we have the choice of using alternate apps to get around, and something that if enough people notice may be fixed by Google in a future revision.

It is indeed saddening to me that hatred of a product can lead to blind fanatacism towards any competing product. A person does themselves and others a misservice by believing that any criticism of the Nexus One is pro-apple. I love this phone, but am happy to admit it's flaws, and flaws it does have. This one is just finally a scientific method to demonstrate what others have observed.

tldr, read the data before wasting our time with a response. Things can be learnt and observed here.
[Nexus One General] ericc191:
Thank you!
[Nexus One General] SilentMobius:
I'll bet this is all due to opengl es using RGB 565 for non-alpha textures, going from RGB 888 to 565 would result in colour banding. The new gallery uses opengles throughout

Interesting other point. using TMobile in the UK if I get the image from nasa on my phone I get:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...?authkey=Gv1sRgCO7a753b08zdYw&feat=directlink

vs what it should be:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...?authkey=Gv1sRgCO7a753b08zdYw&feat=directlink

Inline re-compression from my carrier :(
[Nexus One General] sstang2006:
different snapshots

using gallery

using astro

using the browser, looks the same as Astro.
[Nexus One General] rotohammer:
No, if they had a clue they would have found out what we have with just 10 minutes more effort, that it was not the display at fault. It was an unscientific and disingenuous test. My guess is that it fit their agenda, so they published it.
[Nexus One General] uansari1:
Agreed....
[Nexus One General] OutlawPro:
The "scientific" method they use completely fails if they can't figure out in 10 minutes it's a software issue. The article was meant to blast how "bad" the hardware of N1 AMOLED display is. Since it's clearly been shown there is no hardware issue, the article can be chalked up to another round of junk reporting. The conclusion they come to that the N1 only has a 16 bit display is just plain silly. The sad thing is, they'll leave the article up and people with see it and take what the article says as gospel. The article should be taken down until they put new pics up that show what the hardware really does, outside of the software glitch.
[Nexus One General] JanetPanic:
I am going to respectfully disagree. The color test and banding issue (which is what Gizmodo focused on) is flawed but much of the rest seems to be performed in a reasonable attempt at impartiality. Just because we do not like the answer (or the messenger) does not mean it is wrong. The question in my eyes is whether the poor results in other tests was due to the inferior scaling issue.

Color reproduction is one where I do not think the scaling issues would be pertinent but was graded very poorly. Being (partially) color blind I am not one to judge but the screen and colors look fantastic to me. <shrug> I certainly am not bothered or tired of looking at it.
[Nexus One General] kakalard:
¿Has anyone tried those image files in a Nexus One running the HTC-Sense enabled HTC Desire ROM?
[Nexus One General] rotohammer:
I am specifically referring to the banding issue, their testing methodology, their conclusion about pixel depth, and their conclusion that it is the AMOLED displays fault.

Which of those 3 issues do you disagree with?

As far as color is concerned, I consider it to be a bit on the hyper side, like in the old days when we would bump up the saturation on our color TV's, color rendering accuracy be damned! We like it! Thats how I feel about the display. The color and contrast stuns your eyes. Is it true to life color, no. But I prefer it, it is visually appealing.
[Nexus One General] flarbear:
That's odd because I definitely get banding on my phone with the Astro pic viewer for both the moon shot with the gray sky and with my RGB ramp pic...
[Nexus One General] flarbear:
The organization that did the tests isn't really a "phone geek" house. They are a color accuracy testing company. If you read their methodology descriptions they specifically do not write software for phones because they want to test all of the platforms and doing so would take either a prohibitive amount of time or it would limit the platforms they could test. As a result, their "mobile testing" products are simply a bunch of proprietary test images that you can buy and then download to your phone and display with your phone's software.

As such, I am not surprised that they didn't realize the full roadmap of Android's software and picture viewing apps and would (somewhat justifiably if not rightly) assume that the built-in picture viewing app - you know, the one that is so cutting edge that it uses 3D warping tied to the phone's accelerometer to add to the "wow" factor - would be the best candidate for displaying the images in their full glory. We know otherwise, but we follow this phone and the state of its software and can each cite 100 differences between an iPhone, an N1, and a Motorola Cliq. Them, they're a color rendition testing company, they don't care so much about any phone.

If there is anyone with egg on their face it would be Google for releasing a gallery app that allows an underlying library's downsampling technique to ruin its primary useability simply for the sake of a marketing "demo-bite". Really, if you hadn't been reading these forums would you have suspected that?
[Nexus One General] flarbear:
Go back and check the Gizmodo link (http://gizmodo.com/5477320/the-nexus-ones-dirty-display-secret) in the OP. They have now updated it with a second update citing our reports that it is a software issue. Sounds like Gizmodo, though perhaps not "up on everything Android", is at least impartial in what they pass on.

The Displaymate article has also now added the following disclaimer (in red letters in the "Results and Conclusions" section):

They could have made this a little more prominent than they did, but I do believe it is new since yesterday...
[Nexus One General] rotohammer:
All the more embarrassing for them. So they get a pass on making untrue claims because its not their primary business?

