WinDAS White Point Balance guide for Sony Trinitron CRTs

[derekod]

I see now where WinDAS tells you what patterns to use. I now have a problem where after calibration I use the expert mode while calibrating profiling the monitor but the settings are not being stored in the expert mode, have you come across this? They just revert back to there defaults also if I Preset and select 6500K as the default mode the next time that I use the monitor it has defaulted to 9300K.

 

[spacediver]

I'm not sure I understand your question. Why are you messing around with expert mode? What do you mean by "calibrating profiling". What are you using to do this?

Just so we're clear, you do have a colorimeter right?

 

[derekod]

I'm not sure I understand your question. Why are you messing around with expert mode? What do you mean by "calibrating profiling". What are you using to do this?

Just so we're clear, you do have a colorimeter right?

Yes, I am using an I1 Display Pro III, I am also using dispcal GUI for calibrating.

As regards to the Monitor colour modes, I would either select 6500k as the colour mode and the Monitor use to remember my choice so it would still be selected the next time that I would power on the monitor the following day. It does not do that now it powers back on as 9300K being the default.

I was so used to using expert mode when the 6500k mode was out of calibration.

Correct me if I am wrong here but I am sure that the default gamma for the Dell P1130 is 2.5, so when I calibrate and create a profile I select D65 with 2.2 gamma. Do you think I am doing something wrong here, and should not be doing this?

There is a monitor profile that comes supplied with the Dell P1130 setup disc, and all I am doing is creating one which will be matched for my Monitor.

It is a nice article and pdf that you have put together to help those try and bring their monitors colours back to life.

 

[spacediver]

Yes, I am using an I1 Display Pro III, I am also using dispcal GUI for calibrating.

Good choice in colorimeter.

As regards to the Monitor colour modes, I would either select 6500k as the colour mode and the Monitor use to remember my choice so it would still be selected the next time that I would power on the monitor the following day. It does not do that now it powers back on as 9300K being the default.

That is strange. Did this behaviour only start after using WinDAS?

I was so used to using expert mode when the 6500k mode was out of calibration.

You won't need to touch expert mode. Just keep it in easy mode.

Correct me if I am wrong here but I am sure that the default gamma for the Dell P1130 is 2.5, so when I calibrate and create a profile I select D65 with 2.2 gamma. Do you think I am doing something wrong here, and should not be doing this?

There is no real default gamma. It is what it happens to be. But not sure why you're trying to create a profile. Do you work with color managed software that uses a color management module? A profile simply measures your display and records that information so that color aware software (or other devices such as scanner/printer) can utilize that information for certain purposes. Most people will never need a profile. If you just want to be able to view sRGB and video content accurately, then you won't need to worry about that stuff.

btw, my argyll instructions achieve what dispcal gui does (creates a LUT that fine tunes the WPB and sets the gamma precisely - if you want to use 2.2, then just modify my instructions so that "2.4" is replaced with "2.2").

There is a monitor profile that comes supplied with the Dell P1130 setup disc, and all I am doing is creating one which will be matched for my Monitor.

No, don't use these. Never use bundled profiles if you have your own measuring equipment (which you do).

It is a nice article and pdf that you have put together to help those try and bring their monitors colours back to life.

thanks, my only regret is that it wasn't available years ago when more people could have benefited

 

[flod]

just did a wpb with my i1d3. i decided to try a higher g2 value than i had in the past

and look at the resulting gamma plot in hcfr:

http://i.imgur.com/3AS5Gkh.png

contrast ratio is reduced to ~4000:1 but i can't really notice a higher black level except in very dark images

 

[spacediver]

gamma looks great there. Do you notice less saturated primaries? What are the chromaticities of the primaries with the higher black level, compared to with the deeper blacks?

 

[flod]

it shouldn't be noticeable as a 4000:1 contrast ratio basically means each primary is moved something like 1/4000 times closer to black's chromaticity (not sure, didnt think about carefully)

 

[spacediver]

I might do some measurements soon to see how much diff it makes.

 

[spacediver]

a quick test you can do is to load up a primary, and then crank up brightness. The primary quickly becomes desaturated. The question is whether it's perceptually significant with a black level of 0.02 nits.

