How to I pick the profile type best for me?

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  • #17788

    Anonymous
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    Hi,

    I’m getting pretty confused about profile type. I have spent hours trying to find information about what is different between LUTs, curves, single curve… I’m still lost as to which is the best for me.

    I’m not a professional requiring colour accuracy, I don’t use any photo editing software, or anything fancy. I am just an enthusiast who wants good colours for his screen.

    What I recall from my searches were something like “if you have a TN panel, use XYZ LUT”, something about having to disable black tone correction if you use this or that profile type. Many sources online specify to use single curve + matrix, without saying why. I also read that LUTs are better for accuracy but less compatible. How less compatible are they? Is the difference of accuracy that big?

    While I could ask you guys what would be the best profile type for me (you can tell me directly, I have a TN panel, only using Chrome and programming/gaming on my machine. I have a ColorMunki Display), I think it should be documented somewhere. Maybe a flowchart, letting beginners know which to pick.

    I’m trying to pick the best profile type for me, but the lack of easy to understand documentation leaves me really confused, I would really appreciate if someone could explain the pros and cons of each profile type I can pick. Should I absolutely pick one over the other if I use certain software, certain display types, use cases ? Otherwise, a recommandation for my specific setup would be appreciated as well

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    #17796

    Florian Höch
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    Hi,

    I recommend using the defaults.

    #17799

    Anonymous
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    @op hello ! i myself have just started learning displaycal and i can recommend you to simply open up the gui aplication and look up where the menu bar is. there you will see the “question mark” (?). LeftClick and then from the list choose ReadMe.

    This will send you to the offline ReadMe html document in your browser where you will find every information you want. It’s just difficult to make sense of every option this program offers at first.

    also be sure to know exactly what type of monitor/tv you have. be sure to also read about the different display/panel technologies available and what kind of gamut they suport.

    #17802

    Anonymous
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    Regarding the documentation, I tried to understand it before (it’s also on the displaycal.net homepage), but I think it’s written towards people with experience in display calibration. It’s really difficult to understand for me.

    #17871

    Anonymous
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    @cubox reading only is not difficult for me but understanding how to apply the explanations is.

    i think that in time if you are patient and search for information from different sources and then come back you start to get some idea about what it means and how-to-calibrate/profile-propoerly

    there are also tips if you hower over some GUI checkboxes buttons and some other areas of the GUI have text explanations. just read carefuly and then search online for each and every word you don’t understand and it will come to you.

    what i first recommend is to just be aware of your current ambient light level (white level – expressed in cd/m2 or lux or lumen depending on your lights and how they are oriented inside the space)

    next is white-point (expressed in temperature kelvin <k> or in chromatic coordinates xyz – like how blue or how orange/red your light source is – ex: incandescent light bulb would be close to 2700/2800 k then you can have LEDs that are 3200 k/4000k/5000k – daylight or bluer 6000k/6500k<d65> or RGB

    first just go to Tools>Report>Report on uncalibrated device and see how your monitor-panel performs (first you have to reset to factory defaults from OSD of monitor/TV)

    #17872

    Anonymous
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    @michaelms Regarding brightness and white point, I got all of that. I am using a set whitepoint of 4200K, simulating f.lux behaviour. My brightness is set to 90cd/m2.

    While some concepts such as gamma or gamut seems completely out of reach, the consensus I gathered from my online searches is that leaving it at default it best. Since I don’t need colours to be accurate for professional reasons, I’m leaving it at that. However with profile types, there seems to be different opinions online as to which is appropriate. Some websites say to use “Single curve + matrix” without explaining why, @fhoech says to leave it to default (again, without explaining why).

    My trouble is in trying to understand the reasons why you can pick one option or another. There is noone telling me “If you are just a gamer use this, because blabla, if you only watch netflix use this because blabla”. It seems based on personal opinion or experience, but without sharing the pros or cons.

    I’m happy with using a XYZLUT, I just wish I knew why I am using it rather than a single curve (or others options). Blindly trusting someone on the internet to pick the best option for me is a missed opportunity to learn for me.

