How to Calibrate Your Monitor, The Comprehensive Beginner's Guide

[@wcg66]

I don't need no stinking colour calibration! Tim's purple sweatshirt looks just right on my monitor!

[@suppressed_viii]

isnt it green?

[@anmolagrawal5358]

Wait is that a sweatshirt? I see a bunch of pixels don't know

[@darkknightforU]

There is no sweatshirt

[@nitiningle1991]

😆 LOL. May be your eyes need calibration.

[@gautamdiwan5952]

@@nitiningle1991 r/woosh

[@skeater999]

Garrus: looks like these monitors need some calibrations.

[@dedoha8]

Unexpected reference

[@phillgizmo8934]

or his visor needs cleaning

[@Takashita_Sukakoki]

can it wait for a bit im in the middle of some calibrations

[@fix0the0spade]

Also Garrus: I've been calibrating these dang monitors all day and they still can't give me a firing solution.

[@heyitsFluxxy]

Alright, ya got me, what reference is this?

[@thecs9300]

You can hire these devices (at least in Australia) from camera shops at pretty reasonable prices.

[@ZAR556]

You mean, hire photographer to calibrate monitor ??

[@siddharthgarg1501]

@@ZAR556 yes because they edit stuff themselves so they might know calibration.

[@daykeyy]

@@ZAR556 I think he means the calibration device

[@thecs9300]

@@daykeyy I did mean the device. They hire these at camera shops as photographers are a primary market for this stuff. When I checked you could hire per night or for a weekend etc

[@maj429]

I think something got lost in translation. In US English, to hire means to pay someone for services. To rent, means to pay for an item for temporary possession. You hire a professional. You rent a car. For our US audience, he meant rent a device.

[@AtticPCGuy]

While I get the limitations on calibrating a monitor without specific tools like these... would love to see a video on how to at least improve calibration a bit aimed at the more general public that doesnt have these tools. It might not make a huge difference or be 100% accurate, but it would at least be usable for the rest of us.

[@themasterofdisaster1]

This boils down to your eye and you being used to a certain kind of monitor. If you have a monitor which has been tested and calibrated by others, you can try to copy their profile settings. Sometimes hardware tests provide their monitor calibration settings.

[@Reazul07]

Exactly what I was thinking, most of us won't even have a calibration tool, but if we can improve the quality of the monitor even just by a few percentages by using only software, then that could be an amazing video to watch.

[@AlexisyFR]

Go to your screen manufacturer website, then support, then downloads, you can find pre-defined ICC profiles for most screens there, Iiyama does that, at least.

www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ This is ancient by modern standards, but still great for calibrating by your own eye instead of using any HW apart from the monitor itself. It can also help highlight lots of monitor shortcomings like color gradients and banding, viewing angles, uniformity, stuck pixels, pixel responsiveness...

[@winnieid2727]

I try using white paper as reference but it still very hard things to do

[@You2Too]

On the DisplayCAL forums they actually recommend using the default setting (gamma 2.2) above sRGB for web, games and everything. With sRGB as the setting, the resulting gamma curve will make the near-black details less saturated but more visible. It all comes down to preference. If you have a bright screen or you're in a dark room and don't have lots of trouble with backlight bleeding or similar, you'll probably get a better overall result with the default gamma 2.2.

[@St0RM33]

yeah that's correct i've noticed this mistake in the video; unless you have an oled monitor or a monitor with high contrast like maybe a VA panel; you can also still use the srgb profile just change tone curve to 2.2 in the calibration tab

[@slaps1]

I think you also have to change the target whitepoint setting, if u are using this method.

[@slaps1]

alternatively chose sRGB as shown in the vid and manually go in and change the gamma to "2.2" instead of "sRGB" under calibration settings. Or even easier select "Office & Web (D65, Gamma 2.2) instead of "sRGB"

[@Oliver-fy6xy]

Gamma 2.2 is the recommended default but it's not a one-size-fits-all. The DisplayCAL dev has advised that people may prefer sRGB for use with sRGB content and apps that are not colour managed. This means that sRGB is more suitable for most of this video's audience. Professionals who primarily use colour-managed apps should stick to gamma 2.2. Hope this helps.

[@You2Too]

@@Oliver-fy6xy It's the other way around. sRGB is for photo work and 2.2 suits gaming better. sRGB has washed out shadow detail because of the bump in the lower end of the gamma curve. 20 years ago many of us played games on CRT monitors which displayed the equivalent of gamma 2.45 if I remember it correctly. (Very dark, OLED monitors can handle this nowadays but not IPS) Or maybe it was that the sRGB gamma countered the native curve of the CRT monitors? I really can't remember. In the end, I guess just try all the common settings and see what looks best to you on your screen. Many games do have a gamma test picture where it usually says "turn down the gamma until the near-black details are just barely visible".

[@PCMonitors]

As somebody well-versed in calibrating and working with monitors I have to commend you on an excellent video. I particularly liked your clear explanation of how gamut mapping works (or doesn't) depending on application as this is a common point of confusion amongst users (12:10). And also the way you stress at several points the importance of doing as much as you can monitor-side in the OSD - very important point. I'd just stress that a 30 minutes warmup period should be considered the absolute minimum. Some models, particularly but not exclusively those with enhanced phosphor backlights, can undergo significant colour temperature changes over a period of ~2 hours. Not always necessary but I'd recommend users wait longer than 30 minutes if possible.

