Datacolor User to User Support Group.

Hi David...

>>I'm glad you aren't having LUT-wars on your XP system, but others,
especially under Vista, have been having a range of issues, and while
most of these issues are the OS's fault, we are doing out best to
address them, so that users can achieve, and maintain, managed color.

I really *do* understand the reasoning behind the delay but it just
seems like a llloooonnggg time to wait for the LUT load. I will play with

Whoa!!! this is really odd!!! I was just going to check the Spyder
Utility option about turning off notification and I went to click on
the Spyder icon in my system tray and it disappeared!!! Hmmm...odd...

Anyway...what I was going to say is that I will play with turning off
the notification (assuming I'm remembering the options correctly)
probably setting it to "errors only" and see if that makes a
difference in the LUT loading time...


>>My understanding is that it is simply waiting until later in the 
startup process, not holding the system hostage. How often do you find 
it necessary to restart? I don't do it more than every month or two, 
but that might indicate that I'm not on Windows...

It's holding the system hostage in the sense that it appears that the
LUT loading takes 25-30 seconds to occur--I can actually see the
screen colors change when the load takes place--AFTER the boot has
completed with my desktop displaying so I can't/won't do anything
until that occurs. It's not that the boot process itself takes longer,
it's that other than the LUT loading, everything is ready to go.

As to rebooting...well...it's interesting...I used to shut my system
down daily when I was finished for the day and then when my old system
began to slowly die, I started leaving it on because the initial
indication of its impending death was problem with being able to turn
on my pc and it turned out that I liked having my system available all
of the time so when I got my new system, I began leaving it on all the
time. I do turn it off when I leave my house for a number of hours
because I'm a bit paranoid about power outages (not a frequent
occurance fortunately but it does happen) and even though I have a
UPS, it just makes me feel better not to leave the system running when
I'm going for a longer period of time.

And...I'm going to have to reboot shortly to get back the Spyder icon
in the system tray...

Sooo...I don't reboot as often as I used to but I do do it more
frequently that you do...'-}}


>>Its not the profiles, but the LUTs that load. However much of the 
color correction is in the LUTs, so you need to load them...

Yes...I understand that and I just wanted to confirm my understanding
that in choosing "never", the LUTs are not loaded...


>>We moved from a one time startup item to a full time utility, because 
there are several things we need to do at times other than startup. 
Overhead is minimal...

I figured the overhead on the checking is minimal but why not give
users the option to load the LUTs and NOT have a constant check going
on? I don't believe that programatically, this would be a time
consuming/difficult option to add--the logic is quite straightforward
and it allows flexibility for the user which as an old programmer is
(generally) not a bad thing...


>>I would recommend against this, there are fixes in 3.0.7 worth
having, and the "overhead" won't be significantly different in 3.0.4...

OK...I'll give it more thought...


>>Not interested in covering methods of downgrading our software on
this forum... if you really need help with this, contact support...

Fair enough...


>>Last month's newsletter discussed these, though probably not the 
details you would want. We have not updated the integrated Help files 
(in ten languages, on multiple platforms) for each dot.dot upgrade, so 
we have not covered the latest changes to the utility there.

Sorry David...I don't think this is acceptable. If you update the
software, it's vitally important to update the documenation
particularly when new functionality is added to the software. 



>>We do get the "lousy documentation" comment every so often, but since 
we get the "great documentation" comment much, much more often, we 
take it in perspective. Its usually engineers and programmers who are 
not happy with it, and end users and reviewers who like it. Not sure 
the same documentation could ever satisfy both groups. Either way, we 
hope to do more work on ease of use, and easy to understand 
documentation later this year. That might not move things in the 
direction you are looking for, however..

Let me just say this...I think that what might be very helpful would
be an overview (tutorial??) of the process--with
screenshots!!!--presented to the user first thing. Perhaps as an
intial screen that says something like "would you like see an overview
of the calibration process" with an option to turn this prompt off
(experience users probably wouldn't want/need to see it). Please note,
I'm not talking about a video (or flash presentation) but a basic
step-by-step description of the process with screen shots. If you did
go video (or flash) *PLEASE* remember to caption the presentation for
those of us with a hearing loss.

I had used the CRT Spyder for many years and my expectation was that I
would have NO problems with the Spdyer3 and that was not the case. I
had a frustrating time with my initial use of the software because I
didn't know where it was going. I would have found an overview of the
process most helpful because it would give me a feel for how the
process worked and what each step of the process involved. 

The current Help text on a scale of 1-10 (where 1 is abysmal and 10 is
perfection) is about a 6 as many of the Help screens can be
informative but overall it lack cohesiveness.

I speak from my experience as a systems analyst and programmer but
also as someone who has taught and developed both technical and
end-user (as in less experienced) classes and documentation and was
considered pretty good at all of that...'-}}


>>I copied this URL directly from your email to a browser window, and
it took me to the Datacolor site's Spyder3 section. That would qualify
as "existing" to end users, even if its a referred location, not a 
literal one.

I just checked this an you are correct...not sure what was going on
when I tried to use it before...


>>Nor are they available in all ten languages, or in high contrast for 
the visually impaired, etc. We have been working on the theory that 
quick and dirty videos (YouTube quality, so to speak) that meet the 
needs of many of our English language users are worthwhile. If we 
waited for the time and budget to make them all things for all people, 
they wouldn't be there at all.

You're theory is mistaken...

Thank you for spending the time to answer my questions. I appreciate it...

Terrie
http://tlbtlb.com/
tlbtlb@...