Color profile for XPS 1640/5/7 WLED monitors

Hey Seeker, thanks for this thread and all the help! I am going to try that .icc profile later tonight and see how it looks. I actually have a little bit of different issue that somewhat relates to this so ill lay it on you. I have/had a sxps with the RGB screen, and after having some issues with the infamous dust getting behind the screen, Dell finally said they would replace my whole system! I didn't even ask for it, but they threw it out there so. Basically I got my new system and it has a WAY better processor, video card, battery and blue tooth. However.. it did not come with a bluray Burner (as my old system had) just the bluray player. And most importantly.. It does NOT have the RGB screen. So... I have both systems right now, and have done some pretty hard core testing on both. Im trying to decide if I should just keep the "new" screen which is a LGD0215, or have them swap the RGB from my "old" system. The more I look and tinker with the settings the more undecided I become.

Here are a few of my observations from both. Keep in mind I did not use any calibration equipment, just extensive tweaking in the ATI CC settings, and individually playing with the RGB channels (not JUST the "all channels" setting).


RGB: no matter what I do, the colors are SUPER saturated. Especially the reds. The colors absolutely POP and have high contrast, but almost looks to vivid and "fake". Don't get me wrong it looks good, but now looking at the non rgb, this screen looks almost to saturated. On the plus side is SUPER bright, and the whites seem much whiter on this monitor. Also.. Probably because of the increased color gamut, there is (to my eyes) noticeably less banding, which is a big plus to me and seems to make most pictures somewhat smoother. I almost thought maybe this monitor somehow has more pixels, which I suppose being a full 16" as opposed to 15.4" it does .


WLED: No doubt about it, this screen has significantly blacker blacks. The whites are not as white as the RGB but the black level is for sure more black. The screen is WAY less saturated. In all honesty it is probably more "true" color, but after looking at the RGB, it looks flat or very muted. I try to combat this by pumping up the contrast and lowering the gamma. But then I have no dark/mid grays as the gamma is to low. So its a battle of really unsaturated colors, or really no gamma and discernable darker/mid grey tones.
There is also no light leakage around the edge of the screen as the RGB has.
It is a slightly smaller screen and the extra bevel/border is a little annoying but not a deal breaker I guess.



SO.... the more I look at the 2 screen, the more undecided I become. Its driving me freaking MAD! It almost reminds me of the Plasma vs. LCD debate. I know the new one is not plasma obviously, but its basically like the non rgb screen has way blacker blacks, but its not as vivid or saturated. One second Im convinced I want to swap it with the RGB, and then next Im thinking the new one is as good or better.

With that all said, I was wanting to ask you a few questions. So... with your .icc profile, that is something totally different/separate than going into the ATI Catalyst and tweaking the settings there? I have gone into the control panel/Appearance/Calibrate Color. That gets me pretty much nowhere, so is that where you are creating or calibrating your color? Or do you use a 3rd party program to do it? The ONLY 2 things keeping me from just keeping this "new" screen, is that I would like just a LITTLE more saturation/pop, and also I think because of the blacker blacks, it doesn't seem as bright or like Im losing some color info in the darker grays. Basically the Dark grays are pretty much black, but when I up the gamma, then I get even more washed out color. Going to try your profile, and see where that gets me, but also when I do YOUR profile, at that point, if I tried to tweak it a little Im assuming I cant do that through the ATI cc center. Am I correct? Anyway... anyone that made it to the end of this post, congrats, I just ate up about 20 min of your life span!

P.S. on a side note, at NO point have a gotten ANY info on a return/RMA number or how to return my soon to be old system. Um... should i just wait to see if someone emails/calls me or....

 

I don't have the RGB screen to compare, but looking at review sites, it seems that the RGB and WLED have similar contrast ratios, with the RGB being brighter, and the WLED having darker blacks.

It's really a matter of preference. The RGB has higher color gamut, but is harder to calibrate. The RGB also consumes more power compared to the WLED, which contributes to throttling, but I don't know if you have that problem.

As far as the CCC goes, how did you calibrate the individual RGB channels without a colorimeter? Theoretically, you could end up with similar results to what I have, but I don't know how anybody could do it by eye.

