AndrewSwihart.net

Great article. Thank you very much for your time.

After reading this I am so close to the idea of buying the C panel.

— Volkan Görgülü · May 28, 01:26 PM · #

what video card are you using?

thanks

— agloco · May 28, 06:11 PM · #

@Volkan: Glad you enjoyed it! I always wanted to write up some kind of hardware review like this. There should be more to come on my site, as time allows and as I get new stuff to play with.

@agloco: I’m using a 9800 Pro.

— Andrew Swihart · May 28, 07:11 PM · #

Very nice profiles, make my 226BW look great. Even 75% is usually too bright for me for just web browsing (75 and 100 look great in games though) so I cut it back to 50 for the internet. The color and grays look wonderful at all brightness levels though.

Thanks!

— Lightmgl · May 28, 10:47 PM · #

Used your settings and ICC profile for 75% on my Mac and it looks great !

— Gordon · May 29, 03:40 AM · #

It’s cool to know that so many people are benefiting from this article!

Because low brightness settings seem to be getting used by a lot of people, I am going to make more profiles for 50 and 25 Brightness tonight. It will be interesting to see if there is a noticeable difference between them.

— Andrew Swihart · May 29, 07:48 AM · #

Thanks, you just saved me a lot of trouble, because I wanted to return my monitor :) Your settings worked fine (75% brightness), allthough I had to lower the blue to 35, because grays still looked blue on my screen – but that was rather easy, since most of the work allready had been done. So again, thank you for your help!

— Lars E · May 29, 02:07 PM · #

After some total tweaking with my monitor I ended up with 45 red, 45 green, 35 blue at 75 brightness and 70 contrast for everything. Lars must’ve had the same thing I did, the brighter greys (eee, ddd) looked blueish still but the mids and the darks looked great.

I have a hard time taking contrast past the 60-70 range, it begins to blend the lightest greys into the white too much.

— Lightmgl · May 29, 02:31 PM · #

URL

http://www.behardware.com/articles/667-1/samsung-226bw-a-and-s-series-the-verdict.html

After reading this article, I am confused again :( If you have read it too, what do you think about it?

— Volkan Görgülü · May 30, 12:22 AM · #

Anyone having trouble with backlight bleeding on their c panels? Not only do I have bleeding around all the edges of the screen, but I also have a big light area in the MIDDLE of the screen – is this normal or is it broken? The middle part is only really visible when I turn off all the light in the room, but still, it is there.

I’m a webdesigner, and I use the screen for a bit of Photoshop-work. And here I find it very anoying, because if I try and make a document in the size of the whole screen, and color it in a massive/flat color (orange for instance), the color looks like it’s a big gradient. I know that the screen doesn’t have the best viewing angles, (and tends to be dark in the top when viewed from below) but still, this is kind of extreme. Has anyone experienced a similar problem? And is this related to the c panel, or is it also an issue on the s panel?

And finally, when working in Windows, if I try and drag a window across the screen, there are some “graphical errors” happening, it kind of “distorts” the windows that lies beneath the window I’m dragging. It’s hard to explain, but there are big squares filled with a massive color, that are dragged after the window. Looks weird – anyone experienced that?

— Lars E · May 30, 01:15 AM · #

@Volkan – What’s confusing? They tested the A and S panels, while I tested the C panel. I think that article combined with mine shows that no matter what panel you get, you’ll be just fine once you install a good ICC profile.

@Lars – What is your Brightness setting? Even at 100% I don’t see the effect in the middle of the screen you are talking about, but if I had to guess, it's probably uneven backlighting. I haven't been bothered with bleeding around the edges of the screen too much. A little bit of this is very common in a lot of monitors though, and in most cases it's easy to ignore. Some people go hunting for it with a black screen and cry bloody murder if they see the slightest bit of it. If it's getting on your nerves, I think you have grounds for making an RMA.

As far as color looking like a gradient, this is a common problem with TN panels, which is caused by the poor viewing angle. You don’t even have to be more than several degrees off-axis before you begin to notice changes in brightness and color. Combine that with the fact that it’s a 6-bit panel dithered to 8-bit, and you realize it’s not a good choice for photo or graphics work. It’s great for gaming and most other uses though.

On that note, Behardware looked at brightness homogeneity and found the "A" to be superior to the "S"! I can't replicate this test with my "C", because they don't say how they did their measurements.

Personally I don’t mind the poor viewing angle too much. I haven’t experienced your problem with window graphical errors, either. Maybe you have a bad unit, but I’d have to really see what you’re talking about to say for sure.

— Andrew Swihart · May 30, 05:55 AM · #

The only issue I get with the viewing angle is at the very very top and bottom things are a slightly different shade. Looking at the center I get slightly warmer colors towards the top and slightly cooler towards the bottom. Nothing unexpected from TN panels though.

— Lightmgl · May 30, 04:37 PM · #

for the “graphical errors” that occurs for example in dragging a window, turn off RTQ

— darkwing · May 31, 05:41 AM · #

Thank You For Your efforts!! i was so displeased with the grainy text / dried out looking colors.. then i searched google and found your review, and your profiles fixed my C model. thanks again!

— Mani-aX · May 31, 05:49 AM · #

Well after all the research I decided to go ahead and get 226BW yesterday. BestBuy convinced me that they have been getting only “S” panel.

But I ended up getting “C” panel. Honestly when I opened the monitor, I was about to return at next minute after checking the panel model. However I connected my laptop and I was amazed so the default color profile. I didnt have any issues with colors at all and yes .. no color bleeding at all. Yes there is some light bleeding from top n bottom when you have some dark screen but I am not sure if that bothers me all.

But I was surprised to see that “C” Panel doing really gr8 job. I do consider myself IT geek and I didnt see the issues people have noticed.

I was also considering the other Samsung model 225BW and LG’s new 22”. Its funny to see that all the 3 models are sold at same price.

The contrast ratio is just gr8… It does have 2ms response .. color sharpness is just gr8. I did feel sometime little tinge of green and I did manage to get over it by tuning the color as per this guide ( thanx for this article )

I wonder if I am missing something here ? SHould I return this and get 225bw instead

— Amit W · May 31, 10:06 AM · #

if you are happy with it, keep it, also i don’t think LG’s WTQ has an option to turn off ‘Overdrive’ or RTQ for Samsung

— darkwing · May 31, 10:15 AM · #

Andrew, you are a legend. Your settings for rgb and the cal file have given a stay of execution to my c panel. Anyone out there using a 7900gs with a c panel care to share settings?

— anders · May 31, 10:30 AM · #

Thanks again, Andrew. The graphical error I wrote about is not related to the monitor, because I found out that it does the same thing on my crt-monitor. So I’m thinking that maybe my graphic card can’t keep up with two monitors at one time.

Darkwing, do you mean RTA? I tried to turn that off, no effect though. But again, maybe it’s my graphic card (a Geforce 7600 GS).

— Lars E · May 31, 12:50 PM · #

My article is ranked highly in Google, coming up as the first result for “226BW C”, “226BW LCD”, “226BW ICC”, second for “226BW calibration”, fourth for “226BW color”, and there are a lot more I won’t list.

You’re all welcome, and you can also thank Google for helping you locate my article.

While you’re here, check out my free movies and music, and let me know if you find something you like ;)

— Andrew Swihart · May 31, 04:34 PM · #

@Lars E, yup i mean RTA, ahh then it looks like your monitor is fine then :)

Thanks to Andrew again for a great article!

— darkwing · May 31, 07:58 PM · #

One More thing I noticed in my monitor is that in the hidden Service Function the Version is M-ME22WBDA-1003 and the Penel Info line is not seen anymore. This has manufacturing date of April 2007. I must say the colors are gr8!!

— Amit W · Jun 1, 02:40 AM · #

interesting, mine has a April 2007 also, and I still have a Panel Info line :D yup the colors are great! and i do Photoshop work :D

— darkwing · Jun 1, 05:22 AM · #

Great review and thanks for the settings. Every one ells seems to be dissing the C panels. I wander if you could add a bit about back light bleed and black level as I thought this would be much better especulay when compared to my old 19” LCD monitor. Also could you add a bit about MagicColor, Contrast, sharpness and any other relevant settings.

— Nikos · Jun 1, 04:39 PM · #

Nikos, I have noticed a little backlight bleed along the top and bottom edges, but only when the screen is black. It’s slightly more on the bottom. I don't have another monitor to compare it to, but I personally think it's mild. And as my screen is rarely black, it barely gets the occasion to show itself.

