Is my new monitor defective or my eyes?

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I’ve just gotten a new Dell UP3216Q (AU$2000) to replace my AOC I2757FH (AUD$390 2 years old) but after plugging it into my Asus laptop’s (Intel HD Graphics 4000) HDMI port and firing it up I noticed that whites aren’t really white but more an off-white with a slight hint of red and yellow.

I plugged my AOC monitor back in to compare and yes to my eyes the AOC displays perfect whites. Also all other colours seem to be over saturated on the Dell, Reds, blues, greens all look really bright.

I loaded up bbc.com to compare and it just doesn’t look right on the Dell the News header looks really red when on all other devices I’ve used it looks more of a brownish red. I’ve fiddled around with menu settings on the monitor to no avail.

My question, is it just that my eyes have gotten used to my AOC or is this new Dell screen just not factory calibrated correctly. Should I send it back?

Also ever since I plugged the Dell into the HDMI port on the laptop the AOC screen now isn’t showing light greys correctly (slight green tint). The VGA port works fine (but i obviously don't want to use this) and a USB>HDMI adapter works fine too. How do I get it back to what it was? I haven’t touched Windows “Color Management” or my screens settings. Has it loaded a different color profile just for the HDMI?

Dell on the left, AOC on the right.

Screen duplicated 1920x1080 - Windows Explorer

bbc.com Reds not right.

bbc.com ipad

JT...

Posted 2016-03-18T06:26:44.717

Reputation: 372

1Color temperature? Can't really call either of them defective. Can achieve both by changing color temperature setting of my monitor. – Tom Yan – 2016-03-18T06:33:09.797

@TomYan yeah I tried changing the Colour Temperature setting on the Dell but still couldn't get a satisfactory white. – JT... – 2016-03-18T06:44:21.600

1What are the available color temperatures on each of them? – Tom Yan – 2016-03-18T06:47:06.363

1What preset mode is it currently on? – Mark – 2016-03-18T06:49:30.017

1Plugging the new machine into the old machine's display has (seemingly) permanently altered the old machine's display? – Raystafarian – 2016-03-18T06:50:09.237

1Is the dell factory caliberated? – Journeyman Geek – 2016-03-18T07:02:36.950

@TomYan Well the Dell goes from 5000K to 10000K. I have set it to 6500K. The AOC just has preset names for color temp menu: Warm, Normal, Cool, sRGB and what i have it set to is User R=50,G=50,B=50. – JT... – 2016-03-18T07:04:31.473

@Mark Preset to Color Temp: 6500k which seems to be the best option. – JT... – 2016-03-18T07:05:21.557

@Raystafarian Yes seemingly... I've always used the HDMI port with my old AOC but now light greys don't look right. I tried to take a photo of the difference but it doesn't show up in the photo.ggrrr!! – JT... – 2016-03-18T07:08:41.710

@JourneymanGeek yeah according to the included PremierColor UP3216Q Color Calibration Factory Report. – JT... – 2016-03-18T07:10:23.763

1I have a couple of U2515's and I find if I use the "standard" setting (ignoring setting the colour temp) it looks pretty good. Setting the colour temp to 6500K sends it red like your image. – Mark – 2016-03-18T07:12:22.530

So the AOC doesn't even have CT setting. Btw what on the Dell is pretty much how 6500K should look like. My EIZO EV2336W (IPS too, or some claimed that it's PLS though) looks similar to that when on 6500K. – Tom Yan – 2016-03-18T07:19:15.353

1Btw its (R,G,B) Gain is set to (100,96,98) when CT is 6500K, and I usually prefer to leave CT set to "Off", in which the Gain is set to (100,100,100). – Tom Yan – 2016-03-18T07:26:28.073

hhmm so it would seem the general consensus is my eyes are not tuned into the high life of a real monitor and I've just gotten to used to a lesser blue monitor. What I don't get though is why the red of the bbc news banner shows more of a reddish-brown on every other device(7) I looked at but on the Dell it's a bright red. – JT... – 2016-03-18T08:07:44.660