[@Styrant]

Will calibrating without clamping to srgb on a wide gamut display cause color mistranslation when working on color sensitive work? or should I be fine with calibrating without the clamp.

[@PCMonitors]

@@Styrant Gamut mapping is one of the purposes of profiling the monitor. So if you're calibrating it with a colorimeter or similar device and using colour-aware (ICC aware) applications, you're good.

[@Styrant]

@@PCMonitors makes sense. Thanks!

[@qupeter1224]

what would you recommend, spyderx pro or i1 pro. not a professional photo editor or video editor but want to improve my monitor and tv

[@PCMonitors]

@@qupeter1224 Either would work well, they're both good devices and I use both for my reviews for different purposes. The X-Rite is better for contrast measurements, but both provide good accurate profiles in the end. I'd say the Spyder is the more user-friendly of the two. It has good software included, which provides appropriate feedback to help adjust as much as possible in the OSD even if you don't want to profile fully. It's also very quick at performing the actual calibration and it reports things in a very neat way (which is partly why I like using such reports in my reviews - plus to keep things consistent with older reviews).

[@angumech13]

These kinds of videos are very welcomed. I think the least covered part in gaming hardware is the monitor. Expecting more and more techniques/methodologies based on monitors from you guys!

[@You2Too]

I posted a while ago about this but now I'm 100% sure. Do NOT choose sRGB unless you want a preset for editing photos in that format. sRGB doesn't have a flat gamma curve but a small bump near the lower end which means you'll get washed out shadow detail. For those who would say "everything is made for sRGB on PC" that's not true. The most common standard is 2.2 (or sometimes 2.22) and is why lots of games have a gamma preview window where they ask you to set it so the dark object on screen is barely visible above the black background. Other common settings if you're in a completely dark room are 2.35 and 2.4. And in digital cinema with wide color gamuts they even use 2.6 but that's in a completely lightless environment. Another tip: Only go for BT.1886 gamma if you have an OLED. It'll look as washed out as sRGB if not worse on an IPS or similar since it also has a bump near the lower end. EDIT: The reason even using the term sRGB these days about PC monitors is wrong is because it was designed for CRT monitors which have a native gamma of 2.35-2.5 if I remember this correctly. That's a lot darker which means the sRGB bump in the lower end of the gamma curve was a good way to make shadow detail more visible, I guess.

[@BrumaFilm]

That was helpful.

[@jonstrup]

But how come I am experiencing the saturated colors when calibrating for gamma 2.2? I have a wide gamma display, mini-led display. How to overcome the saturation? Clamp to sRGB in the monitor's OSD while having a gamma 2.2 calibrated icc activated?

[@You2Too]

​@@jonstrup When you calibrate, you only truly calibrate the video card gamma table so the grayscale is as correct as possible. The ICC color profile created with the calibration can be used by many different softwares to give you correct colors too, I think Chrome and Edge browsers use the profile but not 100% sure. What you get is your graphics card displaying a correct grayscale around which the colors are centered. (The color of complete black might vary depending on the type of panel and correcting it would make it brighter so that's not generally recommended.) For watching movies, there's MadVR, a plugin for MPC-HC for which one can create a 3D look-up table (3D LUT) so that it also displays all colors as accurately as possible. Look for a guide on that if interested. My own monitor, an Acer XV240Y only has a slightly larger gamut coverage than sRGB by default so I can handle playing games with the tiny oversaturation. It's worse for those with a monitor closer to 100% DCI-P3, which can of course be amazing if you watch UHD movies but would make games very oversaturated. In gaming, there aren't many games that support ICC profiles or 3D LUTs. There, it first comes down to if your monitor has an sRGB mode that will clamp the colors to that colorspace. Sadly, most monitor manufacturers don't take things seriously when it comes to their sRGB color gamut mode. On my monitor the sRGB mode locks the brightness at 30 and it can't be changed. Neither can the white point RGB balance. I play games with the brightness at 7 and work/web at 0. Anything above 7 is way too bright for me since I'm in a dark/dim environment. So in my case the sRGB mode becomes unusable. If your sRGB mode is acceptable, turn it on before doing a calibration. If your sRGB mode allows you to change brightness, contrast and white balance, it's great and how it should be. There might also be a way in the monitor's service menu (Search around for how to access it on your model and be very careful if changing settings) to make additional settings. If you have an AMD graphics card I think there's also a way to clamp sRGB in their driver, search around. In fact, all monitor manufacturers could easily implement 3D HSL (Hue, saturation and luminance) controls into their firmware so one could do a calibration on hardware level and simply swap between calibrations on the monitor itself. Or graphics cards could support 3D LUTs.

[@TheyWantMeGone69]

My laptop has sRGB, Adobe RGB, DCI P3, and a Samsung native profile. What happens to these after a create a new profile from the calibration? Do I have to calibrate each one? There's no brightness or contrast controls or white balance. Well I think the Intel Graphics Command Center has this but don't know if it's meant for that.

