Pantone huey MEU101 Reviews

• Horrible Horrible Product

  
  By A1E55W6ES0FY17 on 2006-04-10
  Avoid this like plague folks. Definitely don't buy it mail order. Much harder to return. I do a lot of image editing and I have recently become interested in calibrating my monitor to make sure that the pictures I get developed will look just like they do on my monitor. This seemed like a good deal. Pantone is a very respected brand name and the price was good for a monitor calibration system.
  
  I wasn't looking for bells or whistles, just accurate monitor calibration. So I figured the low price reflected a lack of bells and whistles, but being from Pantone I expected it to work correctly. I was wrong, the low price was indicative of a device that cannot do what it purports to do - unless "PINK-HUED" is correct, then this product is great! If you want the screen to be usable though, you'll need to uninstall it and ship it back.
  
  On top of that, the instructions are TERRIBLE. You'd think it would be easy: Stick it on the screen, plug it into the USB and go to work. What they don't tell you is that you have to adjust your brightness/contrast first and apparently they didn't feel like having clear instructions there was important.
  
  It says something to the effect of, "Set your monitor to 100% contrast and then set the brightness to 50%. Now adjust IT until the top and bottom of the circle look the same."
  
  What is IT? Brightness or contrast? Well I figure there are only two, so I was willing to put in the effort and I tried both. No matter which one I adjusted, I could never get the top and bottom of the circle to look "the same." (How could it? That seems impossible. You are adjusting the whole screen, the bottom changes as the top changes.) Finally, (per the instructions, I settled for the "Can't get it to work? Just set it to 75% for brightness and contrast," suggestion in the instructions.
  
  For what it's worth, I have a Viewsonic P225f 21-inch CRT monitor. Not a cheap monitor and CRT's are supposed to be much easier to calibrate than LCD's.
  
  My advice, AVOID THE PANTONE HUEY LIKE PLAGUE. I'm going to spend the extra money and get a $200 Spyder Unit. Hopefully it will perform as expected.
  
  P.S. I always like to include this note with my reviews. Keep in mind, the average number of stars you are seeing on reviews is actually one star too high. You see, since the lowest you can rate something, one star is as low as you can go. So a two and a half star item seems like it is average, but it is really a 1 and a half star item if you let people give zeros. They don't, and that is part of the deal. Everything looks a little better than it actually is...
  
  

• Does the job for me

  
  By ACXPRSPIVAS6H on 2006-05-22
  I use my computer for a lot of photography. I have an analog View Sonic 17" LCD screen. Since I was receiving print results from an online print service where the contrast and colors were different than what I had expected I purchased this affordable product. I found it very easy to set up on my PC taking up a USB port. After installing the software, you are prompted to calibrate the device with the monitor which takes about 5 minutes. There after the device sits in its cradle near your monitor measuring the ambient light every minute or an interval you can select to readjust the screen. After two weeks the software will prompt you to recalibrate. I've owned the product for nearly three months and I've been satisfied. It didn't screw up my monitor as I've heard about with other products. I have it set for Webbrowsing-Photo editing but you can set it for games. Quite honestly I have only tried it with one game and that it Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006 and sometimes the contrast and colors are off (hence the 4 stars only.) Overall for my photo editing, it is a great little product at an affordable price.
  
  

• Huey -- Easy to Use and Affordable

  
  By A35T7AVM3A5F4A on 2006-03-16
  I had been planning on purchasing a color correction system for my computer for some time, but until Pantone Huey was released, I had not been able to find an affordable yet accurate colorimeter. For under $100, you can't beat this simple & sophisticated device.
  
  I was a little apprehensive of ordering a product so newly released, but I put my worries aside and purchased Huey, since it was less than half the price of the other models I was considering. Huey has lived up to my expectations, and was worth the investment. It has been easy to use: setup took less than five minutes, the directions are clear and concise, and the program walks you through each step onscreen.
  
  Huey sits next to my monitor, unobtrusively monitoring ambient (room) light and taking any changes into account (this feature can be disabled easily). The ambient light adjustment was a huge selling point for me -- other models offering this option were upwards of $200.
  
  While I can't make detailed adjustments of the color temperature, Huey's program allows you to select varying color settings based on whether you plan to edit photos, play computer games, or browse the web. Huey also allows you to compare your "before" and "after" monitor calibrations. I think you will be suprised at how much better it makes your screen look -- I know I was.
  
