How to review a monitor

[IMartz]

Hello,

I am a Spanish content creator (albeit a small one) who wants to learn how to properly review PC monitors and its colors using this software. My goal is to demonstrate to my viewers how it performs both uncalibrated and calibrated. I own an Xrite i1 Displaypro Colormunki and a SpyderX Elite. Unfortunately, the Spyder doesn’t work, even after completely uninstalling the Datacolor software and installing the ArgyII drivers. An error message appears, stating something like: “The instrument self-calibration offsets are too high.” I’ve tried solutions found on the internet, such as heating the SpyderX, but it didn’t work for me (link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KYiU1apa8M).

As a result, I am forced to use the Xrite Colormunki, which is a bit old but I believe it can get the job done.

Here are the settings I believe work for testing monitor factory calibration (sRGB gamut) in the Verification tab:

For gamma, I’m unsure if another setting might be better.

Additionally, for the DCIP3 test:

Now, for calibrating the monitor, I think the best settings are:

Through this calibration profile, I can view the % gamut of the monitor and other details by pressing “i,” which is very helpful. However, I want to see how DeltaE, gamma curve, and white point have changed in comparison with the monitor without the ICC profile installed. I conducted some tests in the Verification tab, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it correctly.

If you could help optimize these settings for reviewing monitors, I would be very grateful. Thank you in advance!

• This topic was modified 5 months ago by IMartz.

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[Vincent]

First of all make sure you use the proper spectral correction, otherwise measure whitepopint may not be the real one.

Here are the settings I believe work for testing monitor factory calibration (sRGB gamut) in the Verification tab:

Yes, but likely to be sRGB TRC.

For gamma, I’m unsure if another setting might be better.

Additionally, for the DCIP3 test:

There are 2 “p3”. DisplayP3 is P3, D65 white, sRGB TRC. DCI-P3 is not D65 and  ig 2.6. Hence your setup is likely to fail on most of those displays, you mixed both.
Factory modes can be…. whatever vendor want. You’ll have to measure first and say to your reviewers what does P3 factoy mode looks like.

Now, for calibrating the monitor, I think the best settings are:

High, 24 calibration patches on grey ramp, may be not sufficent on trouble some displays with lot of color tints on grayscale.
Medium seems more fitted to all displays BUT…. you may want to test on your review that those monitors are not troublesome, hence “fast” may be reasonable.

Open advanced options in optiosn menu. The select as profile type “matrix 1 curve” and black point compensation = idealized after calibration behavior.
After calibration behavior “should” be described as an idealized 3 primaries + perfect grey. So it is a good option for making reviews.

Through this calibration profile, I can view the % gamut of the monitor and other details by pressing “i,” which is very helpful. However, I want to see how DeltaE, gamma curve, and white point have changed in comparison with the monitor without the ICC profile installed. I conducted some tests in the Verification tab, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it correctly.

After calibration verification, just turn all “simulation” options OFF. run verification. On HTML report choose on upper combo “RGB + grey balance” and take not or combined a*b* range, like prad.de “grey range”. Color tint of greys to each other.

If you could help optimize these settings for reviewing monitors, I would be very grateful. Thank you in advance!

Also test color uniformity in deltaC and % brightnes, like prad.de. Do not make review based in deltaE which combines brightness and color tint error.  Customers want to know if they will have a pink or green color cast on left of the screen for example.

• This reply was modified 5 months ago by Vincent.

[IMartz]

Thank you for your response and your assistance; I greatly appreciate it. I still have some doubts regarding your corrections:

Concerning the DCI P3 test of the monitor out of the box (uncalibrated by me, factory calibration), which settings do you recommend using? According to the Toms Hardware (link) DCI P3-D65 is the target for most monitors, and they normally follow the 2.2 gamma curve. So, perhaps these are the best settings for most monitors?

Now, regarding calibrating the monitor, in the profile tab, after selecting “show advanced options” in the options menu, I can see more options, but the “matrix 1 curve” isn’t available. I’m not sure if you are referring to another option.

