Display Calibration System - Spyder3Elite vs X-Rite i1Display Pro

It seems like a stock off the shelf $250 i1 Display Pro does better than the $900 i1 Pro which itself does better than the $200 custom NEC i1D2 when used in SV II software on a NEC PA wide gamut monitor.
The i1 Display Pro should handily beat the i1Pro in any measurement criteria: white, dark, colors, etc. I'm somewhat surprised that you find the i1Pro superior to NEC's i1D2, but we have seen enough OEM-tuned lemons that it is not impossible.
Well it wasn't a lot better (And without having a $30,000 reference I can't be sure it even was a little better, but it can say that it swung a touch closer to the i1 display pro readings and to the factory readins os that makes me think it did do a touch better. My i1D2 is over year old now, I thought it was even closer to the i1 pro last year when for sRGB primaries and WP I believe most values were .000-.001 apart with two above that, I believe one differed by .002 and one by .003, but six of the eight values were the same or only .001 apart then, so really pretty close). Even know it's not like any radical disagreement between them. Also for NEC PA series with SV you don't need to do any dark measurements, so I wasn't comparing dark value accuracy, just bright white point and primaries, if we were to compare dark values on teh set then perhaps the story would change).
Whether it will do better than the i1pro on other monitors types I don't know yet. Apparently xrite tuned their wide gamut performance to the exact monitor I have, so perhaps when used on more random monitors and different technology the i1 pro would pull ahead again? I don't know yet.
The i1 Display Pro comes pre-loaded with correction matrices for all normal monitor types. Choosing the correct one is critical. For a given monitor technology, e.g. wide-gamut CCFL LCD or standard gamut W-LED, there is not a huge range of variability in the spectral nature of the backlight between different panels. We did not measure statistically significant differences in either absolute accuracy or variability between units depending on the brand or version of monitor for a particular technology. Also, there aren't that many manufacturers of the panels themselves, no matter whose name appears on the front. A nice feature of both the i1D3 and Discus is that because they are individually spectrally calibrated, if and when a new display technology arrives, it only requires using a new set of correction matrices to get accurate values.

It is certainly possible that a manufacturer's custom branded and tuned i1 Display Pro version may utilize correction values more precisely suited to a given monitor. As for the i1Pro, its inherent lack of sensitivity for darker values and overall lower accuracy make it unlikely to pull ahead.
Good point, with most monitors, you won't have the facny 14 bit 3D LUT and extreme linearity so dark value measurements WILL matter and that might overcome any panel to probe tuning differences.
Again take it all with a grain of salt, only tried it on one monitor with three probes, not enough sample sizes there, but taking educated guesses that is what I say for now.
After characterizing 13 i1D3 pucks on over a dozen monitors, I'd say you are right on the money. BTW, what are the three probes?
The ones mentioned, an i1 Pro from x-rite, an i1 Display Pro from x-rite and an i1 D2 custom from NEC. I also tried a couple DTP94b again for kicks (one from spectracal). As I knew they read the WP way wrong with SV II since that applies no compensation matrix for them. They read the blue and even red primary not much differently from the others, it was the green primary and wp were they got much different readings, also they read a lower luminance for the WP than the other probes, especially the one copy.

But yeah, as your report stated, the i1 Display Pro does appear to be quite amazing and add in it's relatively low price and I mean wow. I'm glad you did the tests otherwise I might have never bothered giving it a look.
 
Actually here are readings I got, just for kicks:

first with the monitor set to native gamut, RGB primary xy values only:

According to factory settings it should be (at least when new and it's far from now):
R .678,.312
G .200,.694
B .152,.054

"( )" are deltas from factory setting claims

With i1 Pro:
R .679,.309 (.001,.003)
G .214,.690 (.014,.004)
B .152,.056 (.000,.002)

With NEC i1D2:
R .683,.306 (.005,.006)
G .214,.691 (.014,.003)
B .152,.057 (.000,.003)

With i1 Display Pro:
R .679,.308 (.001,.004)
G .207,.694 (.007,.000)
B .152,.054 (.000,.000)

i1 D Pro is closest to original factory readings, still off on green, but much closer than with the other probes, only red y is worse than i1 pro (this assumes zero drift, the monitor does have a TON of hours on it). The i1 Pro and i1D2 from NEC are actually quite close or identical other than when it comes to reading the red primary (and maybe white point, forget to write the WP stuff down for native mode).

AND

now for when it was in a modified sRGB emulation mode I list here the factory claims as the mode had been programmed (it doesn't match to probe measured ideal primary locations and WP since I hadn't recalibrated this mode for like 8 weeks):

factory settings claim it should read:
WP .307,.327
R .638,.333
G .291,.602

B .150 (take it as .152 though since the PA can not actually hit below .152),.057

again "( )" are deltas to the factory settings, note that the set has been used a lot so some drift is to be expected, especially for the WP so the factory claims are not necessarily the ideal goal, a slight bias in that direction might hint at the more accurate direction(?)

