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Author Topic: SpectraViewII: Upgrade or not?  (Read 11713 times)

walter.sk

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SpectraViewII: Upgrade or not?
« on: February 03, 2009, 10:44:50 am »

I have the NEC 3090WQXi, the SpectraViewII v1.04 software and the Eye-One Display v.2 colorimeter without the new wide gamut capabilities.  NEC has posted SpectraViewII v1.1 on its website.  Is there a benefit to upgrading the SVII software?  I'm reluctant to do so unless it will do something better than what I am using.
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walter.sk

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SpectraViewII: Upgrade or not?
« Reply #1 on: February 04, 2009, 09:31:22 am »

Well, I got no reply after a day, so my curiosity got the better of me and I installed SpectraViewII v1.1 after wiping out v1.0.4.  No noticeable downside so far, but a couple of observations.  

1) The interface is less elegant from a graphical standpoint, but easier to use as it has all of the options laid out more clearly, with descriptions of each option.  Over all, an improvement.

2) The "Photography" option for the calibration target now specifies a recommended 140 cd/m2 rather than 120 in the original version.  (A bow to Andrew Rodney's statements on minimum luminosity settings?)

3)  For calibration of primary colors, to the options of "use Colorimeter" and "Factory Defaults" is added "Automatic Selection."  I don't know if it makes a smart decision or just reads the version of the colorimeter and uses a LUT, but with my EyeOne Display v.2, I used the Automatic option.

Another question comes up:  I seem to get very decent results using the Factory Defaults for determining the Primary Color values (which I assume will be selected by the Auto setting anyway).  Would there be much of an advantage to ugrading the colorimeter to the Wide Gamut one from NEC?  I am not even sure whether NEC sells it separately from the software, and I already have the software.
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digitaldog

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SpectraViewII: Upgrade or not?
« Reply #2 on: February 04, 2009, 10:00:26 am »

Runs fine on my 3090. Lots of nice UI additions.
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Paul Sumi

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SpectraViewII: Upgrade or not?
« Reply #3 on: February 04, 2009, 11:22:42 am »

Also runs fine on my 2690 (first series).  I just set it to my default parameters, haven't explored the options yet.

Paul
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Josh-H

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SpectraViewII: Upgrade or not?
« Reply #4 on: February 04, 2009, 04:12:24 pm »

cool - I will download it and install.

Andrew - If I may ask, are you reccomending a setting of 140 for brightness now instead of 120? I notice the new version of Spectraview II defaults to 140 now.

140 is ok I guess.. just means more of a disconnect between the screen and the print.
« Last Edit: February 04, 2009, 04:29:37 pm by Josh-H »
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JonRoemer

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SpectraViewII: Upgrade or not?
« Reply #5 on: February 04, 2009, 04:27:31 pm »

One new addition in v1.1 is that it now allows you to calibrate/profile the "sRGB" setting (on LCD2690 and LCD3090.) So, if you want to switch between sRGB and the regular Wide Gamut, you'll get a more accurate version in sRGB.
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Josh-H

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SpectraViewII: Upgrade or not?
« Reply #6 on: February 07, 2009, 05:26:51 am »

ughhh.. I keep getting 'Unknown Error #25" when I start to calibrate, the program then says unable to communicate with display and crashes out to default.

Tried reinstalling SpectraView II with same result.

Using a Mac Pro with NEC 2690 WUXi if anyone can help.

Thanks.
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Josh-H

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SpectraViewII: Upgrade or not?
« Reply #7 on: February 07, 2009, 05:43:35 am »

No matter what I seem to try I keep getting an error message and the display shows "Display 1 - LCD2690WUXi (No Communications)

« Last Edit: February 07, 2009, 06:17:54 am by Josh-H »
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Paul Sumi

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SpectraViewII: Upgrade or not?
« Reply #8 on: February 07, 2009, 03:44:29 pm »

Quote from: Josh-H
No matter what I seem to try I keep getting an error message and the display shows "Display 1 - LCD2690WUXi (No Communications)

Not sure if the second one applies to you (I'm a Windows guy), but these notices for Apple/Mac appear on the necdisplay.com site for SpectraView.

http://www.necdisplay.com/SupportCenter/Mo...s/spectraview2/

IMPORTANT COMPATIBILITY NOTICE:

    * The new 13-inch MacBook and 15-inch MacBook Pro with Mini DisplayPort video outputs released by Apple in October 2008 are not currently compatible with SpectraView when using either the DisplayPort to DVI adapter or the DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI adapter from Apple. SpectraView will not be able to calibrate NEC monitors when connected to these Macs. NEC is currently working with Apple to try and resolve this issue.

