[filmscanners] RE: Digital Darkroom Computer Builders?

["Paul D. DeRocco" <pderocco@ix.netcom.com>]

>From what I can gather from the Matrox Parhelia marketing info, you can't
_really_ color manage three different monitors. Their three-head display is
intended for three identical monitors. What's more, in that mode, you can
only get three 1280x1024 displays, which is pretty measly. Fortunately, it
can do a pair of 2048x1536 displays, which is pretty cool.

Also, the 10-bit "Giga-color" display is something that can only be used by
launching an applet or Photoshop plug-in. It doesn't just make the entire
display automatically ten bits deep. However, even in 8-bit mode, having a
10-bit DAC is useful because it keeps the color lookup table curves from
introducing posterization through round-off errors.

What the world _really_ needs is a video card with an ICM engine built into
the hardware for each output. That would make possible identical color on
dissimilar displays.

--

Ciao,               Paul D. DeRocco
Paul                mailto:pderocco@ix.netcom.com

> From: Laurie Solomon
>
> Nowhere that I could see on the Matrox web
> site does it say that each of the three monitors are independently color
> managable from the card.  It says that you can set the color depth and
> grayscale gamma for the three heads and produce the same accurrate color
> across the three monitors (implied but not stated is that one is using the
> same size, make, model, and age monitors for all three displays); however,
> it does not say that they are independently changable or
> profileable so that
> one can color manage different size, makes, models, and age
> monitors on the
> different heads in a whay so as to match them to each other as well as to
> other components in the system.  The implication is that you can set the
> settings so as to establish a characterization that will control all the
> heads and the attached displays the same even if the monitors are
> different.

>
> I did see on their web page something about a software bundle
> that includes
> software that will enable color management of each monitor separately ( or
> at least that is how I read it) but it is unclear if (a) this bundle is
> included with the card or an optional purchase, (b) if the software in the
> bundle is dedicated to their three head card or will also work on
> their dual
> head cards, and (c) how it differs from other monitor calibration packages
> like the Spyder and its software.

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