Help w/ Mac Calibration

StudioVoxPopStudioVoxPop Registered Users Posts: 132 Major grins
edited February 9, 2008 in Digital Darkroom
Hi there--

I'm a PC guy through and through. However, I'm using a MAC for a work project and I'm having trouble calibrating my monitor. I want to use my Spyder2 Pro calibration tool. Where are the controls for the monitor? This is a monitor/ computer all in one: Mac 2 GHz PowerPC G5. I've found a brightness control but are there any RGB sliders on this thing? :scratch

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Justin

Comments

  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited February 8, 2008
    StudioVoxPop wrote:
    Hi there--

    I'm a PC guy through and through. However, I'm using a MAC for a work project and I'm having trouble calibrating my monitor. I want to use my Spyder2 Pro calibration tool. Where are the controls for the monitor? This is a monitor/ computer all in one: Mac 2 GHz PowerPC G5. I've found a brightness control but are there any RGB sliders on this thing? headscratch.gif

    Any thoughts would be appreciated!

    Justin


    Not sure any LCD has those kinds of controls?
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  • StudioVoxPopStudioVoxPop Registered Users Posts: 132 Major grins
    edited February 8, 2008
    DavidTO wrote:
    Not sure any LCD has those kinds of controls?

    My LCD at home (HP w2207) has brightness, contrast, and color sliders that allow me to adjust Red, Green, and Blue independently. Is this not a MAC thing?
  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited February 8, 2008
    StudioVoxPop wrote:
    My LCD at home (HP w2207) has brightness, contrast, and color sliders that allow me to adjust Red, Green, and Blue independently. Is this not a MAC thing?


    No, it doesn't not have anything beyond brightness. But somewhere I remember arodney posting on here about how LCD calibration is different than CRT, in that you are not actually calibrating the monitor, but adjusting the profile in software. I really don't know enough about it, though, to be anymore help. I will see if I can find that post.
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  • colourboxcolourbox Registered Users Posts: 2,095 Major grins
    edited February 8, 2008
    This is not a Mac vs. PC thing. It is a "real quality" vs "pretend quality" thing.

    If your LCD has separate RGB controls, it is either very cheap or very expensive. If it is very cheap, you have RGB controls because the manufacturer wanted you to think you still all the controls you had on your old CRT, even though the additional controls on a cheap LCD will actually degrade your color through an additional conversion. If your LCD is expensive, you have separate RGB controls because they actually work right.

    Apple displays only have a brightness control because the lamp brightness is the only thing you can/should adjust on a CCFL LCD. Apple is actually saving people from performing inferior calibrations. If you have a new, expensive LCD driven by separate R, G, and B LEDs, then having separate RGB controls is great, but almost no one owns one of those yet.

    For more details, you can read this thread.
    From the thread:
    As mentioned in the quote from Karl Lang, any such adjustments are a bad idea. The color characteristics of LCD displays are set at the factory. There is no changing them. Period. The only analog adjustment and thusly, the only thing you can be calibrated (profiling is a separate process) is the brightness of the backlight.

    Any LCD with adjustment controls that go beyond just brightness are going to adjust the LUTs and thusly degrade the display's ability to render all of the colors it is capable of displaying thus making accurate color adjustments and proofing more difficult.

    If I had to guess as to why companies include all those contrast and color adjustment controls it would be to make the displays more familiar to users used to older CRT technology.
  • StudioVoxPopStudioVoxPop Registered Users Posts: 132 Major grins
    edited February 8, 2008
    colourbox wrote:
    This is not a Mac vs. PC thing. It is a "real quality" vs "pretend quality" thing.

    If your LCD has separate RGB controls, it is either very cheap or very expensive. If it is very cheap, you have RGB controls because the manufacturer wanted you to think you still all the controls you had on your old CRT, even though the additional controls on a cheap LCD will actually degrade your color through an additional conversion. If your LCD is expensive, you have separate RGB controls because they actually work right.

