dual 23" color problems

[MrSugar]

Hey there guys,

I was really happy yesterday when I purchased my second 23" monitor. The setup is killer but I immediately noticed that my 2 monitors (one about 4 months old) are different colors. I spent at least an hour and half trying to calibrate them to look the same, no avail. I called apple and told them the problem. The guy said it sounded to him like, "an acceptable difference in color." He suggested I bring them into the Apple store and have them looked at.

I guess I will have to do this. But what a pain to have to pack them up and take them over there. Then if one needs repair I would be stuck without it for a while (not a huge problem, just annoying).

I really thought Apple was the industry leader in color consistency with their monitors, I have to say this whole experience is making me somewhat skeptical after spending nearly $4,000 on a pair of monitors.

 

[jtown]

You realize that the viewing angle makes a significant difference with LCDs, right? If you've got one monitor centered in your field of vision and the other to the side, the colors will look different even if the monitors are calibrated identically. Just shift your head and the colors change.

 

[MrSugar]

You realize that the viewing angle makes a significant difference with LCDs, right? If you've got one monitor centered in your field of vision and the other to the side, the colors will look different even if the monitors are calibrated identically. Just shift your head and the colors change.

Yeah, I moved all around the room, it was noticable from all angels.

 

[keysersoze]

Yeah, I moved all around the room, it was noticable from all angels.

Was the older one "pink?"

That has been a common problem... with the 23 incher.

 

[MrSugar]

Was the older one "pink?"

That has been a common problem... with the 23 incher.

In comparison to the new monitor the old one does seem to look somewhat pink. However, I think the old one looks better than the new one. It has a nice warm color, bright whites, and the grays don't look pink (not like some I have seen in person at the Apple store that obviously had a "pink" problem). This new monitor almost looks yellowish.

 

[Mertzen]

I guess you'll need to wait on the Store's comment will be .. but I doubt it will differ from what the phone rep already told you ..

 

[SDLSteve]

I'm not going to be any help but how did you hook up the 2nd monitor. I have recently purchased a Dual 2Ghz and have two 17 inch cinema displays. Which adaptor do you need? Is it the $29 adaptor or the $99 to hook the 2nd cinema display up?

 

[MrSugar]

I'm not going to be any help but how did you hook up the 2nd monitor. I have recently purchased a Dual 2Ghz and have two 17 inch cinema displays. Which adaptor do you need? Is it the $29 adaptor or the $99 to hook the 2nd cinema display up?

Well if you are talking about 17" cinema displays, they are older and use the ADC connection. If you notice you only have one cable coming out of the monitor for each display you will need the ADC adapter ($99) that allows you to run the display through DVI.

If not, such as my displays. You will have a DVI port and a power brick, you can then get a $20 ADC to DVI adapter (like I use) to run both displays.



On another note, I took my displays into the store, after a bit of analyzing the guy agreed one of them had a "pink" tink to it. It is being sent in for repair. Hopefully they make it right!

 

[emw]

I thought Apple fixed the "pink" tint on the monitors with the newest OS upgrade (10.3.7) which included a default calibration fix. Could it be that (1) you haven't upgraded, or (2) the new profile hasn't been selected for the one monitor?

Also, if you are looking to really do color accurate work, you may want to look into a fairly low-cost professional application like Monaco Optix (from X-Rite), which runs a few hundred dollars, and will allow you to get the monitors very closely matched.

The key thing with Apple monitors being color accurate is that they have the capability to be very color accurate because they are stable and consistent. But the color accuracy often requires some amount of effort to achieve (through the use of software).

 

[MrSugar]

I thought Apple fixed the "pink" tint on the monitors with the newest OS upgrade (10.3.7) which included a default calibration fix. Could it be that (1) you haven't upgraded, or (2) the new profile hasn't been selected for the one monitor?

Also, if you are looking to really do color accurate work, you may want to look into a fairly low-cost professional application like Monaco Optix (from X-Rite), which runs a few hundred dollars, and will allow you to get the monitors very closely matched.

The key thing with Apple monitors being color accurate is that they have the capability to be very color accurate because they are stable and consistent. But the color accuracy often requires some amount of effort to achieve (through the use of software).

The pink tint on monitors was never completely "fixed" through calibration. I have read many stories and discussion about people who have had the problem. I myself tried for over an hour and a half, on my own and with the apple guy on the phone to get it calibrated. No matter what the monitor always had a pink tint.

While I do expect to need to calibrate my monitors somewhat, this case was different, one was blatently different than the other.

 

[emw]

The pink tint on monitors was never completely "fixed" through calibration. I have read many stories and discussion about people who have had the problem. I myself tried for over an hour and a half, on my own and with the apple guy on the phone to get it calibrated. No matter what the monitor always had a pink tint.

While I do expect to need to calibrate my monitors somewhat, this case was different, one was blatently different than the other.

How were you doing the calibration? I am assuming you were just using the built-in calibration stuff, which is pretty limited. But in the end - you're right - you expect them to be pretty similar right out of the box, and if they're not, then Apple has a consistency problem they need to fix. You definitely did the right thing sending it back. Hopefully they'll just replace it.