Help choosing the correct settings

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  • #23973

    David A
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    I’ve been using DisplayCal for a while now, I had a set up that worked for me and everything looked good, but recently I decided to change up my settings in hopes of improving my calibration, but the new calibration looks much much different. I’m trying to figure out which settings will give me more accurate results. I know there are no universally best calibration settings, but any help someone can give me to point me in the right direction is appreciated. My equipment and story below:

    Dell U2410 – Spyder 4 Elite – Nvidia Quadro K5200 – Windows 10 Pro   (Should I upgrade my spyder to something newer? Monitor?)

    I do a lot of different work, mostly stuff that will go online, but I’ve also done some films and other stuff. I also want something that will look good when I watch movies or play games in my free time. Let me know if that’s silly and I need different calibrations for different things.

    First Calibration:       Years ago, I set my DisplayCal to Video (D65, Rec 1886), and I left everything pretty much as normal, basic as it comes. I added black and white point drift, ccfl wide gamut, and I increased the patches for a bit more accuracy, and I believe the white point was an xy coordinate. Also, upon the advice of others, I set my monitor to the standard preset, and I did not adjust the colors in the monitor (I was told I would reduce the monitors gamut range if I did so). With the initial reading, the monitor was too warm, but as I said, I was told not to adjust the colors, so I went ahead and calibrated it that way. The calibration finished, and it cooled the colors, and everything looked great, but I always noticed that I could see into the shadows a bit better on my monitor than on other phones or laptops.

    Second Calibration:       A few days ago, I decided to change my settings after reading some stuff online. I again used Video (D65, Rec 1886), but this time I changed some of the advanced features, and monitor settings. Still used black and white drift, but I used LCD generic, instead of CCFL wide gamut. This time I set the white point to 6500k, instead of the xy values, because I know I use 6500 bulbs in my room. I also set a gamma of 2.4 and an ambient light level adjustment of 16 lux (measured from my spyder, it’s decently bright in my room). Now, for my monitor, this time I did custom color, and I adjusted the offset on my monitor to reach an acceptable white point before the calibration starts. This calibration looks good too, but there’s some differences.

    Comparing the two:          Before the new calibration, I noticed that my monitor was usually a bit bluer than my new Macbook, and overall less contrast, making it easier to see into the shadows. I started researching color again because I planned on calibrating my Macbook. But before that I tried the new settings and calibration on my Dell. After the new calibration, I noticed that my monitor was a bit warmer than my new Macbook, and overall had more contrast, making it harder to see in the shadows. Also, when I used to turn my monitor on, it would always be too warm before DisplayCal kicked in, then DisplayCal would cool it down, and now, the monitor seems too blue when it starts (even though I adjusted for white point with offsets?) and DisplayCal warms it up.

    Does anyone know what settings I should be using? Or any help with this? It’s not that either looks bad, but most of all I would like to ensure I have a somewhat accurate sense of contrast and shadows. If I color something to be barely visible in shadows, I’d like it to remain that way across as many platforms as possible.

    I appreciate any and all help.

    Thank you

    David

    #23982

    Vincent
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    Spyder (whatever spyder)… if you google a little you’ll see it won’t be the first choice or a reliable device, better xrite i1d3 fammily but keep in mind that cheapest i1d3 won’t work with HW cal solutions of some high end displays like a CS2420 (24″ replacement for your display)
    You should use ccfl widegamut correction, but since Spyder is not an accurate device… it may not work as intended

    Do not use Rec1866 with low contrast display, choose 2.4 instead (or 2.2). Google what is Rec1886 and how it behaves as you go from extremely high contrast to a limited contast display like 1000:1

    You cannot use a macbook as white reference because it is very likely that it is not close to D65. It may be close to white cuves (<3dE) but in cool side fo the curve (from D65 piont)

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

    #24000

    David A
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    Thank you for your response, I will research more about Rec1886, and I’ll plan to stick to gamma 2.4 or 2.2. Under what circumstances would I choose 2.2 or 2.4?

    Also, I had actually planned on calibrating my macbook as well. I only meant to use it as a reference because it made things abundantly clear how different the two calibrations. What settings should I use for a macbook? Also gamma 2.4? 2.2?

