Black level on monitor too bright

[wysard]

Hi, I grabbed a new monitor last night, a refurbed 21" Sony Multiscan E500. It's great to look at for the most part, but it's very washed out. I have the brightness cranked all the way down (there's no software gamma tools running anywhere), and blacks are still very whitewashed. I was searching around a little, saw a few posts regarding a service mode that some monitors provide.

I guess my question is, is this something that could be adjusted by someone with the right access to the monitor's service-level calibration? It does have a 3-year warranty available to it, from a 3rd-party refurbishing company, but I'd hate to lug the monster if I could get it done myself. Thanks for any insight.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Have you tried calibrating it via your graphics card output setting? Drop the gamma and brightness down there and see if you still have problems?

 

[Crescent13]

It's called "Contrast Ratio". The higher it is, the darker the darks are as compared to the lights. That's the way it's manufactured, and it can't be changed. Dropping the gamma will just make everything darker.

Welcome to the Forums!!

 

[Harvey]

I find most monitors look best with the contrast at or near maximum and brightness high enough for comfort. Some monitors have a third parameter they label as "Picture" that seems to be a combination of both brightness and contrast.

If you can't adjust the picture to a comfortable balance, return it for another one.

 

[CP5670]

I have the same problem on a Sun branded GDM-5410 trinitron at work; it looks worse than even an LCD with black colors. Since I only use it for text and it's not mine anyway I don't worry about it though. The brightness and contrast options are your best bet with this sort of thing, although you could also try messing with the color temperature settings, which sometimes may improve things slightly. Since it's under warranty you might want to just replace it, as that one sounds like it was poorly calibrated in the factory (very common with CRTs these days, unfortunately).

 

[BenSkywalker]

Dropping the gamma will just make everything darker.

Overbright gamma can also wash out images and make blacks too light.