Buying a new monitor or color calibrator

Ching1202

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Oct 14, 2013
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Hi all. I have a Samsung 2443BW monitor for almost 8yrs. Although it still works fine, I feel it can't show much detail in dark area, which makes me pissing off while im gaming/watching movies.

I wonder if I should consider buying a new monitor or a color calibrator?
 
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Emanuel Elmo

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Mar 21, 2014
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buying a color calibrator would not hurt. It might fix your darker areas problem by giving you a better contrast ratio after calibration. But monitors in general after a prolong period of time will start to lose their color consistency depending on how it was use. You would also need to do some research on how to properly color calibrate your monitor and depending on what color calibrator you purchase it will take account ambient light in your room as a measurement to give you accurate colors. Not only that but when you color calibrate your monitor, the first thing that you are ask by the software is at what lumens you want to calibrate? 120, 160, and the kalvin, d50, d65 etc.

But the question would be what if you buy the color calibrator but give you results that you were not intending?

I think, for what it might be worth, just buy a new monitor that would suite your needs. Just my two cents.
 

Ching1202

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Oct 14, 2013
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Really great advice. Thank you.

What was concerning me is that buying a new 1080p monitor is not something like "upgrade" to me.(and 4K monitor is not that good currently for gaming/ bluray movie). I wonder if a new monitor can bring me noticeable quality improvement (in movie/game), compare to a 8-yrs old monitor. I hear a lot teams like IPS/backlight etc, which I dont quite understand. Do you have any advice? Thanks!
 

Emanuel Elmo

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Mar 21, 2014
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Watch this video about ips vs tn. What you should take from that video is mainly the differences between the panels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79r5rxS276Y

I would generally go for a IPS panel because it will produce better colors for you over a TN panel and will give you better blacks that you are looking for. Even if you calibrate your monitor (assuming it is a TN panel) again, it may give you better colors but purchasing a newer IPS panel or even if you decide to get another TN panel, I believe it would still produce better colors out of the box without worrying to much about calibrating your monitor.
 
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