  I am more than satisfied with my investment, as Huey's simplicity and automation has saved me time and effort while providing me with a color corrected monitor that I can trust to be accurate.
  
  

• very disappointed

  
  By A2PXAS2HUL6XDV on 2006-02-24
  If you own a copy of Photoshop use Adobe Gamma. No matter what I did this thing made my monitors worse not better. The factory default setting for my monitors was the closest to true color when printing color samples. Very disappointed and was hoping a product with the name 'Pantone' on it would produce desired results.
  
  

• Returned It

  
  By A34FBAGX74DX0G on 2006-03-30
  Received info in mail from Pantone so figured I would try it...using it turned my grays to pinkish and couldnt control that changing light sensor. But it was cheap so I didn't lose sleep. Was frustrated enough to return it.
  
  
• Pantone Huey
  By A1EWN0PB4QJMFB on 2006-04-14
  Superb! Simple to install and use. For the first time in some 20+ years of computer usage I have my printer output matching the coloration on my monitor. Buy this item, apply Kelby's "Anger Management" chapter of his "Photoshop CS2 book for Digital Photographers" and you are in business. IMHO no sense to buy this product if you don't use PS and print with a quality Photo printer.
  
  
• Toy
  By A298H3M0G2JT95 on 2006-04-01
  Ive heard good things about Pantone calibration in the past but this misses the mark by far. I thought finally an affordable calibration tool. Well I was wrong. This thing would not stay on my LCD monitor. When I finally did get it to stay and I did a calibration it just didnt seem right. Then the monitor changed on me due to the ambient light adjustment. That feature is a gimmick at best. No way do I want my monitor in constant flux when editing images. If you do buy this , turn that feature off and maybe you can live with this product.
  
  Back to the reseller this goes. Anyone have suggestions on an affordable calibration tool?
  
  
• Easy to use but doesn't work
  By A28UMA3GW9L124 on 2007-02-19
  (Updated 3/13/07)
  I can't change the star rating but if I could I would. I contacted Pantone with the greenish cast issue and they told me that they were aware of a problem with some units. After confirming the serial number I received a replacement and it works! It would be nice to have multiple monitor support but at this price I'm not complaining. The only issue I have is that adjusting for room lighting seems to screw up the colors.
  
  I purchased this product based on user reviews but it just doesn't work. It is easy to use but the profiles that it generates are unusable and look much, much worse than the defaults. I've tried it on Windows XP, OS X and on a several different displays. I generally get a greenish cast. This seems to be a common problem and most professional reviews identify this issue and the product is not recommended.
  
  I guess you get what you pay for. Do your research and save your money.
  
  
• THE huey MUST BE COLORBLIND!
  By A9FPDSOWTEW64 on 2006-02-26
  I notice a little difference in what my prints look like compared to my LCD's default settings, so I figured for $80 why not try the huey. Hey it from Pantone and GretagMacBeth and they make quality stuff and have reputible names...I thought. My grey's turned to tan's and prints look awful. I gave it an extra star though because it's cool that it adjust to the lighting in your room. It's still crap though and I wouldnt waste my money if I were you..but hey you monitor might have better results than mine, I'm no expert.
  
  
• Wanna live in "The Matrix"?
  By A2IVERW49ICBDW on 2006-03-07
  It's cheap for a reason. I followed the steps, retested, and tried all the options. The end result was the same on all four computers I tried: it gave this wierd green tint, like the Matrix movies, but less subtle - and not at all what I want. Horrible product, and you'll get raped on the return fees...
  
  
• Should be included with all computers!
  By A7QIOXRNEZ69I on 2006-05-24
  This product is beautiful. Finally a color correction that I can spend money on that is designed well and makes a huge improvement in what I look at every day. The ambient light is a nice feature, and if it doesn't work for you, you can always turn it off. I love the design of the product and the system preferences. They have thought of everything that I would have asked for in a product and the software.
  Thank you pantone & gregmacbeth.
  
  
• Works Fine - I Think!
  By A9DOBIAE1ZZTJ on 2006-07-25
  First of all I have to compliment Amazon as the Huey I ordered arrived really fast despite my cheap Standard Shipping!
  