As for the other monitor settings, just follow my instructions. You have to reset everything to the factory defaults, then just let the color profile do it’s thing, and tweak the RGB sliders if you like. Contrast and sharpness all look great to me, so I have no reason to change those settings from the factory defaults. I mentioned MagicColor for the sake of completeness, but I find its effects exaggerated and I prefer changing the Brightness level and color profile for different applications, such as typing on a word processor at night (low brightness) vs. playing an FPS game (high brightness).

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 1, 05:41 PM · #

Yup, there’s a little backlight bleed in the top and bottom edges when the screen is completely black like when a game/windows is loading. For me I added a notch in the Sharpness in the Nvidia control panel. MagicColor seems to be not needed when your color profile is working good

— darkwing · Jun 1, 06:09 PM · #

Anyone having trouble with Wincolor remembering your selected profile after you reboot? I have to open Wincolor manually every time, and select my profile, which is kind of anyoing. I have removed all the other profiles, disabled my second monitor, and set the profile as default, but still I have to say “set as default” every time. Is there some trick that I have missed here?

BTW... got my first pixel error today in the upper left corner – a shiny red pixel… sucks! :(

— Lars E · Jun 2, 12:10 AM · #

Sorry if this is off-topic…

I also want to profile my monitor, but before profiling, it says I should set it to a specific gamma (say, 2.2) and a color temperature (say 6500k)... how do I set this in the Samsung 226BW? For gamma, I think it was just mode 1,2, and 3, and for temp, it was warm, neutral, cool…

— Alfred · Jun 2, 12:49 AM · #

Ey! thanks for the article… I carefully readed it cos I got a brand new C panel, and a followed your steps to have a better color. My problem is that every time a reboot my pc the color set at wincolor doesn’t work… and I have to open again the program and set it as default ONCE AGAIN... do you know the way to set it permanently ? THANKS a lot !!

— Luis · Jun 2, 02:10 AM · #

I’m not sure about WinColor, I actually use a utility that comes with the Spyder2 called ProfileChooser.

But here are some ideas:
Go to Display in the Control Panel, Settings tab -> Advanced -> Color Management tab, and set the profile there. Maybe it will load when you reboot.

Also you could try adding WinColor to your Startup folder so that it loads with Windows, but this would only help if WinColor automatically loads the profile when it starts. Hope that helps!

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 2, 06:07 AM · #

Yeah, I have the same problem that Lars and Luis have, being that the color profile gets reset every time Windows is restarted. I tried everything that you suggested Andrew, to no avail. Hopefully somebody knows what we’re talking about.

— Zack · Jun 2, 07:23 AM · #

OK, I found something else on this. Click the Start button -> Open All Users, navigate into Programs -> Startup folder. Put a shortcut to WinColor.exe here. Right-click the shortcut, click Properties, and add /L to the end of the Target field, so it should look something like this: “C:\Program Files\Pro Imaging Powertoys\Microsoft Color Control Panel Applet for Windows XP\WinColor.exe” /L

This tells it to load the LUT (look-up table) when it starts. Also be sure you don't have any other LUT loaders in your Startup folder or otherwise set to start with Windows, such as Adobe Gamma or Powerstrip.

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 2, 07:59 AM · #

First of all, thanks for making these profiles available. I truly enjoy the screen more after color correction! I also had the problem mentioned above when re-booting. Your last fix worked though. I can actually see the colors changing when log on. Thanks!

— Georg · Jun 2, 09:06 AM · #

Great!

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 2, 09:22 AM · #

i wonder, how i could use this excellent information on my mac mini (os x 10.4.9) since i haven’t used the colorsync app before.

— count47 · Jun 2, 03:20 PM · #

I picked out this monitor b/c it had impressive specs. But after I got it home and I had been playing CS:source for a few minutes, I noticed the “halo” effect a lot of others had reported. At first, I thought I was crazy, but then I started reading about the “s” and “c” and “a” panel stuff, and saw a lot of other people had similar problems. I was wondering if any other readers have a c panel that have used these color settings and had the halo affect dissappear from source games?

— JustinJofRaleigh · Jun 2, 07:54 PM · #

@count47 - http://www.apple.com/uk/pro/pdf/ColorSync_TO.pdf

I'm sure there are simpler instructions out there, but that's what I found in a pinch.

@Justin - Are you talking about backlight bleeding around the edges or something else? I’ve played CS:S and it is incredible; I have no complaints at all. I can only see the backlight bleed when the game is loading with a black screen. These color profiles will not improve backlight bleeding. If you are talking about something other than the backlight, can you be more specific about what you're seeing?

As for the A vs. S vs. C debate, I think my article and the one at Behardware puts it to rest. Basically these are all 6-bit TN panels, and that will be the source of the downsides they all have in common, and with a good color profile they are all practically identical as far as color and response time.

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 2, 08:09 PM · #

I’ve had a ‘C’ panel for 2 days, I use it for a mix of gaming, movies, web and photo editing. I’m using it next to a first generation Iiyama E431S which has much better colour out of the box. I’ve found the following:

The profiles provided here do a great job, but only for the desktop. Video overlays are controlled separately so still look blue. As a compromise I’m using the default Samsung profile with the panel set in ‘Movie’ mode. Does anybody know of a way to apply the ICC profile to an ATI card overlay?

There is a bright stripe up the centre of the screen, only visible when the display is black so not a big problem.

‘RTA’ is not very controlled for dark objects on a light background, leaving a bright halo. This is especially noticeable in the snow sequence of ‘The Empire Strikes Back’. So I’ve turned it off and am happy with 5ms.

Dynamic contrast is awful.

— Ian S · Jun 3, 01:10 AM · #

I am referring to something completely different. For example, when a character runs across the screen, there is his image, and a “halo” affect that trails behind him. I read an article on www.behardware.com (one of the sites you link to above) that says the only way to get rid of this for the c panel is to disable the overdrive. Also, apparently there are two versions of the “C” panel now as well. One made by a company with a worse reputation than che mei.

— JustinJofRaleigh · Jun 3, 06:24 AM · #

Thx Andrew for your great review!
Will be trying these new settings on my CMO panel screen later.
Just one question, the Spyder2 you used is it the Express version?

@Ian S
Got the same problem with a bright stripe, wich has more the shape of the letter H in he middle of my screen. But idd, only visible when you look at black screen. Here’s an in depth review of all the settings in the Catalyst Control panel for ATI cards. Including how to change colors. Check page 8: http://www.tweakguides.com/ATICAT_1.html

@JustinJofRaleigh
Idd, CPT panel:
http://www.behardware.com/medias/photos_news/00/20/IMG0020047.gif

— Roberto · Jun 3, 06:41 AM · #

Thanks for the feedback. Are you sure it’s not an 8-bit panel as it can show 16.7 million colours.

— Nikos · Jun 3, 07:20 AM · #

@Justin – I haven’t experienced that halo effect you describe, hope I never do, but from what Ian S said, try turning off RTA to see if that helps.

I should add an update with some of the info that's been turned up in the past couple days. I can't believe they are now using a fourth panel in this thing, and also called a "C" panel!

@Roberto – I used the Spyder2PRO actually. The Express doesn’t let you do the white-point tweaking pre-calibration. Although I wonder about the importance of that step. I’ve calibrated it without doing the white-point tweaking and if there is a difference, it’s subtle. The hardware between all the flavors of the Spyder2 is identical.

@Nikos – Yes, it is a 6-bit panel dithered to produce 8-bit color. It is actually only capable of 262,144 colors, but it uses trickery that fools your eye into thinking it’s making all the extra colors. I don’t know if it’s the fact that it’s 6-bit or what, but I actually can tell a difference between the 226BW and my old 191T (8-bit), and I’d give the edge to the 191T in terms of color “richness”.

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 3, 09:04 AM · #

Thanks Andrew, your tips worked and now I have the color profile loaded as soon as I start windows… I have another question for all the 226BW users… Did anyone hear like a “beep” from the monitor while it is shutted down? It’s the second time I hear like an usual bios machine beep or something, and I think it’s the monitor… Does it have a speaker to do it ?

— Luis · Jun 3, 11:01 AM · #

Theres already a “D” panel appeared here in Philippines. Know any info on the D panel? Thx

— Kerb · Jun 3, 11:27 AM · #

Thanks for the revew, it was very helpful, found your site through your newegg review. I talked myself into getting the Sypder2 (expess) after endless unsuccessful fussing with everything.

