Monitor calibration problems

Alright, well I ordered a HueyPro as soon as it was released, because I wanted a Huey but I also had dual monitors. At the time, my primary monitor was a Sony 17" LCD, and my secondary was an old 17" Dell CRT. After a few tries I was able to get the HueyPro to calibrate both monitors perfectly; they matched so good I couldn't tell a difference between the two.

Fast forward to today, and I bought a 22" LG L226W to replace my 17" Sony as the primary monitor. The Sony 17" is now the secondary and the CRT is gone.

I am having a bugger of a time to get these two monitors to look the same. I've calibrate both many times, reset both to factory settings, made sure all the software/hardware controls were the same for both. Each time I have calibrated, the Sony ends up being having more of a red cast, and is darker overall.

Is it possible that the Sony just can't hang with the new monitor, even after calibration on both? The LG is DVI, 3000:1, 5ms, and the Sony is VGA, 500:1, 20ms.

Double Negative, did Pantone ever get back to you about the issues you had with consistency with your HueyPro?

This is very frustrating, because now I can't trust which monitor is the one that calibrated correctly? I would have thought these two LCDs would be even closer after calibrating than my CRT + LCD were before.

Take notice of monitor having a 3000:1 contrast ratio are using dynamic back-lit change to obtain this value. So the brightness will change depending of the image displayed. Another marketing gimmick that's no good for us. Check if you can disable that particular function in the LCD menu. Calibrate your lcd's at around 130-150cd brightness.

And for LCD calibration, wait 40-60min for the lamp to heat and settle before calibration.

I'm still going back and forth with Pantone about not being able to calibrate the Samsung 730B and internal Mac G4 17" PowerBook displays... Ugh.

My two Dell 24" LCDs (2405 at home, 2407 at work) both calibrated perfectly, it seems.

At this rate I plan to send it back.

Here's the exchange thus far on Pantone's support forum:

***************

Customer (Me) 05/07/2007 07:44 AM
Yes, I'm aware of the three settings for color temperature. Even with adjustment, the colors do not seem correct. Neither the Samsung 730B or internal 17" Mac G4 PowerBook calibrate well.

Response (Stanzione, John) 05/02/2007 08:47 AM
Dear Me:

Have you tried working with the Color Settings, and changing the whitepoint and gamma settings? This is available within HueyPRO preferences. Please let me know if you need help finding this feature.

Customer (Me) 04/30/2007 03:25 PM
Perhaps I wasn't clear enough.

I profiled a G4 desktop with its 23" Dell 2405FPW. Good results.

I tried profiling a Mac Mini with its Samsung 730B LCD. Horrible - way too warm.

I tried profiling a G4 PowerBook with its 23" Dell 2407FPW. Good results. With the internal LCD - horrible. Way too warm.

So it's not even adjusting monitor-to-monitor. Some LCDs calibrate, some don't. I can adjust by eye just as badly - I don't need a HueyPRO to do that.

Response (Stanzione, John) 04/30/2007 03:10 PM
Dear Me:

Thank you for your inquiry. Since PANTONE HueyPRO is profiling each monitor independantly, the results likely will NOT match monitor-to-monitor. The ability to 'match' monitors to each other is an advanced feature not available in the HueyPRO software.

Please note that you can use the Huey color settings to independantly change the whitepoint and gamma post-calibration. If the display is too warm, try using a cooler setting, and vise versa.

Given that PANTONE HueyPRO was purchased directly from Pantone, you may return it and/or exchange it within 30 days. S-i-mply contact our Customer Relations Department, toll-free, at 1-866-726-8663 during normal business hours.

***************

Then WTF is the point of calibrating?!

Raphael Emond wrote in post #3164343
Take notice of monitor having a 3000:1 contrast ratio are using dynamic back-lit change to obtain this value. So the brightness will change depending of the image displayed. Another marketing gimmick that's no good for us. Check if you can disable that particular function in the LCD menu. Calibrate your lcd's at around 130-150cd brightness.

And for LCD calibration, wait 40-60min for the lamp to heat and settle before calibration.

How would I adjust the cd brightness? My Sony has an option for backlight adjustment but its on a scale of 1-100, and I can't find it on the LG (just normal brightness). I will see if I can disable the dynamic contrast, but its not on the monitor's menu.

I have not been able to find any way to disable dynamic contrast on the LG. I've profiled twice more and the Sony is still more red/dark than the LG. Personally I prefer the LG, and I could live with the Sony if I knew that the LG was set correctly and the Sony is the one that isn't profiling correctly, since I will only be editing on the LG.

