Eye One Display 2 - Dual monitor support?

<p>I'm about to purchase a monitor calibrator and was planning to get the Eye One Display 2, but have read that it doesn't offer dual monitor support. I know there are several version of this product, i.e. a Gretag MacBeth version? It's all a bit confusing to me, but as I understand it several comapanies sell this colorimeter with their own bundled software.<br>

<strong>Is there a version which does support dual-monitors?</strong> I use a new Macbook Pro laptop running Leopard, with a 23" apple cinema display. Sometimes I use the laptop on location without the cinema display, and I want them each to be profiled.<br>

If this is not an option, my runner-up choice is the Spyder 3.<br>

Also I should mention that I'm a young professional, and I prefer to buy the version that has the more advanced controls & features when applicable. I know sometimes the cheaper versions of these colorimeters come with limited software.</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

<p>if you want to profile two displays running on the same computer you need a seperate video cards in the computer for each display. This isn't an i1 Display 2 limitation.</p>

<p>Works fine on my Mac Pro with two displays driven off one card...</p>

<p>When I use my laptop and I go into System Preferences>Displays, two windows show up, one on each monitor. I pick the profile I want for each monitor independently. Maybe this is a new feature with Leopard? I've read online that a limitation of the i1 display 2 is it's lack of dual monitor support. Maybe this is a myth?</p>

<p>Same here when i had 2 apple cinema display; one video card, one calibration device (eye one) they look good and well calibrated?!</p>

<p>Now that i have a NEC and a ACD, they seem to work fine togheter since the NEC hold is calibration alone.</p>

<p>Ellis, that has not been true for several years. Pretty much all dual display video cards today have totally independent LUTs for each display.</p>

<p>Josh, it's really a matter of operating system support. Once you've got the right hardware, newer versions of both Mac and Windows allow you to set separate profiles for each monitor. Eye-One Display software has allowed you to profile two separate monitors for years, just start it, then drag it onto each display that you want to profile.</p>

<p>You will, however, find that a third party color profiling application often offers more control. My personal colorimeter is an X-Rite DTP-94, and the X-Rite "Optrix Pro" software allowed you to profile two monitors, then perform an additional step where their gamuts were brought into agreement, so that the monitors would look less annoying when used together. This is good for "mixed displays", and I did this for my laptop and external monitor. I dont' think any version of the Eye-One or Spyder software can do this, but if memory serves, the third party color manager "ColorEyes Display Pro" can.</p>

<p>Thank you, I think I'm ready to get the i1 Display 2. Are there different companies that sell different software bundles of this product?<br>

I know I've heard good things about the coloreyes software, I don't think I'll get that yet, unless there's a big difference?</p>

<p>GretagMagbeth, X-Rite, and Pantone are all the same company and all three brands have appeared on the hardware in the past; The only current version is marketed as the X-Rite i1Display 2. Good display profiling packages are few and far between, so alone's pretty much the only way to buy it. (X-Rite also manufactures it in a bundle with Monaco EZColor, but EZColor's honestly not worth owning.)<br>

I wouldn't worry about ColorEyes Display Pro unless you find Eye-One Match doesn't give you what you need. You can always download the demo if you want to check it out.</p>