You can also turn down the color saturation in the CCC. You'd just need a blue filter and a good test pattern to get it right.

My profiles were built with special profile creating software and a colorimeter. It measures the levels of the individual RGB levels present in white at 10% grayscale steps from black to white, which I'd say is near impossible to do by eye. It also adjusts things like gamma, color saturation, brightness, and contrast (which are easy to adjust by eye if you have good test patterns).

As far as tweaking goes, you can't really do that with my .icc profile, as the CCC creates it's own profile which would supplant mine.

I also just received the replacement for my laptop yesterday. I didn't get a return label or a call or e-mail from Dell either. If I don't hear anything tomorrow I'm going to call them about it.

 

We go old-school. Print out a picture or scan one in, and tinker with the individual color channels until we get it right.

 

Yeah, but you'd have to have a calibrated printer or scanner to do that, or you'd be adjusting the screen to match your printer, not the standard. I guess you could get one of those Pantone color standard cards, but they're nearly as expensive as a colorimeter, and it wouldn't be as accurate.

 

Hey I didn't say it was perfect. I used to do it like that and the results were much better than eyeballing the screen alone.

Much easier to get a profile off the internet for a printer than a panel heh.

 

Can't argue with that. At least there's some level of consistency with printers. You can buy 3 monitors, all of the same model, and get 3 completely different panels in them...

 

Here is a shot of the Individual channels in the CCC. Obviously doing this by eye is not as accurate as a colorimeter. That being said, i do have a pretty good eye for color IMHO and just LOTS of trial and error. Im also not really setting up for printers, just trying to get good color on my monitor. You are correct about the Blue being absolutely cranked up though!

Question. Can you elaborate how i can reduce saturation in the CCC? Ive looked at every option in there and the only saturation setting is for Video only in the avivo video settings. I cant find any way to reduce the Saturation in the color settings. Blue filter??

Man, the RGB may look a little unnatural and to vibrant, but every time i go back to it I am just wowed. Let me know what Dell says if you talk to them if you could. Thanks

 

That's funny. You can adjust color saturation in the 'video' section, but not for the desktop. I wonder why CCC doesn't give you that option?

 

I hear ya. It sucks. On NVIDIA cards, ive seen that they have a "digital vibrance" setting that basically amounts to saturation. But no option on the CCC.

 

tried it and it works... i like it but it strains my eyes i guess.. it looks great on pics and going on the internet though.. you notice the difference in colors.. like u'd notice shades of other colors u wont see on pics when using the old profile..

 

Lol.. windows wont let me change the name of the file -.- ..
Also, when i launch calibrationloader it says i need a dll

 

Spenser, could you post some comparison pics of RGB and WLED screen?
I am really want to see the difference between them.
It bother me to choice between them too.

 

I could run the icc and the calibrationloader (actually, nothing occurs when i open it.. is this normal?) but when i try to run the reg file this happens:



How can I fix this ? I really want to check this config.
Thanks.

 

I think there have been comparison shots posted before, so give it a search. I have had both personally, the RGBLED for 1 year and now the WLED 1080. The RGBLED can be insanely bright at the high levels (and probably not a good idea to use it at that level if you want to save your eyes! I usually left it below the half brightness level). It definitely needed calibration, which was solved due to the kind people on this forum posting .icc profiles. Once everything was sorted, it was easily the best laptop screen I have seen. But the problem lies in the fact that such a high capacity screen draws a lot of power, and I believe that it contributed to the throttling issue for people that had it. Now in regards to the WLED I have now, its not as bright as the RGBLED, but it is still a beautiful screen. The real estate loss is not much (16' vs 15.6'), and in the end, I feel like the WLED is more than adequate and a really good screen. Is it worth the $250 or whatever it is now? When I first bought the laptop, I thought it would be, but now after having experienced both, I am more than happy with the WLED. In the end people have different uses for a laptop, but I personally feel that for people that play games/videos/word process/browsing that the WLED is perfect for all those purposes. For people that feel that they cant survive without the RGBLED because they edit photos, I highly recommend putting that money towards getting an external monitor that would serve that purpose better because both of the WLED/RGBLED moniters are TN panels and they can only go so far. Adios!

