New M6500 Discussion Thread

Hi havoctex,

First off thanks for your most reliable info on these forums.

I have some questions. I am one of the USB 2.0 people;

1) If the daughter card option is offered, would the ports have to be changed out as well? I understand that 3.0 ports are backwards compatible with USB 1.0/1.1/2.0, however is the reverse case also true? Finally would there be a significant charge for the tech to install this?

2) If the express card option is offered, my question is this: I've read that some of the existing express card USB 3.0 ports do not power the external USB 3.0 harddrives, but have the ability to attach a power cable and use a USB 2.0 port for power. Is this a limitation that is likely to be standard with all express cards because of the machine hardware, or could an express card USB port actually draw enough power to power an external USB drive?

 

Unanswered Questions:

• What's the difference between the standard M6500 and the Energy Star or TAA variants?
• Since the RGBLED is an 8-bit panel, will it look better for those of us using the web color space?
• Has there been closure on that audio popping issue?
• What about power brick noise?
• Can it be ordered without OS? I have Windows licenses already.

 

Finally...my order was re-ordered...same specs, same deal, but this time non-covet but with USB 3.0 ! Rep said he couldn't order USB 3.0 in the Covet yet so I said it's ok, I'll take that matte just do it....

!!!!!

 

Hi Absynthe,

Could you please let us all know how the WLED screen turns out?

Reason I ask is:

I'm sitting in front of a shiny new M6500 / matte RGBLED which unfortunately is going back to Dell since I can't get it to profile satisfactorily for photo work. I initially thought my old (profiled) display may have been seriously out of whack, except that I have checked on a few other systems recently (including a new MacBook Pro) and they all look basically correct - the M6500 RGBLED does not. I don't claim that these other displays are perfect by any means, but the Mac at least is known for a reasonaby accurate sRGB display out of the box, which I loved the look of my photos on. If anyone is wondering about workflow, I use Lightroom and export to sRGB for upload to smugmug.

I think everyone here would agree that the ControlPoint sRGB/aRGB profiles are complete rubbish, which basically leaves us with the native "NTSC" profile. I had originally ordered the system hoping that sRGB could be profiled very well, since to be honest my opinion is that sRGB represents a sufficiently wide gamut for most purposes.

My personal opinion, after using this system for a few days (UK only gets 7 days to decide in...) is that wide gamut is very promising, and definitely the way of the future, but a long way off in terms of mainstream support. Issues with calibration units perhaps not supporting wide gamut properly, poor color management in browsers (except for Firefox.. brilliant.. except that things like flash plugins don't honor color managemnt...), and no color management in media players (I know you can "hack" it in to MPC, but only if you know your correct coordinates) make wide gamut a tough sell.

I personally also find the neon in non-color managed apps/desktop hard to palate.

I love the M6500 - fast, quiet, reasonably svelte for its fitout, 16GB capable for virtualisation nirvana - so I'm gutted to send this one back. Other more capable individuals may be able to tweak the RGBLED to their taste, but in my limited time I haven't managed to do so, and I'm not risking a £3500 purchase on waiting for Dell to get their act together fixing ControlPoint. (How did those profiles ever make it out of QA????)

If the WLED is as attractive as the MBP displays, then I'll definitely re-order in the near future. Afterwards, should I decide I desperately need a wide gamut display, I'll attach an external one.

By the way, thanks to everyone here for their input, esp. Bokeh and Keith who have contributed so much information for everyone elses benefit.

Peace,

J

 

Manny...did you reorder? curious. Still have the Stinkpad? LOL

I'm wondering if I should get RGBLED? I don't do pro photo work anyway?

 

The obvious question is what did you use to calibrate the display with?
I am using the aRGB control point profile and using Spyder3 Elite it is quite good.

Now to expect a white LED or CCFL display to look anything like an RGB backlit display is unreasonable purely by hardware design they don't share the same characteristics, much the difference between a DLP and LCD projector.

But I like Bokeh was able to get more than acceptable results on the display.

 

Hi theZoid,


Yes I am reordering my M6500


And yes I still have the Stinkpad… lol I am trying to send it back to its MotherShip. lol


I want the LG RGB LED

 

roflmao......

I ordered RGBLED....guess I'll see what I get....

 

I'm doing calibration tomorrow using DTP94 and adJUST software. I believe the WLED will close match the MacBook Pro screen on sRGB, it's just my though. Well for now what I can say is that the screen is way to blueish and so, so bright. Adjusting brightness to 5up seems to match my CRT brigtness (that calibrate right at 6500K).

I heard hissy crissy sound on random time, is that the hd (WD scorpio) or some noise in speakers, very anoying...

By the way, my WLED is Samsung, labeled C751R,170CT

... for now I'm digging the new OS before I erase it all

 

Hi there,

I was using a Spyder3 elite, basically following Bokeh/Keiths suggestions for brightness settings and sticking with the default NTSC profile. I don't see that there is a great deal more you can do without getting very technical and spending a lot of time on it. The photos I had the biggest problems with were under tungsten lighting and exhibited a strong yellow hue, which I realise is a classic white balance problem - but only on this screen. The screen is supposedly calibrated successfully to 6500K and very close to target white point, but as Keith pointed out the Spyders can be a bit variable in that respect.

I'm not expecting the WLED to look like the RGBLED, but WLED technology had been considered pretty good until the new "must have" RGBLEDs became available. I'm completely ready to admit that I'm new to wide gamut displays, but they do seem to be a fair bit of trouble for what basically amounts to a bit of extra color fidelity in a few select applications. If you spend a lot of time in photoshop and output to a very nice printer I can definitely see the upside. If you value an even color response in everything else it's a more difficult decision.

Anyway, please understand I'm not trying to stir the pot - just relaying my personal experience and querying after some feedback on the WLED since hardly anyone who stumps up for one of these systems doesn't add the relatively little extra for the "best" screen. It's a bit like the 7740 vs 3800 question I suppose - getting any firsthand information on the 7740 is quite difficult as well.

Peace,

J