Question HDMI, graphics drivers, full colour quantization

[mikeymikec]

A nugget of knowledge I picked up in recent years is that for HDMI-connected monitors, one should double-check the graphics driver settings to ensure that the full range of colours are enabled for that screen, because the default setting is only to show a limited range.

I'm baffled by this, because just how often is it exactly that a PC shouldn't attempt to display as full a colour range as it possibly can?

The first time I encountered this setting I believe was on a Lenovo laptop with an AMD graphics driver (AMD centre > display > pixel format). With an Intel driver one needs to go into Intel HD Graphics Control Panel > Display > Advanced Settings, then there's a section labelled 'quanization range'. There's a similar setting in the nvidia control panel, one needs to enable a custom range then choose the option for the full colour range.

Without enabling this setting, colours have a more washed-out look to them. It's not terribly obvious, but enabling the full colour range makes a noticeable difference with more full, vibrant colours.

 

[mindless1]

Depends, when watching video I prefer the limited range because so many things these days are low light scenes. I'll also use a shader filter to change brightness and contrast. If needed, a similar filter can do realtime saturation and other changes, especially sharpening sub-4K content.

Personally, I only want things as vibrant as real life, strongly disagree with a lot of reviewers who think the most vibrant picture is best if it exceeds reality.

They'll sometimes show you a fancy graph but a measurement sensor isn't always how the human eye works, and sometimes video is created with excessive contrast and saturation and I'd rather just have it realistic looking.

I just don't see the real benefit of being more blinded by more bright, and seeing less with darker darks, except when something is really supposed to be 0, true black. That is seldom a situation in real life, where if you can see anything, then ambient light should be causing black to appear as a lighter shade than 0.

 

[mikeymikec]

To my knowledge, this setting does not over-saturate colours, it simply puts them on par with what one would expect from VGA/DVI output.

 

[mindless1]

^ True, it doesn't. In many videos they start out over-saturated (or excessive contrast, or excessively dark) and "some" kind of remedy is needed.

 

[OlyAR15]

HDMI is primarily a consumer electronic interface (TVs). Most TVs use a limited RGB range, so they don't display shades lower than 16 or higher than 235. Sending a full range video will result in crushed shadows and highlights. Conversely, sending a limited range video to a computer monitor will result it no blacks or whites. Basically, you need to match the RGB range to the correct display. As long as you use computer monitors, then it will be no issue using RGB full. It is only when you are hooking up to a TV that it may be an issue (although more and more TVs these days can deal with full RGB levels).

 

[bononos]

Is BenQ's article still up to date? https://www.benq.eu/en-uk/knowledge...rgb-vs-limited-rgb-is-there-a-difference.html
It says that the setting depends on whether the monitor will be used primarily for media which was encoded in limited quantization range like Blu Rays discs. But I think newer media players have upscaling capability and may probably output wide gamut colorspace- I don't know.