What is the cheapist/easiest way to calibrate a monitor accurately?

[N3rdR4ge]

I have a VG248QE and the color is just way too blue and washed with any calibration setting I use. Windows doesn't like to keep my gamma settings too. I also have a PG278Q and the color is absolutely fantastic. The VG248QE is just an eye sore at this point. Since i've invested $700-800 in monitors i'm interested in a solution to get the best possible viewing out of both monitors. I've heard of monitor spyders but this is something I have no experience with. I would appreciate any recommendations you could give me. Thanks in advance!

 

[cub_fanatic]

Did you try the old school TV color bars? You can use your "good" monitor as reference and then adjust the other one to match it while both are displaying the bars:

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

Yep, either that or Windows has a built in semi advanced calibrate tool/step-by-step guide. You want to use a white piece of paper, or a digital camera's histogram, or something along those lines. If you could post a picture of your display(s), I can tell you which color the tint is.

 

[N3rdR4ge]

heres what im working with with absolutely no calibration at all. both monitors are on factory settings. the vg248qe is on standard.

 

[N3rdR4ge]

here's what i got after calibrating with tom's reviews on both monitors. they seem pretty similar here, but see my next post.

 

[N3rdR4ge]

the vg248qe almost seems like it is missing something. red looks slightly off and it has more of a blueish tone. perhaps it is just a matter of it being an inferior monitor.

with some adjustments to my phones camera, you can see the differences in the two on my desktop.

cant seem to get the warm look the pg278q has without off-balancing the color completely on the vg248qe.
is this correctable?

 

[N3rdR4ge]

finally, here is an example of how red differs. it is much harder to see in an image than in-person.

 

[cub_fanatic]

the vg248qe almost seems like it is missing something. red looks slightly off and it has more of a blueish tone. perhaps it is just a matter of it being an inferior monitor.

with some adjustments to my phones camera, you can see the differences in the two on my desktop.

cant seem to get the warm look the pg278q has without off-balancing the color completely on the vg278qe.
is this correctable?

Does that monitor have a backlight adjustment or a color temperature adjustment? Some of this might also be due to the resolution and monitor size difference. The pixels are more dense as well as smaller on the 1440p monitor. You seem to have gotten it pretty close, though. But I see what you mean, the red on the monitor on the right looks a little darker. That could be the result of the 1080p monitor having larger pixels spaced further apart. It could also be the way they positioned the LEDs or even the number of LEDs they used. It is sort of a budget monitor compared to the ROG one.

Have you tried playing with the monitor on the left to see if you can get it to match? If it is the color difference and not trying to get the one on the right perfect that is bothering you, that might be the only other option.

 

[N3rdR4ge]

I have adjusted the back light but it doesnt help. unfortunately the vg248qe only allows temperature adjustements or a user adjustment, not both. the preset temp adjustments are junk. i think the monitor is as good as I can get it since i've spent a lot of time trying different things. i wouldnt want to adjust the pg278q since it looks perfect.

i am curious about a professional spyder. perhaps that could solve the issue i am having or help? i'm under the impression that the spyder will improve both monitors even if they are not precisely the same. i am by no means qualified to calibrate a monitor properly and a spyder will take away user error, although I have no idea how they actually work.

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

Did you use Windows calibrator? Pro calibration tools cost thousands. And yes, TN panels aren't the best, with low contrast ratios.

 

[N3rdR4ge]

Yeah windows calibrator didnt really solve the issue. the gamma has been matched at 2.2 on both monitors. RGB settings are adjustable on the monitors and I did try tweaking Contrast and Brightness.

how about a basic spyder like this?
http://www.amazon.com/Datacolor-S5P100-Spyder5PRO/dp/B00UBSL31Q/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1445224753&sr=8-8&keywords=spyder

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

heres what im working with with absolutely no calibration at all. both monitors are on factory settings. the vg248qe is on standard.

This image here, shows a white that's whiter than your next photograph below, talking about the screen on the right. Your attempt to match them, only made it worse, because they're both more towards yellow/orange now.

Cheap tools like that are often inaccurate. You can easily match a tool like that using a white piece of paper or a camera's histogram if available. Pro grade calibration tools takes care of everything we can't see, tiny differences in color that we can't make out, because our brain is going to fool us anyways. TN panels are technically limited in terms of contrast and color. Contrast is basically how white and how black each is. I doubt there's anything you can do about the panel on the left (VG248QE?), because even though both are TN panels, one is better than the other. You can try to continue experiment though.

 

[N3rdR4ge]

how exactly do i match it to the paper? do i keep it against the screen? hold it up and just eyeball it?

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

Yeah, try that. Use a piece of tape, typically you'd want to calibrate in the dark, but you want the paper to be white, this is the free method. Follow the on screen steps in Windows calibrate tool, and don't try to match the monitors, try to match the paper, monitors aren't created equal, not even if they are of the same make and model. Excited to see your results. 😛

 

[N3rdR4ge]

by the way

the vg248qe is on the right. i believe it was my phone camera giving it the off-white color. i manually adjusted my phone camera to 6200k for a better example. the vg248qe has an overly white washed out look in the original image.

 

[N3rdR4ge]

Yeah, try that. Use a piece of tape, typically you'd want to calibrate in the dark, but you want the paper to be white, this is the free method. Follow the on screen steps in Windows calibrate tool, and don't try to match the monitors, try to match the paper, monitors aren't created equal, not even if they are of the same make and model. Excited to see your results. 😛

i will definitely still try this. thanks!

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

I see that you selected my answer as the solution. How did it go?

 

[N3rdR4ge]

great, ended up researching how to do it with the camera histogram. obviously won't be able to get it perfect, but it is a lot better. thanks for the help =D. I'll upload an image sometime this week when i get a chance.