U2413 Help Calibrating (Noobie)

You have been SOOO helpful! I am sure there are others like me who will appreciate your post too! I will let you know if this works tonight :)

*First of all, get the latest version (v1.0.1.x) of DCCS:

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/ed/en/edbsdt1/DriverDetails/Product/dell-u3014?driverId=2FMWP&osCode=W732&fileId=3183799109&languageCode=en&categoryId=DD

Applies to the 3 GB-LED models, it is a little smaller (67.8) than the 68MB installer you may have in your computer. There are SHA1 an MD5 checksums to chek against your current installer. Uninstall older (if older!), install this.

It works only with i1 Display Pro, a colorimeter, (not i1Pro, but I think it was a typo in your post)

*Second, factory reset your monitor. Very Important, you need to restet LUTs in the monitor.

*Third, try Dell Color Calibration Solution with AdobeRGB preset an 120cd/m2 AND in Preferences choose a V2 profile version.

*Four validate the results with a third party software. If you used a V2 profile version you can use Free Software to do this.
http://dispcalgui.hoech.net/

(graphical user interface)

http://argyllcms.com/

(program)

With this free software you need to use the spectral correction for GBLED (RG_Phosphor). Choose "import spectral correction" and it will do teh work for you. To validate profile, just "Profile verification" and "verify_extended.ti1", it will save results in a HTML file. You must enable Javascript in order to display its results.

If check was OK, you are done.


If not (white point too off), as some users reported with older versions of DCCS, the program may be not using the correct spectral correction because a missing XML file:
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/peripherals/f/3529/t/19512342.aspx
but I think you do not need to use "custom mode" in Dell Color Calibration Solution. Since 1.0.1.x it works fine  with AdobeRGB and sRGB presets (and I use them), so my post in this link may be wrong regarding to this.
So, factory reset, configure XML file, run DCCS and check against this 3rd party software.

If check was not OK, post the two HTML profile validation results.


If you suspect that your software is not working properly, there will be "technical answers" (as you named it) to try to fix its behaviour as this is the proper way to deal with these issues.

I just received my xrite i1 Display Pro and xrite color checker and came across this very informative thread just before I was to install the Dell color calibration software from the original disc that came with my Dell U2413 monitor.  I understand that that is what I should use, rather than the software that comes with the Display Pro.  Am I correct?

I gather from the thread that I should download the calibration software from the dell site, rather than use the disc version, as it is probably old.  Am I correct? 

I read in another thread that the software that comes with the Xrite has more features than the Dell version.  Is that correct?  If so, why use the Dell version?  I also read that one should use one or the other, but not both.  Is that still true?

I will be using Lightroom, Photoshop and Proshow Producer to make slideshow videos to display on my HDTV via bluray disc. For that reason, while I use the Adobe ProphotoRGB color space, I have kept my monitor in sRGB mode as it is closest to the HDTV gamut.  However,  I see that there is a rec. 709 profile available with the software.  Might I benefit from using that, rather than the sRGB profile, when editing my photos?  Has anyone tried that?

I guess you guys think that the previous posts answer my question?

There are not too many people with calibration knowledge around here. I learned the hard way over the course of the last 7-10 or so days ;) Anyway to answer your questions:

1. Hardware calibration is better - as it directly programs the monitors 14-bit LUT tables - simply put you get better precision --  less banding (posterization). On the other hand with hardware calibration and Dell monitors you don't get control over RGB channel gain, and it is not clear how white balance is achieved (at least to me).

2. With that said software calibration is a bit easier and you have more control over the process (and yes, more options). If you're software calibrating make sure you select RG Phosphorus as display type - otherwise your white balance will be wrong.

3. For Blu-Ray work you'd want to calibrate to Rec. 709 (the gamut is the same, the gamma is not)

If you want to get seriously in this and achieve best results you'd want to learn and love Agryll and DispcalUI (it takes time).

Note that based on my own experience it seems that brightness and contrast corrections play a significant role in how big you final Gamut is, although for sRGB the difference is small. If you don't have brightness of at least 200 cd/m2 (which is very, very bright for photo/video work) you may not achieve 100% Rec.709/sRGB gamut. Then again this is my experience. Hope this helps.

Thank you for your response.

I do need clarification on one matter.  How does one determine it you are to use hardware or software calibration.  Are you saying that if I use the Dell Color calibration tool, I am doing hardware calibration, but if I use the Xrite software, I am doing software calibration?

BTW, I think if I used 200 cd/m2 brightness on my monitor, I would have to wear sunglasses :-)

Please put 120-100cd/m2 or whatever your workflow rec709 needs and forget that.

DCCS is the only known applitacion that can write CAL1/CAL2 presets on Dell's monitors (sad...).

All others in the market: i1Profiler, ArgyllCMS, BasICColor display used with Dells monitors will write LUTs in your graphics card. That means no colorspace coverage emulation within GPU calibration: RGB primaries wont change (unless you change saturation values in Custom mode), but you can do GPU calibration for AdobeRGB or sRGB preset in OSD.

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.  I finally got to calibrate the display using DCCS and the 120 cd/m2 setting.  All went well and I used CAL 1 and 2 to set up a rec709 and srgb options.  The srgb from CAL 2is not as bright or vibrant as the monitor srgb selection.  This is very good, but I am confused as to why.

Also, I do not recall any options other than CAL 1 and 2 during the calibration process, as I would have expected to see with the i1 display Pro software.  Did I miss any?   I thought there would be something relating to the ambient light feature of the hardware.  I see that it is blinking when I set it up for ambient light measurement, but how do I know it is doing anything?

BTW, I am not getting an email when someone replies to my comments, even though the box is checked.  Any idea why that would be happening?

