Apple settles the amazing multicolor lawsuit

C|Net ^ | Mar 26th 2008 | C|Net

[CarrotAndStick]

Apple quietly settles MacBook 6-bit LCD screen lawsuit

Posted Mar 26th 2008 1:56PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Displays, Laptops

It looks like that would-be class action lawsuit over the quality of MacBook and Macbook Pro screens has fizzled out to nothing, as the plaintiffs have quietly settled. Although it's technically true that the 6-bit screens can't actually display millions of colors at the same time, apparently the two photographers who filed the suit had a difficult time finding other people who had bought MacBooks based on the advertised color depth of the display -- and from what we're told, you just can't have a "class action" without a "class." Even still, we hope someone at Apple was paying attention to how much interest the case generated at the outset -- although MacBook Pro screens generally look fine to us, we've seen some truly awful MacBook screens.

Tags: 18-bit, 6-bit, apple, dithering, lcd, macbook, macbook pro, MacbookPro, screen

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http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/26/apple-quietly-settles-macbook-6-bit-lcd-screen-lawsuit/

 

 

[bamahead]

ping...

[domenad]

I don’t get how 6 bits translates to 200k+ colors. 8 bit color is only 256 colors.

[OSHA]

I thought it was only 3 colors actually!

[VeniVidiVici]

Why in the world would they only use 6-bit color?

[Petronski]

Six bits for red, six bits for green, six bits for blue.

64*64*64

262,144

[Petronski]

Save money?

[JZelle]

So the guy that mixes paint at Lowes is a ditherer?

[HAL9000]

It’s six bits per color plane, 18 bits total for three planes (red, green, blue), 2 ^ 18 = 262144

[Yossarian]

Why in the world would they only use 6-bit color?

It was the doing of many display makers. The panels themselves have good contrast ratios, and fast response times - but each RBG sub-pixel only has 2^6 levels of brightness.

No, I'm not sure why, either. I just remember that when this first hit, some laptops had 8 bit screens, and some had 6-bit screens.

[HAL9000]

Why in the world would they only use 6-bit color?

25% less power consumption, longer battery life.

[dan1123]

8-bit color is for the total indexed color spectrum per pixel for a video card. Since we are talking about screens, 6 bit is per channel, 6 bits for red, 6 for green, and 6 for blue.

In 8-bit indexed color, the color palate for video cards may be changed to a different set of colors depending on the application. The screen can obviously display many more than 256 colors, but the video card would limit it to 256 at a time.

[pabianice]

What a waste. It’s long established that men see only nine colors: red, orange, green, blue, yellow, purple, brown, black, and white.

[CarrotAndStick]

How does the allocated bits per colour pixel affect the battery life? It’s the backlighting of the LCD that consumes a majority of the power. Are you referring to the graphics processor?

[N. Theknow]

What a waste. It’s long established that men see only nine colors: red, orange, green, blue, yellow, purple, brown, black, and white.

I only see three.

Blonde, brunette and redhead.

[HKMk23]

Yeah, okay, so why are they calling it “6 bit” color instead of going with the naming convention that’s been around since before the advent of VGA and calling it “18 bit” color, which is what it really is??

I’d think the boys in Marketing would like to tout as many bits as they can.

[dan1123]

The funny thing is, I don’t think LCD monitors have a very wide color gamut in the first place. They tend to stop far short of the level of greens your eyes are capable of seeing. A color gamut shows for all consumer-level displays, it can only represent 30% to 40% of the colors your eye can see.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

I suffer from the same issue. Although, I wouldn’t really use the term suffer. That is, unless I’m dating one of them. Then suffering comes into play sometimes.

[ROP_RIP]

Apple shouldn’t be lying about the product’s capabilities, but any competent “professional” who really needs 8-bit color is going to read the specs before he buys. So this case still seems a bit frivolous.