MultiSync P221W+Colormunki Display+Spectraview 2

Well, I was struck by the lack of activity in these forums so I'll start a new thread about my new monitor. NEC is closing out their well known P221W, so I got one. I am setting it up with my Colormunki Display colorimeter and the Spectraview 2 software. I have seen several reports that this combination wont work, but was reassured by NEC's customer service that it will work; so I'm going to give it a go. I am on an older MacBook running 10.6.8...

It will be few more days before I get it all set up, but I will follow up here with my results: nothing scientific, just a user's report for anyone interested in this combination of hardware/software.

Results of test will be interesting

Well I am interested.

I have been thinking about one of the NEC 24 inch monitors but have not decided if I will go with NEC or another company.

Why did you select the P221W monitor? Price, size or what?

I assume the P221W is a wide format monitor thus the need to use Colorminki or the Spectraview tools for calibration. Is that correct?

Bruce

Hi Bruce, I chose the P221W because it only costs about 300 bucks with NEC's discount. That's a really low price for a monitor that covers 96% of ARGB, and has hardware based color calibration. Ive been looking at wide gamut monitors for a while and this was the deal I was looking for.

Yes, in order to use this monitor as it is intended to be used, you need to have a colorimeter and NEC's Spectraview software.

It's good to keep in mind that these wide gamut monitors aren't really for general use. If you are going to be editing photos in Adobe's RGB colorspace, then you are going to want one. If you only edit/view photos in sRGB, then there are probably better (cheaper) options...

I'll let you know how it is working once I get it set up...

so far no good

This combination of hardware and software is not good. There may still be a workaround, but so far Spectraview II, despite what NEC support has told me, does not recognize the ColorMunki Display colorimeter...

I did calibrate the monitor with X-Rite's software (ColorMunki Display) and looking at color test file it looks good. I will have to get some photos printed to really see how well it works for soft proofing.

tbc

Sorry to hear about your initial results. Hope they get better. I have decided not to get a NEC monitor.

Update

Still following up on this. NEC support has now told me that Colormunki Display is not a supported colorimeter. Other Colormunki products are supported (Photo, Design), but Display is not.

They only realized this after I bought their monitor and software, tried it and then told them it does not work, which makes you wonder a little about their R&D; the Spectraview release notes list Colormunki as being supported, but does not differentiate between the several Colormunki products...

To their credit however, in order to make it up to me NEC is sending me one of their colorimeters at no charge, so that I can correctly set up and use the products I purchased. I could follow up with my results once I get the display set up and calibrated with the NEC colorimeter, but those results are well documented elsewhere.

So to follow up with my original user's report: Spectraview II+ColorMunki Display are not compatible and will not calibrate an NEC display using its built in LUT.