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Two profiled monitors look different. What now?

2009-01-19 by str_online

I have attached two monitors to one dual-head graphics card on Vista.
Vista recognizes them both as "Generic Non-PnP Monitor - NVIDIA
Geforce 7800 GTX". One of the displays is a 17'' Dell 1703 FPs LCD and
the other is an old 21'' Nokia Multigraph 445X CRT.

I have both calibrated and profiled these monitors using Spyder3. Then
using Spyder3Pro software (Spyderproof) I have verified that the ICC
profiles have been applied to their respective monitors. At least when
I switch back and forth between "before calibration" and "after
calibration" the looks of the screen changes on both devices (to
better). A recalibration check tells that both screens are calibrated ok.

They should now look the same, right?
No, they don't.

I even matched their brightness by trial and error (adjust, calibrate,
repeat until good). The CRT still has a yellow cast and the LCD has a
blue cast. Or maybe it's neutral, but relatively the CRT is warmer. A
lot. Then I thought that maybe the screens frame affects visual
perception. I looked at the screens through a tube to exclude
environmental effects. The CRT is warmer.

Calibration (both monitors offer RGB adjustments that adjust color,
somehow):
LCD RGB=43%,43%,50% to produce pure white measured by Spyder.
CRT RGB=56%,51%,46% measured. But if I change these *after*
calibration and profiling to 45%,40%,52% then the screens look more like.

So... adjusting RGB on these screens makes white purer on both
devices, but if I want identical colors I need to set similar
%-values. Oops. Profiling is not supposed to work like this, so what's
wrong?

Any ideas would be much appreciated. Thanks.

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