10-bit video?

Aggressor Prime · Post by **Aggressor Prime** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 3:42 pm

The NEC MultiSync LCD2180WGLEDBKSV LCD has the following standards for Display Colors:
Up to more than 16 million 8 bit video
Up to more than 1 billion with 10 bit video

How does this differ from 24-bit color monitors?

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 4:04 pm

It means the LCD have a more finer control over individual colour shades(10 bits per channel) - means they can repoduce a range of colour closer to what CRTs can do.

Aggressor Prime · Post by **Aggressor Prime** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 4:12 pm

But how is that different from 24-bit monitors? Don't they have 24 bits per channel? And since 24 bit color is 16.7 million colors, were does the 1 billion come in? Also, would we actually be able to notice a differance since the human eye operates at 24-bit color aka 16.7 million colors?

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 4:24 pm

A standard CRT has 8 bits per channel or 256 different shades per red green and blue which gives a maximum of 256^3 (16,777,216) available colors. A 10 bit monitor has 10 bits per channel or 1024 possible shades which translates into 1024^3 (1,073,741,824) colors available to the monitor.

If you note, 8 * 3 = 24, so a standard 8 bit per channel monitor is a "24 bit monitor", a 10 bit per channel monitor would be 30 bits.

The same thing applies to LCD monitors, which FYI a lot of the high speed LCDs today are 6 bits per channel or 18 bits total which only spits out 262,144 colors maximum.

Aggressor Prime · Post by **Aggressor Prime** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 4:37 pm

Thanks for clearing that up Krom. However, the question remains, does 30-bit color really affect us? With this taken, I think that is why the monior was built with some kind of color sensor for graphical professionals or whoever will use this monitor in order to scan for colors.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 4:54 pm

Well, does 30 bit color make a difference? I'm sure it does somewere, probably around the price tag.

Aggressor Prime · Post by **Aggressor Prime** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 4:59 pm

I mean for the gamer. Can the gamer notice a differance when he is impaired with a 24-bit color eye?

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 5:27 pm

Do you have time while playing the latest action FPS to squint at the montior and notice the difference?

Did you even know that Descent 3 in OpenGL never runs over 16 bit color?

It makes absolutely no difference for the gamer.

Aggressor Prime · Post by **Aggressor Prime** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 5:49 pm

Ok, thanks for clearing things up.