How do I calibrate two different monitors to the same whitepoint?

Question

A few days ago I invested in an X-Rite i1 Display 2 colourometer, as per this answer, although I'm having great difficulty getting a Dell U2412M and a Dell E1911 monitor to the same whitepoint. I've tried the software that the device came with and a demo of another piece of software (I can't recall the name unfortunately). I have settled on a piece of free software called Argyll CMS along with the GUI frontend dispcalGUI, as it seems a little more capable; however, this is simply my impression of it.

I'm aware that there will be differences in quality between the U2412M and the E1911, although I'd have thought that after calibrating the monitor and creating a high quality profile for both monitors that the difference would be next to impossible to detect with the eyes. However, there is a very noticable difference in the colours the two monitors show. The U2412M seems to have a slight red tinge to it, while the E1911 has seems more of a grey tinge.

The calibration settings I've used for both monitors is as follows:

Whitepoint: 6500K
White level: 120cd/m2
Black level: Native
Tone curve: 2.2
Calibration quality: High
Profile quality: High
Profile type: Curves + matrix
Testchart file: Large testchart for "curves + matrix" profiles.

I have control of the brightness, contrast and individual RGB channels, so I'm able to calibrate the monitor before using a profile. I've put up links to the profile verification reports for the U2412M and the E1911. You can see that each monitor seems to struggle with particularly blue colours.

Obviously there is no way you can see the actual colours displayed by the monitors, but as I said, it is quite a noticable difference. I know this is a little open-ended, but could anybody suggest what may be going wrong here, or have I just got bad quality monitors?

Asked by R4D4

Answer

I used to work for Gretag MacBeth (and later X-Rite when they acquired Gretag.) I've written code for color monitor calibration. Your calibrator is defective and it should not do that. Sadly, the color filters in the unit itself may not ever be able to calibrate your monitor. My i1Display will not calibrate my MacBook monitor... I would contact X-Rite and see if they'll take it back or replace it.

The X-Rite ColorMunki was in development when I left there. It may be a better choice but if I recall it is pretty expensive.

Answered by Paul Cezanne

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