Is anyone using Dell PremierColor with the XPS 15 9550 having any success with it?

[Whathecode]

Long story short: I find it utterly unusable, and the system seems to be better off without it.

Encountered problems since I unpacked the laptop, somewhat in order:

1. Clicking the tray icon from Dell PremierColor did not launch the application at all. It didn't do anything (the Dell Update application still seems to suffer from the same symptoms). Seemingly when it did eventually pop up (we are talking after several minutes here), the brightness seemed to go down to unreadable levels. First few usages I remember having to reboot the system since I seemed to be unable to move the brightness up again, it just kept dimming and dimming every x time (I presume it had to do with premiercolor, but not sure).
2. I updated all stuff on the laptop, after which at least PremierColor seemed to launch now.  However, I do not understand how the settings from PremierColor interplay with those from the Intel Graphics....
3. I don't have a clue how settings are saved per profile in PremierColor, they seemingly are not. Switching between profiles repeatedly seemingly keeps setting the brightness values to other levels (lower and lower?). What is the purpose of this?
4. I wanted to watch Netflix for the first time on this new computer just now, and the colors were totally *** (looks like horrible encoding, blocks of incorrect colors). However, given the 'fun' history with PremierColor thus far, I simply shut it down, reloaded my calibrated profile settings from the Intel Graphics options, and all colors are fine now.

What does all of this mean? Do I have faulty hardware? Is the software totally useless? Can I now no longer benefit from Adobe RGB colors (which I might have to rely on in the future?).

P.s. Just for context, problems with this laptop so far (I am seriously getting aggravated with this laptop):

1. Brightness flickering due to BIOS update, which is now rolled back, somewhat improving the issue but it simply occurs less.
2. Broken battery (battery light indicator started flashing after +- one week of usage)
3. Overall sloppy Windows 10 window manager performance from the Intel Graphics 530 card, where it can't even smoothly render maximize window animations.
4. Problems with the prepackaged sofware (dell update does not launch, premiercolor issues listed above)
5. Just recently noticed scrolling in windows with treeview elements in it is entirely unusable and lags.

All of this with an out-of-the-box installation. This product for the past week has been nothing but a waste of time (including >2 hours on the line with Dell support just to establish what I already told them in the first 5 minutes). For anyone considering buying this, wait until all this *** is fixed.

[solsta]

Hi Whathecode,

Just to let you know there are a few forums around with people having issues with the Premier colour.Mine was it cause a conflict with the latest graphics drivers causing blacks to have a blocky,pixelated effect.

After uninstalling the issue is gone.

As a warning there are issues with the latest A06 graphics driver causing video to not play and audio to stop.

You will see in your reliability monitor the error 'IntelCpHDCPSvc.exe' .I just use as do others the A05 version.

[Whathecode]

In another thread somebody pointed out to me PremierColor is created by 'Portrait Displays'.

They have an online form for technical support: www.portrait.com/.../support_contact_dtune.php

They are aware about an issue where PremierColor does not work in combination with a recent video driver update installed through a Windows 10 update.

I will contact them regarding my issues, and problems with understanding how the application works.

[XPS0007]

Any updates on resolving this issue?

[XPS15Newb]

Wondering the same thing- PremierColor just won't open, and colours are a horrible saturated red.

[Whathecode]

I never heard back from them, and these problems persist. So, unfortunately, no. Given that Dell is not required to support this support either, most likely, never.

[samos1111]

As much as I understand, PremierColor lets you manually switch between different color profiles. This may be desired because otherwise non-color-managed applications tend to produce oversaturated output  on a wide-gamut display, such as the 4K UHD panel.

If you use only colour-managed applications, this should not be needed.

I'd agree that some default profiles in DPC have oddly low brightness by default.

[Whathecode]

@samos1111

Interesting, that is already more information than is provided anywhere in Dell documentation (well, there is none ...) 🙂

[XPS0007]

It may not be required, but the fact remains they are still (as of this moment) selling this laptop bundled with said software. If they don't intend to support it, it shouldn't be preinstalled on the system. Very frustrating.