Calibrating a TV monitor

Hello,
I know that you are supposed to work w/an NTSC monitor, but, since I do not have one, I will have to use my television. I have looked for step-by-step instructions on how to do this, but cannot seem to find them - I find instructions where it says it has to be done, etc..., but, can anyone direct me to a link on how to do this? I did find something online, but it said something about '3 bars in the lower righ-hand-side', which I did not see, which means that I might be in worse shape than I thought! Also, someone told me to load them up in the computer, in the Video Generators tab, then load it thru the tv, then tweak from the remote to make sure the colors match. But, from what I can see, the colors do match, except they're a tad brighter on the tv - does that mean my Luma needs correcting? Could someone perhaps guide me in the right direction? Thanks so much!!

If you are forced to use a consumer TV, these are some useful sites to help you calibrate it.
This is a very good explanation w/ useful visuals:
http://www.videouniversity.com/tvbars2.htm
A good explanation of the process but without good illustrations:
http://www.bluesky-web.com/colorbars.html
More an explanation of why you want to calibrate:
http://www.synthetic-ap.com/tips/calibrate.pdf
Also. Check into Graeme Nattress's G TAKE filter with the Blue channel engaged. It mimics what a blue gun setting on a pro monitor would do. though I find it makes little difference.
x

Similar Messages

Unique Calibrations for Dual Monitors

I am currently using a MacPro1,1 with a single NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT card. I have two monitors attached to the card - an Apple 30" Cinema and a 21" Samsung SyncMaster. I color calibrate my Cinema display with an EYE-One calibration device. I can not calibrate the SyncMaster with my current setup as it only allows one calibration and that applied to both displays on the one card.
I am now looking to upgrade to a new MacPro and although I've spoken to both Apple and AMD I can not get a decisive answer as to whether or not the ATI 4770 and/or the ATI 4870 allow the unique color calibration of each monitor attached to the card.
Any feedback will on this issue will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you rav2o and Denis for your responses - both different and both helpful. rav2o, your response made me realize I should have looked at the problem a little more creatively when I first installed the second monitor and your method should certainly work if the new configuration doesn't allow dual calibration. Denis, your comments indicate my EYE-One may be a little out of date (or at least the software or it isn't capable of handling dual configurations - something to consider when I upgrade my system.

Calibrating an iMac monitor

Hey all,
Having got fed up with my home and internet images often not quite matching the image as I have edited on screen, I'm looking for a monitor calibrator.
I am using a polycarbonate iMac 20" Core 2 Duo, with the Radeon X1600 graphics card. I am running Leopard 10.5.8
I am a keen - but amateur - photographer, using a Canon Rebel XTi/400D. I edit all my best photos in Photoshop, print the odd few at home on a simple HP inkjet printer, and have a fair few printed from online print shops.
One option I've been looking at is the Spyder3 Pro. This is around £80GBP in the UK which is pretty much the top of my budget.
My question is whether this is a good choice of calibrator for an iMac. I.e. is it in line with what can actually be adjusted on an iMac display? Is it overkill? Other better options? Is Mac support good, software runs nicely on the mac? Is it regularly updated, e.g. when I upgrade to Snow Leopard etc.
I hope to be adding a MacBook air to my apple family soon, and that will need to be calibrated regularly too, as I intent to take it travelling and edit/organise photos on-the-fly.
Thanks for your advice and comments!
Chris

Hi Chris
{quote:}Other better options? {quote}
Before you spend money on Spyder 3 or other professional calibration equipment, go to System Preferences > Displays > Color and uncheck the box +"Show profiles for this display only"+ and try some of the RGB or sRGB profiles in the extended list. I'm not sure if HP's Printer software does the same, but my Epson Printer software adds an "Epson sRGB" display profile to the extended list and when it is selected my display and prints match about as close as you can get. Maybe it's just me, but on both my early matte display and even the later glossy ones that default iMac display profile just looks brownish-yellow and faded out. If you experiment a little I think you will find one there that is deeper, richer and better to work with when printing. It's funny when I go into the Apple Store or BestBuy and go around changing the profile's on there iMac's and everyone says wow that is much better. I did notice yesterday when I was playing with the new 21.5 and 27 displays the profile changes did not seen to make as big a difference as it did on the previous glossy and older matte models.
I'm suggesting playing with it little more before spending the money, that extra cash will go a long way on Photo Paper and Ink.
Dennis