 

So far, I have applied the 8-22 (2) profile posted, and yes at first it appears warmer/yellower, but this I feel is the true colors. I didn't use the Calibration Loader nor the .reg file, which was posted on the first post. Was wondering if I needed to? Btw, I have the 1080p AUO11ED monitor, which I know you haven't made the profile for. Wish someone would come along and release the perfect .icc for that one, which I am sure a lot of people have.

 

About the power button... mine doesn't work the first time I press it. I always have to press twice. At first it was irritating and I thought there was something wrong with it but once I got used to double-tapping it I realized it's probably a safety feature so you don't shut down accidentally when reaching for the ESC key.

All my SXPS1645s have done this. Is this the power button problem you're talking about?

 

If you're having an error accessing the registry, then it has nothing to do with the .reg values, you just don't have access. Are you logged in as an admin? Did you try right-clicking on the file, and hitting run as admin?

 

I made the profile for the LG monitor, so it won't be a perfect match for the AU Optronics one, but it should at least be better than stock.

As far as the profile goes, if you loaded it with just the .icc and it worked then you're good to go. For some reason the .icc by itself just doesn't work for everybody, and that's what the rest of the files are for. I really wish I knew why it works for some and not others...

 

Well, when I first received it, it wouldn't turn on at all. I tried hitting the button several times, I tried holding it down, I tried just on the battery, with it plugged in, plugged in without the battery, etc. It just wouldn't turn on.

Also, you know how when you plug your laptop in, the circle shaped LEDs on the monitor hinges light up? It wouldn't even to that. I don't know why. I called up and got a replacement the first day.

Several days later, I unpacked the laptop to get the service tag so I could check up on the status of my order. When I did, I noticed that the battery was empty (via the status button), which was weird, as it was full when I received it. I wondered how the battery drained when I had never even gotten it to turn on. So I plugged it in, and voila! it worked... I still have no idea why.

I called Dell to tell them I got it to work, but by this time they had already ordered my replacement, and they said they'd go ahead and ship it anyway, in case it ended up being a reoccurring problem. Maybe the 'residual' power button problem is what you described, lol, but I don't know what was up with it at first, may not have even had anything to do with the button.

 

Well, I've given my replacement laptop's screen a few days to break-in, and I re-did my measurements. This new screen is very similar, so everybody with the same LG monitor should have excellent results with my profile. The only difference is that the blue, though still pretty extreme at factory settings, is a bit lower than my last one. I re-ran my calibration program, and got a new profile. On this new one, the blue is about 3% higher (which should make yellow appear about 3% lower) for people who think their screen looks too yellow.

I still don't 'certify' my profile with the AUO monitor, but you guys can try this new profile, and let us know if it's better/worse than the old one.

 

On my screen that looks very much like the stock one, except without the washing out effect. Too blue for me.

 

thanks seeker for the icc's. i am trying these on my AUO11ED panel and so far i like the 8-27 one. now i dont' have to turn down my brightness to the halfway mark.

 

seeker i bought a spyder3 color meter but have no idea how to use the damn thing. so many graphs and tables to look at. i was wondering if you have the time to show me? so i can calibrate the AUO11ED screen.

 

seeker_moc the 8-27 one was made from the LG panel? It looks good as well. Less yellow and a bit darker.

Thanks for your work.

 

All my profiles were built using the LG0214 panel. The first two I posted were from my pre-replacement laptop, and the 8_27 one is from my new post-replacement laptop. So same model, but different panel. Besides a slight reduction in blue levels, both were very similar in characteristics.

I really love this LG panel. It has great contrast and brightness. It's just a little short in Red color gamut (but still better than most non-RGB panels), and has only an average vertical viewing angle, but otherwise perfect.

 

BTW, the old profiles were done at 80% backlight, and the new one at only 75%. Shouldn't make much of a difference, but thought I'd let you know. I just had to turn down the brightness, this panel is so bright that it hurts my eyes at night, lol. Even at only 75% backlight, it still puts out 205 nits of brightness.

 

I've never used a spyder3, so I don't know if I can help you. If you're just looking to calibrate, there should be some kind of auto-calibration software included that does all the work for you. If you're trying to make sense of the measurements, just post some screencaps and I'll try to explain what it means.

 

The ADD button is greyed out here....

 

What do you mean?

