Near Obsessive Compulsive issue with colour on dual monitors. at DVinfo.net

Aviv Hallale · May 2nd, 2006, 04:15 PM

Well, my Primary Monitor is a Viewsonic. I have a Geforce 6800 card with dual video-out so up until today I was using an old CRT monitor.Today I got another LCD monitor by Samsung. Plugged in, everything works fine. I use the Nvidia control panel to select that all full screen video should be displayed on the second monitor, so if I open a video file in Windows Media Player I can watch it in either full or normal screen on my primary monitor, but it will automatically be sent in fullscreen to my secondary monitor.

The same thing applies with Premiere (but not After Effects, odd.)...All the video in either the Source or Program monitor will play in full screen (without the docks or panels, simple full screen video) on my second monitor. Everything was fine when I was using a CRT as my secondary monitor but now...

I just can't seem to get the colour on both monitors to match! If I movie Windows Media Player from one monitor to another, the colour looks the same however if it's playing in my Primary monitor and all the full screen video is sent to the secondary monitor, the colour on the secondary just looks a bit paler...Hard to explain, but there seems to be more contrast in the colours on the Primary monitor than the full screen secondary monitor.

If I'm watching my DV footage on my Primary monitor, it looks fine but on the secondary it just looks pale. For instance, there seems to be less dark colours in my face, less of a contrast. On my primary monitor, the contrast has that almost darkish film look to it, while on my secondary it just looks pale. I fiddled around with the brightness/contrast/colour settings on the second monitor, but to no avail.

Then I checked the colour tool in the Nviida Panel which I can use the adjust the colour of the full screen video. I fiddled about with the Digital Vibrance and the contrast of each primary colour and got it looking perfect for when I run a video in Windows Media Player. It'll look the same on both monitors, however as soon as I go into Premiere and import that video, it will look less vibrant than the Windows Media Player version and it will be totally blown out by the digital vibrance on the secondary monitor...Then I have to adjust the digital vibrance to match the video in Premiere, but as soon as I watch it in Windows Media Player, the difference in colour is back. It's a total vicous cycle. When using bars and tones in Premiere to try get the colour right, I can get them to match on both monitors by pretty much setting everything to default (Nvidia controls and the second monitor hardware controls) but as soon as I watch that video outside of Premiere, there is a difference in colour....It's slight, but it's annoying...I imagine that when editing on two monitors the colour really needs to be exact.

Does anyone have ideas on how to sort this out?

Also, a lesser question, but both my monitors are 4:3, even though the secondary has a smaller frame, so it looks less square than my primary. 720X576 video has small black bands on the top and the bottom, but another resolution (and everything else like my desktop wallpaper) like 352X288 will be displayed totally filling up the whole screen...There's no option on the monitor to stretch the image, only move it's posistion.

Any ideas at all...Mainly for the colour problem, because it's really bugging me.

David Andrews · May 3rd, 2006, 01:59 AM

You would probably have had a better chance of getting the colour match you want if your second monitor was the same spec as the first, ie another Viewsonic.

The problem, at this time, is that the detailed specs (for lcds and plasmas) are evolving rapidly and produce different results. For the time being, crts are best for colour and 1920 x 1200 lcds best for resolution.

Aviv Hallale · May 3rd, 2006, 04:42 AM

Do you think this will be a hinderance or does it not really make that much of a different...The default monitor settings look paler, like if one were to look at their flesh tones under a flourescent light while the Nvidia control pannel settings can bring more tonality to flesh tones...Is this not really necassary though? Is it maybe my Primary monitor that's not displaying colour naturally?

The odd thing is that I only encounter this problem when the full screen video option has been selected. If I deselect the feature that automatically sends all video to the second monitor in full screen and I simply move the video player (Winamp, Windows Media Player etc) window from one monitor to the other, the colour remains identical on either one.

David Andrews · May 3rd, 2006, 09:49 AM

Sorry, I have no answer to your question.

Robin Davies-Rollinson · May 3rd, 2006, 12:20 PM

If you're really going to assess colour etc, you ought to be viewing on a tv broadcast monitor,(or even a domestic TV) ie. not a PC one. You need to connect it to the A/V output of your camera/deck via the Firewire connection.
You'll know then how things will look on TV...

Robin

Glenn Chan · May 3rd, 2006, 06:07 PM

You may be seeing differences because there are different ways of displaying video in Windows, and the different methods may be using different codecs and decoding to different color spaces.

It will be a moot point if you follow Robin's suggestion... use firewire out. Getting a broadcast monitor will be an easy way of getting fairly good color accuracy.

In terms of picture accuracy (incl. color, artifacting, and other factors), a broadcast monitor is better than a consumer TV, which is much much better than a computer monitor. The problem with computer monitors are:
No interlace flicker, no chroma crawl
No cropping of overscan area
Colorimetry is wrong
Sometimes the image decodes to studioRGB instead of computerRGB

Unfortunately, with broadcast monitors the more you pay for the better the color accuracy. But an entry-level CRT field monitor should be quite workable, and be able to double up as a field monitor.

Aviv Hallale · May 4th, 2006, 07:39 AM

Well, I'd just like to get the colour between the two monitors matched up...Like I mentioned above, when moving the video player window from one monitor to the other, the colour is teh saem...Only when the video is displayed in full screen on the one is there a colour difference. I got the colours matched up in Premiere, but when I'm just using Windows Media Player, I encounter that annoyance.

