Two profiled monitors look different. What now?

<p>I have attached two monitors to one dual-head graphics card on Vista. Vista recognizes them both as "Generic Non-PnP Monitor - NVIDIA Geforce 7800 GTX". One of the displays is a 17'' Dell 1703 FPs LCD and the other is an old 21'' Nokia Multigraph 445X CRT.</p>

<p>I have both calibrated and profiled these monitors using Spyder3. Then using Spyder3Pro software (Spyderproof) I have verified that the ICC profiles have been applied to their respective monitors. At least when I switch back and forth between "before calibration" and "after calibration" the looks of the screen changes on both devices (to better). A recalibration check tells that both screens are calibrated ok.</p>

<p>They should now look the same, right?<br /> No, they don't.</p>

<p>I even matched their brightness by trial and error (adjust, calibrate, repeat until good). The CRT still has a yellow cast and the LCD has a blue cast. Or maybe it's neutral, but relatively the CRT is warmer. A lot. Then I thought that maybe the screens frame affects visual perception. I looked at the screens through a tube to exclude environmental effects. The CRT is warmer.</p>

<p>Calibration (both monitors offer RGB adjustments that adjust color, somehow):<br /> LCD RGB=43%,43%,50% to produce pure white measured by Spyder.<br /> CRT RGB=56%,51%,46% measured. But if I change these *after* calibration and profiling to 45%,40%,52% then the screens look more like.</p>

<p>So... adjusting RGB on these screens makes white purer on both devices, but if I want identical colors I need to set similar %-values. Oops. Profiling is not supposed to work like this, so what's wrong?</p>

<p>Any ideas would be much appreciated. Thanks.</p>

<p>Ralf, there is an excellent forum (Colorvision/Spyder3) to take that question to:<br>

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/colorvision_group/messages?o=1<br>

Although others here may have some answers as well. I use a Mac and I know it is different as macs inherently support dual monitors and assign individual profiles automatically. Windows is different and the guys at the yahoo forum can probably help as many of their techs hang out there. I don't put any value to their before/after gadget and find it an annoying piece of marketing crap on an otherwise worthy product.</p>