getting a monitor calibrated

[QueBert]

I don't want to go LCD but I want a larger screen then I'm going to find in any CRT. The Vizio VMM26 is looking good to me, nice size, nice price. I know it's a TN but that's whatever to me as I sit directly in front of my monitor so viewing angles don't matter. The one bit of info I was able to find on it was on hardOCP and one guy who owns it basically says it's a horrible POS if you don't get it calibrated. He used a Pentone Huey Pro and said without calibrating with it the colors looked very washed out. He said after using the Pentone on it the colors matched his 22" Viewsonic CRT, maybe a bit of a stretch but sounds sweet even if it's close to a CRT

I don't own a calibrating device and am not really anxious to go out and spend $100+ on one just to get the colors right on a monitor. I was thinking possibly a TV repair shop around my area may be able to calibrate it for cheaper than buying a Pentone Huey Pro type device. But really how hard is it to do it manually, especially on a screen that looks pretty poor out of the box? This Vizio seems like a hellova deal but if I'm not going to get good colors without dropping more money on a device to calibrate it correctly I might as well look elsewhere.

 

[dwell]

It's kind of impossible to get correct colors without a device. ISF calibrators usually charge $250 but your local TV shop may do it for less.

For $125 you can get one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Xrite-EO...&qid=1230051972&sr=8-2

And be color-correct for life. Maybe not worth it to you though.

 

[QueBert]

Hummm thanks that's what I figured, well the LCD I'm looking at is only $350, this is only $125 so for under $500 I have have a decent 26" 1080p display. Or perhaps I'll get the LCD home and the colors will be good enough for me. I would drop $125 on a celebrator over having a TV shop do it, unless they were going to do it for $50 or less (doubtful) You bringing up the color-correct for life does sound appealing

I guess alternatively I could look for a ICC profile to download, I remember on my 24" gateway the colors looked pretty iffy ouf the box but somebody released an one that made a pretty significant difference. Maybe this device on Amazon would have done a better job but the improvement with the ICC profile was great for free Does this work for most LCD's or did I just get lucky?

 

[dwell]

Most LCDs come stock with a very strong blue push. You can probably tame that by eye on the cheap using a DVD with the THX calibrator and the $2 glasses:

http://www.costore.com/THX/pro...asp?peid=87&pid=930793

The other problem LCDs have is cranked backlights and brightness which you can fix by eye with grayscale image:

http://www.drycreekphoto.com/L...n/monitor_gradient.htm

That said, nothing beats hardware + software that creates and profile for you. But in a pinch you can get close. At least fix the horrible factory defaults.