# Calibration headache...



## MLeeK (Feb 18, 2012)

yeah, no idea where to put this-normal for me! And this will probably have TMI because wine is a wonderful thing. 


So... I am having a calibration issue on one computer. 
My problem is... 
I have lost the keycode for my spyder3 I use on the big computer so I can't install it on this one. This one had the spyder2 on it, so... I went to use it. WON'T WORK. I get an error every time I select the spyder2 color meter no matter what I do. I have uninstalled and re-installed. I have un-installed and cleaned off everything to do with it-reinstalled. Nope. I un-installed, shut down, re-started, clean-up, shut down, re-start, did a disk cleanup, defrag, and THEN re-installed. 
I never get the screen asking for my serial # no matter what I do???
OK, so I give up. But I need this monitor to be in reasonable calibration... It doesn't have to be PERFECT!!!

So, I found dispcalGUI which uses the spyder2 and does all of this wonderful calibration stuff. More calibration stuff than I have a clue about. It's so in-depth that depending on what you choose in the calibration menus it takes a couple of hours to calibrate. I just need to know WHAT part of these choices I NEED to use to be in reasonable range?  OR tell me how to get the spyder completely GONE so I can re-install it and just use the dang thing? 
So... has anyone used this EVER and can ANYONE (Keith?) help me???


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## Josh66 (Feb 18, 2012)

I use dispcalGUI.  What are you having problems with?

Argyll is a dependency of dispcalGUI (you have to have Argyll CMS for dispcalGUI to work).

Post screen shots.


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## Tony S (Feb 18, 2012)

Which wine tonight?


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## Josh66 (Feb 18, 2012)

dispcalGUI - yes, if you max all of the settings out, it will take an hour or two to calibrate (it will take a few thousand sample readings before it creates a profile).  The max setting isn't always needed though.


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## MLeeK (Feb 18, 2012)

O|||||||O said:


> I use dispcalGUI.  What are you having problems with?
> 
> Argyll is a dependency of dispcalGUI (you have to have Argyll CMS for dispcalGUI to work).
> 
> Post screen shots.



It's working just fine. I have the Argyll drivers installed, no problem.
It's just all of these darned things I can choose and set and screw up!! If there is a way to screw it up I will. 
When you re-calibrate which calibration do you do? There are WAYYYYY to many things I can choose from at the bottom of that window there!


Tony-Tonight is Fulkerson's Red Zeppelin. It's one of my favorites!


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## MLeeK (Feb 18, 2012)

Josh-Maybe I should just max it out and let it go when I go to bed tonight? 
After that... then what do you use when you want to re-calibrate?


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## MTVision (Feb 18, 2012)

MLeeK said:
			
		

> yeah, no idea where to put this-normal for me! And this will probably have TMI because wine is a wonderful thing.
> 
> 
> So... I am having a calibration issue on one computer.
> ...



Would it not recognize the color meter for the spyder2? I had the same issue with mine. There was a software update, or something, that I had to download. After that it worked. I don't know if its the same issue - but thought I'd mention it.


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## Josh66 (Feb 18, 2012)

Make sure your screen saver is disabled if you do that.  I would wait to do it till you can actually watch it though, just in case an error or something comes up.  Plus, you'll have to apply the new profile once it's created.

I do it at the max settings, and it usually takes over an hour.

I rarely have to recalibrate (maybe due to calibrating at the max settings?)...  You can go in and re-measure the ambient light and have it adjust to that (recalibration not necessary for that).

I typically only recalibrate when I upgrade the OS (fresh install - which would be every 6 months or so).  I've had monitors that needed weekly calibration, but this one seems very stable.  If you have a monitor that tends to drift, you may need to do it more often.


As far as all the settings go - if you don't know what they *should* be, don't change them.  The defaults are most likely right unless you know what needs to be what.

edit

I have to mention, dispcalGUI seems to be much better than what came with my color meter, BTW.  Not to mention that it's open source and free...  It takes a long time, but in the end you get a more accurate profile, IMO.


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## MLeeK (Feb 18, 2012)

See, I recalibrate often. I have a window to my back and as the seasons change I do see a difference in things. Plus this is my internet computer so I worry about it. The monitor is a cheap off brand and frankly, I am not comfortable with leaving my calibration go for more than a couple of weeks because of changes, etc. 

In the drop down menu at the bottom... which calibration?


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## MLeeK (Feb 18, 2012)

MTVision said:


> MLeeK said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I have no problem with dispal recognizing and running the spyder2. That's great. I just am overwhelmed by all of the options to do all kinds of great things with this...


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## Josh66 (Feb 18, 2012)

MLeeK said:


> There are WAYYYYY to many things I can choose from at the bottom of that window there!


Post a screen shot of that if you can (the menus, and the options you can choose).  I run Linux, so it might look a little different to me.


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## MTVision (Feb 18, 2012)

MLeeK said:
			
		

> I have no problem with dispal recognizing and running the spyder2. That's great. I just am overwhelmed by all of the options to do all kinds of great things with this...



Oh no - I meant in the beginning when you were trying to use the spyder2 program. Maybe I misread what you wrote.....

Thanks for this thread though. My calibration with the spyder2 was way off (I think I PM'd you about it a long time ago). I ended up giving up and just going back to the way my screen was originally. I think I'm going to attempt what you are doing - if I feel comfortable enough. So thanks!!!


