Microsoft admits NoDo 16 bit colour banding issue–says it’s by design

May 13, 2011 | By Surur

4f22066 We posted before on the issue of some Windows phone 7 devices experiencing a dramatic drop in colour resolution after upgrading to NoDo, with a massive 77% saying they were having the problem.

In their support forum Microsoft have revealed that this was by design, and that the 32bit colour resolution was in fact an anomaly which HTC has now corrected.

Aled T from Microsoft support wrote:

When HTC launched the HD7 and Trophy they upgraded the color depth to 32 bit, which was outside of Microsoft’s design requirements of 16bit. Microsoft implemented the design standards to help ensure the best possible and consistent experience for all customers on all Windows Phones. To continue to deliver a stable and consistent customer experience, HTC returned the devices to the 16 bit design requirements as part of the March (7.0.7390) update.

The color palette change should not make a noticeable change to most customers experience on their Windows Phone 7. Microsoft’s goal is to ensure that the device is performing as optimally as possible – and as always their engineering teams continue to investigate the opportunities for future improvements.

Thank you for your contribution to the forums.

I don’t know about other readers, but upgrading to a platform that supported more than 65000 colours was something I was really looking forward to when I came to Windows Phone 7.

How do our readers feel about this situation, which, since it is by design, does not appear intended to be fixed any time soon? Let us know below.

Update: Glen Roberts via twitter has let us know this is an issue that will be addressed in Mango, and Mobile Tech World has previously posted that Silverlight 4 will fully support 32 bit colour.

Thanks Santi for the tip.

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged htc 7 trophy, htc hd7, microsoft, windows phone 7

http://www.facebook.com/inteller Joseph

HTC should support this separately and tout it as an advantage then…16 bit you’ve got to be kidding me. Samsung probably demanded this because of amoled
Wow

sounds like something apple would say…its not a bug its a feature

Anonymous

By the sounds of things it’s not a bug, it’s a design decision. We all know that Microsoft had to make sacrifices to get WP7 out the door so I don’t see any reason to make a fuss when we learn that 32-bit colour was one of those sacrifices. Besides, nobody was complaining about this until today so it’s obviously not that big a deal.

Anonymous

It’s a big deal not because it was never there, but because for some the feature was there then taken away.

http://www.twitter.com/wixostrix WixosTrix

Well that really isn’t Microsoft’s fault, it was HTC not following the guidelines. I remember when this was discovered and noticed on my Samsung Focus that I already had the color banding. I didn’t even notice until I checked and I was still running v1 with no updates.

Anonymous

HTC’s fault initially, but Microsoft did choose to actively shut it down rather than let it be.
http://www.twitter.com/wixostrix WixosTrix

Because from their point of view it was a misconfiguration. The only differentiating factors to the phones should be the hardware, OEM, third-party apps, not the native software. They said they were addressing the issue in Mango. It probably causes a slight performance dip.

Sent from my Windows Phone
Anonymous

Microsoft should set minimums, not absolutes. All this heavy handedness does is make important partners like HTC less interested in the platform as it’s harder to differentiate themselves in the market (i.e. WP7 becomes a race to the bottom as far as the hardware OEMs are concerned).
http://www.twitter.com/wixostrix WixosTrix

I don’t disagree with you, I just don’t think everyone should be up all up in arms about this. It’s not like they are pulling features left and right, that are just trying to keep a consistent UX. This particular thong is little but this kind of behavior is what caused the NoDo update issues. Samsung shipping out phones with configurations that Microsoft didn’t know about. They are just playing it safe, there is nothing wrong with that as long as they aren’t hindering the devices.

Sent from my Windows Phone
Anonymous

HTC’s fault initially, but Microsoft did choose to actively shut it down rather than let it be.
http://chmun77.myopenid.com/ Koka

Then blame on HTC! But SHAME on M$ that it will actually following HTC low standard on the cost of consumers faith of WP7!

Anonymous

No, it’s not a big deal. It’s trivial and 32-bit colour will be implemented soon enough.

