Best software for Spyder4

[Chiotas]

Dear friends,
Is there any better software to use with my Spyder4 Elite?
Is dispcalGUI a better choice?
I tried to search in the forum but with no luck.
Thank you!

PS: I use Mac OS X 10.9

[Czornyj]

I'd use ArgyllCMS+dispcalGUI, if possible with costom ccmx for sensor+display combination.

[Chiotas]

I'd use ArgyllCMS+dispcalGUI, if possible with costom ccmx for sensor+display combination.

Thank you so much!
I'll start to study the application, as it seems to be really powerful, but not so easy to use as the Datacolor app.
As far as you know, is there a database or something similar for sensor+display ccmx or have I to make my own?
Thank you!

Francesco

[Misirlou]

I use Color Eyes Display Pro with mine. Not sure how it compares to any alternatives.

[howardm]

there is also BasICColor Display (they share an ancestral code base w/ ColorEyes many years ago) but both of them are $$ (about $125-150 or so).  Argyll is zero $$.

Is this an academic question or is the Datacolor software not doing something you think it should???

[Chiotas]

Is this an academic question or is the Datacolor software not doing something you think it should???

It is really a good question, and the basic answer is: no, it works fine.
The point is that I'm not able to get a perfect match between the MacBook Pro retina display and my external monitor, that is a Apple LED cinema display (old model, not the thunderbolt one).
As the MBP display is quite accurate, sometimes I think that the Datacolor software is not so accurate with the external display.

Any feedback from someone that uses this external monitor is extremely appreciated

Thank you to everyone else for the many suggestion received!
Color Eyes Display Pro looks nice, but it seems to be not compatible with OS X 10.9

[howardm]

'better/different' software isn't going to solve the problem.  different display technologies yield different visual results even if you
set Spyder for the same target values.  You can get them 'close' with a fair amount of trial/error by adjusting the white point
of one of the devices.

Lots of prior posts on this issue and I'm sure the smarter people hear will chime in

[Some Guy]

You won't get a perfect match between those monitors.

xrite has a 3 part webinar on their website by Joe Brady where he demonstrates the issues on monitors and calibration.  He has a Mac Pro running and an Eizo screen side by side and demonstrates the screen issues with the Mac (Kelvin & Brightness both) in 9 spots on the Mac screen with the xrite hardware.  Basically, he said no two of anything will appear to be the same out of the factory with regards to consumer based laptops.  Eizo does try and do a better job on overall screen calibration, but you pay for it too.  He showed the 9 point readings of the Mac screen and they weren't very good with serious color and brightness issues around the screen area that cannot be addressed in normal screen calibration software as it is more internal to the screen's manufacturing itself.

Fwiw, I just replaced a screen in an older laptop that was fading into darkness and the xrite calibration told me "Increase brightness" but I couldn't.  Bought a new LCD panel for about $120 out of a Washington state LCD supplier and tore into it and replaced the stock one.  What I immediately noticed was the new screen was more blue than the old one, aside from regarding the brightness increase.  A fresh calibration with the xrite i1PhotoPro head brought it back into snuff, but the initial factory calibration was a bit blue.  Still, a 9 point screen test shows the differences that cannot be done by software alone since it applies the setting to the entire area rather than to the 9 specific ones.

SG