How to calibrate LCD monitor (LG L194WT) ??

B

Beladi Nasralla

I have a PC with a videocard nVidia 7600GT. Few days ago I got an LCD
monitor LG L194WT.

Well, this turned out to be a cheap and nasty monitor. I have
experience with using a higher-class LCD monitor for playing games and
editing digital photographic pictures.

In this monitor on the standard settings, the text in webbrowser is
al'right, however all images are too dark. I tried to adjust the
monitor. First of all, I decreased the brightness to 50% (the monitor
is too bright). Secondly, I went to the video card driver software
("nVidia Control Panel"), and adjusted the gamma running "Display
optimization wizard". Unfortunately, the game Half Life 2 DM is still
too dark. Whatever knobs/settings I twist, it is dark. The monitor has
modes "normal", "user", "text" and "movie"... all of them leave the
images dark.

The only thing left is to go to the nVidia Control Panel, and adjust
gamma within "Desktop color settings". This is very effective, and
brightens the dark tones... however, am I soomed to increase gamma
every time I want play game HL2DM, and decrease it when I go back into
the desktop !?? Are there better ways ? Or, being cheap, the monitor
does not have a high enough dynamic range for adjustment ??
 
B

Beladi Nasralla

Yes.
Click to expand...

Why ? I did not have to do it when I was using the laptop. In the
laptop, the pictures in the desktop had a proper tonality, and the
game had proper tonality, too.
 
M

Mike Easter

Beladi said:
"Mike Easter"

Why ?
Click to expand...

Why are you asking me why?
I did not have to do it when I was using the laptop. In the
laptop, the pictures in the desktop had a proper tonality, and the
game had proper tonality, too.
Click to expand...

See? The LT did and the LG L194WT does not. That 'proves' it. One
does, one does not.

Would you care to explain why the LT did?

We are talking about your visual perception difference between two
monitor screens which I cannot see and you want me to explain why your
visual perception in one environment requires a particular kind of
adjustment and not in another.

How zany is that?
 
R

ransley

Brilliant. One word answers are sooooooo cool.
Click to expand...

Doesnt the game have its own adjustable setting for brightness. There
may be an updated driver from nvidea or LG
 
C

Conor

I have a PC with a videocard nVidia 7600GT. Few days ago I got an LCD
monitor LG L194WT.

Well, this turned out to be a cheap and nasty monitor. I have
experience with using a higher-class LCD monitor for playing games and
editing digital photographic pictures.

In this monitor on the standard settings, the text in webbrowser is
al'right, however all images are too dark. I tried to adjust the
monitor. First of all, I decreased the brightness to 50% (the monitor
is too bright). Secondly, I went to the video card driver software
("nVidia Control Panel"), and adjusted the gamma running "Display
optimization wizard". Unfortunately, the game Half Life 2 DM is still
too dark. Whatever knobs/settings I twist, it is dark. The monitor has
modes "normal", "user", "text" and "movie"... all of them leave the
images dark.
Click to expand...

I have no issues. Must be you.
 
A

Augustus

Beladi Nasralla said:
I have a PC with a videocard nVidia 7600GT. Few days ago I got an LCD
monitor LG L194WT.

Well, this turned out to be a cheap and nasty monitor. I have
experience with using a higher-class LCD monitor for playing games and
editing digital photographic pictures.

In this monitor on the standard settings, the text in webbrowser is
al'right, however all images are too dark. I tried to adjust the
monitor. First of all, I decreased the brightness to 50% (the monitor
is too bright). Secondly, I went to the video card driver software
("nVidia Control Panel"), and adjusted the gamma running "Display
optimization wizard". Unfortunately, the game Half Life 2 DM is still
too dark. Whatever knobs/settings I twist, it is dark. The monitor has
modes "normal", "user", "text" and "movie"... all of them leave the
images dark.
Click to expand...

