Color profile for XPS 1640/5/7 WLED monitors

Due to the interest expressed in the 1645 Owners Lounge, I’m going to post this here for everybody’s use. I have a colorimeter and color profile calibration software. Included in the attachments are two different color profiles, one created by me for those with the LG display, and one created by Jvilla for the AUO display. To determine which monitor you have, see the next post.

To activate the color profile for your monitor, go into the “Color Management” area of the Control Panel. Under the Devices tab, make sure you have Display: 1. Generic PnP Monitor selected, click Add at the bottom of the window, then browse to the color profile. Make sure you click the 'use my settings for this device' box, then click on 'set as default'.

If you have trouble getting the color profile to take effect, look through this thread and see how we were able to resolve various problems.

For those of you who don’t know what a color profile is, the simple explanation is that it calibrates your monitor to meet the sRGB standard. That way what you see on your monitor appears as the creator of the picture / movie /game / etc. intended it to look. It will also ensure that an image will look the same, whether you’re looking at it with your TV, computer monitor, printed on paper (assuming your printer is also calibrated), etc.

I would like to say that for as great as everybody talks up the RGBLED monitor to be, the WLED monitors in the Studio XPS are also very high-quality monitors. At 80% brightness, they have about 212 nits of brightness, and a 565:1 contrast ratio, something very rare in laptop LCD panels. They also have a well above-average color gamut (though lower than the RGBLED). Over all, the WLED panels are some of the best I’ve seen in a laptop.

However, the default color temperature on them is WAY high. The standard color temp for computers is 6500k. The default setting on these panels is around 10500k, which is quite ridiculous. Once again, for those who don’t know, color temp is defined by the mix of the Red, Green, and Blue light that together make the ‘White’ that we see on a monitor. The higher the color temperature, the more blue is mixed into the white. 6500k is where white is neutral, made up of an even mix of red, green, and blue. The 10500k that is standard on these panels has nearly twice as much blue as red and green.

The only fault I can find on this monitor is the low vertical viewing angle, but that's a problem common to most TN panels.

Edit: The profile I created is for the LG panel. I also attached a profile for the AUO monitor, thanks to Jvilla and his help.

 

I have the 1645 with the 1600x900 WLED panel from LG (the best maker of laptop panels), model LGD0214. You can determine your model number by going to Control Panel, Device Manager, Monitors, Generic PnP Monitor, Properties, Details Tab, the Hardware Ids in the Property pull-down menu.

Everybody’s panel is different, and I can’t promise you that my color profile will calibrate your monitor exactly. However, it will definitely be better than the way they come out of the factory. It should work for any LG 900p panel, and will probably be fairly close for a 1080p LG WLED panel, assuming they use the same WLED backlight. For non-LG WLED or any RGBLED monitors this profile probably won’t work.

Attached are 4 pictures. 3 are before-after comparisons showing the improvements from the color profile. The 4th shows the color gamut relative to the sRGB standard, and shows the contrast, brightness, and Delta-E for those who knows what that means.

For those that care, I used the Pantone EyeOne Display LT colorimeter, with the Eye-One Match 3 profile generating software. For the before and after measurements I used the freeware ColorHCFR software. All calibration / measurements were done at 80% brightness.

 

Thanks! Will definitely be checking this out after I get home from work.

I have the 1080p screen, but I am not sure who the manufacturer is.

 

My screen is an AUO11ED. Your profile works fine. It may not be perfect but it shows MUCH, MUCH truer colors than the stock calibration.

 

Thats really strange I have an AUO11ED and it does not work.

 

I had the same issue. Follow my instructions here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...7-owners-lounge-part-2-a-117.html#post6592381

And it should work.

 

Still not working... When I double click on the file it opens as a text document. I can however get it to appear in the color correction menu but when I select "set as default" I get a pop up that says "The parameters are not correct"

 

I had to save it as a .txt so that I could upload it to the forum. What you need to do is go to Control Panel, then Folder Options. Under the View tab, uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types". After that right-click on the color profile and hit 'rename'. Then, delete the .txt from the file. It should now be named Dell900p.icc, then icon should change, and it should work.

 

I've never done anything with color profiles before. If I try this profile out for a week or 2 and find that I don't like it (for whatever reason), is it as easy as it looks to restore the default or do I have to back that up first?

 

Hi All,
I also have the 1080p LG version and went ahead and loaded this profile. Without doing some printing, comparing etc. its hard to say how good this will be. If anyone out there has a similiar profile designed for the 1080p monitor or tweaked this profile in any way to make it work better for the 1080p please post in this thread. Lastly, if this profile is found to work perfectly with the 1080p please post that as well. Thanks to everyone especially seeker moc for heping us novices get a "true" color.

 

See update first post for removal instructions.