Calibrating the 27" monitor

I am having trouble controlling any aspect of the Apple display's calibration controls. I have two monitors, the new apple 27" and a Samsung. For the samsung, the system preferences allows me to tweak control based on contrast and brightness. For some reason, the apple monitor's system preferences does not allow me to do this. It recognizes the display as an LED Cinema Display and only allows me to control things like color temperature. The display is currently quite dull compared to the samsung and I really need to sync them to do the video editing I'm in the process of working on. Thanks for any suggestions in advance.

stevizzy:
I missed it the first time too -- those commands include a comma (,) and a period (.). Try again and see if it works for you. Worked for me.
zacn:
It looks like the standard setting is minimum contrast. I don't think that you'll get an improvement by increasing the contrast, however. We use an Eye-One Display 2 calibration tool, which might serve your needs. There are also cheaper models out there (Huey).
You might also want to check out the following page for images that would help you compare your two displays:
http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/
Lastly, if you're doing any color-critical work, I'd highly recommend the NEC PA-271W-BK-SV display (the one with the hardware color calibration). Check it out. I paid $1410 at B&H -- you may find the extra cost worth the improvement.
Dean

Calibrating the 5K monitor

Im a photographer and just switched from PC to iMac. I print on Fine Art paper using a Epson 3880. My prints are darker than my display. How do I calibrate the monitor? Do Calibrate the monitor? any advise?

In addition to the calibration what color profile are embedded in your image files. If they have the Adobe RGB profile the images will tend to print darker and a bit muddy on inkjet printers. You would want to use the Camera RGB, Generic RGB or the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile.
You can use the ColorSync Utility to compare the profiles to see the differences.

Calibrating my iMac monitor...something wrong with my monitor? Not happy

I have had my iMac since late February and have enjoyed using it.
However what thing that is bother me is that words do not appear very sharp when I am browsing the internet, reading email etc. etc. and I am really getting a little frustrated here.
I have tinkered around with the builtin monitor calibrating tool, but don't think I have had much success.
Does anyone have suggestions on how to calibrate my monitor correctly? I am very picky when I am using my computer so sharpness is huge for me. I want it to be clear, easy to read and easy on the eyes.
Right now, I am questioning if I got sold a half-way decent computer with a crappy monitor and I am not happy about it at all.
Anyone help me out?
I much appreciate it.
J.

Hi Jason
For me the *iMac Calibrated* has a greenish/gray tint and lacks any kind of richness, color or depth. Like you I tried and tried to set a profile that I liked and even managed to set a few that weren't to bad.
I found and use an *Epson sRGB* profile that downloaded to my Profile list when I updated my Epson software for Leopard, it's great my displays, prints and scans all match in color and brightness!
Go to the *Display Preferences / Color* and uncheck the box *"Show profiles for this display only"* then try selecting the *Adobe RGB*, *Generic RGB* or the *sRGB IEC61966-2.1* if you have it. I think you will find that they all have a richer look, deeper color and are much easier to look at.
Dennis

Calibrating an external monitor

This is an obscure question, but I'm hoping at least one person on these forums has some advice:
I'm trying to calibrate my external monitor (NEC LCD2690wuxi2) from my Macbook Pro (10.5.6) using Spectraview II software and a Gretag-Macbeth colorimeter, however the software cannot communicate with the monitor. My guess is that it has something to do with the Apple's new proprietary display port, and I'm wondering if any graphically-inclined users have found a workaround for this yet. Surely I'm not the only person here who does color critical work and can't get their laptop and display to interface.
I do not have the flickering problem some other users have reported. Still, it defeats the purpose of buying the laptop in the first place if I can't get accurate colors.
Any help is appreciated!

Hey there. I have no issues with calibration. I use a Spyder3Pro through Mini-DVI adapter to calibrate my NEC 20WMGX2(even using it through a KVM). It calibrates whatever display you choose. Your software could be broken with 10.5.6. See if they have an update on their site. Try a different USB port or reinstall the software. The mini display port has played no issue in my display connections or regular usage.

