Color calibration for Eyfinity 3 monitor setup??

[screwtech02]

Hey all, is it worth the $150 for a "color calibrator" to setup my gaming rig?? I have 2-24" dells, with a soyo 26" as the center monitor, gaming res is 5670x1200. The soyo is a little washed out compaired to the dells, and I have set em as close as I can with the onboard monitor settings, but can't help to wonder if calibrating em will make it look better???

[EniGmA1987]

Google "Monitor Calibration Wizard"

[tived]

Well, for me color is everything so that's a no brainer! Get a color calibrator - entry level would be a Xrite iOne. and you just install the software and place the application window on the screen you want to calibrate, make sure you choose the same settings across the board.Each monitor is calibrated separately! so when done with the far left move to the center, do the calibration and then the right hand one, not that the order is important. as you do this you move the application to each screen and move the calibrator with it!!!! (just but just in case, that isn;t obviously :-) )

Now there is NO guarantee that they will match you, that will come with a bit of tweaking (like everything else here). If you choose advance, you will have to get under the hood of the monitor, no just kiddin! but you will need access to you OSD, and its a good idea to make sure that the OSD is places to either side, of the middle, as you will have your calibrator in the center of your screen - and also make sure all other applications to start up and interfere with this process, or you will have a bad calibration. You will most likely find that you can not adjust contrast, but running through that process, helps the application (which is called iMatch) to locate the calibrator on the screen!

Get familiar with your OSD (On Screen Display) you will need to know where to adjust your RGB channels/guns :-) and where to set your color balance, and finally your brightness. I don't think your screens will support contrast, but on higher end screens such as EIZO, NEC and Samsung XL series you have the option, those do also have better calibrations software where the process is automated due to DDC build into the screen.

If you are just going to be playing games, then you can just choose the sRGB setup which most will have these days (that is your web standard), if you are into photography and printing then you would set it up like this (Color balance (kalvin) to 6500k (D65), 2.2 Gamma and your luminance to 80-120 cdm2, this should also help give you better print matching (generally) though if you are sending off to the low cost print houses, then just stick to sRGB.

If you are a graphics designer or prepress then you are more inclined to set your Kalvin slider to 5500K or D55, this is a bit more yellow.

If you have any further question speak up, but I hope this helps

Henrik

PS: I do not have any relations with Xrite (unfortunately! :-) )

[screwtech02]

Thnx tived, I was looking into the basic calibrator, tryin to keep it cheap/effective.

[tived]

screwtech02,

I am not sure what the Xrite iOne cost, its either that or Datacolor Spyder, but my money is on the Xrite.

It doesn't come much basic then this. These units only do the monitor!
I have another one, iOne Pro which can do printers, camera, scanner and projectors, but that is a lot more.

If you do not use a hardware calibration, then you are not calibrated, you can set your monitors to sRGB if they support that, its a standard for web viewing. Its a relative small color space compared to AdobeRGB and ProPhotoRGB, but most likely your games are all sRGB at best.

Let me know what you decide to do and if you need some help let me know, I will be happy to guide you through

cheers

Henrik

[SoulsCollective]

Won't work.

Calibration is a fine and wonderful thing, as I can attest. However, you're SOL for Eyefinity because Windows sees the three displays as one large, single display - you can't load a separate ICC profile for each screen. Correct for your centre monitor and the colours will be wrong for the left and right. It's unfortunately a choice between colour-correct displays and Eyefinity gaming.

This is precisely why I got three of the same type of screen for my Eyefinity setup, so I could load a profile that would be pretty close for all three screens.

[tived]

SoulsCollective,

it won't work?! is this an ATI/AMD thing? because I have two separately calibrated screens, and they are different too! As soon as I get my new box, I will be using 4 screens (using nVidia)

I would love to know, thanks

Henrik

PS: I see you are just around the corner :-)

[screwtech02]

Ahhh, your right souls..... Thanx, saved me some $$$.... Guess I'll just have to eyeball em to get em close enough...

[SoulsCollective]

SoulsCollective,

it won't work?! is this an ATI/AMD thing? because I have two separately calibrated screens, and they are different too! As soon as I get my new box, I will be using 4 screens (using nVidia)

I would love to know, thanks

Henrik

PS: I see you are just around the corner :-)
It's not an AMD driver problem, just an unavoidable issue with surround gaming setups. AFAIK nVidia 2D Surround suffers from the same problem - presenting multiple displays to Windows as a single large monitor prevents Windows or any colour-correction apps from loading separate profiles for the different screens, because all those see is one very large "logical" monitor - but as I've not used a 2D Surround setup I can't guarantee this. I'd wait for input from someone who can, or ask on the nVidia forums.