  The Huey was very easy to setup and I had created my first profile within about 15 minutes.The reason for my ambivalent review title is that I think it works as advertisied but I have not tested it with my printer yet on any high-quality photos or graphics. The little suction cups on it which are how you adhere it to the LCD screen, are a liitle weak so you have to be very careful with how much pressure you put on your screen. It doesn't appear as if it has damaged either of my monitors but you want to be very careful. I don't think you get as good a calibration if it is just hanging by its cable in front of the screen.
  
  I can say that the color of my monitor was changed significantly over the manual methods I had used before. The colors were less vibrant on-screen as I evidently was using too much brightness and contrast. I have two 19" monitors and the first one (my main graphics screen) didn't look as good as my secondary screen until I had adjusted for the second time a week later. Now it appears very solid and I believe the colors are much closer to being true than my manual calibrations.
  
  The Huey runs constantly on my desktop and adjusts the screen for the ambient light every minute which is a good feature as I get much brighter light in the afternoon (lots of glass on my office's south wall).
  
  You can use it for two monitors but you will have to switch your primary monitor in your computers display setup in order to calibrate the second monitor and then switch it back when you are through. The automatic adjustment feature will only work on one monitor at a time which is why I use my highest quality monitor as my primary and use the secondary primarliy for web surfing and overflow space for PhotoShop and Illustrator palletes. If you want to be able to calibrate two monitors at once you will need to upgrade and spend more bucks but as this is my first foray into color calibration, I can say I am satsified thus far with the Huey.
  
  As I use it for commercial printing jobs and high-color local output I will be more able to say definitively that it is the real deal but for the money I don't think you can go wrong with the Huey.
  
  
• Minor flaws, but worth every penny
  By A394HRV80ROLDB on 2006-06-20
  I found the software interface ugly and enigmatic, but it functions so well for the price that I really have no complaint. Like other reviewers, I don't know what the dissatisfied customers are talking about when they could not get it to work - but I know for a fact that at least one has a rather inexpensive ViewSonic monitor. I used the unit on several expensive monitors and some cheap ones, and found (unsurprisingly) that it seemed to work best on the most expensive monitor we have in this studio, a huge Apple LCD. The unit is now permanently attached to our main G5 and handles the work of calibration for several high-end 300-page book projects and numerous web sites beautifully. I am extremely satisfied!
  
  
• I don't own a Huey, but...
  By A3O1BQ499WT7IZ on 2006-09-23
  I do own the Gretag/Pantone LT-1, and I did own the SpyderPro, and I have played with a Huey. A monitor calibrator is going to change the colors you see on the monitor; that's its job, because the reason you have trouble getting prints that look like the monitor, is because the monitor isn't set right! It takes a couple of hours to get used to the different colors -- and you've a lifetime of getting correct prints on the first try once you get the printer profiled too. The first thing a well-calibrated monitor teaches you is just how poor your own color memory is and how bad Adobe Gamma and other "eyeball-based" calibration techniques are.
  
  Don't forget to disable Adobe Gamma from your startup folder!
  
  
• Pantone Huey - Excellent!
  By A2SRBAFZ2A3EBU on 2006-03-20
  After years of struggling with "eyeball" color correction techniques and monitor calibration software, I bought the Pantone Huey. The improvement was immediate and startling. If you are on a budget, but color accuracy is important to you, buy this tool!
  
  
• It DOES work
  By A1BV6NR2FA0X3Y on 2007-02-21
  I was initially disappointed by the yellowness of the whites produced by the Huey, but then I realized my EYES were in need of calibration. I figured out that after a while, you can go back to "uncorrected" and the pre-calibration view then looks too blue. To really test this, I got some test pattern prints from the web and printed them at a good lab and compared them to my monitor. Yup, the thing works: the colors matched. I don't know why so many folks are giving it 1 star--do they have a defective unit or are they possibly doing something wrong? At any rate, you have to get over the initial shock because you've been using an uncalibrated display for so long. With the extremely small size, quick calibration (much faster than a spyder) and nifty ambient light measurement capabilities, there is no better product under a hundred bucks. I've had mine for about six months and take it back and forth between work and home--it barely takes up any room in my bag. The calibration routine is so quick that I can edit images on my lunch hour and the setup doesn't take a big chunk of the time. If I had to go through a lengthy calibration routine, this would be a deal breaker.
  
