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Frequently
Asked Questions
Q: What is Display Tune®?
A: Display Tune is a utility that provides the user with a guided process
of tuning their display to achieve optimal viewing results. The display’s on-screen
display (OSD) is not required during the tuning process. In day-to-day operation,
Display Tune allows the user to make periodic, simple adjustments to the display’s
behavior without resorting to the OSD. In addition, Display Tune has a provision
for plug-ins to add new features for even greater management of the display.
The first plug-in available for Display Tune is color calibration. Display
Tune’s color calibration plug-in goes beyond mere characterization applications
which produce residual color management profiles seldom used by Windows applications.
The color calibration plug-in applies its color correction in real-time, all
of the time.
Q: Who needs Display Tune?
A: One of the most common reasons for display out-of-box dissatisfaction and
return is improper set-up of the display at the user’s site. Display Tune allows
for quick, easy to understand, display tuning for optimal performance to avoid
unnecessary support calls or returns. Anyone wishing to achieve the highest
level of visual performance from their display can benefit from Display Tune.
Display Tune features a simple process to achieve optimal results. With Display
Tune the user attains a high degree of confidence that the display is properly
adjusted.
Q: How does Display Tune replace the display’s OSD?
A: Display Tune provides the user with a simple user interface allowing adjustment
of the functions normally associated with the display’s OSD. Changes to Brightness,
Contrast, Position, and other standard monitor characteristics are made easily
and intuitively. Any changes made through Display Tune’s interface are communicated
to the display through the standard video cable (VGA or DVI).
Display Tune uses the Application
Programming Interfaces (APIs) provided by modern Windows operating systems (OSs) to establish two-way communication
with the monitor over the DDC channel. In most cases Display Tune directly addresses
the graphics hardware in the host PC in order to support legacy OSs and graphic controllers that would
otherwise be unsupported by the newly emerging APIs. This comprehensive method
of establishing chip-by-chip support makes Display Tune the most compatible
Display Data Channel/Command Interface (DDC/CI) solution available. Like all
other Portrait Displays’ products, Display Tune has a long-term commitment to
compatibility.
Q: What are Display Tune plug-ins?
A: Display Tune architecture provides for additional functionality to be added
to Display Tune over time. This provides an elegant update path for Display
Tune as DDC/CI monitors become ubiquitous in the market place. The first plug-in
available from Portrait Displays is color calibration. Over the coming months,
new plug-ins will be added that allow for extensive management and protection
of the display.
Q: How can Display Tune’s color plug-in cause an LCD to exhibit color like
a calibrated CRT?
A: Accurate Windows color reproduction on a display device requires conformity
to the sRGB standard. To achieve this conformity the tonal response of the monitor
must generally follow a gamma 2.2 curve. CRTs in their native state come very
close to approximating this curve and simple adjustments can bring them into
very good calibration. But LCDs typically vary a great deal from this ideal
response curve and most suffer from severe color crossover effects as well.
Display Tune uses a patent-pending method of presenting the user with a series
of targets corresponding to critical points along the tone curve. User adjustments
with respect to these targets establishes the variance in the LCD’s tonal response
to an ideal gamma 2.2 response curve. Based on this point data, Display Tune
calculates the overall video signal compensation necessary to cause the display
to exhibit a gamma 2.2 behavior along the entire tone curve. Display Tune then
uses an intelligent agent to apply the calculated compensation at all times,
achieving the desired result. Display Tune is the only application capable of
producing the wide-ranging, multi-point calibration necessary to properly calibrate
LCD displays.
Q: Isn’t the standard hardware OSD sufficient for the end user?
A: Conventional hardware OSD’s that come with displays are crude and unintuitive.
They don’t provide feedback to the user on how the adjustments to the display
should be made. There are no instructions or target screens to easily allow
for correctly “dialing in” the display’s characteristics. Thus the user is
left with a frustrating experience when calibrating the display for the work
environment.
Q: What about Microsoft®’s implementation
of DDC/CI?
A: Microsoft offers an undocumented API that supports DDC/CI. This solution
is limited both in the OS and the graphics driver support. The Microsoft API
requires Windows® 2000
or XP. Additionally the supplier of the graphics display driver must expose
the I2C bus of the underlying graphics silicon. This is rarely done
today. Portrait Displays has created a second method to couple with Microsoft’s
method of supporting DDC/CI. Portrait Display’s method enables the I2C
communication on graphic controllers that are not currently supported as well
as provide coverage for all Windows operating systems; 98, Me, NT, 2000, and
XP. Portrait Displays solution combined with Microsoft’s limited support offers
the broadest compatibility for both today’s computer systems and the next generation
of the Windows OS.
Q: I am a developer, how can I learn more about Display Tune?
For certified developers, Portrait Display’s can supply the Display Tune Reference
Design Package. To learn more about the Design Reference Package and qualification
process contact your local Portrait Displays Sales Representative .
Q: What is the Display Tune Reference Design Package?
A: The Display Tune Reference Design Package is a complete set of software
tools and documentation to debug and design an elegant OSD replacement for DDC/CI
enabled monitors. The Display Tune Reference Design Package consists of a two-phased
deliverable to the customer. The first deliverable, the Monitor Development
Kit (MDK), is designed to assist the hardware and software (firmware) engineer
in assessing potential failures in proper DDC/CI communication. The second
deliverable, the Display Tune GUI Customization Kit, provides guidelines on
branding and acceptable UI modifications.
Q: How does an OEM customer qualify for receipt of the Display Tune Reference
Design Package?
A: In order to receive the Display Tune Reference Design Package, the customer
must have a DDC/CI compliant prototype display with which to test. When used
with the prototype hardware, the firmware within the display can be tested and
debugged for full compliance while running Display Tune Toolbox™. The Display
Tune Toolbox™ is a software application that tests the DDC/CI communication
and correct implementation of the Virtual Control Panel (VCP) commands. To
obtain more information about the Display Tune Reference Design Package contact your local Portrait Displays Sales Representative .
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