Repeat the indicated process for each of the 5 or so calibration test steps and be sure to save your profile when complete later on, and as ambient light conditions change, you might try re calibrating and saving another profile as the LCD output can be perceived somewhat differently when going from a daylight lit room to one completely dark in the evening.Īnyway, as I've said before. You'll have to view the linked test screen image at full resolution (1680x1050) for things to be rightly legible but it should be clear enough.Īlso, there's a help file accessible from that same test screen, in the upper right. Once you understand the concept, it's simple, but for any n00bs out there, I thought it might be good to have a visual breakdown: The calibration test itself, unless you've used something like Adobe Photoshops color calibration routines, is not really that intuitive. I did some notes on the main calibration page which might help explain how to go through the calibration process.Ĭlick the smaller image below for details: Unlike the interface suggests, and especially if your not familiar with other, very similar calibration routines, it's not really that simple of a process. I found that using the calibration routine that comes with Magic Tune greatly reduced this tendency in my own Samsung 226BW. The grays in Windows XP's default interface start bar, for instance, compared to a CRT and when using an LCD, just look a bit lighter and, well, 'washed out ' I think that's a good term for it. This feature alone made it possible for me to get rid of most of the main problem I was having with the step up from CRT's to LCD's: the much discussed tendency of colors to look 'washed out,' or otherwise, just not as saturated as one would find in a decent Trinitron CRT, especially greys this phenomenon is most evident when viewing large areas of continuous tone colors such as those found in windows interface objects, etc. Here's the screen in Magic Tune from which you launch the calibration routine: What I've found most invaluable, and especially since coming from a decade of using high end 21"+ trinitrons (visual design professional) has been the color calibration routine built into Magic Tune's "Color" tab. MagicTune Premium for XP (direct download): XP Version There's quite a few different versions of MagicTune available on the main download page, and it seems some are indicated to only be for certain Samsung monitors since I'm using XP Home and since, technically, the 226BW is not listed as a supported monitor, I simply decided to go with the 'Premium' version which has no specific model or models associated with it: The main MagicTune download page, at Samsung's website is here: MagicTune Download His words: "Hell, we use it here with our 226BW's every day!"Īlso interesting, the software was originally designed for a Samsung monitor which had *no* external menu buttons on the monitor at all. Just got off the phone with Samsung monitor tech and he says MagicTune is perfectly compatible with the 226BW and that it was withheld by Samsung for marketing reasons only. What I've found, after two months or so with this Samsung 226BW LCD is that the MagicTune software has become indispensable insofar as a daily tool, especially it's color calibration routine which allows you to save user profiles and load them automatically at startup furthermore, if I ever need to fine tune the monitor's settings (brightness/contrast/gamma), I don't have to lean forward and actually use the monitors OSD buttons (I've in fact, *never* used the button interface on the monitor).Īnyway, on the chance that all 226BW's shipped without MagicTune, I thought I'd write a short post on my own experiences with it while also highly recommending it to anyone who hasn't installed it. Since I was totally impressed with the MagicTune calibration routine and since I hate using the OSD buttons on the monitor to make changes to my display, and since Magic Tune is freely available for download from Samsung's site, I decided to install it and try it with my 226BW anyway. Maybe I got a bum package or something and everyone else's 226BW shipped with MagicTune, but, for whatever reason, my particular monitor did not. Prior to being the proud and quite pleased owner of a Samsung 226BW LCD, I had tried it's predecessor, the 225BW even though I took the 225BW back after a couple days, mostly due to reading some reviews of the 226 model, I still was upset to find that the 226BW LCD did not ship with Samsung's MagicTune software, as the 225BW did. MagicTune: Released with 225BW but not 226BW? First off, let me just say that I love the Samsung 226BW this is a rather exceptional statement coming from a very recent CRT convert, not to mention one from the visual design field:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |