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Author Topic: Calibrating MacBook Pro with NEC PA272W - screens are not matching  (Read 11323 times)

dwnelson

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I am getting a color mismatch on my displays and I'm hoping someone can help me troubleshoot. I have a 13" mid-2012 MacBook Pro with Retina Display hooked up to a new NEC PA272W. I have attached an iPhone 5S photo of both screens next to each other - the NEC is on top, the MBP on the bottom (edit: sorry the photo came out rotated - the NEC is on the left).

Here is my setup
OS X 10.9.1
MacBook Pro Retina screen calibrated with ColorMunki Display, with the latest software (V1.1.0)
Used Advanced (Photo) mode, set to D65 and 140 lumens (five clicks below maximum brightness on the MacBook Pro)

NEC PA272W
Using the NEC-branded calibrator that is packaged with the monitor (LCD-MDSVSENSOR3)
Using calibrated using SpectraView II 1.1.16.01 (Build 131106)
Used default calibration settings for Photo Editing (White Point D65, Gamma 2.20, Intensity 140.0 cd/m^2), Contrast Ratio: Monitor Default, Color Gamut: Native (full).
The SVII software preferences were left at default (Avg low luminance measurements was left checked, 32 (Default) profile steps was selected, Calibration Priority is "Maximize Contrast Ratio." Under ICC Profile I left the default of Automatic source of primary color chromaticieis for ICC profile.
« Last Edit: January 15, 2014, 02:39:34 am by dwnelson »
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D Fosse

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Re: Calibrating MacBook Pro with NEC PA272W - screens are not matching
« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2014, 05:03:32 am »

I'm not a Mac user, so this is general:

First of all you need to make sure that the image on screen is actually color managed. On Windows a desktop image is not, so that alone would account for the difference (the NEC is wide gamut, the MBP not). Use Photoshop or Lightroom and have a duplicate image on the other screen.

There are two sides to "calibrating" a display - calibration and profiling. Calibration modifies the display directly, but that's only half the story. The other part is the monitor profile, which is only used by color managed applications. The profile is simply a description of the display in its calibrated state, and the image data are converted to that profile and sent to the display.

The point I'm trying to make is that if either profile is incorrect, it will display incorrectly even if the display is calibrated. So if there is still a difference with full color management, you need to check that the correct profile is indeed loaded for each screen. If the OS loads the same profile for both, at least one of them will be wrong.
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Czornyj

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Re: Calibrating MacBook Pro with NEC PA272W - screens are not matching
« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2014, 05:19:47 am »

Use ArgyllCMS with dispcalGUI and ColorMunki Display or NEC Spectrasensor (whatever) to calibrate the rMBP. In dispcalGUI - enter Options>Set additional commandline arguments, dispcal: -Q 1964_10
Remember to choose proper ccss (it's white LED for rMBP)



Then calibrate NEC using SVII, run NEC Multiprofiler software and enable "Metamerism correction" option for "Spectraview II" mode
« Last Edit: January 15, 2014, 05:28:46 am by Czornyj »
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TonyW

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Re: Calibrating MacBook Pro with NEC PA272W - screens are not matching
« Reply #3 on: January 15, 2014, 06:26:05 am »

It looks like only one profile is being applied to both the Mac screen and the external NEC

I am not a Mac user but is it possible that the Mac is not configured correctly (to use two seperate profiles) or cannot use two seperate LUT's due to the graphics system limitations?  AFAIK this is a function of the graphics card.
I suspect the latter is unlikely but if it is the case then it seems that you may be stuck to using either a correct profile for the Mac or NEC.
« Last Edit: January 15, 2014, 06:33:38 am by TonyW »
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D Fosse

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Re: Calibrating MacBook Pro with NEC PA272W - screens are not matching
« Reply #4 on: January 15, 2014, 07:14:28 am »

An added complication here is the use of two calibrators, Spectraview and ColorMunki, and potential conflict. Although I use Argyll/Dispcal and recommend it, I've no idea what Czornyj's additional parameter does - ?

