DocWilson

Join Date 12/2007

+12

"IPS" Monitor technology, "Color Profiles", and "Windows 7" "Color Management" in "Control Panel"

I had a terrible and wonderful thing happen to me 2 weeks ago now! What I thought was my Monitor dying turned out to be a dying graphics card.

I bought one of the "New Technology" monitors with "IPS" technology included. My monitor came from "Asus" and to be honest, I wouldn't buy from them again because they provided No driver for their monitor and No "Color Profile" software.

I'm still waiting for my new graphics card to arrive so for now, all of my bright red hues are still being displayed as Bright Orange.

What I am excited about and the reason for this post is the amazing difference in display capabilities using the new IPS monitor. After tuning on this darn monitor for a couple of days and changing many settings in Windows "Color Management" section in Control Panel, I have seen a quality difference in display that rivals the difference between Standard Definition TV and HD TV.

The 50,000:1 contrast ratio of these new monitors and the other "IPS" capabilities have shown me a whole new level of display quality.

For the first time, I was able to see that in Windows 7's Media Center, the buttons are actually animated with a color, gradient and brightness change that is Wonderful!

I also have been able to see the great design features in Windowblinds Skins that show delicate changes in gradients and small color differences that make a graphic truly stand out in a lot of the wonderful skins I've downloaded.

I'm still a newbie skinner and consider all of my posted designs to be of "Stone Age" quality but even my first design looks much better on this new "IPS" monitor. I've only picked up Photoshop CS6 again for 10 months now and I have a large learning curve still ahead of me before what I see in TV and Feature film graphics can be created by me.

All I can say is, EVERYBODY go get a new IPS monitor! The quality difference is Amazing!

skinning

Locked Post

Advanced Search

Watch this post

Do not email me updates for this post Email me updates for this post

Successfully updated karma reason!

LightStar

Join Date 12/2002

+1606

Been using an IPS monitor for a few years now and I just bought a second monitor a few weeks ago. They are Dell 2408WFP's running at 1920 x 1200. The color and clarity of an IPS monitor is a must for anyone who does graphics design of any kind.

Good choice Doc, but when your new video card comes, you'll probably have to do all the fine tuning all over again, you'll probably just need to set everything back to default. To tell you the truth, you should not need to set anything different on an IPS monitor, I used mine straight out of the box, no adjustments whatsoever and mine did not come with drivers either as most manufacturers nowadays make sure their drivers are included in the OS you are using. They give them to Microsoft to include.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Hi LightStar,

Thanks for reading my post after my being so excited about my new monitor.

I hate to say it but I bought mine from tha Absolute WRONG Company!

I purchased an ASUS VS229 IPS monitor and it came with no software whatsoever, no manual to give directions on the onscreen programs use and no "Color Profile" at all!

I spent days trying to adjust this monitor before I was finally able to use ASUS's Terrible website to register my purchase, start up my warranty and hopefully (Finally) be able to download the driver and color profile that should come with every monitor made. Sadly, ASUS decided to only provide a small sub-program that just sits at the top of each open window you have and all it does is provide you with a few button choices as too where you want the current window to be placed. They bundled that with the user manual just for that little sub-program and put it under the title "Driver
Software".

The actual user manual was buried in a sub-section called "Manual" but since I already had a manual I thought I didn't need to go to a different section that has a manual in every language you have ever heard of. The English version was buried half way down the list and I had to deal with a total and complete Idiot for a "Tech Support" representative.

Come to find out, ASUS didn't even write software for this monitor and it depends on the original "Microsoft" Plug and Play driver to run. They didn't even design the hardware to be recognized by Microsoft's newer "1950 X 1080" that came out when these monitors were first introduced.

After having to guess t the settings for their onscreen controls for 2 days and getting colors which showed all Reds as Bright orange I completely reset my graphics card color adjusting program and even ended up uninstalling the program and resetting Windows 7's color adjustment program in control panel to it's defaults. Nothing worked with this Damn monitor, the colors were off, the IPS technology was useless and only made the incorrect colors look even worse in HD.

I spent days trying to adjust this thing until I finally did an internet search for ASUS monitor color profiles and came up with a company that makes their own profiles and (Thankfully) allows them to be downloaded for free. I tell you, it was like someone waved a magic wand over my monitor after I loaded the profile into windows Color Management program.

Even though this profile was made for a monitor they put out two years ago it worked Great and my colors were now perfect. After buying monitors for decades that came with software I was completely stumped by this and totally screwed the pooch on setting this monitor up.

One thing is now completely clear.... I will NEVER buy another product from ASUS again, I'm actually considering contacting a Law Firm to Sue their Asses off for putting this monitor on the market without anything necessary to be able to use it.

Ok, enough of my rant for now, I've vented enough for 10 forum posts.

I'm just happy to be back to skinning now but not before spending another couple hundred bucks on a new graphics card because I was Sure mine must have gone bad.

Successfully updated karma reason!

DrJBHL

Join Date 04/2002

+4254

DocWilson:

Glad to hear you found a solution for your problem.