This particular monitor gets pretty good reviews all round for a lower
priced one. Contrast ratio 2000:1....unlikely that darkness of the images is
going to be an issue. Very few complaints in many reviews. I'd tend to go
along with the previous poster and suggest that it's got to be something on
your end rather than the monitor. Try checking your connection.
http://reviews.cnet.com/lcd-monitors/lg-l194wt-flat-panel/4505-3174_7-32154877.html
 
B

babaloo

Personally I find that most first pesron shooters, Doom 3 et al, are
unplayable in daylight no matter what kind of monitor is used, although you
can crank up the brightness and gamma within the game itself.
These games are meant to be dark. The inability to see the images clearly,
and how cartoonish they are no matter what your video card, is a part of the
game design.
Settings you cahnge in the game control panel will apply only to the game.
Any settings you change on the monitor or in the video driver are global and
will apply to any program.
You can create different monitor profiles with a calibration device and with
the Nvida control panel although I would not recommend it.
 
D

D_Mac

I have a PC with a videocard nVidia 7600GT. Few days ago I got an LCD
monitor LG L194WT.

Well, this turned out to be a cheap and nasty monitor. I have
experience with using a higher-class LCD monitor for playing games and
editing digital photographic pictures.

In this monitor on the standard settings, the text in webbrowser is
al'right, however all images are too dark. I tried to adjust the
monitor. First of all, I decreased the brightness to 50% (the monitor
is too bright). Secondly, I went to the video card driver software
("nVidia Control Panel"), and adjusted the gamma running "Display
optimization wizard". Unfortunately, the game Half Life 2 DM is still
too dark. Whatever knobs/settings I twist, it is dark. The monitor has
modes "normal", "user", "text" and "movie"... all of them leave the
images dark.

The only thing left is to go to the nVidia Control Panel, and adjust
gamma within "Desktop color settings". This is very effective, and
brightens the dark tones... however, am I soomed to increase gamma
every time I want play game HL2DM, and decrease it when I go back into
the desktop !?? Are there better ways ? Or, being cheap, the monitor
does not have a high enough dynamic range for adjustment ??
Click to expand...

You need a utility called "Power Strip" It's not free but it access
your video card directly and there is a utility to walk you through a
perfect setup for your LCD screen. Use this application and you'll
have no more problems.

Doug
www.brisbaneweddingphotographers.com
 
B

Beladi Nasralla

Doesnt the game have its own adjustable setting for brightness.
Click to expand...

Exactly ! Thank you for pointing this out to me. I forgot about the
existence of this feature (maybe because I rarely used it). I adjusted
the gamma for the game HL2, and -- voi-las ! -- the darks are not too
dark anymore. And I do not need change gamma in nVidia Control Panel
anymore when I am returning back to the desktop. I guess the darkness
of images in the photoediting software is less significant and can be
"healed" by minor changing the brightness/contrast settings in the
monitor.

Still... The colours look too contrasty and less narural than in a
higher-quality LCD monitor I used. I can observe a distinct banding.
Which is a consequence of this monitor being cheap and nasty TN type.
Oh well.


There
 
J

Jim

Beladi Nasralla wrote on 8/16/2007 11:41 AM:
I have a PC with a videocard nVidia 7600GT. Few days ago I got an LCD
monitor LG L194WT.

Well, this turned out to be a cheap and nasty monitor. I have
experience with using a higher-class LCD monitor for playing games and
editing digital photographic pictures.

In this monitor on the standard settings, the text in webbrowser is
al'right, however all images are too dark. I tried to adjust the
monitor. First of all, I decreased the brightness to 50% (the monitor
is too bright). Secondly, I went to the video card driver software
("nVidia Control Panel"), and adjusted the gamma running "Display
optimization wizard". Unfortunately, the game Half Life 2 DM is still
too dark. Whatever knobs/settings I twist, it is dark. The monitor has
modes "normal", "user", "text" and "movie"... all of them leave the
images dark.

The only thing left is to go to the nVidia Control Panel, and adjust
gamma within "Desktop color settings". This is very effective, and
brightens the dark tones... however, am I soomed to increase gamma
every time I want play game HL2DM, and decrease it when I go back into
the desktop !?? Are there better ways ? Or, being cheap, the monitor
does not have a high enough dynamic range for adjustment ??
Click to expand...

