Display calibration and contrast setting

[WitoldWaldman]

I would be interested to find out the brand and model numbers of LCD displays that permit the setting of contrast at calibration time.

Regards,

Witold

[Ilkka]

Chek out the QUATO and the EIZO displays. Many of us pros´s in Sweden use these displays.

[ChrisPerry]

All the one's ive used will...I've used Acer and Samsung and HP. I don't like teh HP (it's one of their shiny surfaces ones)- it looks great but it 'pops' too much so what you edit on it looks like hell on every other monitor and prints too.

Teh acers are X193W and X223W that I'm using (3 of the former and 2 of the latter)

[AndrewRodney]

Technically none. The only true hardware adjustment of a CCFL LCD is the backlight intensity.

Now are you referring to contrast ratio? The ratio between black and white can be set, sometimes far better in higher end displays than others when there's high bit precision in the panel itself. But physically setting the display? There's only one thing you can do (unlike the old CRTs).

[AndrewCassino]

Originally Posted by AndrewRodney

Technically none. The only true hardware adjustment of a CCFL LCD is the backlight intensity.

Andrew, I've heard this, but it does not jive with what I see happening when I calibrate my NEC display with EyeOne Match under Windows XP. When I do an Advanced Calibration there is a discrete step for setting contrast, and the contrast control on my NEC display works just fine to set the contrast level that the software wants. If this is not a hardware contrast adjustment, then what is it?

Andrew C.

[BobSmith]

It's digital correction just like what happens to the data elsewhere along it's path. The question becomes one of whether it's better to apply that digital correction in the monitor's circuitry or in the computer's. Typically you want the correction applied only once and you want be sure that correction in the monitor is not fighting against what correction the computer is trying to do. You wouldn't put one adjustment layer on a image to lighten it and the stack another on top of it to darken it and expect optimum results. Same with monitor corrections.

On CRTs we had true analog corrections to affect the brightness and contrast of each color gun. You were literally altering the voltage of the signal at one point in the wave form or another. With LCDs there is not an equivalent correction. Aside from turning up the backlight brightness, the controls just alter the digital data in the same way that the computer does.

Bob Smith

[Jerry Skrocki]

Originally Posted by BobSmith

On CRTs we had true analog corrections to affect the brightness and contrast of each color gun. You were literally altering the voltage of the signal at one point in the wave form or another. With LCDs there is not an equivalent correction. Aside from turning up the backlight brightness, the controls just alter the digital data in the same way that the computer does.
Bob Smith

This statement is true for LCD monitors backlit with cold cathode fluorescent tubes or white led. With RGB led backlit LCDs, there is physical adjustment of red, green and blue primaries that control brightness, color and black level.

Jerry