Found a cure (for one machine at least)
Harrison http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=MHXHM
Download the exe, it's just a self extracting zip file, and that will unzip the icc profile.
- Edited
Hey. I just came up with another theory. What if ensete is right and the colore profile is the root of our problems? This will also explain why I get those eyestrain with an old trusted monitor and an new computer/or a newer driver.
I've attached a screenshot where you can find those color profiles icc. It's in german, however I'm pretty sure that the most of you won't have any problems to find this option too.
So what if I've never installed the "right" color profile of one of my old trusted monitors. Moreover I didn't care cause I've never get any problems with my old monitors and my old notebook. So the theory is that I didn't get any problems cause the color profile is not harming me. However an other pc uses a different color profile (from a different driver) -> eyestrain. So Maybe some of you can try out to extract their old trusted color profile and use it with a new pc or new driver version. I don't know if this is even possible. But worth a try.
Edit: In this attachment I've installed the right monitor driver for the DELL U2415 at my workplace. Let's see if this makes any difference.
You don't have to use device manager, under windows 7, type "Color" in the search bar on the start menu, click "Color Management" and that will bring up an interface for you to manage ICC profiles. Select your monitor in the device list, check the "Use my settings for this device" box, click the "Add..." button at the bottom of the white area on the screen and browse to the correct ICC profile. Then click "Set as default" when it is loaded.
- Edited
Cool. Your way to manage those profiles is much easier, also its very simple to chance between certain color profiles. So extracting an old trusted color profile and using it with a newer driver, would definitely manageable.
It would be very interesting if the right monitor color profile is needed, or if also an old icc profile is ok for our eyes.
I also posted this fact in my intel thread. This theory is definitely a thing we should focus on now.
Edit. For those who do not find "color" in start menu you can find it with "farbverwaltung" in german.
This whole thread confuses me. People with calibrators make their own profiles all the time..
Don't get me wrong, it is better to have a profile than no profile.
But there is nothing "magic" about the profile that ships with the CD the monitor came with. Sometimes the profile is for another panel manufacturer, which has happened more than once in the past with Apple laptops, where the profile was actually calibrated for a different manufacturer's panel.
Sunspark Having the ICC profile installed does "something", which improves (at least my) symptoms. Whether or not that "something" is achieved only via the manufacturer ICC profile, or can be replicated with some other profile, I don't know, I have not tried any other ICC profiles.
But on a deeper level it points to either colors, or something the monitor does to display certain colors, that is changed when the correct ICC profile is installed as a source of our issues. Thats a big deal to sensitive folks looking for a root cause to thier issues.
- Edited
Postscript: To ensure colour profiles persist across reboots, you have to do one more thing by clicking on one more checkbox in the poorly laid out Color Management module, "Use Windows display calibration". This link has a good series of screenshots with the relevant items circled: Load profiles in Windows
I also do one more thing in addition, on the advanced tab in the beginning on the Windows Color System Defaults for Device Profile, I also change that to match the same one as selected on the Devices tab. This is for non-color managed stuff, but honestly, the difference is so small from sRGB you can consider this optional. Color managed apps won't be paying attention to this but just the Devices tab. Remember to reboot the computer.
Gradients test on lagom is fine to compare between different profiles. You will likely see differences between some. Perhaps banding (delete those profiles), or too much grey or whatever. The ideal balance is that the dividing line is at the 50% mark.
i wonder if the ICC overrides temporal aa, etc . I know tweaking the ICC was the trick in getting my TV to work as a monitor (4:4:4 chroma vs 4:4:2).
This is interesting. So the theory is that if a laptop/monitor is using the Windows default color/icc profile, this will produce eye strain. And if using the manufacturer's icc profile, the eye strain should be gone.
I tested this on a laptop which gives me eye strain, the Lenovo T440p. The color profile installed is already the manufacturer's profile, at least I think it is (see screenshots below):
If yes, the the manufacturer's icc profile is already installed and it is giving me eye strain. So how do I change the icc profile?
Another point to note, the laptop I'm using has PWM, so I set the brightness to 100% to eliminate the flickering. Even though no more flickering, I still get eye strain, which mean there is still something else that is causing eye strain, which right now the main suspect is graphics driver or driver related. Changing the icc profile look interesting, as this might also be a potential cause.
With the laptop at 100% brightness, this makes the screen too bright for everyday use, so I use a third party program called "PowerStrip" to artificially reduce the brightness using software (instead of the laptop's reduce screen brightness keyboard method). PowerStrip has its own Color Profile management, which I use it to tweak and reduce the contrast of the screen to reduce the brightness of the screen. So in my case, I am not sure if changing the icc color profile would make a difference, or the PowerStrip's color profile will override the laptop's profile. Another uncertainty. :-/
Any chance of a similar solution for macbook retina? I found out it has LG panel but not sure how about going for proper ICC profiles. Tried calibrating it myself, it helped to decrease the contrast (gamma 1.8 instead of 2.2) but not much overall, eyestrain still present.