Dell u2311h calibration

TheCenturion · 23 Nov 2010 at 21:57

I was using this site to try to calibrate my monitor:

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

But on most of the tests, I can't actually get it to the correct setting. My dell seems good in games, however, in cutscenes and the like, I can sometimes see bad colours in certain areas. And I also see some times 'bands' of colour, it's not a smooth colour/shade transition if you get what I mean.

Are those problems due to calibration, and if so would people kindly post the settings they use on their monitor so I can fiddle about with it and make it better? Or even lend me their hardware calibration tool?

Thanks

PCM2 · 23 Nov 2010 at 22:40

You should get yourself a cheap colorimeter like a Pantone Huey Pro. I say cheap. It's still a bit of money (around £80) but you may be able to pick one up second hand for less. For the kind of issues you're experiencing you really need a colorimeter to find the correct settings. Each panel is different unfortunately.

crackerbear · 23 Nov 2010 at 23:24

The colours on mine aren't particularly off or anything in games or otherwise, although I'm still tweaking the settings. The banding seen in gradients is normal, despite having an 8 bit e-IPS panel, you can still see them unfortunately.

Here's a few settings that people have posted (if you don't know how to use an ICC profile, read these instructions):

FlatPanelsHD:

Brightness: 30
Contrast: 75
Input Color Format: RGB
Mode Selection: Graphics
Sharpness: 50
Dynamic Contrast: Off
Response time: Overdrive
RGB: Custom
• R: 99
• G: 95
• B: 98

TFTCentral (too green for me):

Brightness 31
Contrast 75
R 87
G 100
B 93
Custom (RGB)

ICC Profile

From here by RueFondary:

RueFondary said:
My settings for a 6500K white point, 2.2 Gama, 120cd/m2 luminance (which are typical settings for graphic and video work):

Brightness: 21
Contrast: 85
Custom RGB: 96 / 93 / 97 (best compromise I could find, as the adjustments are a bit coarse)

ICC Profile

From here by Makaveli6103:

Makaveli6103 said:
Here ya go. I calibrated it with Sypder3 Pro

Red 78
G 75
B78
Brightness 36
Contrast 75

Picture of RGB, Kelvin and Luminance: http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/6275/sypder3pro.png

Link to download color profile to use
http://www.mediafire.com/?n3ymthizqjj

From here by thepiecesfit:

thepiecesfit said:
If anyone wants to have some professionally calibrated settings for this monitor here they are as follows. Performed on Rev A01 U2311H.

The following settings will get you 6500k with 2.2 gamma and 100cd of brightness. Which is perfect for image/video editing/ anything

Preset Modes > Custom (RGB)

R 94
G 86
B 89

Brightness 18
Contrast 75

Menu > Display Settings > Sharpness 40

In addition here is the icc profile that is generated. It doesn't change much since the RGB controls take care of 95% of the calibration. But it does apply a subtle LUT change to some colors.

U2311H_CE_65K_100CD.icc

From here by MTN:

MTN said:
My settings after calibration with Spyder 3 Pro and comparing with 2209WA:

Brightness: 35
Contrast: 75 (default)
Input Color Format: RGB
Mode Selection: Graphics
Sharpness: 50 (default)
RGB: Custom
• R: 100
• G: 95
• B: 90

Bear in mind, as PCM2 has said, each monitor despite being the same model, will have small discrepancies meaning using any of the exact same settings above will not guarantee it's properly calibrated.

As for a hardware calibrator, you could try to get yourself on this list, which wonder_lander is kindly offering. You easily qualify for it so should try to get yourself in the queue.

Somnambulist · 24 Nov 2010 at 00:01

I was going to say the same. You might have to wait a while but you'll only be paying postage when you pass it on and it's a decent calibrator too.

TheCenturion · 25 Nov 2010 at 15:47

Okay thanks for the replies

I'm not at home right now, but I'll try the icc profiles when I am home (in a couple of weeks)

A lot of people say that the monitor is too bright, I have brightness at around 70, but all those profiles have it at 30 :confused:

it doesn't look that bright to me.

Somnambulist · 25 Nov 2010 at 16:14

Go with your eyes. At the end of the day if you're not doing colour-critical stuff, if the brightness, contrast, and colours look 'right' to you, then that's really all that matters.

Calabi · 25 Nov 2010 at 16:59

Just recently got mine and I've noticed the colour preset on standard is turned up to eleven(red at least is way above a hundred). I noticed as I turn from custom rgb all at a hundreds, looks a lot less(and everyone looks as if they've just been running). They probably did that to make it look better, stand out more, but it is likely less accurate. Dont know if thats the same on your monitor but could be worth checking.

crackerbear · 25 Nov 2010 at 17:11

TheCenturion said:
A lot of people say that the monitor is too bright, I have brightness at around 70, but all those profiles have it at 30 it doesn't look that bright to me.