 

[flod]

http://i.imgur.com/s8Mujdo.png
lots of ambient lighting in my room right now, so the effective black level is 0.06nits
ill try again tonight but in any event i think the effect is smaller than that of the uniformity of my screen

 

[spacediver]

just took some primary measurements - tube hasn't been calibrated in a while, but still got decent blacks.

green = srgb
blue = mine
red = yours

not a big diff, and the differences may be due to interunit variability (colorimeter and/or tube) rather than our different G2 levels. Keep in mind, though, that my primaries were measured at full brightness, whereas HCFR defaults to about a 10% luminance pattern (presumably to avoid desaturation from other channels).

 

[flod]

i measured at full (255) too

i dont think it matters really, unless you need very saturated and very dark colors

 

[gabriele t]

hi guys

so , sorry guys i am going to ask few more basic questions again (regarding the signal i am going to use 1080i 59.94 using pulldown)

on this post i would like to ask to whom knows about it , the following 2 topics:


1- WINDAS POSSIBLY WRONG RESIDUAL CALIBRATION FROM PREVIOUS OWNER ; I have bought this unit from a guy who told me that couple years back he was used to play with windas, as far as i understand windas also let’s you manipulate the monitor internally , in a way that the OSD controls won’t , is that correct ?
Now,
if i reset the monitor using the reset button the state of the image is pretty bad , the black level is probably like 1 nit high , super green , the whole the grey balance is way off etc…

using the OSD i was able to get to quite better starting point : i use LIGHTSPACE (www.lightillusion.com) along with Xrite i1PRO2 to read values ,
so using the OSD GAIN AND BIAS i managed to get quite decent D65 values on the grey scale ,
BUT gamma seems off , and i am lacking some RED info (compared to REC709 RED)

QUESTION : i wonder if the guy messed with WINDAS wrongly therefore internally the monitor has been shifted to much
is there a easy way to reset anything that internally has been changed ? (the alternative i guess would be for me to learn WINDAS and manually adjust things , but having LIGHTSPACE i was hoping to avoid that (even though lighspace would PNLY create a LUT , so the better the starting point the better the result ,
for example i am concerned about the gamma because to get the monitor to have real blacks i have to set brightness to a value of 7 (that way i feel it reaches black (i use as references the black bars (top boom ) generated by the aspect ratio of the signal )
but than way the gamma is too dark ,
anyway i wonder i can reset what has been changed internally or if should lear WINDAS to do so


PS: does WINDAS also allow geometry adjustments not possible using OSD?



2 : AFTER WARM UP RELATED ISSUE : looks like that the monitor need 30+ min to reach the image that has been set for ( for example when i turn it on the black level is way higher than after 30 goes black ) ,

QUESTION : WOULD you agree that 30 min are enough ?


2B : After 30+ minutes warming up time if i put on a black patch , the whole left side of the monitor have something that looks like a light leak (like little brighter …

QUESTION is that something that can be fixed , or is the tube going worse?

2C: After 30+ minutes warming up time if i put on a White patch sometimes, the effect varies i see some colored patches around the corners , sometimes store sometimes heavy . i feel ike if i have the monitor worming up using a white patch , those appear more (like if displaying full white for a while will cause the issue ) the DEGAUSS almost fix it all , but sometimes not entirelythoughts ?



alright enough questions of now

thanks in advance

i truly appreciate


ps: let me know if you want to know more about Lightspace


thanks
g

 

[XoR]

Is there setting in WinDAS to make this whole warmup bother faster?

EDIT:/./
meaning not for calibration but just so it do not get higher brightness

 

[spacediver]

so , sorry guys i am going to ask few more basic questions again (regarding the signal i am going to use 1080i 59.94 using pulldown)

If you use 72 hz, you won't need pulldown, no?

1- WINDAS POSSIBLY WRONG RESIDUAL CALIBRATION FROM PREVIOUS OWNER ; I have bought this unit from a guy who told me that couple years back he was used to play with windas, as far as i understand windas also let’s you manipulate the monitor internally , in a way that the OSD controls won’t , is that correct ?

Yes.

QUESTION : i wonder if the guy messed with WINDAS wrongly therefore internally the monitor has been shifted to much

Nothing in WinDAS can shift the primaries (other than desaturating them slightly due to raised black level). If you look at the native gamut of the FW900, the red is slightly less saturated than sRGB:

is there a easy way to reset anything that internally has been changed ? (the alternative i guess would be for me to learn WINDAS and manually adjust things , but having LIGHTSPACE i was hoping to avoid that (even though lighspace would PNLY create a LUT , so the better the starting point the better the result ,

I'm sure Steve (guy behind lightspace) would agree with me that it's much better practice to calibrate the hardware first before applying the software calibration. There are certain parameters that no amount of software can adjust, such as voltages inside the unit.

anyway i wonder i can reset what has been changed internally or if should lear WINDAS to do so

Get WinDAS, get the WinDAS cable, and follow the guide. I cannot stress this enough.