If you aren't qualified, as a business, to perform and publish the results of a test, why bother?

I've been in business for 18 years, yet I would never mislead anyone by claiming an absolute unless I was considered an authority on the subject.

My point is, I am not an authority on either color or display testing, and yet in 10 minutes I was able to disprove their conclusions.
[Nexus One General] :
man!!! i still get the banding in the browser... so u guys think some phones are just faulty or what? or just some have the software bug and others dont
[Nexus One General] Oletros:
If I'm a pro image tester and I have to test banding or patterns I will use images with native resolution to avoid any artifact caused by scaling.
[Nexus One General] sinbot:
You know the interesting thing is there is banding on the picture, until you touch the screen at which point you get the proper gradient. I viewed it in my N1 browser
[Nexus One General] flarbear:
I guess there are 2 parts to this point.

At one point they were claiming it was the AMOLED hardware's fault and that wasn't accurate. It is easy for those of us familiar with the device to show that it was software, and while it might not be so easy for someone who doesn't know an N1 from a calculator to actually investigate and disprove it, they should at least have realized that it was possible for the problem to be either hardware or software.

But, as devil's advocate in their defense, I think their clarification that they added later (see my post above with the text in red), they are clearly treating these devices as closed boxes. You put your test image onto them, you check the results using the device's software, you don't fiddle with it, you just see what a user would see if they threw an image on and looked at it, and then you report on what happens. By the same token, I think their approach would not acknowledge a setting in the device's system settings as being fair game to play with as they seem to be testing what people would see by default. In those shoes, and even somewhat in my own shoes as someone intimately familiar with graphics, images, opengl, and this phone, I still somewhat agree with them that this device has a flawed imaging system. It would be one thing if they used some non-standard mechanism to view their images, but they are using the straightforward and obvious built-in mechanisms to do the testing and the results are flawed.

So, I mainly hold their claim that it was hardware against them, but not the poor results they published. Google should get cracking on fixing their standard apps.

What is so odd to me is that the results are bad when the image stops moving. I could see a quality reduction in the name of performance when the image is animating, scrolling, or scaling, but the image looks fine when in motion and then gets poor when it stops. That's just embarrassing and I will not defend Google or the N1 for those behaviors (no matter how miscategorized they are by a 3rd party).
[Nexus One General] rotohammer:
My favorite part of DisplayMate's analysis is the Introduction:

"There have been lots of articles and discussions about how beautiful and stunning the OLED display on the Nexus One looks, but no one has yet done anything more than superficial eye ball commentary. This article is an in-depth scientific analysis of the OLED display on the Nexus One."

As a consumer, I want the phone with the stunning display, not the phone with the washed out, low resolution but color accurate display.

Scientific, LOL!

Hey iPhone users, I'm jealous of your phones color rendering ability, NOT!

I haven't LOL'ed this much in an afternoon for quite some time.
[Nexus One General] flarbear:
That is true, and I would too.

I guess I didn't mean to imply that they were truly remarkable in their testing methodology - just that their focus is not on knowing all the bells and whistles of these devices and more on what good displays should produce and whether or not these devices produce it by default using the standard "drag and drop" mechanisms.

I think their main focus is on things like contrast ratios and color accuracy of the hardware and they evaluate the imaging system as a related by-product, though at a reduced level of competence apparently.

And, to be fair, a reasonably good scaling mechanism should not introduce artifacts as bad as these, so it boils down for me more along the lines of "OK, this is bad and needs to be fixed, but it would be nice to make sure the blame is aimed correctly or at least that the disclaimers about the limits of the testing methodology are spelled out up front".

If you read their article (the Displaymate article, not the Gizmodo reference) they do say that the AMOLED display uses a different sub-pixel arrangement and that this can create new challenges for the software. They don't necessarily say that those challenges led to the problems they show, and I don't think they are specifically the cause, but they do acknowledge that problems can be software related. At the end of that section they also say that "The inner details of the display technologies are very interesting, but our concern here is to evaluate the actual image and picture quality that they deliver, so we don’t really care how they do it, as long as they do it well." They could have added "and the software that drives it" to be more clear, but they are definitely conveying that they are evaluating the real world results of this display and not simply the potential of it. As it turns out some of the downfalls they are showing are a little more general and embarrassing than by-products of using a new display technology (other problems noted elsewhere about the sub-pixel arrangement and how it affects sub-pixel antialiased text on the phone would be a prime example of that), but they do have a "practical black box results" tone in their setup.
[Nexus One General] rotohammer:
I'd be tempted to think the same, except that I expect better from a group of Ph.d's.

If they have the right to wave their paper on the wall, I have the right to hold them to a higher standard.

The Nexus One presents them with a beautiful test case for the marketing of their product. Yes, the color profile of the first gen AMOLED is wacked. Its a phone, not a photo editing workstation. Their images may scientifically prove this. And thats great. +1 for DisplayMate.

All they have to do is state the facts and all the fuss will disappear.

I won't defend Google either. Luckily, all software is a work in progress. Like any Android software bug, we raise the issue and Google will address it, or face our wrath :)
[Nexus One General] flarbear:
I think we are in agreement there.

