LCD question

[GT98]

If I recall correctly...LCDs are limited to outputting in 24bit color...is there any 32bit capable LCDs out there?

[XHotKolaX]

I thought, as far as the desktop, 24bits was the same thing. Where it would be 32bits in games because of transparencies used.

Still the same 8 bits per channel output though.

[Gurm]

GT98...

I know what you're thinking, since many (all?) cards don't do acceleration in 24bit. Relax and suffice it to say that your card will be set for 32bit, but the monitor will only show you 24bit (which is all your current monitor shows you anyway).

Edit: Oops... err... I HAVE SPOKEN!

- Gurm

[WyWyWyWy]

You guys forgot about 10bit gigacolour?

[Wombat]

Originally posted by WyWyWyWy
You guys forgot about 10bit gigacolour?

No, but it's kind of redundant when we're already talking about LCDs not handling 8-bit color.

[seether]

Shoot me down if I'm wrong, but for clarification, aren't "24 bit" LCDs still just 6 bits per channel plus 6 for alpha?

[Marshmallowman]

alpha has no use to a moniter. It just recieves 3 colour channels
Alpha is for video card use, it never makes to the output.

while I think LCD's do recieve 8 bits per channel, I think they are lucky if they can actually display those 256 colours..

eg you would SEE something like 64 shades of red as opposed to the 256 graduations in colour you would SEE on a crt.

[VJ]

Euhm, I have noted differences between using 32-bit colour depth and 24-bit colour dept when viewing/editing photos in Photoshop. It could however be that the difference is in colour profiling, the photographs were AdobeRGB.

I'm not saying that there are 32-bit colours, only that the images presented can differ when setting a 24-bit colourdepth vs. a 32-bit depth. This difference will probabely also occur on LCDs.

I do agree with Marshmallowman: to the best of my knowledge, LCDs cannot properly display 8 bit per channel (despite being addressed like that).


Jörg

[Gurm]

To the best of my knowledge, modern LCD's CAN, in fact, display 8 bits per channel properly.

I have spoken.

- Gurm

[rylan]

Yes, there most of the newer LCDs correctly 8bit/color (instead of this wierd 6 bit + 2 method for emulating 8 bit color). GOOD quality glass and driver arrays will be able to display the full range of steps for each subpixel.

Anyway, 24bit is referred to as "true color", 8 bits each for RBG. 32bit uses 24bit truecolor (~16.7million) and an additional 8 bits for alpha blending of transparancies which you'll only see in games and special apps and doesn't make a differance to the visible number of colors on the screen (still ~16.7 million).

[Gurm]

Yep. The output from ALL cards is 24 bit. Period, end of story. Even when they're in 8-bit color mode, they're spitting out an analogue signal that has the equivalent of 24-bits of information in it.

I have spoken.

- Gurm

[WyWyWyWy]

Now you guys are forgeting 10bit gigacolour again!!!! :__O__

:_(

The Parhelia can actually output 30 bit...

[GT98]

The reason I bring this up is that I currently have a Dell 2000FP 20in LCD and a Conerstone C1025 21in CRT running dual head on my Radeon 9700. I've noticed that when I'm doing photo editing that the LCD doesnt seem to display as many colors or have the same tonal values as the CRT. My GF even noticed it with her dolphin wall paper...the LCD made the colors of the dolphins seem "blocky" compaired the CRT.

[Gurm]

GT98:

Are you using the right color profiles and drivers for the LCD? In my experience, Dell's LCD's are decent.

WyWyWy:

There is no way that the Parhelia can output 30 bit color. I don't even know what that means. 10-bit color per channel for RGB, I guess? How would that work, when no device on the planet accepts that kind of input? The CIE/LAB colorspace is only 24 bits. I understand that you have faith in Matrox's capabilities, but let's get realistic. The DVI standard is 24 bit. And analogue - well that's analogue and doesn't really matter.

I have spoken.

- Gurm

[az]

GT98: The colors looking blocky may be:

- the general sharpness of the flat panel
- the better image quality of the panel which makes jpg compression blockiness more visible
- as gurm suggests, the wrong or no color profile at all
- a limited color space

You can get a little monitor test program here. It's in german, but should be fairly easy to understand. If the grayscale or color fades show stripes or blocks, the monitor can't display all 256 values of each color.

AZ