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Archive 2012 · Help with Colormunki

  
 
no_surrender
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Help with Colormunki


Tried to re-calibrate/profile my monitor and received the following error two times in a row, "Unable to set LUTS (-87)." The monitor ended up being at 100% brightness...WAAAAY too bright for no reason that I can think of.

During the beginning of the process, when measuring ambient light, I received the following note both times, "Your room's current ambient light level is 184 lux. The ambient measurement taken was very low. If you wish to try again, reposition the device on your work surface so that the ambient diffuser is facing up, then click 'Measure' again."

I have moved the device all over the place and it does give me different lux readings, but they all say it's reading low. Not sure what's going on here, but I'm not exactly thrilled with the results of this tool. I MUST be doing something wrong, just not sure what.

The only difference between this time and the first time is I tilted my monitor back when placing the Colormunki against the screen for the second portion of the process...which is what I've been seeing on different 'tutorials' on Youtube.

This is my first experience with any monitor calibration tool and I have to say I'm not really impressed. I imagined the software giving more control and maybe showing the settings. Having nothing to compare it to though, I can't really give a fair assessment. I'm considering returning the Colormunki, but wouldn't know why I would be doing that. Please help!

I'm using this on a Dell U2410 monitor.

Thanks - Kevin


Another thread about my monitor calibration troubles, but not exactly related to this one:
https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1162600



Nov 25, 2012 at 03:50 AM
no_surrender
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Help with Colormunki


I did a Google search on the error and found this:
https://xritephoto.com/ph_product_overview.aspx?ID=1513&Action=Support&SupportID=5561

Followed the steps, still ended up with the same problem. Searched a little more and after reading a few threads in other forums, I right-clicked on the icon and selected "Run as administer" although I'm not sure what this will do. I ran the software again, but in easy mode this time and got through it with no errors, but nothing noticeable changed. When I cycle through the monitor settings there's no adjustments made that I can see besides me lowering the brightness.

I then changed the monitor preset from custom to sRGB and my test prints actually closer to what's on my monitor than in the "custom" preset. Is this because I edited and sent the image in to the lab using the sRGB monitor preset?

This is pretty frustrating because I'm not sure the Colormunki is even doing its job. I read a little bit on other forums about going into the Colormunki files and manipulating them to override some stuff. I'd rather not have to do that. Any suggestions before I contact X-Rite? This thing really shouldn't be THIS complicated, right?



Nov 25, 2012 at 06:38 AM
Eyeball
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Help with Colormunki


no_surrender wrote:
I did a Google search on the error and found this:
https://xritephoto.com/ph_product_overview.aspx?ID=1513&Action=Support&SupportID=5561


The link you reference tells you how to disable the DDC function. DDC is a way that the calibration software can communicate with the monitor and make changes to the monitor settings directly without you having to change the settings on the monitor manually. As the x-rite documentation says, there can be incompatibilities among the software, video card, and monitor that will not allow the DDC function to work properly.

If DDC is disabled, you will need to follow on-screen instructions and make adjustments to the monitor manually using the luminance, RGB, and white point controls of your monitor control panel.

no_surrender wrote:
Followed the steps, still ended up with the same problem. Searched a little more and after reading a few threads in other forums, I right-clicked on the icon and selected "Run as administer" although I'm not sure what this will do.


Some Windows programs need a higher level of access to do what they need to do. Depending on your User Account Control (UAC) settings in your installation of Windows, it may be neccesary to grant the program a higher level of privilege to do its thing. That is what the "Run as Administrator" does.

no_surrender wrote:
I ran the software again, but in easy mode this time and got through it with no errors, but nothing noticeable changed. When I cycle through the monitor settings there's no adjustments made that I can see besides me lowering the brightness.


If you disabled the DDC functionality, you will see no changes to the monitor settings (the ones accessed by using the setup buttons on the monitor) other than any changes you yourself did manually. If you are using a new, high-quality monitor that has had a decent calibration at the factory, you may also not see major differences in how images are displayed on the monitor. The best way to tell what the calibration/profiling process did is to use the Before/After switch at the end of the calibration process and to look at the profile graph it shows at the end (if the Colormunki Display software does that).


no_surrender wrote:
I then changed the monitor preset from custom to sRGB and my test prints actually closer to what's on my monitor than in the "custom" preset. Is this because I edited and sent the image in to the lab using the sRGB monitor preset?