Anonymous

Plenty of people in this thread and elsewhere on the web not happy. And before you go commenting that blog readers aren’t average users remember that WP7 is still (sigh, still) in the early adopter / enthusiast phase.
Anonymous

Plenty of people in this thread and elsewhere on the web not happy. And before you go commenting that blog readers aren’t average users remember that WP7 is still (sigh, still) in the early adopter / enthusiast phase.

http://twitter.com/OmegaRa Shaun Sommer

I don’t like it. I didn’t like the banding in WinMo and I don’t like it in WP7, though I don’t see it a lot, but when I do…DAMN

http://www.twitter.com/wixostrix WixosTrix

No one likes NOT having better. But I’m sure we all like WP7′s performance. At least they said it’s being addressed for Mango

http://twitter.com/OmegaRa Shaun Sommer

I don’t like it. I didn’t like the banding in WinMo and I don’t like it in WP7, though I don’t see it a lot, but when I do…DAMN
http://chmun77.myopenid.com/ Koka

WTH?! Another “it’s by designed” after the discussion of camera not saving settings? Well done M$. “To continue to deliver a stable and consistent customer experience” ?? More like “To continue to deliver a stable and consistent with low expectation customer experience”. LOL!

So long WP7, I’m so ditching you and getting SGS 2 running Android!!! wooooo~~

Endeavour 1934

Me too. Don’t get me wrong, I love WP7 design and how it works, but this is completely unacceptable.

http://chmun77.myopenid.com/ Koka

You are right! I like WP7 too. But why can’t MS get it right?? We got a nice feature added, and that we will lost another important feature! Why can’t M$ get the damn WP7 right on its track where everything is there. I’m not asking controlling the how the world spins, but at least as a consumer, we expect it to get better not deteriorate!
http://chmun77.myopenid.com/ Koka

You are right! I like WP7 too. But why can’t MS get it right?? We got a nice feature added, and that we will lost another important feature! Why can’t M$ get the damn WP7 right on its track where everything is there. I’m not asking controlling the how the world spins, but at least as a consumer, we expect it to get better not deteriorate!

http://www.twitter.com/wixostrix WixosTrix

Just because something is capable doesn’t mean it is supposed to be implemented. HTC didn’t follow the guidelines so Microsoft made them fix it. The camera thing is a big deal because it shouldn’t be that way, but this shouldn’t even have been news.

http://chmun77.myopenid.com/ Koka

WTH?! Another “it’s by designed” after the discussion of camera not saving settings? Well done M$. “To continue to deliver a stable and consistent customer experience” ?? More like “To continue to deliver a stable and consistent with low expectation customer experience”. LOL!

So long WP7, I’m so ditching you and getting SGS 2 running Android!!! wooooo~~
Anonymous

Come on again…

This’s Y2011 not Y2000 and why we should be stuck with 65536 colors ?
Anonymous

Come on again…

This’s Y2011 not Y2000 and why we should be stuck with 65536 colors ?
John

The color banding is now terrible on my Mozart and it wants me to sell this phone. If it doesn’t get fixed it will be my last HTC phone. Hopefully Nokia won’t make the same mistake.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1545041477 Stefano Mariani

Try zooming in the images, it’s still 16 bit?

Endeavour 1934

In my Trophy, yes. Still 16 bit after zooming. And on videos. It’s everywhere.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1545041477 Stefano Mariani

Try zooming in the images, it’s still 16 bit?
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1545041477 Stefano Mariani

Try zooming in the images, it’s still 16 bit?

