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Author Topic: Calibrating Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM with my Colormunki  (Read 11053 times)

fike

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Calibrating Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM with my Colormunki
« on: March 08, 2015, 10:36:24 am »

I have been using mid/high end Dell Ultrasharp LCDs for years.  I like their value. I can tolerate their brightness. 

Yeterday I got a new U2713HM, and the first thing I did when I got home was calibrate it with my Colormunki.  I also setup my old U24blahblah adjacent in profile  (nothing beats two separate displays).  I was happy to find that Windows 8, for all its other annoyances, supports dual color profiles for two monitors.  Unfortunately, the calibration on the two displays is not very close.  The new U27" display is much warmer than the old U24" display, even after I re-calibrated both (on custom color settings).  Colormunki software doesn't give you much information, so I turned to open-source HCFR Calibration software. I had used it successfully on an LCD  TV a few years back, and figured it might help me see what is going on. 

What did I find?

1) According to HCFR, I had a large variance between measurements taken within seconds of one another.  Cyan Delta E might jump between .3 and 3.  Cyan was the most unstable, but yellow jumped occasionally. Others varied by .2 Delta E, which I figure is okay. This variance made me wary about my colormunki hardware.
2) According to HCFR, My white balance on the gray-scale tests was all over the map, particularly in the darkest blacks.  I think this is the attribute that causes the warm look on the new U27.
3) Using HCFR to produce CIE diagrams seemed to show a gamut that wasn't as wide as aRGB, but it seems that HCFR doesn't overlay the color spaces on top of its diagram, so I wasn't able to confirm.  It appeared that the green gamut was weaker than the others...though I know that is the color that is always most problematic. 

So based on this flaky evidence, I started monkeying with the controls I had at my disposal, focusing on red and cyan to try to tame the difference with my eyes.  RGB saturation adjustments were too coarse, and I gave up.  I backed off the contrast substantially (molormunki tells you to set it at 100% and then proceed to adjust everything else) because I thought perhaps it was overpowering a color and create a non-linearity that would be tamed by reducing and recalibrating.  No luck.

Suggestions?  I would rather not have to buy another colorimeter, though I see that the X-rite i1Display Pro would let me do hardware calibration which would gain me more control and probably a resulting wider gamut. Advice about using HCFR?  Advice about using Colormunki?

Thanks
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howardm

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Re: Calibrating Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM with my Colormunki
« Reply #1 on: March 08, 2015, 10:49:37 am »

I'd suggest using Argyll/dispcalGUI instead and seeing what that comes up with. 

torger

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Re: Calibrating Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM with my Colormunki
« Reply #2 on: March 08, 2015, 11:00:54 am »

Here's a guide for display calibration with Argyll: http://www.ludd.ltu.se/~torger/photography/argyll-display.html

X-rite (which obviously likes to confuse their customers) have made Colormunki both as a spectrometer (the original product) and colorimeter. The spectrometer (which I have) will do wide gamut screens and is probably a more reliable instrument when it comes to calibrating several different screens but is also more expensive.

The U2713HM is not a wide gamut screen though so I guess the colorimeter should work alright.

I would try Argyll too (directly or via dispcalgui), if you can't get reliable readings there either I'd guess there's some issue with the instrument.
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digitaldog

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Re: Calibrating Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM with my Colormunki
« Reply #3 on: March 08, 2015, 11:01:50 am »

The problem has more to do with the software and lack of controls to produce a visual match than the hardware I suspect. DO expect dissimilar calibration targets to get a visual match! Now does the software have sufficient control to allow you to set this properly?
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AlterEgo

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Re: Calibrating Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM with my Colormunki
« Reply #4 on: March 08, 2015, 11:09:25 am »

The spectrometer (which I have) will do wide gamut screens and is probably a more reliable instrument when it comes to calibrating several different screens

http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/Calibration/MonitorCalibrationHardware.html  disagrees w/ your statements about modern xrite colorimeter vs their spectrophotometer, no ?
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torger

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Re: Calibrating Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM with my Colormunki
« Reply #5 on: March 08, 2015, 01:29:17 pm »

http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/Calibration/MonitorCalibrationHardware.html  disagrees w/ your statements about modern xrite colorimeter vs their spectrophotometer, no ?

I think the usual saying is that a well-calibrated colorimeter adapted for the screen's gamut is the best instrument. It measures with less noise than a spectrometer, good for a high contrast screen. However if you use Argyll a measurement takes well over an hour and it compensates for instrument drift and averages so I think the Colormunki spectrometer makes a good result in that context. I have never used the bundled software, but I guess they measure too fast with too few patches as X-rite usually do with the "consumer" software.

The advantage of spectrometers I've heard is that they are more stable (colorimeter filters may age faster), less sample variation, and as they measure the actual spectrum they are not sensitive on the screen's gamut.

