Question about monitor connection

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Originally Posted by mikesan

Manfred-

Thanks for the information on the capability of various video cards to support 10 bit output. The questions for me are: which monitors are able to utilize the 10 bit output, and which image software supports 10 bit color?

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Look for computer screens that have a high level of AdobeRGB compliance; 98% and higher. If you see "millions of colors" in the specs, those are sRGB and will be 8-bit. If they say "billions of colors", those are more likely to be 10-bit. Any screen on TN (twisted nematic) technology will be 8-bit and screens that are one of the IPS (in-plane switch) are more likely to be so, although there are some that are 8-bit models only, so being IPS technology is not a 100% sure fire approach without some other indication of high gamut performance.

As for software, that's something that might require some digging. Most of the high end visual arts software is likely to fall into this category. but it is worth checking. At one point Adobe Elements was only 8-bit, so I'm not sure what it does now. All of the Adobe Creative Cloud software should be fine. I would expect "pro" software from companies like Corel to be compliant as well. I seem to remember reading that GIMP was still 8-bit.

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Originally Posted by GrumpyDiver

Look for computer screens that have a high level of AdobeRGB compliance; 98% and higher. If you see "millions of colors" in the specs, those are sRGB and will be 8-bit. If they say "billions of colors", those are more likely to be 10-bit. Any screen on TN (twisted nematic) technology will be 8-bit and screens that are one of the IPS (in-plane switch) are more likely to be so, although there are some that are 8-bit models only, so being IPS technology is not a 100% sure fire approach without some other indication of high gamut performance.

As for software, that's something that might require some digging. Most of the high end visual arts software is likely to fall into this category. but it is worth checking. At one point Adobe Elements was only 8-bit, so I'm not sure what it does now. All of the Adobe Creative Cloud software should be fine. I would expect "pro" software from companies like Corel to be compliant as well. I seem to remember reading that GIMP was still 8-bit.

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Very strange that it is not mentioned clearly if it has 10 bit possibilities.

George

I'm still not sure that the differences between 8 and 10 bit will be vissible on the screen. And what is the use if you bring it back to a JPG, 8 bit.

George

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Originally Posted by george013

Very strange that it is not mentioned clearly if it has 10 bit possibilities.

George

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I'll have to agree with you there, other than the high end products like Eizo, some of the ViewSonic screens, etc. This information seems to be buried deep in the specs and one has to be able to infer it. I'm really not sure why the manufacturers do this.

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Originally Posted by GrumpyDiver

I'll have to agree with [George] there, other than the high end products like Eizo, some of the ViewSonic screens, etc. This information seems to be buried deep in the specs and one has to be able to infer it. I'm really not sure why the manufacturers do this.

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In my new NEC P232W manual, it says it has "support" for 10-bit in HDMI/DisplayPort but doesn't explain what "support" actually means, so one is left wondering whether "10bit" is 8bit dithered or not. Classic, eh?

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Originally Posted by xpatUSA

In my new NEC P232W manual, it says it has "support" for 10-bit in HDMI/DisplayPort but doesn't explain what "support" actually means, so one is left wondering whether "10bit" is 8bit dithered or not. Classic, eh?

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Obfuscation 101. I really can't figure out why computer screen manufacturers have so much trouble supplying a straight forward answer.

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Originally Posted by GrumpyDiver

Obfuscation 101. I really can't figure out why computer screen manufacturers have so much trouble supplying a straight forward answer.

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Probably 10 bits is not 10 bits as you want to see. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort

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The DisplayPort connector can have one, two, or four differential data pairs (lanes) in a Main Link, each with a raw bit rate of 1.62, 2.7, 5.4, or 8.1 Gbit/s per lane with self-clock running at 162, 270, 540, or 810 MHz. The effective data rates after decoding are 1.296, 2.16, 4.32, or 6.48 Gbit/s per lane (or 80% of the total), since data is 8b/10b encoded so each eight bits of information are encoded with a ten-bit symbol.

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Further about the 8b/10b encoding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8b/10b_encoding

To me it seems more a communication matter then a bitdepth matter. Maybe that's why it is not mentioned. It's just not 10 bits.



George

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Originally Posted by george013

Probably 10 bits is not 10 bits as you want to see. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort


Further about the 8b/10b encoding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8b/10b_encoding

To me it seems more a communication matter then a bitdepth matter. Maybe that's why it is not mentioned. It's just not 10 bits.



George

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Add to this that the screens can be native 8-bit and use dithering to create 10-bit (which happens to be the way mine works), the story is even more confusing and less clear.