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Monitor replacement criteria

Adam L

Member
I have a NEC PA241WG monitor purchased in 2012 that I regularly calibrate. It's on almost constantly, has over 35K hours of use. The calibration visual makes me think that there is very little variance to optimal settings. I see that it takes longer to warm up, and the screen sometimes looks like it needs a brightness boost. Print and monitor colors look good to me but I have some color blindness.

How do you tell when it's time to replace the monitor? I feel like it's time and wonder if I have gotten comfortable with diminished quality.
 

JoelM

Well-known member
My guess is that you have likely gotten used to it. It's like driving a car for 200k miles and the suspension feels a bit soft, but you haven't noticed any drastic changes. Perhaps you can view some of your files on a newer monitor somewhere and get a feel for it or have a friend bring an image to your place and get his opinion. You might not really know until you get a new monitor. 7 years and 35k hours are a decent amount, but on the other hand, if you're making good prints and they're matching your monitor, you might be just fine. Also, if your monitor can achieve calibration, that's another good indication that the monitor is doing its job.

Joel
 

Rand47

Active member
If it still profiles and the Delta e is low, and it can get to the cdm2 you use, then I’d say you’re fine. Just perhaps run the profiling routine more often to make sure it is still “holding its own.”

When you say that it seems as though it needs a brightness boost, what does your profiling report tell you is the luminance value achieved vs target?

Another possible variable would be the age and accuracy of your colorimeter. Are you sure it is giving you accurate evaluation during your calibration / profile runs?

Rand
 
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