What was driving me completely nuts was the constant blue-shift even after the Sypder2 calibration…especially noticeable in the light grays as the reviewer above mentioned.
It turns out, however, that I solved this by lifting the monitor up several inches! The viewing angle on my C panel is so very tight that and if I look down at all I get the blue shift as well as a fading of text (this was not the case on my old 191T). And this monitor comes with a too short stand anyhow…got an ergotron arm on the way. Looking straight on or even slightly up gives me the true colors.

For the record, my brightness is 15 and contrast is 75 and I knocked the blue down to 45…may tweak this a bit more later. I’m using Windows Vista with GeForce 8600.

— erik · Jun 3, 12:29 PM · #

Thanks, Andrew. Wincolor is now loading the profile at startup.

— Lars E · Jun 3, 01:04 PM · #

I have noticed when starting up CS:S and other games the color profile turns off and the blue hue returns, is there any way to force games to use your profile. Thanks.

— James A · Jun 3, 05:33 PM · #

@James A – I notice this as well, although it hasn’t bothered me much since I seem to ignore it or get used to it.

I wonder if Powerstrip would do the trick. I know it lets you associate monitor settings with specific applications, like HL2.exe, and I’m reading a few things I found that make it sound like you can do this with color profiles. You could give that a try. I’ll look into it when I get a chance.

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 3, 08:03 PM · #

there’s seems to be another “C” panel type in the wild now, its the CPT one, different from the CMO, and its got some bad behavior, best check the hidden service menu

For the chaning color profile while playing games, I’ve been playing BF2142 and it doesn’t seem to affect my profile when i go back to windows, strange, must be game specific

— darkwing · Jun 4, 12:55 AM · #

@luis: there’s no speaker for the monitor

— darkwing · Jun 4, 01:15 AM · #

OK, I just tried Powerstrip, hadn’t used that program for a while, but it doesn’t seem to have any option to load ICC profiles, so there goes that. If anyone knows a way to keep a color profile loaded when you go into a game like Half-Life 2, please share your wisdom.

While messing around with Powerstrip, I was using the monitor without a color profile for the first time since I got it. I just loaded it back on, and wow, what a difference. You can’t fully appreciate how bad the color is on this monitor until you use a good ICC profile to correct it. Oh well, this is old news, but I’m still impressed.

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 4, 06:42 AM · #

With my Nvidia card i can set a specific color profile to be used for a specific game. This can be found under the advanced tab of the global settings menu in the control panel.

— Roberto · Jun 4, 07:34 AM · #

@Roberto,

I never thought of that. Although I did try and load the profile Andrew provided under the Nvidia settings and it did not work correctly (screen became very bright) Were you using his or one of your own. Thanks.

— James A · Jun 4, 10:39 AM · #

@Roberto – Are you sure it’s actually loading ICC color profiles with that setting? Or is it just some other color settings you can save and load from the nVidia control panel?

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 4, 01:19 PM · #

hmmm have you guys tried this?

http://www.hex2bit.com/products/product_mcw.asp

— darkwing · Jun 4, 09:07 PM · #

darkwing, I did not try that program, but the general problem with programs that do not use a colorimeter (like the Spyder) is that they ask the user to compare items on the screen to calibrate. Color is a very personal perception and response to color varies from person-to-person. Of course you should use one if you don’t have a Spyder, but a colorimeter solution is preferred, at least for pros or people who are just anal. :)

— Dave · Jun 5, 11:12 AM · #

Ey guys did anyone noticed that in the official ChiMei WebPage they list the specs for the M220Z1 (our samsung panel C) and they say it has contrst ratio 700:1 and 5 ms response time… does anyone know if this is what we bought or if they made any changes for the samsung panels ?? samsung says we are buying contrast 1000:1 and 2ms response time…

— Luis · Jun 5, 05:30 PM · #

I know the 2ms is due to the RTA overdrive. Both the “A” and “S” panels are also rated at 5ms overdriven to 2ms. Not sure about the contrast ratio, but I’m guessing they just measured it differently.

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 5, 06:05 PM · #

@Dave, I didn’t use the wizard on the program, I just loaded Andrew’s profile, pressed Save on the program, checked Load at Windows startup and Persistent profile

@Luis, if its 700:1 then even at 100% its too bright for me to use and yes the 2ms is due to the RTA overdrive, otherwise the panel is just a 5ms

— darkwing · Jun 5, 07:53 PM · #

Great calibration Andrew, I recently puchased this at pc connection and got a C panel the color looks good with your calibration but the backlight bleeding is annoying me so I called Samsung up to see what they can offer so they argread to RMA this one but im a little concerned on what new panel they’ll send to me so if ever I get a much crappier one then I’ll just opt to keep my first one and try some High Temperature silicone tape at the tip of the LCD itself, Any here tried this technique before??? I found it on a forum on how to fix backlight bleeding
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/dell2005_backlight_fix.htm

— foxhound2001 · Jun 6, 12:54 PM · #

I’m surprised with the number of people here complaining about backlight bleeding. I would definitely request an RMA if it’s really bothering you.

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 6, 02:58 PM · #

hi, recently got a 226BW C panel, actually when i got into the hidden service menu it doesnt have PANEL INFO, just wonder if i got a CPT panel, but the sticker behind the monitor stated its a C, but no matter what its works great with Andrew icc file, great works!!

— wz · Jun 6, 07:25 PM · #

@Andrew, sorry for the late response but your right. The Nvidia control panel does load icc profiles, but they only work correctly if created in the Nvidia control panel.

@wz Yes, Samsung started to delete the panel info line in the service menu.
What do they wan’t to hide from us? :s

— Roberto · Jun 7, 01:42 PM · #

Oh ic, another que how to go about checking the bleeding of my monitor? i would like to know how much my monitor bleeds ;D

— wz · Jun 8, 12:57 AM · #

Thx man for this great article! Veery helpfull) At least after calibration it’s really good monitor IMHO)

— DI · Jun 8, 06:26 AM · #

checking the bleeding? everytime the monitor displays a dark screen, personally don’t really mind it, coz the screen is so bright when there is something on it lol

— darkwing · Jun 8, 07:23 AM · #

Thanks for the review. I just picked up a “C” model and it looks great after I used your settings. I placed my order before I knew of the controversy and I feel much better about my purchase now.

— Roo · Jun 8, 10:59 AM · #

@wz, DI, Roo – You’re welcome ;)

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 8, 04:13 PM · #

Argghh! Just hooked up my 2nd “C” monitor after having returned the 1st due to the differences in color shading from bottom to top. In a nutshell, the screen is lighter on the bottom and darker on the top. If you use the scroll bar to move a picture up the screen, you can see the darkening of the pic. Likewise for the backgound highlight for when you navigate up the program listing after clicking on the start button. The response from Samsung was that it was repair issue. And this 2nd “C” monitor has the same characteristics. Wondering if there’s something that I’m missing… Thoughts?

— OrionR6 · Jun 9, 05:41 PM · #

I’ve been looking hard for something to persist ICC profiles in games (It seems to be games that don’t take desktop gamma settings that reset it). I get the nasty blue back in City of Heroes, HL2, and some other stuff. Anyways it seems none of the actual drivers support ICC, just their own stuff; and nothing that persists the profile seems to keep it from reverting to default from this… Perhaps there is some way to recreate the exact gamme adjustments using the build in video card driver profiler?

— Lightmgl · Jun 9, 06:46 PM · #

@OrionR6 – This is common to all TN “gaming” LCD monitors, as mentioned a few times in my review and in some of the comments above.

Just return the monitor if you can’t stand it, or try to accept it. Doing more exchanges isn’t going to help :-).

@Lightmgl – It's definitely annoying, but I get used to it after a short while and the response time still rocks. I haven’t looked for other solutions since Powerstrip failed me a while ago. Please post back if you find something that works!

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 9, 07:15 PM · #

Well I haven’t found anything that’ll take an ICM profile that works. I’ve just been trying to reproduce the appearance your profiles give with the built into gamma correction of the nvidia drivers but I guess they aren’t as adjustable as ICM 2.0 :/. The settings there persist within games, its just a shame you can only use their formats and not an ICM format for profiles.

— Lightmgl · Jun 9, 07:55 PM · #

Thanks Andrew for the review. Like many others I picked up a “C” model and I can confirm it looks great after I applied your settings.

— jmedos · Jun 9, 08:32 PM · #

Thanks Andrew, as I had missed the earlier comments. This is a bit disappointing as I had intend to use the monitor for the home office and photo processing, and I’m not a big gamer (may have to give it a shot though). But the top-to-bottom variation is noteworthy flaw for photo processing. :( Any ideas on a second option?

