White is actually Cream...

Nem

Nem

Nem

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Mansfield, Notts.
Hi

I've got the Samsung T240 as my main screen but also a Samsung 37" LCD TV as a secondary output.

I'm seeing that the white say of a explorer background is basically a cream on the T240 and not white as seen on the TV. Obviously noticable when having a window open and positioned half and half on both screens.

I've tried many times to get the T240 to look better and failed. Is this just as good as it gets with a TN panel? Or is there anything else I can try to get it to look better? Would an IPS panel screen be better?

Thanks.
 
Nem said:
Hi

I've got the Samsung T240 as my main screen but also a Samsung 37" LCD TV as a secondary output.

I'm seeing that the white say of a explorer background is basically a cream on the T240 and not white as seen on the TV. Obviously noticable when having a window open and positioned half and half on both screens.

I've tried many times to get the T240 to look better and failed. Is this just as good as it gets with a TN panel? Or is there anything else I can try to get it to look better? Would an IPS panel screen be better?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

My initial thought was it sounds like there is too much red in the colour balancing but I guess you've tried that.
 
Tried to change all the colours already, every setting on the monitor has been tried, but just can't get it any better.
 
Isn't seeing white as cream a sign that your monitors colour profile may be faulty. I don't totally understand color profiles, but I had this exact problem in Photoshop (not explorer however..) and it was something to do with colour profiles.

I suggest you check out the Color Management in Control Panel (Windows 7) and tweak some things there, try finding a profile for your model make.
 
Nem said:
Is this just as good as it gets with a TN panel? Or is there anything else I can try to get it to look better? Would an IPS panel screen be better?
Thanks.
Click to expand...

I have an IPS panel (Dell 2209WA) standing next to my old TN panel (Viewsonic VG910s) and this is exactly the difference I can see. Whites on the TN panel are cream (not that I noticed it before I got the IPS) where on the IPS they are white.

So from my experience IPS does seem to make the difference for whites (and all other colors for that matter).
 
...or you might need to use the Display Calibration in Windows to set it up properly.

I also use dual monitors at work but one is older than the other, and cannot display white as white. No matter what I do to it or the Display Calibration in Windows it still can't display white. In this case, I think the monitor is just old and knackered :)
 
Just noticed this on my T240 after reading this.


Go into the colour menu and change the gamma mode to 3, worked for me, but now everything looks slightly washed out. Will do some tweaking and let you know if I find some good settings.


PS: Are you able to access any other of the options within colour other than MagicColour and Gamma? They come up as "Not available" for me. Am connected over DVI.
 
Well I've tried the windows colour calibration, tried a colour profile I've downloaded, rechecked every setting on the monitor and also tried the settings in the ATI cat control panel. Still can't get it to look like I want to.

I know about the issue where soem explorer windows and photoshop looked cream and not white, and this is not that problem, I've had that on my work pc before and know how to fix that.

If you have magicolour turned on with this monitor it overides all the other settings, hence them being not available. If you turn off magicolour then they should be usable again.

I think it really is just that this panel is as good as it will get, and a different screen, either IPS or PVA will be the way to go. Will need to have one set up side by side my current setup to see if it's any better if course. I've been looking at the NEC 23" one for about £300, so I might grab one of those to try and sell the Samsung. I don't mind loosing 1" in screen size if it looks as it should do.
 
As mentioned, change the colour temperature from either normal or warm, to cool or soft. This will add more white and apparent brightness to the image.

However the culprit is most likely down to the monitor profile (as also mentioned). With Windows 7, it automatically downloads a profile via automatic updates as soon as you install the O/S, because it has so many in built drivers that your usually connected to the net as soon as it loads up! Basically the profile it downloads will name your monitor correctly, but completely destroys the colours of the monitor.

If you can get to device manager, you should be able to uninstall the driver (or roll back) thus removing the problem.
 
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