I have my brightness anywhere from 18-30 for normal use and 75 for movies or games. For me, I wouldn't say even 100 is overly bright, but I'd probably feel eye strain/fatigue if I always had it up that high.

Calabi said:
Just recently got mine and I've noticed the colour preset on standard is turned up to eleven(red at least is way above a hundred). I noticed as I turn from custom rgb all at a hundreds, looks a lot less(and everyone looks as if they've just been running). They probably did that to make it look better, stand out more, but it is likely less accurate. Dont know if thats the same on your monitor but could be worth checking.

I noticed the same thing on both the U2311H that I have, which I somewhat mentioned in this post. You can see it in this completely unscientific test that I did:

The one on the left is with RGB all set to 100 and the one on the right is with colours set to "Standard". With it set to Standard, the gamma is completely wrong (i.e. no where near 2.2) on tests like this one at Lagom.

Calabi · 25 Nov 2010 at 17:56

Glad its not only me, so they definitely did it on purpose, and it must have been after some of the reviews(the TFTCentral one).

TheCenturion · 11 Dec 2010 at 14:11

Hi, I downloaded a profile for my u2311h, and tried to set it as the default profile, but nothing appears to have changed. Help?

Thanks

Deluxe1 · 11 Dec 2010 at 14:47

Where do you download the profiles from?

crackerbear · 11 Dec 2010 at 15:17

TheCenturion said:
Hi, I downloaded a profile for my u2311h, and tried to set it as the default profile, but nothing appears to have changed. Help?

I presume you followed these instructions? What OS are you using? The changes the profiles make are very slight (testament on how well calibrated the U2311H is out of the box), some changes you will probably only notice on the Lagom Black level test. The main colour changes you'll see will be via the monitor's own RGB settings.

If the method described in the TFTCentral article doesn't work, give LUT Manager a go (LUTManager_setup_1.1.0.46.msi is the current latest).

Deluxe1 said:
Where do you download the profiles from?

I linked a load for the U2311H in my previous post.

TheCenturion · 11 Dec 2010 at 15:45

Windows 7 64bit.

In the end, I just checked what the settings were, and applied them manually

Deluxe1 · 12 Dec 2010 at 09:46

Is there a setting for response time?

TheCenturion · 12 Dec 2010 at 13:25

Not on my dell, no.

crackerbear · 12 Dec 2010 at 14:24

Deluxe1 said:
Is there a setting for response time?

No there isn't, overdrive is always on.

On another note, the dynamic contrast setting can only be turned on if you use the Game preset mode, otherwise it's always greyed out. Not that I'd advise using dynamic contrast anyway.

If anyone wants to access the factory menu: turn off the monitor, hold down the 1st and 2nd monitor buttons (i.e. top two) and turn the monitor on. When the screen is on, release the two buttons and press the top button, you'll get a blue factory menu. To exit from the menu just turn the monitor off and on again.

You can also see how long the backlight has been on by turning off the monitor, press and hold the 1st and 3rd monitor buttons, turn the monitor on and then releasing the buttons you were holding down. Again, to exit from that menu, just turn the monitor off and on again.

Chaosdarkknight · 16 Feb 2011 at 07:54

Are all the option for these calibration settings to be done through the monitors menu or through windows!?

crackerbear · 16 Feb 2011 at 08:44

Chaosdarkknight said:
Are all the option for these calibration settings to be done through the monitors menu or through windows!?

They're all through the monitor's OSD except for the ICC profile, which you have to install separately into Windows.

Just a note, the ICC profile will usually stop working/ignored if you play a game in fullscreen as well as some video media players.

Chaosdarkknight · 16 Feb 2011 at 10:04

So these ICC files, (I have one from Digital versus) does everything else that I can't adjust through the screens menu!

Well I'm not 100% sure what these files do to be honest, especially if your supposedly calibrating everything, or almost everything through the monitors menu!

Please advise.

PCM2 · 16 Feb 2011 at 10:55

Think of it like fine-tuning the settings. If you want the very best colour accuracy from a monitor you need to look at what the GPU is sending out to the monitor and how the monitor handles these values. One of the functions of ICC profiles is to modify the 'look up tables' (LUT) which looks not only at overall colour balance but also the gamma and brightness curves which can affect the colour. Depending on what you use the monitor for this may not be important - but if you need the highest levels of colour accuracy possible from your monitor there is simply no alternative to ICC profiles on top of hardware-level calibration. On some more expensive professional monitors the LUT is actually contained on a hardware level on the monitor itself - but more often than not you adjust the GPU's LUTs which are often overriden, reset or 'misread' by applications such as games and movie programs.

I will assume from what you have said that you are not somebody who works with colours on a professional level. If the Digital Versus ICC profiles make the image look better to you then keep them. As stated above they will be misinterpreted or ignored by games and due to differences between individual monitors they can sometimes cause more 'harm' than good - again, stick with what looks best.