[@BabilonKross]

@You2Too so do you recommend using the gamma 2.2 preset for games? That's my main use (i have an lg ips monitor)

[@1337Raspberry]

This is so weird. I was looking for a high quality version of exactly this type of video less than 12 hours ago. And here we are.

[@LeminskiTankscor]

Same :s

[@Case_]

I would probably point out the brightness settings, as it is a bit of a pet peeve of mine and I frequently see people complaining about monitors being too dim and such. While you absolutely can set your monitor however you like as suggested in the video (presumably to not overcomplicate things), people frequently use monitors set to brightness that's way too high, needlessly hurting their eyes (possibly without even realizing). A good rule of thumb for brightness in my opinion is that the monitor should be set to brightness that's equal to your ambient brightness - it should not stand out (either by being too bright or too dim). For sRGB work, brightness of 120 cd/m2 is generally considered "normal" for a graphic workstation, which equals to moderately lit to low light working environment with no direct light and no sunlight. This is a lot lower than many monitors default to, even in sRGB mode - especially gaming monitors, which frequently try to impress the user with bright colors. Obviously this is just a starting point, so you should adjust this according to your lighting conditions - you'll want to go lower in darker rooms (and avoid using the monitor in complete darkness - simply for the sake of your eyes - a bit of bias lighting goes a long way and also improves the apparent contrast of your monitor) and higher in brighter rooms, but again, don't go crazy unless really needed. (Personally, I generally use around 140 cd/m2, as was shown in the video, as it fits my lighting situation well, but can go even below 100 if I turn down some lights.)

[@SportsIncorporated]

Thanks!

[@ajc-th5ei]

Great video. You should consider, if you do profiles with a reference spectrophotometer or spectroradiometer, could you make sure to upload the spectral sample to the database that displaycal is creating. This can be used with hcfr to give more accurate results, and displaycal as well, by including spectral correction for i1 display pro users.

[@b1lleman]

usually, after some time my eyes calibrate to the screen :P

[@jbscotchman]

Yea I don't need a $250 device to tell me what looks good to my eyes.

[@StiekemeHenk]

True but that might not be the way the creator intended the image to look. That said, every eye and brain interprets what it sees differently so they will always be an margin of error.

[@PainterVierax]

That's very important for content creators to be sure that the color they choose match the color they see on the screen. It's even more important when you do printing jobs as you also want to use accurately a CMYK calibration profile.

[@FriedEgg101]

@@jbscotchman You don't need to calibrate your monitor unless you produce video or images that you intend others to see.

[@HauntedAbysss]

@@jbscotchman what you don't know does hurt you

[@jubuttib]

Calibrating my monitors was a night and day difference for my multimonitor setup, it's just so frigging nice when all displays look the same. Even when you buy the same brand and model and have them on the same settings, you can get a big difference in how they look, there's really no way around that other than calibrating. I also managed to get the cost of the device paid off quite handily by offering to calibrate the monitors and displays of friends and family for a small fee. =)

[@dracuella]

Over the last few weeks, I've been researching what to put in my next pc, part for part, and I've found I ended up on either HW Unboxed or Monitors Unboxed whenever I needed in-depth explanations or clarification on different topics. And here I am, after having purchased all my goods, finally at the stage where I can calibrate my monitor and where do I end up? Back where I started. My setup has come full circle!

[@hughmanateecrisis]

I've always calibrated my screens, it began just for photography, but I believe having a colour accurate display for gaming gets you closer to what the developers envisaged for the final experience, how true that is, I can't say, however.

[@lt3880]

most games ignore the software icc profile, but it is still good to have the monitor hardware calibrated

[@andreynikolaev5311]

Might be good to mention, that some colorimeters (a far as I know Spyder range and I1 Display2) use organic pigment in filters. Such pigment can degrade over time, rendering device useless. From information that i managed to find, i1Display Pro uses non organic pigment. From personal experience, mine old one(~5 years) produces similar results to a new one (recently bought for company). While Spyder 3 completely died within 2 years.

[@renauddelorme]

Yes the old I1's (egg shape) used organic filters (gel) that would degrade over time. The new ones (which look like in this video) use non-organic filters (like glass) that won't degrade. I bough a used I1 display pro for 100€ a few years ago and never had problems with it. I hope the spyder ones got improved in the same way. Buying used is a lot safer with these improvements.

[@3polygons]

@@renauddelorme mine was first hand, same model as yours, 7 years ago... it "seems" to be working fine... I'm getting the full circle well as usual (screen-->printed results, etc)

[@venger5705]

Excellent Video! There is a noticeable change in quality after calibration using a colorimeter . Thank you for this!

[@RinoAP]

Welcome to Hardron Box!!!

[@seamon9732]

I swear "Hard-on Bucks" is coming soon and Pornhub is gonna be so proud of its big bro KZbin.

[@TheBackyardChemist]

The "Large Hardon Collider" appeared several times in scientific documents made by CERN. As far as I am concerned, it never gets old.

