Color banding on Laptop Display

[deep jacinth]

Model: Legion 5i Pro 16IAH7H
Issue: Color banding in all forms of media (YouTube videos, games, streamed content) regardless of which GPU drives the display
What have you tried already?: Increasing bit-depth to 10-bit, bios update, all the color profiles on x-rite, ddu, reinstalling windows, hybrid, dgpu mods, all advanced optimus modes
When did it start producing the issue: Pretty much since I got it (last December)
Did you install new drivers or software?: NVIDIA GPU Driver - 537.42, Intel GPU driver - 31.0.101.4826
Can you provide images/videos to show us the issue: Hard to capture on camera, but these are videos where I have consistently observed banding (timestamped): https://youtu.be/lXsgmyTOBGY?si=mCso_Y492bqjYzGx&t=106, https://www.youtube.com/live/vPcolQbesz4?si=pcRkAB60aeShuOG6&t=2078. also observed in css gradients on uigradients.com

[deep jacinth]

I've updated bios to 54ww, will test after

@true trench does not observe banding in these videos so I believe it's not a problem in the video

[deep jacinth]

Color banding still found when a screenshot of it is viewed on another device

However the same content does not band on it

[deep jacinth]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1069139924936302593/1158390181515243530/image.png?ex=651c126d&is=651ac0ed&hm=70dd3009fae9bdea49ce8ca60a80c16c47522b19932f0e4f5cbd722781ac2606&

@vague mural @halcyon minnow sorry for pinge but what might cause this issue?

Ok wait now I'm getting banding on my tablet too

What's a definitive test for banding?

Since uigradients seems to band everywhere

[vague mural]

what if it is banding on everyones screen

[halcyon minnow]

sounds like it's the content then

[deep jacinth]

Yeah so what content do I use to check if it's actually a display problem

I see banding on the shadows of windows too so I think there is a problem with my display

[graceful rivet]

Try this, the gradients are smooth on my screen. https://lcdtech.info/en/tests/dynamic.range.banding.htm#:~:text=To test your monitor just click on selected,have similar color increment from one to another

[somber pulsar]

Need to try this too ngl

Because I also notice it sometimes and I'm not sure if it's the laptop or the content

[deep jacinth]

Tried on my tablet, there's some banding on the green and neutral. I'll take your word for it and test my laptop screen

Currently afk, will try in a couple

@graceful rivet is your current display an lcd too?

Since you have the considering legion flair

[graceful rivet]

Yes, LCD IPS

[deep jacinth]

Same

Ok what the fuck how have I not noticed this

How did I think this was just an lcd artifact

[graceful rivet]

Show me what is on your screen and where the problem is and I will do the same to see there difference. I can capture my screen and share it with you.

[deep jacinth]

the banding on the shadow surrounding the window

[deep jacinth]

i have banding on the neutral scale and green gradient

[graceful rivet]

Is that what you see?

[deep jacinth]

No your shadows are smooth

Could you look at that screenshot and tell me if it's banded

Nvm

I'm looking at it on my tablet and I'm getting the same banding (although much more subtle)

[deep jacinth]

These images don't band on my laptop

[graceful rivet]

btw, the images I sent they are not screenshots, I captured them with my iPhone

This is a screenshot

[deep jacinth]

There's absolutely no banding on this screenshot on the display

[graceful rivet]

This is with a netural grey background

[deep jacinth]

But when I replicate it on mine I get the banding

Yeah these are smooth

No banding when looking at this screenshot

[graceful rivet]

Can you screen capture on neutral grey background? to see the shadows better.

[deep jacinth]

Sure

[graceful rivet]

You can use this image and enlarge it

[graceful rivet]

I can see little bandings at the bottom shadow

Like you shadows are much stronger than mine

[deep jacinth]

Yeah that too

I have no flipping clue I've ddud nvidia and it still bands when on dgpu so it isn't a driver/software issue

[graceful rivet]

Not sure really what the actual issue is

[deep jacinth]

@vague mural @knotty condor @halcyon minnow any inputs?

[knotty condor]

I think it's this

I clicked on both videos and both appear the same (with banding) as well.

even my phone (S9+ has it)

and there's no way my phone could have it

so it's the banding that we all see

My phone has even more superior screen than my laptop

and I still see it

[graceful rivet]

I see the banding in the two vidoes as well

[knotty condor]

yep

it's defo not the videos

I mean not our "laptops"

[deep jacinth]

Yeah but these screenshots

The videos themselves have banding I agree

[deep jacinth]

This one

Vs

[deep jacinth]

This one

Look for the shadows

[somber pulsar]

Idk man

[somber pulsar]

yeah no every single one is banding for me

I'm in DGPU btw i don't know if that matters

it's probably just the panel lol

[topaz drift]

Ok so this is solved yeah?

[somber pulsar]

dont think so

unless we know for sure it's just the panels

[deep jacinth]

doesn't seem like it's just the panel

do you see any ellipse-shaped banding in these? @somber pulsar @graceful rivet

[somber pulsar]

in the first two

[deep jacinth]

well

then it's not a display issue

[somber pulsar]

I mean we do have the same brand of laptop

same generation even

possibly even the same panel

[deep jacinth]

cause i tried it on multiple other displays

one with pretty much no banding too

[somber pulsar]

Monitor Name: BOE CQ NE160QDM-NY1

Oh yeah

Even on my phone

Which is oled

So in this case it's the game but idk about the rest

[deep jacinth]

Yeah I get the same banding around shadow edges in neutral gradients too so it's not only a game issue

But it only happens when the shadow shifts into some variant of grey

[somber pulsar]

like im playing gta sa rn and I notice it in the sky

[deep jacinth]

So it's not just game it's windows?

Ah

[somber pulsar]

even installed a mod for it but idk if its me or the game

[deep jacinth]

Well it isn't as intrusive as I remember

[somber pulsar]

let me take a screenshot

[deep jacinth]

Sure thanks

[deep jacinth]

Reshade deband.fx?

[somber pulsar]

hmm,

this one its barely noticable

only if you really zoom in

but

[deep jacinth]

Should I ask a friend to send a photo of the night sky in gta sa? To see if we both have the same thig

Maybe it's the skybox itself that has banding?

It is pretty old game

[somber pulsar]

sorry I don't really have a whole lot that I can test on

but i remember spiderman having a lot of banding

idk if it only was on hdr but

[deep jacinth]

Yeah

[somber pulsar]

in non gaming use i havent really noticed it

idk

I will report if i see something i guess

[deep jacinth]

alright thanks

[deep jacinth]

it's a game issue

same thing happens for a friend in mc

@somber pulsar could you see if there's banding on the window shadows when you open any small window (x-rite for example) on a neutral gray background?

seems like that's the only thing i can directly attribute to being an issue on the laptop

[deep jacinth]

@somber pulsar do you get banding on any gradients on https://uigradients.com

[somber pulsar]

yep

its not as bad but its there

[deep jacinth]

Damn

Maybe it's a legion issue then idk

https://bitbucket.org/CalibrationTools/calibration-tools/downloads/

This seems to be an nvidia only fix

Better than nothing

Seems to apply dithering

https://github.com/skawamoto0/ditherig

This could be?

For intel

[deep jacinth]

Dithering does not solve it

Does nothing

[deep jacinth]

someone tells me it's a lack of bits produced

[deep jacinth]

i..... don't think they're wrong????

yeah

they're right

well it's solved then, uigradients just renders gradients weird