In the spirit of
previous posts, here are a few test images comparing the Sony PRS-505 and the DR1000S displays.
Before I begin, let me say
that I love my DR and wouldn't dream of replacing it with anything in the market right now.
That said, I am generally disappointed in the DR1
S, especially for tone reproduction.
This would be of concern to anyone who uses the DR for viewing photography journals or perhaps even reading graphic novels/manga, but should not affect reading of plain text. The good news is, I think
the issues can be corrected via software updates, either from iRex or from the community. Perhaps someone (maybe me?) porting/writing a CBR viewer can look into this.
In the screenshots below, look for differences between the 2 devices, rather accept these as an absolute reproduction, as the camera and your monitor influence the images. The dpi on both devices is about the same (the Sony has a lower resolution but a smaller screen), but the Sony has only 8 shades of gray as opposed to the DR's 16.
I've included a zip of all the original test images used (
download original_test_images.zip) as well as a copy of the screenshots (
download screenshots.zip).
1. First off, the Sony display does seem to have a
slightly "whiter" whites.
This may seem like nitpicking, but it actually produces a noticeable difference in practice, even when reading plain text.
2. Here is a screenshot of a 16-shade gray picture (
link to gray16.gif) on both devices:
The Sony is simply fantastic, especially given that it has only
8 shades of gray! I think this is some brilliant
dithering on the part of Sony, you can actually count 16 seemingly distinct bands. The DR, on the other hand, uses some strange algorithm and actually runs some of the bands together.
Here is the same image when "embedded" onto an html file and viewed on
FBReader:
There are actually 16 distinct shades on the DR this time (as there should be), and looks close to what the Sony produces. The good news is that this means that the DR runs a
software algorithm (in the UDS), and can possibly be corrected in updates/third-party software.
3. It gets worse. This is a grayscale gradient with 256 shades (
link to grad.jpg).
The Sony simply blows me away, that is some amazing dithering! You see no banding despite the lower number of shades. On the DR, you not only see distinct bands of colors, but also have dark/light bands where there shouldn't be (the image *should* go from lightest to darkest).
Here is the same thing on FBReader:
FBReader does not do any dithering, and you can see 16 bars. This is not as good as the Sony, but at least there are no strange brightness/darkness interchanges.
4. Here is a photograph (
link to baby.jpg) with a lot of subtle tonal gradations:
Look at the baby's cheeks, the 16 shades of the DR is just wasted with poor dithering
FBReader image reproduction (from 2 and 3) is more "faithful", but does no intelligent dithering, and does not match up to the Sony, or even the UDS.
This means that intelligent processing can do a world of good, but what the DR does (with UDS) is not as good as the Sony (2, 3, and 4) and can sometimes be plain wrong (see 3). Given that the Sony has an inferior processor compared to the DR (as well as a superior battery life), I don't think running a smarter algorithm on the DR should be any more demanding on its current hardware, if at all.
5. All is not lost, here is a high contrast image which looks about the same on both readers:
Images like this (or plain text) should come out looking fine, but you're really not exploiting those wonderful extra shades of gray here.
6. Other thoughts:
There seems to be significantly more "ghosting" on the DR (you can see traces of the dreaded "please wait" window, most apparent in the UDS in 3). I don't know if this is a hardware issue or merely due to the larger screen size. Either way, this doesn't bother me too much, but I would enjoy a "ghostbuster" button that simply refreshed everything and produced a clean image when I wanted one
Finally, here is the test setup:
I would like to thank my own capacity for unlimited procrastination as well as the joblessness of my roommate, without which none of this would have been possible
Update 05/19: I've thought about the Sony being "whiter" long and hard, and I can't put my finger on it. The Sony display has more "pop" to it, perhaps due to whiter whites, deeper blacks, or the silver casing causing the eye to perceive things this way. This is also seen in the last test image on this post (the one with the lamppost), where the DR looks "warmer" and more "yellow", while the Sony is "cooler" and more "blue". You can also see the difference in the leaves on the tree. This doesn't seem to have anything to do with dithering.
I have tried this out with two different Sony readers, and my impression stands. It is still possible that there is something sub-par about my specific DR (such as my Vcom being off), so I don't know. I am going to try enclosing my DR in off-white paper and see if there is a perceived difference.
Update: For impressions regarding this color difference, ghosting, refresh rates and manga reading, look further in this thread