Note to those who try out the profile: it will look a bit yellow at first. This is due to the drastic drop in blue level. You will get used to it within an hour, and then look at some photography, or a test pattern like the one I attached to this post, and then judge. Pay attentions to the light grays, they are really oversaturated with blue, once the profile takes effect they should look Grey again.

 

I guess it worked. I added the profile and then set is as default... so I guess it worked???

 

See updated first post for corrected instructions. Sorry for the confusion, it should work now.

 

I just tried it out too, and see no difference.

 

See updated first post for corrected instructions. Sorry for the confusion, it should work now.

 

I removed the profile and saw no difference. So... I am a bit confused here.

 

You have to change the system defaults. Go to this tab and click that button. Then an identical window should pop up that says "Color Management (System Defaults)" in the title bar.

 

Nothing happens when I try to load the file. Before I could get it to appear but now nothing happens...??? This is quite confusing.

 

Click on the box that says "Use Windows Display Calibration." Pretty sure the problem is that the display is getting color directions from Catalyst Control Center and not Windows.

That should do it. You should be able to just

YouTube - Dwm 2010 08 22 19 00 01 951

like I can. I didn't mean it to be but this video will give you a good idea of what the display should look like. The video captured the shift in color temperature. So if you're still at the default 10500K, it will shift to 6500k when I load the profile. If you already have the 6500K loaded, the video will shift to 2500K which is... yellowy.

 

Paskowitz,

You're right. I tried to change the profile without using my CalibrationLoader program and it did nothing. Please do what I said in my first post (you can also do what Gloomy said if you have more than one user account, but it's not necessary), and set the color profile as default. Then you have to add the calibration values to your registry. After that you must run the CalibrationLoader program I attached a few posts ago. I will move the file to the first post, and edit my instructions to avoid future confusion. After running the program you should see an immediate change.

I'm sorry about the confusion, I didn't know it would be this complicated, as for some people it works with just the .icc profile. I don't know why some of us need more. Please refer back to my main post for updated implementation instructions.

 

Its still not showing up when I try to add it. Ugh.

 

You need to add the registry values as well. Read my updated first post. Sorry this took so long to work out. I thought it would work with just the .icc profile, because it did work for a few others. It should work now if you follow my first-post instructions.

 

I remember having the same problem when I tried to load the profile initially. After tinkering around, I managed to get Windows to do it. You should NOT be needing any programs to do this!

I'll get my old SXPS 16 that I haven't returned yet out of storage and retrace my steps. I didn't change the profile on that one (it throttlesss......). I'll get back to you guys.

 

Lol its still not showing up. I followed your directions to the T. Also the calibrationloader does nothing when I click on it.

 

Try re-adding the registry keys, I missed a few and updated the file in my first post (again I know...)

If it still doesn't work, and you added the .icc color profile as your default in Color Management, added the registry keys, and ran the CalibrationLoader program and didn't notice any difference, then I don't know what to say. Maybe there's some other setting I'm missing for you.

Note that when running the CalibrationLoader, the only thing you should see is the screen's color change, there's no windows that pop up or any dialog box or anything.

 

My old computer loads it up without trouble.

You guys are being weird.

EDIT: I'd like to say that I would love forever the man who steps up with a color profile specifically for the AUO11ED. Forever. (that's a lot of love btw)

 

I don't know either. It works correctly for most people. I'm just trying to figure out how it's supposed to work for others. From what I understood, you only need the .icc profile. But when I load just the profile on my other computer, it doesn't do anything either. Then I noticed that in my registry under the folders for my calibration software, there's a whole bunch of color calibration data. And I have the CalibrationLoader program in my startup folder, and my profile won't load without it. I'm just as confused as everybody else. I thought this would be a simple thing when I started the thread.

I'm glad it works for you and some others though

 

The power button on my 1645 doesn't always work right, a minor problem, but because it was that way when I first received it, Dell is sending me a replacement. It will be here tomorrow. If it has a AUO11ED panel, I'll be sure to calibrate for it, then we'd have a profile for everybody, lol (well at least for those of us who the profile works for).

 

I'd like to add that the profile you made this thread with isn't so great for the AUO11ED. Your older one is slightly better. This new one is tinted greenish on my end.

EDIT>> WHAT. DELL is so lenient on replacements..... ahuehuehae

 

I didn't even ask for a replacement, I figured they'd just send a technician out. I guess they figure it should at least work correctly when you first take it out of the box, lol. It wouldn't even turn on the first day, though it works fine now, sometimes I have to hit the power button a few times to get it to register. BTW, here's the other profile.

