[BigDaveinNJ]

I posted in another forum about this also, however I feel many of the people in this forum may be better able to give me some advice.

My monitor recently died and I am now using another one. The monitor I am using is a SONY TRINITRON (DELL) which is about 5 years old. 17inch Standard type SVGA monitor.

The picture is very clear, but the geometry is slightly off.

Also.... I was looking for some assistance in setting up the brightness/contrast to a level that would give me the clearest picture and there is so much conflicting information when I do a Google search and look around.

Some say to set the CONTRAST to 100% and adjust the BRIGHTNESS to about 55, others have far different ratios.

Some sites will tell you to go into the video card and adjust the internal gamma while still others will tell you that simple gamma correction within the various photo editing programs is all you need.

Can anyone shed some light on this? I know this sort of thing is highly subjective but what do you think is the best way to set up the monitor for best viewing?

I basically just surf the web, and do some fairly simple image editing... but I still want my monitor, which is fairly old but still decent to produce as pretty close to as possible what everyone else sees.

Thanks in advance

DAVID

PS: Does the GAMMA CORRECTION within the various image programs actually adjust your monitors settings somehow?

[DaveBurnett]

The only real way to adjust the physical geometry is using the buttons on the monitor (although some drivers like Nvidia do allow some changes).
The higher you set the contrast the sooner you will begin to 'burn' the screen. I try to use about 65% for both, but that may not be high enough on a 'tired' old monitor.
As for the gamma, if you have paint shop pro, open the gamma correction screen in that and make sure the settings are 1.00 and leave it open. Then go to the gamma correction for the graphic card and adjust each colour until it is correct, apply and save the settings, and make sure they are activated on startup. Having adjusted the gamma, open a fairly mixed contrast photo with a good mix of colours and re-adjust the contrast and brighness until it looks right for you.
The gamma correction is applied to an image before it is sent to the screen. Obviously if this correction is applied in the graphics program, only the graphics viewed in this program will be corrected. If it is applied in the graphics card ALL graphics (ie everything) will be corrected and the correction is done in the card. Some graphics packages, Photoshop is one, install a background task to do the gamma correction so that all graphics are affected. Obviously this consumes resources and should be avoided if possible.
I can supply a picture and the test used in PSP if you need them.

[hewee]

"The higher you set the contrast the sooner you will begin to 'burn' the screen."

Mine is at 100 but I had to because I don't think they set the default right and it was up to I thing 80 something to start with.
contrast is at 100 and brightness is at 86.

I know they should set them up right and have it some the default setting that are good setting are all at about 50% but they don't. Had the very same IBM monitor and it went bad and I got it replace and the newer one I had to set the setting way high just to get it to look the same.

[hewee]

Screen Calibration

http://www.abstractfractal.com/text%...libration.html

More
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&i...=Google+Search

[BigDaveinNJ]

Thanks for all of your advice.... I am off to check out the suggested sites and information.

DAVID

[hewee]

Your welcome and good luck.

[AcaCandy]

Originally Posted by DaveBurnett

I can supply a picture and the test used in PSP if you need them.

That would probably not be a bad idea to uplink one here

[DaveBurnett]

I'll point to them. The picture is too large to upload here.
Screen

Gamma

To use the Gamma, download it and display it in your graphics package (without any gamma correction) or IrfanView. Then adgust the gamma for each colour until the outer and inner parts match.

[AcaCandy]

Thanks!