Spyder2 Express and Pantone Huey monitor calibration system deals

SJetski71

SJetski71

Fully [H]
Joined
Sep 6, 2002
Messages
17,308
Spyder2 Express $58.49 shipped at amazon.com. Edit: and here it is for around $55 shipped @ CompuPlus.

Pantone Huey $58.43 shipped from Buy.com's marketplace (merchant=AntOnline) using the $10 google checkout discount. Even without the $10 discount, $68.43 is the best price on the Pantone huey anywhere.

Stumbled upon these while trying to decide on how to calibrate my monitors, i've triplechecked and could not find better prices anywhere else, not even Google/Froogle, pricegrabber, nor ebay. For those who are curious about the topic, the AVSforums have a whole forum dedicated to display calibration. The two biggest differences between these units are that the Spyder2 has better aftermarket support while the Pantone huey is rumored to be slightly better out of the box and offers a dynamic auto-calibrate "on the fly" feature dependant on current room lighting. Most seem to disable the auto-calibration feature so it's probably either annoying or isn't that useful (?) but the end-user is able to control how often the auto-feature probes a room's ambient lighting.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
wow I paid $79 for the spyder back in jan..


best money ever spent, makes a huge diif on my LCD
 
Anyone know if this will do its thing for dual monitors? I mean I'm sure that it would calibrate both monitors, but will it automatically load the proper profiles for each monitor at start up?
 
FlipperBizkut said:
Anyone know if this will do its thing for dual monitors? I mean I'm sure that it would calibrate both monitors, but will it automatically load the proper profiles for each monitor at start up?
Click to expand...
I may be wrong but i'm pretty sure these inexpensive models are limited as to how they work with dual monitor setups, you may be able to trick windows into loading them somehow but once again i'm not sure. You'll probably have to research it some more, maybe these companies have their own help forums? Worth doublechecking imho, or maybe do a search in that calibration forum for "dual monitors" and see what you come up with.

Also not sure if any of the aftermarket software can handle dual-setups (more info on that at the avsforums).
 
Yeah, I checked on the spyder site and came across a FAQ that stated the pro version could create multiple profiles, but it would have to be with 2 different video cards. It stated that single cards with dual heads would only work if it is a PCIe card. I would still have to call them and ask, but that is OK since I heard their tech support is top notch.
 
I just picked up a 37" Westy. Tempted to jump in on this. Do either/both of these work on Vista, and which one is the better calibrator?
 
Oooska said:
I just picked up a 37" Westy. Tempted to jump in on this. Do either/both of these work on Vista, and which one is the better calibrator?
Click to expand...
I haven't researched them a whole lot but the Spyder2 has a larger user-support base and after-market software available, some of it free even. For more info and links to the free aftermarket software, def check out the avs calibration forum i linked above. Not sure how it works with Vista so you'd probably have to check the mfr websites.

I'm probably not the best person to answer this question but supposedly the Pantone is slightly better out of the box, and offers an extra minor feature or two such as dynamic auto-calibrating. But since the spyder2 has the better end-user support base + modded software i'd probably recommend the spyder2, as long as it works with Vista of course.

To get a product significantly better than either you'd probably have to spend >$150.
 
Thanks for the info. The Spyder definitely seems to support Vista, and I had a few other things to order from Amazon as well, so I just bit. :D
 
i'm a total noobie to what you just posted... I never even heard of such devices... so far the primary use seems to be to make pictures on your screen look identical in color / shade / sharpness as the ones you print out from your printer.

Is there a use for these devices for film watching or gameplaying on a regular WS 22" monitor if one does not plan on printing photos?
 
The Red said:
i'm a total noobie to what you just posted... I never even heard of such devices... so far the primary use seems to be to make pictures on your screen look identical in color / shade / sharpness as the ones you print out from your printer.

Is there a use for these devices for film watching or gameplaying on a regular WS 22" monitor if one does not plan on printing photos?
Click to expand...
The results are most noticed in photo's, fim watching and even web surfing. There can be some trickery involved with the software but making games look nicer and more accurate is definitely another one of the benefits. Everything that was meant to look light green will look light green, graphics that were meant to have 20 shades of grey will have 20 shades of grey etc etc.

I used to have a decent monitor calibrator a few years back and it made my games look visibly nicer on my old monitor.
 
I personally own a x-rite/gretagmacbeth eye-one display 2 and from personal experience the best calibration would have to be the spider2 express with third party software that supports more features then the limited express version. the only differnce between the spider2 express and pro versions is the software.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top