PS: does WINDAS also allow geometry adjustments not possible using OSD?

Yes, and jbltecnispro is the man to ask about this.

2 : AFTER WARM UP RELATED ISSUE : looks like that the monitor need 30+ min to reach the image that has been set for ( for example when i turn it on the black level is way higher than after 30 goes black )

QUESTION : WOULD you agree that 30 min are enough ?

That is normal and expected behaviour for a CRT. It would be troubling if the monitor didn't need a warmup. I actually wait 60 min for a full warmup.

2B : After 30+ minutes warming up time if i put on a black patch , the whole left side of the monitor have something that looks like a light leak (like little brighter …

QUESTION is that something that can be fixed , or is the tube going worse?

Sounds normal. It should be less exaggerated once you do a proper WinDAS WPB.

2C: After 30+ minutes warming up time if i put on a White patch sometimes, the effect varies i see some colored patches around the corners , sometimes store sometimes heavy . i feel ike if i have the monitor worming up using a white patch , those appear more (like if displaying full white for a while will cause the issue ) the DEGAUSS almost fix it all , but sometimes not entirelythoughts ?

You can try using the landing controls in the OSD to produce as pure an image as possible. Also be sure to investigate whether equipment in the vicinity of the tube is causing magnetic inteference

ps: let me know if you want to know more about Lightspace

Personally I have more faith in the minds behind CalMAN and ArgyllCMS. They have a deeper understanding of the field, imo

 

[spacediver]

Is there setting in WinDAS to make this whole warmup bother faster?

EDIT:/./
meaning not for calibration but just so it do not get higher brightness

No. I believe that the warmup time reflects the fact that the cathode takes time to heat up and reach full emission. I think the increased brightness (despite the lower emission during warmup) is due to compensatory drive voltage increases that occur (else the tube would not produce a visible image during warmup). I don't know whether this a closed loop system, where a sensor can communicate with a feedback process, or whether it's just pre-programmed, but as far as I know, there is no way to alter this behaviour.

 

[gabriele t]

thanks so much space diver ,
all you say make sense

few more

1- i have removed the anti glare (was badly consumed ) is that an issue with measurements device ? i am getting weird readings on my initial tests using the rite i1Pro 2

2- i assume winds can control Gamma /


2- while i was profiling using lightspace when i got to the RED and BLUE patch i have seen that the monitor was WILDLY discolored across the whole bottom and left right corner of the frame ... it did go away using DEGAUSS... is that something normal ? i mean that after 1-2 hours DEGAIS is needed that way?

thanks!

g

 

[spacediver]

1- i have removed the anti glare (was badly consumed ) is that an issue with measurements device ? i am getting weird readings on my initial tests using the rite i1Pro 2

No it will not affect the accuracy of the readings.

2- i assume winds can control Gamma

Changing the peak luminance and G2 will have an impact on gamma, but the proper way to go about gamma adjustment is with a LUT post hardware calibration. You can use whatever software you feel comfortable using to achieve this. In my guide, I've detailed instructions on how to use ArgyllCMS to achieve this.

2- while i was profiling using lightspace when i got to the RED and BLUE patch i have seen that the monitor was WILDLY discolored across the whole bottom and left right corner of the frame ... it did go away using DEGAUSS... is that something normal ? i mean that after 1-2 hours DEGAIS is needed that way?

Not sure. I have nothing more to add on the discoloration/degaussing issue other than what I said in my last post. Perhaps someone else can offer help here.

 

[gabriele t]

If you use 72 hz, you won't need pulldown, no?

i can't because i have to use a blackmagicdesign deckling card ( I/O card for deviance resolve (color corrector system)

BUT i am thinking that my video chain is being an issue , when i have run a quokka profile test before purchase the unit we used the Nvidia card and even though the monitor was off , was pretty linear ...

now that i am running the the patches trough HDMI to VGA converter ... the readings are very weird ... perhaps that converter is no good ... and i should get the HD fury ... to calibrate using the graphic card (even though i would to put windows on the mac tower...)


ps: regarding the colored patches i have to say that after 1 hour and 1 DEGAUSS they went away ...

i guess now i'lll try to figure out WinDas ... damn..

g

 

[PCnerf]

Got it going good so far but I am stuck on Step 46 on WinDAS.
No matter how much I move the 3 sliders, nothing seems to change in the graph.on hcfr.