And finally, for verifying how the monitor performs once it is calibrated, I understand that you are suggesting these settings:

However, I understand that you are not comparing how the monitor performs against a determined gamut with these settings. I tried to run this verification on my monitor, a Nano IPS that reports a 92.3% gamut coverage and a 97.8% gamut volume. The deltaE seems very good even though the monitor does not cover the full gamut. I know in the photo, sRGB is selected, but I tried both DCI P3 D65 and sRGB, and the HTML report seems very similar (and also good in this case). Perhaps I am misunderstanding some concepts now.

Lastly, if you could tell me how I could check brightness levels and DeltaC, I would be very grateful. Color uniformity I understand is in Tools -> Report -> Measure Display Device Uniformity.

In some reviews I also saw that they recommend settings for the monitor itself in order to improve the white point, but I don’t know how I could also check this. Most people don’t have calibrators so recommend settings to improve color accuracy in the monitor is a good point.

Thanks again 😊

• This reply was modified 5 months ago by IMartz.
• This reply was modified 5 months ago by IMartz.

[Vincent]

Thank you for your response and your assistance; I greatly appreciate it. I still have some doubts regarding your corrections:

Concerning the DCI P3 test of the monitor out of the box (uncalibrated by me, factory calibration), which settings do you recommend using? According to the Toms Hardware (link) DCI P3-D65 is the target for most monitors, and they normally follow the 2.2 gamma curve. So, perhaps these are the best settings for most monitors?

Use simulation as display profile. This only for factory calibration or HW calibration.

Now, regarding calibrating the monitor, in the profile tab, after selecting “show advanced options” in the options menu, I can see more options, but the “matrix 1 curve” isn’t available. I’m not sure if you are referring to another option.

Single curve matrix. 3 equal TRC, perfect neutral grey.

And finally, for verifying how the monitor performs once it is calibrated, I understand that you are suggesting these settings:

yes

However, I understand that you are not comparing how the monitor performs against a determined gamut with these settings.

You can’t with DisplayCAL since it is aimed to color managed apps. Yu test if profile matches display behavior.
Optionally, WITHOUT selection “use simulation as display profile” you can test IF in Photoshop you can render accuratelly some arbitary colospace like sRGB (even if Disply native gamut us close to P3).

There is no direct way to test IF with grey calibration applied, display matches some std profile. Maybe on Windows with a virtual machine runing DisplayCAL and on virtual machine choosing “use simulation as display profile”.

I tried to run this verification on my monitor, a Nano IPS that reports a 92.3% gamut coverage and a 97.8% gamut volume. The deltaE seems very good even though the monitor does not cover the full gamut. I know in the photo, sRGB is selected, but I tried both DCI P3 D65 and sRGB, and the HTML report seems very similar (and also good in this case). Perhaps I am misunderstanding some concepts now.

As explained above.

Lastly, if you could tell me how I could check brightness levels and DeltaC, I would be very grateful. Color uniformity I understand is in Tools -> Report -> Measure Display Device Uniformity.

Measure grid, it will generate HTML report. Then on report choose deltaC instead of default deltaE (color+brightness in a single scalar)

In some reviews I also saw that they recommend settings for the monitor itself in order to improve the white point, but I don’t know how I could also check this. Most people don’t have calibrators so recommend settings to improve color accuracy in the monitor is a good point.

Just give RGB gain values as a hint with a “your mileage may vary”. Optionally full natve gamut ICC profile with calibration, if they need sRGB simulation for games or office let them rely on AMD driver, novideosRGB or DWMLUT.

Thanks again 😊

[IMartz]

Thank you for your response and your assistance; I greatly appreciate it. I still have some doubts regarding your corrections:

Concerning the DCI P3 test of the monitor out of the box (uncalibrated by me, factory calibration), which settings do you recommend using? According to the Toms Hardware (link) DCI P3-D65 is the target for most monitors, and they normally follow the 2.2 gamma curve. So, perhaps these are the best settings for most monitors?

Use simulation as display profile. This only for factory calibration or HW calibration.

Sure, I forget to mark it. Just wanted to know if DCIP3 D65 and gamma 2.2 was okey, I understand that I am right

You can’t with DisplayCAL since it is aimed to color managed apps. Yu test if profile matches display behavior.
Optionally, WITHOUT selection “use simulation as display profile” you can test IF in Photoshop you can render accuratelly some arbitary colospace like sRGB (even if Disply native gamut us close to P3).

