Having trouble when you print? Could be your HDMI cable!

[Stardog2]

I watched this last week, ordered a VGA cable, and the difference is profound. After recalibration, my prints are now very much closer to what I see on the screen. They were always much darker than the screen

 

[bdbits]

That's quite interesting. It does sound like if you have a "full" range cable you would be alright also, but I have never even heard of full vs limited cables until now. So it might be difficult to know. Also, one of my displays has only VGA and HDMI connectors, but does have its own calibration on board (probably like the Benq he had). For technical reasons I won't bore anyone over, I have it linked to my laptop via HDMI that runs through an HDMI->USB-C connector. Now I wonder what that might be doing to the signal. Maybe nothing, maybe a lot.

 

[Stardog2]

True, not everyone's graphics card has the ability to switch to full range HDMI. And all I had was like yours "HDMI" and "VGA". The nVidea control panel did not offer an ability to change nor did my display controls. So it seemed that for me, VGA was the way to go. It works well, and I have seen no diminution in on screen image quality.

 

[Kevin]

Are VGA port monitors still common?

 

[Brian]

Are VGA port monitors still common?

You can get them. The monitor I am using now has HDMI and VGA, I use it for two computers. VGA out is common on embedded systems.

 

[Iron]

True, not everyone's graphics card has the ability to switch to full range HDMI. And all I had was like yours "HDMI" and "VGA". The nVidea control panel did not offer an ability to change nor did my display controls. So it seemed that for me, VGA was the way to go. It works well, and I have seen no diminution in on screen image quality.

Thanks for posting. I noticed this in around 2010 when I switched to HDMI. The difference in printing was just significant. When I was calibrating on Linux, I was even told by the system that I was using limited 16-235. On Windows, it wasn't not necessarily shown, or probably I was too lazy to find out. The VGA that time was the solution and the representation of light and shadow was just very different, just like night and day.

I print 5.5 to 7EV (printer maximum) stops only (7.5EV stops is the maximum the best printer and paper can produce at the moment.), depending on the paper and VGA was good enough for that. When printing the Pentax Reversal Film, I only need 4EV stops max but still needed the full 0-255 range because of the representation of the blacks in the photo. When I printed Reversal Film and I was using HDMI, I saw a lot of details in the shadows that I didn't see in the monitor. When I switched to my old VGA 2007 monitor and saw the missing details.

I am using DisplayPort now.

Are VGA port monitors still common?

They are not as common but business PCs and laptops still have them. The consumer monitors I checked in computer stores don't have VGA anymore but the business ones, which can't be bought in stores here, still do. My Dell professional monitor still has a VGA port and it was a 2020 model.