Topic: Old Monitor saving/new monitor color correction (Read 6470 times)

kyomi · « **on:** 24 Sep 2013, 14:22 »

So I just got a Viewsonic VX2703mh-LED since my old Viewsonic VX2835wm does not want to switch to HDMI/DVI anymore.

What I've tried on the old monitor to get it working again:
- Different cable (both are HDMI on one end and DVI on the other)
- Different port on the graphics card (nvidia gtx 590, DVI only)

Normally it would just turn on and then switch to HDMI/DVI in the top right.. now it just says HDMI and will never pick up the signal no matter how many times I unplug the power and plug it back in (worked for awhile) or unplug the HDMI cable and plug it back in (worked for a week).

Now for the new monitor issue.. this thing is EXTREMELY EYE-BLINDING BRIGHT. I've tried:

- Messing with the contrast/brightness = Makes the picture darker but still looks cloudy
- Messing with color temperature = Still looks cloudy
- Changed the cable to DVI (originally HDMI) = Looks better but now I can't get the brightness down and it looks way too white and washed out compared to last monitor
- Installing the "driver" which was just a color profile and restarting

I've tried the color calibration in Windows and the at lagnom.nl/lcd-test which don't change the look at the end. I think it's the backlight being too bright, but I can't find any options to lower it.

Any suggestions on getting the old one working again or fixing the new one are welcome.

Edit: If I use the "sRGB" on the On-Screen Display of the monitor under "Color settings" it looks fine but very dark and there isn't a way to make it any brighter because it disables the Contrast/brightness control.

mtmerrick · « **Reply #1 on:** 24 Sep 2013, 15:39 »

try going through the hardware controls on the monitor (not your computer's software) and changing settings. there should be a brightness settings and an auto-adjust, and many have preset modes you can try as well.

kyomi · « **Reply #2 on:** 24 Sep 2013, 15:49 »

That's what I have been doing, going through the monitor controls. The auto-adjust is greyed out no matter what and if I choose the sRGB which looks the best but a bit dark.. it greys out the Contrast/brightness.. like it's mocking me.. -_-

mtmerrick · « **Reply #3 on:** 24 Sep 2013, 15:53 »

normally there's a user control or custom setup you can choose. or you can just go to "normal" or default or what have you, and modify that.

kyomi · « **Reply #4 on:** 24 Sep 2013, 16:01 »

I don't have the knowledge to know what to modify in the custom setup to make it look right. I'd need something that has pictures and is like "If it looks like x, adjust y this way". It's annoying because every time I think I have something right, I'll browse somewhere on the hard drive or open a program and notice some thing that looks too bright/dull compared to what it was. Maybe I just need to get used to this, my old monitor was an LCD and this is an LED. The old one was 1920x1200 but this won't go any higher then 1920x1080 and using the HDMI makes it use TV resolutions instead of PC resolutions even though it is a PC monitor.

For example, what I have right now. It looks right and then I'll see the task bar and the purple doesn't look right, like it's not dark enough and the white is extremely white.

mtmerrick · « **Reply #5 on:** 24 Sep 2013, 16:05 »

1920x1200 vs 1920x1080 is an aspect ratio thing. one fits the shape of yoru screen, the other will be close but not quite (wich means either black bars or its smooshed)

and is it REALLY on OLED display? or is it just an LED backlit LCD? (this distinction confuses a ton of people)

when you say bright/dull, do you mean color vibrancy, contrast, or actual brightness?

kyomi · « **Reply #6 on:** 24 Sep 2013, 16:08 »

I would say a combination of vibrancy and brightness. If I understand it correctly, contrast is just the difference between black and white.

It is an LED backlight LCD (from the box). The colors look kinda "cloudy" and not as vibrant as they were before.

Edit: http://imgur.com/fqEaHU6 (large desktop image)

That image on my second screen (smaller 1280x1024) the purple looks almost like a deep purple instead of a light mauve-ish. The ruffles on her shoulders look more grey than black like they do on the other monitor. The leaves look orange instead of red.

mtmerrick · « **Reply #7 on:** 24 Sep 2013, 16:20 »

Cloudy is just the monitor needing to adjust (or possibly a bad DVI cable)

Your color problem sounds like it's probably contrast, but you might wanna try fiddling with gamma too.

kyomi · « **Reply #8 on:** 24 Sep 2013, 16:22 »

Needing to adjust? Leave it sit for awhile before messing with it more? I didn't know it had to adjust, the DVI cable is the one that came with it, possibly switch that out?

Would it be too much or too little contrast? There isn't a setting for gamma on the OSD, just in the nvidia control panel. Adjust them in both places? I was thinking you should do only one or the other.

mtmerrick · « **Reply #9 on:** 24 Sep 2013, 16:40 »

You have no reason to be touching the computer-side settings right now. There's a 99% chance that this is all in the monitors local firmware.

When a Display auto-adjusts, it will either do it itself when plugged into a video source, or will have a dedicated button (or menu choice) for manually triggering an auto adjust. I haven't seen a monitor without at least one of these things in the past 5+ years.

If you do Auto adjust and the cloudiness doesn't go away, I would turn my attention towards your DVI cable. Is HDMI cloudy?

kyomi · « **Reply #10 on:** 24 Sep 2013, 16:49 »

Oh god yes.. the HDMI is definitely cloudly. I had an HDMI to DVI monster cable I used and I couldn't get rid of it. This monitor does have an Auto-Adjust in the OSD but it's greyed out no matter what other options I choose.