There is no direct way to test IF with grey calibration applied, display matches some std profile. Maybe on Windows with a virtual machine runing DisplayCAL and on virtual machine choosing “use simulation as display profile”.

Oh, I saw in some reviews, like this one minute 03:38, in which shows how Avg. DeltaE improve when calibrating in the sRGB gammut. He says that it is using DisplayCAL, so, maybe I understanding wrong.

With the grid, I suppose that the best way to test it is setting the monitor brightness in 100%, I did a fast test to check and I can see DeltaC measurements:

Regarding to the RGB values after calibrating when the program ask to set up the brighness to the target also, I don’t know how but in one of my test I could see also white point K in te tab, I am refering to this one:

Now that I enable the advanced options some options appear in the calibration tab, maybe  I should adjust something more?

Thanks again, you are really saving me a lot of time with your advice 😊

• This reply was modified 5 months ago by IMartz.
• This reply was modified 5 months ago by IMartz.

[Vincent]

 

Oh, I saw in some reviews, like this one minute 03:38, in which shows how Avg. DeltaE improve when calibrating in the sRGB gammut. He says that it is using DisplayCAL, so, maybe I understanding wrong.

Likely that he is not using DisplayCAL as he thought it was using it. = review is not showing what reviewer intended to test, but likely to be testing “Photoshop” accuracy in the way I showed in previpus message (hence he is not testing non color managed app)

 

Regarding to the RGB values after calibrating when the program ask to set up the brighness to the target also, I don’t know how but in one of my test I could see also white point K in te tab, I am refering to this one:

Because CCT in kelvin does not address a white color. Hence reviews showing only CCT are useless.

CCT is a coordinate (projection) in a line (curve) on a 2D plane. Your are missing another coordinate…

Anyway, profile info stores CCT. Also you can measure it in tools /report / report on  calibrated display (keep current grey calibration in GPU). “Uncalibrated display” cleans GPU grey calibration. Look for Correlated daylight temp (CDT). CCT will amin to blackbody curve (~4dE towards pink than daylight curve). Read wikipedia, it has 2d graphs.

Now that I enable the advanced options some options appear in the calibration tab, maybe  I should adjust something more?

Thanks again, you are really saving me a lot of time with your advice 😊

No, deafult settings are good. Just change calibration speed depening on reviewer role (how bad this device is) or calibration role (make sure a troublesome monitor gets properly calibrated in grayscale)

• This reply was modified 5 months ago by Vincent.

[IMartz]

Great, I think I have everything clear to start making the reviews.

I also wonder if there is any possibility of measuring the brightness as in Rtings, due to the size of the windows, for HDR especially for OLED models it would be quite useful. I don’t know if there is any possibilty to measure the brightness like this for both SDR and HDR in LCD and OLED:

And also, I am thinking that if I am going to review an OLED panel, some of the settings we talked about should change, isn’t it?”

[Vincent]

HCFR tool. “APL number” = % or screen.
https://github.com/arthur-liberman/hcfr-code/releases

Need to configure:

-Advanced / reference (black output 100 is input 100)

-Measures / generator (usefull with a raspberrypi for TVs)

-Messures/ sensor (corrections)

Beware limited vs full levels (on a pi ust be set to full always, then on HCFR software set the type you have on TV), beware “disable video LUTs” (grey calibration)
Also older pi models like B won’t be able to render custom images, just color patterns due to GPU memory even if you configfure it to more)
Read AVSFroum thread about HCFR and raspberry pi generators.

HCFR is like a CALMAN “free”, but it cannot upload HW calibration to TVs.

Also I’m afraid that may be issues with HDR metadata but I have no HDR displays to test.

• This reply was modified 5 months ago by Vincent.

[IMartz]

Hi again,

I’ve been testing HCFR to determine if I could use it for measuring peak brightness in SDR and HDR, but it seems to be running very slowly with the Xrite Colormunki. Perhaps the SpyderX could provide faster results. I’m using the following settings:

Is there any way to test HDR in DisplayCAL?

I’m still searching for a tool that allows me to compare calibrated results with non-calibrated ones, as DisplayCAL doesn’t seem to support this. Maybe the Datacolor software from Spyder could get the job done.

[IMartz]

An additional question about DisplalCAL profiling Tab, which Testchart do you recommend using? Setting curves + matrix set Auto-Optimized, but I can change it again to default.

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