LCD subpixels and 4K...

[Bruce Allen]

So, you know how the LCDs on our little consumer camcorders, DSLRs, etc, all use subpixel rendering (eg they take advantage of the ordered matrix of the R,G,B subpixels) to boost resolution... example here: http://www.dpreview.com/previews/nikond300/page3.asp

...and how Windows and Mac OS similarly use subpixel rendering to boost font resolution... headache-inducing example here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/archive/en-us/dnarwebtool/html/cleartype03.gif

Why doesn't someone do that for RedCine? Or maybe the Red LCD or EVF?

I know it wouldn't be totally color-accurate, but it would definitely increase your horizontal resolution by a bunch for luma info. Connected to a 30" LCD might be nice

For that matter, anyone know if they couldn't do that with 2K projectors too? Eg you could encode the film with subpixels and get a minor horizontal resolution increase...

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

 

[Andrew M.]

Bruce, but this requires smaller pixels and higher precission producion equipment?
Andrew

 

[Bruce Allen]

No, no hardware change required to the display. This would work with all current LCDs and the Red LCD and EVF too. You can do this totally in software.

Just as turning on ClearType (Windows) or LCD font smoothing on Macs was a purely software change.

I'm saying you do that for all images. At the moment, when we are viewing images on computer LCDs in a program like Photoshop, the software treats the group of R,G,B elements in the LCD as one "pixel" - eg it imagines that they are all superimposed on the same point in space.

What I am suggesting is that instead, it should take into account the fact that, say, the R bit is on the left, the G bit is in the middle and the B bit is on the right.

For example, in the old method, if I was viewing 4K footage on an HD monitor and there is a tiny piece of white dust / dead pixel / etc occupying one 4K pixel (but 1/4 of an HD pixel), all I'd see on the HD screen would be a 25% grey pixel (because each HD pixel is just an average).

With the proposed system, I would turn on only the Red, Green or Blue channel for the pixel (depending on whether the tiny piece of dust is on the left, middle or right part of that 2K pixel). This causes a color artifact but is perhaps better because the bright Red, Green or Blue sliver will be more noticeable (and a more accurate representation of the size of the dust piece) than a big fat 25% grey pixel.

Here's another link that explains it better (again, in the context of fonts, but it applies to any image):
http://www.grc.com/ctwhat.htm

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

 

[Andrew M.]

Yes, now is clear. What misled me was the comparison picture way down on the previous link comparing Nikon to Canon. Nikon is slicing one square pixel in to the 3 rectangular so no wander that the LCD picture looks better. From the description it looks like it is not just a software thing, they actually pack more RGB pixels in it?