Calibrating an Mac monitor

I am currently a PC user using a 20" DELL wide screen and calibrate it with a GretagMacbeth 1eye calibrator. All of the calibration is done using the controls on the actual monitor. I am just about to switch to a Mac (probably an Imac) and wonder how the calibration is done using my 1eye calibrator.

I just bought a 20" Apple LCD and used my Eye-One on it. It worked fine. I adjusted the LCD's brightness to my target value and let the Eye-One software do the rest and generate the profile. And then I used the option in the OS X Displays preference to disable the Brightness buttons on the monitor so that the calibration would remain valid - it's too easy to hit those buttons by mistake.

Problems calibrating large CRT monitors

Hi All
I have a SP 1.8GHz G5 Power Mac, 1.25GB RAM GeForce FX 5200 Graphics card.
I have recently been trying to find a larger Monitor and not being the richest individual on the planet I have been looking at 21" CRT's. So far I have tried two second hand items, a Dell P1130 and a Sun Microsystems unit. Up until now I have had no colour problems with any monitor I have used. My first an Apple 1705 17", and more recently a Proview 19". Both of these monitors cali brated OK and gave good colour reproduction. However both of the larger monitors I have tried have given problems. The Dell, Model P1130 gave a green/blue colour cast on the picture, the Sun of which I don't know the model No. gave a pink colour cast. No amount of callibration would remove the colour casts from either monitor.
I am concerned that there may be a problem with my graphics card as I don't understand why I should be having these problems considering the colour I get from my current monitor is excellent. The problem being the monitor is faulty and needs replacing.
Is there anyone out there who can throw any light on why I might be having these problems?!
Thanks in advance...

I had a 'yellow' 22" iiyama for years, well 2 and a half; it was one of a pair and eventually I relised it wasn't differences in the graphics cards at all but the monitor which was just darker and yellower than the other. I got round it for that time by using the monitor's own controls to evenout the differences: setting the hardware colour temp very high etc.
Fortunately, iiyama being iiyama, when i rang them they replaced both monitors with new ones, after 2 and a half years! This was all the more remarkable because it contrasts so strongly with apple who only replaced my g5 because it broke within the first 14 days of use: a day later and it would have been sent off for repair; which from what i gather that could have taken weeks.
Try your monitor's hardwar controls.

Calibrating My Second Monitor

I have recently bought a new LG W2452T to go with my 20" iMac. The colors are slightly different. I know it would be very difficult to actually match the two displays bye eye (system preferences) but is there any other way of matching the two displays colors. I would like my LG to have the colors of my iMac display.
Thanks In Advance!

It depends on how precise you need it to be. I have a an old but excellent 21" CRT as a second display (actually use it as the primary display with my iMac's 17" LCD as secondary), and that's about as different as you can get from the iMac's LCD. Now, I don't do pro level work that requires precise color matching, but I think I got a pretty good match using the built-in Color calibration in System Preferences Displays mode. I did not try to make the two displays match by comparing back and forth, I just did the same steps, in +Expert Mode+, on each display separately. Then on the +Target Gamma+ and +Target White Point+ steps, I adjusted on the second display by comparing to the first display (after I had that one the way I liked it).

Calibrating PAL CRT monitor and Macbook Pro Screen

Hi,
Can anyone offer any tips on how to calibrate a monitor and the macbook pro screen for PAL colours.
On my monitor you can adjust the brightness, contrast and the colour temp (which is set to 6500). You don't seem the be able to adjust the colour, for example make it black and white, unles you can do that by lowering the colour temp.

