calibration: two monitors, I huey pro , horrible time

asamuelasamuel Registered Users Posts: 451 Major grins
edited September 9, 2008 in Digital Darkroom
I thought I was on top of this.

I have a laptop DELL Inspiron 6000,I have known that its monitor is poor.

Bought DELL WFPultrasharp 20".

1 huey pro. Follow the instructions.

Both screens look radically different after calibration. Aren't they supposed to look the same.

The before and after toggle on the WFP screen, shows no change at all. But it looks BAD.

My WFP seems heavily oversaturated .

Am I missing something?
where's the cheese at?

http://www.samuelbedford.com

Comments

  • asamuelasamuel Registered Users Posts: 451 Major grins
    edited September 20, 2007
    or over contrasty.
    where's the cheese at?

    http://www.samuelbedford.com
  • ChrisJChrisJ Registered Users Posts: 2,164 Major grins
    edited September 21, 2007
    asamuel wrote:
    Am I missing something?[/U]

    Some video cards/drivers will not support separate profiles for each monitor. The easiest solution is to see if there's a driver update for your video card. That fixed the problem for my IBM ThinkPad. The driver from ATI didn't work, I downloaded the one from Microsoft's Update site, and poof, I had monitor profiling. Hope that helps!
    Chris
  • asamuelasamuel Registered Users Posts: 451 Major grins
    edited September 21, 2007
    thanks Chris, I'll look into it.
    where's the cheese at?

    http://www.samuelbedford.com
  • SloYerRollSloYerRoll Registered Users Posts: 2,788 Major grins
    edited September 22, 2007
    asamuel wrote:

    My WFP seems heavily oversaturated .

    Am I missing something?
    What OS are you running? There was a post in here about a person that upgraded to Vista 64Bit and their colors were oversaturated too.

    -Jon
  • asamuelasamuel Registered Users Posts: 451 Major grins
    edited September 23, 2007
    that shouldn't apply, I run XP.
    where's the cheese at?

    http://www.samuelbedford.com
  • wxwaxwxwax Registered Users Posts: 15,471 Major grins
    edited September 23, 2007
    Search for Huey here, you'll find a broad mix of experiences with the product. I gave mine away.
    Sid.
    Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
    http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited September 23, 2007
    You're expecting your laptop screen to look like your 20" monitor? ear.gif
    Moderator Emeritus
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  • asamuelasamuel Registered Users Posts: 451 Major grins
    edited September 24, 2007
    yes I was expecting a high level of similarity.

    I think I've got it now (ish) but its guess work.

    the first step that asks do you see three bands to the left and two to the right. well I can't

    so I go to the next step, try to make the bottom halves look like the top. well I can't so. I set both contrast and brightness to 75%.

    Finish everything up. Then I calibrate again and where it asked do you see three bands to the left, two to the right. I tweaked the 75% contrast / brightness settings until I Do.

    Then I re-calibrate and it looks a lot better than it ever did.

    Does that sound crazy?

    I'll check out the other threads. thanks Sam.
    where's the cheese at?

    http://www.samuelbedford.com
  • SloYerRollSloYerRoll Registered Users Posts: 2,788 Major grins
    edited September 24, 2007
    asamuel wrote:
    I think I've got it now (ish) but its guess work.
    If your guessing. Your not calibrated. Most of the other threads here say the same thing. Either it's great, or it bites.
    Looks like you might have the latter and need to go to the next level of monitor colibration.

    -Jon
  • asamuelasamuel Registered Users Posts: 451 Major grins
    edited October 1, 2007
    I hear you. but my pockets are only so deep.

    If I test against proof prints and its ok, that should mean success, right? I will test against a print.
    where's the cheese at?

    http://www.samuelbedford.com
  • wholenewlightwholenewlight Registered Users Posts: 1,529 Major grins
    edited October 2, 2007
    same problem for me - tried to get to monitors to resemble each other (and calibrate to the pro printer I was sending work to) - huey ultimately s*cked for me too.

    I returned mine to Amazon for a refund. Spent a little more money for a Macbeth Eye-one and have been happy with the results.
    john w
    http://cspics.smugmug.com/

    I knew, of course, that trees and plants had roots, stems, bark, branches and foliage that reached up toward the light. But I was coming to realize that the real magician was light itself.
    Edward Steichen

  • asamuelasamuel Registered Users Posts: 451 Major grins
    edited October 2, 2007
    I suggest that it may be worth amending the review on DGrin to address the fact that in some cases users on this forum are finding the Huey unusable. I bought mine on the recommendation here and never concieved that it wouldn't work for any other reason than user error.
    where's the cheese at?

    http://www.samuelbedford.com
  • urbanariesurbanaries Registered Users Posts: 2,690 Major grins
    edited October 2, 2007
    asamuel wrote:
    I suggest that it may be worth amending the review on DGrin to address the fact that in some cases users on this forum are finding the Huey unusable. I bought mine on the recommendation here and never concieved that it wouldn't work for any other reason than user error.

    +1 on bad experience
    +1 that I bought the huey solely on Andy Williams glowing review.

    :cry
    Canon 5D MkI
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  • arodneyarodney Registered Users Posts: 2,005 Major grins
    edited October 4, 2007
    The huey is OK for the money, its certainly better than nothing or god forbid, eyeball calibration.

