Widescreen Gaming Forum

I received a brand new 226BW from Samsung as a replacement for my old one which had developed a fault with the RTA function. This new one seems so much brighter then my previous one and I am having difficulty finding a good balance between the Brightness/Contrast setting. I've tried a couple of calibration tools but they only seem to cater for getting the colours right.

I've been messing with the various OSD settings for a while and have gone kind of snowblind. I can't tell what's good or bad anymore. So I thought I might invest in a Spyder2 Express...err....thingy! Does this thing help with brightness/contrast or is it just for colour?

I do like having various setting choices when it comes to hardware and software, but sometimes I wish there were not so many. What with trying to get your graphics card settings right and then your monitor settings too. It's a bit much for someone as brain dead as me :w00t

In conclusion, do you guys think that the Spyder thing would help me or should I just stop moaning and keep trying to find the correct balance myself?

Cheers.

Si
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Have you tried testing different Kelvin settings before adjusting the brightness/contrast? The K is a very important aspect of adjusting both brightness and contrast and can yield dramatically different results. Some displays have a cettain K level they work best at too.

Other than that use the Nvidia Display Wizard to fine tune color accuracy vs using the Samsung controls and if you want the most accurate color results don't use presets like Dynamic Contrast Ratio, MagiTune, MagicBright or any of that crap. I set up a Samsung 245BW for a friend and it wasn't until I used NDW that the colors looked right. You don't necessarily need a calibrating tool to get acceptable results, esp on a TN panel.

I don't own this monitor but here's an interesting tip I found...
http://www.lesnumeriques.com/article-312-1708-36.html for french readers ;)

Tamlin edit:
http://www.digitalversus.com/article-358-2104-36.html same page for English readers.

There should be a MagicBright button on the lower right of the screen... By default it uses the Custom setting, it seems using the Internet setting instead will give the best results - right colors, lower brightness, excellent black.

I guess it's a matter of personal preference but I find the Internet setting the worst of the lot. If I had to choose one of the MagicBright options, it would be the Movie one although it does have a slight orange tint to it. Also, I'm pretty sure the MagicBright settings are different on this new monitor. On my previous 226BW, I would use the Dynamic Contrast setting. This setting brought the colours out a bit more and also made things slightly darker. On the new one the same setting makes everything much brighter. Weird!!

Today I decided to bite the bullet and bought a Spyder2Express calibration thing. I will give it a go tonight and see if it makes a difference.

Cheers.

Si
8)

I thought I would let you know how I got on with the Spyder2Express thing. To be honest I wasn't expecting much of a change other then being £67 less well off. But, as luck would have it, it worked really well. The "Before" and "After" calibration picture was something else. It has made a huge difference in picture quality which is something I couldn't have done by hand......or eye! Colours are spot on as is the brightness and contrast.

So, all in all, I am a happy chappie.

Thanks for all your help and advice.

Cheers.

Si
8)

Spoke too soon :( The colour profile that I created using the Spyder does not load when I switch on my PC even though it is listed as the default profile in the Colour Management section. If I click on the Spyder software and then close it straight away, the profile loads.

Have checked around the net and found that it is a common problem but one that has no real solution :(

That is a tad annoying :x

Cheers.

Si
8)

I contacted ColourVision about this problem and they said: "This is a problem forced by the graphic drivers. Their control panels need longer to boot than the ColorVisionStartup which gave them the chance to overwrite the data we just wrote to the lookuptable of the graphic adapter". Their soloution was to disable the nVidia Control Panel which I think is ridiculous and I'm not prepared to do.

I went back to searching the web and came across someone who created a task schedule to load the icc profile once the desktop was loaded. He posted a step by step instruction on how to do this and, like a complete idiot, I didn't bookmark the page and now I can't find it again!! Doh!

Does anyone know how to do this? I have never used task scheduler before so I would appreciate a step by step walkthrough if anyone knows.

Cheers.

Si
8)

OK, I messed about with Task Scheduler and it was not as complicated as I first thought. Initially it sort of didn't work. The profile was loaded straight away and then the nVidia Control Panel must have kicked in after as the profile switched back. I then discovered that I could delay the start of the task which I did by 30 seconds and, voila, it worked. Hooray!! I did try 15 seconds but it was too quick.

I had already sent a polite email to ColorVision saying that I thought their solution was ridiculous and, despite this being a graphics card control panel problem, their product, in effect, didn't work properly because the profile it created, although brilliant, didn't stick. If I had known that this was an issue I doubt I would have bought the product in the first place.

Cheers.

Si
8)