Monitor Calibration question

I have a Spyder 2 (express?...the cheap one). It seems to work fine, but I'm a little concerned about my monitor now.

I ran the calibration last night. The first thing it does is tell you to adjust the contrast. It shows you four white squares that are barely different shades, and it tells you to adjust the contrast so they are barely distinguishable. Then it does the same with the brightness adjustment, only now you are looking at four shades of black.

My problem is that I turn the contrast all the way up and I can still easily tell the white squares apart. I think I need to turn it up more, but it's maxed out. Same (but opposite) goes for the brightness setting. With the brightness all the way up, I can barely tell the black squares apart. Any lower and they all blend together.

Does this mean my monitor is going out? Should I try adjusting these settings on the video card instead of on the monitor? The monitor is a Viewscan Trinitron CRT, if that matters.

Thanks,
Paul

Paul,

Do not adjust it on the video card, the Spyder does that by adjusting the card's LUT. Does the Spyder have a monitor testing tool? My Gretag software includes a functionality that tests the calibrated screen against what it should ideally be and provides a graph of deviation over time. See if your software has anything like that.

Is it dying? Tough to say without knowing how the monitor behaved when new.

I don't know about Express, but Spyder2Suite and Spyder2Pro both have options to calibrate without the adjustments. Just set them at mid-range and calibrate.Just make sure that you don't fiddle with the controls after you're done, as it will throw it the monitor out of calibration.

- Joe U.

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Originally Posted by Sebastian

Paul,

Do not adjust it on the video card, the Spyder does that by adjusting the card's LUT. Does the Spyder have a monitor testing tool? My Gretag software includes a functionality that tests the calibrated screen against what it should ideally be and provides a graph of deviation over time. See if your software has anything like that.

Is it dying? Tough to say without knowing how the monitor behaved when new.

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The Spyder has a colorimeter, but I'm not sure if that's the same as a monitor testing tool. After you adjust the contrast and brightness manually, you attach the colorimeter to the screen and it measures a bunch of different things to create the profile.

The instructions are kind of confusing. When it's telling you to adjust the contrast, it says to either set it back to the factory defaults OR adjust it so the white squares are barely distinguishable. I assume the factory default would be 50 (out of the range of 100), but when I put it that low, it looks really bad. Same goes for the brightness.

The monitor is several years old. I bought it used and the color is actually messed up in one of the corners. But, the colors on the rest of the screen definitely look better after the calibration. It's just the brightness and contrast I'm not sure about.

Thanks for your help.

Paul

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Originally Posted by Medley

I don't know about Express, but Spyder2Suite and Spyder2Pro both have options to calibrate without the adjustments. Just set them at mid-range and calibrate.Just make sure that you don't fiddle with the controls after you're done, as it will throw it the monitor out of calibration.

- Joe U.

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Usually when I set them to mid-range it looks really bad, so I don't go any further. But, I'll try that and let it go all the way through the calibration to see how it turns out.

Thanks for your help.

Paul

I just wanted to report back....

I tried setting the contrast and brightness on the monitor at their mid levels (50 out of 100), and then I ran the calibration sequence with the colorimeter on the screen. The results were very dark. It didn't work. Apparently the Spyder2 Express does not have any control over the brightness and contrast; it seems to only adjust the colors and guide the user through adjusting brightness and contrast.

I guess I'll add "New Monitor" to my list of things to buy.

Thanks,
Paul

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Originally Posted by photophorous

I just wanted to report back....

I tried setting the contrast and brightness on the monitor at their mid levels (50 out of 100), and then I ran the calibration sequence with the colorimeter on the screen. The results were very dark. It didn't work. Apparently the Spyder2 Express does not have any control over the brightness and contrast; it seems to only adjust the colors and guide the user through adjusting brightness and contrast.

I guess I'll add "New Monitor" to my list of things to buy.

Thanks,
Paul

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If the monitor is old and you have to max out the adjustments yes it's close to the time to purchase a new monitor.