— OrionR6 · Jun 10, 03:41 AM · #

@Lightmgl – I am going to put in a support request for CS:S to see what they have to say. I wonder if there is a way to disable the gamma loader that cancels my profile every time the game starts.

@OrionR6 – Look at a Samsung 215TW, it has a great viewing angle and true 8-bit color, things you want to have for photo work. It has a decent 8ms response time, so can be used for gaming. Size is 21”, but is has the same resolution as the 226BW, and it’s a bit pricey.

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 10, 06:42 AM · #

Thanks a lot for this, Andrew. One more question, though. What gamma mode should I have the panel when using these profiles?

— Jason · Jun 10, 09:28 AM · #

Excellent review, Andrew! I purchased my “C” panel a little over three weeks ago, and I’m pretty much satisfied with this monitor. Well, with the exception of a fair amount of backlight bleeding on the bottom portion of the screen, and the dark (on top) to light (on bottom) color gradient. So is it safe to assume that this is a “flaw” with pretty much all “C” panels? In order for me to view the screen with equal color and brightness uniformity, I practically have to stand up and view the screen at an eye level above the top of the monitor by a few inches. Is this normal?

— Tarkus2040 · Jun 10, 09:50 AM · #

@Jason – When you do the reset operations in the monitor's on-screen setup interface, like I did prior to making all of the profiles, it sets the Gamma to Mode 1. So that’s the setting I’d recommend using, but if you like the other ones, use them!

I don’t know if it’s just me or what, but sometimes whites and light tones still seem to have a cool blue cast to them, even with the profiles loaded. So, I have experimented with turning down the blue on the RGB sliders to -30 or so, and this has fixed any trace of “coolness” to the display. I may make another set of profiles with this manual adjustment set prior to the calibration, to see how it compares.

My point is this: most everyone who has used these profiles has seen a dramatic improvement, although it still may not be perfect for everyone’s taste. If that’s the case, try playing with the Gamma Modes, RGB sliders, or other settings yourself to improve things to your liking. In general though, the factory settings should be the starting point. You can do an A/B comparison following any changes you make by going to Image Reset or Color Reset and toggling between Yes and No.

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 10, 12:18 PM · #

@Tarkus2040 – Several people have asked this, and yes it is normal and expected of all monitors with TN panels. Typically though, you shouldn’t have to stand above the monitor for the best image, but rather your line of sight should be perfectly perpendicular to the screen. The reason the top and bottom look dark and light, respectively, is because the monitor has a poor viewing angle, and even though you are looking directly at the center, the top and bottom are already several degrees off-axis. It’s a significant drawback, but something I can live with for now.

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 10, 12:31 PM · #

Everyone, if you enjoyed the review and are using the profiles I’ve made, you can buy me a drink by clicking the “Make a Donation” button I’ve added underneath the ICC profile links above. Thanks!

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 10, 01:49 PM · #

again, why don’t u try this for fixing the profile in games, m not completely sure it works in the game that’s why i need a confirmation :D
http://www.hex2bit.com/products/product_mcw.asp

— darkwing · Jun 10, 09:20 PM · #

darkwing – Sorry I thought you were recommending that program for people who don't have a colorimeter. It does have a feature for making color profiles stay in games, but like the Nvidia control panel option someone mentioned earlier, it only works for profiles made using that program. It uses .mcw files, not .icm files. Still, it is probably better than nothing to use this and at least get rid of the blue shift and correct the gamma a bit, and the wizard in this program should help you make good adjustments.

If only something like this existed for general ICC profiles we’d have our solution.

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 11, 07:46 AM · #

Hi Andrew, I’m having some difficulty with the 75% profile holding. I followed your instructions and when I set that profile as default the monitor looks great. However when I reboot I can immediately tell it has gone back to the brighter washed out look. I quickly load the color tool and highlight the profile and choose set as default and voila it looks good again. Is there any reason this isnt holding. I have also installed Majic Tune and Natural Color Pro but haven’t used them. Thanks in advance.

— Phil · Jun 11, 06:12 PM · #

Phil – Check my comment #31 above for instructions on how to get the profile to load with Windows. Be sure you don’t have any of those other color programs loading with Windows either. Glad you’ve seen an improvement!

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 11, 07:24 PM · #

Thanks the shortcut worked great. I am curious though, why others using XP are not having to create this shortcut? I did find under (services.msc) that Majic Tune was loading automatically. I have disabled it but am not sure if this was causing your ICM not to load. I cannot see under task manager wincolor.exe is even running? so I presume it is not using any memory resources. Lastly I gather that when you began your spider calibration and eventually created these profiles that you did not load any of the Samsung software other than the driver? Thanks again for your guidance and help.

— Phil · Jun 11, 08:01 PM · #

Andrew something I neglected to add to comment #84 was that even after your profile 226BW(Digital)-factory-Bri75-R52-G46-B50.icm loads my Brightness as per the OSD Menu is set at 100 and the contrast is at 75. The RGB is also at 50/50/50. Should I set the Brightness to 75 using the OSD Menu and the RGB to 51/47/50? Thanks in advance!

— Phil · Jun 11, 08:16 PM · #

Phil – Everyone DOES have to put that line in to make it load with Windows, I am going to add it to the instructions in the review. I did not install any of the Samsung software other than the 226BW driver. And yes, the ICC profile works completely separate from all of the monitor controls, so you have to set the Brightness to whatever you want on the monitor itself. This goes for the RGB settings too, of course.

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 12, 06:03 AM · #

Thank you very much, that explains a lot. Very much appreciated for all your efforts here to help us. My donation is going in tonight when I get home from the office. Out of curiousity which profile do you like the best and what brightness/contrast and RGB do you personally like Andrew.

— Phil · Jun 12, 06:16 AM · #

I’ve been using the 226BW(Digital)-factory-Bri75-R52-G46-B50.icm profile with monitor settings of 75% Brightness, R51 G47 B35. I can’t tell much difference when I change the R and G settings from the default 50, but I am just keeping close to the settings I made during the white-point setting part of the calibration with my Spyder2.

A significant change I, and others, have made is to turn down the Blue to 35 to get rid of any lingering blue hue. To me, it looks pretty much perfect now. I may do another set of profiles with the Blue set to 35 prior to the calibration to see how they compare to the current ones. BTW, thanks for your support ;-).

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 12, 07:54 AM · #

Thanks Andrew :) I take it you left the contrast set at 75 then and everything else alone. No internet color mode etc.

— Phil · Jun 12, 08:34 AM · #

Yessir!

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 12, 09:20 AM · #

on a side note, I moved the Sharpness slider on the Nvidia controller just one tick, for me it made the text especially the windows font sharper, dunno if i should mess with the Sharpness setting in the monitor, how about you Andrew?

— darkwing · Jun 12, 12:48 PM · #

Haven’t touched it myself, the image looks as sharp as I have seen on a monitor, so no reason to fix what isn’t broken.

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 12, 01:30 PM · #

Hi Andrew,
I found your article very interesting and useful.
I tried this monitor today, but microsoft site doesn’t allow me to download wincolor without installing their stupid plugin.
Can you send me a copy of that program, or tell me another location to download it from?
or maybe another program with the same function…

thanks in advance

— LM · Jun 12, 03:33 PM · #

Try Softpedia ;-)

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 12, 04:16 PM · #

wow, all I can say is thankyou. this article has convinced me to buy a 226BW, I am no longer fearful of getting what I thought was an inferior panel.
Thanks again! :D

— pilch · Jun 12, 04:40 PM · #

pilch – Just watch out, there are apparently two kinds of “C” panels out there now, one made by CMO and one by CPT, which is apparently worse than the CMO by some accounts. Also, someone here mentioned a “D” panel is now on the loose as well, although I don’t know anything else about it. Good luck, maybe you’ll get an “S”!

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 12, 04:46 PM · #

Hey guys, I installed MS’s WinColor and followed the instructions but for some reason or another every time I reboot, it doesn’t default to the color profile… I always have to reapply it each time and it’s getting very annoying… what can I do about it?

— Ukyo · Jun 13, 07:44 PM · #

Andrew!
I cannot thank you enough for making these profiles. Question tho, i am running my 226bw on a powerbook, aka a mac which uses 1.8 gamma instead of 2.2 standard for the PC. Is there anyway you could make a few of these at 1.8 gamma?
if you could that would awesome!

thanks
ryan

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 13, 10:02 PM · #

@Ukyo – Read my comment #31.

@Ryan – If I have any free time I’ll try to do it.

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 13, 11:05 PM · #

Oh thanks, I apologize for not reading through all the comments to see if this was already addressed. It works now. Thanks again!