Perhaps you'd share the url for this company's free color profiles in your OP and your subsequent reply to Lightstar?

Who knows when it might be helpful to someone else? Thanks.

Successfully updated karma reason!

Sign Up or Login and this ad disappears!
There are many great features available to you once you register. Sign Up for a free account and browse the forums without ads.

Hi DrJBHL,

Sorry for not posting the site I got my color profile from, I spent so much time just trying to find software that would make this monitor even work I am now completely exhausted and need some sleep, I can't even work on my current WIP until I get at least 8 good hours worth.

This is the site I got my profile from and they have many available profiles on the same site.

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/icc_profiles.htm

Good luck to anyone that needs a profile and didn't get one from the manufacturer. I'm still doing fine tuning on my profile made for a different ASUS model.

EDIT:

Ok everybody, after realizing that my post didn't include the site I got my profile from, I made this reply and gave out the address. After creating this reply, I went back to "Win 7's" control panel and adjusted the settings from my newly installed profile. You know what I found out.... after all my adjusting and fiddling around, what I went back to is Adobe's original

"AdobeRGB1998.icc" color profile and the results were just a smidge better than my manual adjustments.

Please forgive my newbie excitement over getting a new monitor that has IPS technology, the fact is that I do have a MUCH better display now and my skins will hopefully show the fruits of improvements that IPS offers. I truly could not see that subtle animation that Windows 7 provides with their Media Center buttons, It's a bit frustrating to know that a short color and hue shift animation that Microsoft made back in the late 2000's took all these years to see after a monitor technology advancement.

To all those that have already discovered IPS monitors, Kudos to your purchase and may you all go out and get a monitor with the new IPS advancements and enjoy creating your skins with a nice new "50,000:1" contrast ratio and the added color display capabilities this technology allows you to have.

Further addition;

I just canceled my new Graphics card order. I don't need it, my card is just fine.

Please learn from me about making a monitor purchase from ASUS in the future, I had no idea in the advertising that the monitor would come with nothing that identifies it to the Windows operating system, what a waste of design and implementation. I will temper my future posts after this.

Successfully updated karma reason!

benmanns

Join Date 12/2005

+93

I don’t want to crush in like a wild animal here but an IPS-Panel monitor for under 200USD or better said 140USD surely has pros and cons.

Asus is one of the leading company’s in this field did you check their site for software?
Did you buy that monitor on second hand ? Software is normally included ! Just like the cable unless it has presets and is plug and play no further software is required.
Also The Model name isn’t complete or the Monitor must be old since there is no VS229 without a letter behind it
A list of existing Models VS229D, VS229H, VS229H-P, VS229HR, VS229N, VS229N-C, VS229NR
for each monitor there is software to be found on Asus webpage http://www.asus.com/support/Search/Download/
under 1: LCD Monitors 2: VS series 3 your device: ******
If not it also lets you search directly by Serial Number
If all doesn’t work or your not sure just contact live support or call the support line for your country

PS: the contrast you referring to is just a number the real number is quite different if measured don’t be fooled by fancy numbers
For your next purchase i recommend a little more investigation http://www.prad.de , http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/ - techpowerup the net is full of them i can post more sites but in german and im not sure if a translator will help but if you like i will post them as well.

I hope you don’t take my post the wrong way i know it sometimes can be confusing buying hardware but i want people to realize that not everything for a cheap buck is also good and sometimes expansive stuff isn’t as well.
You can always save yourselves a lot of anger if you give it time and research about the products on 4-5 sites before you make a purchase.
Think about it if it may be better to invest more money and wait a little longer if it’s not urgent until you have the money and can afford it.
If you have a price limit pick products in that range and compare the hardware facts
I normally end up with 3-4 favourites in total that are in my price range.
I check online tests for speed heat gimmicks like pivot function magiccolor profiles grey to grey black to white intervals and color RGB/CMYK or ( noise ) if other hardware.
after that i look up what electronic parts are used conductors for example...( other hardware ) or the panel itself and the pixel gap/spacing and the viewing angle
the technology used in IPS Monitors can be sometimes confusing and be day and night if you invest serious money
If you are really interested in it you can read this : Link
If the final decision is made
Check if the rest of your hardware is compatible with the remaining products... I missed that myself on a last purchase and i suffered for it ( simply because i didn’t check if my GFX card had another connector for DVI-D ---- IF you don’t know about what connector you have check this Link
Then i normally take a look at the warranty and average lifecycle of the product and how the support is rated if i don’t know the company
After that i buy... or i wait... and compare some products above that price.

Successfully updated karma reason!

LightStar

Join Date 12/2002

+1606

I believe he resolved this issue over a month ago Rolocolor.

Successfully updated karma reason!

benmanns

Join Date 12/2005

+93

Quoting LightStar,

reply 6

I believe he resolved this issue over a month ago Rolocolor.

i know still the link to the Asus webpage might come in handy for him if no software was delivered with the monitor.
Also the checklist below might serve others that want to make future purchases.

Successfully updated karma reason!