Hardware Scanlines on N3DS XL

[Arecaidian Fox]

i own a ps vita OLED 1000, all screens have issues compared to that beauty.

I will admit, having owned a first-gen Vita, that the screens on those things are gorgeous. Only thing you find better when it comes to portable devices are 4k resolution phones. Didn't stop me from trading it in toward a standard 3DS XL several months ago, though. The software library just didn't hold a lot of appeal to me. Ironically enough, my PSP is another story. I love that thing

 

[Deleted-355425]

I will admit, having owned a first-gen Vita, that the screens on those things are gorgeous. Only thing you find better when it comes to portable devices are 4k resolution phones. Didn't stop me from trading it in toward a standard 3DS XL several months ago, though. The software library just didn't hold a lot of appeal to me. Ironically enough, my PSP is another story. I love that thing

i will let you into a little secret, i only bought it to play the old emulators

 

[Kohmei]

This is normal and part of the super stable 3D technology. All n3DS devices have this and most of the time you won't see it. I see it when you are looking at dark scenes (like with Fantasy Life at night on the bridge to the main town).

Most people do not see this, but this is just part of the tech, nothing more, nothing less. I do not particularly like it, but if I have to choose between this and the old 3D, I choose this.

I can't tell you what a relief it is to hear someone else can at least see it

 

[Koldur]

I can't tell you what a relief it is to hear someone else can at least see it

Yeah, when I saw it at first I was a bit bummed out as well. I can be like that as well, but have learned to be more reasonable towards these things and actually enjoy the stuff I buy and use. I have almost perfect vision, so that really makes me aware of these kind of things. If I knew there was something going on in my devices that, if only even slightly and barely there, I could hate it , but that was cramping my enjoyment while it didn't really do anything big in the end

 

[Kohmei]

After 14 units, I finally found another that doesn't have the problem and it's 9.0
Based on my relatively small sample size, this issue affects a whopping 85% of units. It's definitely not a design flaw though, since there are unaffected units. Don't be afraid to return what you don't like. Persistence triumphs!

 

[SLiV3R]

I'm not bothered by the scanlines. I only see them in some menus. I have never seen them in games.

 

[Fabbbrrr]

I'm not sure if can't see scanlines or my console is Ok. I'm happy anyway

 

[Kohmei]

I'm happy anyway

This is the important part

 

[Pedeadstrian]

I've been thinking about getting a New3DSXL when Gateway supports it (which may end up being in a really long time, or never), so thanks for this post. It'll give me something to look for when checking out demo consoles. My eyes, for whatever reason, seem fairly sensitive to things like this, or changes in movement speed. Like The Hobbit movies, the double frame rate made me somewhat dizzy. And it felt like everything was fastforwarding. But hey, I got the effects of Acid for free with my movie, so it wasn't all bad.

 

[SuperSVGA]

I'm pretty sure I just realized exactly what you are talking about. I've seen them somewhere before, maybe on my iPad. I remember tilting it around and looking at grey and thinking "why are those lines appearing?", but I assumed it was my imagination. I'll have to check my Red N3DS to see if it does it.

 

[mrGREEK360]

MY majoras mask new 3ds xl 9.0u doesn't have this neither doesn my 3ds and 3ds xl, guess I'm lucky.

 

[Kohmei]

Just want to add a few notes to this thread for posterity, since I've encountered several people now who have noticed this problem:

After messing around with several more systems (upwards of 30 now), my working theory is that there are two different panel types being utilized for the upper auto-stereoscopic screen.

Type A is the most common and all that I've seen suffer from the interlacing problem.
Type B is a bit rare but does not suffer the interlacing problem. However, it has a much narrower viewing angle (noticeable washout occurs at 20 degrees vs 40 degrees on type A), slightly higher black levels which makes the picture appear a bit undersaturated, the parallax barrier adjustments (ie super "stable" 3D) occur with a noticeable judder rather than type A which is fairly smooth, and finally ghosting/crosstalk is a bit more noticeable than on type A.

It is unfortunate to say that this is thus a panel lottery with no distinguishable features to tell without opening the box and finding out (assuming you can see any of it), as the serial number is the only marking and the panel distribution seems more or less random, with both older and newer production batches having both types.