Aside from that, loading the same profile for both screens has been an intermittent OS bug on both platforms, but quickly fixed in all cases I've heard about. But it's a possibility always worth checking as part of standard troubleshooting. All current video cards and both OSes normally support it, but a few calibrators do not (Spyder express, the old Huey). In that case it's a deliberate programmed restriction in profile naming, so all profiles end up with the same internal name.

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Czornyj

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Re: Calibrating MacBook Pro with NEC PA272W - screens are not matching
« Reply #5 on: January 15, 2014, 08:19:18 am »

An added complication here is the use of two calibrators, Spectraview and ColorMunki, and potential conflict. Although I use Argyll/Dispcal and recommend it, I've no idea what Czornyj's additional parameter does - ?

Both are basically i1Dsiplay3 with different badges, each has individual spectral characterisation, so there's really small unit to unit variation - approx 0,4, max 1,6dE2000:
http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/Calibration/MonitorCalibrationHardware.html

The -Q 1964_10 flag changes the observer to CIE 1964 10 deg., which is (as I suppose) also used after "Metamerism correction" in Multiprofiler is enabled. It's not perfect, but it gives better match between displays with different backlight spectra, that is the OP case (white LED and GBr LED)
« Last Edit: January 15, 2014, 08:23:49 am by Czornyj »
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D Fosse

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Re: Calibrating MacBook Pro with NEC PA272W - screens are not matching
« Reply #6 on: January 15, 2014, 09:05:31 am »

I see.

Anyway, to the OP - make sure that each screen has the correct profile loaded on OS level.
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jrsforums

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Re: Calibrating MacBook Pro with NEC PA272W - screens are not matching
« Reply #7 on: January 15, 2014, 09:46:19 am »

I am on Win7 and use two separate cards, so each card/monitor can have specific profile.

I also have one wide gamut and one sRGB gamut display.

I would suggest that you will never, normally, get each display to look exact....primarily due to the gamut difference.

I drove myself crazy until I set a proof to sRGB and viewed in both monitors.  That looked close.  In a larger color space, a or p RGB, the wide gamut will show slightly different.

Of course, with two monitors, you will never get EXACT, even if exact matched.....just real close.

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John

digitaldog

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Re: Calibrating MacBook Pro with NEC PA272W - screens are not matching
« Reply #8 on: January 15, 2014, 10:21:41 am »

Expecting two vastly different display types to match, using the same target calibration is a huge stretch. It appears that the biggest mismatch in your posted image is the white point but that's just a guess. You'll very likely need vastly different settings to produce a visual match. You can certainly do that with the SpectraView software, it has a huge number of options to do so. The other product(s), maybe not so much. Further, you'll have dumb down the better of the two displays to match the other.
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dwnelson

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Re: Calibrating MacBook Pro with NEC PA272W - screens are not matching
« Reply #9 on: January 16, 2014, 03:11:26 am »

Thank you, these are all helpful. A lot of this stuff is over my head, so I'll have to read up. I have a few other projects running now so it will be some time before I tackle this.
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eisbaer

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Re: Calibrating MacBook Pro with NEC PA272W - screens are not matching
« Reply #10 on: February 11, 2014, 04:15:51 am »

One question,

is the difference on your two monitors really as harsh as shown in the pictures or is it more subtle (like you Mac Book has a red tint compared with the NEC)? Because I managed to match my EIZO CG276 with a Mac Book pro by adjusting the whitepoint almost perfectly.
My problem is that I took a picture of my two Monitors and on the picture they were worlds apart(http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=87159.0) as on your image above, so I wonder if the difference between your two pictures is really as big as in the image.

if you can manually enter the whitepoint in the Software you use on the Mac Book Pro with xy values try to alter them to values like x 0,311 and y 0,341 or x 0,312 and y 0,336. You might alter these a little, maybe it helps, for me it worked on several Mac Book Pro Retinas.

Frank
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