  
• Huey does its job
  By A11NJOAZRKZNL7 on 2006-03-11
  The product works great. I can see clearly the grayscale on my LCD monitor now. The RGB values are neutral from the shadow to the highlight on the grayscale. My CRT with low resolution is not calibrated to my satisfaction. I can not blame the heuy because old CRT is known to be a problematic one. After the monitor calibration with Huey, all of my soft-proofs have green cast in the shadow areas. What puzzles me is the RGB values of the green cast areas are quite neutral. Later on, i tried other lab's printer ICC profiles. Green cast in my soft-proof is gone with one company's printer ICC profile. From this observation, i think the green cast is not due to my monitor calibration because i do not see any green cast in my grayscale before the profile conversion. Hope my review helps.
  
  
• Great for the price.
  By A1P62JPY08DWZ6 on 2006-03-27
  It's easy to use and does a great job. The only down side is it doesn't deal with dual monitors. I had to disconnect the main monitor to calibrate the second monitor. But it's nice to have a calibrator sit on your desk adjusting color on the fly.
  
  
• Works OK with some limitations...
  By A2HDA3WL8PXD27 on 2006-07-28
  Pros:
  -It's fairly easy to use
  -It's fairly easy to setup
  -Takes the guess work out of tweaking graphics card or monitor controls
  -Cheap
  
  Cons:
  -Does NOT work with multiple monitor/extended desktop displays. Pantone tech support says that you maybe able to set the primary display to your 2nd monitor and it may tweak it seperately but it's not supported of the box. Their solution was to buy a more expensive Pantone product
  -Real time light sensor adjust mode seems to screw up the display after it's calibrated. The contrast became really harsh after I turned it on. I've left it turned off since I don't have any natural sunlight in my office.
  
  
• What a difference!
  By A2NMFRO7SCS4XN on 2007-05-06
  I spent years being frustrated with the difference between the colors I was seeing on my screen, and the colors that were output by my printer. I tried manual calibration products that depended on my eyes to make the adjustments, but as I found out when I first used the Huey my vision is not nearly as accurate as I would like to believe.
  
  I purchased the Huey about 3 months ago. Setup was extremely simple. You just install the software, plug the Huey in to a USB port and follow the onscreen instructions. After calibrating my monitor with Huey, the colors looked very strange to me. This wasn't a problem with the calibration, it was a problem with my perception. After color correcting a few photos in Photoshop CS2 and then printing them on my Canon Pixma Pro 9000, I was amazed! The colors that were printed matched those onscreen perfectly!
  
  I highly recommend this product. It is unbeatable at the price. As a side note, you will still need to make sure that your computer and printer are speaking the same language (i.e. correct color space and ICC profile) to get accurate results, but the Huey takes the guess work out of the process. Finally, what I see is what I get!
  
  
• Just basic calibrator
  By A2YG49IG26TB5Y on 2006-03-19
  This ain't no professional calibrator.
  Just for amatuers.
  Price is good, though.
  
  
• Great Product
  By A2GHMK5X2L452F on 2006-09-23
  Works like a charm. Used it to calibrate an LCD on a Mac and CRT on a PC, both times it worked flawlessly. Easy installation and operation. Color change can be drastic if your previous settings weren't right, which I know is a problem for most of the people complaining. Not much control in the huey application, but enough for most users (harder to mess the settings up). It basically gives you several choices, preffered color temp at 6500K and options for 5500 and 9300 (actual numbers not mentioned, only named Warm and Cool). Actual device is rather cute, tiny at only 4" long. Using suction cups on my LCD was not a problem, they are very soft. All in all, a keeper.
  
  
• Perfect Color
  By A1VKN6XXYDE8LY on 2006-08-08
  I have had huge problems getting the image on my laptop screen to match the image produced by my printer. Ten minutes after I installed my Huey I produced a flawless print of a rose for my wife.
  
  
• Monitor accuracy
  By A1NEA1ODD0EBSB on 2006-08-10
  The little Huey, the monitor calibrator that can. I know that it will cause you to question your purchase when you see the tiny thing, but this is a case of good things coming in a small package. The included disc and the simple proceedure, if carefully followed, will make you an expert printer in just a few minutes. Well, maybe not, but it will at least allow you the knowledge to become one. I print a lot and never had the ability to see the monitor look about exactly like I saw the prints come out of the printer. Now I can because the monitor shows me what the printer will print out. Now I can change my print if I don't like the image I see on the monitor, and not waste paper and ink with trial prints. Huey even reminds you to calibrate every two weeks to keep your monitor calibration up to date. I love it!
  
