I have an eye-one display, version one, I use it with the latest updated Eye-One software and it has seemingly worked well for my needs. I recently purchased a Planar PX2611w, which from reports I read uses the same panel as the NEC 2690, but does not have the same other internals as the NEC. I took a chance which now is looking like not a good choice, but before I jump to any conclusions I have some questions for the experts here.
I could not get a decent profile using the Eye-One display and 3.62 version of the software. So I loaded the trial of Color Eyes Display Pro and I like it much more and more in depth software. It supports the eye-one display 2, but it is working with the version one puck that I have, but I am getting less than stellar results from the profile attempts. Part of this I know is the wide gamet of the display I feel sure and it is usable when I compare it with a Sony CPD-G520 that is an excellent CRT display, but I just am not getting that rock solid, warm fuzzy feeling that I want to feel about the color while I am editing images.
So is this perhaps just the shock of the wide gamet perhaps? I feel like I am constantly seeing colors in the neutrals? I am cause it does show banding on a grey ramp.
Otherwise the monitor is very nice, even backlighting, no light leaks, no misbehaving pixels, controls are OK, has RGB gain controls for what ever that is worth on an LCD. But I want to be able to look at it and love it, like I do when I look at my wife (did you read that honey? how many points is that worth?) and up to this point of playing with it for a week I am just not head over heels in love with it.
Here is a screen of the profile, not unusable I don’t think, but not very good for a $900 monitor either IMO.
So, I don’t know, any opinions or advise?
Is maybe the old eye-one display puck not up to the task of a wide gamet display? Should I just RMA back to DELL?
Here’s my take on some of your issues. It is true that if you are not used to a wide gamut monitor, it can be a bit of a shock to what you’re used to - so that’s certainly something to consider. There is probably more to it though.
You can download a free software called “Diagnostic Tool” from Xrite that will run your i1 through its paces and find out if it’s in good shape. That’s a good place to start.
When it comes to wide gamut monitors, there’s something of a need in the industry that hasn’t been filled yet. These displays put out colors that the usual colorimeters are not designed to measure. Some experts recommend using a true spectrophotometer (an i1 Pro, or a ColorMunki) to calibrate these super-saturated displays, but spectrophotometers have their own set of problems in that they tend to measure more noise in the black areas, and so shadow detail on your screen might not show up with these profiles. Some high end displays are coming out with their own “specially tuned” colorimeters that are just for calibrating their own high gamut display (like HP’s LP2480 dreamcolor). So the bottom line is: your colorimeter might not be capable of accurately reading the more saturated colors on your monitor.
And then there’s the issue of the banding, which you say you already notice. With 8 bits of color depth, your graphics card has 256 steps with which to define every change in color from dark black to full-out saturated. With a normal, sRGB type display, 256 is just enough to handle this. Of course, with a high gamut display, those 256 steps have to be expanded to cover a larger area and so the resolution is not very “fine” - thus you are much more likely to see banding. The higher-end displays that have their own 10 or 12-bit graphics processors built in are an attempt to reduce the chance of this.
Ironically, one of the bonus features of the CEDPro software might be contributing to the banding if you have it set up incorrectly. CEDP will use the graphics card to adjust your brightness down to your aim point, if you fail to adjust it first in your display hardware. So you might check your current profile to see if at least one of your colored curves in the “Video LUT” graph end up at the upper right hand corner. If the curves don’t make it all the way up there into that corner, but hit the wall further down, then that is contributing to your banding, and you should make a new profile after adjusting your display’s brightness down.
Thanks for taking the time to reply Patrick. The Planar is going back to Dell, I am not confident in it. It may be alright for gaming or general use, but not as an editing monitor.
You made some good points. I have been shopping on the Chromix site, we’ll see what Santa brings this year, can I trade a few lumps of coal for a new Eizo?