... but the MXO won't help the OP with his MacBook Pro screen.
True, but he did say that he wanted to not only calibrate the MacBook Pro, but another monitor as well...
Can anyone offer any tips on how to calibrate a monitor and the macbook pro screen for PAL colours.
Just offering a suggestion...not knowing what that other monitor was.
Shane

Will this setup work for Color Calibration / Matrox / Enzio Monitor

Hi, I'm getting conflicting answers from Matrox forum and DVinfo.
I'm wondering if this setup will work for editing wedding films as well as doing color correction...
I'm using FCP 7 / FCS 3. I have a DVI input as well as a DisplayPort input on my Mac Tower which is about year old.
Monitor: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/687611-REG/Eizo_CG223W_BK_ColorEdge_CG223W _22_Widescreen.html
Converter/Capture Card: (This is where I'm confused.) I'd also like to keep it under $800 if possible and be compatible with FCP X
http://www.sharbor.com/products/MTXN5010167.html
Can I also use a displayport to HDMI to connect my Mac tower to the Matrox as well as a HDMI to DisplayPort to connect the Matrox to the monitor or will this ruin or downgrade the signal?
Or is there another card that I could use that is simple to install?
Thanks for you help!

>Can I also use a displayport to HDMI to connect my Mac tower to the Matrox as well as a HDMI to DisplayPort to connect the Matrox to the monitor or will this ruin or downgrade the signal?
No. The Matrox MXO2 line connects one of three ways: PCIe slot in MacPro, Express34 for MacBook Pro, and Thunderbolt (additional cost for the adapter). If you have a MacPro..you put the MXO2 adapter card into one of the PCIe slots, then connect that to the MXO2 box.

Monitor calibration no longer works -- eye-one display 2

I have been reasonably successfully calibrating monitors for my Mac Pro desktop (Apple monitor) and Macbook Pro laptop for close to 3 years, with an X-rite eye-one display 2 system. I'm using Mac OS 10.6.6 on both computers.
Over the last several days, calibrating on both monitors has yielded widely inaccurate profiles, although I'm calibrating the monitors in the same way I always have. On the MacPro/Apple Cinema, the calibration seems to be proceeding fine, when I've finished the process, "before-after" looks good (i.e., slight change for the better with the new calibration); but when I click "finish calibration" and exit the software, the monitor profile is completely out of whack. On a given image, about half the colors are now out of gamut (where none were before). Similar symptoms on my laptop. I tried downloading the latest software from X-rite on my desktop, and it didn't seem to help. (On the other hand, when I calibrated my Apple monitor using the "Easy" option in the software, it actually worked almost acceptably, except for the luminance.)
The only way I can even use either computer is to go to system preferences and switch to the monitor to the most recent profile I was using before these troubles began. (The laptop is actually unusable without going back to an earlier profile, because the drop-down texts at the top of the display are completely blacked out.)
Since this sort of behavior is happening with two different computers and monitors, and I've downloaded the latest software from X-rite (and reinstalled the software from the original installation disk), I'm assuming that the problem is with the puck (hardware).
I realize it may be hard to provide advice, given my difficulty in describing exactly what's happening. But I'm interested in anyone's advice or thoughts. -- E.g, how to get through to X-Rite for help, altho from other forums, I've gotten the impression they won't be much help; is there any forum specifically devoted to eye-one display 2 (especially if this is the wrong forum). Is there an expected life for the pucks (mine is about 3 years old)? Do they sometimes fail in this way?
Thanks.

It was an extremely frustrating process trying to know if indeed this was the way to calibrate this monitor, and after spending so much time and research was all I could come up with. Did you notice the graphing results of both types of calibration? The red (I believe it was) of the RBG graph line was not lined up at all with the G and B thus the weird color on the monitor, and with the Easy mode, they were at least in line, more or less.

Monitor calibration. Please help!!

Aloha,
I just downloaded the free trial of CS5. I am trying to use Adobe Gamma to calibrate my screen so that everything will print as I see it. I have already searched all about it. I CANNOT FIND IT TO USE IT. I cannot find where to download it.......I cannot find it already installed with the CS5. Instructions say that I have it when I download CS5 and for me to go under control panel and double click on the icon for it. I DONT HAVE IT. I only have the "Color management" icon which is already on my computer.
I am using Windows Vista 36bit.
A really appreciate your time with reading/responding to this tedious problem. Thanks!
-Brianna.

