How do you calibrate brightness on an LCD?

[Navid]

How do you calibrate brightness on an LCD not being able to change the size of the scanned area on screen?

 

[Navid]

Bump!

 

[Zap]

You can adjust the brightness/contrast using the on-screen display menu with the buttons on the LCD. Some 6 bit panels don't look too great (to my eyes) with the settings turned down. In games, shadows and colors are pretty poor while they look better with the settings turned up.

 

[Navid]

I see that I did not word my question properly. Let me try again.

When you calibrate brightness on a CRT, you can change the size of the scanned area on screen to create an area that is not scanned above or below the scanned area by reducing the vertical size. Then, you put a black image on screen (RGB=000). Then, you gradually decrease brightness until the color of the black scanned areas (RGB=000) becomes the same as the area that is not scanned. Then, you know that your brightness is right.

I know how to change the brightness on the LCD. I don't know how to tell when the brightness is right since you cannot adjust the scanned area size on an LCD.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Navid
I see that I did not word my question properly. Let me try again.

When you calibrate brightness on a CRT, you can change the size of the scanned area on screen to create an area that is not scanned above or below the scanned area by reducing the vertical size. Then, you put a black image on screen (RGB=000). Then, you gradually decrease brightness until the color of the black scanned areas (RGB=000) becomes the same as the area that is not scanned. Then, you know that your brightness is right.

Actually, that's how you should adjust your *contrast*. Brightness affects the white level, and you need to adjust that so that you are not crushing while values below 255. Adjusting brightness based on the black level could give you results that are significantly nonoptimal.

I know how to change the brightness on the LCD. I don't know how to tell when the brightness is right since you cannot adjust the scanned area size on an LCD.

If you want to do it right, get a calibration device (or you could try running a home theater calibration DVD in your DVD drive). If you're not doing professional work, you can just eyeball it.

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Actually, that's how you should adjust your *contrast*. Brightness affects the white level, and you need to adjust that so that you are not crushing while values below 255. Adjusting brightness based on the black level could give you results that are significantly nonoptimal.

Not according to tens of web pages that come up if you search for monitor calibration.
This is just an example.

This is from that site:
Method #1
Set the desktop background color to black (0,0,0). To set the background color in Windows open the Control Panel, double-click on Display, and click on the Desktop tab. You can verify the RGB value is (0,0,0) by double-clicking on the color patch to view the Color Picker dialog box.

Set brightness and contrast to 100%. Adjust the vertical dimensions of the screen so you can easily distinguish the border between the scanned and non-scanned areas. To make this adjustment, shrink the view vertically, or move the view up and down with your monitor controls. This will expose the non-scanned area. If you shrank the window 2" from the top, then the border between the scanned and non-scanned area should be 2" down on your screen.

Decrease brightness until the the scanned area blends with the non-scanned area. If there is a dialog box for monitor brightness, and it is distracting, mask it so it doesn't interfere with this step. Go back and forth until you've identified the point where the scanned area starts increasing in intensity. Lock the setting when the scanned area just starts to become visible.

Does anyone have any other suggestions for calibrating the black point on an LCD other than using software?

 

[VIAN]

http://epaperpress.com/monitorcal/

On the black to gray scale. Get that black as black as possible, but still keep the grades distinguishable. Same with the whiter scale, Get the white as white as possible, but keep the grades distinguishable.

LCDs are much harder to calibrate than CRT's.

 

[VIAN]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
Actually, that's how you should adjust your *contrast*. Brightness affects the white level, and you need to adjust that so that you are not crushing while values below 255. Adjusting brightness based on the black level could give you results that are significantly nonoptimal.

The black level is the brightness and the white level is the contrast. Why can't they just call things what they really are.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Navid

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Actually, that's how you should adjust your *contrast*. Brightness affects the white level, and you need to adjust that so that you are not crushing while values below 255. Adjusting brightness based on the black level could give you results that are significantly nonoptimal.

Not according to tens of web pages that come up if you search for monitor calibration.
This is just an example.

Gah! Sorry, my brain must have short-cirtuited for a second. *I* was backwards, and yes, you should adjust 'brightness' for the black level and 'contrast' for the white level. For some reason I looked at your first post and got it backwards.

You can adjust them using grayscale images, as noted. To do it absolutely correctly, you need either calibration hardware/software, or you will have to get into the service menu and tweak the gain/gamma for each color separately.