New M6500 Discussion Thread

Question to those of you with the RGB (mine is a Samsung).
Prior to my M6500 I've had a bunch of standard laptop screens (all from Latitude D's)- so you get an idea of what I'm used to looking at. When I got my M6500 aside from the fact that the calibration was off, and even after the settings were tweaked (without the use of calibration software/hardware) there's still a "problem" I'm seeing. I'm calling it a "problem" cause I don't know if it's truly an issue versus something that's normal/expected.
Essentially- when I'm looking at (primarily) web pages which include full red (FF0000) or green or yellow, these "fully-pegged" colors are insanely vibrant- almost like a Lite Brite or like they were written with a highlighter. Is this normal for a high-end screen? No matter what settings I tweak I can't get those colors to tone down. If this is normal for the RGB, can I get a more traditional screen by exchanging for the WLED screen? Dell support thinks there's something wrong with my screen and they're sending out a replacement. I doubt there's a problem, my hunch is it's normal and I'm not used to it. I just can't believe any of you look at these intense red's and don't find it annoying or headache-inducing.
Also, I'm seeing the light sensor issue as well- adjusting the brightness regardless of the ALS being turned off everywhere. Would that problem go away if I switched to the WLED?

 

TrY switching the color profile to srgb if it's not already.

 

Moogle, I ordered the RGB LED screen but I don't think it has to do with the screen. My unit arrived two days ago and I thought it looked like plastic too after reading your post. However, I took out my Inspiron 9400 to compare and the M6500's is definitely not made of plastic. It is just some aluminium alloy which is light. Personally, I think it is fantastic compared to the M17x which is so heavy. Heck! Even the M15x with its magnesium alloy chasis is heavier than the M6500. Oh! Another test you can do is just put it a air-conditioned room. The aluminium alloy will turn cold faster and remain cold longer than the plastic chasis (that my 9400 has). Hope this helps! ^_^

 

You have two possibilities :
- decrease digital vibrance to ~40% in nvidia control panel options
- calibrate your screen, use firefox and the add-on "color management"; then with the add-on you will be able to apply your icc profile for all images

 

I might do the following. In Dell Control Point choose sRGB and then choose or create a new sRGB color profile. When creating in color managed apps use ntsc mode with a good profile. When you want to browse the web switch to sRGB and reset color profiles.

Colors are vibrant and can be a little awkward in proofing what others online might see. For me I am just adapting to the fact that when I view on the web slight added vibrance is normal. The benefit of the screen is in color managed applications. If the increased color space is of no use to you change the color space in Dell Control Point and use a profile created in sRGB color space. That should do what you desire. Note I have only just tested the different modes in Dell Control Point. Just changing to sRGB results in a duller screen but still has the vibrance. In that mode you do need to use a specific different profile that is optimized for that more limited color space.

I may try making an sRGB profile and doing the above changes myself tonight as a test. If it works as I think it should that should solve some issues.

****JUST TESTED**** Ok, did the above and works like a charm. Dell Control point, change to sRGB mode. Then in Control Panel/Display Properties, uncheck "use my settings for this device". Re-boot and you now are ina normal sRGB mode and in IE all colors are back to that color space. To revert, change back to NTSC mode in Dell Control Point and Color Management re-check the checkbox to "Use my settings for this device" and your default profile (that you have created prior) is back and will be the default when you re-boot.

So a relatievly simple process to go back and forth. Of note is that you don't need to re-boot to go back to your calibrated settings if you have put a shortcut for profile loader in your taskbar. When in sRGB mode
go and re-check the user default profile settings and close the dialog. Go to Dell Control Point and reset settings to NTSC and then simply click your shortcut in the taskbar to reset to your preferred profile.

John

 

First - if you are running stock Dell Nvidia drivers, go in and see if the Digital Vibrance is set to something close to 65%. One of their drivers has the vibrance turned up way too high.

The WLED will take the color gamut down from to 45% or so. If you really like a bright display, then maybe it will work better for you to have a WLED. If you want a better range (gamut) of color, then the rgbLED is what you probably want.

There are a couple of things going on with your display when you see the "glowy" colors.

First, you probably have the brightness turned way up which makes the colors stand out more because the screen has a TON of contrast available. This panel is capable of producing way over 300 nits of brightness which is really bright for a laptop display. When the brightness is turned way up, you get a very bright and saturated image that reminds me of the kind of look you see in large and expensive LED televisions. If you leave the brightness down in the bottom 2/3rds of the display's range, the glowiness goes away. Most photographers will be editing in the 100-120 nit range and the Samsung does well at that brightness level. It does fine up to around 200 nits to my eyes.

Second, you are looking at web pages that were probably created for the masses - and the masses have crap monitors compared to yours. If sites were designed to look faithful on your screen, they would look washed out on others.

I know you mentioned "getting used" to the display on your laptop. You were actually right about that. Going back to the CCFL display on my M6300 hurts my soul. Its really washed out. Its the same to a lessor extent on my WLED e6500. You don't get the deep dark blacks, you don't get that punch of color. Yes, I can turn both of the other screens way up in brightness, but I lose those deep blacks as they brighten to very dark grey. Just remember that this panel holds it's contrast ratio even with the backlight turned all the way up - this contrast is what you are seeing.

So what do you have to do to get a really bright display without the glowing colors? You have to do what Razibus said. Take about 10% off of the color saturation. REMEMBER - with the stock Dell Nvidia drivers the digital vibrance is turned up too high by default - you HAVE to fix it. Depending on the driver version, Zero extra DV will be either 0% or 50%. If you pull the fader to 0 and the display is Black and White, then 50% is neutral. If you pull the fader to 0 and the screen still has color, then 0% is neutral. Hopefully Nivida will standardize this. I do sometimes play World of Warcraft with the brightness cranked way up and the DV set to 45% instead of 50%. This gives me around 10% less saturation.

Pulling down the saturation is also a GREAT way for you to see if you would be better off with a WLED display. Find the Nivida drivers that have 50% digital vibrance as neutral, then pull the fader back to 25%. This will give you a simulation of what 45% color gamuts look like.

I need to go back and figure out which drivers are 0% for neutral and which are 50% for neutral.

 

The M6500 is much more rigidly built compared to the M4400. Hopefully you won't miss all the case flexing the M4400 had on the display bezel.

 

The best possible sound quality would be:

Buy the E Port dock with the coax digital output.
Run that output into an external DAC
Run the DAC into an amp or headphone amp.

I use the Zero Headphone amp with mine. It has a DAC and amp built in. http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f5/review-zero-24-bit-192khz-dac-headphone-amp-pre-amp-269458/

 

Go read the previews of CS5 - the Nivida acceleration will be even more ingrained in it.

On a side note, I saw that other laptop manufacturers are charging around the same for the 3800M card as Dell. Guess Nivida is the one gouging the hell out of the price. B*stards.

 

These are Dell's new external monitors. I doubt there would be anything in there to update the M6500's display. Maybe I read your post wrong...