HDMI being cloudly is why I tried a DVI - DVI cable.

mtmerrick · « **Reply #11 on:** 24 Sep 2013, 16:59 »

First off, you know you got scammed with that monster cable, right?

K, now that that's out of the way, is your HDMI cable HDMI to HDMI or HDMI to DVI.

Only way we can write out connectivity problems is if its still cloudy with a HDMI to HDMI connection.

kyomi · « **Reply #12 on:** 24 Sep 2013, 17:22 »

I didn't get scammed with the cable, it was from a friend who paid full price but gave it to me for $10

It's an HDMI to DVI as the graphics card has only 3 DVI and 1 mini hdmi (don't have the cable/converter for it)

mtmerrick · « **Reply #13 on:** 24 Sep 2013, 19:11 »

Well, re-reading the thread, here's my diagnosis.

The colors/brightness thing is most likely monitor settings. Open a website (say, Google) and make it full-screen, so the monitor has not-black on all sides. Go in the monitor's settings (NOT the computer's display settings) and do a factory reset. This should force an auto-adjust and fix your colors.

As far as the blurriness..... It's really very likely the cable. I've personally not had good luck with hdmi-dvi cables' reliability. Go get a HDMI cable. They're cheap. It should fix the blurriness.

Also, mini=HDMI? Huh. That's different.

Kugai · « **Reply #14 on:** 24 Sep 2013, 19:30 »

On that front I've found in the last year and a half with my eyesight issues I can not really stand the standard white background anymore. Since I went full time on the Lappie, I've actually switched it to the black background - Kinda like on Star Trek - and I've stopped having the problems I was having with tearing etc I got with the standard background.

mtmerrick · « **Reply #15 on:** 24 Sep 2013, 19:43 »

Oh, white backgrounds are horrible for your eyes. But the monitor's rudimentary firmware sometimes doesn't detect black edges properly on initial auto-adjust, so its a good idea to have it displaying something that's not black on all edges when re-auto-adjusting. Web browser + f11 is one of the easiest ways to do this.

kyomi · « **Reply #16 on:** 25 Sep 2013, 13:52 »

I think that might of actually done it (the fullscreen google and factory reset which is called "Memory Recall" on my monitor). It just looks too bright.. which can be adjusted just by brightness.

Thanks a lot. Any tips on my old monitor? I'd really still like to use that if I can salvage it.

mtmerrick · « **Reply #17 on:** 25 Sep 2013, 15:52 »

Re-old monitor:

Can you make anything appear onscreen at all?

kyomi · « **Reply #18 on:** 25 Sep 2013, 16:32 »

It only has VGA and HDMI (which is why I had the HDMI -> DVI cable since my card doesn't have HDMI). I haven't tried the VGA but I highly doubt VGA will go to 1920x1200. With the HDMI -> DVI cable, nothing will show except a massive blue screen (it's "No Signal" color) with HDMI in green letters on the top right. Normally that would change/switch to HDMI/DVI and everything would be fine but it seems to have lost it's "switching" ability. I don't have an HDMI port on my computer to test it with. Know of any "hard reset" for monitors?

EDIT: Well.. I just had a thought that my PS3 connects with HDMI and figured I'd try that and it works, video & audio. It will say HDMI PC on the top right.

mtmerrick · « **Reply #19 on:** 25 Sep 2013, 16:39 »

So.... It just won't communicate with your PC, but is otherwise fine?

kyomi · « **Reply #20 on:** 26 Sep 2013, 17:26 »

You wanna know something weird? Since the PS3 -> monitor through HDMI worked, I had a thought that it might of worked because of a different outlet. I grabbed another older surge protector (this thing is like from the 80s and still working great) plugged it in to the plug above the normal one and it worked fine.. everything came up and displayed/switched with no problems.

Maybe there was just too much stuff in that one surge protector? I remember having this problem quite awhile ago having two computers/monitors on the same strip and only one would boot up (the messed up was an older DOS computer at 333MHz). Switching that computer to another surge protector allowed them both to work fine

So now I have 3 monitors.. the one I love.. that weird 27" one and the normal 21.5" one that I was using as a secondary. I need a new desk... and a longer HDMI cable (hopefully it's not cloudy like the last one). Thanks for you all your help/suggestions people

Edit: And now I just realized the old 28" monitor has way too much yellow in it.. *sigh*

mtmerrick · « **Reply #21 on:** 26 Sep 2013, 20:39 »

well that should be fairly easy to fix, at least.

also that surge protector thing is WEIRD.

how old is your surge protector/outlet/house wiring?

kyomi · « **Reply #22 on:** 10 Oct 2013, 07:38 »

Quote from: mtmerrick on 26 Sep 2013, 20:39

well that should be fairly easy to fix, at least.

also that surge protector thing is WEIRD. how old is your surge protector/outlet/house wiring?

Not sure about the outlet/house wiring as it's an apartment. The surge protector is fairly new and this will confuse you too.. I'm using an extremely old one that we used for the first computer we had and it's made of metal. It's working fine now.. no idea what happend, I updated the BIOS recently while trying to restore a backup from my WHS v1 and the power button issues have almost disappeared.

THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)

Author Topic: Old Monitor saving/new monitor color correction (Read 6470 times)