Color vs Red MFD?
08-19-2011, 08:32 PM
#11
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The red display is absolutely hideous. I hate it so much that I was almost willing to pay the $2500 nav package cost just for the color display.
08-20-2011, 09:44 AM
#12
The display in non-NAV cars is a color display. The car electronics are programmed to send information mostly in red. Changing the instrument cluster to the display used in NAV cars will still display red letters on a black background.
The use of red instrument illumination has its roots in aviation. It was thought that red light did not cause the chemical reaction in the eye that adapts your eye for bright lighting. It takes about 30 minutes for your eye to become adapted to low light conditions, where it only take a few seconds to adapt to sun light. Pilots need to remain dark adapted while flying at night. Red instrument lighting in planes was found to be best for retaining night vision. Red by itself is harder for most people to focus in the dark. This is why people find it objectionable.
I don't know if the Audi tech center is aware of the more recent research that indicates the "red cockpit" observations were accurate because the light source in the thirties was incandescent lamps. They were made red by heavy red filters. This reduced the amount of light reaching a pilots eyes by a larger margin than green or blue filters. Modern aircraft flight panels are composed of full color displays, but the intensity of the illumination is controlled by the amount of ambient light outside.
I can only surmise that the sales department is involved in the decision to sell two different displays in their cars. This is to drive American purchasers toward more profitable option packages. In the rest of the world buyers will not put up with such nonsense, thus there is a full alacart menu of options for those buyers. Of course tax laws make their cars cost double what Americans pay for their quattro's.
The use of red instrument illumination has its roots in aviation. It was thought that red light did not cause the chemical reaction in the eye that adapts your eye for bright lighting. It takes about 30 minutes for your eye to become adapted to low light conditions, where it only take a few seconds to adapt to sun light. Pilots need to remain dark adapted while flying at night. Red instrument lighting in planes was found to be best for retaining night vision. Red by itself is harder for most people to focus in the dark. This is why people find it objectionable.
I don't know if the Audi tech center is aware of the more recent research that indicates the "red cockpit" observations were accurate because the light source in the thirties was incandescent lamps. They were made red by heavy red filters. This reduced the amount of light reaching a pilots eyes by a larger margin than green or blue filters. Modern aircraft flight panels are composed of full color displays, but the intensity of the illumination is controlled by the amount of ambient light outside.
I can only surmise that the sales department is involved in the decision to sell two different displays in their cars. This is to drive American purchasers toward more profitable option packages. In the rest of the world buyers will not put up with such nonsense, thus there is a full alacart menu of options for those buyers. Of course tax laws make their cars cost double what Americans pay for their quattro's.
08-21-2011, 05:16 AM
#13
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The display in non-NAV cars is a color display. The car electronics are programmed to send information mostly in red. Changing the instrument cluster to the display used in NAV cars will still display red letters on a black background.
The use of red instrument illumination has its roots in aviation. It was thought that red light did not cause the chemical reaction in the eye that adapts your eye for bright lighting. It takes about 30 minutes for your eye to become adapted to low light conditions, where it only take a few seconds to adapt to sun light. Pilots need to remain dark adapted while flying at night. Red instrument lighting in planes was found to be best for retaining night vision. Red by itself is harder for most people to focus in the dark. This is why people find it objectionable.
I don't know if the Audi tech center is aware of the more recent research that indicates the "red cockpit" observations were accurate because the light source in the thirties was incandescent lamps. They were made red by heavy red filters. This reduced the amount of light reaching a pilots eyes by a larger margin than green or blue filters. Modern aircraft flight panels are composed of full color displays, but the intensity of the illumination is controlled by the amount of ambient light outside.
I can only surmise that the sales department is involved in the decision to sell two different displays in their cars. This is to drive American purchasers toward more profitable option packages. In the rest of the world buyers will not put up with such nonsense, thus there is a full alacart menu of options for those buyers. Of course tax laws make their cars cost double what Americans pay for their quattro's.
The use of red instrument illumination has its roots in aviation. It was thought that red light did not cause the chemical reaction in the eye that adapts your eye for bright lighting. It takes about 30 minutes for your eye to become adapted to low light conditions, where it only take a few seconds to adapt to sun light. Pilots need to remain dark adapted while flying at night. Red instrument lighting in planes was found to be best for retaining night vision. Red by itself is harder for most people to focus in the dark. This is why people find it objectionable.