Anonymous

Granted I didn’t notice it until it was brought up on blog sites, I have an Arrive, I’d still like to have 32 Bit graphics. The Banding is ugly! Real ugly!
http://twitter.com/Davidmuful David Bailey

Man, this is the retarded crap we put up with for being early adopters. Another log in the fire of “why are they making Mango a colossal service pack and taking a year to deliver it?”. If it was just a time constraint that brought all these little niggles then they should be dropping updates every couple of months (max) to fix them.
Anonymous

Nice! Keep shooting yourself in the foot MS. This and some of their other decisions has to be the dumbest strategy to compete in the mobile space I’ve ever heard of. It is really really hard to root for WP when MS doesn’t even seem to be trying. Marathon my @ss!
Pws

If phone is faster I prefer to have 16 bits colors…. I don’t see banding in day to day applications

Anonymous

With the hardware available there is absolutely no reason in the world that 16bit should be faster unless you’ve got out of your way to make it so. That’s been true for years.
http://chmun77.myopenid.com/ Koka

A phone has to reduce its color depth in order to be faster?! Why not make WP7 into a monochrome phone like those good old Nokia phones instead? It will be VERY FAST then! LOL!

Anonymous

Call me silly but I don’t know what banding on my Arrive looks like. If I haven’t noticed anything yet I guess I don’t have the problem… yet?

Then again, ignorance is bliss.
Anonymous

Call me silly but I don’t know what banding on my Arrive looks like. If I haven’t noticed anything yet I guess I don’t have the problem… yet?

Then again, ignorance is bliss.
Anonymous

>Microsoft implemented the design standards to help ensure the best possible and consistent experience

A truly frightening sentence. MS degrades the capabilities so everyone will have a consistent, sorry “optimal” (uh, actually crappy) experience. Wow. What an amazingly tone deaf rationale. I’m embarrassed for them.

I love the design of wp7 but almost every other executive level decision about the platform is essentially the worst option available.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1545041477 Stefano Mariani

I have an HTC Mozart.
On my device, 16 Bits color is only for fast display, if I zoom into an image the color depth is dinamically upgraded to 32 bit.
I think that this is justified by a decrease in battery drain.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1545041477 Stefano Mariani

I have an HTC Mozart.
On my device, 16 Bits color is only for fast display, if I zoom into an image the color depth is dinamically upgraded to 32 bit.
I think that this is justified by a decrease in battery drain.
Eric

Absolutely NOT ACCEPTABLE…

So now, as soon as there is a bug or as soon as there is a feature that Microsoft is unable to provide they will say that it is “by design”.

Exactly the same as Apple !
So, I cannot save my camera setting, but it is “by design”,
So I cannot send any video by MMS or email, but it’s “by design”,
So I have the 16 bit colour banding issue, but it’s “by design”.

F@CK YOU Microsoft !!!
http://twitter.com/xsonwong WONG WING KIT

it is unacceptable to get 16-bit color, it is 2011 already!!
Anonymous

wow… so inmature people with thier “M$” and “FU microsoft”…. grow up, its just a color depth, it makes calls, it send sms, now it has the so *used* copy-paste. and it does a little more stuff than before nodo, soon mango will come and my sister will be even happier, a good phone is made of features and UI, not about color depth.
if you dont like there are androids and iphones and blackberrys.

anyway they said in mango it will be addressed and “Silverlight 4 will fully support 32 bit colour.” but anyway, some people wont be happy even if the phone made their coffee in the morning.

Aceofspades25

Who gives a crap about the UI? Features are important 16 bits can ruin the experience especially if you’re playing a game or using graphical apps

Anonymous

so the other phones who never were 32bits are crap? the samsung focus with super amoled people talk about isnt cool anymore for never being 32bits?
and soooo… you dont mind the big change from winmo 6.5 to winphone 7.5?
and its not im saying HTC did the best because 32 bit depth wouldn’t kill anymore and “fix it” to 16. but 16 bit depth wont kill anyone either specially since other phones were like that from beginning.
Anonymous

so the other phones who never were 32bits are crap? the samsung focus with super amoled people talk about isnt cool anymore for never being 32bits?
and soooo… you dont mind the big change from winmo 6.5 to winphone 7.5?
and its not im saying HTC did the best because 32 bit depth wouldn’t kill anymore and “fix it” to 16. but 16 bit depth wont kill anyone either specially since other phones were like that from beginning.

http://chmun77.myopenid.com/ Koka

Is not about killing anybody or not. Is about user experiences. As a whole. Including UI. Of course we like the new WP7 UI, but what’s the point of see washed color of photos and video even if the UI is silky smooth?

