Calibrating the laptop...problem!

Bend The Light

I want to calibrate my laptop screen. I have the Spyder2Pro device to do it with.
I have a Medion Laptop (Aldi Special ) which is running windows 7 64Bit. All is well with the system.

Trouble is, to run Spyder2Pro I need to have access to the RGB sliders, or to other sliders to alter the screen output. Can I find them?? No!

I'm not a complete novice with computers, and it irks me that I can't find something which I have used many times before...the only thing I do have is the screen brightness (a sun symbol) control on the keyboard. No other controls...

Anyone know where I can find them?

Cheers

Newsy

With a laptop you need to use the "Simple" or "Easy" or "Laptop" mode. I can't quite recall the terminology from when I used to use a Spyder2 Pro.

In this mode the sensor and the software does all the work creating an ICC profile with all of the compensation in the profile. You won't see any screens from the Spyder software requiring you to adjust sliders, it's all automatic.

With the "Advanced" mode, you could try to use the sliders from the video card utility but that is a very painful process.

Frankly, most laptop screens are not worth the effort and it would be better to go out and buy an inexpensive external monitor (that uses an IPS tft LCD panel) for any colour critical editing work. Examples would be the Dell U2212HM or the LG IPS231P.

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews.htm

With the Spyder2 sensors you can use them with displays that are a standard sRGB gamut but if they are wide gamut (encompassing the AdobeRGB colour space) then you will need to upgrade to a newer model.

Bend The Light

Newsy wrote: »

With a laptop you need to use the "Simple" or "Easy" or "Laptop" mode. I can't quite recall the terminology from when I used to use a Spyder2 Pro.

In this mode the sensor and the software does all the work creating an ICC profile with all of the compensation in the profile. You won't see any screens from the Spyder software requiring you to adjust sliders, it's all automatic.

With the "Advanced" mode, you could try to use the sliders from the video card utility but that is a very painful process.

Frankly, most laptop screens are not worth the effort and it would be better to go out and buy an inexpensive external monitor (that uses an IPS tft LCD panel) for any colour critical editing work. Examples would be the Dell U2212HM or the LG IPS231P.

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews.htm

With the Spyder2 sensors you can use them with displays that are a standard sRGB gamut but if they are wide gamut (encompassing the AdobeRGB colour space) then you will need to upgrade to a newer model.

Thanks. I managed to get it to work, and yes, you are right...the LCD mode just does it all for me. I am now calibrated, but it will take some getting used to...the screen colours are so much different, less blue, more...urm...brown?

I did consider an external screen, but as I can only use my laptop whilst sat on a settee, it is not practical...no room for a dedicated set up just yet.

Newsy

Bend The Light wrote: »

Thanks. I managed to get it to work, and yes, you are right...the LCD mode just does it all for me. I am now calibrated, but it will take some getting used to...the screen colours are so much different, less blue, more...urm...brown?

Yes, lol, that is a common first reaction. A lot of laptops seem to have a factory white point up around 8500K. Takes a while for your eyes to get used to it but they will. And when the laptop comes out of sleep mode and fails to load the ICC profile it will then appear very very blue to you. The Spyder2 "ProfileChooser" utility will be very useful for times like that.

I did consider an external screen, but as I can only use my laptop whilst sat on a settee, it is not practical...no room for a dedicated set up just yet.

Ah! Too bad. Someday!