    Apple displays only have a brightness control because the lamp brightness is the only thing you can/should adjust on a CCFL LCD. Apple is actually saving people from performing inferior calibrations. If you have a new, expensive LCD driven by separate R, G, and B LEDs, then having separate RGB controls is great, but almost no one owns one of those yet.

    For more details, you can read this thread.
    From the thread:

    Thanks for your thoughts but I'm really not interested in a MAC vs. PC debate. I'm just trying to figure out how to calibrate this monitor so I can get to work. When I run Spyder, I can get through the entire calibration (including seeing before and after resuls) but the profile does not save.

    Is anyone using a similar MAC as this one and running Spyder2 Pro?
  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited February 8, 2008
    Thanks, CB! thumb.gif

    I knew there was something or other related to that thingamajig!
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  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited February 8, 2008
    StudioVoxPop wrote:
    Thanks for your thoughts but I'm really not interested in a MAC vs. PC debate. I'm just trying to figure out how to calibrate this monitor so I can get to work. When I run Spyder, I can get through the entire calibration (including seeing before and after resuls) but the profile does not save.

    Is anyone using a similar MAC as this one and running Spyder2 Pro?


    SVP,

    I think you really misunderstood colourbox's post. He's just trying to give you some additional information.
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  • StudioVoxPopStudioVoxPop Registered Users Posts: 132 Major grins
    edited February 8, 2008
    DavidTO wrote:
    SVP,

    I think you really misunderstood colourbox's post. He's just trying to give you some additional information.

    No, I understood and I appreciate the information. thumb.gif However, I'm really trying to focus on getting this monitor calibrated. In a bit of a pinch here. I can run Spyder OK on this MAC, but when it's all done the new profile does not save.

    Any ideas what could be causing this?
  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited February 8, 2008
    StudioVoxPop wrote:
    No, I understood and I appreciate the information. thumb.gif However, I'm really trying to focus on getting this monitor calibrated. In a bit of a pinch here. I can run Spyder OK on this MAC, but when it's all done the new profile does not save.

    Any ideas what could be causing this?


    Unfortunately, I've never used the software. Do you have administrator access?

    If there are any screen grabs that might be useful information for anyone helping, you can do that by typing cmd-shift-4 and then dragging a box around what you want to capture.
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  • colourboxcolourbox Registered Users Posts: 2,095 Major grins
    edited February 8, 2008
    StudioVoxPop wrote:
    Thanks for your thoughts but I'm really not interested in a MAC vs. PC debate. I'm just trying to figure out how to calibrate this monitor so I can get to work. When I run Spyder, I can get through the entire calibration (including seeing before and after resuls) but the profile does not save.

    Not sure where that came from. There was no Mac or PC debate in there, which is why I said at the beginning it had nothing to do with Mac vs PC. I was responding directly to your question about the absence of monitor controls.

    I use an Eye-One, and the profile saves, so I guess I can't help there. ne_nau.gif
  • TangoTango Registered Users Posts: 4,592 Major grins
    edited February 8, 2008
    colourbox wrote:
    This is not a Mac vs. PC thing. It is a "real quality" vs "pretend quality" thing.

    If your LCD has separate RGB controls, it is either very cheap or very expensive. If it is very cheap, you have RGB controls because the manufacturer wanted you to think you still all the controls you had on your old CRT, even though the additional controls on a cheap LCD will actually degrade your color through an additional conversion. If your LCD is expensive, you have separate RGB controls because they actually work right.

    Apple displays only have a brightness control because the lamp brightness is the only thing you can/should adjust on a CCFL LCD. Apple is actually saving people from performing inferior calibrations. If you have a new, expensive LCD driven by separate R, G, and B LEDs, then having separate RGB controls is great, but almost no one owns one of those yet.

