DisplayCal settings for Dell XPS 15 4k UHD touch

[midn8]

Hello,

I’m a photographer and recently (trying) to switch from an old MacbookPro
to the Dell XPS 15 with the 4K UHD touch display.

Currently im hardly trying to calibrate the display by using DisplayCal in
combination with the Xrite ColorMunki.

After I’ve sorted out all the Dell software and Windows 10 circumstances
like removing Dell premier color, go through Windows Calibration Wizard,
disable energy saving inside Intel UHD driver I need to know which settings
I have to make inside DisplayCal to achive the best possible calibration
results.

Does someone can provide me the correct settings in DisplayCal for my
laptop display?

Thanks a lot in advance!

[daddy4rime]

Hey, I just did this yesterday with ColorMunki Display; Set everything to default  under Display Tab and just changed the  Gamma to 2.2 under Calibration. Worked well for me.

Calibrite Display SL on Amazon  
Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

[midn8]

Thank you for your reply. I tried it out and the result shows way too much magenta.
DisplayCal claims 100% sRGB and 99,9% aRGB what sounds really really good to
me.

For the next try i’ve set the whitepoint to 65k which generally looks better and
the colors are not so saturated and poppy than before.  But overall now it all looks
a bit too much greeny.

I’m not a pro with calibration and do i miss here something?

[Vincent]

Currently im hardly trying to calibrate the display by using DisplayCal in
combination with the Xrite ColorMunki.

which one? colorimeter or spectrophotometer?

After I’ve sorted out all the Dell software and Windows 10 circumstances
like removing Dell premier color, go through Windows Calibration Wizard,

If your display is supported by DPC, it would have been better if you bought an i1Displaypro.

Does someone can provide me the correct settings in DisplayCal for my
laptop display?

If you own a colormunki display (colorimeter) you need to choose a proper spectral correction. DisplayCAL bundles the most common ones for widegamut displays but IDNK which backlight type is used by your Dell.
If you do not know try GB-LED (U2413) , WLED PFS for AdobeRGB displays (HP Z24x) or RGBLED.

If you own a color munki spectrophotometer it is better to work in hi res mode (even better if your display uses WLED PFS backlight).

Thank you for your reply. I tried it out and the result shows way too much magenta.

Where? in white 255? You should be more specific and precise.
If it happens in white, and you own a munki display read what I wrote about spectral corrections.

DisplayCal claims 100% sRGB and 99,9% aRGB what sounds really really good to
me.

Good for color managed enviroment, not so good if you need to check or work with apps that do not use color management and at the same time your display does not allow some kind of gamut emulation (that’s why if your display supports Dell Premier Color -DPC- is nice to have it)

For the next try i’ve set the whitepoint to 65k which generally looks better and
the colors are not so saturated and poppy than before.  But overall now it all looks
a bit too much greeny.

Again, your claims should be more precise.

If it happens on white, very likely to be related to wrong/none spectral correction (although there are other sources) on a munki display, or not useing high res mode in an color munki photo.

Also we do not know if your claims of poppy colors or not poppy but greener color happen in non color managed enviroment (Windows desktop, IE, Edge, Windows Photo app) or in color managed enviroment (Photoshop, Lighroom)

This is the reason it is important that you write your issues in a presice way, or attach a DisplayCAL display profile verification report (do NOT check simulate profile).

I’m not a pro with calibration and do i miss here something?

Try to write, describre in a more precise way what issues you see, or even better, attach a profile verification report.

Remember that Windows Desktop, IE, Edge, Windows Photo and other apps do not color manage (or do it in a wrong way) so a widegamut display like yours will render wrong colors in them unless display has some kind of gamut emulation feature (DPC).
Without that feature… forget to see things properly on those apps, but you can use color managed apps like Photoshop, Lightroom, Firefox, most Nikon/Canon RAW tools, CaptureOne, GIMP … etc and see your photo work as intened.

If you explain in a more detalied way your issues & enviroment then people here can explain how to work with that display.

[midn8]

Hey Vincent,

thanks a lot for your reply!  I’ll try to be more specific. But like i said before i’m more an experienced photographer than an expert in monitor calibration…. 😉

1. I was wrong with my X-Rite device. It’s an i1 Display Pro (colorimeter i guess)
2. My setup is: Dell XPS 15 4k UHD touch (Sharp N5V8C-LQ156D1) + Dell U2713H
3. Both of my displays support DPC. So do you suggest using it instead of DisplayCal and even X-Rite’s iProfiler?
4. Beside DisplayCal i have iProfiler installed and used the function “import colorimeter corrections from
   other display profiling software”. This was successful but the “Correction” dropdown stays on “Auto (none)”
5. I work with Lightroom as the only CM aware app and create prints on my Epson R3880
6. Currently i have Lightroom just installed and my cataloge isn’t migrated to the new laptop by now
   and i can’t verify if the magenta and/or green tint issue is also there. So my perception on this refers
   to non CM apps

I’ve done another calibration attempt after i gone through topic number 4 described above. Result is now
more pleasing with just a slightly to much green (in non CM environment).

