Can Calibration reduce brightness of monitor?

ntemples1 · 22 Jan 2011 at 22:36

Hi guys,

I have a HP 30ZRw and it's really great, very uniform ect. but the only problem is it's really bright, even at the lowest brightness settings (you can only adjust brightness/contrast on these monitors).

When I have the lights on in the office or daytime it's perfect, but at night when I want to surf anything that is white really burns my retina's!!

I have adjusted the brightness slightly using the nvidia control panel (in windows) but i don't want to tweak it down too far as you lose detail ect.

Would getting a hardware calibrator help with the brightness issue?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, apart from this the monitor is awesome!!!!

Gammawolf · 22 Jan 2011 at 22:42

Seems to me the best solution OP is to shine a small power desk lamp behind monitors for the the ambiance, I do that as i too find it difficult to use my monitors in darkness. Keeps everything else as you like it for day time use

AceTK · 22 Jan 2011 at 22:44

Check your screen settings. Mine has an eco mode that reduces the backlight so much that even the whites look a merky grey.

ntemples1 · 22 Jan 2011 at 22:45

AceTK said:
Check your screen settings. Mine has an eco mode that reduces the backlight so much that even the whites look a merky grey.

Do you have a ZR30w?

I don' think it has any modes, but I might be wrong.

Mr Krugga · 23 Jan 2011 at 00:11

http://www.stereopsis.com/flux/

You're welcome.

Baddass · 23 Jan 2011 at 11:08

the brightness control on the monitor is the only way to adjust the intensity of the backlight, which will (or should) retain a decent contrast ratio across the whole range of adjustments. Any ECO mode is likely just a preset brightness setting low down the scale, so you will pretty much always be limited by the minimum setting of the backlight unit which will determine your lowest luminance / black point.

The only other way to adjust things further is through digital white level adjustments which can reduce the luminance further but will crush blacks and reduce contrast ratio significantly. Any hardware colorimeter would only make adjustments at the graphics card level to reach your desired luminance target, but it would be at the cost of contrast. So your adjustments at the graphics card settings level are doing the same thing anyway really.

ntemples1 · 23 Jan 2011 at 22:12

Baddass said:
the brightness control on the monitor is the only way to adjust the intensity of the backlight, which will (or should) retain a decent contrast ratio across the whole range of adjustments. Any ECO mode is likely just a preset brightness setting low down the scale, so you will pretty much always be limited by the minimum setting of the backlight unit which will determine your lowest luminance / black point.

The only other way to adjust things further is through digital white level adjustments which can reduce the luminance further but will crush blacks and reduce contrast ratio significantly. Any hardware colorimeter would only make adjustments at the graphics card level to reach your desired luminance target, but it would be at the cost of contrast. So your adjustments at the graphics card settings level are doing the same thing anyway really.

Thanks for the explanation, It's just a shame that the lowest setting on this monitor is still very bright, if only it would go down a couple of clicks more!! the U3011 can go much lower brightness/contrast but I do not like the input lag and the slow switchover on inputs, also it seems less uniform.

Mr Krugga said:
http://www.stereopsis.com/flux/

You're welcome.

thanks for that, I am using it now, takes a little bit of getting used to though with the orange tint!!

nightrhyme · 23 Jan 2011 at 22:19

Just came across this thread.
Sorry I can't help you with this but I want to thank for noticing this issue with the zr30w as I was contemplating buying one.

I hate it when you can't dim a monitor enough. A pity Badass hasn't had one for test. I would like to know just how low in luminance it goes on 0 brightness...

MikeHiow · 23 Jan 2011 at 23:17

ntemples1 said:
Thanks for the explanation, It's just a shame that the lowest setting on this monitor is still very bright, if only it would go down a couple of clicks more!! the U3011 can go much lower brightness/contrast but I do not like the input lag and the slow switchover on inputs, also it seems less uniform.

thanks for that, I am using it now, takes a little bit of getting used to though with the orange tint!!

When using it with the gradual setting (I believe it changes gradually over an hour) - you don't even notice it.