HDMI high-color support on LCD displays?

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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Doesn't HDMI support higher color depths than just 8-bit per pixel? Doesn't it support certain modes with 12-bit per pixel? Could these modes be utilized for PC LCD monitors, thus allowing for a wider display color gamut (assuming that the panel supports that)?

Also, what is it with the HDMI "color compression" that I've recently heard about. Something about LCD TVs reducing the range of 8-bit color from 0-255 to 16-239. That doesn't make much sense to me, can someone tell me more about why some displays seem to have that option, or that limitation?