 

[spacediver]

Does the screen change at all when you move those sliders?

 

[PCnerf]

The only thing i notice is that the green text on the screen and the mouse pointer start to show up when i turn up the luminescence to a really high level.

 

[spacediver]

green text?

The only thing on your screen should be a pure black image, and the cursor shouldn't be visible unless you move your mouse.

Did the slider do anything noticeable to the screen in the previous steps where you adjusted G2? (i.e. did it become brighter or darker depending on which way you moved the slider)

 

[PCnerf]

I'm referring to the text on the top left corner of the screen. Its just IrfanView reading the back drop load out file. And the mouse pointer is most definite visible when i move he luminescence slider.

I think that's where i messed up. I was looking at the text levels and not the screen when I was adjusting the slider. I think I most likely set G2 levels way too low.I will repeat the step to get the desired results.

 

[spacediver]

If you look carefully at the screenshot of the irfanview settings, "show text" is unchecked, and "hide mouse cursor" is checked.

see image below - left side, bottom.

And you should absolutely be looking at a pure black screen, and using the darkness of the screen as a guide for the G2 step

 

[PCnerf]

Hey I got through all the WinDAS stuff after way too much fighting. But I got to the last step and saved everything to the EPROM. I did notice that my brightness/contrast was at 34/00 after i set it to 6500k on the OSD menu.

Now i'm stuck in the step right after the WinDAS steps. When it ask you to load up HCFR on the PC and to plug in the colorimeter. First problem I ran into is that it did not give me the "view images" options from the pull down menu. I went on as normal and re-calibrated my meter (do i need to do this all the time?).

Next I drop the meter on the screen and kept following the steps. But after my readings were done, my Delta E all came out to 58.1. And finally when I pull up the Gamma chart, I have nothing come up.

That's where I'm at.
I would like to fix it from this step because I spent way too much time on this. At least I can do the WinDAS stuff fairly quickly now.

 

[spacediver]

I'm at the lab right now so I don't have HCFR here. But I believe when you click file/new there'll be a menu you can pull down (the same one you used to select DVD Manual for the first part). You choose view images there.


Might be a good idea to calibrate the colorimeter if it's been on for a while. I haven't measured how much it drifts - it's probably not a big deal, up to you. If you do recalibrate it, be sure to place it back in the same spot on the screen. Also make sure the reference is D65.

When you say you saved everything to EEPROM, you're talking about the instructions in the guide where you do "Final setting", and click ok, right? Just want to make sure you're not talking about saving to dat, which is not mentioned in the guide.

My brightness contrast is 31/90 after a WPB procedure, not sure if this is the same across all tubes, and/or whether it changes depending on the voltage adjustments made.

 

[PCnerf]

Yeah I tried doing that but I still don't have that option. What exactly does selecting "view images" does exactly? from what I can tell from the picture on that step it just adds a new tool box on screen. Previous steps don't show this tool box. If that's the case then it's not a problem since it already does that for me. Maybe the newer versions do this?

I don't remember now if I saved to the dat file in addition to the EEPROM. I know I went through the entire final setting procedure. I am not at home so I cant check yet.

About the colorimeter, does it need to be calibrated constantly? I had HCFR crash on me several times and every time it did I reset the colorimeter, but i'm not sure if that's necessary.

Also on that step where you plug in the colorimeter to the pc, where is the colorimeter supposed to go? Am I supposed to load a pattern for it and place it on the screen? I just left it on screen while I was following that step. That might account for my consistent high Delta E levels.

Sadly I can't really try anything until Sunday when I'm off work but I really do feel like I made some progress. There were a couple of things I should mention about my experience so far.

First one is that I don't have a Nvidia graphics card and instead my PC is a office dell PC with intel integrated graphics. It does use it's own little display management program so I just hit default on that. I had to skip that entire Nvidia Panel step. I did try doing a "dispwin -c" in the command prompt with no luck. I decided to go along with the procedure anyways to serve a a learning experience.

When adjusting the G2 levels, how dark do you need it to be to dark adjust your eyes? I was doing this at night in my room but all my devices have really bright LEDs. I covered most of them as best I could but there was still some that I couldn't cover. I have a feeling that my eyes weren't completely adjusted.

 

[spacediver]

Yeah I tried doing that but I still don't have that option. What exactly does selecting "view images" does exactly?