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## Josh66 (Feb 18, 2012)

MLeeK said:


> I just am overwhelmed by all of the options to do all kinds of great things with this...


It's kind of nice in a way...  It can do way more than the software that shipped with the unit.  *wink wink*  I never looked back once I discovered dispcalGUI.


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## MLeeK (Feb 18, 2012)

O|||||||O said:


> MLeeK said:
> 
> 
> > I just am overwhelmed by all of the options to do all kinds of great things with this...
> ...


That's what lead me to this... someone else said it was a hundred times better than the software that came with!
Thing is... it's only better if I can't screw it up... I am a pro at screwing things up.


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## Josh66 (Feb 18, 2012)

Post a screen shot of the menu where you have to pick an option.  I have to go to bed soon, and I have to work tomorrow, so I might not be able to reply till arond 7:30PM Central time (tomorrow).  If you don't get it figured out by then. I will help you through it.


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## tevo (Feb 18, 2012)

How would one calibrate a MacBook pro monitor?


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## MLeeK (Feb 18, 2012)

I will. I am headed to bed now, but I'll get a screen shot and post. Get back to me when you can. I have been dealing with this for several days now, so its not going to kill me to wait a couple more!


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## Josh66 (Feb 19, 2012)

OK - There is a newer version than what I have installed of dispcalGUI out now, so I'm going to update that to the newest version now.  Here is a screenshot of my screen (before updating) though.  Hopefully yours looks similar:





The buttons at the bottom are greyed out because I didn't have a calibration device plugged in at the time.



tevo said:


> How would one calibrate a MacBook pro monitor?


Same as anything else - get a calibration device, install the software that came with it (or something like dispcalGUI), then run it.


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## Josh66 (Feb 19, 2012)

WTF ... the new version doesn't measure the ambient light level...

OK, anyway...

I'm not going to calibrate right now (I was going to recalibrate and write a little step-by-step guide of what I was doing) because it's dark right now and I do most of my editing in the day.

But, from what I can remember, it's actually pretty easy anyway.  For the most part, you can leave everything on the defaults.  On the screenshot I posted, it says it's going to sample 48 color patches - but it does 16 (I think) iterations of that (to average out any variances), so it's actually going to take at least 768 samples.  Yeah, it takes a while, lol.

Basically, you're going to want to put the Calibration Quality slider and the Profile Quality slider to the max.  There are a lot of options on the Profile Type menu, and honestly, I don't really know what the difference is.    I left if on the default.  It's been working fine for me.
Now press the Calibrate & Profile button (bottom, center).

Next a little terminal window will pop up with a list of commands you can do.  I think you want the last or second to last option (going from memory).  There's two or three options that just check stuff, one that starts creating the profile, and one (the one you want) that checks everything then starts the profiling (it basically combines all of the options).

Now another window will pop up showing you where to put the calibration device on your monitor (you can drag this window anywhere you want - like a corner or something so you can work on other stuff while it's doing it's thing).
On that window, there should be a button to start the calibration.  Start that, then find something to do for the next hour...

When that gets done, it will spend a few minutes turning all that data it collected into an ICC profile.  (I think a little graph even comes up showing you the gamut that your monitor can display.)

Now there will be a box/window asking you what you want to do with this new ICC profile.  Of course, you'll want to select the option that installs it system wide.

If you're really bored, you can create multiple profiles using different profile types and try to see what the difference is.  However many profiles you create, you can pick which one to use with the little drop-down menu at the top.


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## Josh66 (Feb 19, 2012)

MLeeK said:


> See, I recalibrate often.


I have never actually tried it, but there is an option to just update the calibration.  I assume that is faster than the first full calibration.

Setting the sliders to medium will probably also cut a lot of time off the calibration, but I'm not sure how big of a hit the quality is actually going to take.  It may or may not be significant ... I don't know.


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## MLeeK (Feb 19, 2012)

Sorry... I had a full day and then took a couple of hours to go to the casino-and lose my money. 

I am uploading my screen shots that I have questions on now... I'll be back!


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## Josh66 (Feb 19, 2012)

No rush - I'll be here till I'm too drunk to type.  :lmao:

Don't worry, I'll be too drunk to type before I'm too drunk to think, so I can still help.


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## MLeeK (Feb 19, 2012)

Ok... first one... I keep this on "L" because everything else looks jacked?






Second-Yeah, what to do? 






Third-I assume goes along with whatever you chose in the second image?






AND... can anyone explain to me what all of that sh1t does?
Not that I NEED to know, but I like to know what the hell I am doing and why...


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## Josh66 (Feb 19, 2012)

1 - I never check any of those boxes...  I assume it's asking which color space you want though.  I left it blank and my prints match my monitor...

2 - I leave it on Single curve + Matrix.

3 - This is the test chart file - the file with the color patches that it's going to test (I think).  Again, I leave that on the default.


In your screen shots # 1 & 2, it's set to sample 238 color patches, times how ever many iterations it's going to do.  In screen shot #3 it's set to 19 color patches.


I would just run it with everything at the defaults (make it match my screen shot if it doesn't automatically pick the defaults for you).  If that isn't good enough (from my experience, it will be) then play around with the other stuff.


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## Josh66 (Feb 23, 2012)

Did you ever get it to work?


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