I’ve attached a report based on the last calibration. I hope i’ve done it right and all my infos will help.

Thanks in advance,
midn8

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by midn8.

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[Vincent]

3- No. Each display needs its own application. U2713H needs DUCCS (del ultrasharp color calibration solution, a customized i1Profiler & HW cal), “some” laptops use DPC.
For U2713H use DUCCS for CAL1/CAL2. Validate with DisplayCAL and GBLED (U2413) correction. If there are issues with grey, correct that CAL1/CAL2 preset in GPU. If you wish full native gamut GPU only, use “Custom color” preset and calibrate like otehr screens.
4- No use for i1Profiler unless you own a i1displayPro PLUS or a i1pro3 spectriphotometer. Uninstall it. DUCCS is an i1Profiler (but a little lower version).
Do not use “auto None”, I’ve suggested a few ones for each screen.
6- No CM apps, you will see them wrong (oversaturated). Tints in white or grey can be mitigated with proper spectral correction.
If your laptop suports DPC and want to see photos in non color managed apps assuming that they are sRGB, get a preset or configuration un DPC limiting gamut to sRGB. Same for U2713H and its CAL1/CAL2 (DUCCS “srGB” preset aims for sRGB-like TRC in a limited contrast display, if you wish 2.2 gamma & sRGB gamut, use “custom xy”).

Regarding your report:
-no spectral correction for a widegamut led screen, so it is wrong, “Numbers” in that report are not to be trusted. Same for calibration: do it again choosing one of the 3 suggested spectral correction… or try to find in an online review a spectral power distribution graph (SPD) so we can know its backlight type.
Something like this: http ://www. displaymate .com/Spectra_41a1.jpg, power per wavelegth. If you or we see that graph is easy to find (or even make!) a suitable spectral correction for i1d3 colorimeters.
-Also grey is bad, look at a*b* measurements for grey, right column. Choose “medium” or “slow” calibration speed (~30min in calibration stage in “slow” mode, perhaps half in medium)

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by Vincent.

[Marcus]

@vincent

I have the same laptop as midn8. And I have some questions regarding the function of DPC.

1. Is DPC really limiting the gamut of the display? I can see no difference in the profiles after profiling in DisCal after switching from aRGB to sRGB in DPC. I would expect a much smaller colourspace when sRGB is activated in DPC. The only differences I can achieve is in white-balance or gamma.

2. Is DPC doing a kind of hardware calibration like for example PalettMasterElement from BenQ (I own a SW271). This question goes in the direction if it does make sense to use a DisCal profile on top of the calibration of DPC. Or will the DisCal ProfileLoader and DPC fight in the GPU LUT  for the first place.

Bye
Marcus

[Vincent]

Gamut emulation can be done with a LUT3D or a lut-matrix-lut. Latter is used in most cheap models (dells, Eizo CS, HP, most SW benqs…). Modern GPUs (AMDs at least, nvidias should too) have lut-matrix-lut HW, although “common” GPU calibration do not use it at full, just one of 1D LUT. Details best to ask to ArgyllCMS creation, maybe there is not a common API for the lut-matrix… but it has been there since ATI AVIVO engine. If you google there should be a pdf (an old one!) with the same typical lut-matrix-lut that Dells or HP (etc) use for their HW calibration.

Laptops have an embeded display… so unless you can hack what it does it’s difficult to say if it uses a LUT-matrix like some lesser HW cal monitors or if it runs on GPU. For example: Desktop AMD GPUs can do the trick of “emulation sRGB” on GPU based on EDID data in their lut-matrix-lut (AVIVO engine). Since it’s transparent to user, apps do not know if it is HW cal or not. I do not remember exactly AMD gamut emulation behavior but I would say that you can load a GPU calibration while it’s active and see the changes in grey… so it could apply here too.
BUT… most of these laptops use Intel HD 620? or something like that. Does these new Intels have such HW features? IDNK. Older iGPUs have 8bit LUT (thus banding) but I’ve not tested these new cards for Intel. DisplayCAL/ArgyllCMS have a test for video LUT. Give it a try and see what tey report.
For testing DPC & DIsplayCAL togetehr, make a DisplayCAL calibration with a very high gamma (2.6) or a warm white (D50) so you vcan see if gamut emulation to sRGB and your calibration can live together = if you can see rediced gamut on green-red and at the same time it keeps that high gamma or warm white.

You can use DisplayCAL on top of SW271 too. Since PME does not use a proper spectral correction for any of the SW models, it is recomended to test it with displaycal at least: WP + a*b* in grey.

Regarding you issue about sRGB emulation not working with your laptop and DPC, IDNK whcih laptops suport its full set of features and which ones do not. Dell should have a list, ask them. For visual inspection of gamut emulation use MS paint, a 255 red patch and 255 green patche. If gamut emulation is working it could be easily spotted.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by Vincent.

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