All screendumps are the same color in PS, but from Internet browser

Question

Hi,
I know this has come up a thousand times before, and I thought I finally got the basics covered. I've been reading up on several webpages explaining all this, but it's confusing me even more as I think it should work.
Try to follow me on this:
I recently upgraded my pc, added a nice HP LP2475w monitor to the mix, and bought a ColorSpider for calibration.
This all works fine and the calibrated profile is loaded every time I start up my Vista pc. You can see the colors slightly shifting as the profile becomes active.
I work with the basic sRGB ICE61966-2.1 profile in PS CS4, but what I noticed is that any screendump, from any app is fine when pasted into PS.
But colors from any screendump from a internet browser, for instance a bright orange in the browser (IE8/FF3.5) becomes a dull brownish-orange in PS.
So,
The first confusing thing is that opening the saved .psd file in -say- XNView will show the 'original' colors from the browser.
The second strange thing is that the saved .psd file will show exactly the same colors in Bridge as in PS.
The annoying thing is that I cannot sample accurate colors from a screengrab dumped in PS, unless I change the color profile of the file to 'monitor color' (Spider profile).
But changing color profiles away from the sRGB one is bad as all webpages state.
Also, what is -again- confusing, if I save the file with "Save for Web & Devices" the colors 'pop right back' with the preview set to "Monitor Color". Even without the "convert to sRGB" checkbox checked.
Somewhere in this copy/pasting/saving there's some oddball CM going on that I just don't understand for screendumps from the browser.
I hope all this makes sense to someone, as it isn't for me and it's driving me nuts right now as I cannot use anything from screendumps out of an internet browser.
cheers for any directions in this,
rob

Answer 1

Thanks for the additional information. I still have more questions than answers, however, except to say that the behaviors you see are almost certainly the  expected consequences of comparing managed and unmanaged color apps.  I am not clear what you are comapring to what, and what your final output wants to be compared to and where (web, other PS users, print,..).  Firefox 3.5 can be color managed, but it is not simply on or off. You have to specify if it is on for all rendered images or only tagged images and you also have to choose your rendering intent. Finally, you should make sure that FF is finding your monitor profile and if it is not to specify its path explicitly. This is especially important in your case since your new monitor is considered (by some) wide gamut, meaning larger departure from typical monitors (sRGB- like).
Here is a statement from your original post that I do not understand:
"but what I noticed is that any screendump, from any app is fine when pasted into PS. But colors from any screendump from a internet browser, for instance a bright orange in the browser (IE8/FF3.5) becomes a dull brownish-orange in PS."
This seems to be  a separate  problem unless I am missing something - I could use another coffee today.
If a screedump from any app is fine, then saying the screen dump from one app (your browser) is not fine, is inconsistent. A screendump should be simply a set of numbers, not a file and it will be considered and untagged image and  any such image should render in Photoshop  the same whether it came from a spreadsheet app or from some website you are viewing with your browser. That is, any differences between the original image on the screen and how it looks in Photoshop should be independent of the app from which the screenshot came.
I know you have a real workflow issue, though I am not sure exactly what you want. Probably need two coffees !
Paulo