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MacBook Pro Conncected to External Monitor - Ensuring Top Quality

J

jmFightSpam

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 24, 2007
115
0
Hi,

I have my MacBook Pro (Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB Memory, 15" screen) connected to an external monitor via the DVI port. What can I do to make sure the external monitor is running at top quality with respect to brightness, color, etc. I *think* it is OK, but sometimes I think it is a tad blurrry -- but I don't know if my mind is playing tricks on me. Is there a tool or something I can use?

I have a 22" LG Flatron widescreen -- L226WTQ

Thanks.
 
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I'd imagine the monitor has its own brightness controls. As for colour, you can edit those settings in system prefernces. A second window should open on the external screen allowing you tweak the settings separately.
 
samh004 said:
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I'd imagine the monitor has its own brightness controls. As for colour, you can edit those settings in system prefernces. A second window should open on the external screen allowing you tweak the settings separately.
Click to expand...

I have heard people talk about "calibration tools" (software) --- would that be of help?
 
jmFightSpam said:
I have heard people talk about "calibration tools" (software) --- would that be of help?
Click to expand...

Yeah. Well, software/hardware. My fiancee is a photographer, and she uses a Spyder to calibrate her monitor. It works great and has helped her printing immensely. Check it out. I know they just released a new one, but the Spyder 2 works great.
 
jmFightSpam said:
Hi,

I have my MacBook Pro (Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB Memory, 15" screen) connected to an external monitor via the DVI port. What can I do to make sure the external monitor is running at top quality with respect to brightness, color, etc. I *think* it is OK, but sometimes I think it is a tad blurrry -- but I don't know if my mind is playing tricks on me. Is there a tool or something I can use?

I have a 22" LG Flatron widescreen -- L226WTQ

Thanks.
Click to expand...

are you using mirroring?
 
LCD's have a native resolution that they look sharpest at, anything lower will be a bit blurry. See what the maximum resoluton ur LCD runs at and run it at that setting, hopefully that will help. DVI is one of the most clearest in terms of video quality so the problem shouldn't be that.
 
Mirroring means you see the same image on both monitors, so, unless they both have the same native resolution, one well be blurry or at least not as clear. Monitor 'spanning' is when you see a different image on each - the desktop spans both displays as opposed to simply being the same on each. When spanning, each display can have its own individual resolution set.
 
jsw said:
Mirroring means you see the same image on both monitors, so, unless they both have the same native resolution, one well be blurry or at least not as clear. Monitor 'spanning' is when you see a different image on each - the desktop spans both displays as opposed to simply being the same on each. When spanning, each display can have its own individual resolution set.
Click to expand...

I believe I have spanning. Basically, I can move my mouse to the left and it runs off my LCD onto my MacBook Pro.
 
jmFightSpam said:
I have heard people talk about "calibration tools" (software) --- would that be of help?
Click to expand...

Go to system preferences -> displays -> color

Press calibrate (select advanced) and work your way through it. The image wont be any sharper but it will have more accurate colours.
 
jsw said:
Then you can set the resolution to the native resolution of your LCD (if it isn't already) for the clearest image. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.

I am running Windows right now via Boot Camp. My MacBook is set to 1440x900 and my LCD is set to 1680x1050 (the max)
 
Fezzasus said:
Go to system preferences -> displays -> color

Press calibrate (select advanced) and work your way through it. The image wont be any sharper but it will have more accurate colours.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I will do that when I am running Leopard. Any advice for Windows VIsta? Thanks
 
jmFightSpam said:
Thanks for the reply. I will do that when I am running Leopard. Any advice for Windows VIsta? Thanks
Click to expand...

I'm not familiar with vista, sorry. I expect something similar, go to the control control panel and then monitors/displays (whatever it's called) - it should be buried in there.
 
andrewdale said:
Yeah. Well, software/hardware. My fiancee is a photographer, and she uses a Spyder to calibrate her monitor. It works great and has helped her printing immensely. Check it out. I know they just released a new one, but the Spyder 2 works great.
Click to expand...

Hi, you got a link to Spyder? Google isn't helping out so much here.
Thanks.
 
You don't need to purchase a calibration tool unless you are doing video or film editing work. 90% of the people who have that done either see minor quality changes or end up resetting the settings to something they prefer instead.

It looks like you matched your desktop settings for the LCD to it's native resolution, so you should be getting the best picture possible. If the occasional blur you are seeing is happening mainly on text then have you checked the settings it's using for smooth edges and such? Sometimes fiddling with those can make a difference. If it's in video playback then it's probably just compression artifacts.

To the best of my knowledge Windows does not have an integrated calibration tool but I have not used Vista, just XP and earlier.
 
DocSmitty said:
You don't need to purchase a calibration tool unless you are doing video or film editing work. 90% of the people who have that done either see minor quality changes or end up resetting the settings to something they prefer instead.

It looks like you matched your desktop settings for the LCD to it's native resolution, so you should be getting the best picture possible. If the occasional blur you are seeing is happening mainly on text then have you checked the settings it's using for smooth edges and such? Sometimes fiddling with those can make a difference. If it's in video playback then it's probably just compression artifacts.

To the best of my knowledge Windows does not have an integrated calibration tool but I have not used Vista, just XP and earlier.
Click to expand...

You may be right. Maybe I just need to muck around with my brightness and contrast settings. Btw, anyone know what the "gamma" setting is?
 
Gamma is a software brightness setting, as opposed to the hardware brightness settings you can adjust such as backlight brightness. I wouldn't change that unless your screen is very dark and you can't see details.
 
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