Sunlight readability not working

[anon(5969054)]

Do more people have issues with sunlight readability not working all the time? Last summer it worked perfect, this hear not... I wonder if it is the creators update...

 

[nate0]

I want to agree with you. Seems each build/FW does alter the screen rendering. I still have not figured it out quiet yet. I use to leave the brightness on suggested and it worked just fine. I have to crank the brightness up a lot to get anything out of SR now.

 

[Timbre70]

Yes, was terrible under sunlight (inside car) on 650.

 

[nate0]

All of the SRE functions are controlled via the registry in color matrices and brightness settings/services. So even if I could reinstall it I doubt it would change anything since the hard coded functioning is registry dependent.

 

[mtf1380]

I cannot see my screen "at all" (950XL) when out on a sunny day

 

[nate0]

I cannot see my screen "at all" (950XL) when out on a sunny day

That is the model I am using right now. I guess it has not been a back breaker since it does not kill the phone, or crash anything. It works just not like it should. If I hold it at an angle I can see it adjusting but the glare is able to overtake the brightness aspect. I wonder if Microsoft tuned the brightness more or less in the last build update?

 

[anon(5969054)]

Originally posted by Nate W

Originally Posted by mtf1380
I cannot see my screen "at all" (950XL) when out on a sunny day

That is the model I am using right now. I guess it has not been a back breaker since it does not kill the phone, or crash anything. It works just not like it should. If I hold it at an angle I can see it adjusting but the glare is able to overtake the brightness aspect. I wonder if Microsoft tuned the brightness more or less in the last build update?

They definitely did something to break it. It used to work quite well before. Not sure since when it gor broken.
So a hars reset won't fix this? Im thinking about it..
Is there a running feedback that i can vote up? Anyone a link?

 

[nate0]

Ya funny how all of sudden someone opens a thread, and we are like "Oh ya, what gives?". Definitely the Feedback Hub for sure. Not sure about anywhere else. I have hard reset my phone only once since the CU. Sometimes 2 hard resets does more than just one, but I have not gone that far yet...

 

[anon(5969054)]

Also it's ridiculous that the recovery tool still doesn't offer a way to go directly to the creators update. It's a horrific long journey to get there.

 

[Timbre70]

Noted that the auto lighting adjustment has been defaulted to off after CU. You might wanna turn it on back and see if it helps.

 

[B T C]

No problems here. I'm actually impressed with how well I can see my screen on a sunny day.

 

[darrell reimer]

I cannot see my screen "at all" (950XL) when out on a sunny day

I sort of agree with you on this. I tried out the IDOL 4S for a couple of weeks; loved most things about the phone, except the weak camera, so I switched to the 950 XL; the first thing I noticed was the screen brightness. I ran the IDOL at no more than 50% brightness, and it looked awesome - even outdoors. But my 950 XL has to be turned up full 100% outdoors, or I can't see anything...not sure if the plastic screen (compared to the glass IDOL screen) has anything to do with it; still love this phone; the camera is super awesome; just wish sometimes when i'm outdoors, the screen brightness could be boosted up a notch or two...

 

[anthonyng]

Sucks so much compared to Lumia 920.

I did find that it probably wasn't working for me because I wasn't on the standard color profile... Going on standard gave the sunlight option but it's still no where as drastic as it was on my 920. Screen tech I guess.....

 

[nate0]

Sucks so much compared to Lumia 920.

I did find that it probably wasn't working for me because I wasn't on the standard color profile... Going on standard gave the sunlight option but it's still no where as drastic as it was on my 920. Screen tech I guess.....

That might make sense. I change mine to remove almost all Saturation. I will test this theory to see what happens.

 

[anthonyng]

Smashed the bottom left corner of my screen this weekend :crying:

Oddly though, when under direct sunlight, the screen went super contrast mode unlike anytime I've seem before on my 950XL!

Now to decide where to source the display

 

[nate0]

I was experimenting with mine this weekend. Basic (Standard) mode under color profile did nothing. I reset my phone but before I did, I edited a provxml file for the Display Setting appx (color profile app) and set allow uninstall to TRUE. After a Hard reset I went outside for about 30 min and it never kicked in still. So I came inside and uninstalled it. While inside holding my phone to a light bulb, maybe a meter or just less away SR kicked in. There is something that was done to the ambient light sensor tuning I think. Because I have to hold the phone pretty close to a light bulb to get the SR to kick in. But when outside in the sun the contrasting barely kicks in at all. I am not sure what was tuned or adjusted.

EDIT: in almost every app you can go to the Suggestions link and add feedback or suggestions. The Color Profile app is one of those oldie but goodie apps that has not been really touched in a while so it does not offer a direct link. So I guess I will go into the feedback hub later and submit some info.

 

[anthonyng]

I was trying it out in direct sunlight yesterday and no response. I know what I saw after I dropped and messed up the corner of the screen though! that high contrasty mode...

I'll make sure to get my feedback in too.

 

[Timbre70]

My phone is okay now after turning the auto lighting on again. Seems like cu changed and defaulted to off.

But the voice volume is a joke. It's so soft even at the highest crank. Playing music is ok though. What's up with this MS Maps?

 

[nate0]

I heard maps broke bad. I rarely use it though...

Ya my Sunlight Readability works and some times it does not. It is not as effective but I know messing with my brightness, the color profile/app and such seems to jar it loose so it works a bit.

 

[nate0]

Reporting back here. I did some digging into a Nokia 1520 and found the registry keys there under the Display\Color and light\Brightness app. I added them back and had to add a Display folder with colordata.bin file in it to the Lumia 950 under the shareddata directory, reinstall color profile, and then toggle with InteropTools the manual brightness slider tweak. After this when I open the Color Profile app I have the Brightness Profile Back. Remember that setting? Now it does not work the same as before on the older Nokias, where I get this huge bright ness boost when sliding it but if I set brightness to Automatic it works the contrasting on the blacks, grays and whites so they are much more noticeable. The white point is more apparent now...It does not honestly help me a ton if I am in direct sunlight, but it is better than it was. If I am outdoors moving around or sitting in my car it does however.

Not that anyone would want to go through all this to make it work, and I am not sure why Microsoft has removed a lot of the settings here, but at least we know it is not some hardware issue.

Edit: I did more comparisons. Having now a 1520 that does much better in sunlight then the 950 XL does on the latest build of the OS I found some deltas in two other areas. One was in the oempanel.sys driver/service. The other was in the Color and Light static properties. I updated them to match the 1520 and tested. I attached what I think is a better result of readability and brightness. But I will test it this week to see how it really holds up.