[SOLVED] Better calibration by eye than with DisplayCAL

[W.D. Stevens]

Hi all,

I bought an Xrite i1 Display Studio yesterday and I set up my new monitor and that looks pretty good to me but I was able to adjust the Red, Green and Blue channels in the monitor’s OSD to get the coloured bars at the right level which helped a considerable amount. On my laptop screen, however, I can’t do that and just using the laptop preset (as well as any others), it goes through the process and still has this ugly green cast that I have been able to get rid of just by using the Windows calibration tool by eye.

The thing is, the little readout at the end of the calibration gives good gamut readings and, oddly, pretty good Delta-E readings when I can tell it’s way off which throws into doubt the quality of the calibration of my external monitor if it can’t tell how far off that screen is.

I’m guessing I’m doing something wrong with the setup but I’ve been following guides and I seem to be doing it right. Any help would be much appreciated!

 

[Ralston18]

Just calibrate by "eye".

Color/color perception is a matter of subjectivity. And one's DNA to some extent - i.e. color blindness.

Even if all of the calibrated measurements are objective in some manner (wavelengths, brightness, contrast, whatever) no two people will perceive the color as the same way.

If the display looks good to you then leave as is. You might make note of the settings and readings just for reference purposes. May save some time and effort in the future trying to restore the appearance.

Still those same settings will likely appear differently colored on another monitor. Even if the same make and model as its' predecessor.

 

[USAFRet]

Very subjective.

A while ago, I had a matched pair of 22" HP IPS panels. Bought as a set, Almost sequential serial numbers.
A hueyPro calibration device.

No matter what I did, they were always just a teeny bit off from each other.
Looked at individually, no problem. Side by side, in the right lighting....just a teeny bit different.

Currently, I have 2x 24" Asus panels. Same model.
A SpyderX Pro
Again...just a teeny bit off from each other.

Only noticeable side by side, trying to show the exact same thing.

 

[sizzling]

My dad used to work in TV broadcasting and has told me how difficult calibrating colour by eye is. Apparently your frame of reference of colour beforehand and the ambient light during viewing can significantly change our eyes perception of colour. So the same monitor in 2 different situations can look different while actually displaying the exact same colour.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Unlike external monitors, laptop screens can be particularly challenging owing to lack of OSD menu for setting color temp etc.
I had a devil of a time trying to get a decent result on my laptop screen with my Datacolor SpiderX so gave up.
No such issues with SpiderX on my desktop PC monitor.

 

[W.D. Stevens]

Yeah, it sure is unfortunate that they don't have hardware controls. Apparently it's something to do with the white point not being able to be set right. Setting it manually to 6500K seemed to yield better results but still not close enough. The thing is, it's not a slight difference. Side-by-side, the laptop is still way too green so I just calibrated by eye as best I could using the calibrated external monitor as a reference. I'll be doing the majority of my colour work on that but at least now my laptop looks nicer and will be good enough for sort of roughing it in if I'm away from home.