[@jeffyamaguth]

New merch anyone?

[@seamon9732]

@@TheBackyardChemist KEK

[@St0RM33]

You missed mentioning that for most people you need to calibrate to D65 aka 6500K white point. Also since you own the colorimeter you can add more patches to calibrate to.

[@liaminwales]

display cal with his settings will do it correct, for most people you dont want to change anything he did not

[@St0RM33]

@@liaminwales yeah i know because of the profile, but he should have mentioned these so people can learn what we are actually doing and not just follow blind steps

[@liaminwales]

@@St0RM33 if people relay care there is google. dont make something super complex when people dont need it. taran from ltt has some fun videos on calibration

[@jessicalowell]

Question: What if my correction options are only "none" and "auto" ? How do I get the LCD PFS Phosphor WLED, RGB LED ?!

[@pixelbat]

Have the same issue. Using SpyderX Pro. Did you ever figure out how to get other corrections?

[@LAAM619]

@@pixelbat same and same issue.

[@skulley6361]

The spyderx pro isn't working well with displaycal. I sent the one i bought for this very purpose back out of anger and got the x-rite ipro instead and it works exactly like shown in the video. What I'm doing is calibrating my monitor and then just send the thing back. If the 200 price range is too much you can resort to this method.

[@LAAM619]

@@skulley6361 lmaoo damn.

[@ifyahadone]

I understand that your comment is from 7 months ago so I don't know if things have changed, but I just used DisplayCAL with my SpyderX Pro. And while "correction" still only gives me the Auto or None options, on the right hand side next to "Instrument" I have 4 modes to choose from and one of them is the LCD PFS Phosphor.

[@winni223]

Good introduction and manual how to use Display CAL. These guys did a nice job to bring back to live old display calibration hardware and to cover the whole array of displays. For beginners, when adjusting RBG sliders, start with green, then note red and blue work in counterphase and balancing them is easier.

[@rangersmith4652]

I have a Spyder, but I always just used the included calibration software. The results seemed fine, but I'll try following this guide and see how it goes.

[@guliverovi]

Just over 200 usd, more like just under 300 🥴

[@iceyberq]

I hate when they do that like linus said 500 dollar gaming pc it was 580...

[@suniro]

Ice PlayZ YEAH LIKE WTF IT WAS SO ANNOYING

[@leo-ub6nb]

@@iceyberq I guess it depends if your the "glass half full" or "glass half empty" kinda person 😂 I understand the reason for it though. People look for common numbers, when searching for a product, i.e; $100, $500, $1000, etc. if they don't find anything there, then they tend to search for the middle of those numbers, such as, $250, $750, etc. So if they titled it "$600..." or even "Under $600...", then it may get overlooked. It sucks, but just blame how algorithms work/feed info to consumers.

[@Minkafighter]

The "X-Rite i1Display Pro" actually costs 200USD, its just sold out on Amazon since the 3rd of July. The "X-Rite i1Display Pro Plus" costs 300USD

[@StiekemeHenk]

Prices change, and conversion rates too.

[@zipzeolocke2]

Digital Storm professionally calibrated my laptop display before shipping it to me and I guess they used X-Rite because there was a folder with iProfiler software in the start menu. I just avoid messing with it because I have no idea. I'm guessing it's just software used to load calibrated color profiles for the display.

[@liaminwales]

best thing to do is not touch it. if you ever want to reinstall windows backup the ICC profile so you can re use it later. cool to get a pre calibrated display.

[@Skull-in-the-house]

This is what I've been waiting for, Thank you monitor Guru!

[@fodsonmedia]

Absolutely brilliant video! I got a Calibrite the other day, used it and it rendered horrible results with a massive green tint. This video clearly showed what I'd missed and how to correct it. Thanks heaps!

[@ibbi5351]

2 minutes ago? Dream come true.

[@MrRedRye]

I have an LG GL850 and I honestly find the sRGB clamp to be very useful. I primarily use my display for general gaming and office work but occasionally need to work on graphics and photos. As Tim said, ICC profiles can be a bit finicky in games and some software so it's nice to be able to make an sRGB profile while using the clamp to ensure correct saturation on the desktop

[@Dan24591]

Just a little heads up, when adjusting the luminance after adjusting the white balance, use the backlight control and not brightness. Brightness is used to adjust black level of the display, not the luminance.

[@TorutheRedFox]

from my experience, brightness adjusts black level at above 50, and white level at below 50

[@paalhenriksandbu5804]

Good beginners guide to calibration with all the basics covered very well. However there are two settings that need to be explained as they are not very intuitive; brightness and contrast. Brightness sets the light output near black, called black level. Contrast sets the light output near full white, called white level. Displays may additionally have a backlight control that will affect light output across the board. This is at least how these controls are supposed to work, but some (or many?) PC monitors don't adhere to this. Brightness is calibrated by eye with a test pattern (near black). The same is also mostly true for contrast (near full white clipping test). It is very important to start with setting these levels properly, and to re-check after first calibration pass. I have used the X-Rite i1 Display Pro on both my plasma and PC monitor. As several others have commented I found that ICC profiles don't work very well if you mostly play games. Just stick to adjusting the controls on the monitor. More on white and black levels at the start of this forum post www.curtpalme.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=35322

[@TechGamesAU]

I have a question: is display calibration worth it if you're not doing professional work that requires it? E.g. if you're just doing gaming.