    #17874

    Anonymous
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    you’re probably right but color theory is quite complex.

    i don’t quite get 3dLUTs and how they are used. they can be saved as different formats but i haven’t yet found one to work with VLC for 1080p bluray playback.

    i think most things are explained in the readme but it’s difficult to pinpoint the best use cases for the advanced settings for each scenario one might need.

    also the GUI needs a way to easily identify the current model/panel monitor/tv technology without manually having to search the internet.

    #17895

    Florian Höch
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    However with profile types, there seems to be different opinions online as to which is appropriate. Some websites say to use “Single curve + matrix” without explaining why, @fhoech says to leave it to default (again, without explaining why).

    The most accurate profile type is always XYZ LUT, so the choice is easy. I recommend the defaults because I’ve chosen them sensibly, so in 99.9% of cases you’ll just get the best result possible right out of the box.

    My trouble is in trying to understand the reasons why you can pick one option or another.

    By default, you can’t. There is a reason these options are hidden in the advanced options.

    i don’t quite get 3dLUTs and how they are used […] i haven’t yet found one to work with VLC for 1080p bluray playback.

    VLC supporting 3D LUTs? That would be news to me (haven’t used VLC in a long time).

    also the GUI needs a way to easily identify the current model/panel monitor/tv technology without manually having to search the internet.

    I’d have to create a huge database of monitor models. It is simply not feasible for a single person. If you want to start a community effort, feel free.

    #17946

    Anonymous
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    The most accurate profile type is always XYZ LUT, so the choice is easy. I recommend the defaults because I’ve chosen them sensibly, so in 99.9% of cases you’ll just get the best result possible right out of the box.

    Thanks for specifying that. This answers my question.

    By default, you can’t. There is a reason these options are hidden in the advanced options.

    True, I kinda forgot I had advanced settings enabled. I usually always enable advanced options to get all the functionality, and I did not realise profile type was under those.

    I’d have to create a huge database of monitor models. It is simply not feasible for a single person. If you want to start a community effort, feel free.

    There are websites that exist for that, for example, this is my screen: https://www.displayspecifications.com/en/model/102389b

    The website gives some information that could be used (if they are useful) for options. You can see it’s a TN display, W-LED, it’s max brightness.

    Don’t know if there is an easy way to automate this, but it’s not technically impossible to deduce screen type.

    #17947

    Florian Höch
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    There are websites that exist for that, for example, this is my screen: https://www.displayspecifications.com/en/model/102389b

    displayspecifications.com is already linked from the help popup on the main application tab. If in the future they would offer a web query API (not currently, but who knows) that could be utilized. In many cases though, especially for TVs and Laptop displays, the EDID model name will be too generic/unusable for automated queries (“Samsung TV” doesn’t tell a whole lot, for example).

    #17989

    Anonymous
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    @fhoech – yes that’s what i meant by it. because VLC doesn’t support 3DLuts or has no way to import them that i know of – i’m left wondering if it’s ok for me to just watch bluray 1080p content (that is probably rec.709 source) with my 1886 – 2.4 – 4000k – 120cd/m2 (i entered this manually as the target whitelevel but i have no way of knowing for sure with my i1dp colorimeter “measure-ambient” since i don’t think it’s accurate) black point is measured at 0.4 something .

    is there something else i should do to better acomodate rec 709 bluray content with my custom white-level / white-point scenario ? sometimes in video while full screen in VLC in very dark scenes i see a huge chunk of the colors beeing dark-purple. is this because i didn’t create a different special measurement/calibration/profile for ONLY viewing bluray content on my Samsung 4k TV ?

    i usually avoid using sRGB since i don’t like looking at more than 5000k white-point usually. it’s also better for my eyes i think.

    #18003

    Florian Höch
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    black point is measured at 0.4 something

    That seems really high. Even IPS screens (which typically have the lowest contrast of all the panel technologies) can usually achieve 0.1 cd/m2 (at around 120 cd/m2 white level).

    sometimes in video while full screen in VLC in very dark scenes i see a huge chunk of the colors beeing dark-purple.

    VLC has no notion of color management at all.

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