HP zr24w or NEC LCD2490WUXi2 or wide gamut 2nd attempt

Hi everyone,

I am in a huge pickle now. Built my PC recently and bought a nec pa241w (non SV)
I must admit the whole wide gamut scare got the better of me. After numerous attempts to calibrate it with i1Display2 and basicColor software, hours on different forums crying out for help I always ended up with ever so slight green tint. In High Bright mode colours looked over saturated, in sRGB mode reds turned into dirty oranges. After calibration (delta 1.39) tagged sRGB pictures in CS5 and LR3 looked washed out with a greent tint and orange reds. Finally I gave up and sent the screen back before the Amazon 30 day return policy ran out.

So, now again I'm in the market for a new display. This time, to make my life easier and spend more time shooting rather than troubleshooting I think I want to go for a normal gamut dsplay and as far as I know my choice here is limited to either HP ZR24w or NEC2490WUXi2.

Has anyone out there got any experiance with either or both of them?
On the nec pa241w when I zoomed to 100% in CS5 pictures became really grainy and I suppose it is the matt finish that is sort of to blame.Is this something that I would need to learn to live with going for a matt dsipaly?

I mainly pp my work to share with friends and family over the Internet. So far I haven't printed any of my stuff and I reckon there is still some time to pass by till I decide my work is good enough to be printed. Considering this wide gamut *is a bit of an overkill, isn't?*
What is your experiance with wide gamut necs. I honestly would not mind spending *money on Nec with Spectraview as long as I know that the *sRGB mode would work perfect and pictures in LR and CS5 will look the same as on my laptop or iPad.*

So to sum up, which one is better (picture quality, calibration easiness, grainy display when zoomed) *hp zr24w or nec2490WUiX2.

Thanks a lot for your input.

What option did you use in BasICColor under Calibration method ?

I used BC and the Spyder3 puck on my PA241. The results are excellent. Which version of BC ?

No experience with the HP but I have the NEC with the spectraview option. Highly recommended, I went with this model instead of the new PA series. Easy to calibrate. Sorry I can't compare it directly to the HP, but I will say that the monitor is not the weak point in my printing system.

The NEC is H-IPS, while the HP is e-IPS, if that makes a difference.

I would think NEC has higher tolerances/QC standards compared to Dell and HP, considering how much more expensive NEC monitors are.

bohdank wrote in post #12209970
What option did you use in BasICColor under Calibration method ?

Hi bohdank,

I used the trial version of the BC dawnloaded from their website so I suppose it was the latest one. I am not at home at the moment but from what I can remeber it was v4.
I have tried to calibrate it using different options. The first option 'Hardware' was grayed out so I couldn't use it. First I used 'Hardware+software' than LUT than D65 than gamma 2.2. No good. Have tried software only and no good either. Every time I calibrated the monitor I made sure it had been switched on for more than 30 min and reset to factory settings.
As I said before, now thinking about it do I really need a wide gamut display knowing that I'm gonna work mainly for web as of now? On the other hand I really don't mind spending extra on NEC reference241and futureproof my purchase in case I want to print stuff and get better results( this time I'll make sure I get the SV version with the software and a calibrator) provided that it is gonna calibrate ok and the sRGB emulation mode makes me think I work on an sRGB display.

What are your thought guys?

Ok. that might explain it. The only option that gave me a perfect calibration was the Hardware option (1st one). All the other ones left me with a slight pink/red cast. Before I tried BC, I also tried Spyder Pro 3 and Color Eyes Display Pro, neither of which gave me an acceptable calibration. The only other difference is we are using different pucks and the European version of the NEC monitor, non SV, is crippled, which is why BC will not allow you to select Hardware only calibration.

I don't know what to say. I would last try the US version of Spectraview which will allow you to use the Hardware option, but you would need to buy it from a dealer and there is no guarantee that you would get better results. It's also possible you might have a defective panel. The only other suggestion I have is to plug the ID2 into a USB port on the computer and not to a USB hub.

I'm not sure if you have read this article but it may help.

http://www.tftcentral.​co.uk …traview_referen​ce_271.htm

Also these are my BC settings.

Hardware, (first option)
no other option selected on first page
L* (recommended)
White and Black Luminance, white luminance 95 (you can select higher if you wish)
Profile type = 16 bit LUT based
Chromatic Adaptation = Linear Bradford

do not select ICC v4 profile

What does the sRGB emulation mode look like? Are you happy with it?

I had it plugged in to my pc from the beginning.

Yes

Why not?

sRGB simulation. Do you mean setting the monitor to sRGB ? Never tried it. Hardware LUT profiling disables all those options.

v4 profiles.... most software can't read/interpret v4 profiles.

When you say you get a color cast.... is this using all software, including image editing software ?

Yes

Yep, CS5 and LR3

Whot does your tagged sRGB images look on your screen? Is there any difference in colours when displayed in the 'calibrated mode' and the sRGB emulated mode?

sRGB setting on full gamut monitors is not all that accurate (read that article, again). I've never used it and have no reason to. sRGB images look like they should on my calibrated monitor.

Also read the PA241 specific review.

http://www.tftcentral.​co.uk/reviews/nec_pa24​1w.htm

I don't know if this is relevant to your problem, but I found this information from NEC:


The Datacolor Spyder2 and Spyder3 color sensors have been tested with the the NEC LCD2690WUXi, LCD2690WUXi2, LCD3090WQXi and LCD2180WG-LED, PA241W, PA271W and PA301W displays and found to cause inaccurate measurements when measuring the color primaries. This is due to the wide color gamut aspect of these displays. This may result in an inaccurate calibration and ICC Profiles to be generated. Using these color sensors is not recommended with these displays if very high color accuracy is needed.

From NEC


Is the Spyder3 color sensor OK for use with wide-gamut displays such as the LCD2690WUXi, LCD2690WUXi2, LCD3090WQXi, and P221W?

Some early production units did not produce acceptable results, but recent production units of the Spyder3 have shown some accuracy improvements when measuring wide color gamut displays.

Mine works fine.

bohdank wrote in post #12219435
From NEC


Is the Spyder3 color sensor OK for use with wide-gamut displays such as the LCD2690WUXi, LCD2690WUXi2, LCD3090WQXi, and P221W?

Some early production units did not produce acceptable results, but recent production units of the Spyder3 have shown some accuracy improvements when measuring wide color gamut displays.

Mine works fine.

However, note that the PA series is not listed as okay with the Spyder3, although as your experience shows, that might not be a problem.
Also, they note "some accuracy improvements", that doesn't sound really reassuring to me....lol.

Anyway... they support the Spyder 3 with their software for the PA series. I have a PA241 which is IPS and, imo, the calibration is perfect with no color cast. I use BasIIColor for the software which uses the monitor's 14 bit LUT instead of the video card LUT. I could not get a satisfactory result using the Spyder 3 Pro software nor Color Eyes Display Pro.

Thanks a lot guys for your input.

I have decided to go for the normal gamut HP and only because NEC2490 has some badish reviews regarding viewing angles. One day I will try WG again but for now the price difference will go towards funding 5DIII (any day/month now