[@foxrootking5077]

Yeah it kinda is if you playing story mode games

[@crayola7494]

Should you disable HDR feature on the monitor before calibrating?

[@MilesMetal]

Excellent guide! I've been meaning to buy a i1 Display Pro Plus for a while now.

[@aceohartz81]

Thank you so much for setting up your video with chapters. I hope this becomes contagious.

[@NickolasStone]

When setting up and you choose your Correction, you can actually download the exact correction for your monitor. Like my G7 had a correction made for it.

[@axeversion2]

Very nice guide Tim, thank you!

[@jacekjagosz]

What about calibrating HDR monitors? You have native HDR applications, SDR applications that Windows scales and if you go into full screen with a SDR the monitor will switch to SDR mode. So any tips on how to calibrate it, and does calibration software support HDR?

[@Hardwareunboxed]

Calibrating for HDR is a much more complex task that's beyond the scope of this video

[@liaminwales]

only super top end pro HDR displays can be calibrated and it's complex. there is a work around using SweetFX but it's not ideal. simply with HDR dont

[@liaminwales]

for a view of HDR fun look at a YT channel called 'HDTVTest' video on the Sony BVM-X300 or Sony BVM-X310. when he says the 'display is the most beautiful he has seen' looking at the Sony BVM-X300 it says a lot. for the consumer world HDR calibration is a no go relay. any way i think all high end HDR displays are using LUT for calibration, that's only something you get on high end displays.

[@Aggnog]

Watching this now as we finally need it, and I wish you went over the results as well in this video. We keep getting results that are worse than what we started with and a guide on how to interpret the calibration settings we ended up with would help a lot in pinpointing what may have gone wrong.

[@Mobin92]

Don't change the RGB settings in the monitor, unless it's a professional monitor. It completely messes things up, if you go over +- 3% per color.

[@Kekmit]

1:20 - pro tip: there are many websites and shops where you can rent it for as low as $20 (at least in my country), and I'm talking about something like Calibrite Display Pro HL, not some unknown chinese calibrator.

[@YAAMW]

An incredible guide. Thank you for taking the time to make it. I'd also like you to share your experience with CalMAN in a future video

[@I3ordo]

i really wished you chose spyder x for demonstrating the process as the one you used instead is half the price as the monitor i am planning buy.

[@ZAR556]

Simple and Cheaper option, Hire Monitor Calibration Service on your local Town Graphic guys and gals always looking for a gig

[@matrixfull]

For those working in creative world calibrating every 2 weeks is standard. Would you hire it every 2 weeks? I am not so sure that's a great deal.

[@TheDiskobee]

@@matrixfull if you need consistent color accuracy for your usage, you better get your own calibration tool then.

[@ridingweeb4801]

Yeah my town doesnt have any so theres that

[@0Wayland]

Hell yeah, support those local businesses people.

[@3polygons]

@@matrixfull I calibrate per month... and often every two months (doesn't vary that much, if at all)... but I do illustration (and in a lower percentage of gigs, design), not high end photography... Never crossed my mind going for such gig... calibrating other people's devices, lol. Hard to get enough clients for that, surely :D

[@questpatch4527]

Oh my god you're actually doing it! Thank you so much, I always wanted to see your process and it's hard to find information well laid out like yours

[@djvidual8288]

Thanks for posting this. It was a great help the first time calibrating my displays and now after around 2 years the second time.

[@TechReflex]

THANKS GUYS YOU'RE THE BEST!! ❤❤❤

[@bunnybag]

Love your content man 💗

[@andrew1977au]

Thank you, ive been waiting for something simple to follow

Hello. Did you created tutorial for advanced users? I mean advanced settings of Window's color management panel (it seems to be kind of top secret information), settings in case of monitors with LUT memory, problems with colors compatibility under Photoshop / ACR. (v 15.x). Assigning a ICC profile to the cheap monitor (without LUT) is very easy, but it has consequences, if its gamut is wider than sRGB (aRGB becomes a standard). If you use aRGB in Photoshop, you can expect that colors under filter ACR will be much more saturated than edited layer in PS. What is the nature of the problem - I don't know. Also I couldn't find information which profile should be assigned under Windows Color Management Panel when monitor has built-in LUT memory - where ICC profile is stored inside the monitor, not in OS.

[@D3adLyStinG]

Comprehensive and yet easy to follow. Thank you!

[@damientech88]

The "As Measured" white level on my Dell XPS13 looked weird. I changed it to D65 and it looked much more natural.