    For more details, you can read this thread.
    From the thread:
    just curious, a HP 2207....what catagory does it fall in?...cheap or expensive?ive been adjusting the sliders to calibrate also, now im wondering if ive been hindering or helping myself....
    Aaron Nelson
  • StudioVoxPopStudioVoxPop Registered Users Posts: 132 Major grins
    edited February 8, 2008
    colourbox wrote:
    Not sure where that came from. There was no Mac or PC debate in there, which is why I said at the beginning it had nothing to do with Mac vs PC. I was responding directly to your question about the absence of monitor controls.

    I use an Eye-One, and the profile saves, so I guess I can't help there. ne_nau.gif


    Hi CB,

    Sorry if I offended. Maybe I misread your post but I took the statement "This is not a Mac vs. PC thing. It is a 'real quality' vs 'pretend quality' thing." to be a jab at PC monitors (pretend quality) and I didn't want to go there.

    No worries and no hard feelings here. Sorry if I misunderstood.

    Justin
  • StudioVoxPopStudioVoxPop Registered Users Posts: 132 Major grins
    edited February 8, 2008
    AaronNelson wrote:
    just curious, a HP 2207....what catagory does it fall in?...cheap or expensive?ive been adjusting the sliders to calibrate also, now im wondering if ive been hindering or helping myself....


    It's expensive. My light wallet proves that fact. :D
  • TangoTango Registered Users Posts: 4,592 Major grins
    edited February 8, 2008
    StudioVoxPop wrote:
    It's expensive. My light wallet proves that fact. :D
    i have the 1907, and im just wondering if colorbox refers to it as cheap or expensive...i just concerned if im helping or hurting my outcome with calibrating....(i have the spyder2 also)
    Aaron Nelson
  • StudioVoxPopStudioVoxPop Registered Users Posts: 132 Major grins
    edited February 8, 2008
    DavidTO wrote:
    Unfortunately, I've never used the software. Do you have administrator access?

    If there are any screen grabs that might be useful information for anyone helping, you can do that by typing cmd-shift-4 and then dragging a box around what you want to capture.


    So here's what I get at the end of my calibration. This is so frustrating! :bash
  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited February 8, 2008
    StudioVoxPop wrote:
    So here's what I get at the end of my calibration. This is so frustrating! :bash


    Do you have administrative powers?
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  • StudioVoxPopStudioVoxPop Registered Users Posts: 132 Major grins
    edited February 8, 2008
    DavidTO wrote:
    Do you have administrative powers?


    I don't think so. However, whenever administrative powers have been needed before, a dialogue box pops up asking for an administrator's name and password, which I could get if I needed it. Because I don't see the dialogue box, I'm not sure if it's an administrator issue.
  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited February 8, 2008
    StudioVoxPop wrote:
    I don't think so. However, whenever administrative powers have been needed before, a dialogue box pops up asking for an administrator's name and password, which I could get if I needed it. Because I don't see the dialogue box, I'm not sure if it's an administrator issue.


    If the software is poorly written, then you have to actually be in an admin account. Not sure if that's the case, but it's worth a shot.
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  • colourboxcolourbox Registered Users Posts: 2,095 Major grins
    edited February 9, 2008
    StudioVoxPop wrote:
    Sorry if I offended. Maybe I misread your post but I took the statement "This is not a Mac vs. PC thing. It is a 'real quality' vs 'pretend quality' thing." to be a jab at PC monitors (pretend quality) and I didn't want to go there.
    No worries and no hard feelings here. Sorry if I misunderstood.

    No problem here either, then. Sorry, what I meant was "real quality" vs. "marketing dept. quality" under the mindset that there really are no Mac- or PC-specific monitors these days.

    After reading the further posts I am agreeing with the idea that you might need to be an admin user. At least with my Eye-One, it tries to put the profile in Library/ColorSync/Profiles...that's the root Library folder, not your user Library folder under Home, so that the profile can be accessible by any user. If your Spyder software also wants to do this, it probably needs admin privileges to write to a folder outside your Home folder.
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