Ah, I just downloaded the latest version - now there are only two options: automatic and dvd manual. So choose automatic for this second step. Automatic means HCFR generates test images automatically, whereas manual allows you to load your own images.

I don't remember now if I saved to the dat file in addition to the EEPROM. I know I went through the entire final setting procedure. I am not at home so I cant check yet.

Ok that's fine. So long as you went through the final setting procedure. I wouldn't worry about saving to dat after a WPB.

About the colorimeter, does it need to be calibrated constantly? I had HCFR crash on me several times and every time it did I reset the colorimeter, but i'm not sure if that's necessary.

hmm, what errors were you getting when HCFR crashed? Yes, might be a good idea to calibrate it each time it crashes.

Also on that step where you plug in the colorimeter to the pc, where is the colorimeter supposed to go? Am I supposed to load a pattern for it and place it on the screen? I just left it on screen while I was following that step. That might account for my consistent high Delta E levels.

All you're supposed to do is move the cable from the laptop to PC. don't move the actual colorimeter - leave it on the screen as you did. HCFR will automatically generate the patterns.

First one is that I don't have a Nvidia graphics card and instead my PC is a office dell PC with intel integrated graphics. It does use it's own little display management program so I just hit default on that. I had to skip that entire Nvidia Panel step. I did try doing a "dispwin -c" in the command prompt with no luck. I decided to go along with the procedure anyways to serve a a learning experience.

hm, try cranking up one of the sliders in that display management program, and then doing dispwin -c. Does anything happen?

Another thing - if your intel integrated graphics doesn't have a 10 bit DAC, then it might be a better idea to hardware calibrate only, and not bother with the argyll step (else you'll end up crushing levels together). But if you do this, you'll need to use a higher black level and possibly some other tweaks. Before you worry about this, you can do a test: with the colorimeter plugged in, type dispcal -R. Let me know what the reported number of bits for the VideoLUT is. If it's only 8 bits, it's definitely worth getting a Geforce, even an older one.

When adjusting the G2 levels, how dark do you need it to be to dark adjust your eyes? I was doing this at night in my room but all my devices have really bright LEDs. I covered most of them as best I could but there was still some that I couldn't cover. I have a feeling that my eyes weren't completely adjusted.

Well I wouldn't worry too much about this. After all, even if doesn't end up as dark as it could be, you won't notice it in your viewing conditions when actually viewing content on the display. The G2 will be low enough that the other benefits (e.g. tube health) will be available.

 

[PCnerf]

Alright, I actually got some time to work on this today. I was able to completer the step right after the WinDAS step. Don't know why I had trouble with it yesterday but today I got the patterns. Anyways, I'm not sure if my methods were best since I did move the colorimeter and did start from that step. Is it recommended that I do this right after finishing the WinDAS or can I do what I just did and still get good results? Oh here are my results

http://i.imgur.com/3hRvKZQ.jpg

Oh and HCFR was crashing on me whenever i was changing the references in Preference menu. It was whenever I switch over to D65 and D50. Once I hit apply or ok HCFR would freeze and then crash. The error was just the general unexpected stopped working error from windows.


Whenever I type dispwin -c, i just get the "not recognize as an internal or external command" message in the command prompt. Same thing happens with the "dispcal -r" command.

I will look into getting an Nvidia card. I'm sure I can find one low profile enough to work with my office dell pc. It seems like it would make this a whole lot easier.

 

[spacediver]

I can't even run HCFR anymore - just crashes during the web update check at start. I've reported the error, along with yours, to Zoyd.

Your delta E's should be lower. Hard to say whether it's due to different position of colorimeter (unlikely), or due to bad calibration. Your x chromaticity values look very good, but your y's are off.

How close were you hitting your targets during the procedure?

Also, your black level is quite high (reads as 0.02 cd/m^2). Not sure if this is because you didn't set G2 low enough, or whether the instrument just bottoms out at 0.02 cd/m^2 and displays that value even when the actual luminance is lower. I'm thinking the former, because your gamma isn't crushed (which is perhaps useful in your case, as it means your gamma is actually pretty good right now, so the Argyll step is less necessary). Your white balance is off, but at least it's consistent, which is important for good image quality.

In my guide, I link to the installation instructions for Argyll. Did you follow them? If not, then the path for the files won't be set, and your computer won't recognize those commands from any directory.

 

[PCnerf]

HCFR always asks to update when you launch it. But I've had no problems with it crashing at that spot for me.

