Windows and Dual Monitor Calibration?

[JPrimgaard]

Here's the setup:

Windows XP with a Matrox Parhelia 128 video card.

NEC LCD2690WUXi2 as the main monitor and thinking about an NEC P221W as the second monitor (I have Spectraview II with the 2690).

Spectraview will calibrate both monitors but can I get windows to run both monitors with their seperate profiles?

My intent is to use the 2690 as the prophoto RGB screen for work destined for print and the P221 as my sRGB screen for review of work targeted for the web.  Of course the second monitor is also for the basic convenience of placing toolbars etc.

Thanks,
Jake

[Jonathan Wienke]

You need a video card with dual-LUT capability.

[mmurph]

Just throw in a second $50 card for the second monitor. Easiest way to get the extra LUT and calibrate both monitors without a lot of fuss looking for a killer card (assuming you are happy with the one you have - didn't look up the specs.)

I do that in all my computers, either 2 or 3 monitors. Had to work on photo with just one once you get used to it! I bought a $50 card recently with a decent processor, DVI, HDMI, and 1 GB of ram. Just watch for good rebates.

I would calibrate both to the same spec, however, for most use. Us the profile from the first as the "target" for the second monitor to match when you create it's profile (that is an option in the i1, etc software) Many monitors will let you cycle through other settings when needed (6500, 5000, etc.) as presetsor user defined settings.  sRGB is really just a color space change in Photoshop to view though.

[JPrimgaard]

Thank you for the information!  I'll have to do some research on the second card setup, sounds like it should be no problem.

Jake

[JPrimgaard]

Update for those interested:

Well, the PCI card idea seemed good.  Problem being that my 4 1/2 year old motherboard (Tyan S2885 Thunder K8W) is now an outmode.  The card has an AGP slot for video card and PCI-X for the remaining slots.  I now know the difference between PCI-X and PCI-Express

All the non AGP cards are now PCI-Express only.

So my only option is to find a better AGP card than the one I have that is not going to cost an arm and a leg.  I settled on this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814102730

I have no idea if it will support dual LUT's, I'll find out when I plug it in and boot up.  I figure that it's got to be better than my aging Matrox Parhelia as it was designed a few years prior to this newer one.  If it does not work I will simply live with my second monitor not being hardware calibrated until I build my next computer.

It's really amazing to see how things have changed in 4 years.  That's about how long ago I built my current photoshop machine.  It was a killer machine then, now it's just another old and hard to upgrade beast, but it still serves me well with two Dual Core Opteron's and 4 Gig of RAM and a slew of Raptor drives (one dedicated as the scratch drive).  With these new monitors I'm in heaven again!!

Oh well, until the next upgrade......................

P.S.  The Matrox card will only drive two DVI outputs at the same resolution.  So.....  the NEC 2690's native resolution is 1920 x 1200, whereas the NEC P221W's native is 1680 x 1050.  So the Matrox card is pushing the P221W to 1920 x 1200 which does not look as smooth as it's native 1680 x 1050.  I'm hoping that the new card will allow different resolutions for each output.

[David Sutton]

I don't  know if this will work with Spectraview, but have you tried the Microsoft Color Control Panel Applet for Windows XP from: http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto/download...lorcontrol.aspx

[JPrimgaard]

I don't  know if this will work with Spectraview, but have you tried the Microsoft Color Control Panel Applet for Windows XP from: http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto/download...lorcontrol.aspx

Color Control Panel will only (as far as I know) allow you to more easily manage two profiles for two monitors if your card is capable in the first place.  So it's not doing me any good in this situation.

Thanks for the try though
Jake

[JPrimgaard]

Well, I received the new AGP card yesterday and it's on it's way back today.  

The system would not boot once the card was on the motherboard.  I won't go into all the boring details but suffice it to say that tech support for the card is worthless and the MOBO manufacturer gave it their best but it was a no go.  Since I am not sure as to what the problem was I am going to try one more time (card is going back for exchange) and will post back with my results when I get the replacement.

Jake

[mmurph]

Maybe just add a PCI-X card from eBay for $15?

I'd sell you one of mine, but I still have 2 low end boxes that I swap around (tv recording, 11 year olds computer, etc.)  

[JPrimgaard]

Maybe just add a PCI-X card from eBay for $15?

I'd sell you one of mine, but I still have 2 low end boxes that I swap around (tv recording, 11 year olds computer, etc.)  

It's interesting that you should mention that.  When I first started looking into this situation I came across information that stated that straight PCI-X video cards were virtually non-existant.  I took it at face value and moved on.  Your post made me do some more research and I've found what appears to be a viable solution should the replacement Dual DVI AGP card not work out.

Thanks for jarring the grey matter

Jake

[JPrimgaard]

Here's an update for anyone out there that might be trying to do something similar.  I've used the web extensively in my process to upgrade this "old" computer of mine and am grateful for all the time people put into sharing information.  So here's a little back at ya!

My mobo (Tyan s2885) was running fine with a Matrox Parhelia 128 and a Promise 300TX4 SATA card.  But when I replaced the video card with a Sapphire S3850 AGP card, the system would not boot from the mobo's onboard Sil3114 SATA RAID.

After days of battle I accidently stumbled upon a solution.  When I talked with Tyan support and told them of the fix the tech on the phone misunderstood me and thought I was going to try what I was explaining, not that I had done it, and he told me that it would not work.  

Bottom line.  The mobo's BIOS has limited memory for firmware on boot.  The newer AGP card has much larger firmware than the older card and is pushing the onboard SATA firmware out when it loads making the Sil3114 invisible to the mobo on boot.

My accidental discovery was after having installed the new AGP card and configuring the system I went in search of the solution to the addon SATA card conflict.   I booted the computer with the mobo's bios set to boot with PCI/VGA instead of AGP in an attempt to simply get windows running under a basic VGA setting (avoiding the AGP card) so that I could see if Windows (XPPro) was seeing the SATA addon card at all.  To my amazement (Tyans as well)  the system booted normally with the AGP card fully functional and the SATA card recognized.  In other words even though the bios was set to not see the AGP card, thus allowing the onboard SATA firmware to load, once into windows the OS saw and operated both the addon SATA card and the AGP card normally.  It shouldn't but it does.  

It was a solution that I would have never tried nor would any tech have recommended since by all rights the AGP card would be disabled with the boot selection as noted above.

So there it is.  I hope that somebody someday with the same problem finds this post in their web search and this helps them avoid the days of frustration that I went through.

Jake