Help please - Anybody using the Datacolor Spyderx Pro?

[Adam1234]

Hi, I need some help please. Is anyone else using the Datacolor Spyderx Pro for laptop screen calibration?  

I've been attempting to use this but the calibrated result just seems worse than my uncalibrated screen (uncalibrated actually looks better). It has a green tint, especially in the blacks and greys (as seen in the photos I took of SGL below with 'calibrated display' and default settings). I've done lots of Google searching but I can't seem to find a solution. I've used the recommended settings in the SpyderX Pro software. I've also ensured that no intense light was shining on my laptop.

I've tried uninstalling the graphics card driver and re-installing, then running the colour calibration, I've also tried disabling the driver, then running the calibration - the result looked ok, then I activated the driver and the green tint came back. 

I'm using HP Pavilion 14-cf1599sa (5AT11EA #ABU - HP 14-cf1599 14" Laptop - Intel® Core¿ i5, 256 GB SSD, Silver - Currys PC World Business)

Default colour profile

 

'Calibrated'

 

Any help will be appreciated! I hope I've not made a mistake buying this haha

Thanks

 

[tomato]

Probably no help but I have the Datacolor Spyder 5 Express model and after doing a bit of online research I use it with the DisplayCal free calibration software rather than the software bundled with the unit. This tutorial is pretty good:

https://www.techspot.com/guides/2055-how-to-monitor-calibration/

I use a separate display monitor as I could never get used to how the display changed so much with the tilt angle of the laptop screen. I agree the green cast does not look right.

[Alien 13]

I too have the Spyder 5 but cant imagine that there is that much difference, I would check that the intel or other graphics settings are set to defaults before calibrating. 

Alan

[Adam1234]

44 minutes ago, tomato said:

Probably no help but I have the Datacolor Spyder 5 Express model and after doing a bit of online research I use it with the DisplayCal free calibration software rather than the software bundled with the unit. This tutorial is pretty good:

https://www.techspot.com/guides/2055-how-to-monitor-calibration/

I use a separate display monitor as I could never get used to how the display changed so much with the tilt angle of the laptop screen. I agree the green cast does not look right.

Thanks Tomato I'll check out DisplayCal and the tutorial you linked.

I'm also going to try out the Spyderx on my girlfriends laptop tomorrow and see if I get the same or different 

[Adam1234]

20 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

I too have the Spyder 5 but cant imagine that there is that much difference, I would check that the intel or other graphics settings are set to defaults before calibrating. 

Alan

Hi Alan, yeah I'm pretty sure they were set to default, I selected in Colour Management to load the default colour profile and I also uninstalled and reinstalled the Intel graphics card driver, unless there's something else that I've missed on that front

[BCN_Sean]

First off check if the laptop has any ancillary functions running that relate to graphics; some companies like to bundle "helper" software in to the driver package, usually can be found down in the task bar and can be a pain in the sitting tool with overriding things, kill it and leave it dead.  Also, before you start, make sure that there's nothing like auto-brightness (or these scaling warm modes that simulate daylight when it gets dark) set up on the monitor and that you have the display settings (RGB) set as flat as possible, and the brightness set to what the software recommends.  Another handful of things, first is to let the display warm up for at least half an hour (even with these LCD the colour can drift a bit) before calibrating, then make sure the room where you are calibrating is neutral light (no strong light sources, daylight) and if the backlight of the screen is projected through the top case, in a similar way to how the older Macbook Pro would illuminate the logo, make sure the calibration panel isn't over that as light/colour from behind could affect the measurements.

I've been using Spyders and DisplayCal for years, and when you say it does look a bit green on the blacks/greys I've had a couple of displays that when calibrated do look a bit like that and the best measure to see if it looks right is to fix the image up on the calibrated screen and then look at it on an uncalibrated one as the eye is used to looking at uncalibrated colour all the time and sometimes using a calibrated screen seems "wrong" because it's not what your used to.

