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2019 Malibu View night blindness


zhuskers1

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I have a friend who has a 2019 23 LSV and with his Malibu View Screens completely dimmed (night mode) they are still way too bright when cruising at night.   He has to lay micro fiber towels over them at night.  
2 Questions:

1) is there any solution to my friends problem?

2). I am expecting to receive a new 2021 23 LSV next week.   Will our boat have the same issue?

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ahopkins22LSV

I agree, I just toss a towel over it if needed. I can’t remember our 2019 well enough to compare it to our 2020 screen. I don’t feel it’s terrible but I do put a towel over it from time to time. 

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A towel over the Maliview is a must for night driving.

We are out at night enough that I have though about making a couple rags and putting velcro on them

Edited by Sparky450
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how crazy is it not to have a dimmer that lets you turn it way down, or at least have the night setting at a level that is even remotely realistic for night use.  First world problems, I know.

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ahopkins22LSV
29 minutes ago, zhuskers1 said:

Has this issue been addressed in the 2021 model year, or is a towel still required?  Thanks 

In my opinion it’s not brighter than the screens in all of our vehicles and we seem to drive those at night just fine. I don’t get your major concern, do you not being towels with you? If you’re going to spend hours worrying about things like this you should just not take delivery of your boat. Not one boating trip every goes to plan and you are always adapting, changing, fixing things. Relax and have a good time and take things as they come. 

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Not a 2021 but we just put a towel over it on night mode at night. It’s brighter than our car screens but I don’t have a reason to see the screen at night as we usually drive slow. 

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12 minutes ago, ahopkinsVTX said:

In my opinion it’s not brighter than the screens in all of our vehicles and we seem to drive those at night just fine. I don’t get your major concern, do you not being towels with you? If you’re going to spend hours worrying about things like this you should just not take delivery of your boat. Not one boating trip every goes to plan and you are always adapting, changing, fixing things. Relax and have a good time and take things as they come. 

I agree it is a easy work around but shouldn't have too. I agree with @zhuskers1

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This should be a software item, but they won't change it if they don't know it is an issue. 

IMO, a boat dash should get much darker than a car dash since it is easy to get away from all other lights in a boat.  

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Difference between car and boat is you are lighting up your outside field of vision with car headlights and other outside light sources. I think that is why your not blinded by dash screens in car and you can turn them all the way dark usually. That don't work on the water.

 

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ahopkins22LSV

Ok bad example of the car screens. But nonetheless, it’s a crazy minor thing. Yes the dimmer could go lower but at the end of the day take the three second straight o out a towel on. Or find some tinted film or something. 

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12 minutes ago, ahopkinsVTX said:

Ok bad example of the car screens. But nonetheless, it’s a crazy minor thing. Yes the dimmer could go lower but at the end of the day take the three second straight o out a towel on. Or find some tinted film or something. 

50,000 Malibu owners that boat at night can get out a towel to safely see at night, or one engineer at Malibu can design a rheostat or software to lower the brightness to a safe level, where you can see the red and green navigation lights on other boats easily.  It is a crazy minor thing.  I use a towel.  But it is also a crazy minor thing for them to fix, and would make the boats safer for use at night.  

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ahopkins22LSV
15 hours ago, malibudog said:

50,000 Malibu owners that boat at night can get out a towel to safely see at night, or one engineer at Malibu can design a rheostat or software to lower the brightness to a safe level, where you can see the red and green navigation lights on other boats easily.  It is a crazy minor thing.  I use a towel.  But it is also a crazy minor thing for them to fix, and would make the boats safer for use at night.  

Yea it would be. Never said it wouldn’t be. My whole point was this guy seems overly concerned. Maybe he’s not, but he’s got a post going here that he has bumped, has a thread on Facebook. It’s far from something to sit and worry about. Also, I’ve been boating a long time, on a lot of different boats, some with way more screens than we have in ours, that all seem bright at night and I’ve never been blinded to the point of not being able to see navigational markers. 

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8 hours ago, ahopkinsVTX said:

Yea it would be. Never said it wouldn’t be. My whole point was this guy seems overly concerned. Maybe he’s not, but he’s got a post going here that he has bumped, has a thread on Facebook. It’s far from something to sit and worry about. Also, I’ve been biting a long time, on a lot of different boats, some with way more screens than we have in ours, that all seem bright at night and I’ve never been blinded to the point of not being able to see navigational markers. 

“This Guy” is not overly concerned.    He was simply asking questions and seeking information.  
 

Thank you for thoughtful response….

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17 hours ago, malibudog said:

50,000 Malibu owners that boat at night can get out a towel to safely see at night, or one engineer at Malibu can design a rheostat or software to lower the brightness to a safe level, where you can see the red and green navigation lights on other boats easily.  It is a crazy minor thing.  I use a towel.  But it is also a crazy minor thing for them to fix, and would make the boats safer for use at night.  