Probably. I think I mentioned in the other thread that you should calibrate the monitor, edit your pics, and send them out to get printed - in that order.

When you put the monitor in sRGB mode, you are not using the wide-gamut features of the monitor. You can certainly do that but it means that you are not using features that you probably paid extra for.

Also, when switching modes like that on the monitor, you need to have separate calibrations and profiles for each mode to be accurate. That mode switch essentially swaps one monitor for another (albeit "virtually") so just like you would need different calibrations/profiles if you swapped your Dell for a NEC, you need different calibrations/profiles when you go from wide-gamut mode to sRGB.

sRGB mode on a wide-gamut monitor is most useful for non-color-managed applications (like games, for example) where you don't want the difference in color and saturation that the wide-gamut mode may provide. Since those non-color-managed apps won't be using the custom profile anyway, you don't really need to do a special calibration/profile for sRGB mode if that's the way you're using it. It's only if you are using color-managed applications in a particular mode that you need to make sure you have done a calibration/profile for that mode (and that the appropriate profile is active when using the related mode - the Windows Color Management panel can help with that).



no_surrender wrote:
This is pretty frustrating because I'm not sure the Colormunki is even doing its job. I read a little bit on other forums about going into the Colormunki files and manipulating them to override some stuff. I'd rather not have to do that. Any suggestions before I contact X-Rite? This thing really shouldn't be THIS complicated, right?


Everything may be fine. It's sort of hard to tell without being there. One thing you may want to check is to make sure your newly-created profile is active in the Windows Color Management panel of the Control Panel. You should see something like this (only the name of YOUR recent custom-created profile should be shown) :

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12145446/WinColMgmt.gif

Speaking of that panel, I'm not sure if Xrite is still doing things they way they used to in terms of using a special LUT-loader during start-up but you might want to take a look at this link. It explains a way to just let Windows load the profile during start-up rather than having any Xrite loader do it. This can help with the profile being lost during things like Sleep and dark-screen UAC warnings. I don't want to confuse you but you might want to consider this once you get things stable to your liking.

http://www.laszlopusztai.net/2009/08/23/stop-losing-display-calibration-with-windows-7/

Also, as I mentioned in the other thread I recommend you don't worry much right now about measuring ambient light or doing the dynamic adjustment using ambient light. See if you can get a decent calibration/profile without those things first.

I suggest that you also re-post in this thread clearly what version of Windows you are using, the make and model of your video card, and repeat mention of your monitor make and model. That might help others who have a similar configuration to chime in regarding their experiences - the DDC compatibility in particular.





Nov 25, 2012 at 10:39 AM
no_surrender
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Help with Colormunki


Thanks Eyeball, I'll have to come back to this when I have a little more time...been a long day!

I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit. Video card is AMD Radeon HD 6770. Monitor is Dell U2410.



Nov 26, 2012 at 06:44 AM
Allynb
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Help with Colormunki


Have you tried calibrating without using the Ambient Mode? I have basically the same hardware setup as you. I use Advanced and set to D65 and 120 Luminance. Haven't had any problems with this arrangement and the color is right on with the print output, also. Been using this Colormunki setup for 1 1/2 years now. Works well.

Allan



Nov 27, 2012 at 08:20 AM
vchowdhary
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Help with Colormunki


Go into Preferences and for your monitor turn ADC or DAC off and see if that resolves the problem.
You will need to manually adjust the brightness of the display to get it to whatever level you want to calibrate to.



Nov 27, 2012 at 07:56 PM
no_surrender
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Help with Colormunki


Yes, I am currently "calibrated" without using ambient mode. It's been a long couple of days so I'll have to do some more experimenting later. Had a few too many glasses of Crown XR tonight...much needed stress relief.


Nov 28, 2012 at 09:50 AM





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