Precision M4400 Owner's Lounge

Hardware calibration will get you better results, but for that you need to buy a tool like 2k5.lexi suggested.

 

Can you use this without the special hardware device?

 

as far as i know does it only work on windows/ MAC os Systems. Linux and others are not supported.
Thats the only thing as far as i know.
maybe google knows some more about that.

 

I just bought a Spyder3pro for a pretty good discount online. I am very happy with the results on my Dual 24 inch LCD's. Not only do they now look a little better they match perfectly. The Spyder does say works with RGB LED screens. Good Luck

 

Colors are going to appear a bit different on a wide gamut display such as the RGB LED. I notice it mostly in greens and reds though. I am no expert with color devices, but I have worked with calibrated monitors for 6 or 7 years now in the photography field. If you try setting or changing colors just by looking at them, then most likely you may get colors that look right to you, but when ever I tried doing this in the past I was amazed at how far off I really was. How we perceive colors varies depending on how much cafine you have consumed to how much sleep you have had. And notwo people are going to see it exactly the same. If having acurate colors displayed to you is important the only way is with a hardware and software calibration utility. this article is a little outdated, but still will give you some good info. http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/monitor_calibration_tools.htm

Something like the Pantone huey http://www.amazon.com/Pantone-MEU11...2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1229703058&sr=8-2 is a decent starting point.

For years Adobe Photoshop came with a utility called Adobe Gamma which would walk you step by step through setting up various paremeters of your display, but in the end it would barely, barely even get you in the ballpark. So the tests that you find online and such are going to get you close, but it should be that close in the default config and if not I would consider RMAing it back if your display is that far off.

Invest in a harware/software solution and you will know for sure and can then have confidence that what your expensive screen is showing you is reasonably correct. That is the only way and any pro will or should tell you the same thing.

The main thing is most LCDs are way too bright out of the box, I ran my 4400 w/RGB LED through a calibration and now have the brightness set on 6, I just lower it all the way and count the key stroke clicks back up.

I have a several year old EyeOne V1 display puck that I have used and I ordered a newer V2 puck that reportly performs better with LCDs. Once I calibrate my machine I will post the icc profile it creates and anyone can try it, but every system is different and every panel is different so I have no idea how that might work for anyone else, but it is a simple matter of changing the default color profiles, so it may be woth a shot.

Also, Google LaptopVideotogo, this site has modded drivers for nvidia. All nvidia cards use the same drivers, hence they are unified drivers, the .ini files are different though and that information may not let mainstream drivers install on your laptop, but they have modded the .ini info to include many laptop cards so the drivers will work. It solved my font issue from a few pages of posts back on the forum.

Hope this helps a bit.

 

@Thomas N: Thank you for the information - I'm ordering my m4400 next week so this is great information.

 

A couple of more thoughts on the RGB LED colors.

When you first go from conventional older CRT monitors and even newer LCD monitors to a wide gamut display, colors are going to appear a bit different. Like I said, I notice it mostly in reds and greens being more vivid. such as even looking at the green start button in windows XP and reds.

If your use is just general stuff then i do not think you need to rush out and buy a monitor calibration kit. If your display looks good to you then roll with it. But if you are doing color critical work where you need to know that what you are seeing on the display is very acurate then invest in the calibration kit.

I was thinking my previous post was sounding like you had to calibrate these things. My main point is that it is pretty much impossible to do by simply eyeballing the display and making changes with the graphics card sliders. When you consider the whole RGB thing, that is red, green and blue. Those 3 colors combine to form all of the colors that your monitor displays and tweaking the red slider a little is certainly going to affect all of the colors, not just the reds. In trial and error back in the day trying this I always could maybe make one thing look like I knew if should, but then you would run across another image or web page and see that some other color was now wacked.

http://www.digitaldog.net/tips/index.shtml
this site by Andrew Rodney is a bit dated in some areas, but Andrew is a well known expert in the world of digital color.

http://www.nec.co.jp/techrep/en/journal/g06/n03/060316.html
This is a great technical article from NEC specific to RGB LED backlighting in monitors. Currently in the world of high end monitors, NEC is one of the top 3. Eizo, NEC, LaCie.

Later guys.

 

Pff, I have a strange feeling about this. This is the first time ever I got a display with such strange colors. I never heard of any of these color calibration tools. I'm just a regular software developer, I don't care if colors do not completely match with real time colors for photographs or printing. I just want some realistic colors.

Compared to my desktop Acer LCD and Macbook Pro LED display the colors on the M4400 just look way to much out of line.

Does anybody else changed their color settings in the NVidia control panel? Or is my problem really not normal and should I contact Dell?

 

I need to adjust the color setting on ALL of my last notebooks, but I noticed the LED backlit screen need the adjustment more than older ccfl screens.

 

So you are happy with Spyder3Pro... I have been looking at several different calibration tools that are available and Spyder3Pro looks like one of the better ones that is still easy to use. I am ordering my M4400 in a week (before the end of the year).

By the way, my rep discounted my configuration by $797!!!