I am unable to satisfactorily calibrate an NEC PA271W (the original one) running on OS 10.9.3 using Spectraview (1.1.17) and a ColorMunki.
The monitor is set up as an external monitor to my 15" rMBP (
late 2013 Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013).
With the target "Color Gamut" set to "Native FULL" I get the wretched "lobstering" or "sunburn effect". This is even after doing a deep factory reset (3x). The lobstering is present in all applications, all windows, and shows on the desktop icons. Setting JPGs to other color
spaces profiles (ProPhoto RGB,
Adobe RGB {1998}) makes no difference. There is no lobstering on the laptop screen. The lobstering remains even in clamshell mode (laptop closed, external monitor as primary and only screen).
NEC technicians have had me use a target with "Color Gamut" set to "sRGB". This eliminates the lobstering.
Q1: I'd like to use the full gamut of the display. Why won't it work? NEC technicians have not been able to say, but suggest that the problem is with Apple's OS. Apple — when I checked a couple of years ago — insisted the problem was with NEC's hardware.
Is anyone able to use any wide gamut target with OS X? with OS 10.9.3? with an MBP?
When calibrated to the sRGB gamut, the hues are not correct: all the grays are greenish. I have tried customizing the WB visually, but I have not been able to get it good enough: either the grays are gray, or the hues are true, but not both. When the grays are gray, the color cast is overly red. When the hues are true, the grays are distinctly green. I have confirmed this — at least with grays and blues — by measuring the output color on the 271 and on my other monitors with the SpectraView utility.
Q2: What do I have to do to get calibrated, correct color from my PA271W (even when limited to sRGB)?
What I would really like (brought up in
my thread from last week) is to have a fully-calibrated three-screen set-up, with my rMBP LCD, my NEC2490WUXi2, and my NEC PA271W. When the NECs are calibrated (with the 271 to sRGB and the 2490 to "native", which NEC technicians tell me is sRGB) with SpectraView, and the laptop with the ColorMunki software, the laptop shows the most correct color. The 2490 is slightly too red, and the 271 is, using "slightly" as a unit, 4x that too green.
The above holds for solid colors, grayscale photographs, and various screen-testing images available on the Web.
Neither I nor the NEC technicians think the following is relevant, but since I read in Jeff's book (Schewe, The Digital Print, p.69) that he calibrates his monitors to 150 Cd/m^2, I want to mention that I calibrate everything to 85 Cd/m^2. (I can't see much of anything even at 140, which is the default for SpectraView II.)
I need to make prints, and I need to be sure that the color I see on-screen is reproducible elsewhere and that it matches what comes from the printers I use (Epson 3880, Epson 9900). I'm befuddled and frustrated. I _don't_ dismiss user error, though I have been through the set-up a few times with different technicians.
Q3: I am open to suggestions for new hardware and software. What is the least amount I have to spend to have a reliable, easy-to-maintain, color-calibrated workflow across at least two monitors?