 

Hey,
Let me add that the profile loaded just fine on my machine JUST using the icc file. I downloaded it, saved it to a folder, removed the .txt. Then, and this is a little different than what was INITIALLY posted, I went to the "all profiles" tab under color management and clicked "add" and browsed for the file and saved it. (initially I believe you said to click add on the "devices" tab)
I THEN went to the "devices" tab and clicked "add". A menu appears allowing me to choose the icc profile I just saved under the "all profiles" tab. I then clicked "set as default profile" and it worked. I also clicked "add" on the "all devices" tab and added the old default as well. See "capture III" attachement to see what I currently see. I can then simply click one then the other profile and see the changes happen.

Now for a question, everything above worked without changing the settings under the "advanced" tab to what is shown is the attachment titled "capture II". Where these changes necessary??? Thet did not used to be the defaults but a changed that.

 

Maybe that's the step I was forgetting. Thanks for your help in this, and I hope you like the profile!

 

Sorry for the bad grammer.

 

OK, I have three comparison shots, old default settings, 8/7 profile & 8/22 profile. I like the 8/22, seems less yellow, (greens are greener) than the 8/7.

 

Ok, just realized, the above photos don't show the differences. Sorry

 

Ok I got it to work but... holy hell is it yellow. Too much for my eyes IMO. I let it sit for like 5 minutes staring at the screen, but its just too much. While color photos looks slightly better, but webpages (ie mostly white stuff) just do not look right.

 

You have the same screen I do, the AUO11ED. You should be using this color profile. Word of advice: the reason it doesn't look 'right' is because you're used to it being wrong. This is much better. If you're using the profile labeled 8/22, then it's also slightly off. A bit darker and greenish. This one is brighter and more balanced for our displays.

I suggest that you tinker around with the personalization settings for Windows 7. A lot of the profiles I felt extremely put off by seem more reasonable now. Originally I had it set to a subdued white and black colored one. But I realize this was because the original setting made everything seem radioactive, nuclear, neon, bright as hell and washed out. This made me stay away from a lot of the upbeat colors and go for the more subdued ones. I'm sure a lot of people did the same. The problem with this is that this new profile shows the colors as they were meant to be. So the subdued colors are gloomy and unappealing. I recommend you choose something other than Frost. Also, try turning the intensity up a bit on the window colors thing. It makes greens and reds pop out quite nicely!

Anyway, try this profile, it should fix your whites so they aren't slightly tinted.

>>>

 

I'm glad it's working for you now! What did you do different to get it to work, or was it the registry keys that finally fixed it? Anyways, we'll see tomorrow which screen comes with my replacement, maybe we'll get a custom AUO profile. The LG profile is probably still closer to accurate than nothing.

 

That helped a little bit. Still too much yellow and warm in general. For some reason the cooler blue default is easy on the eyes. But high color photos do look better. B&W images are worse though.

I have no idea. I used the updated profile. So maybe that was it. I think it was the method described by mickey j that did the trick though. It worked when I clicked the calibration loader.

Its so funny after all this I think I will just stick with the defaults lol. If I want to edit photos I will just change to your profile. Thanks for all the help.

 

10500K is easier on the eyes?! I think I just died. I can't imagine willingly going back to random headaches and eye strain. Whatever works for you though! Some people get headaches just from midday sunlight...

 

Hmm, my 1080p screen is showing up as LGD0215

Haven't seen anyone else post that yet. Should I not use the profile then?

 

The profiles won't cause any harm to your screen. Try both out and use whichever one suits you best! They're both better than the standard one for sure.

 

Ok, I tried to import the registry file, after removing the txt extension. I get an error: Error importing to the registry

I double checked another reg file I had and imported it successfully, so Windows 7 is not liking the included reg file, for whatever reason.

 

Have you tried just using Windows 7's Color Management by itself?

>>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TURLGVSa5-Q

 

Yeah I did that, but can't tell a difference so don't know if it's doing anything.

 

Works well for me, for photos, however I would need a different profile for working with video, (I work in visual effects), is there an easy way to switch between profiles?

 

Yes, just load both for your device, then switch back and forth by selecting the one you want and hit 'set as default'. I think Gloomy described how he does it a few posts back.

All, FYI, my replacement also has the LG screen. Sorry AUO guys.

 

I have the 1080p LG display and it won't let me add the .icc file or install the registry. I have windows 7 btw.

 

noob question:

So I'm not sure make/model screen I have. It's the 16" 1640 sxps wit the standard 1366*728 res wled (wish i woulda went for 1080).

looking under the properties I see 'Hardware Ids: MONITOR\SEC5441' and 'Compatible Ids: *PNP09FF' - which i think is a generic code.

It was a replacement over a dead pixel and a little backlight leak or dust or whatever in a few spots. As far as I can tell its no better or worse than the original.

Will anybody help me out and tell me what I have/which config would be best?

 

SEC is Samsung. I'm not really sure it the profile will work for you or not. All I can say is try it out, if you don't like it then just go back to default.