dual monitor blues

[Audrey]

I recently purchased a new pc-with a windows xp operating system.
I have dual samsung monitors with 1 video card.
I have an optical spyder.

I have been unable to calibrate my monitors.
From the posts I have read I am understanding that I will be unable to do so-because I have xp; the spyder won't calibrate two monitors and I video card is for 1 monitor-is this correct?
I have also purchased CS2 and it only loads in 8 bit color-so I can't use it.
Here I am sitting two months after purchase and I can't use my computer for photos.
What should I do?
Audrey in Canada

[Edmond_Terakopian]

Hi Audrey,
Yep, XP only supports one monitor calibration per graphics card. This isn't actually so bad because you'll generally be using one monitor for editing and one for Photoshop (I'm guessing! That's was my set up). So, hook up your monitors and whichever monitor you plan on running Photoshop on, calibrate that one. Keep the brightness and contrast settings the same on both monitors and apply the profile.
Alternatively if you you absolutely need to have both calibrated you'll need to buy another graphics card (if your motherboard can take it).
Are you shooting 16 bit in camera?? I shoot news and features and work in 8 bit. My understanding is that there are very few presses that can handle 16bit anyway.

Don't despair!

Edmond

[KoryGunnarsen]

I have had a similar situation with my Eye One display 2. I got it to work by profiling my secondary monitor first, and then my primary one where I judge the color. This will fool the system into giving you accurate color on both monitors. There was one catch, you could not power down the computer. It was also something with my graphics card (nvidia) so this may not be the case for you. Good luck!

[Run]

It is fully possible to color correct two monitors on a single XP machine. The thing is you have to use http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en software from Microsoft. This software allows you to replace Lookup tables used by the cards for each monitor to apply color correction. Most of the time especially with AGP dual head cards some systems actually see each output as a seperate card. But with others, you use this software to run a startup script which assigns lookup tables to each monitor with the profiles you make with whatever profiler you presently have.

The software goes into greater detail in the help files and at Better color management for Windows XP

Good Luck

[ChrisPerry]

I've run dial monitors on two different XP Pro systems. The key to calibrating them is you need the Spyder2 PRO - the PRO will do 2 monitors, the lesser models will not.

As to not being able to do 16bit- check what you've got your video card set at - make sure you've got the highest color setting possible as your choice.

[Noel_Carboni]

I have also purchased CS2 and it only loads in 8 bit color-so I can't use it.

That doesn't sound right. I can't imagine any even remotely modern hardware on which you can't run more than 8 bit color.

What kind of video card is it?

Have you investigated your Advanced desktop settings to see if higher color depths are available?

Don't worry, by the time we're done you'll be blasting away at photos on two different monitors, which will both look the same and match your printer as well.

Oh, and I'd like to mention that it's not absolutely necessary to have a color profiling device at all to get monitors to match one another and to match prints. Let's save that discussion until we get your system basically functional.

-Noel