How do I calibrate a monitor with Xrite's iprofiler instead of Spectraview?

[Evanford]

Due to Lightroom 4 I am in the process of migrating from a Windows XP laptop to one running 64 bit Windows 7.  My old laptop calibrated just fine with Spectraview II and a NEC 2490WUXi2 monitor.   I used it for the past 3 years.  I have been having a very difficult time calibrating the new laptop with the same monitor using Spectraview II.  The black levels are consistently plugged up.  I should have returned the laptop but I thought I could live with it.  Now I find it is driving me nuts.  I am spending way too much time trying to get the darn thing profiled instead of using it to develop photos.   As part of this journey I upgraded my puck to the I1DisplayPro. I calibrated both laptops using it and Spectraview.  The results are now my old laptop looks even better (better colors matching prints).  The new laptop matches colors okay (although a bit under saturated) but the plugged up blacks are still there.  By 'plugged up blacks'  I am referring to almost any test chart which one can download when viewed in Photoshop and also Spectaview's own test patterns which shows the words 'Quality Control'  When I view the test pattern for blacks  I see the word 'Quality' but do not see the word 'Control' at all.  Using my old laptop I see 'Quality Cont' which may not be perfect but was good enough for me.  Both laptops are calibrated to 140 luminance .40 blacks   

Anyway, I am now at a point where I would like to evaluate the i1profiler software instead of Spectraview.   To disable Spectraview and set the monitor up for i1profiler is it as simple as removing Spectraview from my start up folder and setting the monitor to factory defaults?  Would there be any benefit to calibrating with Spectraview to the settings above and then using i1profiler on top of it?  I take it using both sets of software would be a no-no. 

Thanks,

Evan   

[shewhorn]

Just to be sure (because if you're using DVI-D, the video card should have no impact on the image as the D to A conversion happens in the monitor) have you double checked all of the preference settings in SVII to make sure they all match the old laptop? Also, are you connecting the puck directly to a USB port on the computer (not to a USB hub, or to the monitor)? One more question, when SVII is going through the motions, does it look the same as it did with the laptop (does the screen first flash a few funky colors, then crank the luminance)? One possibility is that your laptop doesn't support DDC/ci. I've heard of this happening with some laptops that have Intel integrated graphics cards. NEC has since come up with a workaround for such machines but it's only available with the newer PA series monitors (basically SV talks to the monitor via USB instead of DDC/ci over the monitor cable).

Sorry I didn't answer your direct question, but I'm wondering if it's possible to avoid having to go there.

Cheers, Joe

[Evanford]

I've tried everything I can think of including:   swapping monitor inputs and the cables connecting the laptops, using all 4 of my USB ports (two are USB 3.0, two are USB 2.0), upgrading Spectraview to the latest versions on both laptops (version 1.1.10).  I have played with all preference settings.  I will say this though. The old laptop is Windows XP, 32 bit.  The new is Windows 7, 64 bit.  Spectraview is the same version but runs with a grey window on the XP laptop.  It is white on the Windows 7 laptop.  I don't believe there is a separate installer for 32 bit/64 bit windows.   I don't notice any difference running the program between laptops.  On the new machine it does hang quite a bit during calibration (I would say 30% of the time) causing me to kill the process and re-initiate Spectraview.  Sometimes it gets 78% complete, sometimes 96% but then it just stops advancing.    This is another reason I am interested in checking out the I1Profiler software.  I love the I1Display Pro puck. 
 
Thanks for the info on the PA series.  I would consider upgrading if I was confident it would work with the new laptop.   

Evan   

[shewhorn]

The new PA series are indeed great but your 2490 is still a great monitor. I have some more questions... with your computer, if it's store bought, typically it will come with everything installed but I have often seen issues with the drivers that are included with such machines, and often those issues can be resolved if you download the driver directly from the manufacturer of the GPU. There are two major players with GPUs, NVIDIA, and ATI. Intel is also popular. Your machine most likely has a GPU from one of these manufacturers. Have you downloaded the GPU drivers directly from the GPU manufacturer? If not that would definitely be something to try.

You are correct in that there is no separate installer for SVII based on OS version but do make sure you have version 1.1.10 which you can grab here:

http://www.necdisplay.com/support-and-services/spectra-view-II/Downloads

Cheers, Joe

[Evanford]

I have an Intel Graphics HD 3000 on the new machine.  I downloaded the latest driver for it last week.  Perhaps this is why I have been having hanging issues with Spectraview so much.   Spectraview used to get stuck about 30% of the time when I ran it.  Now, it gets stuck about 75% of the time.  Tonight I spent about 2 hours running about 10 calibrations before it finally succeeded.  Very annoying.  I will open a case with NEC for this problem.  I did finally get it profiled with a lower contrast ratio of 300:1. This was after setting the monitor to factory reset.   Images look okay I guess, but test patterns still show plugged up blacks.  I am worried this is going to throw off my editing.   

Tomorrow I will try to calibrate with the latest version of IProfiler and see if that is any better.  One more question for anyone in the know:  If I decide not to use iProfiler and go back to Spectraview,  is there anything special I have to delete/remove/uninstall other than the profile Iprofiler made and the Iprofiler software/gamma loader?   

Thanks,

Evan         

[shewhorn]

That's a bit of a bummer. I know the Intel graphics have had DDC issues with SV/NEC monitors and other DDC applications.

Re: SV and i1Profiler, I'm running i1Profiler, Color Eyes Display Pro v1.6, Spectraview II, Spyder 4 Elite 4.5, and BasICColor Display 5 alongside each other in harmony. Make sure you don't have any conflicting LUT loaders (you can manage this via startup items).

Cheers, Joe

[Evanford]

Here is an update on my issue if anyone was following this.  I loaded the latest version of IProfiler and see much better results in the calibration.  Test charts like the one found on http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com/  show the proper smooth gradation of white to black with the last white/black number barely visible.  This is an infinite improvement on the Spectraview calibration which had numbers 1-3 completely invisible.  As a corollary to getting this problem fixed, web pages in Internet Explorer and Firefox look a lot better too, as do my desktop backgrounds.  I knew something was off there.  The only drawback I see is a slight decrease in saturation from what I am used to on my old machine.

So, it looks like there is some sort of compatibility issue with Spectraview version 1.1.10 and my current lap top.  I wish I could say IProfiler was bug free, but there is a whole list of Windows gotchas on Xrite's web site to look out for.  I also wish IProfiler came with some sort of user's guide.  Can't seem to find any documentation on it other than basic usage info contained in the online training videos.   Bummer.

Thanks Joe for helping with this issue.  Much appreciated. 

Evan 

[lfeagan]

Evan,
Thanks for doing the legwork on this issue. I gave my 2690WUXi to my mother and was having the same lockups you were during calibration using her notebook with SVII and gave up after spending hours on it. I went back and tried i1Profiler and it worked without issue--go figure. Regarding the NEC PA and SVII, I have two PA301Ws and haven't had issues calibrating either using SVII (i1Profiler also works). So if you ever go that route, things should work just fine thanks to the USB cable from the computer to the monitor, which was a smart move on NEC's part.

Lance

[Evanford]

I am glad someone else got some use out of this thread.    But here is an interesting twist to my tale..... I still wasn't satisfied with the saturation levels of my new IProfiler profile.  It was just a tad under-saturated from what I was used to and there was some slight color differences in the greens (foliage and grass).  So, I decided to give Spectraview one more shot. Not only did it work, but it worked very well.  The plugged up blacks problem seems to have gotten fixed by the IProfiler calibration and the color/saturation was fixed by Spectraview.  Now my colors and black levels match very well between the two machines!

I'm still not sure exactly what was causing my original problem.  I did remember after buying the I1Dispaly Pro I tried  to use IProfiler to calibrate the lap top display (which did not go well).  I thought I backed everything out when I deleted I1Profiler from the machine (before the recent re-install of the latest version).  I am guessing I created a bad profile with plugged up blacks during the failed lap top calibration months ago.  This profile was somehow associated with my NEC monitor and was never replaced by Spectraview.   I am still not sure where the I1Profiler profile gets stored within windows color management.  I see the Spectraview profile listed as the default profile for my NEC display.  I did not see the I1Profiler profile listed there or anywhere else.  But things are working now.  My only concern is should I follow the exact same procedure in another month:  calibrate with I1profiler, then Spectraview.  Or should I just stick with Spectraview and never run I1profiler again.  Hmmm.

Holy Color Management Batman!   I think I just figured it out.  Under Color Management  I see my display listed twice!  One entry has my Spectraview profile as the default profile.  The other has the I1Profiler profile listed as default.  So I guess I am double profiling?  I only have Spectraview profile loader listed in my startup folder.  I removed Xrite's XGamma loader from startup.  I did bounce my system and verified colors/contrast is as expected.    So, at least I now know what my problem has been.  Now to decide if I should further mess with things in the name of correctness, or just leave things alone as the results seem to be good. 

Thanks Lance.