Anonymous

Exactly Koka! I have a problem with 16bit for sure, especially since MS pitches this as a media-loving device. If you can’t view said media in optimal conditions than there is something wrong with that pitch, but even more, it is the fact that they insist of dragging down a vendor who sets higher standards than MS itself does.
Eric

There are too many basic features missing. I am tired.
Mainly there is no reasonable explanation why we cannot have this very BASIC features:
- 32bits
- ability to send videos via MMS/email
- save camera settings
- multilanguage support for the keyboard: Do you imagine how tired I am to switch constantly between English and French just because my keyboard is currently unable to support two languages simultaneously???

Sometimes I have the feeling that my WP7 phone is a dumb phone from year 2003.
I never imagined I would have to complain to get such very basic features. It’s a shame.

Anonymous

Wow you both are wrong. LOTS of people “give a crap” about the UI. It is, in fact, the reason I like the phone more than any other and the only reason the phone is competitive at all. The simplistic UI is also the reason the iPhone is such a hit. To say people don’t care about it is astonishing and demonstrably wrong,.

At the same time “it is just color depth” is just as statement. You do have to compete on features as well and color depth is a very noticeable part of the overall UX. Even if you are so blind as to not care about that feature the fact that MS is willing to downgrade a hardware-capable device should be of a concern to anyone who supports the platform.
Anonymous

Wow you both are wrong. LOTS of people “give a crap” about the UI. It is, in fact, the reason I like the phone more than any other and the only reason the phone is competitive at all. The simplistic UI is also the reason the iPhone is such a hit. To say people don’t care about it is astonishing and demonstrably wrong,.

At the same time “it is just color depth” is just as statement. You do have to compete on features as well and color depth is a very noticeable part of the overall UX. Even if you are so blind as to not care about that feature the fact that MS is willing to downgrade a hardware-capable device should be of a concern to anyone who supports the platform.

Aceofspades25

Who gives a crap about the UI? Features are important 16 bits can ruin the experience especially if you’re playing a game or using graphical apps
http://chmun77.myopenid.com/ Koka

The problem is, why WP7 has to be lack of something else, when we already are happy with something added? YEs, we are happy with C&P added, but now another 16bits colors crap?! What if 1 day after Mango, MS told you that the phone unable to turn off Wifi is another FEATURE?? C’mon!!!

http://twitter.com/fganser Nando Ganser

this is something completely unacceptable, it reminds me of monochromatic computers… c’mon it’s 2011… to be able to see image distortion and color banding in a picture should be forbidden by law.
Assassin5150

I had the 16 bit color on my HTC surround as well after the nodo update. There is a fix for it in Advanced configuration tool if your phone is unlocked. I didn’t notice any performance difference between 16 and 32 bit color depth. So I don’t see why MS would implement this.
http://fxfp.com/ Alex F.

Microsoft wants all WP7 devices to have exactly the same experience, and that’s why they are forcing this with NoDo (for now). Most HTC phones have 18-bit display, but Samsung and Dell phones only 16-bit – thus the OS is currently optimised for 16-bit display mode!

I know, this sucks for those had HTC phones pre-NoDo – but consider following:

1. Not running WP7 OS in 16-bit mode causes extra load on phone battery – hence the noticeable improvement in battery life on HTC devices after NoDo update (when they were switched to 16-bit mode).

2. Many apps that were developed by people who only tested them on HTC phones have banding issues because the developers did not optimise them for 16-bit display. It is already a big problem, and something would have never happened if HTC would follow the specs correctly.

Personally, I blame HTC – if they would have followed the specs, most of the banding people see currently would not be there at all!

P.S. I’d imagine there will be some smart dithering built into Mango (like it is currently available in built-in photo viewer) – so that’s why Microsoft says this will be fixed.

