4 ms·

What I'm mostly wondering these days is if anyone in any part of the display technology "stack" (so to speak) is working on improving the number of colors displ

What I'm mostly wondering these days is if anyone in any part of the display technology "stack" (so to speak) is working on improving the number of colors displayed to us by our screens. Or will we be limited to using 24-bit color forever (because it is "good enough")? 24-bit color is pretty good, mind you, yet there are everyday cases where we would appreciate the ability to view a more nuanced transition between adjacent colors on certain images and videos.

rocqua 3y ago
HDR content is pretty damn mainstream and uses 10 bits per channel for 30-bit color. Some variants can do 12 bits per channel, but I believe this isn't often used. Moreover, this content often comes with dynamic tone mapping to allow access to many more colors in a movie, whilst remaining limited to 30-bit color per frame (or usually, per scene)
- Tade0 3y ago
  > Some variants can do 12 bits per channel, but I believe this isn't often used. Dolby Vision has 12bit colour channels, but it's reportedly not such great a leap as going from 8bit to HDR. iPhones(12 onward) apparently support this standard, so anyone with such a device can see for themselves.
  - rocqua 3y ago
    Dolby vision can use 12 bit channels, and they are proud of it, but it also has a 10 bit channel mode, and that is used essentially everywhere.
zokier 3y ago
Rec2020: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rec._2020 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rec._2020
adrian_b 3y ago
Many good monitors are able to display 30-bit pixels in the Display P3 color space (frequently described as the DCI P3 color space, even if there are small differences between these two color spaces). I have been using only such monitors for more than a decade (e.g. I am still using a pair of relatively cheap Dell U2720Q; now there are newer, better models). However most monitors by default display only 24-bit sRGB colors. Many users never change the default settings, so they never see the full color range of those monitors. An annoying fact is that there are many programs, even expensive professional programs, which come with installers written in Java, and those installers crash whenever they see a 30-bit monitor, regardless of the operating system. As a workaround, it is usually enough to temporarily change the monitor colors to 24-bit during installation, as the actual programs do not care about the color resolution, so they work after installation. Color spaces larger than DCI P3 (e.g. that of Rec. 2020) can currently be displayed only by laser projectors.

rocqua 3y ago

HDR content is pretty damn mainstream and uses 10 bits per channel for 30-bit color. Some variants can do 12 bits per channel, but I believe this isn't often used. Moreover, this content often comes with dynamic tone mapping to allow access to many more colors in a movie, whilst remaining limited to 30-bit color per frame (or usually, per scene)

Tade0 3y ago
> Some variants can do 12 bits per channel, but I believe this isn't often used. Dolby Vision has 12bit colour channels, but it's reportedly not such great a leap as going from 8bit to HDR. iPhones(12 onward) apparently support this standard, so anyone with such a device can see for themselves.
- rocqua 3y ago
  Dolby vision can use 12 bit channels, and they are proud of it, but it also has a 10 bit channel mode, and that is used essentially everywhere.

zokier 3y ago

Rec2020: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rec._2020 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rec._2020

adrian_b 3y ago

Many good monitors are able to display 30-bit pixels in the Display P3 color space (frequently described as the DCI P3 color space, even if there are small differences between these two color spaces). I have been using only such monitors for more than a decade (e.g. I am still using a pair of relatively cheap Dell U2720Q; now there are newer, better models). However most monitors by default display only 24-bit sRGB colors. Many users never change the default settings, so they never see the full color range of those monitors. An annoying fact is that there are many programs, even expensive professional programs, which come with installers written in Java, and those installers crash whenever they see a 30-bit monitor, regardless of the operating system. As a workaround, it is usually enough to temporarily change the monitor colors to 24-bit during installation, as the actual programs do not care about the color resolution, so they work after installation. Color spaces larger than DCI P3 (e.g. that of Rec. 2020) can currently be displayed only by laser projectors.