Quote:
Originally Posted by rgeorg
... What I am really interested in was the no-black-page-flash ...
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I'm not convinced that 1) The black page flash will go away with the new controller; and 2) I think the black page flash is a 'feature' not a limitation
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1) I don't really have all of the information here -- I'm just inferring from what I have read. I think the new controller has two features. First, it refreshes the page faster, and second it allows partial refreshes so that you can easily redraw just the portion of the screen that changes (ie, the menu area).
The purpose of the black flash is to make sure that the e-ink is cleanly reset between each screen refresh. The Cybook (on the Netronix hardware) had an option to turn off the black flash -- even though it used the previous generation controller. With the flash off, the screen begins to degrade as you turned pages, the screen begins to degrade. Think along the lines of a poor quality fax with random dots. The black flash basically ensured all the dots were set to a zero (white) state before the new page was written. Without the flash, some of these dots could get stuck on.
I thought this was a characteristic of the e-ink screen and matching it with a new controller would not change the need for the screen to be 'cleaned' between uses?????
On the K2, the 'ghosting' is due to the fact that the screen has top and bottom margins that are not refreshed when the page turns. If you see a K2 (Kindle-2; I have one) turn the page and you will notice that the black flash does not impact the bottom margin of the screen. Since this area never goes through the black flash it is never cleaned up. Holding down alt-g on the K2 forces a full screen black flash and cleans up the after image.
2) Esthetically, I'm not sure that having a black flash isn't preferable anyway. Think about reading a book. You have to refocus as you move from the bottom of the left page to the top of the right. You have an even bigger 'flash' as you turn the right page to get to the new page.
This flash is simply a page turn. In fact, if it happens quickly (as it does on the K2) this flash is not at all jarring. It simply signals that a new page is being presented.