[Adam1234]

9 hours ago, BCN_Sean said:

First off check if the laptop has any ancillary functions running that relate to graphics; some companies like to bundle "helper" software in to the driver package, usually can be found down in the task bar and can be a pain in the sitting tool with overriding things, kill it and leave it dead.  Also, before you start, make sure that there's nothing like auto-brightness (or these scaling warm modes that simulate daylight when it gets dark) set up on the monitor and that you have the display settings (RGB) set as flat as possible, and the brightness set to what the software recommends.  Another handful of things, first is to let the display warm up for at least half an hour (even with these LCD the colour can drift a bit) before calibrating, then make sure the room where you are calibrating is neutral light (no strong light sources, daylight) and if the backlight of the screen is projected through the top case, in a similar way to how the older Macbook Pro would illuminate the logo, make sure the calibration panel isn't over that as light/colour from behind could affect the measurements.

I've been using Spyders and DisplayCal for years, and when you say it does look a bit green on the blacks/greys I've had a couple of displays that when calibrated do look a bit like that and the best measure to see if it looks right is to fix the image up on the calibrated screen and then look at it on an uncalibrated one as the eye is used to looking at uncalibrated colour all the time and sometimes using a calibrated screen seems "wrong" because it's not what your used to.

 

Thanks for the reply. 

What is an ancillary function, and how will I know I've found it if my laptop has such a thing?

Yep I made sure that I I had no auto-brightness settings on, display was warmed up for more than half hour, and tried the calibration in a darkened room. 

[Adam1234]

15 hours ago, tomato said:

Probably no help but I have the Datacolor Spyder 5 Express model and after doing a bit of online research I use it with the DisplayCal free calibration software rather than the software bundled with the unit. This tutorial is pretty good:

https://www.techspot.com/guides/2055-how-to-monitor-calibration/

I use a separate display monitor as I could never get used to how the display changed so much with the tilt angle of the laptop screen. I agree the green cast does not look right.

Looks like an improvement using the DisplayCal software, took longer to calibrate than the <2 mins with the Spyder software (which seems like a good thing to me) and much less of an overall green tint. 

Much less saturated looking than uncalibrated, which may be a good thing? - I read somewhere that tech firms tend to oversaturate colours as a selling point?

Not sure how well my pictures taken on my phone highlight the differences, but here's a comparison between default uncalibrated, calibrated using the Spyderx Pro software and calibrated using DisplayCal. 

Uncalibrated

 

SpyderX Pro Software

 

DisplayCal 

 

In the next few days I will re-process an image and then see how it looks when I bring it onto another display

 

 

[BCN_Sean]

5 hours ago, Adam1234 said:

What is an ancillary function, and how will I know I've found it if my laptop has such a thing?

Usually it's an icon in the system tray down the bottom right near the clock, hover your mouse over them to see if something (usually with the name of the graphics card manufacturer) pops up. 

As for DisplayCal taking it's time, on mine it takes anywhere between three quarters to an hour and the results do seem better than the fast sequence in the brand software.

[Adam1234]

1 hour ago, BCN_Sean said:

Usually it's an icon in the system tray down the bottom right near the clock, hover your mouse over them to see if something (usually with the name of the graphics card manufacturer) pops up. 

As for DisplayCal taking it's time, on mine it takes anywhere between three quarters to an hour and the results do seem better than the fast sequence in the brand software.

Thanks, I had a look, there didn't seem to be any such icons so I'm going to assume my laptop doesn't have these functions.

Proof that faster isn't always better - I'd rather something take a bit longer and do a good job than be really quick and do a mediocre job!

[BCN_Sean]

3 hours ago, Adam1234 said:

Proof that faster isn't always better - I'd rather something take a bit longer and do a good job than be really quick and do a mediocre job!

I've always felt like that with it; it's one of them surprise packages which really does put manufacturer's own offerings to shame and the bonus with it is that when the manufacturer ends support for a calibrator is that it usually still will work in DisplayCal for a long time after and produce results.  I've a Spyder2Express and a 5Pro and even though the former was "out of date" a few years back, I can't tell the difference between one or the other when I've done a profiling run.  It's one of them bits of software that truly does give the hardware value for money.