Monitor calibration using Dell UltraSharp Color Calibration Solution software

[Richard Lundberg]

I acquired a Dell U2413 wide gamut monitor brand new in box direct from Dell about six months ago for practically nothing due to a combination of circumstances that could never be repeated. It was so cheap that I thought, hey, I could get an i1 Display Pro and do this right. The factory aRGB looked very good, but I went ahead and found a deal on the i1 too, so I got it. I had a terrible time finding the Dell software for Mac on their site, but I finally got version 1.5.6 by contacting XRite (Bruce Wright, don't bother contacting anyone else). This software allows correcting the monitor's 14 bit LUT for the best possible color. You don't need to do the XRite calibration. I should mention here that contacting Dell tech support is useless. I have yet to find anyone there who even knows that Dell makes monitors.
So, I register my i1 which requires having it connected so that the XRIte software can see it. Then I open the readme for the Dell software and find the most idiotic warning I have ever seen in a readme. It says some Mac video cards will cause your computer to crash and the only way to recover is to use another monitor to reboot and then reconnect the Dell U2413. "Some Mac video cards"? What the f--- does that mean? What if you don't have another f------ monitor? I knew it was useless to contact Dell (see above) so I asked Bruce. He didn't know but passed the query to XRite's Dell liaison man. It's been a month but I have had no clarification.
Does anyone here know which Macs?
Technical note: the U2413 is a great value for money and can be found for around 425 any day, but the wide gamut is offset by the 8bit+FRC channel bit depth. If you put a thousand interpolated values into a 16 thousand value LUT, I'm not sure you get a whole lot of accuracy, but better than nothing I suppose.
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[ajohnw]

The only comment I have seen on 8+2 bits is on tftcentral is that it can be seen when compared with a true 10 bit panel. 10bit panels up the price considerably. Dell seemed to have dropped their 8bit sRGB displays and replaced them with 6+2. Bad news I feel.

I've seen some of your posts on this subject about on the web. My guess, fairly educated is that Apple haven't implemented the pc to monitor communications correctly. Otherwise I would suggest you went to a friendly local PC shop and ask if they just happen to have a version of win xp that they could sell you which you could dual boot in native mode rather than in a VM. This seems to involve loading special drivers so they are likely to have the same problem.

All is not lost though. I would suggest you read this review carefully.

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2413.htm

I get the impression that a soft calibration is better than the hardware one - but there was a lot to read. The soft calibration is pretty good though. I would also suggest installing DispCalGui which drives Argll colour management. It uses way more patches during calibration and verification than the commercial ones. Then select an XYZ LUT profile. The key to using this software is to get a perfect RGB colour balance at the target colour temperature. This can mean deliberately aiming for something slightly away from 6500K especially now Dell RGB setting now run from 0-100 rather than 0-255. Makes them coarser. Or of coarse you could just use the software that came with your colorimeter but going on the ones I have seen the verification aspect is a joke - a before and after image. What is really needed is a report containing colour patches. From what I have seen lots of them is best.

John
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[Richard Lundberg]

Thanks, I have everything there is on this monitor. I believe I will end up that I wasted my time and money on the i1. I don't think Dell will ever provide the information to XRite, because I think they actually sell monitors that someone else makes, and that their calibration solution software was written by that someone else.
This whole thing is just ridiculous and full of hype. The factory cal sheet, if it can be believed, shows excellent delta e. I have tested the print match, to aRGB in Photoshop with the settings for my output to Epson Presentation Matte, and i am quite happy. I have the monitor set to aRGB, Mac, 1.8 gamma, and 9300K, just the way I have alway produced good prints. I care nothing about the web,SRGB, or 2.2, and OS 10.9.6 removes all gamma considerations anyway.
The Photography Life forum has a very lengthy discussion about calibrating the U2413, most of it is confusing, misleading , wrong, or irrelevant, so no help there.
I am involved with ColorPerfect and PhotoLine on another technical problem that I care more about right now anyway. I just wanted to see if anyone has had the same reaction to the Dell readme.

[ajohnw]

Apple's problem might relate to the ever changing HDMI spec. I believe it's disappearing in other PC's because some sort of royalty fee has to be paid. It's primarily aimed at AV anyway.

I believe Dell just like others spec the stuff and then arrange manufacture. Not unusual, it's believed that Asus manufacture for HP for instance.

I only glanced through the review I posted quickly. What I suspect has happened is that he used the hardware calibration that Dell supply and then verified it with what he usually uses. 2 types of colorimeter as the better one isn't so sensitive to black levels. Never looked but this suggests it's a spectrometer. Excellent calibration involves no more than a couple of patches Argyll style having delt E values of marginally over 1. Looks like your monitor will achieve that easily with a software calibration. Your colorimeter may verify with colour patches but from what I have seen that's unusual other than at the dear end.

That software I mentioned can calibrate both printers and cameras but there isn't currently a graphical interface for those facilities so has to be done in a terminal. Not difficult. It does it by calibrating a scanner. There is a link on it's site to a supplier of colour cards that are a small step away from ones that are individually measured. For this sort of thing it's important that the cards are fresh. It handles printers by using a scan of the card to calibrate the scanner and then scans a print. There isn't a specific forum just a mailing list. That should clear up any chance of problems with specific paper types. It's worth donating to the site. He uses the donations to buy kit and make sure it's compatible with his software. The gain the software offers for monitor calibration is that it's more thorough than the stuff that even comes with high end spectrometers. It also does verification of profiles in a sensible fashion. Loads of test colours.

Must admit I am disappointed in Dell now. 6+2 monitors is going backwards. I have no interest in 10 bit and have produced decent sRGB images with a CMYK laser just to see what happens. They come out pretty faithfully without calibration. Paper is a problem on the one I have though - thin Xerox is the only answer and even that may jam. I used matte too so my wife doesn't like them as all photo's should be glossy. I'd guess TV's will sort out 10bit panels at some point but may be not. They might sort out the gamut too. That I feel is more likely. These days consistent standards in that area is important. aRGB Afraid I don't think so.

John
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