— Ukyo · Jun 13, 11:26 PM · #

Big thumbs up for the profiles and this insight review! made me pull the trigger than i shouldve made a LONG time ago.. :D

Getting mine within a weeks time. C panel, since New Zealand only has C panels.

Question, when you say youve turned down the blue to 35, was this done on the built in menu for the samsung 226bw or the video card control panel?

— Rex · Jun 14, 02:26 AM · #

I believe this is to the monitor menu, not the vcard control panel

— darkwing · Jun 14, 04:23 AM · #

Hi there

Read your review with interest and am more happy with buying this monitor. The only thing I am concerned with is that for me having to manually load (even if you can set it automatically with the start menu) icc profiles a bit of a deal breaker in terms of buying this? Especially seeing as this doesn’t work with games. I don’t play much games but having to set settings through software for a hardware part could have consequences later on when the OS or the use for the monitor changes.

— iamholam · Jun 14, 07:34 AM · #

I’m not sure what your issue is with loading the profiles on reboot, it works and there’s no downside to doing it.

As far as not working in games, yeah that is a drawback, but maybe we just haven’t found the solution yet. I wonder if there is a way to disable the gamma loader that is used in some games, including Half-Life 2, so that the profile remains intact. Some games do not steal the profile like that, because they aren’t using a gamma loader.

All computer hardware requires some software, called drivers, to work correctly. Using an ICC profile can be thought of as a driver for your monitor, if that makes the proposition any more palatable to you :)

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 14, 07:41 AM · #

i was looking around the MCW since this is what i’m using now running on the traybar and i found this :D i just loaded Andrew’s profile and it seems to work in games

Persistent profile – Monitor Calibration Wizard will run in the Windows system tray the entire time while Windows is running. If another program changes the color profile used by Windows, Monitor Calibration Wizard will reset the profile to your loaded profile, overriding the other programs change. This is very useful for gamers because almsot every game will try to reset the color profile Windows uses. This allows your profile to be used while running most games and will prevent you from having to reapply your profile after running a program that changes Windows color profile.

— darkwing · Jun 14, 11:03 AM · #

Hey Andrew — any thoughts on the Spyder versus the Pantone Huey or Huey Pro?

— Scott · Jun 14, 11:40 AM · #

When i do the “C:\Program Files\Pro Imaging Powertoys\Microsoft Color Control Panel Applet for Windows XP\WinColor.exe” /L
part it says something bout target isnt specified name, what am i doing wrong, it seems as though its because i am pointing it to a file that doesnt have the /L on the end, i followed up untill now

— Mark · Jun 14, 12:36 PM · #

Salut,

Connaissant la saga du 226bw, j’espérai (avec un peu de chance) tomber sur un “s”. Je me suis dit avant d’aller le chercher que si je reviens avec un “a” c’est pas trop grave étant donné qu’un profil efficace existe .
Je me suis dit aussi que si je tombe sur un “c”, c’est direction le magasin pour l‘échanger.
Grosse déception quand j’ai déballé l‘écran, un “c”...
Je me décide quand même à le pluguer à l’ordi.
J’ai aussitôt constaté une dominante bleutée et un manque de peps au niveau des couleurs.
J‘étais dégouté...
Puis, je suis tombé sur cette page et j’ai essayé le profil proposé et là, c’est le jour et la nuit comparé à avant!!
Le noir a une belle profondeur, pas de dominante bleutée, les couleurs sont magnifiques , vraiment rien à voir!!!

Finalement, je l’adore mon 226 “c” une fois calibré!

Merci Andrew!

— twinman · Jun 14, 01:22 PM · #

@darkwing – Wow, surprised it loaded my profile, I couldn’t figure out how to get it to do that, but I didn’t mess with it for very long. I’ll try again when I have the chance. Thanks for finding this if it works!

@Scott – No thoughts really, I only have experience with the Colorvision product, and I haven't read a whole lot about the Pantone stuff.

@Mark – Don’t cut and paste everything in that line, just add /L to the end of whatever is in the Target field for your shortcut, and it should work. I assume you know basic stuff like how to make a shortcut and put it in the Startup folder.

@twinman - Vous êtes bienvenue, appréciez !

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 14, 09:50 PM · #

hehehe what i did is load your profile first using Wincolor/standard loading, then in the MCW it says “If you are happy with your current profile etc….give it it a name and press Save…” so thats what i did, and clicked on the load on startup, persistent profile and i’m all set :D

— darkwing · Jun 14, 10:42 PM · #

Hi Andrew.

I don’t mind loading drivers onto a monitor as that is what you do with all forms of hardware you plug into a PC. The only thing is that if your settings seem to be a universal improvement over the standard settings that Samsung have on their C panel can they not be setup at manufacturer?

The other main reason that I want to get this monitor is so that I can run my Xbox360 through the vga port and that will not support the ICC profile. Has anyone plugged their xbox into this monitor and how do they find the picture when they are gaming on the xbox?

— iamholam · Jun 15, 12:25 AM · #

Thanks for the info. i am a novice though have used my Spyder Pro 2 on my Sony monitor with success. Just got the 226bw for size and am puzzled on what settings prior to calibation…had to make major changes to RGB in calibration and fear I messed up…I reset everything and cut off all the auto controls…is that right? Didn’t set whitepoint manually…should I? When finished there was no change on anything except color between before and after. Can a you help?

— edmund · Jun 15, 04:03 AM · #

Sorted Thanks, i didn’t put a space and then the /L

Any one tried darkwing’s idea usting that wizard to see if they can get it working in games?

You would think the company would just update there firmware file

— Mark · Jun 15, 07:48 AM · #

I thought I had it…following your instructions and using your downloads but now Windows says it can’t open the file…any help?

— edmund · Jun 15, 08:15 AM · #

@darkwing – I will try this when I get home, sounds like it is working for you, awesome!

@iamholam – You can use the profiles with the VGA output, it should give a similar improvement. Yes, some monitors come with a better factory calibration than cheaper ones, but this can be fixed with a colorimeter like the Spyder2. It is annoying that manufacturers don’t do this and provide ICC profiles like I have for all their monitors which they were too lazy to calibrate better in the first place.

@edmond – Sounds like you have your own Spyder2. Looks like you are following my steps exactly, I don't see any problem with how you made your profile.

Use the ProfileChooser program that comes with the Spyder2 to open the .icm files. But first, you have to put them in the same "color" folder I said in the instructions in the review. Then, you have to go to Control Panel -> Display Properties -> Settings -> Advanced -> Color Management, and add the profile you downloaded to the list so it’s associated with the 226BW. Now it should show up in ProfileChooser and you can use it!

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 15, 10:11 AM · #

Thanks bud, It’s all there now but should the new RGB settings be reflected in the display controls because they still say 50/50/50? Also if I use Spyder 2 it gets me to run blue WAY up…that can’t be right can it? I appreciate your help…sounds like you got a lot going on what with the doctoring and alll…

— edmund · Jun 15, 11:05 AM · #

I would just run the Spyder2 without the RGB pre-cal setting of the white-point, or else change the RGB as little as possible to get the Dab < 0.50 like I did. The RGB sliders on the monitor are separate from the .icm profiles, so you won’t see them change when you change profiles.

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 15, 11:25 AM · #

I tried what Darkwing said and it’ll still only persist in games that use Desktop Gamma :/. Also if Wincolor is shut off after I save my profile in there and I just have it load the profile I saved, it is still just the default settings. Maybe I’m missing something?

One thing I’ve also wondered is if Vista persists it in games simply due to the fact that the ICM 2.0 is integrated rather then an applet.

— Lightmgl · Jun 15, 12:13 PM · #

Hello! First of all I wanted to thank you SO much for your color profiles. I was on my way to return my 226bw— I have the same “c” model that you have— because of the funky colors. Undoubtedly, you saved me from returning an absolutely fabulous monitor. Personally I like your 75% profile, and i keep the settings at 46 brightness, 40 Sharpness, 43 red, 45 blue, and 45 green. I think it’s important that while we reach ideal profiles in this blog, we always mention contrast levels, brightness, sharpness, and all 3 color settings.

