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Colour calibration suggestions

O

oneWonders

n00b
Joined
Apr 20, 2012
Messages
13
I'm looking at getting a colour calibration device to use for monitors at home and also televisions.
I would like to make sure that I can use the calibrator to set the calibration via the hardware, rather than in windows or whatever.
I assume this would be better as it would mean I could then use a console through the monitor and it would still be calibrated (though perhaps I would have to create a profile on the monitor for each input device)?
This would also allow me to do calibration of 3 separate monitors / tvs at a later date if I wanted to use eyefinity or something similar.

If anyone has any ideas on what is a decent piece of hardware to do that job that would be appreciated.
It would be preferable if the calibrator worked on a range of panel types, for example lcd as well as perhaps plasma.
I read something about spectrometers being more accurate in general that colourimeters except in lower light but that a good colourimeter can run them pretty close nowadays?
In terms of hardware, i'm not really sure what the different versions of colourimeters give you - it seems like the "pro" and "elite" versions are just added ambient light sensor (though i guess that is important) and more flexible software.
In terms of software, i am guessing something like this or this may be decent. The articles are reasonably old though, which is why i ask about hardware here, and even whether those guides are recommended.

It might be useful for me to mention i'm in the uk, as i realise prices and availability are not necessarily in our favour over here ;)

Thanks for your help!
 
To set the calibration in the hardware i guess you will need high-end monitors like Eizo ColorEdge or NEC SpectraView. I myself use a Spyder 4 Elite with Argyll and dispcalGUI calibration software and it has an option to calibrate RGB and Brightness on the monitor but the rest is done in the graphics card gamma and lut table.
 
Do you find that the Spyder4 is good? I imagine the elite is the same in hardware to the light version?
But yer, come to think of it, i haven't seen a lot of hardware with finegrain gamma options on them...
 
oneWonders said:
Do you find that the Spyder4 is good? I imagine the elite is the same in hardware to the light version?
But yer, come to think of it, i haven't seen a lot of hardware with finegrain gamma options on them...
Click to expand...

For me the Spyder 4 works amazingly well at least on computer monitors, i have never tried to calibrate a projector or an lcd tv so i don't know if it even works on those. According to datacolor the accuracy is 0.0018 (CIE x,y,z) but since i don't have a spectrophotometer i cant verify the accuracy, the visual result to my eyes is really good with neutral grayscales and no tint.

I think a very good deal would be to get a Spyder 4 Express and use Argyll and dispcalGUI to get the full range of calibration and profiling options.
 
Okay, thanks i will have a look then :) I guess you don't know how Spyder compares to eye-one hardware?
 
Regardless of what software you use with Spyder 4 this is all done is software, so does it effect all programs such as games?
 
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