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Display Calibration on MBP 17-inch (June 2009) with Spyder2Express

jedijoe

jedijoe

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 13, 2005
255
3
Boulder, CO
I have a new 17-inch MBP, 30" Apple Cinema Display, and a 24" LED Cinema Display (at work). All calibrated with the Spyder2Express hardware calibrator using the v2.3 software.

After calibration, the MBP screen is soo warm that whites almost look dirty. The 30" ACD or 24" LED ACD although are warmer after calibration, the whites don't seem to be affected as much.

Anyone else experience this? Is the MBP screen that much worse in terms of color compared to the other external displays? Should I get rid of the spyder and try a newer one like a huey?
 
Well a follow up. The spyder2express software is PowerPC only. Its old and garbage really. I tried something called ColorEyes Display Pro. Many options but after calibrating using that software, all 3 displays seems to nicer color (at least to my eyes). I guess I will have to just do some printing (Epson R1900) and see if my color results are any better/worse.
 
jedijoe said:
Well a follow up. The spyder2express software is PowerPC only. Its old and garbage really. I tried something called ColorEyes Display Pro. Many options but after calibrating using that software, all 3 displays seems to nicer color (at least to my eyes). I guess I will have to just do some printing (Epson R1900) and see if my color results are any better/worse.
Click to expand...

if you could do you think that you could upload that color profile? i'll test it out and tell you what i think.
 
ViciousShadow21 said:
if you could do you think that you could upload that color profile? i'll test it out and tell you what i think.
Click to expand...

Sure. What's weird is how much bigger the CE icc profile is. CE = 244k, Spyder2Express = 28k

and thanks for testing :)
 

Attachments

  • MBP17ICC.zip
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MBP screen + LED cinema display profiles

That ZIP file only has the MBP screen ICC profiles. This attachment has MBP screen and 24 LED screen profiles :)
 

Attachments

  • MBP17LED24ICC.zip
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wow the laptop coloreye has incredible color accuracy. the grey scale is also very very good. i stopped liking spyder's calibration. as for the ACD profiles, they seem a little blue for me. the laptop coloreye is definitely my favorite.
 
I'm not an expert but the Spyder2express looks better to me.

I have the June 2009 17" and I like the darks a lot more. Default Color LCD profile SUCKS and is very washed out so this is a huge improvement.
 
adamjackson said:
I'm not an expert but the Spyder2express looks better to me.

I have the June 2009 17" and I like the darks a lot more. Default Color LCD profile SUCKS and is very washed out so this is a huge improvement.
Click to expand...

Well they both are done with the Spyder2Express hardware. One is using the ColorEyes software, the other using the bundled Spyder software (which is PowerPC only and from February 2006).

I still think the Spyder software one is way too warm. I see people saying the Spyder3pro or elite handles LED backlight displays better.. wonder if all this is worth $300 (ColorEyes + Spyder3 combo)...
 
BryanHarig said:
How do we install these again... :eek:
Click to expand...

  • Put them in ~/Library/ColorSync/Profiles/ folder (creating the folders if they don't exist)
  • Then System Preferences > Displays > Color and select the profiles.
  • Finally, use eye to judge, usually with some photos where you know what the colors should look like..

But these are profiles for my 2 displays, MBP glossy 17" (June 2009) and 24" LED ACD. So these really would only work for my displays technically, but if you have the same LCD screen model numbers, it shouldn't be too far off.
 
jedijoe said:
Well a follow up. The spyder2express software is PowerPC only. Its old and garbage really. I tried something called ColorEyes Display Pro. Many options but after calibrating using that software, all 3 displays seems to nicer color (at least to my eyes). I guess I will have to just do some printing (Epson R1900) and see if my color results are any better/worse.
Click to expand...

Not that I don't believe you but where did you see that spyder2express is for PPC only?

Are you running OS X 10.5.5 or 10.5.7?
We strongly suggest that you do not update your mac systems to 10.5.6 until many issues are corrected. DDC on Power PCs for instance is now non-functional with this update.

Thanks.
 
Elbert C said:
Not that I don't believe you but where did you see that spyder2express is for PPC only?
Click to expand...

PPC. See 2 attachments. So obviously Intel systems can run the PowerPC stuff, but my point was, its OUTDATED and not maintained.

Elbert C said:
Are you running OS X 10.5.5 or 10.5.7?
We strongly suggest that you do not update your mac systems to 10.5.6 until many issues are corrected. DDC on Power PCs for instance is now non-functional with this update.
Click to expand...

For starters, the problem is with 10.5.6 and PowerPC systems. I have only Intel.

Secondly, I only have Apple monitors. No Apple monitors support DDC. They require a special driver (that ColorEyes installs with their product), so Apple monitors are not affected by this problem. (confirmed on coloreyes user forums by site admin)
 

Attachments

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    s2einfo.jpg
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  • s2eactmon.jpg
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jedijoe said:
PPC. See 2 attachments. So obviously Intel systems can run the PowerPC stuff, but my point was, its OUTDATED and not maintained.