That said, like panels seem to occur together -- I have a QW1021 black and QW1022 red that are both type B. There was also a QW4014 red that had type B, but it was oddly FW9.4. I've been unable to locate anything remotely close to 4014 in series.

For what it's worth, type A actually seems like the overall better panel assuming you can deal with the interlacing, especially considering the stabilized 3D encourages off-angle viewing. I would only recommend type B overall if you mostly viewed the 3DS head-on to begin with, and wanted a N3DS for the other upgrades.

I've finally settled with one of my units and wish anyone else having this problem good luck

Edit:

Upon closer analysis of the viewing angles of both types, I realized a striking difference in that type B not only washes out but gets brighter the wider the viewing angle gets, until the entire screen is nearly a bright white at 90 degrees. Type A merely washes out and actually seems to get dimmer at off-angle viewing.

These are definitely two panels that were manufactured to slightly different specifications.

 

[nervx]

is there an easy way to check for the scanline effect for example a grayscale test pattern or some other test pattern that can be viewed on the browser?

 

[Pedeadstrian]

is there an easy way to check for the scanline effect for example a grayscale test pattern or some other test pattern that can be viewed on the browser?

If you don't see it during normal gameplay, then you're fine.

 

[Maximilious]

Type A is the most common and all that I've seen suffer from the interlacing problem.
Type B is a bit rare but does not suffer the interlacing problem. However, it has a much narrower viewing angle (noticeable washout occurs at 20 degrees vs 40 degrees on type A), slightly higher black levels which makes the picture appear a bit undersaturated, the parallax barrier adjustments (ie super "stable" 3D) occur with a noticeable judder rather than type A which is fairly smooth, and finally ghosting/crosstalk is a bit more noticeable than on type A.

You've hit the nail on the head I think. I can say my MM XL has a type B display as I do see quite a bit of ghosting in MM and the "judder" effect happens while super stable 3D is making it's adjustments. Kind of a let down that the screen doesn't fully move whenever I move my head, but I'm used to staring straight on to the 3DS anyway out of habit.

 

[nervx]

If you don't see it during normal gameplay, then you're fine.

that doesn't answer my question.

 

[Pedeadstrian]

that doesn't answer my question.

If you don't see the scanlines, you don't see them. A test isn't going to change that.

 

[nervx]

If you don't see the scanlines, you don't see them. A test isn't going to change that.

again not helpful. i just want to know if theres a way to easily check for the flicker issue pointed out in the OP. i don't own a n3ds yet but when i get one will run it through a few tests looking for issues, would like to be able to check for this one as well.

 

[Pedeadstrian]

again not helpful. i just want to know if theres a way to easily check for the flicker issue pointed out in the OP. i don't own a n3ds yet but when i get one will run it through a few tests looking for issues, would like to be able to check for this one as well.

Again, there is a way to easily check for the flicker issue pointed out in the OP. When you get one, run it through a few tests looking for issues with whatever games you have on hand. If you don't find any scanlines while playing games, chances are you won't find any during any browser tests (assuming they even existed, in a compatible format), but even if you did find scanlines, so what? Your earlier tests would prove they don't show up during gameplay. Why would you care if scanlines only showed up while on a website designed specifically to show you scanlines?

 

[Kohmei]

again not helpful. i just want to know if theres a way to easily check for the flicker issue pointed out in the OP. i don't own a n3ds yet but when i get one will run it through a few tests looking for issues, would like to be able to check for this one as well.

The easiest test for me has been setting the theme to "black" and then looking at the grey background. If you don't see them there, you probably won't see them at all. I realize this isn't what you're looking for, but I don't think there's a way to do it without connecting to the internet and risking the update nag. Most tests like this that I would use to test a HDTV for various faults are either java or flash, and I don't think the 3DS browser does either of those anyway.

The easiest way to tell if you have a type A or B panel (that ANYONE should be able to see) is to look at the top screen from extreme (80+ degree) side angles. Type B becomes very bright, colors shift towards white, and what's on the screen becomes mostly illegible. Type A becomes slightly darker and aside from some (expected) washout, the screen looks mostly the same all the way up until 90 degrees.

Edit:

Decided to take some pictures since I still have both types. I couldn't get the same angle every time but it's the panel types that are making the difference here. The wi-fi "Disabled" notification is a good indicator. You can read it at any angle on type A. You can't read it at extreme angles on type B, because it just turns white.