  
• Cheap and Easy
  By A2VVNR9LDER2HB on 2007-04-26
  This device is not rated all that well among professionals. However being a graphic designer myself, with the sole intention of calibrating my new 21 inch lcd and 17 inch laptop so my designs looked alike when switching between the two, something over 100$ seemed overkill. You will not get perfect results with this device there is no doubt about that... you get what you pay for. But if you are looking to match colors on several monitors and want them to be MUCH closer to the true color, atleast closer than you could get them with adobe gamma or a similar program, this is what you are looking for. One really nice feature is the "eye" for lighting, bring it with you in your laptop case and set it up at the beginning of your session, your colors will look much better.
  In its own review I would rate 5 stars, but compared to dropping a little more money for a "professional" calibration system and getting true colors, I have to give this a 4.
  
  
• Huey RATES
  By A1KQ0UU0Z77PJQ on 2007-05-23
  This calibrator was recommended to me at a class, by the instructor, who is a well-known professional photographer. He rated it as among the best, and least expensive. I have used a Spyder in the past, and had multiple problems. The Huey came out of the box, went on my monitor, and it WORKED. It was under $100 and self regulates, updating for the light in the room, regularly and it reminds me to calibrate if I forget. This is the best product I have used in a long time
  
  
• Pantone Huey Monitor Color Corection
  By A4K1GRIJKSZM4 on 2006-03-20
  The device was easy to use and set-up was fairly simple. I expecially like the fact that the device continually adjusts the monitor for changes in the light falling on it.
  
  
• Does the job, essential for serious photographers
  By A21SZCE7PZLU9G on 2007-03-29
  I have spent many hours eyeballing a screen and looking at Adobe colour blocks to attempt to calibrate my screen without a device for this purpose. I have to say, with some screens in the past and a lot of patience I managed to get my screen to represent the actual colours captured in my photography pretty well.
  
  Recently I bought a Dell 30" HC monitor with a wider gamut. The picture is 'punchy' and out of the box it was overly red. I attempted to use Adobe Gamma, nVidia drivers etc. to create a profile that would match the way prints will look and after several tries I was still miles off. New monitors tend to provide LESS control over the hardware in regards to colour temperature, brightness, contrast etc. so I actually had LESS control over this fancy new monitor than my old one.
  
  I considered this product and the Spyder2 and they were a close match. I went with the Huey because it's smaller, faster to calibrate and offers ambient lighting measurements - an option that I'm not completely sold on, but you can turn it off if you desire.
  
  After calibration my monitor image had lot less contrast, was less red and looked far more natural. My girlfriend announced that it looked 'better' before I calibrated. I pointed out that my monitor isn't supposed to make things look 'good' it's supposed to how how things REALLY look so I know exactly how they should be printed. It did really demonstrate to me how you can fiddle with you monitor settings manually, make the images you are testing with look great, and then realise your prints look nothing like what you see on screen. The huey allows me to have accurate colour and the fine tuning I apply to image colours can actually be seen in prints now.
  
  Strengths - good colour profile, fast, small, easy to use
  Weaknesses - not PERFECT colour, shouln't use suction caps on a LCD!, calibration choices after profiling aren't desribed in technical terms (ie. gamma, temperature)
  
  Recommended!
  
  -=Liperty=-
  
  
• Huey Works
  By A1U2NWFI1HJURM on 2007-05-14
  As a digital artist it's criticaly important that what I see on the monitor mataches the printer's output, Huey does that with ease. I've used other monitor color adjustment devices but Huey is much simplier to use and the price is right.
  
  
• Great for my laptop computer
  By A2438IQYM07R3Q on 2006-08-08
  Great performance for the money. Purchased this for my laptop so I can edit photos while on the road. Unit folds (in the stand) and the base is designed so that the cord wraps around (in a grove) and the USB plug snaps into the bottom. Calibration was a breeze and it even reminds you to re-calibrate, which is something I am really bad about remembering.
  
  Not quite the quality I would want for my main editing workstation but it gets you really close, it is small, and it travels well. The ideal solution for what I needed. For this particular need I can't imagine buying anything else.
  
  

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