Dual Monitor Calibration Question

[DeanChriss]

I've got one NEC monitor with their Spectraview calibration system, one Dell monitor, and an i1Display 2 calibration system. The NEC puck is just a modified i1 puck, and I wonder if that may be a problem. The i1Display 2 is not installed, but the NEC Spectraview system is installed. I just realized that when I install the i1-2 system it may install drivers for the puck, and those may not be the same drivers NEC uses. Has anyone out there done this? My goal is to be able to calibrate both monitors, the NEC with its Spectraview system and the Dell with the i1Display 2 system. The system is Win 7 Pro 64 bit. Any input is appreciated.

[Doug Fisher]

FWIW, I have the i1 Display and i1 Pro with a system that uses an NEC and a Dell monitor and have found a decent workaround.  Unless you have two video cards or another way of managing two monitor profiles at once, you are going to have to profile one monitor (your best and primary monitor) and get the other one as close as possible without actually saving a profile for it.  The Spectraview and NEC combo are superior in my case so I let those be the primary.  Therefore, I first let Spectraview+i1 Display do its thing.  I then start the i1 Match 3 and go through the steps to set contrast, each of the three colors, luminance, etc. for the Dell but I don't let it finish up and then save the profile.  I use the Dell for my pallets and secondary duties.  I think you could do the same thing as long as there isn't a driver issue for the NEC version of the i1 Display.  Give it a try.  I bet it will work.  You can get the i1 Match 3 software from the Xrite site.

[DeanChriss]

I'm using iMatch 3.X. To the best of my knowledge my video card ( ) can handle a separate LUT for each monitor. Also, the Spectraview system calibrates hardware inside the monitor itself, so the video card is only used to communicate with the monitor but it does not actually hold the operating profile. If that's correct, there should be no problem letting iMatchat finish generating a profile, assuming it is aware of both monitors and can distinguish which monitor it calibrated. But, iMatch installs a driver for the i1D2 puck, and my fear is that that the driver it installs could be different from the one NEC installed, thus goofing up the accuracy and/or operation of the Spectraview calibration.

I think I'll just make a note of the driver properties, install iMatch, and check to see if the properties are the same. If they're different I'll calibrate the Dell monitor, then roll back to the previous driver. If they're the same, then both calibration systems should live happily together.