For starters, the problem is with 10.5.6 and PowerPC systems. I have only Intel.

Secondly, I only have Apple monitors. No Apple monitors support DDC. They require a special driver (that ColorEyes installs with their product), so Apple monitors are not affected by this problem. (confirmed on coloreyes user forums by site admin)
Click to expand...

Thanks for answering my questions.
I didn't know Leopard could run PPC apps nor did I know that Activity Monitor could list them either.

When you calibrate each monitor does the Color Eyes Display Pro software create different profiles for each? e.g. profile.Mac & profile.External

I want to calibrate both my MBP and an external monitor and I'm wondering if I need to change the profile names like I'm currently doing with Sper2Express software.

Thanks again.
 
Elbert C said:
When you calibrate each monitor does the Color Eyes Display Pro software create different profiles for each? e.g. profile.Mac & profile.External
Click to expand...

Each time you start a new calibration, ColorEyes ask for a new filename to save (of course you can overwrite an existing one for recalibration)
 
WilliamG said:
Thank you for the useless response. Does anyone want my car keys? Every car has a different lock, but hey, if you ask for them I'll mail them to you! You can try them in your own car! :rolleyes: Just say.... no?
Click to expand...

wow. because car and keys are analogous to calibrating a computer screen.

please stop trolling this post.

i sent them, because even though the profiles were for my screen, if the hardware/software was faulty, the profiles would be grossly off. Since my first post I've tested on a separate MBP 13", and my MBP 17" profile is "close" enough to its proper profile to help diagnose any issues.
 
jedijoe said:
wow. because car and keys are analogous to calibrating a computer screen.

please stop trolling this post.

i sent them, because even though the profiles were for my screen, if the hardware/software was faulty, the profiles would be grossly off. Since my first post I've tested on a separate MBP 13", and my MBP 17" profile is "close" enough to its proper profile to help diagnose any issues.
Click to expand...

Actually, I was using an analogy to illustrate. And no, your MBP profile will not be close enough to its "proper" profile. Or, at the very least, these posted profiles will not tell you anything useful. Like I said, on my 17" unibody, these profiles looked like ass, just as they did on my 24" LED Cinema display. By telling you this, surely I've contributed, and not trolled?

And an fyi, to help you, despite your personal attacks: The Epson R1900 is garbage when it comes to its printer/paper profiles. I ditched it and got a Canon Pixma Pro 9500 which VERY closely matches my display when printed correctly. I did a direct comparison of both printers and the R1900 just sucked, so I wouldn't be surprised if you can't get your prints to match your display. All my R1900-printed results were much "yellower" than what my display showed, whereas the Pixma was as close to perfect as is probably possible.
 
WilliamG said:
And an fyi, to help you, despite your personal attacks: The Epson R1900 is garbage when it comes to its printer/paper profiles. I ditched it and got a Canon Pixma Pro 9500 which VERY closely matches my display when printed correctly. I did a direct comparison of both printers and the R1900 just sucked, so I wouldn't be surprised if you can't get your prints to match your display. All my R1900-printed results were much "yellower" than what my display showed, whereas the Pixma was as close to perfect as is probably possible.
Click to expand...

yea, well sorry if i u thought i was attacking u on an intraweb forum. but i just didn't agree with your analogy or opinions about display profiles. Displays aren't handmade, and uniquely different in every aspect. At least its what I've seen from my short and unscientific empirical tests.

With regard to the R1900, to be honest, I haven't done much printing in last couple of months, but previously with my PowerPC connected to the 30" ACD i didn't see any issues with yellows.

My conclusion to this brain-dumber post is that Spyder2Express software is garbage, old, and outdated.

ColorEyes Display Pro is much better in generating profiles with the same hardware. This weekend, I plan to do a bunch of big prints, 13x19 on glossy and fineart matte, so i guess that will be the final say as to whether or not ColorEyes did the trick.
 
jedijoe said:
yea, well sorry if i u thought i was attacking u on an intraweb forum. but i just didn't agree with your analogy or opinions about display profiles. Displays aren't handmade, and uniquely different in every aspect. At least its what I've seen from my short and unscientific empirical tests.

With regard to the R1900, to be honest, I haven't done much printing in last couple of months, but previously with my PowerPC connected to the 30" ACD i didn't see any issues with yellows.

My conclusion to this brain-dumber post is that Spyder2Express software is garbage, old, and outdated.

ColorEyes Display Pro is much better in generating profiles with the same hardware. This weekend, I plan to do a bunch of big prints, 13x19 on glossy and fineart matte, so i guess that will be the final say as to whether or not ColorEyes did the trick.
Click to expand...

I used to own a Huey Pantene Pro, and it sucked the donkey's. And all displays are very different, even from the same manufacturer.
 
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