JBL LCD Flicker

[Ken Maltby]

hmm... Maybe, if you all try really hard and tilt your ereaders at just the right angle
while reading in a certain lighting condition and squint your eyes up really hard, you
can discern an image of religious significance, in the pattern of the flickering text.

"Doctor, it hurts when I do this.."

If it takes a real effort to "see the problem" and then only under easily avoided
conditions, why bother about it?

If it is a phenomenon that is annoying and unavoidable, then the technology used
for this display, or at least its implementation for your device, might not be one that
you will find compatable, and another device may be your only real remedy.

A number of people find eInk's quirks distracting, and prefer this displays performance,
each to his own.

Luck;
Ken

[jblitereader]

I'm just afraid this might be a technical problem. And in my experience, technical problems tend to grow in size over time. It's like a tear in the fabric. If you ignore it, it will become larger and larger.

[Majah]

Originally Posted by macminer

<snipped> Probably also the angle at which light falls on the screen plays a role: if I see the flicker and tilt the screen a bit, the flicker almost vanishes.

This also pertains to mine. In sunlight the flicker appears. If I tilt the screen it becomes less noticeable at different angles.

I have also worried that this is a progressive problem. That it will become worse with age. Or more annoying as I attempt to use it outside during the summer.

I have not sent it back for repairs as I've not been impressed with what I've heard of Ectaco repairs. Either being timely or effective. The flicker bothers me, but if I send it back, will something worse happen ?

[macminer]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

hmm... Maybe, if you all try really hard and tilt your ereaders at just the right angle while reading in a certain lighting condition and squint your eyes up really hard, you can discern an image of religious significance, in the pattern of the flickering text.
Ken

There's no reason to be sarcastic.

I have had several devices with monochromatic LCD screen, such as Apple Newton, Handspring Visor Edge (later replaced by Visor Neo) and the quality of display was OK even with Apple Newton, which is technologically a relic of distant past. There was some problem with Visors, which Handspring acknowledged as being due to different frequency of European and US power grids (50Hz vs 60 Hz) and solved it by producing a small patch which adjusted the LCD to work well in all conditions. Ectaco seems to be much less responsive to user complaints than Handspring used to be, but maybe their engineers are able to find some solution if they are told there is a problem (and this issue was actually raised on Ectaco's own forum).

For me the flicker is bad enough to stop me from using the device when it happens, since I want to go on reading and not play with tilting the device from side to side to be able to see the text properly! Luckily, apart from tilting the device I can also move away from direct source of light and then the flicker is hardly noticeable, so that's what I normally do.

Being able to cope with (partially) faulty goods is one thing and the quality of goods is quite another. So even if I can live with the flicker, I would be much happier if it turned out to be a firmware issue and could be corrected by a firmware upgrade or a patch.

So, summing up, if there are issues with a device using a display technology that has been around for about twenty years, I cannot just say "OK, no problem". The problem is in the device and not in my head and negating it or trying to ridicule those who experience it simply doesn't help to solve it.

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by macminer

There's no reason to be sarcastic.
.

I didn't know I needed a reason.

You did read the rest of that post, right?

Luck;
Ken

[novel]

Been in contact with tech support and I am sending in the unit for a replacement.

[Lintkaurea]

I noticed the flicker problem today in a children park, in indirect sunlight.

As I live in Spain, I guess that sending the unit for a repair would cost more than the JB itself. I hope there's a solution soon.

[grndslm]

I noticed this too when at work. I'm basically just standing outside while at work, and I have ample free time to pull the Jetbook Lite out of my pocket and start reading. The screen is gorgeous while it isn't flickering.

The words on the screen seem to "quiver" more than flicker. But it's pretty crappy.

I hope there is a solution, like for refresh rate or whatever, available soon.

[ragzy]

On the 6th of June, I received a reply from Ectaco regarding this issue saying:

"There were a few issues regarding flicker in Jetbook, but it’s been fixed by new Firmware version, so there should not be any problems."

I just wanted to check if this is still an issue (don't reply if you do not have the latest firmware).

If it is not an issue anymore then at least the next person reading this post will know that the problem is solved. Therefore I will not apologize for the bump of this old thread.

[MikeB1972]

Mine gained the flicker on the 15g update. As there is other problems with this firmware I've gone back to d-b until the new one comes out.

On the plus side the update site seems to have a "what's new in this update" link, well more a placeholder as you can't click it, but it looks like we might actually be getting a changelog

[Kralik]

So I'm late to the game, but my regular jetBook has had flicker ("quiver") problems from the beginning. As most, it happens in sunlight or partial sunlight as makes the letters look like they are shaking. Sometimes it is more noticeable than others. I don't read outside enough for it to bother me, but when I do, I tend to ignore it. IMO it's a screen issue and not a defective unit (unless lots of people have bad units...)

Since I dyed my JB blue I can't send it back anyway, so I have to live with it.

[errata]

I returned my JBL last thursday and just received a brand new unit today. The new one shows no flicker at all, under either direct sunlight or artificial light, or with any font or font size. Problem solved. I'm therefore inclined to believe the problem has nothing to do with the firmware (which I had upgraded on the original unit anyway to no avail).

+10 to ectaco for fast turnaround and good customer service.

[Kralik]

I wonder if they had a bad batch of screens, say... 5% or 10% maybe. In any case mine isn't bad enough to bother me.

[KingOfMyWorld]

Mine does it in wierd ways, some epubs only have the left edge, some epubs have the whole left side, some it's the whole screen usually outside in sunlight, and it shows up in mobi too but I don't use those often enough for it to matter, but this strikes me as odd my PDF's never have a problem.

[errata]

that's exactly the symptom mine had. Return it, you'll have a new one back in a week.