I am also suspecting that my calibration is most likely off.
But I was really close to all my targets. If I remember correctly, most values if not all values were in the 2% range. and the majority were under 1%. Most the Delta E values were also very close to 0 with not much going higher that 0.8.

My G2 value did seem kinda high to me. It was at 166. I don't think I adapted my eyes correctly.

And as for the Argyll step, I remember seeing that link but I dont remember if I actually followed the steps. It will be something I will do later since i'm calling it a day.

 

[spacediver]

If your delta Es were low during the calibration, then here are some possibilities:

1) The settings didn't save correctly in WinDAS. This happens occasionally, and is a pain in the ass, but I highly doubt it's the case with you, given your pattern of data

2) You placed the colorimeter in a different position on the screen during calibration compared to when you verified the calibration with HCFR in the second part. I think this is the most likely explanation. I'm assuming you used the DTP-94_center.png pattern to position your instrument the first time? If so, just use it again to position it for the HCFR verification.

Also, before you re-do the WinDAS procedure, be sure to do the dispcal -R thing. If it turns out you only have 8 bits to work with, then it might be better to keep your G2 as is. You can navigate manually to the argyll directory where the dispcal.exe file is located. That way you won't have to do the path part of the install, in order to run the command. so in the command prompt, you'd type " cd C:\Argyll_V1.7.0\bin\" (or whatever the proper directory name is for the latest version of argyll).

 

[spacediver]

zoyd just put up a newer version of HCFR. Let me know if the crashes still occur.

 

[PCnerf]

I was thinking the same thing about my colorimeter. I did move it around but I got it to as close as I could to the centering pattern. I did notice that the colorimeter seemed a bit higher on screen than what the HCFR signal generator was projecting. I think I might need to move up the horizontal position of the screen to compensate.

Another thing that makes me believe that WinDAS did save is that the screen position is lower. I did correct the issue in one of my runs that ended in a crash. But most likely I skipped the step in my following run since I was rushing through it.

I’ll see if I can mess with the Argyll Stuff when I get home. I am still not sure if I did it or not but I’ll double check. It is possible that only my laptop had that issue. If worse comes to worse, I will just re do WinDAS all over again. But this time I will make sure to get everything right.

 

[PCnerf]

Alright so it turns out I did not install Argyll correctly. I did unzip it onto the desktop. But that's where I stopped. I did try to modify the Path variable but with no luck. And even in command prompt when im in the directory of the executable files, I still get a "not a recognized command". I might need to reinstall Argyll again. I did notice that there is no "dispcal.r" file but instead it was "dispcal.c". I might need to reinstall something.

typing in "dispwin.c" in command prompt gave me pop up window telling me the "windows can't open file window". So it seems that I did have the path correctly, it just doesn't recognize the -c command. Did I miss something? Wasn't I just suppose to extract the Argyll, and add the directory at the end of the path? I'll take another look tomorrow.

 

[spacediver]

why are you typing dispcal.r? you should be doing dispcal -R

"-" not "." and capital R.

and the files are dispcal.exe and dispwin.exe, the "R" and "c" are switches.

Anyway, don't skip steps! follow the installation instructions precisely

 

[PCnerf]

Made progress today.
It turns out i'm dumb and did not install the executable files.
I was messing around with the installation drivers and not the executable files. After I downloaded the right files everything worked good

Doing a dispwin -c works. Everything changed.
Going the dispcal -R reveals that i indeed have a LUT entry depth of 8 bits.

 

[spacediver]

Ok, in that case, you might be best off sticking with only the WinDAS step, as if you try and modify the LUT (via Argyll), there will be quantization errors in the form of banding. If and when you get an Nvidia card (be sure it has DVI-I out), then you can go ahead and really crank down the G2, get those inky blacks, and uncrush the image using Argyll.

Are you satisfied with the black level of your display right now? If so, based on your measurements, your tube is in good standing

 

[PCnerf]

I forgot to mention that my laptop does have nVidia graphics. I guess I could swap roles for the pc and laptop. That should let me do the Argyll steps.Both systems already have all the software installed. Though my laptop doesn't have a DVI-I out, would I be able to use an adapter for it?

I am not sure if the picture quality is much better than before. I think I had a monitor that was already in good condition. But to be honest I didn't test the monitor all that much before I started messing with it. I will say that when I loaded the crosshatch pattern the black and white really stood out to me at that moment. I do have an extra not calibrated monitor that i can compare it to. Can't really give a solid answer yet because I have been mainly testing and web browsing.

Maybe that's what I will do next. Test out both monitors and compare them.