Screen has ghosting of banding and lines across it

[krispjorn]

This is a re-post from over at ABI.

So I have a bit of a problem. All of a sudden, after having worked perfectly since I've owned it, my screen now has these lines (one prominent one that goes across the screen vertically at about 2/3 going from R to L) that are visibly present in video, images, menu backgrounds. It is most noticeable in video playback obviously, and at first I thought it was just the low bitrate of the tv show I was watching. However, I've started to notice them in menu backgrounds, I've now browsed my images and they are quite prominent in those too...

Is there any chance of image retention with OLED's? The problem though is that my player shuts off on its own (screen and hibernation) in a short amount of time and the lines and "image" that shows doesn't resemble anything at all really (no menu, nothing; it is just vertical and horizontal lines...). I don't comprehend how the player can just all of a sudden have this happen... I haven't dropped it once either...

Has anyone heard of this happening? My major usage with the player is music in my car, which works perfectly fine, so no big deal there. Videos are still watchable, its just distracting. And with the beauty of the OLED screen, it hurts to have this happen. I tried to take pics and it just isn't showing properly in them.

I've attached a pic here. Lighting is poor, but you can clearly see what I mean by the banding on the right-hand side in this picture. When videos play, the lines turn purple and green mostly, and appear to be moving. When against a still image, like viewing a pic (like in the attached pic) or a menu background, the lines are static. You can see more banding at the middle of the screen at the very bottom. The rest of the lines on the left aren't seen due to the lighting... There is one single white line, faint but still present that goes the other way (vertically) at the middle of the screen (can't see it in pic)...

I've sent a ticket to support at Cowon America, just thought I'd see if anyone has any ideas or have had the same thing happen to them... The only thing I haven't done is format back to stock firmware... but I downgraded from 2.31b to 2.30 with no change (can't see it being software related anyhow...).

Thx.

[Uphaillife]

OLEDs cannot have ghosting. Its response time is 0.01 seconds 200 times faster than the 2ms LCD screens.

Um i can't explain your problem though.

[krispjorn]

Originally Posted by Uphaillife

OLEDs cannot have ghosting. Its response time is 0.01 seconds 200 times faster than the 2ms LCD screens.

Um i can't explain your problem though.

I know, it was just my way of explaining it. It is the closest thing that my problem reminded me of...

EDIT: So here is another pic. I formatted the S9 through Windows to restore factory settings. Problem is still there, so its obvious that the screen is fubar'd.
Here it is on the intro setting screens that you see after factory reset...

[Goop]

I've noticed with both the iriver SPINN and the Cowon S9 (both are AMOLED) that in pitch darkness black (try put a fully black image or flash file on it) on the screen still emits a smallish amount of light, it is picked up slightly on my crappy camera but with heaps of noise.

Anyway I'm not sure what the problem with yours is, maybe ask Cowon themselves?

If I were you I'd probably see if you can replace it.

EDIT: Here's an image showing what I mean, the two top images are increased in brightness/contrast and levels by the exact same amount (edited in GIMP).