Also, thinking back I was reacting more to what appeared to be a general feeling that people thought that someone might have "had it in for the N1", but I think here it is more just of someone being out of their realm. Even Gizmodo who commonly gets that suspicion printed an update mentioning the software problem. So, I don't think this is "an attack" so much as a real problem that was inaccurately reported/attributed.
[Nexus One General] rotohammer:
Yes, I agree. That was my first reaction. I have a tendency, like all fan boys, to cheer for my favorite new toy.

Ahh, perfect agreement, feels good :)
[Nexus One General] kakalard:
Just one last time... sorry to repeat the question, but I really feel cuirous about the matter:

Has anyone with a Nexus One running HTC Desire's ported ROM done any image quality tests?
[Nexus One General] JonLech:
Adding the following line of code to an app "fixes" this:

getWindow().setFormat(PixelFormat.RGBA_8888);
[Nexus One General] lmjabreu:
Good lord, there's no issue with your Nexus devices, the banding or patterns you see on certain occasions are a result of jpeg compression, software issue, feature is you wanna call it.

eg: When scrolling, the browser app displays a high quality screen shot of the page, a static high quality unoptimized image, hence no banding. Try it with any website, you'll notice the icons get all jagged when scrolling on the google mobile homepage(the one that lists all services), that's because it's displaying the original upscaled icons, when you stop scrolling you get smoother icons, compressed jpeg, with no noticeable banding in this case.

That already popular NASA image: same thing happens, scroll to see the original image, stop scrolling to see the optimized/compressed jpeg.

The gallery app sort of sucks, same issue, you NEVER see the original photo, not when scrolling, not when zooming, ever, you always get an optimized jpeg, sucks big time, especially when you want to zoom in to a detail of a photo you just took.

So, it's software, and it's by design, won't go away unless those apps are updated.
[Nexus One General] uansari1:
Props to RotoHammer for his mention on AndroidCentral's article. ;)

http://www.androidcentral.com/nexus-one’s-display-not-all-its-cracked-be
[Nexus One General] Jak Crow:
Android also isn't taking complete advantage of the screen's native resolution. The UI is only running at 533x320 on the N1
[Nexus One General] JanetPanic:
Can you reference where you got this information?

EDIT: I found where you got your incorrect assumption from. In cases where a 1.5 App does not specify a target SDK of 1.6 or above (at which point large screen support was introduced) the specific app will use 2/3 of the real resolution. This is only the case for 1.5 and below apps where the target SDK is not set properly (or at all) though.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2013549/problems-wih-minsdkversion-1-5
[Nexus One General] BrooklynAvi:
I needn't be lectured on how to do research. I do it for a living. I am extremely familiar with Gizmodo and their "sources" and "scientific" methods of testing. Considering they basically are dating Apple I'd rather not waste my time on something I know isn't true.

I having nothing against a particular device or company. If something is good, I say so. But Gizmodo is known for its Apple bias so reading an article criticizing the N1 on their site is a complete waste of my time.

What is "misservice"?
[Nexus One General] r0adki111:
You don't even have to scroll around the picture. If you just touch it for a second the banding disappears.

Oops, haha I guess I should finish reading the thread before posting.
[Nexus One General] MrPendulum:
displaymate.com != gizmodo.com

Can you read, or do you make a conscientious choice to be thick?
[Nexus One General] Oletros:
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?p=1578405&posted=1#post1578405

Mail from Dr. Soneira:
[Nexus One General] thechapel:
It is interesting that Dr. Soneira is so steadfast about his testing methods but doesn't see the fault in using the browser to test the display. He says it multiple times that he is testing the display and not the browser, so then why is he using the browser to do so?

There is an issue with the software, I don't think anyone is playing that off as a non-issue, but the results of the test are faulty when combined with the conclusion that the display hardware is the reason.

So he can say what he likes, but some random people from a forum (which he refuses to post at) have made his original claim as bunk. If you are going to test the hardware, then you should use the most unbiased software to do so, and that is usually something you write yourself or partner with someone to write for you. So for each platform, you know that the software itself is exactly how you want it for the tests and can be as unbiased as possible.

Nexus One hate is just as rampant as iPhone hate, it is something we have to get used to. (I am not saying Dr. Soneira hates the Nexus One, just speaking in general)
[Nexus One General] Oletros:
I'm shocked by this part:

I don't have a lot of knowledge but you can use the dittering or scaling algorithm that you want, a 16bit output will have banding.
[Nexus One General] olafos:
Nearly every scaling algorithm currently in wide use is faulty:

http://www.4p8.com/eric.brasseur/gamma.html

(This is not the same issue, but it's one of the many examples that shows, that scaling algorithms and other operations on bitmaps are often not perfect, most of the time far from that)

This article is just ridiculous. I mean, it's ok that they (giz and the original display testing site) fooled themselves into believing it's a display error at first. But before you officially state (and accuse google/htc of lying to its customers) that a display, a hardware component is only capable of 16 bit, you should check the ****ing thing, disassemble or make further tests.