    * The recent Mac OS 10.5.6 update release by Apple may prevent SpectraView from operating on PPC based Macs. Intel based Macs do not appear to be impacted. Customers with PPC based Macs are encouraged not to update to Mac OS 10.5.6 until Apple has resolved this issue. This update prevents SpectraView from being able to communicate with the display monitor.  

Paul
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Josh-H

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SpectraViewII: Upgrade or not?
« Reply #9 on: February 07, 2009, 05:09:51 pm »

Quote from: PaulS
Not sure if the second one applies to you (I'm a Windows guy), but these notices for Apple/Mac appear on the necdisplay.com site for SpectraView.

http://www.necdisplay.com/SupportCenter/Mo...s/spectraview2/

IMPORTANT COMPATIBILITY NOTICE:

    * The new 13-inch MacBook and 15-inch MacBook Pro with Mini DisplayPort video outputs released by Apple in October 2008 are not currently compatible with SpectraView when using either the DisplayPort to DVI adapter or the DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI adapter from Apple. SpectraView will not be able to calibrate NEC monitors when connected to these Macs. NEC is currently working with Apple to try and resolve this issue.

    * The recent Mac OS 10.5.6 update release by Apple may prevent SpectraView from operating on PPC based Macs. Intel based Macs do not appear to be impacted. Customers with PPC based Macs are encouraged not to update to Mac OS 10.5.6 until Apple has resolved this issue. This update prevents SpectraView from being able to communicate with the display monitor.  

Paul


Thanks - I did see those notices. My Mac Pro is a new Intel one - but is still clearly affected..

Not sure what to try now.....

Edit - no matter what I try I keep getting a 'No Communications' message.

Any help greatly appreciated.


Ughh.. more wasted hours trying to get this to work and still getting no communications. Tried a different DVI cable, no joy, tried the DVI-I and DVI-D ports, no joy and tried both DVI outputs from the mac pro and still no joy.

Have rebooted countless times, installed and uninstalled and re-installed - all with the same result.

The video card in my mac pro is the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT

Any ideas at all would be extremley welcome. Does anyone know a way to force communications or otherwise test them?
« Last Edit: February 09, 2009, 05:41:18 am by Josh-H »
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Josh-H

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SpectraViewII: Upgrade or not?
« Reply #10 on: February 09, 2009, 05:48:51 am »

I have emailed NEC Display solutions with the problem - but nothing back from them as yet....
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Josh-H

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SpectraViewII: Upgrade or not?
« Reply #11 on: February 10, 2009, 02:27:44 am »

Quote from: Josh-H
I have emailed NEC Display solutions with the problem - but nothing back from them as yet....


Would anyone with an NEC WUXI2690 running spectraview 2 mind posting what version of firmware their monitor is running - found in the information summary tab.

For some reason mine has nothing showing for firmware - which I suspect is at the heart  of the problem.

Thanks.
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bill t.

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SpectraViewII: Upgrade or not?
« Reply #12 on: February 10, 2009, 11:28:07 pm »

When I installed the original version of SVII on Vista I had several failures because the NEC installer was trying to install some sort of interface driver for the EyeOne2 that my security software silently prevented as a suspicious software installation attack.  I recall this generated a "no communication" message from SVII.  Turning off the security software solved it (I pulled the Internet plug for that).
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Paul Sumi

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SpectraViewII: Upgrade or not?
« Reply #13 on: February 11, 2009, 09:39:57 am »

Quote from: Josh-H
Would anyone with an NEC WUXI2690 running spectraview 2 mind posting what version of firmware their monitor is running - found in the information summary tab.