Alright, well I just talked to a very helpful young man at Pantone tech support for 20 minutes. According to his information, all calibrators profile a monitor to the best of its ability. It can't necessarily make a monitor "better", but it improves it as much as it can. For instance, if you profile a top of the line LCD vs. a low end LCD, the high end will still look different. So I guess my new LG is THAT much better than my old Sony.

He said my only option to make them "look" the same is to go with a higher end calibrator such as the Eye One Display 2 and set the targets for both the monitors the same. However, the only way to make them look the same is to profile the 17" first, and then essentially reel the 22" back to make it look like the 17, which he advised against. I wouldn't want to do that either.

This makes sense to me as my CRT and LCD were both not great models, but my new LG 22" is a very nice monitor. The 17" simply can't hang with the 22" so it will never look as good unless I reel back the 22". I am going to try to adjust the color differences with the monitor's control panel to make it close to the 22" and then just live with it.

Double Negative, this may be why your lower end monitors just don't look as good; because they are not capable of looking any better. The Dells are great monitors and that is why they look great, but I think our lower end LCDs like my Sony 17" just can't achieve the brightness and vividness that the higher end ones are capable of, leaving a duller, redder, darker looking image on the lesser monitors.

There's no "looking good" on the two LCDs I calibrated - as calibrated, they're useless and better without any calibration. They're THAT warm/off.

I got an update from Pantone:

"We have received isolated reports of problems related to color casts after HueyPRO calibration on some displays. For those customers experiencing this we have replacement units which should rectify the problem. I will arrange to send you one.

I have uploaded a ZIP file containing the PANTONE Huey serial number reader for Macintosh to our support Web site. This utility will identify the internal serial number for your PANTONE Huey device.

Once you have run this utility and obtained your serial number, please update this question with the number, and we will send the new Huey device as quickly as possible. Please note, however, that we also require a telephone number for expedited delivery. I attempted to search online for your number but did not receive the information."

Notice they say it happens on HueyPRO - this happened previously with the "regular" Huey (previous generation)... Which leads me to believe that the hardware is the same and just the software is different. So those early adopters of the HueyPRO may have, in fact, gotten ahold of some older, bad devices.

Will keep y'all posted...

Interesting. It has taken that long for them to offer to send a replacement? Along with calling their support, I sent in an email through their web site explaining my issue. So when they reply to that I will ask for a replacement unit as well. Hopefully they send it in a timely manner.

Digitalwave... yes, you can use the brightness setting to dial down the display.
I'm currently using the Colorvision Spyder2Suite. When I calibrate my monitors,
it do a fast pass on primary color + b/w and show the brightness value of the monitor.
Mine are set at 130cd because my cheap 19" can't go higher

In the final, my very good Samsung 215TW 21" and the lowly BenQ 19" look 95% the same. The whites have a little difference because of the backlit, but the color are the same on both monitors...

BUT, my old 17", that I gave to my mom is so far off, that it can't be calibrated. Too much green and not enough blue!

Here's the example of the quick first pass...
Luminance is at 141.
Color are good..

Raphael Emond wrote in post #3167533
Digitalwave... yes, you can use the brightness setting to dial down the display.
I'm currently using the Colorvision Spyder2Suite. When I calibrate my monitors,
it do a fast pass on primary color + b/w and show the brightness value of the monitor.
Mine are set at 130cd because my cheap 19" can't go higher

130cd is still too high IMHO. I have my monitor adjusted to 100 cd/m2 and it's still brighter than prints viewed under normal indoor lighting. If you view prints under direct sunlight or a very bright light, then maybe higher luminance would be OK.

The problem with lower values of luminance is that most TFT monitors don't work very well like that - they start to lose the ability to resolve detail in the shadows. I can only get away with 100 because I use an expensive Eizo monitor

One more update from Pantone - they're sending out a replacement which I should have in 7-10 days. I'll update again as we progress...

It's been 9 days and they haven't replied to my inquiry on their web site.

Digitalwave wrote in post #3217901
It's been 9 days and they haven't replied to my inquiry on their web site.

It definitely takes them a while... They'll post on a special forum on their Website where only you and the technician(s) have access and you'll get an Email about it.

As an update on my situation... I got my replacement hardware though I haven't had a chance to test it yet. I'll reply back with the results when I have them.