1On your calibration report that came with the monitor it should show you what mode they have used to calibrate it (ignore the target temp if it's on it). Are you using that mode? – Mark – 2016-03-18T08:29:53.333

@Mark It doesn't mention any settings only that it was measured with Uniformity Compensation turned on which I haven't turned off. – JT... – 2016-03-21T01:25:33.183

1Ok, on mine (Different model) it states within the blurb that it was calibrated using a 'Standard' color preset. I would ensure you are setting it to the 'Standard' preset in color or the 'sRBG' preset within color -> color spaces. This should give you the factory calibrated result. That's your best bet short of getting a calibrator. – Mark – 2016-03-21T02:27:41.100

@Mark Thanks mate. Yeah I've been through all the presets and found that "Standard" looks the best. Still struggling with getting used to it when it's so different from every screen/device in the office. Will give it a couple more days to warm up my retina's :) – JT... – 2016-03-21T02:59:54.330

Update: After a week of letting my eye's sync to the new screen I finally got used to the bright colours and slightly yellow tint(so I thought). Now I have my new laptop with the ability to use the screens native resolution 3840x2160 via DP (rather than what I was using HDMI) I'm happy as could be. I did use the windows calibration tool to bring the reds down a tiny bit. Went back to use my old laptop today and boy does that screen look ugly, also my living room 55" TV now looks really bad (sooo blue). Oh well suppose that really "needs" upgrading now too :) – JT... – 2016-04-21T01:40:05.210

Answers

2

I'd use the dell as a baseline, personally. The yellowish tint is based off a different/'more correct' calibration. most consumer monitors are set somewhat too blue out of the box - The colour technology matters too you'll never get a TN and IPS screen identical.

I had a similar switch from a crappy asus to a P2715Q (and a second UHD monitor). Took me a week or so before my eyes got used to the Dell.

That said, when you have mismatched screens, colours are relative - it might be your eyes. Windows 8 onwards has a nice manual caliberation tool. In my case I used my dell as a baseline, then adjusted my second monitor (a cheap korean UHD thing) to get as close to it as possible. Its not identical but better than nothing.

Journeyman Geek

Posted 2016-03-18T06:26:44.717

Reputation: 119 122

2Yes, many cheaper LCDs are too blue nowadays, seems to be the case of the older AOC. – Vojtěch Dohnal – 2016-03-18T07:28:18.243

@VojtěchDohnal So then if the general masses have screens that are too blue shouldn't I need one too as I am designing for them. I've looked at all the monitors, laptops, Macbooks, iPads, tablets and phones (mostly top of the range equipment) around the office and at home and none of them show the big difference like the Dell. For instance the blue (#1485EE) in our company logo, on the Dell it's quite a garish blue and nothing like what everything else shows even in print. To match the blue colour(by sight) on the Dell I had to darken it a few shades to #107DE0. – JT... – 2016-03-21T03:03:03.190

My concern is that I would have to over/under compensate on everything I design (mostly web UI). The odd thing is I've been doing this job for 15 years and never seen this much of a difference when upgrading screens which I do every few years. Yes my last screen AOC wasn't the most expensive screen but I never saw any big difference between that and the previous Samsung SyncMaster which wasn't a cheap monitor about 5years ago. – JT... – 2016-03-21T03:04:06.430

Anyway thanks everyone for your time and comments. I shall give it a couple more days to see if my eyes adjust :) – JT... – 2016-03-21T03:23:02.587

2Yeah, I think the windows calibration tool might be your best bet. Give it a shot, and you can always switch back to the manufacturer calibration. I have my p2715Q on the defaults (custom colour - with RGB all on full) and the colour profile for my monitor - you can find this under colour management – Journeyman Geek – 2016-03-21T03:50:19.967

I personally have much cheaper DELL with older TFT screen at work and I had to use setting within Intel graphics card driver to adjust it together with monitor settings - we still use Win7 with no calibration tool. At home with ASUS IPC display the colors are considerably less blue and by all means more accurate. I do not think designing for displays with bad colors is the way to go. – Vojtěch Dohnal – 2016-03-21T08:14:03.840

Asked: 2016-03-18T06:26:44.717

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Active: 2020-02-14T09:54:24.840