Adjust contrast/brightness of external display on MBP through graphics card?

[burnhamish]

Background: Just bought a MBP after YEARS of being a Windows user. I got to know my way around Windows and PCs pretty well. The last monitor I bought was a Samsung 970P LCD (DVI) with NO external buttons for brightness, contrast, geometry, etc. - everything is controlled through software called "Magictune". I accept full responsibility for a poor purchasing decision.

I attach this monitor, which works beautifully in general, to my MBP, and it works, except I have no control of brightness or contrast through the display properties in System Preferences- only the screen size and color depth. Samsung's Magictune application for Mac is not compatible with the graphics card in the MBP. The level II tech at Samsung suggested I try to control the monitor features from the graphics card, but he is only familiar with Windows/PC methods. Figures.

Being a Mac OS newbie, I need to know:

Can I go deeper into the graphics card properties and actually control brightness and contrast for the external display, better than I can through System Preferences? My last resort is to purchase a new monitor, but I would like to avoid that if possible.

 

[FJ218700]

select "color" in the displays prefs and make a custom calibration to your liking.

 

[WildPalms]

select "color" in the displays prefs and make a custom calibration to your liking.

...and select Advanced for even more goodies

 

[burnhamish]

Custom Calibration

I was going to perform a custom calibration on the monitor, but stopped at the first step when it asks to adjust the brightness to "full" and the contrast until the square is black... realizing I cannot adjust those things. The square looks pretty dark, but there is still some distinction compared to the border.

Should I just proceed regardless? I have performed calibrations on my PCs with Adobe Gamma, and this seems like the same process.

 

[FJ218700]

I was going to perform a custom calibration on the monitor, but stopped at the first step when it asks to adjust the brightness to "full" and the contrast until the square is black... realizing I cannot adjust those things. The square looks pretty dark, but there is still some distinction compared to the border.

Should I just proceed regardless? I have performed calibrations on my PCs with Adobe Gamma, and this seems like the same process.

I generally disregard those instructions. I set it the best I can via the monitor controls, then use the custom calibration to make it better. The gamma adjustment in the first step is the most important IMO

 

[burnhamish]

I suspected that any adjustment not handled adequately by the manual controls could be compensated for in the calibration, within reason.

In the event that I am not satisfied with this monitor in the end, I would probably get a new one, and bigger than 19". Are the Dell Ultrasharps really worth the praise I've seen in some other threads? I can't justify the cost of a 23" ACD, when the Dell 24" is so much less expensive (and pivots).