[@3polygons]

Just when I calibrated mine the other day (I "try" to calibrate it monthly, as I work with images, but in the end I take more time.. it seems not to vary much, tho)... with an i1 Display Pro, very old purchase in Amazon... BTW, maybe anyone knows ( I do not) how to fix plastic that got like sticky, surely due to try to cleaning it with an alcohol based solution, or maybe due to intense room temperature (warm region, sometimes well over 35º in the room! In Summer). But knowing me, I know if I'd try applying some substance to it, I'd wreck it definitely. It still does the job, lol. It only makes the screen glass a bit sticky, lol... nothing a very slightly wet cloth can't solve. For me, the i1 Display Pro software tends to work better than other supposedly more advanced apps, dunno why (maybe due to coming from the actual hardware vendor, dunno). All things said, the fact is that I get my works in screen very (indeed) similar to what gets printed (commissions), and counting on those being printed mostly at digital print on demand companies (PODs) that the average joe/jane choose to save a buck... and that the screen is a NEC, not an Eizo... then am quite happy with the calibrator. I'd expected things to be a bit worse when I got them (calibrator and monitor) in 2013. But yeah, the monitor better have the needed internals to be able to be calibrated. Ideally an Eizo, but if not, at least NEC SpectraView or Pro, Acer ConceptD or Asus ProArt (and some Dells and some BenQs of higher end. "Some", because some are expensive but not prepared for this. It escapes my understanding why one would want a 4K or 8k monitor with super HDR capabilities but not good for color calibration...but I can understand color calibration is not needed for gaming or watching movies, _really_ ). But I have been able to calibrate by hardware monitors that did seem mainstream, and most of them ended up better. And you can calibrate color by software any monitor and end up with a better situation, anyways. Just using a colorimeter is a tad better. But for those screens where you can't really calibrate, or u can't buy a colorimeter, well, software is better than nothing! Totally. Some things I'd warn about though, that are as necessary as a regular calibration every month (or two months or so...): Lighting does affect a real lot on how you perceive colors on screen. I'd try to run away from "yellowish" bulbs in your room. That alone can by far affect quite largely your color perception while you work. And that's really bad working with images. I use "daylight" bulbs, but I ensure is not just marketing lingo words on the box; that it's actually 6500K color temp bulbs (more expensive, but u can buy those long duration ones). And I do my color calibrations towards a 6.500K white point. Doing everything so has provided me with the most neutral colors, I was having problems specially with the reds... Also, not the usual thing in every house, but having some stuff of very intense colors near the screen, or the walls paint/paper (not everybody will have their walls painted of intense magenta, lol) can vary your color perception and even reflect on the screen (this is why you see those covers/protectors in pro design monitors). Lastly, while a Pantone book is way to expensive (and in a way, incomplete to check all colors, as is not really thought for that) I got me years ago a "correctly printed" book of CMYK mixes (there are good and bad ones), so that I can compare (again, with the right neutral 6.500 lighting in the room!) these CMYK mixes in screen and printed. Of course, light based color is never the same as printed color, but knowing that difference, you can get to match things really well. Good timing with the Moore's Law Is Dead new video :D. Indeed, it almost fills the gap (not really, that video would have been extremely long if including this...) of that one.

[@Miles300s]

Ey, another MLID watcher

[@liaminwales]

iv had good luck with Benq, my displays have calibrated well with a good Delta E for cheaper displays (much cheaper than NEC/Eizo) as ever buy a display from somewhere with a good return policy (im thinking of dead pixels etc) the BenQ PD line are a good value option, less game feature but have a good name for the price. one plus on the cheaper HDR displays is that some have 10 bit displays and close to dci p3, just never use the HDR settings (not worth it on cheep displays) and have the plus of a 10 bit display/dci p3 :D dci p3 is smaller than rec.2020 but it's much better than we used to get at the same prices! before the HDR thing we mostly saw sRGB as the best option sub 1K but relay unless your relay in to blue ray for normal people sRGB is what you want.

[@Mobin92]

Cockpit cleaner for cars helped a bit with the sticky plastic... but it quickly becomes stick again after some day.

[@theexile4694]

For those of you having trouble getting your device working with DisplayCAL... Start. Hold Shift Key. Restart ( continue holding shift key ). Start Up Options. Restart system without driver signature enforcement. Open Display Cal. Then do everything he says in the Video. You should be good after that.

[@chasecrappel9480]

How can we use this for a TV for instance where a computer won't be plugged in after calibration to load that profile?

[@liaminwales]

there's lots of guides on the geeky side of film forums. simply in part your changing the display's settings to match close to correct during the proses. i have mixed feelings about the value for a Tv, relay depends on what Tv you have. a lost of tv's will have a cinema or netflix mode which is fairly good. look at a YT channel called 'hdtvtest' if your relay interested.

[@nguyenzietlong7447]

Thanks you a lot for the video, it does clear up a lot of my confusion about color calibration. Hope you got a great day!

[@johnnyxp64]

step 1.... have a specific device that is expensive..🙄😢

[@WyattOShea]

I actually do have the device in the video :P.Made a big difference even on my tn panel.But yeah I know what you mean here in Aus it was more than $300 for it :/.

[@christianm4037]

bruh

[@humanbeing9079]

If your job literally relies on a colour accurate monitor, it is worth the price, this is obviously not for gamers.

