Spyder3 Pro and MacBook/iMac

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I've just received my Spyder3 Pro through the post and calibrated both my 15" Macbook Pro and my 24" iMac.

Whilst I could say that both screens are noticeably better than they were before and the colour looks much more natural, it is fairly obviously that the screens are not displaying the same colours, as I would have expected.

Anyone else had this same problem with the S3P and MacBook/iMac combination and if so did you manage to resolve it?
 
How are the screens connected to the pc?
 
is the brightness set to the same on both?
and are they both in the same room? ambient light changes can affect the calibration
 
Yep and yep. They are right next to each other and being calibrated at the same time (well, one after the other) and with the same device. They are very similar in terms of brightness but it's the colour that looks different, especially magenta's.
 
This photo illustrates the problem. Both are calibrated using the same settings except one is 'Laptop' and one is 'LCD'. I've tried doing both as LCD and it makes no difference.

It looks the same as this in the flesh too...

 
I've a similar problem with a unibody MBP and an external monitor. The MBP uses LED's as a backlight whilst the external uses conventional backlight. The MBP is close, but doesn't match the external.

If you look at the calibration curves you'll see that the LED screen is struggling in the Blue and to some extent Green channels. This means the screen on the MPB is a bit warmer than the external, which calibrates nicely with a max delta deviation of 1.0

I'm using an eye one display 2 to calibrate.
 
I'm confused, why does the Spyder3 Pro not tell me that it hasn't managed to calibrate it properly!? It just says - Yep, all done, good to go (or words to that effect). Surely it knows if it hasn't managed to get it bang on the target?
 
I have the same problem with my Huey calibration device. Two windows 7 PCs, one desktop LCD, one laptop LCD - both look different.

I'm also confused about how I got about getting the exact same output colours from my screen to printer (commercially printed @ jessops).
 
I had a similar issue with my Spyder with my laptop and the external monitor connected to it. It turned out that it was because the external monitor could display more colours than the laptop LCD. Datacolor analysed the profiles I'd created and sent me back some fancy graphics to explain what was going on.
 
Cant help except to say Ive got two pc monitors and an imac and they all look stunningly colour-matched after the Spyder.
Presumable both calibrated in the same ambient conditions and with the sensor held properly against the screen yes?
 
Wel I've tried attaching an external monitor to the MacBook and now I get a third completely different set of colours.... what a wonderful way to get rid of £100 :(
 
Have you tried contacting datacolour?
 
You will get a difference from

cables
graphics cards
digital and analogue
 
Craikeybaby said:
Have you tried contacting datacolour?
Click to expand...

Yes I have now but I suspect I won't get an answer that I want.

admirable said:
You will get a difference from

cables
graphics cards
digital and analogue
Click to expand...

Again, MacBook Pro and iMac... there are no cables. Granted they have different graphics cards and displays but surely the whole point is to create a profile that enables any display to match a given 'standard' target isn't it? And therefore should they not look all but identical after being calibrated?
 
Ok

I have twin monitors powered from a dual outlet graphics card. If I swap the connections over the monitors look different.

If I change the cables over the monitors look different.

If I change the graphics card the monitors look different.

I agree with you that they should look similar if not exactly the same but it's not always the case.

and I don't think the fact that they are Macs makes one hoot of a difference.
 
admirable said:
Ok

I have twin monitors powered from a dual outlet graphics card. If I swap the connections over the monitors look different.

If I change the cables over the monitors look different.

If I change the graphics card the monitors look different.

I agree with you that they should look similar if not exactly the same but it's not always the case.

and I don't think the fact that they are Macs makes one hoot of a difference.
Click to expand...

You do understand that I am trying to calibrate them though, with a spectrometer, so that they DO look the same?

For any given set of circumstances (eg a particular graphics card, through a particular cable to a particular monitor in a particular ambient light) the hardware/software I'm using is supposed to create a profile that makes the display show a standard set of colours. If that changes the yes you would need to re calibrate but I'm not changing it.
 
Yep I understand.

My two monitors are both calibrated and yet do not look the same. My laptop which was calibrated at the same time also looks different from any of the monitors.

I use the Google page as a test page, the white is a different shade on all three of my screens, go figure.
 
admirable said:
Yep I understand.

My two monitors are both calibrated and yet do not look the same. My laptop which was calibrated at the same time also looks different from any of the monitors.

I use the Google page as a test page, the white is a different shade on all three of my screens, go figure.
Click to expand...

Hmmm this is not good news. Surely that completely defeats the object of calibrating them. I eagerly await a response from DataColor.... I'll let you all know.... :thinking:
 
Try downloading the trial version of ColorEyes Display Pro, or Basicolor. CEDP will calibrate you monitors and give you the data on the calibration. You don't have to keep either version but it may help diagnose the problem.

I suspect the Spyder is doing the best it can with the laptop display, and then ending it's program. CEDP will show you what's happening.

Have a look at the shadow detail when you use CEDP I think it gives a much better result than my Gretag software.

http://www.integrated-color.com/cedpro/coloreyesdisplay.html
 
The whole point of the calibrator is that cables, video cards, display type etc are "calibrated out". The Macbook and iMac have built in displays.

What you might be suffering from is the computer adjusting the brightness of the display. A laptop does this for example to reduce the battery usage. You could try checking the settings between the two computers and making sure that they are both set the same with the brightness the same and power saving modes the same. Turn off any "adjust brightness to make up for room brightness" options as well.

I have three machines in the same office and it took a while to get them all the same :)
 
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