Notebook color calibration

[groston]

All,

I have read about the need for color calibration and it makes perfectly good sense. In fact, I am on the verge of buying the Eye-One Display 2 device. However, before doing so, I just want to make sure that I am not wating y money.

I just read a thorough review of the device, and it described exactly how it is used on a 'real' monitor, i.e.,one with hardware buttons. These days, I am notebook-bound, and as we all know, notebooks do not have hardware control buttons for their displays.

My notebook has a decent graphics card, nVidia GeForce GO GTX w/ 256 MB, and I am running ForceWare V169.09. Will the software that comes with the Eye-One Display 2 provide the proper information for settings the controls available to me?

Thank you.

 

[tirediron]

I'm not familiar with that particular calibrator, but my Spyder 2 does a great job on my notebook using the software controls. I would suggest reading through the company's FAQ and/or e-mailing them with specifics on your setup prior to purchase.

 

[Garbz]

The hardware device is great and can easily calibrate a large range of monitors. The issue you have is with your specific laptop.

- You can writeoff hardware lookup table correction since laptops do not have these.
- Software LUT for video cards should work on most modern laptops.
- You will lose ability to adjust contrast since I know of no laptops which screens have independent brightness / blacklevel control. This now depends on the software, which either may complain bitterly, or will adjust the black level in the software LUT.

Finally the biggest problems are the different brightnesses depending on if batteries are plugged in or unplugged, which is minor compared to the change in brightness and colour of a laptop screen based on viewing angle.

When you do get a calibrator I would suggest not trying to calibrate the brightness and contrast, and just using it to ensure you have an as neutral as possible colour representation.