Rasmus Larsen skrev:What bothers me is that BeHardware never show at which brightness they measure the colors at and at which colour temperature. In my point of view this cannot be excluded. It's important to the colour reproduction grahps.
No doubt. It's something I would like to see, too. Actually, primary and first thing to do before any calibration job is to set the monitor to a well defined, let's say standard state and that includes the proper white point (colour temperature) to work with. Not to mention that, for example, most monitors reach useful brightness levels more easily at 6500K (sRGB).
After choosing the colour temperature and possibly gamma, the next step are settings for the black (brightness) and white (contrast) levels to their optimum values. It's known fact that incorrect positioning of the contrast/brightness may introduce another side effects. That may include the colour banding, blowing out fine shadow details (too low brightness), washed out shadows (too high brightness) ... etc.
Only after this, red/green/blue calibration takes place so that neutral colours do not show a colour cast.
Rasmus Larsen skrev:Out of box I measured 0,7 on the NEC (without DV) and 0,3 on the Samsung.
I'm sure that black level is also greatly influenced by global panel uniformity and how backlight is positioned (if there is slight CCFL bleed on the panel). Not to mention that even sometimes we have panels that are attached too tightly to the casing and as the result you have something like grey layer over the screen. As it seems, this is related to manufacturing control and it can manifest differently from unit to unit. Hopefully, LED backlight screens in near future will cure this properly.
Anyhow, yes, black level is important, but I would say (from my point of view) that it's not crucial thing. Sometimes is better to have the black level set slightly too high than too low. Maybe some general thinking is that from the perceptive point of view you should always be able to distinguish pure black from nearly black. However, I personally would never sacrifice the proper colour balance for good blacks and particularly balance between the major colours and black and balance between standard RGB colours (if/when calibrating the screen). OK, some monitors have better blacks but poor colour accuracy/balance and vice versa. Good monitor will always try to properly combine those two variables together, but never sacrifice any of them. In that sense I was pleasantly surprised, as NEC picture is really nicely balanced ... even with OptiClear and/or Advanced DV.
To conclude, I'm sure that OptiClear and Advanced DV are improving the black (and picture) depth really nicely. It's very nice thing to have, combined with the traditional IPS values.
Rasmus Larsen skrev:In my opinion the video noise is a little exaggerated. It can be visible but in my opinion it's nothing worrying.
Well ... same thinking here. Yes, it's there when observed from the close proximity ... but I guess that nobody is watching the movies so closely, even with the screen of this size. You may find the noise even on the latest (overdriven) LCD TV sets. Actually, watching any TV from close proximity would be not so pleasant experience.
Rasmus Larsen skrev:I agree. These multi monitors are great for a lot of things but for serious graphical work you can't expect them to deliver the same result as true monitors for graphics.
I'm sure that for 99% of end users out there (excluding the colour critical, colour enthusiast and semi-professional groups), few simple adjustments to contrast and brightness of the screen in this class are sufficient for their color management needs, if the screen is already producing satisfactory colours out of the box.
Rasmus Larsen skrev:DV is in my opinion a stop-gap solution. A high "real contrast" is preferred. I found it usable in games and movies but on the desktop it was a little annoying.
Yes, benefits are really pronounceable with games and movies (especially dark and semi-dark scenes). I'm also not using the DV in desktop. No particular need, as picture is already very nice. This may also quite possibly come down to personal taste.
Rasmus Larsen skrev:I don't know if you're guys are into the TV world but this is one of the issues on many LCD-TV. People want a high contrast so dynamic contrasts features are implemented because you can't make the polarizer’s shut down all the light from the fluorescent lamps.
I've set my eyes long ago for the Philips 32PF9830. I think that I've seen the review here on flatpanels.dk ... but couldn't understand the word
Anyhow, you are right about the current DC technology trend with the TV sets. LCD panel control circuit can sometimes overcome the hardware limitations. If it's integrated nicely and properly controlled, it can bring some interesting results ... no doubt.
I was pleasantly surprised that 20WGX2 is able to adjust the backlight dynamically with DV modes and permanently with Advanced DV. It's great addition and any panel with the adjustable backlight can bring intriguing results
Rasmus Larsen skrev:In my opinion both Firing Squad, Behardware and THG try to make it a little too simple. It is simpler in the monitor world than the Tv world but these sites rarely comment on the graphs. A shame in my opinion.
Nowadays, I'm not surprised about such fast food thinking, digested in a few lines of text. Nice charts are always easier for the consumer and less thinking - better. It's somewhat related also with the review trends and "go with the flow" thing. It's a shame, definitely.
Rasmus Larsen skrev:A correct gamma, colour temperature, colour "resolution" and contrast is just as important as correct colours.
As I already mentioned above, especially because the correct colours are the last calibration step, hugely dependent on the previous ones, you already mentioned.