May 2nd, 2006, 04:15 PM	#1
Aviv Hallale Major Player Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Cape Town, South Africa Posts: 276	Near Obsessive Compulsive issue with colour on dual monitors. Well, my Primary Monitor is a Viewsonic. I have a Geforce 6800 card with dual video-out so up until today I was using an old CRT monitor.Today I got another LCD monitor by Samsung. Plugged in, everything works fine. I use the Nvidia control panel to select that all full screen video should be displayed on the second monitor, so if I open a video file in Windows Media Player I can watch it in either full or normal screen on my primary monitor, but it will automatically be sent in fullscreen to my secondary monitor. The same thing applies with Premiere (but not After Effects, odd.)...All the video in either the Source or Program monitor will play in full screen (without the docks or panels, simple full screen video) on my second monitor. Everything was fine when I was using a CRT as my secondary monitor but now... I just can't seem to get the colour on both monitors to match! If I movie Windows Media Player from one monitor to another, the colour looks the same however if it's playing in my Primary monitor and all the full screen video is sent to the secondary monitor, the colour on the secondary just looks a bit paler...Hard to explain, but there seems to be more contrast in the colours on the Primary monitor than the full screen secondary monitor. If I'm watching my DV footage on my Primary monitor, it looks fine but on the secondary it just looks pale. For instance, there seems to be less dark colours in my face, less of a contrast. On my primary monitor, the contrast has that almost darkish film look to it, while on my secondary it just looks pale. I fiddled around with the brightness/contrast/colour settings on the second monitor, but to no avail. Then I checked the colour tool in the Nviida Panel which I can use the adjust the colour of the full screen video. I fiddled about with the Digital Vibrance and the contrast of each primary colour and got it looking perfect for when I run a video in Windows Media Player. It'll look the same on both monitors, however as soon as I go into Premiere and import that video, it will look less vibrant than the Windows Media Player version and it will be totally blown out by the digital vibrance on the secondary monitor...Then I have to adjust the digital vibrance to match the video in Premiere, but as soon as I watch it in Windows Media Player, the difference in colour is back. It's a total vicous cycle. When using bars and tones in Premiere to try get the colour right, I can get them to match on both monitors by pretty much setting everything to default (Nvidia controls and the second monitor hardware controls) but as soon as I watch that video outside of Premiere, there is a difference in colour....It's slight, but it's annoying...I imagine that when editing on two monitors the colour really needs to be exact. Does anyone have ideas on how to sort this out? Also, a lesser question, but both my monitors are 4:3, even though the secondary has a smaller frame, so it looks less square than my primary. 720X576 video has small black bands on the top and the bottom, but another resolution (and everything else like my desktop wallpaper) like 352X288 will be displayed totally filling up the whole screen...There's no option on the monitor to stretch the image, only move it's posistion. Any ideas at all...Mainly for the colour problem, because it's really bugging me.

May 3rd, 2006, 01:59 AM	#2
David Andrews Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 131	You would probably have had a better chance of getting the colour match you want if your second monitor was the same spec as the first, ie another Viewsonic. The problem, at this time, is that the detailed specs (for lcds and plasmas) are evolving rapidly and produce different results. For the time being, crts are best for colour and 1920 x 1200 lcds best for resolution.

May 3rd, 2006, 04:42 AM	#3
Aviv Hallale Major Player Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Cape Town, South Africa Posts: 276	Do you think this will be a hinderance or does it not really make that much of a different...The default monitor settings look paler, like if one were to look at their flesh tones under a flourescent light while the Nvidia control pannel settings can bring more tonality to flesh tones...Is this not really necassary though? Is it maybe my Primary monitor that's not displaying colour naturally? The odd thing is that I only encounter this problem when the full screen video option has been selected. If I deselect the feature that automatically sends all video to the second monitor in full screen and I simply move the video player (Winamp, Windows Media Player etc) window from one monitor to the other, the colour remains identical on either one.

May 3rd, 2006, 09:49 AM	#4
David Andrews Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 131	Sorry, I have no answer to your question.

May 3rd, 2006, 12:20 PM	#5
Robin Davies-Rollinson Trustee Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Gwaelod-y-garth, Cardiff, CYMRU/WALES Posts: 1,215	If you're really going to assess colour etc, you ought to be viewing on a tv broadcast monitor,(or even a domestic TV) ie. not a PC one. You need to connect it to the A/V output of your camera/deck via the Firewire connection. You'll know then how things will look on TV... Robin

May 3rd, 2006, 06:07 PM	#6
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	You may be seeing differences because there are different ways of displaying video in Windows, and the different methods may be using different codecs and decoding to different color spaces. It will be a moot point if you follow Robin's suggestion... use firewire out. Getting a broadcast monitor will be an easy way of getting fairly good color accuracy. In terms of picture accuracy (incl. color, artifacting, and other factors), a broadcast monitor is better than a consumer TV, which is much much better than a computer monitor. The problem with computer monitors are: No interlace flicker, no chroma crawl No cropping of overscan area Colorimetry is wrong Sometimes the image decodes to studioRGB instead of computerRGB Unfortunately, with broadcast monitors the more you pay for the better the color accuracy. But an entry-level CRT field monitor should be quite workable, and be able to double up as a field monitor.

May 4th, 2006, 07:39 AM	#7
Aviv Hallale Major Player Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Cape Town, South Africa Posts: 276	Well, I'd just like to get the colour between the two monitors matched up...Like I mentioned above, when moving the video player window from one monitor to the other, the colour is teh saem...Only when the video is displayed in full screen on the one is there a colour difference. I got the colours matched up in Premiere, but when I'm just using Windows Media Player, I encounter that annoyance.