I am new to the optimal calibration scene does anyone know the procedure for and/or the best settings for a Viewsonic N2050W?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks,
Jason

You can buy a calibration disk for starters and at least get your contrast, brightness, color, and tint in the right ballpark. After that, there are stickies at the top of the Display Calibration forum which detail how to perform a more in-depth calibration. For that you'll need to invest a little more into at least a colorimeter.

As for "optimal settings" they really don't exist, even within a single display model - nor is that what calibration is about. If you are looking to apply someone else's settings to you display, you'll want to look over in the flat panel LCD forums for that kind of info.

right but I just wanted to try out some of the settings others have theirs sets configured with

Okay, then you're in the wrong forum:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1055906

I would suggest looking over in the LCD forums for your specific model.

i see that makes sense

would you recommend a program or site that would help me in the calibration?

I'd recommend starting with the following threads on calibration basics:

Greyscale and Color Calibration Guide for Dummies (http://www.curtpalme.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10457)
Basic Guide to Color Calibration using a CMS (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=852536)

For calibration software, HCFR (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=737550) is available for free. There's also CalMAN (http://www.spectracal.com/), which you can obtain for almost free when you buy it from SpectraCal bundled with any number of colorimeters or spectroradiometers. If you download HCFR, you'll have to buy a colorimeter separately as suggested in the Calibration for Dummies guide. If you're going to spend the money on a spectroradiometer, I'd suggest going the CalMAN route as it has a more robust user interface and has some more advanced processing.

Since you're starting out, you'll probably just want to get a pattern disc (vs. a more expensive but elegant and efficient pattern generator) such as the AVS HD 709 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=948496) disc (free) for HD sources or the GetGray (http://www.calibrate.tv/) disc for SD sources.