Endeavour 1934

1. After using it in 16bit and 32 (registry hack) there is no perceptible difference in performance or battery life. On WPBench it lost 1 FPS, so real performance degradation is minimal.

2. Developers use the emulator, which is 32bit. All the screenshots in the marketplace are 32bit, not 16.

And bonus: I don’t believe that tweet about the kernel not supporting it. I’m running in 32bit with the hack and everything works smooth and without any glitch or error. The real reason probably is that they don’t want to make the effort needed for another update at this moment.

http://fxfp.com/ Alex F.

1. It is more than just a registry entry – there is HTC device-specific device driver involved.

2. I’m a WP7 developer and I don’t use emulator much, because real device performance is different.

Bonus: same as people who didn’t believe statement that Walsh-ed phone will have problem updating post-NoDo… Microsoft has no reason to lie to you.

Endeavour 1934

1. The registry hack works the same for all devices (HTC, Samsung, Dell, LG), as reported by users on xda-developers, enabling 32bit color in 7004, 7008, 7390 and 7392.

2. Anyway, using a 16bit phone or a 32bit does not make any difference. Banding is unavoidable on a lot of apps, for example, every photo app. What the hell, there is banding even on Microsoft’s own Bing backgrounds!

3. Yes they have their reasons. They are giving an excuse so they don’t have to deal with another painful update process right now. I have been running my device for 2 months with the registry hack applied with not a single problem. If there was a kernel incompatibility, I think me or someone else who used this hack would have found problems by now. So far only one Samsung user has reported a red screen of death, and it’s not even clear that it was caused by the hack itself.

About the forced updates, guess what? Mine was forced too and received the 7392 update on the first day without a problem.

I’m tired of the MS attitude. They are ignoring every single problem we have, making stupid excuses (testing by the networks, really? then why unsubsidized phones don’t need to test their updates on every network?). We are in 2011, and while iPhone users are editing movies on their phones, WP7 users outside USA can’t even watch embedded videos on youtube! And what has MS said about that? Nothing. Well, maybe it’s fixed on Mango. Not bad! just 1 year to be able to watch a video on the browser!
And what about the camera settings? They are looking into it. Yeah, because making a poll and adding a checkbox that remembers settings on the camera app takes another year. Right.

http://profiles.google.com/ilbaffo Il Baffo

Buy an iPhone
Endeavour 1934

And install W32.Trojan.iTunes on my computer? No thanks
http://chmun77.myopenid.com/ Koka

But Forget about iPhone. Get Samsung Galaxy S 2 instead! Good web experiences like iPhone / WP7, and huge ram available for play…. Not to mention that we can have SD card for more storage and customized ring tones without jailbreaking!!
http://fxfp.com/ Alex F.

1. And? This does not answer my point. The fact that WindowsCE registry entry enables 32-bit colour in the OS does not mean anything about how stable or up-to-date HTC’s video driver is (or that the rest of the software supports it). For example a lot of mobile GPUs can only accelerate games in 16-bit mode.

2. Once again, and?

3. They don’t need to make up fake excuses.

4. Forced updates – you were lucky. A lot of people weren’t, as evidenced by comments for this very website.

5. Testing by network – yes, really. They actually test a lot of stuff (mostly their pointless branding and shit like that, but also configuration settings, etc).

6. Just because they are not releasing fixes right now, it does not mean that they are ignoring issues.
As for the YouTube – there is an app for that. Or 50.
And editing video on iPhone? On tiny screen? Really? Or are you confusing iPhone with iPad?

7. Camera settings – in WP7 all camera settings are different between devices of various manufacturers (there is no unified API for saving them). It is not just a checkbox.
Endeavour 1934

1. The fact is, contrary to what you and MS have said, it works, it doesn’t use more battery and the performance is just marginally worse. The driver is perfectly stable, no HTC user has reported problems on any forum after applying the hack, and if it’s outdated it’s not a problem. No one has the latest drivers on their devices/computers, and that doesn’t make them less compatible. As a matter of fact, the safest thing is always “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

2. Obviously, and again contrary to what you’ve said, developers can not make their apps look good just by working with 16bit devices, avoiding using gradients, because a lot of apps require them. Programing their apps to use matrix dithering is a very poor solution, and FRC dithering is out of the question.