SECOND... there is something that I hope you can post on your web site that I think everybody should know about. I had a major problem with the way the text looked on my monitor. I’m not really a gamer; rather, I’m an attorney who requires ultra-crisp text for reading. When I bought the monitor, small fonts looked good, but as soon as I enlarged anything to 200% in Microsoft word, the text became immediately blurry and ended up giving me headaches. After doing some research, I found a tool located on Microsoft’s website that allowed me to “turn off font smoothing” and tweak the text settings. Knocking the sharpness down to 40% and using this tool made the text 800 times better!! The program is a control panel applet called PowerTuner, available at http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/7/0/b7019730-0fa3-47a9-a159-98b80c185aad/setup.exe. It is a MUST have for 226bw owners. Just open a MS word document in the background while you toy with the settings (used the ADVANCED tab) in the applet. I turn OFF font smoothing AND cleartype. Trust me — if the default settings are wrong, you will see WORLDS of difference in the Word Document, especially with enlarged text. Thanks again and keep up the good work!

— Andrew Neal · Jun 15, 12:53 PM · #

@Andrew Neal – I use Cleartype and it looks great. I’ll try that other program if I get a chance, thanks for the tip.

Personally, I don’t think you should worry too much about small differences in the RGB values. This is never going to be a good monitor for photo work, simply because of its poor viewing angle, which creates color gradients up and down the screen. So, doing tiny RGB adjustments is almost meaningless.

The most important thing is to use any one of my color profiles, then turn down the Blue to about 35 or until you don’t see any blue-shift, but only if you notice a blue-shift! Anything you do should be to correct something that is wrong (ie. if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it). That said, if there is something wrong, and you see an improvement by changing the Gamma, RGB, or Contrast settings, then by all means do it!

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 15, 01:48 PM · #

just give it a try. Use MS Word, font 12 times new roman and enlarge to 200%.

The clear type + font smoothing makes me nautious! I have an ATI x600 AIW card.

— Andrew Neal · Jun 15, 02:28 PM · #

Wow, this monitor is impressive to say the least. Yes, i did get the C panel, but after tweaking and messing with settings/profiles, its absolutely worth the money!

At first, i decided to use wincolor, but later im using Monitor calibration wizard because it does two things. Load color profile with Win Xp start up and allows you to use this color profile during games!

Colors were washed out at the start, but thanks for the profiles. Currently using the 50% brightnes + a notch in DV and sharpness.

— Rex · Jun 15, 05:44 PM · #

thanks for the tweaks andrew, having applied them the monitor colour was nearly spot on (for a cmo)
unfortunatly the backlight bleed through on my sceen in dark films and games was atrocious(inverted H)it also caused some ghosting when bright parts of a flim passed over the bleed in centre of screen

because of this i sent my monitor back, i reckon i’ll be waiting for the next version of the panel to be released, or try and hunt down an “S” panel

thanks anyway

— andy · Jun 17, 01:38 AM · #

Hey Andrew. Thanks so much for the monitor profiles. They really helped.

I am still undecided if I will be keeping this panel though. Although using it with a PC looks great, my secondary purpose was using it for my 360, and unfortunately it doesn’t do it too great. It stretches the 768 vertical line resolution output of the 360 to a 16:10 aspect ratio, which makes everything look blurry and oddly proportioned.

I am thinking of getting the HP w2207 which includes 1:1 pixel mapping, and I also believe it can retain the aspect ratio, while stretching the image to fit the screen (which I don’t mind).

But anyway, my other problem. I can’t get the colour profile to stick when starting windows. I did what you said with the shortcut and the /L, but after that whenever windows starts it goes into a black screen after the loading screen. I started xp in safe mode and deleted the shortcut and now it works fine. I don’t believe I have anything that is conflicting with wincolor on startup, apart from I do have adobe quick launch, but this is not the gamma changer. Could that be the problem, or is there something else happening which I’m not aware of?

Thanks for a great article and keep up the good work :)

— Jon P · Jun 17, 02:22 AM · #

Hello Andrew, first off I want to give a big thanks for your generosity in sharing this info and the color profiles, they make the display look fantastic. However, I had an issue when visiting the hidden service menu to find out which model I really had; when trying to exit the menu I accidentally changed the panel ch. no. Is this a problem? If so, would you know how to reset it to zero? Any advice you can lend on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you and keep up great work on your site!

— Bret G · Jun 18, 06:38 AM · #

Just wanted to also give you a HUGE thank you for writing this review, I was standing in the store reading it on my Blackberry when I decided to give up on the S and just get the C. Unlike other folks I haven’t had any problem with bleeding on the monitor, there was a tiny bit on the top and bottom of the screen but it was understandable for me since it was an expected amount for an LCD. I have also yet to experience this ghosting issue, after calibrating the screen with your settings I have to say that this is the most beautiful LCD that I have had, definitely a keeper for me.
Thanks again!!

-Tora

— Tora · Jun 19, 01:12 PM · #

I have just managed to get hold of a Samsung 226BW but I have two problems which might be linked.

Firstly, I was not able to install the driver automatically because the driver option software did not recognise my video card – NVIDIA Geeforce 7600 GS. Therefore I tried to install the driver manually in: Display Properties – Setting – Advance – Monitor – Properties but the properties button was greyed out.

Secondly, the Samsung picture is great for games and pictures but when I play a DVD the colour is to rich. I have tried using the colour options on the monitor and the presets (games, text, movie etc) but it does note cure the problem. The only way I can watch a DVD is changing the master setting on the NVIDIA 7600 properties but this then has the opposite effect on games and pictures.

Has anyone else experienced this?
I Would be most grateful if someone could point me in the right direction.

Thanks In advance.

Andy

— Andy · Jun 20, 03:39 AM · #

Is there any way to get the blue power light to stop blinking when there is no signal? It just annoys me at night to see my office lit up every other second.

Thanks

— James · Jun 20, 09:01 AM · #

Ok I did the exchange and got another S this time no pixels, had them check it in the store. I’m guessing all of that stock on that shelf are S model panels so if anyone wants an “S” order from here… they had about 7 left. Don’y hold me to it though but if you really want that S there they are.

Samsung – 22” Widescreen Flat-Panel TFT-LCD Monitor 226BW

In Stock:Pembroke Pines FL, 11450 PINES BLVD (Store #559)

— Luke · Jun 21, 08:26 AM · #

#James Jun 20, 01:01 PM

Just press power button on monitor! And switch it off.

— Andy_ZL · Jun 25, 02:56 AM · #

This is maybe more of a general question, than actually related to the 226BW… BUT i cannot play games in any widescreen resolutions SMALLER than 1680×1050 (which my computer is too slow for). I have a GeForce 7600GS with the newest nVidia drivers, but there is only one WS resolution available. Anyone who knows how to fix this?

— Lars E · Jun 26, 01:22 PM · #

Dear Andrew, I bought my 226bw yesterday in shanghai. it was produced in june of 2007. it does not have anything on the back sticker that would indicate what panel it is. just 226bw, not even 226bw®. In the secret screen menu there is also no panel info. I do not know what panel it is but it is really blue and compared to my samsung 970P which is now connected via d-sub (226bw is dvi) the colors are shite. even with your icc profiles :( way too much blu, even with blue set to 35. do you know anything about these new models?
ps. in the version part of the secret menu it says M-ME22W0BLA-1002

— Bernie · Jun 26, 03:49 PM · #

Sorry for my belated responses everyone, I just got through moving to Johnstown where I’ll be doing my intern year, before I start my residency in Radiology back in Pittsburgh.

@Jon P – Not sure what could be going wrong. If everything works prior to putting the “ /L” in there, just try again and make sure you just add a space and /L to what is already in the Target field.

@Bret G – Sorry I don’t know how to do this but if you aren’t seeing any problems on the display, it’s probably not affecting anything.

@Andy – If you’re getting a different image in movies (like it looks terrible compared to everything else), first look and see if you have some settings like “Dynamic Contrast” or “Cinema Effect” or something like that set in your video player. By the way, what are you using, Window Media Player, PowerDVD, TheaterTek?

If your video player isn’t altering the image itself, you could use something like Monitor Calibration Wizard to tweak the image while you are watching the movie, save a “Movie” preset, and just load that up when you want to watch a movie.

@Lars E – Sorry I’m not too much help here, but I would point you to the Widescreen Gaming Forum, as they should have any possible information that is out there about this. I think playing at different resolutions generally differs game to game. In CS:S at least, 720x480 and 1280×800 are both available for me (after choosing the 16:10 Aspect Ratio), and they seem to work fine on this monitor.

@Bernie – I’m not sure I can help if your monitor has significantly different color compared to mine. Right now, my favorite profile is the one made at 50% Brightness, with the Blue dropped down to 35. For me, I don’t see any blue shift, and the colors seems pretty true when I’m looking directly at the screen (not off-axis). You are seeing an effect / some improvement when you load the profile, correct?

