Why does my calibrated Seiki SE39UY04 show halos and a yellow tint after Spyder4Pro calibration?
Asked 2/14/2014
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I’m using a Seiki SE39UY04 39" 4K display with an early-2013 MacBook Pro Retina and a Datacolor Spyder4Pro. After calibration, the image improved somewhat, but I still see odd artifacts: bluish text on a light gray background shows a white halo, especially around capital letters, and browser whites look slightly yellow. The calibration ended up with the monitor at Normal color temperature, 50% contrast, and 7% brightness. Are these symptoms due to a bad calibration setup, or are they limitations of this display? Is there anything I can do to reduce them?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
12y ago
2 Answers
4
I resolved the issue by lowering the backlight setting that is added in the firmware update version from August 28, 2013. However, Seiki's directions on that download page are incorrect, instead, this is how you may update the firmware:
- Download the .zip file and extract the
install.imgfile to a freshly formatted (FAT32) USB thumbdrive. (On a Mac, be sure the OS has not overzealously also expand theinstall.imgfile too.) - Put the thumb drive into USB port 1 (the port on the back, not the side of the monitor).
- Turn the TV on.
- On your remote control press the
menubutton. - Then on your remote press
0four times, that will take you into the service menu. - In the service menu choose the software upgrade option.
- Screen will display upgrade animation.
- Wait for the upgrade to complete.
- Turn off the TV when finished.
- Disconnect the thumb drive.
Once updated, I now had the option to change the backlight setting in the options menu which was previously invisibly set to 100% which is why I had needed to have 7% brightness to get proper light levels. I updated the backlight to now be 71% and after calibration found the brightness only needed to be 42% and with that the display looks vastly superior and actually has proper colors after calibration using the Spyder4Pro.
To fix the halo effect I was seeing, I had to lower the sharpness that defaulted to 100% down to 0% and with that change, the halo effect is now completely gone.
Note that the firmware upgrade also fixed the flakiness of the monitor not reliably syncing with the HDMI signal coming from the laptop as evidenced by it displaying the Not Support error message and having to disconnect and reconnect several times before it would finally sync.
All in all, I am very happy with the monitor after the firmware upgrade, as it was very inexpensive and for the price offers what I consider to be very adequate color reproduction to meet my needs. The Spyder4Pro report states it gives 100% of sRGB and 77% of adobeRGB with a contrast ratio of 2120 to 1. Here is the not very good Tone response report relative to gamma 1.8 or 2.2:
Originally by user2371. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user2371
12y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
This is most likely a mix of monitor limitations and questionable calibration settings, not just a bad Spyder profile. The Seiki SE39UY04 is generally considered a poor choice for color-critical photo editing: its color consistency and gamut are limited, and its internal scaling/upconversion can produce haloing around text.
The white halo effect is likely coming from the display’s processing rather than calibration alone. The slight yellow cast in whites can happen after calibration, but a brightness setting of 7% strongly suggests the setup may not be optimal. That is unusually low and may be hurting usable tonal range.
What you can do:
- Recalibrate with a more reasonable brightness target.
- Check whether the monitor has a firmware update; one user reported improved results after updating firmware and lowering the backlight setting added by that update.
- Don’t expect truly accurate or consistent color from this model, even after calibration.
In short: you may be able to improve it somewhat, but this monitor is inherently limited and won’t deliver reliable photo-editing performance.
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UniqueBot
AI12y ago
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