Questions about screen calibration from a newbie to all this

By Logue
April 7, 2022 in Displays

Go to solution Solved by Stahlmann, April 7, 2022

1 hour ago, Lacanian Wizard said:

This monitor has 4 gamma settings. I’ve watched the Hardware Unboxed tutorial video on calibrating displays and it’s said there to basically reset the monitor settings and disable any kind of enhancement, which I’ve done: in my case, black level stabilizer is set to 0, no energy saving mode is enabled, no motion blur reduction/backlight strobing, ‘tho Freesync is enabled (also have an AMD GPU). The gamma settings on the OSD are just labeled “Mode (1, 2, 3 or 4)”. Modes 1, 2 and 3 are progressively darker (1 being the brightest and 2 being the default which is selected after reseting the settings). However, in the display's manual, it’s said that “If it’s not necessary to adjust the gamma settings, choose Mode 4”. So, which should I choose? The “no adjusment” (mode 4) or the one it defaults to after reseting the settings (mode 2)?

I'd guess they're 2.0 (1), 2.2 (2), 2.4 (3) and 2.6 (4) gamma. But it could be anything in between.

You can easily test it using DisplayCal and your colorimeter:

Select gamma 1 and then in DisplayCal click on "uncalibrated monitor report". After it's done measuring you get a small report giving you some basic information about the measured contrast, whitepoint, gamma, etc. Do this for all 4 modes and pick the one that ends up closest to 2.2 going forward.

1 hour ago, Lacanian Wizard said:

Should I measure the gamma using the "uncalibrated monitor report" tool in DisplayCAL and then try to reach the value there? Say, if it says 2.43, I should input 2.4? Yes, no?

So you already found it You don't need to input your gamma anywhere. After trying all modes out select the one closest to 2.2 and pick sRGB as your target profile in DisplayCal. This will calibrate your monitor to follow the standard 2.2 sRGB gamma curve.

1 hour ago, Lacanian Wizard said:

Which whitepoint should I choose? Is D65 the same as 6500k? And is that the same as the sRGB whitepoint? Or should I use As measured? Or am I writing nonsense here? Is this just preference, in my case? Is this just a matter of choice in my case?

D65 and 6500K is the same. Don't use "as measured", because it will use your wrong out-of-the-box whitepoint as a baseline for it's calibration.

1 hour ago, Lacanian Wizard said:

What about white level, should I stick to the 80-120cd I see recommended everywhere? Before buying this, I always used my monitor at 50 brightness (also the default after settings “factory reset”) and that is measured to be around 180cd. Is that “too bright”? Should I calibrate it the way it is or is that going to “hurt” the calibration process? Is it better to calibrate at 120cd and then change the brightness after… I assume not, correct? Is it possible for my monitor to be more accurate being less bright (i.e., with the brightness level at around 120 or 100?)?

Brightness is entirely dependant on your viewing environment and personal preference. For sRGB content i like to calibrate to 100 nits. On some monitors that means 80% brightness, on some 10. The value in the OSD is unimportant. It is best to calibrate to the brightness you will actually use, but changing it afterwards will not introduce huge inaccuracities.

I found that 100 nits is the sweet spot. Not too bright at night time, not too dim at daytime. Even if it feels too dim at first, give your eyes 10 minutes to adjust and it will look just fine. Conveniently it's also the mastering brightness for sRGB content, so you're as close to "the creators intend" as you'll get.

1 hour ago, Lacanian Wizard said:

Should I use Gamma 2.2, 2.4 or sRGB for the Tone Curve? The displayCAL ReadMe talks about maybe using gamma 2.4 along with using ambient light measurements, that kinda confused me. Are they different (2.2, 2.4 and sRGB)?

2.2 is the target for sRGB calibration.

1 hour ago, Lacanian Wizard said:

Another ReadMe doubt: “A white point temperature different to that native to the display may limit the maximum brightness possible.” so…? Should I just use “As Measured”?

That is correct. If you set your monitor colors to 100% on red, green blue and the backlight to 100% this will be the brightest your monitor can get. As soon as you take out specific colors to match the 6500K whitepoint you take out some maximum brightness. Again - this only matters when you use your monitor at 100% brightness, and you already said you don't.

1 hour ago, Lacanian Wizard said:

How big should the calibration screen be? I've seen some people use it at the default size/position (small square in the center) and others who set it to be a maximized window. Does it matter?

Just leave it at default. If your monitor has any type of local dimming, check the "black background" box so bright objects behind the measuring window don't impact the dimming zones during the calibration.

1 hour ago, Lacanian Wizard said:

What are all the files that DisplayCAL generates? ti1, ti3, bpcti3, b2a1 post clut and postclutsmooth (PNGs?), wrz. What are those for?

Never looked into that tbh. I can't say.

Posted April 12, 2022

Author

Thank, I'll keep that in mind. Since I live in Brazil, my display options are somewhat limited - if not by the prices displays end up costing here due to import tariffs and taxes and the dollar conversion, but by the sheer lack of selection and availability. But thanks for the tip!

I know I was really picky with some of the answers, thanks for answering all of them with such patience and kindness. Have a great day, appreciate it a lot.

Honestly, LTT should do a video about this post as a whole (not specifically, but a video with these questions in mind would be a great help for noobs like me). A somewhat simpler version of this, anyway: "How to calibrate and set up your PC for high quality content consumption" and include topics like madVR, color calibration and contentt gamut differences, etc. I feel these are such "niche" questions for whatever reason, even tho' I feel like they should be more mainstream, more widely known.

I leave this as a humble suggestion, @LinusTech @James @jakkuh_t