Is it possible to adjust the monitor "white point"?

[walter4h]

Hello everybody:
about a month ago I bought Acer 1916 LCD monitor. I found it very bright even after I set brightness and contrast to ZERO.
At work we have Samsung SynchMasters, screens on those can be dimmed to a virtual dark, but mine is so bright it hurts the eyes.
I decided that for my other computer I will buy something other than Acer. I went to a store, but the clerk there said that their Acers can be dimmed with no problem.
He showed me that they run their Acers at about 85 percent brightness and contrast and it is quite manageable. But mine is brighter at ZERO levels of both brightness and contrast.
He actually dimmed the screen and it became quite dark.
He then suggested that there are some adjustments in the computer, namely, the contrast, brightness, gamma, color balance and "white point" of the monitor, but he did not know exactly where to tweak those settings.
I understand Photoshop apps have these features, but I do not have it. Can something like that be done in Windows?
Thx
walter

[jagabo]

Your graphics card's configuration applet should have brightness, contrast, etc settings.

Control Panel -> Display -> Settings -> Advanced -> (one of the tabs from there)

But it sounds like your monitor is defective.

[Barnabas]

walter4h,

LCD monitors are going to be brighter than your CRT monitor due to the way they work. I have a Samsung 170s here, and even with the brightness set to zero, and the contrast set to 65, it's still fairly bright unless, as suggested by jagabo, I have adjusted my display settings to compensate.

Make sure you are running the driver and software that correct for your monitor.

I have an akai 27" HD LCD TV in my bedroom, and had to really tweak it to get nice dark blacks, which are a big problem for LCD's.

[Des]

You can try this WysiWyG from Praxisoft: http://www.praxisoft.com/pages/products.wiziwyg.html
It's free and is similar to Adobe's Gamma control.
With both this program and Adobe gamma the majority of brightness and contrast are set directly from the monitor and then tweaked for color from there. The option of adjusting the brightness from the graphics card (if yours allows it) is probably your best bet.

Interesting this software will also allow you to set for a scanner and printe which is kind of nice!

--dES

[kschang]

Also search for QuickGamma, and Monitor Calibration Wizard. Both are free and useful programs to set the gamma / brightness.

[Des]

KSChang, just tried Monitor Calibration Wizard and I like it. Much better than Adobe Gamma. Seems to have finetuned the color on my 19"LCD tosomething even slightly better.
Shame it doesn't allow you to set a gray patch though, but it probably doesn't matter once the controls are set right anyway.

--dES

[ahhaa]

With LCDs, does setting the brightness lower extend the monitor life- a little or a lot?

[walter4h]

Thanks for your help guys:
There are following tabs in the Advance section of display settings control
General / Adapter / Monitor / Troubleshoot / Color Management
Only color management seems to have anything to do with this, but after I set up a few profiles, nothing changed.
I will work on it over the next couple wks.
But, as I said, at work Samsung SynchMasters can be set to rather low intensity. So it could be Acer's "peculiarity".
Regards
walter

[TBoneit]

I'll second that your ACER could be defective. You should be able to adjust it.

Call Tech support and look into getting it exchanged under warranty. It sounds like the one I have 19" Acer at home. It could be AOPEN instead tho.

Very bright displayat stock settings. I suspect they set them that way at the factory the same way many TVs are set bright etc. at the factory. It is done so they'll stand out on the display floor and is the reason so many people pay for an expert calibration on larger TVs.

I thought about getting MY TV calibrated but then realized each input would have to be calibrated as they all set seperately.. IOWs 2 Component, 1 VGA, 1 HDMI, S-Video, Tuner, composite video all remember their settings. So I'd have to have 8 different inputs calibrated.

[walter4h]

Thanks TBoneit:
I will try that. I have a warranty from the store, so I do not even need to deal with Acer, the only problem would be to convince them that it does indeed warrants replacement
In the meantime WiziWYG did the trick, the screen gets visibly darker. I set the white point to 9300 from 6500 and now it is comfortable. Colors are all screwed up, of course, but when you only do text, it is more comfortable. for other types of work I can revert to 6500K
I also tried a few other color profile managers, but WiziWYG adjust the color in real time as you move sliders, which is very convenient.
Regards
walter

[TBoneit]

Sooner or later you'll need to do something that needs the colors to be right. Why wait, it may end up that you will have waited to long.

The last time I waited to get something done under warranty it was a windshield in a 1976 car that had small bubbles at the bottom. They didn't cause a problem driving so I could wait and I was pretty sure the maker and dealer would still be there later.

OTOH going back my father was driving a 70s Toyota, he loved that car despite he was always having to fix it but that's another story. The Toyota had a recall for the manual gearshift lever breaking off. Pop of course said I always shift gently and smoothly so no rush. Ha, the next day he went to shift and it broke off. He had to drive home with vice grips on the stub to shift.

Point I'm making is that the monitor has a demonstrable problem, who knows what else is going on inside of it?

[Barnabas]

WiziWYG made the whites on my computer a pinkish color, but naturalcolor, which came with the monitor set the white level and colors correctly.

[walter4h]

Hi, guys:
If it is indeed true that all Acer monitors are set to higher brightness, as TBoneit suggested, then the replacement will not change much, except, hopefully, sending a yet another message to Acer, that such practices are counterproductive in the long run (if that is indeed true).
This weekend I'll try to do that, but even if I would not be able to exchange it; or if the replacement monitor has the same problem, then I will relegate this monitor to my old computer, where I do mostly text and html.
And in the future I will stay away from Acer monitors (again, if this problem is due to their manufacturing / marketing practices.)
But for now I am trying to gather evidence, so to speak.
Good thing I did not buy this monitor from an online store. Exchanging with those would not be easy.

Regarding the comment by Barnabas; when I was making adjustments in wiziwyg using their "squares", colors ended up having too much red. But second time, when I was doing it visually, looking at my desktop, it came out good.
Regards
walter

[TBoneit]

I'm not saying that Acer are set to higher brightness alone. What I'm saying is that many if not most display devices TV set and monitors are default to bright and contrasty to look better in showrooms than you need or want in the home.

Next time you are looking at a display of TVs, think about this howcome some look really poor compared to the set next to them?
Depends on what model the manager wants to sell, they adjust one o look better and the other to look poorer that it really is.