Coming from a 970P, you are definitely going to be spoiled as far as color goes. If you have my profiles loaded correctly and you still hate it, I would cut your losses and return it or try and sell it on eBay.

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 27, 11:34 AM · #

BTW, I just tried using MCW with my profiles and CS:S, and it works! It keeps my profile loaded persisntly when I’m in the game. The only thing is when I come back to the desktop, for some reason it reverts to having no profile loaded, but you just have to load it again to take care of that. Anyone else get it working with CS:S, or any other games?

— Andrew Swihart · Jun 27, 11:47 AM · #

ok Andrew, I have to apologize: Because of my own stupidity things were off. Thank you for helping oh so much though. btw no everything is perfect and thanks for your great site!

— Bernie · Jun 27, 12:58 PM · #

Andrew, that’s strange although i haven’t tried CS:S, but in BF:2142 it keeps the profile when i come back to the desktop, or is it maybe i’m just playing in a window lol

— darkwing · Jun 28, 09:54 PM · #

I just bought a 226BW from Circuit City. The label identifies it as a ‘C’, but when I bring up the service menu the line with “Panel Info” is missing(!), or maybe just hidden a little better. Since this is a deliberate change I wonder if Samsung is trying to bury this S vs A vs C issue a bit. There also seems to be no clean way to exit this service screen.

— aron · Jun 30, 01:15 PM · #

I actually filled in the RMA already when I saw your guide. Good one! I’ll probably cancel the RMA now that you’ve demystified the notorious ‘C’ version.

Too bad the salespeople generally aren’t as persistent as we are in finding out more about this whole issue and its solutions.

Again, thanks.

@aron – I’ve read it’s supposed to be a C version but no way to find out for sure and which ‘C’ (CMO or CPT) it is. One way to go about it is to check for a strong blue hue out of the box and backlight bleeding that are characteristic for the CMO version (like the H shape described earlier).

— B. Bottema · Jun 30, 01:31 PM · #

I see a little backlight bleeding, but the halo effect is contained within 1 cm of the edges and I’m not seeing anything h-ish in the center. As for the blue hue, I don’t think I see any ‘strong’ effect, but as that’s a little in the eye of the beholder I can’t say how bad or good it is. I’m still trying out various movies and applications to flush out anything odd, but so far I’m very satisfied. It compares favorably against a new Lenovo 22” D221 I recently received at work (for what that’s worth to anyone).

@B. Bottema – Thanks for the note.

@Andrew – Thanks for a great, informative page.

— aron · Jun 30, 04:13 PM · #

thanks for an informative article. I ended up with a C panel that I am using with an older macintosh G5 probably from 04 and the calibration controls did not work. I was ready to put it back in the box and return it because I could not find any mac controls on their web site and Level 1 tec support said it was probably because of using a dvi connector that causes things not to work well and there are no mac drivers.

level 2 support showed where the mac software is buried on their site.

http://www.samsung.com/Products/Monitors/magictune/magictune_02s.htm

i will test it out and report back if it improves the situation, in the meantime it is exceptionally saturated and blue, with dark banding at the top and paler at the bottom. for graphic arts and photography it is not going to fly. BTW no sales person in 4 stores knew any of this.

— paula · Jul 3, 12:41 PM · #

@paula – Google “colorsync”. OS X supports color profiles, others have it working fine, it doesn't matter that you are on an older Mac. Sorry I don’t have a Mac or I could give you better instructions, good luck!

— Andrew Swihart · Jul 3, 01:42 PM · #

your download links are broken,
could you please fix it, or give me an alternate link, or e-mail the 100% brightness icm to: cheesus888@hotmail.com

=D thankyou

— cav · Jul 5, 02:56 AM · #

links are broken. can you email it to me please.
kalz@webmail.co.za or
KhaleelAK@gmail.com
Thanks dude
much appreciated
:-)

— Khaleel · Jul 5, 03:46 AM · #

Sorry about this, I upgraded to Textpattern 4.05 and it changed the URLs for file downloads, and it seems to have also broken them in the process. I will have to look at this later when I get home. Check back tonight, it should be fixed by then.

— Andrew Swihart · Jul 5, 05:00 AM · #

Got a 226BW on order, already have a 206BW 20” can i use those .icm files on that monitor to ??

— Harry L · Jul 5, 08:30 AM · #

Harry, this is what I would tell you, if it looks better, use them, if not, don’t ;).

— Andrew Swihart · Jul 5, 10:24 AM · #

Andrew, i mean will the icm files work on the 206BW monitor to ??

— Harry L · Jul 5, 01:53 PM · #

I found that temporarily the files are at:

If you desperately need them… I have one coming in the mail today so I am glad to see this webpage.

— Brian · Jul 5, 02:47 PM · #

Thanks Brian, I just linkified those for everyone in your comment. You can just use those links for now, I’m trying to figure out what went wrong with the other ones (they are generated as a list of file links associated with this article). I could go in and hack it up to get it right but it's not worth the effort.

@Harry - Yes they will work with any monitor, just apply the ICC profile using WinColor.

— Andrew Swihart · Jul 5, 05:41 PM · #

Andrew, we stil use WIN2000 pro at our offices will Wincolor work or do i need another software proggy ? By the way greetings from Antwerp :-)

— Harry L · Jul 6, 04:10 AM · #

Thankyou Andrew for fixing the links. I’ve just tried your profiles with R51-G47-B50. Have to say the results look quite…strange? Right now it looks a bit too Red to me, but maybe i got used to the default Color? I’ll try it for a few days.

PS. I dont’ konw what panel my Samsung 226BW is, since all the newer ones don’t display A C or S. and you can’t acces the hidden OSD menu. So that could explain the redness in my screen?

— cav · Jul 6, 07:18 AM · #

@Harry L – I think it will work, no promises though.

@cav – Not sure what to tell you. If it looks worse, don’t use it. Try the Monitor Calibration Wizard program linked to earlier in the comments instead.

— Andrew Swihart · Jul 6, 09:17 AM · #

Andrew,
I just got a Samsung “C” monitor from Best Buy. I am waiting for a new video card so I can use the DVI cable. I’ve got the monitor hooked up right now in analog and I’ve noticed when I look at the monitor from a slighly higher vantage point that there is a band of, what looks like interference, moving from top to bottom of the monitor and then starts at the top again. Could this be an artifact of using and analog signal? I am hoping that I didn’t get a bad monitor. Thanks

— Rich N · Jul 6, 08:16 PM · #

Links broken again :(

Can you please fix them?

— Seb · Jul 6, 08:56 PM · #

nvm I’m dumb

Link fix in post #148

— Seb · Jul 6, 08:58 PM · #

Forgot to mention in my previous post that I see that band on the screen only when I have a black background.

— Rich N · Jul 7, 08:49 AM · #

I’m running Vista and have seemingly loaded the profiles, but I can’t get them to have an effect. Is there something you must do to the monitor settings to get them to work? I have Nvida drivers on a 8800 GTS.

— Scott Graham · Jul 7, 12:07 PM · #

@Rich N – This could be due to the analog connection, but I’m not sure. Try the DVI and let us know if that fixes it.

@Scott Graham – Are you on XP or Vista? Just follow the instructions carefully, using WinColor if you’re on XP. Let me know if there is anything you don’t understand.

— Andrew Swihart · Jul 7, 12:13 PM · #

My profile has inexplicably stopped working. I suspect it has something to do with the ATI driver’s wonky color profile use. As has been mentioned, the profiles turn off in many 3D games, but in my case they’re not always reverting back after exiting back to the desktop. It’s really pretty annoying at this point and I may just trash color management of any sort unless I can find a solution.

— Jason · Jul 7, 01:22 PM · #

Thanks for the article.

total novice @ LCD caliberation and applying ICC profiles so gonna have to sit down and do bit more research before i try it.

just got two 226BW one from the shop and one from thye internet (was on the waiting list for both and both came thru at the same time).

only need one, so i opened the internet-buy one, since it has opened box fully returnable-refund policy. But of course it turns out its one of the “deleted info” 226BW, with no letters marking at the back sticker and the “panel info” bit blank in the hidden menu!

so now i have no idea if its a S, A or C and thus no idea which caliberation adjustment i should do on it.

can anyone tell me how to figure out which panel type it is? some kind of test i could do on it to have an educated guess at it?

i am contemplating opening the shop bought 226BW to see if its got a panel info. But this is a risky move, since the shop bought one has no refund policy for opened box monitors unless it has a fault.

any advice will be much appreciated.

btw. the serial number for both is virtually identical. ie.XXXX600650 (made in June 2007 and its the opened one)
and XXXXX600760 (which is unopened one).

both made in Slovakia and first part of serial number exactly the same. hence it looks like the unopened one came off the production line about 100 lcs down the line.