[@WyattOShea]

@@humanbeing9079 True.I bought mine to have better colours on my TN panel for photo editing (non professional).Because I didn't have the money for a pro display but it still made a huge difference in colour accuracy and is closer to what I see on my phone screen after viewing a photo 😁

[@humblehomie8902]

@@WyattOShea TN panels. 😰

[@flibber123]

I've been told that, depending on where you live, it's possible to rent calibration tools from photography oriented shops. I guess they usually rent them to photographers who use Photoshop or Lightroom, but it's worth giving a shop like that a call. Even if the shop you call doesn't rent the tools they might be able to refer to someone who does.

[@houssam5180]

for the price of that device i would buy a new 144hz monitor

[@ruxpen6044]

For the Asus PG279QM. It's a wide color gamut monitor. But I'm not using the wide color gamut setting. I'm in sRGB. Should I be using White LED Family or WLED family correction when the monitor is in sRGB mode?

[@bogo9727]

Hey just a quick heads up there’s a X-Rite i1Studio Spectrophotometer that goes for about $500. Added benefit that it can also create custom printer paper profiles, for you printer. Also you might as well get the new i1 display pro plus model. As it adds a lot of new features for about $50 usually around $300, or just wait for a sale on the display pro model. Keep up the great work guys

[@jomunjr]

I'm just getting into this and have read the Plus supports higher nits and as a result is not as good as the older model at do very low brightness calibrations. The sensors are either good at lower brightness or higher brightness, but not both. IIRC, they suggest getting the older 1000 nit limit ones even unless you have a crazy bright monitor, and to still use the 1000 nit limit ones for all TVs. All that being said, of all the high nit models out there, the Calibrite ColorChecker Display Plus is the best at calibrating low nit displays, though still not as good as the 1000 nit models.

[@patrickcarrillo714]

What pisses me the hell off is that monitor manufacturers Don't calibrate these from the factory when I buy a monitor I expected it to be calibrated perfectly Why the hell do I have to spend $150 to $350 on a tool to calibrate it which is getting into the price range of the monitor itself In my opinion It should be calibrated perfectly from the factory This is really stupid that we even have to do this in the first place spend $200+ on a tool that you're probably going to use probably once or twice because let's be honest monitors last a long time and then have extreme buyers remorse afterwards Just to get the correct color on a monitor that you probably paid $100+ for This is a great video very helpful very informative I'm just pissed at the manufacturers that they come this way in the first place

[@Thee_Sinner]

This seemed like something I’d be interested in until y’all revealed that the necessary hardware is 1/2 to 2/3 the cost of my monitor..

[@kittisiri]

This is super detailed and thorough. Thanks a lot.

[@pauluz3868]

Is it possible to rent a Colorimeter? Cause you don't need it that often, so that you can just rent one every 6 months for a week or so.

[@Raivo_K]

Absolutely and for most people that's recommended. Instead of spending 100-200$ and rarely using the device you can rent it when you need it. Usually a good bet is photoshops that specialize in camera gear. Since colorimeters are important for professional photo editing they usually have option to rent it.

[@Haarba1]

I use SpyderX and 32gk650f, Dont have LCD(Generic) mode, its just Generic. Also Corrections are only None and Auto (None), if I try to check online it tells me no corrections for display and instrument found. You also missed very important thing Displaycal can ask depending on, my calibrator ask me to close light cap before I can even start to play with White point settings. My advice is to forget about this stuff if you dont work with graphics. Just play with display settings, in the end, for a normal average user, all that matters is do you like how it looks or not?

[@3polygons]

Indeed. This is mostly for working with graphics. For me it's essential, but as a gamer (can't remember last time I played a game, tho xD) I wouldn't care, being and old time FPSs gamer, caring more about reaction speed than graphics. I'm guessing can be cool for people really loving the graphic quality of games and such, as now game art is all based in PBR based workflows, so, all within realistic margins in color tones, lighting, etc. A color calibrated monitor might show all that realism more accurately. To the usual gamer (prolly 95% of gamers), is not worth it... Now, for even just content creators (not necessarily designers or illustrators, my case) in youtube, if they're taking their videos to a profitable level... hmmm... yep, I'd go for a calibrator, just like they prolly went for their Yeti or Rhode mic or their fancier camera...But only 'cause money brings money, if not, then not really needed.

[@V12BigBlock]

Excellent tutorial, straight to the point, easy to follow, simplified explanations!

[@kerenton5897]

if the rgb values default are 50-50-50 is it better to move them up or down if you want to get 120cdm? Going up means less brightness slider and down means more slider later, which is better?

[@Dogelition]

The default values are generally the maximum "safe" values, and going beyond them will probably result in colors clipping. You should only ever need to decrease them.

[@tonyc1956]

Thx Tim. I downloaded DisplayCAL way back in January but never got around to trying it out. Seems simple enuff. Time to dig out my Spyder and give it a whirl.

[@JusticeFreedomDestin]

This is good content. Nice to see a quality tutorial on monitor calibration

[@jobbus22]

Thanks for this video. My idisplaypro has been over 6 months in my closet. I bought it used for 50€ and it's been calibrated or compared to new pro plus with delta's under 1. Never used it before but watching this video made me think about using it to do calibration on my LG GK850F-B and maybe I will do my LG B8 55" oled later.