AFAIK, DCCS does not use ambient light measurements for sRGB gamma curve.
I think that feature would be "dangerous" to profile quality since most people does not have a constant or proper light enviroment (nor wall neutral colors), and if they care about that and have money for that kind of setup of "studio" enviroment (or light measurements would be iseless) thay have money to aim for an Eizo or Nec.
Even ArgyllCMS/DispcalGUI ask you if you want light enviroment measures  or just apply sRGB gamma curve "AS IS" knowing what typical room's light condictions are.

"The srgb from CAL 2is not as bright or vibrant as the monitor srgb selection.  This is very good, but I am confused as to why."
How do you know that default factory selection is good? Or to be correct, how do you know that factory preset is CLOSER to sRGB? Factory preset is at 50% brightness (about 200cd or more)
You have a i1DisplayPro, measure it.

The easiest way to do this for color management noobs is DispcalGUI:

For your "CAL2" (DCCS) it needs to be V2 profile:
1- tools-> verify profile
2- Select a "synthetic profile" to softproof/simulate against (sRGB.icm), open it
3- File dialog opens again, choose patches file (verify_extended.ti1 for example)
4- Run verification, it opens an HTML with the report. Lots of numbers, check for gamma values (under "Y" column, left are desired ones, right are the achieved).
5-Check for Whitepoint, R,G,B coordinates in File->profile information. Do not mind about graphic plot, it does not plot ypur iluminat coords, just PCS ones. There is a very thin and tall button at the right of the popup window. Click on it an it opens a numeric list with profile info. Look for "Iluminant relative XYZ" coords for white, red... check aginst standard in wikipedia. It's easier to understant these values for noobs than number numeric measurements from HTML reportas they are referenced against a D50 PCS (CIELAB, I asume).

For factory srgb preset:
1-First of all, you need a profile for that configuration. Driver's icm does not work for this preset (native gamut)
1.1-Easy and inacurate way -> just asign standard sRGB.icm
1.2-PROPER WAY -> Open DispcalGUI, options -> reset calibration curves an do a "profile only" operation (check embed and reset)
2-Do the same as you did for "CAL2" (in step "5" graphic plot is "right", it's just an incompatibility with X-Rite profile for "absolute colorimetric" plots)

As a rule of thumb sRGB gamma curve is brighter than 2.2 (lower number) for RGB greys lower than 100 (it's just an aproximation), and darker (higher values) if greater that RGB 100 with a growing gamma value the greater RGB grey value is (about 2.27 near RGB 240)

WHEW!  This looks tough, but I will try it.  However, I am having eye surgery next week. so I should probably wait till later in December to work it.

I thought that if I had the xrite i1 display pro connected and set for ambient light measurement, it would at least adjust the brightness settings.  I guess it would only work if I used the Display Pro software.

I was wondering if you know if the gamma setting on my TV, currently set for 0, should be raised when I display photos, or does that gamma have nothing to do with the gamma on my monitor?

The factory calibrated sRGB mode has a cooler whitepoint (7200K in my case) and much higher brightness (256 cd in my case). If you compare this to 6500K and 120 cd/m it will give you a very different experience and it has nothing to do with color accuracy as such.

Cheers

1- yes, with this AMD GPU you can even calibrate in GPU (not using internal calibration) without banding.
Not able to do 10-bit output but flawless for any kind of calibration.

2-Monitor supplies with a DVI -Single link and a miniDP to DP.  1920x1200 resolution does not need DVI dual link but will work with your cable if it is not broken somehow. Since dell grants you a tested DVI-SL "for free", use it.
DDM can be used with DVI.

3-Use latest versions from Web. Current DCCS is 1.5.3
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/peripherals/w/monitors/5187.dell-ultrasharp-color-calibration-solution-x-rite.aspx

1-That means that gamam and grey neutrality are correctec in GPU (graphic card) LUT. This is the way all monitors can be calibrated: from a laptop screen to a P2414H for example.
U2413 cal also be calibrated in its internal LUT3D with allows arbitrary gamut emulation that GPU calibration cannot do.

2-For 10bit output you need a proffesional graphics card: nvidia Quadro or AMD FirePro. A low cost with limited computation capabilities but 10-bit output (ideal for Photo editing since not much GPU computation needed) is about 170€ (AMD firepro V4900 or Quadro K600, for example).
Apple's OSX has NOT 10bit output capabilities, you need windows (i think that 7 or newer, i do not know if it works on XP), a pro card and adapted software (like Photoshop) to do this task.

3- IDNK

4- I do not use dp 1.2 but 1.1.a. Monitor osd allows you to choose between these 2 DP modes. 1.1a is default annd works out of the box.  I have an U2413 and I am using the bundled cable DP (GPU AMD 7xxx series) to miniDP (monitor) without and issues in DDM .

5-CD bundled with monitor has the two. DDM I think that was installed along with "monitor driver" (actually a ".inf" file). It will autoupdate itselft to new version.
DCCS in CD may be very old. Mine was bundles with 1.0.x version that performed very poorly. Download DCCS 1.5.3 from the DELL link I pasted before, do not use DCCS bundled with your monitor.

Xrite colorimeter software (i1Profile) can be used to calibrate monitor in GPU, tha way it is done in most monitors but there is a free software package that outperforms any paid or propietary software solution while calibrating in GPU. It is called ArgyllCMS and its frontend (Graphica interface) is DispaclGUI.
It's free and works with i1DisplayPro colorimeter out of the box with Windows, Linux or OSX.
So yo do not need to install it, only DCCS 1.5.3  (LUT3D) and DispcalGUI/ArgyllCMS (GPU calibration, optional but the only way to get L* gamma sinec Xrite softwre does not support it)
DCCS 1.5.x is a custom version of i1Profiler software but it can do internal monitor calibration.