NEC i1D2 before being warmed up:
WP .319,.335,94.8 (.012,.008)
R .645,.327 (.007,.005)
G .303,.600 (.012,.002)
B .152,.063 (.000,.006)

NEC i1D2 after sitting on the screen for 20 mins and then being continuous read from for about 20-25min (the latter seemed to help it warm up much more than the former):
WP .316,.331,94.45 (.009,.004) [delta to pre-warmup a significant .003,.004]
R .644,.327 (.006,.005) [delta to pre-warmup .001,.000]
G .3025,.600 (.0115,.002) [.0005,.000]
B .152,.062 (.000,.005) [.000,.0001]

So warming up an i1D2 makes little difference when it comes to measuring the primaries but a significant difference when it comes to reading the white point.

i1 Pro:
WP .315,.3325,95.4 (.008,.0055)
R .640,.329,20.43 (.002,.004)
G .302,.600,68.8 (.011,.002)
B .152,.062,7.1 (.000,.005)

The i1 Pro readings are nearly the same as the NEC i1 D2 readings other than for the red primary). They are still closer than I thought, when I first started writing I hadn't done the warmed up values yet.

i1 Display Pro with no warm-up:
WP .311,.329,92.6 (.004,.002)
R .640,.329,19.8 (.002,.004)
G .296,.603,67.4 (.005,.001)
B .152,.059,6.72 (.000,.002)

i1 Display Pro after 10+ minutes of continuous read warm-up:
WP .3095,.327,92.9 (.0025,.000)
R .639,.329,19.72 (.001,.004)
G .2955,.6015,66.96 (.0045,.0005)
B .152,.058,6.73 (.000,.001)

So the i1 Display Pro read things as being darker than the other two with the i1 Pro have the brightess take on things. The i1 Display Pro readings were closer to factory measurement expectations (although after so much usage who knows what the ideal is).

The i1 Display Pro seems to read best after about 10 min of continously reading to warm it up after a real lot of non-stop usage for a long time it might start drifting a bit too far, not sure.

It basically read the same as the factory for the primaries other than for green x and red y and both of the other probes read those values differently too and in the same direction of different although the other two read the green x as being much more different, for the red y all teh probes agreed with eachother and not with the factory measurement at this point.

For kicks here are DTP94b readings without matrix compensation (or warm up):
coloreyes older copy:
WP .331,.333,92 (.024,.006)
R .642,.330 (.004,.003)
G .318,.589 (.027,.013)
B .155,.063 (.003,.006)

newer copy from and said to have been calibrated by spectracal:
WP .329,.331,90.5 (.022,.004)
R .642,.331 (.004,.002)
G .315,.592 (.024,.010)
B .153,.062 (.001,.005)

This one had slightly lower deltas but still in no agreement at all whatsoever about green primary or the white point with any of the other probe types or with the factory calimed values, although R and B primary readings were no more out of the ordinary than with some of the other probes and actually it read the red primary even closer to the factory setting than the compensated NEC i1D2 and about the same when it came to the B primary.

The DTP94b read the white point darker than any of the other probes, especially the spectracal calibrated one (maybe their filters block too much green light?), although the coloreyes one was close to the i1 Display Pro brightness readings.

Without a $30,000 reference measuring the screen as it is now, I'm left to guessing and speculating about things though.
 
I believe I have the values measured when the set was new, written down somewhere. I wonder if they show any evidence of Green x or Red y drift over time. Not sure where they are but I must have them somewhere.
 
I wonder if the i1 Display Pro WP readings, closer to the original factory setting is more accurate or the i1D2 and i1Pro which agree with each other almost exactly but differ somewhat noticeably from the i1 Display Pro. I tend to lean toward trusting the i1 Display Pro more for a few reasons but I could easily prove to be mistaken in that.

It would be interesting to see what another copy or two of each of the probes would say and if any sort of pattern would emerge and most interesting to be lent a $30,000 probe for a day :).
 
I think both systems are great, the issue seem to be the price. You can purchase a New Mac for the

price of the X-rite system. I'm not sure of the price of the spyder3elite.
 
Dennier wrote:

I think both systems are great, the issue seem to be the price. You can purchase a New Mac for the

price of the X-rite system.
Which new Mac you can get for $209? I guess you are confusing the i1 Display Pro monitor calibrator with the i1 Pro 2 spectrophotometer.
 
markkuk wrote:
Dennier wrote:

I think both systems are great, the issue seem to be the price. You can purchase a New Mac for the

price of the X-rite system.
Which new Mac you can get for $209? I guess you are confusing the i1 Display Pro monitor calibrator with the i1 Pro 2 spectrophotometer.
Yes, he is...

BTW, the i1 Display Pro is Fast&Furious ! :)

I am satisfied.
 

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