The DVDO offers up to 11 points of grayscale/gamma calibration, at predefined levels of brightness spaced across the full range. The Lumagen offers up to 21 points and allows you to choose where you position those points—that is, the specific brightness levels that need the most attention. As I mentioned before, most displays offer only two points, effectively making your calibration the same as holding a noodle at two ends and trying to tweak it to make it straight. If you have multipoint adjustments such as those offered by both processors, you can tweak individual spots along the noodle, which allows for a far more accurate picture across the board. Once you have used such adjustments to dial in the grayscale and gamma, you’ll never want to go back to a standard display’s adjustments. You’ll quickly find out how limiting and frustrating it can be. Keep in mind, again, that performing these grayscale adjustments requires specialized test instruments used by professional technicians/calibrators.
On the CMS side, both video processors allow the end user to adjust the primary color points (red, green, blue) and secondary color points (yellow, cyan, magenta) for saturation, hue, and brightness. The Lumagen uses RGB values for this, which takes a little getting used to. The DVDO uses the CIE xyY values, which can also be frustrating if you don’t have a way of knowing what the measured values are. This will depend largely on the calibration software you’re using. I found both work once you understand how to use them, but the Lumagen offered the most complete control.
The DVDO wasn’t as linear across multiple levels of brightness stimulation as the Lumagen. This is similar to what we see with a lot of CMS features in displays. The DVDO did better than most of the displays I’ve used, but didn’t offer the refinement of the Lumagen in this regard.