Struggling to get two monitors to match color

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  • #32075

    Ssendam
    Participant
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    Hello,

    I’ll preface this by saying I am a bit of a fish out of water when it comes to color calibration, so I am still learning a lot. I have a Spyder 5 Pro and two separate monitors side by side that I am trying to get colors to match up: An Alienware/Dell AW3420DW and an ASUS ROG PG279Q . I also have an Nvidia RTX 3080 card and am running windows 10.

    When I went through the calibration, I did the following (based off this tutorial):

    1. Ensured that Nvidia Control Panel has color accuracy mode set to “Accurate” for both the monitors (under Adjust desktop color settings).
    2. Ensured that Nvidia Control Panel has “Use the video player settings” under “Adjust video color settings” and “Adjust video image settings”.
    3. Set both monitors to factory defaults.
      1. For the Alienware/Dell – I used Preset Mode “Custom Color” to allow RGB adjustment.
      2. For the Asus – I used “Racing Mode” based on recommendations online as this being the most accurate mode.
    4. I “taped” the Spyder5 to the monitor to minimize gaps.
    5. Setup calibration settings in DisplayCAL:
      1. Display & Instrument – I chose the LCD White LED for the Mode and left everything else at default. Black level drift, white level drift, etc. are all unchecked.
      2. Calibration – Left it on CIE 1931 for the observer. Whitepoint/level/black level are all as measured. Reference is daylight, and tone curve is set to Gamma 2.2 with the defaults.
      3. Profiling – Used Single curve + matrix profile type, left black point compensation checked.
    6. Went through the interactive calibration process for each monitor. I targeted a slightly higher brightness level due to personal preference, but adjusted the monitor brightness/RGB levels to line up in the middle.

    The end result now is that the gamma matches up pretty well between the 2 monitors, but the red is really vibrant on my Alienware/Dell and more orange on the Asus.

    I can’t seem to get the reds to match between the two monitors. I’ve tried doing RGB for the Tone Curve but that didn’t make a difference.

    Am I missing something or does this just come down to hardware differences? Thanks for any help!

    #32082

    Vincent
    Participant
    • Offline

    a) Spyder is not an accurate device and cannot be corrected in a “distributed & reliable way” (you MUST measure your displays with an spectrophotometer, high res less than 10nm for newer P3 displays)
    b) colorimeters need a correction for each monitor backlight.
    c) one of your displays is widegamut, the other not. You’ll need to use color managed apps, apps that support LUT3D or system wide LUT3D (DWM LUT, search forum)
    d) if you need to use viausl white point match for that 2 displays, do not use absolute intent when making LUT3D.

    #32091

    Ssendam
    Participant
    • Offline

    Hey Vincent, thanks for the response. Some follow up questions:

    • If I’m understanding right – the alienware/dell is the wider color gamut since you mentioned P3 display and I noticed in the specs it lists DCI P3?
    • Any recommendations on a good spectrophotometer that doesn’t break the bank? Would this completely replace using the colorimeter (spyder) for both monitors?
    • I wasn’t certain what you meant by needing a correction for each monitor backlight?
    • I’m not familiar with visual white point matching – it sounds like this is something that DisplayCal does but I never messed with it. Is this a necessary step for calibration?
    #32096

    Vincent
    Participant
    • Offline

    Hey Vincent, thanks for the response. Some follow up questions:

    • If I’m understanding right – the alienware/dell is the wider color gamut since you mentioned P3 display and I noticed in the specs it lists DCI P3?

    yes

    • Any recommendations on a good spectrophotometer that doesn’t break the bank? Would this completely replace using the colorimeter (spyder) for both monitors?

    Dont buy it. Just buy an Xrite i1d3 colorimeter and use distributed corrections that. Those gamer dells are “usually” WLED PFS in limited P3 variant/flavor, generic WLED PFS correction in DisplayCAL for i1d3 (Panasonic VVX…etc as file name)

    Cheapest spectrophotometer is twice the price of an i1displaypro, => i1Studio. I do not like it, not certified, no OBA reading for profiling printers. For me the cheapest one is i1ProX series (4x, 5x i1displaypro price) , YMMV and there are other people that will give an OK for an i1Studio.

    • I wasn’t certain what you meant by needing a correction for each monitor backlight?

    Colorimeter “observer” is not the same as CIE Standard observer (mean human vision). They need a correction:
    -a taylor made (matrix) for THAT display and THAT colorimeter, which all of them support
    -a taylor made for THAT DISPLAY BACKLIGHT TYPE but can be distributed between i1d3 owners since colorimeter firmware stores the missing 50% information (personalized in factory for each colorimeter in a reliable way)

    Spyders lack of that firmw information or cannot be used in a reliable way because is too generic.

    • I’m not familiar with visual white point matching – it sounds like this is something that DisplayCal does but I never messed with it. Is this a necessary step for calibration?

    If whites do not match and you cannot access a TRUE reference device to correct colorimeter for each display… yes, you’ll need it. Keep as reference the one that once calibrarted numerially to D65 looks whiter.

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

    #32149

    parkggoki
    Participant
    • Offline

    Aw3420dw uses Nano color by LG and PG279Q uses WLED by AUO

    YOU CANNOT make it same-look, only similar WP

    #32152

    S Simeonov
    Participant
    • Online

    There are corrections in the online database for AW3420DW.

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