nec pa241... 8 bit?

[todd k]

This article below states the NEC 241 monitor doesn't use a true 10 bit panel. Would there still be benefit to feeding it 10 bit video or would 10 bit be irrelevant on this monitor?

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/nec_pa241w.htm

 

[Nick Pasquariello]

Feeding it 10 bit versus . . . what, 8 bit? If you feed something 8 bit, it doesn't magically gain fidelity on the other end. You need at least 10 bit in and 10 bit out in order to have a 10 bit display. The monitor is the "out" part of that.

 

[todd k]

Thanks. So 10 bit fed into an 8 bit panel with A-FRC would be pointless if I'm understanding correctly.

 

[Nick Pasquariello]

From here: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/featurescontent.htm#dithering

"In basic terms, it involves flashing between two colour tones rapidly to give the impression of a third tone, not normally available in the palette. This allows a total of 16.2 reproducible million colours in 6-bit TN Film matrices. FRC is also used to enhance the colour depth of 8-bit panels, boosting them from their standard 16.7 million colours to 1.07 billion in the case of "10-bit" panels (8-bit + FRC)."

In other words, rather than displaying 1 frame, it's flashing 2 frames. It's taking each pixel, and figuring out what values it needs to flash in sequence to make your eye perceive greater color depth.

In other other words, better than an 8 bit display, but not truly 10 bit either. Having not seen one personally, I'm hesitant to comment any further on the quality or capabilities.

 

[todd k]

Ok. Thanks :001_smile:

 

[Danai Chutinaton]

I've been using the PA241W for a couple years. And in practice the only way I can get a 10bit image to display on my screen is with Photoshop on Windows. Unless something has changed recently, its not possible to display a 10bit image from OSX. I don't know of any other program besides Photoshop that will output a 10bit image (Only CS6 and up support 10bit if I remember correctly). I definitely get smoother gradations in Photoshop when running in 10bit mode. Never realized that its not a true 10bit panel. You can only get 10bit output from photoshop if you are running a graphics card with display port output and connecting to the PA241w via displayport. The graphics card driver also has to support 10bit.

I calibrate my monitor with an i1 Display Pro using NEC's SpectraView II software and have been very happy with the results. I also have a Flanders Scientific CM240 and they match up quite well running together in my Davinci suite.