Not sure if you already found this answer somewhere else, but I found this article...the link for the entire article is...http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps12_colour/ps12_1.htm I was also looking for the same thing, but I guess Adobe no longer provide Monitor Calibration...
Section 2 - Monitor Calibration and Characterisation
Monitor calibration and characterisation (profiling) is probably the most important aspect of a color managed workflow; yet many users seem oblivious to issues poor monitor calibration, etc can have on their documents. So, what is calibration, why is it so important, and why is it different from characterisation?
Calibration is a process whereby a device is brought to a standard state (e.g. a color temperature of 6500K and gamma of 2.2), whereas characterising the monitor is the process of determining how the monitor represents or reproduces color. We characterise the monitor by measuring how it displays known color values, then creating an ICC profile. The ICC profile is simply a data file that includes a description of the monitorsí color handling characteristics (i.e. its gamut). The calibration data will also be written into the ICC profile. As I've already mentioned, Photoshop then uses the monitor profile to automatically optimise the display of documents. It does so by carrying out an on-the-fly conversion between your document profile (e.g. ProPhoto RGB, Adobe RGB, sRGB, ColorMatch) and your monitor profile. This conversion does not alter the actual document in any way; just its appearance on the monitor.
Adobe stopped shipping Adobe Gamma with the Mac version of Photoshop a few versions back, but for a while kept it for Windows. This was because there was no software only alternative. Since Apple Display Calibrator Assistant was still installed within System Preferences Mac users never really found the absence of Adobe Gamma to be a problem. However, given that Windows Vista and Windows 7 don't play well with certain utilities, it was inevitable that Adobe Gamma would eventually be dropped from the Windows version of Photoshop. So, it came as no surprise that as of Photoshop CS3 Adobe stopped shipping Adobe Gamma, and it's still absent from CS5. For what it's worth, I think we can safely assume that Adobe will never again ship a monitor calibration utility with Photoshop.
Obviously, software only monitor calibration applications use the human eye to determine tone and color differences between a series of white/grey/black/color patches. However, it should go without saying that the eye isn't the most accurate method of measuring these differences. Therefore, my recommendation would be to use a hardware based system such as the DatacolorSpyderPro3, X-rite Photo ColorMunki or X-rite Photo i1 Display 2.
Tip for Mac OS X users: a tutorial describing the process of calibrating a display with the Apple Display Calibrator Assistant can be found here.
Useful Information on location of ICC/ColorSync Profiles
Photoshop CS5 is only compatible with Windows XP with Service Pack 3, Windows Vista or Windows 7 on the PC platform and OS X 10.5.7 or higher on the Mac platform. The upside of this is that the ICC and ColorSync profiles are more easily found.
Profile locations:-
Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 - sub-folder named Windows\system32\spool\drivers\color
Mac OS X - ColorSync profiles are generally located in either the Library/ColorSync/Profiles or Users/~/Library/ColorSync/Profiles folder

Set monitor to manufacturers defaults before monitor calibration

Hi, I just want to be absolutley sure here about something. I am wishing to do a complete fresh calibration of my monitor with spyder3 pro. When you calibrate for the first time you are asked to set the monitor back to default settings. In my IMAC under Preferences-Display-Colour-Profiles associated with this display one is given two choices, either Apples 1.8 or s'RGB (i know I have others when I untick that little box, I originally set my monitor back to 1.8, I had done my own calibration at 2.2 before i invested in the spyder software, so i went ahead and re-set the monitor to this profile since this was how it was shipped).
Was this the correct thing to do, if so, when I wish to RE-CALIBRATE, that is NOT CHECK THE CALIBRATION for accuracy, but to do a new calibration. Should I keep setting this monitor back to its default settings. Have I done the right thing?
Thanks
Chris.

It doesn't matter what profile you set in Apple's Display Preferences. The i1 Display calibrator clears the TRC and gamma curves from the video card LUTs from whatever profile is loaded no matter if it's 2.2 or 1.8 gamma. You set target gamma (should be 2.2) or native gamma in i1 Match and run it.
On the iMac all you can do is adjust the backlight with the brightness slider in Display Preferences. It should be adjusted according to how bright a white sheet of paper looks under available ambient light to display white. The preloaded profile would only influence the appearance of contrast in a grayramp as you adjust the brightness slider, not the brightness of the white on the display.
Other than that the preloaded canned profile doesn't influence anything but allow i1 Display to reload it after final calibration to compare before and after affects of calibration.

Calibrating a TV monitor

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for