That monitor looks pretty nice based on what I can see. I bought a
Hanns-G 19" for $100, and it rocks. Best value I have took advantage of.
Not one dead or stuck pixel and everything looks great.

Jim
 
G

gm

Beladi said:
I have a PC with a videocard nVidia 7600GT. Few days ago I got an LCD
monitor LG L194WT.

Well, this turned out to be a cheap and nasty monitor. I have
experience with using a higher-class LCD monitor for playing games and
editing digital photographic pictures.
Click to expand...


I use http://www.colorvision.com/. You can buy it on eBay and you will use it on all monitors for the rest of your life.
 
A

Augustus

Still... The colours look too contrasty and less narural than in a
higher-quality LCD monitor I used. I can observe a distinct banding.
Which is a consequence of this monitor being cheap and nasty TN type.
Oh well.
Click to expand...

I'm curious....what was the brand and model of the high quality LCD you gave
up to get this one? And why?
 
B

Beladi Nasralla

This particular monitor gets pretty good reviews all round for a lower
priced one. Contrast ratio 2000:1....unlikely that darkness of the images is
going to be an issue. Very few complaints in many reviews. I'd tend to go
along with the previous poster and suggest that it's got to be something on
your end rather than the monitor. Try checking your connection.http://reviews.cnet.com/lcd-monitors/lg-l194wt-flat-panel/4505-3174_7...
Click to expand...

Do you realise that this particular praising review was written by the
author just after looking at the monitor specifications written on
paper ? Do you realise that the 2000:1contrast is dynamic one (which
will be seen only in a "movie" mode), but otherwise it is ol' 700:1
just like in every other TN monitor. And for your information, this
same monitor under the same model name is now sold with the sticker
"5000:1 contrast" and at the same price... wow, don't you feel the
need to flip back over yourself and get one ?
 
H

HandyMan

RTFM!
Click to expand...

Unfortunately RTFM doesn't always work.

I have always prided myself on calibrating most any monitor that has come my
way. I don't think twice about opening up the back of a CRT and tweaking the
individual guns and HV section's gain to make sure I get a proper ramp on all
channels for smooth grays across the board. I mostly do photo editing so I've
avoided LCD monitors all these years. However I recently bought a lower quality
LCD Acer AL1706 monitor. An emergency purchase because my last good monitor just
died and I didn't have a replacement hi-power tranny it needed. Between the
nVidia control panel, finding an ICM profile for it (or making one), and its own
built in adjustments this was a real head-scratchier.

After about 3 days of approaching the adjustments from several directions I
finally settled on some that I can happily live with. By keeping a nice 2.20
gamma test graphic open while making the adjustments.

http://www.aim-dtp.net/aim/download/monitor_gamma/220.png (type in the gamma of
your choice, "xxx.png", from 100 to 300 in increments of 10)

Finding the proper settings ended up being a combination of installing a custom
profile that I found somewhere on Acer's site, nVidia's own desktop controls,
having to tweak nVidia's blue contrast and gamma separately, along with some
minor custom white-balance settings on the monitor itself. It wasn't easy but it
was doable. None of this complex combo of tweaks being contained in any one User
Manual. Quite frankly, for the low cost ($175) and my time spent I'm getting a
nicer display on this bargain-level LCD than I have on most CRTs that I've used.
Some of the purest grays I've ever seen and a nice even ramp from pure black to
white. Quite impressive. I won't think twice about using this for photo editing
needs. I think what I found most amazing is that when using some advanced
monitor testing software I didn't find even one hot, warm, or dead R, G, or B
pixel across the whole LCD display. How do dey do dat? Applause to their LCD
component mfg. QC team.

It's a shame that the makers of these devices don't make things easier for the
end user. They'd be able to sell so much more of them if everyone could get top
performance from them right out of the box. Out of the box on its default
settings this monitor was a disaster. The colors so over-saturated and off, so
bright and high contrast, that I thought I was having some kind of flashback.
Most of that due to nVidia's fault.
 

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