Or it is something that a tiny subset of owners complain about while everyone else is fine with it.

As a business if you made a change every time 1% of your owners had a minor aggravation you would have to factor that in the overall cost of the boat over the warranty period, or even longer. Guess what that would do to the base price increase every year?

 

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39 minutes ago, 23LSVOwner said:

Or it is something that a tiny subset of owners complain about while everyone else is fine with it.

As a business if you made a change every time 1% of your owners had a minor aggravation you would have to factor that in the overall cost of the boat over the warranty period, or even longer. Guess what that would do to the base price increase every year?

 

It's a fair point that it could be a tiny subset.  How people use their boats varies widely, and trying to get a pulse on an issue from reading an enthusiast's forum is generally not a good idea.   By the same token, it could be a problem for many, but few complain, and just use a towel like I have for more than 20 years.  From what I hear from talking to Malibu people on our lake, at the boat shows, and at the dealership, it's considerably closer to an issue for half than it is for 1%, but I have no statistics, that's just my personal experience.

My personal experience is it is also misleading to call it a "minor aggravation".   Personally, we boat on a lake that allows boats to run at full speed at night, and while we don't often, others do.  The lake has lots of houses and consequently lots of lights around the shoreline, so it is very difficult to pick out other's red and green navigation lights at night.  I use a towel to make my trips out at night safer, and it is a big enough safety factor for me that I rigged up some specialty pieces of towel with velcro to hold them in place.  I think my main point would be that If there is an easy and cheap fix to a safety problem, and the manufacturer fails to make it, it is eventually likely to cost them far more in liability exposure than the fix ever would have, and what would that do to the base price increase every year?  Malibu already has a night view setting, so adjusting it so that it is a dimmer is unlikely to make a noticeable impact on the base price of a $150,000 boat, but pretty sure a liability verdict could.

In the meantime, I am going to continue using a towel.  If you think that just pointing out something that could be improved at low cost is complaining, then you are indeed very fortunate in your marriage and your life.  I'm a huge Malibu fan, and despite having more than 20 years of Malibu's, all of which have had their share of issues, I think you will find few "complaints" from me on this forum.  

 

 

 

 

Edited by malibudog
additional info
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53 minutes ago, 23LSVOwner said:

As a business if you made a change every time 1% of your owners had a minor aggravation you would have to factor that in the overall cost of the boat over the warranty period, or even longer. Guess what that would do to the base price increase every year?

If the dash were too bright on my boat I would not consider it a minor aggravation.  The fact that you use the touch screen to dim the screen indicates that it is a software item.  Making that change in the next software release could very easily happen for nearly zero per boat.

Just to mention my F150 again, I don't use it, but I believe that it allows me to turn the center screen completely off if I want to.  The night mode dimming goes low enough that I don't need to turn it off, but on a boat I probably would do it.

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I have owned Malibu’s for over 25 y ears.   All my boats were pre Maliview.    I am awaiting delivery of a 2021 23 LSV.

it is my understanding that the system was updated in 2020.   This is why I am asking if the QUESTION has the night dash dimming issue  been addressed in the 2020/21 updated system.  

I have a contact at Malibu and I will share this issue

For the record - I am complaining, only asking questions.  😃

Edited by zhuskers1
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3 minutes ago, oldjeep said:

I wonder what percentage of Malibu owners are ever on the lake after dark.

I wonder what percentage of Malibu owners are actually on a lake.  It still bugs me that the displays say, "Lake Temp" and not "Water Temp."  Sorry, I just had to throw that out.  I'm waiting for someone to show up so we can go out on the bayou to ski....

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Have you guys gone into the backlighting section in the settings and turned the night mode all the way down?  I'm not sure if this setting is on all years, but I wouldn't see why not.  For me I had to throw a towel at first until I found this setting and turned it all the way down.

As far as trying to drive at night with the stock Malibu night mode settings, it was pretty much impossible.  I boat on the delta which is mostly narrow channels with many turns, I couldn't do it at night with the dash that bright.  Eyes need to adjust to the night which was impossible with the screen on night mode, or else I was basically driving blind.

IMG_1320.jpg

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ahopkins22LSV
8 minutes ago, calilsv said:

Have you guys gone into the backlighting section in the settings and turned the night mode all the way down?  I'm not sure if this setting is on all years, but I wouldn't see why not.  For me I had to throw a towel at first until I found this setting and turned it all the way down.

As far as trying to drive at night with the stock Malibu night mode settings, it was pretty much impossible.  I boat on the delta which is mostly narrow channels with many turns, I couldn't do it at night with the dash that bright.  Eyes need to adjust to the night which was impossible with the screen on night mode, or else I was basically driving blind.

IMG_1320.jpg

Yeah, one of the first things I do with a new boat. Maybe that’s why I feel it’s not bad. :dontknow:

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If it's the first thing, why not mention it in the first post.  Wouldn't it have been easier than arguing about it not being a big deal.  :Frustrated:

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