    Also, if anyone has any advice for how to best set up my monitor as well that would be greatly appreciated, such as standard with no offsets, custom with offsets, I’ve also read that people use the Adobe RGB setting, etc.

    Also, should I be using the ambient light level adjustments? D65 white point vs xy coordinates? Anything else I should keep in mind?

    Thank you, I really appreciate the help.

    #24003

    Vincent
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    2.2 is like a common display.
    2.4 is like Rec1886 should look like in a display with a HUGE contrast.

    A 1000:1 display set to 2.4 should look like Rec1886 but very dark colors are going to be brigther than an OLED because contrast limitation in that 1000:1 display.
    It’s better to put 2.4 instead rec1886 because other colors that your display is able to match to such OLED display won’t be lifted.

    Google and see how rec1886 looks like depending on contrast.

    #24036

    asdfage wegagag
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    The spyder4elite is not going to give you an accurate colors, but it should be enough to get at least decent grey balance. The color filters have an expiry date, it’s expired at this point, all spyder4s.

    Recommend you get the i1Display pro, or Colormunki display.

    For the U2410 specifically, firstly you need to turn it on in factory menu mode, hold the 2nd and 4th led light with your finger, press the On button, wait for all the lights to turn on, they should stay on, now you’re in service menu mode, hit the top led to open service menu. The Default gains for all the color temperatures are WRONG, you will get extremely bad contrast ratio if you do not adjust these service menu settings BEFORE calibration attempt.

    DO NOT use the adobe RGB setting unless you have severe banding issues calibrating the Standard mode. Because the adobe rgb mode changes the coordinates of the monitor’s primaries to align with the adobe primaries, which greatly limits the monitor’s gamut.

    You can setup/tune the SRGB mode as well if you need Gamut emulation (cut down) to SRGB, but if you’re in photoshop or other color managed applications, you won’t need this.

    The 6500k row in the service menu corresponds to the Standard setting in the regular color preset menu, This is the mode with the widest gamut, I recommend calibration in THIS mode.

    The monitor must be warmed up for ~1.5 to 2 hours, CCFL, especially old ccfl takes an extremely long time to stabilize. During this time, make sure to run an RGB pixel fixer video (from youtube) on the screen to exercise the pixels. make sure the pc doesn’t go to sleep or turn the screen off, or you’ll have to start all over again.

    Now, after warm up, while still in the service menu mode, Set 6500k under displaycal’s calibration menu, then run the interactive white point menu, but do not start the calibration. First set the brightness in the regular brightness menu, I recommend you stay above 200nits or else on a spyder4 it will probably read deadzones, this is a spyder problem not the monitor’s problem. After you set the brightness, then use the 6500k line in the service menu to get the white point on the dispcal interactive menu. To exit the service menu, you need to scroll up or down, in either case, once you select exit, you will NOT be in standard 6500k mode, (DO NOT turn off the monitor), you need to hit the regular first led menu button from the bottom, then select STANDARD under color presets. NOW you’re in the right mode which you just calibrated the white point of.

    THIS IS THE ONLY WAY to achieve the Maximum contrast ratio of this monitor, which is ~ 830:1,

    If you don’t do it exactly as I’ve described, at best you’ll get 600-700 depending on how WRONG the factory set whitepoint is. This has to be done in the service menu, It can not be done in the Custom color mode.

    #24039

    asdfage wegagag
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    Finally, I recommend you buy a newer LED backlit Srgb gamut monitor instead.

    CCFL even calibrated will still take that 1.5 hour to get the right color, you can’t just turn it on and trust what you see.

    For web work, you probably don’t need wide gamut either, avoid it, it’s not worth the hassle.

    LEDs also need time to stabilize, but they’re pretty much ready in 30 minutes on low brightness, maybe 45 min if you’re using high brightness, in either case, much faster and more stable than CCFL.

    #24042

    asdfage wegagag
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    You want to use the default 2.2 gamma for tone curve,

    1886 in either 2.2g or 2.4g is not appropriate for web deliverables.

    #140361

    Tim Coffey
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    I know this thread is really old but I would like to thank asdfage wegagag for the info on the U2410 and the color settings in the factory menu. My old monitors were WAY off and now they are awesome!

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