For some reason mine has nothing showing for firmware - which I suspect is at the heart  of the problem.

Thanks.


Mine is 1.00.08, and am running the current version 1.100 of SpectraView II on a Win XP SP3 box.

Paul
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Josh-H

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SpectraViewII: Upgrade or not?
« Reply #14 on: February 11, 2009, 05:25:00 pm »

Quote from: PaulS
Mine is 1.00.08, and am running the current version 1.100 of SpectraView II on a Win XP SP3 box.

Paul


Thank you Paul - appreciated.

Working with NEC via email over the last few days to try and resolve - still no joy though.

EDIT - see this thread for an update - LL Thread
« Last Edit: February 13, 2009, 06:57:57 pm by Josh-H »
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JohnKoerner

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SpectraViewII: Upgrade or not?
« Reply #15 on: February 15, 2009, 01:33:06 am »

Quote from: Josh-H
Thank you Paul - appreciated.
Working with NEC via email over the last few days to try and resolve - still no joy though.
EDIT - see this thread for an update - LL Thread




I don't know if this applies to you or not, but I just was up till 3 am last night trying to install my SpectraView II and this was the advice I followed (I have a PC though):



Quote from: prairiemaiden
Hi Jack!
Had the same troubles with my monitor.  1st thing are you on a mac?  There is a warning on the Nec site.  I am windows xp sp3.  First thing I did was download new Microsoft WHQL digitally signed drivers from the Nec site. My computer then recognized my monitor in display properties.
http://www.necdisplay.com/SupportCenter/DriverFinder/
Then I downloaded the spectraview II software (from the Nec Website, not the CD).  Please note the warnings on this page re: mac and some video cards.  I also checked to make sure I was using current driver for Video card.
http://www.necdisplay.com/SupportCenter/Mo...s/spectraview2/
After upgrading Spectraview changed preference to autodetect......closed it and restarted and it recognized my monitor.


Hope this helps, and good luck.
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bellimages

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SpectraViewII: Upgrade or not?
« Reply #16 on: February 24, 2009, 10:09:02 am »

Josh .... we have the same setup -- MacPro with a GeForce 8800 graphics card. I feel for your frustration .... but it will help me from installing the update. I'd love to talk privately about RAM, etc.

Many times I think that a lot of guys on here are "Tech Geeks." Geez, does it take all this tech effort to get great quality photos/prints? One can spend all of their spare time "geeking." I'd like to get some discussion going on this topic.
« Last Edit: February 24, 2009, 11:36:25 am by bellimages »
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Josh-H

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SpectraViewII: Upgrade or not?
« Reply #17 on: February 24, 2009, 07:33:42 pm »

Quote from: bellimages
Josh .... we have the same setup -- MacPro with a GeForce 8800 graphics card. I feel for your frustration .... but it will help me from installing the update. I'd love to talk privately about RAM, etc.

Many times I think that a lot of guys on here are "Tech Geeks." Geez, does it take all this tech effort to get great quality photos/prints? One can spend all of their spare time "geeking." I'd like to get some discussion going on this topic.

It is very frustrating - I have had a lot of dialogue with NEC and the general consensus is that there is an incompatability with spectraview 2 [current version], the mac pro video card [that I have] and the current 10.5.6 version of OSX.

Apple are apparently aware of the issue and I am told they are trying to resolve it - which  hopefully is resolved in 10.5.7.

Its a real Pain in the A$$. And you are right - it just shouldnt have to be this hard.
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bellimages

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SpectraViewII: Upgrade or not?
« Reply #18 on: February 25, 2009, 11:04:11 am »

Hey Josh, Can you let me know when this is resolved? I have a NEC 3090 monitor and purchased the NEC calibrator and Spectraview with it. Although, I have yet to install the software. I won't, since I have the same computer, video card and OS as you. Once I hear an "ALL CLEAR" I'll proceed.

bellimages@mac.com (my email addy)
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