I don't know if the Audi tech center is aware of the more recent research that indicates the "red cockpit" observations were accurate because the light source in the thirties was incandescent lamps. They were made red by heavy red filters. This reduced the amount of light reaching a pilots eyes by a larger margin than green or blue filters. Modern aircraft flight panels are composed of full color displays, but the intensity of the illumination is controlled by the amount of ambient light outside.
I can only surmise that the sales department is involved in the decision to sell two different displays in their cars. This is to drive American purchasers toward more profitable option packages. In the rest of the world buyers will not put up with such nonsense, thus there is a full alacart menu of options for those buyers. Of course tax laws make their cars cost double what Americans pay for their quattro's.
08-21-2011, 08:32 PM
#14
I believe the first paragraph makes it clear I was discussing the instrument cluster multi-function display.
The main display above the center console is also a color display in either NAV and non-NAV cars. The NAV screen is half an inch larger and has higher resolution to better display map images.
The main display above the center console is also a color display in either NAV and non-NAV cars. The NAV screen is half an inch larger and has higher resolution to better display map images.
08-22-2011, 01:43 PM
#15
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I believe the first paragraph makes it clear I was discussing the instrument cluster multi-function display.
The main display above the center console is also a color display in either NAV and non-NAV cars. The NAV screen is half an inch larger and has higher resolution to better display map images.
The main display above the center console is also a color display in either NAV and non-NAV cars. The NAV screen is half an inch larger and has higher resolution to better display map images.
The only color display in the car on non-nav is the main screen which is why I assumed you were talking about that.
08-22-2011, 02:08 PM
#16
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The non-MMI MFD has two colors - red and orange.
08-22-2011, 09:15 PM
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08-23-2011, 10:45 AM
#18
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Have you seen a monochrome TV or computer monitor lately?
Still, it's certainly an interesting question which has been raised, and I may take some time to investigate further. A couple of high-resolution macro photos are all that's needed.
08-23-2011, 01:31 PM
#19
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The the display between the tach and speedo is COLOR, but the software driving the panel is monochromatic. Economies of scale dictate that for this class of panel, display manufacturers will only process color displays. Have you seen a monochrome TV or computer monitor lately?
The display on non MMI is a monchromatic red display that had the capacity of switching to amber/orange on the upper half.
The display on MMI is a full color LCD.
They are completely different - to say that the non MMI screen and the MMI screen are the same and it is just the software that makes them different is incorrect.
And we are not talking about computer screens, we are talking about a 3in information display.
Last edited by NPuter; 08-23-2011 at 01:35 PM.
08-23-2011, 01:57 PM
#20
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Seriously?
The DIS comes in two versions, RED and Full Colour. I happen to know someone that switched their cluster over to a Colour cluster because they didn't like the red. The part numbers aren't even the same on the equivalant years and models.
The Display is driven by the cluster and not by other equipment so it will process the information internally and display the appropriate graphics. If memory serves me the Colour DIS is an LCD panel and the non is a back lighted derivative of the Dot Matrix display. It is only capable of displaying the colours of the LED bulbs that illuminate it. It uses a very similar display as the heater controls.
Hell there is even a low version of the NAV that still uses the DIS out there for the B8 models. Don't you think that would use colour of available?
At anyrate there are two different versions of the DIS and there is some miss information being passed around here. So in short.. What NPuter said
The DIS comes in two versions, RED and Full Colour. I happen to know someone that switched their cluster over to a Colour cluster because they didn't like the red. The part numbers aren't even the same on the equivalant years and models.
The Display is driven by the cluster and not by other equipment so it will process the information internally and display the appropriate graphics. If memory serves me the Colour DIS is an LCD panel and the non is a back lighted derivative of the Dot Matrix display. It is only capable of displaying the colours of the LED bulbs that illuminate it. It uses a very similar display as the heater controls.
Hell there is even a low version of the NAV that still uses the DIS out there for the B8 models. Don't you think that would use colour of available?
At anyrate there are two different versions of the DIS and there is some miss information being passed around here. So in short.. What NPuter said