    As to getting two displays to match, not going to be easy with the limited feedback the huey software provides. In a nutsell, you have to find the luminance of the weaker of the two displays (that be the laptop I bet), the calibrate the other, stronger display to that value. Again, better hardware and software products allow you to do this but huey is a dumbed down product and I don't know if you'll find much luck in doing this.

    Even with the best colorimeter and software, getting a much better desktop LCD panel to match a lowly laptop is going to be somewhat difficult. Getting two similar quality LCDs, OK, doable. You'll get a lot closer than using nothing, but don't expect miracles.
    Andrew Rodney
    Author "Color Management for Photographers"
    http://www.digitaldog.net/
  • arodneyarodney Registered Users Posts: 2,005 Major grins
    edited October 4, 2007
    wholenewlight wrote:
    I returned mine to Amazon for a refund. Spent a little more money for a Macbeth Eye-one and have been happy with the results.

    Yup, unless you're on food stamps, its best to go directly for that product.
    Andrew Rodney
    Author "Color Management for Photographers"
    http://www.digitaldog.net/
  • wxwaxwxwax Registered Users Posts: 15,471 Major grins
    edited October 4, 2007
    arodney wrote:
    The huey is OK for the money, its certainly better than nothing or god forbid, eyeball calibration.

    As to getting two displays to match, not going to be easy with the limited feedback the huey software provides. In a nutsell, you have to find the luminance of the weaker of the two displays (that be the laptop I bet), the calibrate the other, stronger display to that value. Again, better hardware and software products allow you to do this but huey is a dumbed down product and I don't know if you'll find much luck in doing this.

    Even with the best colorimeter and software, getting a much better desktop LCD panel to match a lowly laptop is going to be somewhat difficult. Getting two similar quality LCDs, OK, doable. You'll get a lot closer than using nothing, but don't expect miracles.
    thumb.gif Good post, thanks.
    Sid.
    Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
    http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
  • billg71billg71 Registered Users Posts: 56 Big grins
    edited October 8, 2007
    ChrisJ wrote:
    Some video cards/drivers will not support separate profiles for each monitor. The easiest solution is to see if there's a driver update for your video card. That fixed the problem for my IBM ThinkPad. The driver from ATI didn't work, I downloaded the one from Microsoft's Update site, and poof, I had monitor profiling. Hope that helps!

    I think this is probably your problem. Unless your video card/driver combo supports dual LUT's(Look-Up Tables), you won't be able to use two sets of calibration data. Most of the ATI chipsets are dual-monitor capable, also the Matrox Parhelia. I don't know about nVidea chipsets.

    If you'll right-click on a blank section of the desktop and bring up the Display Properties dialog box, you can go into the Settings tab, click to select the external monitor and hit the Advanced button. This brings up the Monitor Properties dialog box, from there you can select Color Management and apply a different profile to the monitor. If doing this results in the same profile being applied to the laptop screen, your video chipset doesn't support dual calibrations and you're stuck with having to fiddle with the laptop screen controls to get a best-approximation of what you see on the calibrated monitor. Since you probably use the big monitor for editing I'd suggest you calibrate for that monitor.

    I use the Colorvision Spyder with an ATI video card and don't have any problems with dual-monitor calibration. Don't have any suggestions for the Huey, never used one.

    Hope this helps,

    Bill
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited October 8, 2007
    urbanaries wrote:
    +1 on bad experience
    +1 that I bought the huey solely on Andy Williams glowing review.

    :cry
    Ouch, I made you cry! I'm so sorry. Tell you what, I'll get my hands on the Eye-One Display2, and then do a comparison / update to the Huey Review.
    Andy

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  • wholenewlightwholenewlight Registered Users Posts: 1,529 Major grins
    edited October 8, 2007
    arodney wrote:
    The huey is OK for the money, its certainly better than nothing or god forbid, eyeball calibration.

    My opinion on the Huey is that there certain hardware configurations where the device just doesn't work.

    And in those situations eyeball calibration is better. Or at least using one of the freebie downloadable tools to help you eyeball brightness, contrast, and gamma.

    My experience with the Huey was it always calibrated the monitor to a muddy brownish color. Didn't matter what I did. Analog cable, dgital cable, ambient light on or off. Called support but there wasn't any help there.
    john w
    http://cspics.smugmug.com/

    I knew, of course, that trees and plants had roots, stems, bark, branches and foliage that reached up toward the light. But I was coming to realize that the real magician was light itself.
    Edward Steichen

  • JETAJETA Registered Users Posts: 90 Big grins
    edited September 9, 2008
    Andy wrote:
    Ouch, Tell you what, I'll get my hands on the Eye-One Display2, and then do a comparison / update to the Huey Review.

    Sorry to be bumping up an old thread. I had my first bad print come in and now I'm looking at the Huey & eye-one (thanks super hero for direction).

    Andy (or anyone) were you ever able to compare the two?
    JETA
  • billg71billg71 Registered Users Posts: 56 Big grins
    edited September 9, 2008
    Just an update, my Spyder2Pro developed a problem and, after a round or two with Colorvision's TS, I bought the i1d2 and now get much better and more consistent results than with the Spyder.

    I'd definitely recommend it!

    Bill
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