Glowworm - Black Bar?

[SingingRiver]

Just opened my Glow..around the edges there's a thin black bar on the screen which does not change regardless of book or screen. Has anyone else seen this?

Before I activate my protection plan I wanted to know if this is a known issue or just mine?

[roustabout]

sounds like a manufacturing defect to me, especially if the bar is visible with the glow light off.

This is around all four edges?  It sounds as if you're describing something parallel with the bezel, but on the screen itself?  I just looked at mine, and mine goes grey all the way to the edge on all four sides. 

Take a look at one of the review sites with photos (better yet, decent video) of the glowworm and see if you see it on those review unit?

[keriflur]

Can you post a picture?

[SingingRiver]

Here is my old NST in it's blue TARDIS River Song diary skin.

.

Here is the New Grey Glow. Note the faint black line on the lefthand side. It's visible all the way around the edges of the device. It's always there no matter what.

[SingingRiver]

According to fiance, it is a software issue, as it is not visible when it starts up..it starts once the screensaver comes up and stays unless the Glow is loading/rebooting, in which case it is not present. We also saw it on various unboxing videos.

[roustabout]

glad there's a theory, since I'm not sure I can see the line in question - left in the photo may mean photo left or device, left, as the images are mirror-reversed.  Either way, the closest thing I can see to a line looks grey to me, and like a shadow of the bezel?

[SingingRiver]

Yes, I meant left as you look at the picture. It's not a shadow. It's evident that when the device is turned off, the black line around the edge is not visible. It's only once the nook boots completely that it appears and stays there.

[bakersdozen12]

Mine has it too.  You can see the black bar on every edge, but its more prominent near the top on mine.  Doesn't really make much of a difference.  It's not like it interferes with being able to read books; it can't be more than a millimeter thick.  I suppose if someone has OCD, maybe it could be annoying though, just to know that its there.  I honestly can't remember if my original Simple Touch has it, but now this makes me want to check when I get home!

[roustabout]

Very interesting.  Mine has a border, which I hadn't paid a lot of attention to, but looking at it and comparing it to the photo, mine is a lot paler grey.  The border on mine is also visible at all times, even when powered down. 

I did notice on mine that the contrast is not as solid as the contrast on the original ST and that the illumination of screen, in addition to the widely noted very bright at top, darker just below, effect is more uneven on the main page than on my girlfriend's device - on mine, there's a sort of cloudy area about 2/3 of the way down the screen.  So the darkness of that bar may be a good thing, as it may mean that your integrated screen protector was laminted differently, somehow, than mine (hers isn't here for me to look at, and my NST is on loan to my brother.) 

On my unit, this looks like it may be similar to display scaling on an LCD or TV - if your picture is oversized, you lose a few pixels on the edge, and if you want those pixels you often wind up displaying just a hair of black around all the edges of your screen.  I think BN faced a similar choice and chose to scale the glowworm display a hair smaller than the physical panel. 

I'm interested to hear that you don't see the bar at all when the device is powered down.

[roustabout]

I wasn't sure this would show in a photo, but it does - this is what I mean when I say that the illumination is uneven across my screen.  The lower third of the screen has some cloudiness.  If the local BN still doesn't have stock, I will just call for a replacement.

You can probably also see what I'm referring to when I say that the sidebars on my unit are more grey than black, although this photo is taken in low light with the glowworm on to highlight the illumination portion, you can see edges reasonably well, also.

[SingingRiver]

I see!

I may take mine down to the store this weekend and see if they have one which does not have the bar. Annoying..I need to make sure my protection plan is linked to my device. If I bought it with the glow it should already be so linked, I think?

Either way, this bar is annoying the heck out of me.

[roustabout]

would you like to trade?  For me, the uneven screen illumination is far more annoying than the black bar would be. 

[SingingRiver]

Went to my local bandn and every demo Glow had the same bar issue..the rep said it may be related to the dual screens..whether its that or a software issue, it seems to be on all devices.