 

I cannot add a color profile

Only at "all profiles"

Nevermind i figured it out

 

on the 8-27 profile is it normal for the My Computer background to be off white including the menus and for IE background to be white?

on the dell 900p it is same background color on all screens My computer and IE but with 8-27 profile IE is white while My Computer and some others are off white.

 

The only significant difference between the two profiles is that the 8_27 is about 3% more blue than dell900p. Because these weren't made on your specific monitor, I have no way of knowing exactly what effect they have for you. Just use whatever works best for you.

 

i guess i will try and do a calibration for the AUO11ED screen. gonna try this HCFR software. because i don't think the auto calibrate software that came with my colormeter is good. i will post results when i can.

 

The HCFR software is great, but it only takes measurements, it doesn't build profiles. You'd have to adjust all the monitor properties yourself in CCC. Doable, but not easy. Good luck!

 

now that my 1645 is arriving very soon, i thought i'd try this out, see if my partner likes the colour profile, given that she's into playing with SLRs and other fancy camera stuff which is totally over my head...

however, the only question i have before giving this a go, is if the colour profile will also affect external monitors? that is, if i apply your colour profile to Windows 7, will it affect my external monitors even when the LED panel is closed? when i'm working, i usually only use external monitors...

 

Every monitor has its own settings. You can apply it to just your laptop display. I would not apply it to any external display, as they are likely to be quite different.

 

ok so just to confirm that these colour profiles are monitor dependent. for example if i apply your colour profile, i can set it to only the WLED panel, and ignore my other two external monitors?

great news, thanks for the info!

 

is there a program that does do profiles after taking measurements?

 

Not for free, no, and professional software is quite expensive. You'd need to figure out the software that came with your Spyder.

 

Ok here is the calibration for the AUO11ED panel. i made this profile with a spyder3 and using the default spyder3elite software that comes with it. anyone with this panel try it out and tell me if it looks good enough for you.. i took the measurments in a dark closet with no ambient light so hopefully it turns out right. The brightness level was also at 80 percent.

 

Hmmm tried your profile jvilla, cant seem to notice any difference from default. Then again I was not even able to get seeker's profiles to work. I think something may be wrong with windows color management on my xps.

 

Been waiting for a color profile for the AUO11ED, I tried your profile but it seems to be too warm (everything seems yellow tinted), can someone else take a look and agree/disagree? Maybe I have been staring at a wrong color profile for too long and now I need to get adjusted to the real deal, who knows? I was using the 8-7 profile made on the first post which seemed good. Hope we get a perfect profile for this since a lot of people have this monitor. Thanks for your efforts again!

 

Messed around for a bit and was able to get jvilla's profile to work. It definitly seems better then stock, but it is a little too yellow tinted. Not too far off though.

 

not quite sure hwo to fix the yellow tinted since it's an automatic thing. maybe turn up the brightness to 100 percent then calibrate?

 

Not sure about this, but try creating profiles at the 50% brightness mark and the 100% like you said, I am sure after a few trial and errors - we can come to a good one!

 

i found out that my screen auto dims at 5 minutes and that might have affected things. will redo a calibration tonight after i let it sit here for an hour warming up the pixels.

 

i ran the calibrations again. but it seems to yellow to me also. i like Monitor_8-27-2010_1.icc because it is not as yellow. Seeker how did you turn down the yellow on our profiles? i would like to try this also on my profiles.

 

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Brightness, contrast, color saturation, and hue do exist outside of nvidia graphics cards

WHAT A TWIST

 

I didn't turn yellow down, I just calibrated it for my monitor. Perhaps your blue problem is just worse than mine before calibration (removing blue makes things look yellow).

More likely, you guys just aren't used to looking at a calibrated screen. If you've been looking at overly blue screens (like the vast majority of TVs) for years, then a calibrated monitor will look yellow at first, but you get used to it, and once you do you really start to appreciate how color is supposed to look.

One other possibility: You calibrated for 5500K (photo editing only) instead of 6500k (sRGB / TV standard). Look in the Spyder software, and if it gives you options, you should calibrate for sRGB (2.2 gamma, 6500K color temp).

 

I'll have to mess around with this later. Can you adjust settings without overriding the color profile?