3. But they are obviously making them. And ignoring a lot of problems. Read below. Or above.

4. I was lucky and a lot of people were lucky too. Samsung users are not usually that lucky, even with official updates that were supposed to work. Heh.

5. On other OS maybe. As you may know, WP7 customization is almost non-existant. Boot logo, APNs, an extra accent color and some apps that MS should test as they do test all apps in the marketplace, which are not an essential part or tightly integrated on the OS.
Test those things, apps included (IF new versions of the apps are included), doesn’t take more than a week.

6. If they are not answering people’s complains and they are releasing various updates that don’t fix them, they are effectively ignoring the problem. And it’s not a complex problem, you know.
Youtube – yeah, there are a lot of apps, but the problem are the embedded videos on websites. If your device is set to anything but english, you can’t see the videos. Clicking the placeholder does nothing and you can’t copy the URL, so in practice there is no way to watch them if I don’t even know what to search for on a standalone app. Stupid, simple, annoying and important bug. Did they fix it on NoDo? Nope. Maybe on 7392? Nope. I have to wait one full year until mango to MAYBE see this fixed. And I thought that MS “tested all devices on every country”. LOL.

7. So what? There are… 10 WP7 phones with maybe only 5 o 6 different camera modules? Wow, that’s a lot of work. They surely need a full year to implement a save settings feature. /sarcasm.

Evansdave

“Microsoft has no reason to lie to you.”

ILMSOTIPMP…….I laughed my a$$ off till I p’d my pants

http://fxfp.com/ Alex F.

Grow up. Go hug you Blackberry.

Aceofspades25

So to ensure a consistent experience they downgraded my phone… nice! How does that improve the situation for anybody?
http://twitter.com/jimmyfal JImmy Fallon

I think anyone that owns the current Windows Phone 7 has pretty much agreed to be the Beta testers, till the real version comes out hopefully in September. So I will bend over and take anything MS wants to stick there until Mango, and then I might start to complain.
http://www.facebook.com/noe.brito Noe Brito

When is my Focus going to get the update?
Nh3man

Microsoft is the Machine in Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine” as in “Don’t worry about what features you want, We will tell you what features we are going to let you have and you should be grateful for it.”
CABAL

One step forward, two steps back.
http://twitter.com/danrivhor Daniel Rivero Horie

Everytime I read something about Microsoft+Windows Phone 7 with the words “By design” in it, I get a bad feeling *cough * camera settings *cough*
barryallott

Oh my god god GOD. its colour (color) settings. Stfu and get a life. I read people saying ‘tey have let me down’ and crap….. No one is forcing you to have this phone. It does call people does it not? I’m soooo waiting for it to go beyond the tech stage and get adopted by the general public. Qt least we will have questions on how to use it not children bitching about how it should be the dream phone for them…….. Life is outside, please try it…
Zulu

Relax people 32bit support is coming in Mango

http://www.mobiletechworld.com/2011/04/15/windows-phone-7-mango-media-and-speed-improvements-overview-32bit-color-support-better-controls/
Gilad

I just know that IPhone users admire the picture quality on my samsung focus, the picture is beautiful, am i missing something?
Anon

Why’s everyone so angry? Only HD7 and Trophy users ever got to “see” 32bit color, and their screens were garbage anyway.

I have a keen eye for color banding, and I noticed the 16bit color on my Samsung Focus when I bought my phone last near, but it’s never bugged me because the Super AMOLED screen was superior to the HTC anyway.

Did you know that most computer LCD screens cannot display 32bit color? TN panels are garbage that display 16-bit color with dithering. Unless you’re a rich graphics artist flaunting your $1000 24″ LCD screen, you shouldn’t be complaining.