— John W from London · Jul 7, 11:24 PM · #

Hi,

I’m completely new to this calibration stuff and having problems… Have followed the instructions above. When I go to load one of the profiles above I click on Install in the profiles tab and get a message saying Cannot install profile? Anyone know what I’m doing wrong? If I get this working do I have to get the profile to load on startup, if not will it change back to the original set up everytime I startup?

Thanks, Marty.

— Martin McCarthy · Jul 8, 07:35 AM · #

@John W – I heard some Samsung panels are made in Slovakia. The Chi Mei “C” panel is made in China. I’ve had people say they used these profiles on “A” and “S” panels with great results as well, which is somewhat surprising. Just try them out on the one you have opened, and if you’re happy, don’t worry about what panel it has.

@Martin McCarthy – Try downloading the file again, it may have been corrupted somehow. Also make sure you aren't using another gamma loader like Adobe Gamma or Powerstrip. Follow the instructions carefully, and it will work. And yes you do have to make it load at startup as I outlined, or else you’ll have to do it manually every time you restart.

— Andrew Swihart · Jul 8, 12:25 PM · #

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the reply, but I’m still having problems… I downloaded the files again, but am still getting the error message. I do have Adobe Gamma, would that be the reason? How do I get this off or stop it affecting what I’m trying to do? My Graphics Card is a GeForce 7600 GS and I’ve just tried to adjust it through the nVidia panel and now the picture is looking ten times worse.

Thanks,
Martin

— Martin McCarthy · Jul 9, 01:01 AM · #

Go to Start button -> Programs -> Startup, and delete Adobe Gamma here, then restart your computer. See if that helps.

— Andrew Swihart · Jul 9, 05:24 AM · #

Hi, your links are corrupted, I cant download the profiles at all. Is it possible to email them to me? Thanks.

— Augustine · Jul 9, 05:45 AM · #

Augustine, click here

— Andrew Swihart · Jul 9, 06:49 AM · #

Hi Andrew,

Thanks again for the advice. At the beginning my monitor seemed too bright and washed out. After I messed with a few things, especially the nVidia panel, it changed dramatically and went way too dark and vibrant and saturated. I reset everything and removed Adobe Gamma using TuneUp, downloaded the new links and everything seemed to work fine, but it didn’t change much at all. Still completely saturated. So I went into nVidia because I think its controlling everything. I went into the Colour Correction and changed the Colour Profile to Standard Mode. Now it changed more or less back to what it was at the start, very bright but a bit better. I loaded one of your profiles into the nVidia panel and it went way washed out… When I checked the actual monitor settings itself they are set at your RGB values. What way should I be doing this? Put all the values back to normal in the monitor settings and then use the nVidia panel with one of your profiles? I’m very confused about all this. Also what should the contrast be set at? Sorry for such a long rant and your help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Marty

— Martin McCarthy · Jul 9, 08:25 AM · #

Marty, you can't use the nVidia panel to load the profiles. It only saves and loads its own settings.

Use WinColor like in the instructions, disable Adobe Gamma AND reset everything in the nVidia panel. If you do all of this it will work fine, just follow every step exactly as I say in the instructions, don’t question them or ask yourself if you should be doing anything, just do it. It's frustrating you right now because you are doing all kinds of stuff that you're not supposed to be doing! Trust me, if you follow the directions explicitly it will work fine.

— Andrew Swihart · Jul 9, 09:14 AM · #

@Bret G (message number 125) – I made same mistake when trying to exit secret menu. After short browsing I found out that panel ch. no. means the number of panel replacements. It’s only a service note and doesn’t do anything else. There is probably no way to reset it.

— retu · Jul 10, 01:45 AM · #

I just got myself this monitor.. as most have reported the panel info is missing now. But upon turning it on i cant believe how good the colors are compared to my benq 22”.. surely i cant have got an S panel? i cant notice a blue dominance? anyway i want to try to the icm profiles to see if there is one but the links are dead :(

— FrankCastle · Jul 10, 01:58 AM · #

I already put a line in the review about this, pointing you to the working links, and someone just asked about it 5 comments ago. Come on man, READ!

— Andrew Swihart · Jul 10, 02:27 AM · #

I just bought a new model Samsung 226CW (Jul07) and find that there is a greenish colour cast to the colour yellow even after calibration with a Spyder2Pro. The greenish colour cast appears in SMPTE colour bars (downloaded from various sources) as well as when I create what should be pure yellow in Photoshop (R = 255, G=255, B =0). I have been through two monitors as well as two Spyder2Pro sensors, tried calibration with Gamma = 2.2 and 6500K as well as Gamma = 2.2 and Native Spyder2Pro settings. I have the latest NVidia video (GeForce 6600 GT) card drivers. In the Spyder2Pro calibration there is a difference in colours between before and after target pictures. The colour cast is evident only when you actually look for yellows outside the Spyder2Pro software calibration.

This monitor is supposed to be an advance over the Samsung 226BW – it has a 92% NTSC gamut. One thing I should point out is that I can get what appears to be an “acceptable” yellow if I use a visual colour calibration using NVidia’s colour setup software.

Has anyone experienced this problem in calibrationg with Spyder2Pro on the 226BW or have any ideas on what might be wrong?

— Bob M · Jul 10, 06:58 AM · #

@Bret G (125) and Retu (169), Same error for me. As i hope a return from 7 to 0, from 15 to 0… :o( from 31 to 0…
My 226BW show now 33 panel remplacement :)

Thanks Retu for the comment. I was afraid for the result !

— Jacques 51100 · Jul 10, 08:27 AM · #

Andrew,
I was able to fix the problem by plugging into a surge protector strip. I think I was getting some bad voltage from the wall socket. Anyway, thanks for the profiles. They look great!

— Rich N · Jul 11, 06:47 PM · #

Rather than harass you further, I thought I would pitch a question to the gallery. I’ve had basically the same experiences as everyone else: ever so slight backlight bleeding, darkened top and lightened bottom, all of which have been entirely acceptable. What has been apparently unique to my monitor is a somewhat yellowish tint that persists only in the top rightmost portion of the screen, regardless of viewing angle, covering about 2 square inches. I hadn’t noticed it initially, but after being gone for 2 days and coming back it appeared and has become especially salient. I’m just wondering if anyone has noticed anything similar, to see whether I should bother with replacing it or whether I’ll see much the same results regardless.

— Devo · Jul 11, 10:06 PM · #

fwiw—Samsung today has released a new monitor 226CW

— JS · Jul 12, 12:14 PM · #

Hi,
I’ve just bought a 226BW from bestBuy and i don’t see any ® or C, A, S or any of that. So how could I tell if it’s really made by Samsung?

Oh and when using VGA, at first I got really bad colors, but I eventually fixed it by wriggling/reattatching the VGA head to the lcd; because it’s vertical and gravity pulls it down. Hope that helps.

— mike · Jul 14, 10:42 PM · #

Here are websites links and other websites that have 226BW panel comparisons, pictures and other information!!

www.bcchardware.com On this site try going to SEARCH, then type in, 226BW. The post title was, “ [Frontpage News]Checking Your Samsung 226BW Mystery Monitor “

http://forums.anandtech.com/ On this site try going to SEARCH, then type in, 226BW. The post title was, “The Samsung 226BW ‘A’ panel EMOTIONAL HELP AND SUPPORT THREAD.”

http://www.behardware.com/ Just do a SEARCH for 226BW

http://www.avforums.com/index.php Just do a SEARCH of 226BW

— ES · Jul 15, 03:15 PM · #

How to check now 226BW TN wersion? now samsung remove this information from service menu.

— S@wek · Jul 16, 03:14 AM · #

BCCHardware instructions on how to disassemble your 226BW and check what panel it has inside (if you just have to know).

I’ve decided to close the comments on this article, as they are getting pretty long in the tooth, and there are several forum threads where it is better to discuss general issues with the 226BW. Here are links to some of these threads:

AVForums | Anandtech | Hardforum

Thanks to everyone who helped along the way as we figured out how to get the profiles to load with Windows after restarting, getting the profiles to persist in games (at least some of them), and uncovering other useful information about the various panels Samsung continues sneaking into the 226BW. You're all welcome to the profiles, they will be on this site forever.

And you can always show your appreciation, cheers!

— Andrew Swihart · Jul 16, 10:53 AM · #