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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

There is no support for 10-bit monitor displays in MacOSX

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Michele Gavazzeni

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I would point this out this because I read many posts regarding wide gamut color display over many forums

There is no support for 10-bit monitor displays in MacOSX yet.
This means that wide gamut color display under Mac OSX 10.6.7 are totally useless.

We are waiting for Apple to release 10-bit drivers... to use (EIZO, NEC) 10-bit capabilities

This is reported on many sources and is a big limitation

Lloyd Chambers over diglloyd.com writes:
The NEC PA301W and PA271W both support 10-bit color (30 bit color), as do the video cards found in the Apple Mac Pro, but as of March 2011, Apple still does not supply 10-bit drivers. Maybe someday, since the photographic community has been waiting with impatience for over a year now.
When 10-bit color does arrive, the smoothness of tonal transitions and other subtle improvements should make the NEC displays even more lovely.
Click to expand...

http://diglloyd.com/articles/Recommended/displayNEC30.html


Other sources to get documented on this limitations

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=48886.0

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=13065137

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=192819
 
Also, some of us (myself included) operate from OS, but view from Rocket or another I/O device
Click to expand...

Are you sure you are displaying a 10-bit per channel signal?
This should not be an hardware related limitation.

Some GPU now have 10-bit DP and are capable of 10-bit output but under OSX output an 8-bit signal.

There is a simple test.
If you have time you could feed your 10-bit monitor this file
http://www.amd.com/de/Documents/ramp.psd
If you notice any sort of banding over the ramp you are monitoring an 8-bit signal.
 
Hi Michele,

What everyone is saying here is displaying through the computer itself is not the main way to view content.

Since the 3rd party hardware is not accessing the OS for its display capabilities, this isn't an issue.

There has been proper 10-bit video output on the Mac for years.

Do you have a particular need to do 10-bit within the architecture of the Mac for some reason, or just looking for a cost effective solution so you don't need additional hardware?
 
What everyone is saying here is displaying through the computer itself is not the main way to view content.
Click to expand...

My opinion is:
The main (maybe the only) reason why displaying through the computer itself is the limitations imposed by the OS.

GPU are actually capable to directly output a 10-bit signal.
Wide Color Gamut monitors are capable to display 10-bit signal and are accurate enough to be used as reference monitors.

There has been proper 10-bit video output on the Mac for years.
Click to expand...

I think you are referring to AJA or other similar hardware.
Of course you can have one of this card driving an SDI Monitor.

An OS update output could make you save a lot of money!
 
Fair enough Michele.

But even then you are in the deep world of color space matching and a million other setbacks when attempting to get an accurate image.

My guess is even if 10-bit drivers happen, you will probably find yourself in the same boat, looking for the next piece of the puzzle that isn't working.

Seems easier to spend $600 on a BM card that does it all for you and works in the correct color space.
 
Problem is that people working in Photoshop on a HP dreamcolor display won't be able to see the image in 10-bit. There's no I/O for realtime work in PS
 
thats the reason why there is no quadro with hdsi for mac.
problem is known for years.
the moment this happens i guess we could see scratch on mac
 
My THREE workflows are: RCX - STORM - FCP

Monitoring 10bit:
FCP: I/O card/box-matrox MXO2 LE: 10bit over HDMI to 10bit monitor
...or use some other I/O device: Aja/BlackMagic
RCX & Storm: redrocket HDSDI out to 10bit monitor

....no problems for my SIMPLE edit suite...not an editor here, but i must deliver color accurate work for stock sales and this solution is SIMPLE, EFFECTIVE AND AFFORDABLE.
 
Cüneyt Kaya said:
thats the reason why there is no quadro with hdsi for mac.
problem is known for years.
the moment this happens i guess we could see scratch on mac
Click to expand...

Sure, but they would be coming a bit late to the party with Resolve and Smoke already in there.

No mystery meant with my post:
You need a AJA/BlackMagic/RedRocket to get +8 bits out of a Mac.
That isn't the same thing as saying it is undoable.
 
Gunleik Groven said:
Sure, but they would be coming a bit late to the party with Resolve and Smoke already in there.

No mystery meant with my post:
You need a AJA/BlackMagic/RedRocket to get +8 bits out of a Mac.
That isn't the same thing as saying it is undoable.
Click to expand...

yeah, you are right, way too late
but i wouldnt say no to a 1000 dollar scratch on mac conforming app
 
You need a AJA/BlackMagic/RedRocket to get +8 bits out of a Mac.
That isn't the same thing as saying it is undoable.
Click to expand...

This means that wide gamut color display under Mac OSX 10.6.7 are totally useless.
Click to expand...

I should have explain myself better. The use of wide color display such as EIZO, NEC, HP Dreamcolor that use system the GPU

If you go over SDI using AJA/BlackMagic/RedRocket... this solution has been there for a long time, as pointed out by in a previous post.

Since this wide color displays (10-bit monitors) are highly advertised in the creative community as a huge improvement; I would point out that under OS X there is no advantage at this time.
 
Sorry to disagree...

As anyone I know who knows what a "wide gammut display" means, also know about the need for a dedicated card to drive them, this is really not such a big issue.

the other thing I always find fun with this "problem", is that you need a sufficient contrast-ratio on the display to be able to notice.

Nope.

I am NOT saying that the bitrate and precisission is unimportant, rather the oposite. BUT. For it to have any significance, you need a display with high enough contrast ratio to be able to actually see the differences in levels for this to have any practical impact.

Actually, in practical terms... The color sampling and precission has been a much more viewable parameter (4:2:2 vs 4:4:4) than the bit depth of the screen...
 
If you can I'd like to know how you would feed an EIZO / NEC / HP Dreamcolor a 10-bit signal. since non of those have SDI input.
 
Not sure if the Eizo supports 10 bit over DVI or only through DisplayPort.... but that would be damn spiffy if I could just hook the AJA up to my Rocket and get 10 bit on my Color Edge.

Edit: "The monitor can display 10-bit color from a 16-bit look-up table via its DisplayPort input*" But maybe THIS will do the trick.

Drag.
 
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