[@LoKimLinProject]

instrument not showing up showing driver file cant be found when I click on tools and instrument to update driver.

[@pauliliesi]

I love the harbor boxed hoodie. Great sense of humor

[@johnkeane320]

Will you guys reviews the samsung odyssey g7? Love your content

[@Hardwareunboxed]

Because reviews are under embargo

[@LISSoundtrack]

@@Hardwareunboxed When does the embargo for it end?

[@ebsmith1102]

@@LISSoundtrack that is under embargo as well..

[@liaminwales]

i see a hint there

More of note is the g9 super ultrawide. 1000 curve on a 16:9 is 🤢 and pointless.

[@hdrmadness2731]

Great video. I used my i1Dp and calibrated using DisplayCal.

[@19daniboy91]

Got myself a MSI MAG274QRF -QD and having difficulties choosing a Correction profile. Any suggestions?

[@DavinciResolveTipsTricks]

How would you go about changing the color temperature to get the right RGB bars before the start of the calibration on Apple computers? Thanks!

[@LeWZ]

Could you please update the video to include OLED panels?

[@TheNerdy1]

I have been waiting for this video for a very long time! Tim you are the man and keep up the great work!

[@العقابالمصري-ك2ن]

8:30 didint apers GIGABYTE G27Q IPS 😥

[@pablo9021]

As my point of view idk whats good or bad when viewing colors from a screen if they are popping thats good to me

[@willrun4fun]

Awesome video. I’ve had a spider but never figured out how to use it

[@tarfeef_4268]

I really wish all monitors had a standard USB "debug" port, and a protocol so that calibration tools could hook into those and flash profiles to the monitor directly. that seems like it'd be a useful thing.

[@liaminwales]

display's with LUT tend to cost a lot more.

[@Chris-op7yt]

so, apart from setting rgb correctly for the monitor, how different does a color managed application look with this tool vs manufacturer provided color profile? do any games use monitor color profile?

[@HughesyTech]

Guessing applying these principles apply to calibrating laptop displays and 4k TV's?

[@CoercedNut]

Tim, I have two identical monitors (Acer VG271U) and got two different calibrations that don’t align with one another color wise. Any thoughts / recommendations on getting them the same? Cheers.

[@franticuploader3668]

I appreciate the video. How do you 'undo' the changes? Let's say you go through the process, and it looks bad. Maybe you got a setting wrong, or your cat licked the calibration lens...whatever. If you want to go back to the default (?) profile, how do you do that?

[@112rorz]

Why didn't you use the "LCD White LED family" correction? Isn't that the more generic one as opposed to the "LCD PFS Phosphorus WLED family"?

[@rwn803]

I just signed up for your Patreon page and as I was logging in for the very first time I get a message saying my account was suspended for suspicious activity. WTF??!! I hadn't even been on it once. what a kick in the nuts..... Those folks over there at Patreon must be some mean SOB's. So sorry guys. I was really looking forward to being a part of your community.

[@TheNightEternal]

sRGB over Default gamma 2.2?

[@N0N0111]

@Hardware Unboxed But what if the factory default has a very blue tint, can you show people how to get the perfect 6500K white punt.

[@Case_]

It's shown in the video - adjust your RGB color settings on the monitor until you get as close as possible to match (so with a blue tint, that means lowering blue channel enough). If you're still off and can't get accurate match, you can either calibrate the monitor using the "as measured" white point, meaning the white point you managed to get (the relative color accuracy will be fine regardless, you'll just be using a custom white point) or you can force the white point to 6500K, in which case the calibration will remove the tint, but you might get color banding and similar issues if the corrections needed are fairly big. You can also try other presets on your monitor, they might be closer to sRGB/6500K than your default profile. You just have to be aware of the fact that there might be other limitations in those modes (like a different gamma curve, for example, dynamic contrast or things like that), and obviously, if you manage to find a mode that is closer, you'll then have to keep your monitor in that mode.

Perfect timing. I bought the i1 Display Pro two days ago. A free alternative to Calman is HCFR, which has no automation or ICC generation, but you can use it to get proper measurements (RGB, CIE, gamma, luminance graphs etc).

[@tydon19]

Have you guys looked onto manual calibration? It is great for wide gamut display since it can work universally.

[@SSU14]

Question -what actually USES the ICC profile? As in, where is it being installed to?

[@demusent1078]

I appreciate this video and is leading me to get these tools as I see the difference you made and I can now see my monitors are horrible as are the people I know so thank you and look forward to the advanced steps.

[@ForSynthsSake]

What happens with dual monitors are the calibrated individually?

[@Zzzlol94]

At least I actually have access to CalMAN and SpectraCal equipment and have used it for a year now.

[@SWEJmeister]

Great guide. I'm tempted to buy a calibration tool now.

[@Illuminati2]

Thank you for this vid, ive been thinking about this topic but did not know how to approach it

[@Carboxylated]

I have been waiting for someone to do this video and I am glad it was you guys!

[@nfijef]

Thanks Tim, been waiting for this one!

[@ijustsawthat]

I don't think my monitor needs calibration. Cool green hoodie btw!