The "highest end" is probably a colorimeter that has been calibrated with a spectrometer though...
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digitaldog

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Re: Calibrating Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM with my Colormunki
« Reply #6 on: March 08, 2015, 01:49:12 pm »

I think the usual saying is that a well-calibrated colorimeter adapted for the screen's gamut is the best instrument.
Based on the price point for this audience, that's true. A colorimeter is going to be a better product for measuring dark emissive colors. Good article by Karl Lang (the man who created PressView and Sony Artisan) on his site which for some odd reason appears to be down at the moment (Lumita.com).
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fike

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Re: Calibrating Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM with my Colormunki
« Reply #7 on: March 08, 2015, 03:09:32 pm »

So I have downloaded DispcalGUI, but for some reason it doesn't want to recognize my colormunki photo.  HCFR still sees it.  Colormunki software still sees it, but for some reason DispcalGUI doesn't.  Any suggestions?

I know that the U2713HM isn't truly wide gamut, but reviews have suggested that it in customer color mode it can exceed sRGB and get close to aRGB, so I guess I will find out...if I can get my colormunki photo to work with DispcalGUI.
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howardm

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Re: Calibrating Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM with my Colormunki
« Reply #8 on: March 08, 2015, 03:17:26 pm »

The ColorMunki software has, historically, left certain processes running in the background which can effectively 'lock' it so other software can't access it.  How this plays out on a PC, I dont know (Mac/Unix guy here).  So, take a look at TAsk Manager and see if Munki-esque processes are running.

fike

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Re: Calibrating Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM with my Colormunki
« Reply #9 on: March 08, 2015, 03:30:25 pm »

The ColorMunki software has, historically, left certain processes running in the background which can effectively 'lock' it so other software can't access it.  How this plays out on a PC, I dont know (Mac/Unix guy here).  So, take a look at TAsk Manager and see if Munki-esque processes are running.
That's a good thought, but HCFR calibration software works with it.  Even so, I looked through and killed some x-rite and colormunki processes and it still didn't work. Interestingly, when I press the refresh key in dspcalGUI, it relaunches the x-rite device manager, which I guess is the driver.  Maybe I will see if xrite has new drivers.
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D Fosse

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Re: Calibrating Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM with my Colormunki
« Reply #10 on: March 08, 2015, 04:55:32 pm »

I know that the U2713HM isn't truly wide gamut, but reviews have suggested that it in customer color mode it can exceed sRGB and get close to aRGB

No way. That's a standard gamut model, end of story. The U2713H (no M) is the wide gamut one.
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fike

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Re: Calibrating Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM with my Colormunki
« Reply #11 on: March 08, 2015, 05:54:31 pm »

No way. That's a standard gamut model, end of story. The U2713H (no M) is the wide gamut one.

Crap! Yes I made a mistake.  Those darn Dell model #s have no correspondence to anything.  I got confused because I started shopping the U2715H which is a replacement for the U2713HM, not the "H." Now I have two problems...colormunki not working with dspcalGUI and needing to return and upgrade this display.  The U2713H is $750.  I paid $600 for this one and, as always, was topping out my budget.  It looks like I have to go to $700-$800 to get into the value-end of wide gamut 27" displays.

suggestions...and yes, I do run a color managed print studio, so I think the extra gamut is worthwhile for me.
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howardm

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Re: Calibrating Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM with my Colormunki
« Reply #12 on: March 08, 2015, 06:10:16 pm »

which *exact* Colormunki do you have?  there are at least 3-5 different ones all w/ varying capabilities and history.

fike

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Re: Calibrating Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM with my Colormunki
« Reply #13 on: March 08, 2015, 06:37:17 pm »

I have the Colormunki Photo.
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howardm

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Re: Calibrating Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM with my Colormunki
« Reply #14 on: March 08, 2015, 06:49:26 pm »

I might suggest simply dumping the entire CM software suite and using Argyll for display and print profiling.

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Re: Calibrating Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM with my Colormunki
« Reply #15 on: March 08, 2015, 07:43:31 pm »

I might suggest simply dumping the entire CM software suite and using Argyll for display and print profiling.
I think it would be a good idea to get Argyll/dispcalGUI working before I dump the CM stuff entirely.
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howardm

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Re: Calibrating Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM with my Colormunki
« Reply #16 on: March 08, 2015, 07:48:52 pm »

Fair enough but that hasn't occured and you could be in for a bit of a fight w/ the conflicting software.

Seems like the worst case if you do is that you have to simply re-install the CM software.

fike

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Re: Calibrating Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM with my Colormunki
« Reply #17 on: March 08, 2015, 08:23:57 pm »

Fair enough but that hasn't occured and you could be in for a bit of a fight w/ the conflicting software.

Seems like the worst case if you do is that you have to simply re-install the CM software.

The reason that I don't think this is a conflict with that software is that the Colormunki colorimeter works with HCFR software.
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torger

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Re: Calibrating Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM with my Colormunki
« Reply #18 on: March 09, 2015, 04:31:10 am »

Argyll USB drivers can be a bit of a mess to get it working on windows. Look at the install documentation of Argyll.
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Re: Calibrating Dell Ultrasharp U2713HM with my Colormunki
« Reply #19 on: March 09, 2015, 10:49:09 am »

Good article by Karl Lang (the man who created PressView and Sony Artisan) on his site which for some odd reason appears to be down at the moment (Lumita.com).
Site and article is up: http://www.lumita.com/site_media/work/whitepapers/files/xrite-wp-3a.pdf
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