what LCD's do support 16+ million colors?

[dionx]

ive been told my viewsonic vp171b only supports 256K. is limited colors a con for LCDs with 16ms response time?

 

[ProviaFan]

Yes.

AFAIK, some "slower" panels do support 8 bits per channel color, and rarely you can find a panel that supports 10 bits per channel (I believe Sharp makes one, but it's very expensive). This is why I am still using a CRT for my Photoshop work.

 

[Kongzi]

The tradeoff of lower response time for less colors is probably worth it. You really don't notice the lower number of colors that much and I'd much rather have that than a lot of ghosting.

 

[sodcha0s]

ive been told my viewsonic vp171b only supports 256K.

Here on Viewsonic's site if you look at the PDF product comparison chart it says the vp171b supports 16.7 million colors. I use this monitor and everything looks just as good and in a lot of cases better than on my old Trinitron CRT.

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: sodcha0s

ive been told my viewsonic vp171b only supports 256K.

Here on Viewsonic's site if you look at the PDF product comparison chart it says the vp171b supports 16.7 million colors. I use this monitor and everything looks just as good and in a lot of cases better than on my old Trinitron CRT.

I can testify the same.

-Por

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: PorBleemo

Originally posted by: sodcha0s

ive been told my viewsonic vp171b only supports 256K.

Here on Viewsonic's site if you look at the PDF product comparison chart it says the vp171b supports 16.7 million colors. I use this monitor and everything looks just as good and in a lot of cases better than on my old Trinitron CRT.

I can testify the same.

-Por

Sometimes these LCDs dither the colors to simulate that many colors, when they really don't display that many. Oh, and have you tried calibrating your monitor for proper prepress color display and gamma, and using it extensively with Photoshop?

 

[VIAN]

Let me try to clarify. I don't know much about CRT end though, so I can't compare.
The VP171b supports 16.7 millon color being 24-bit color - which is full color support. It having 8 bits per channel means that it can support 256 different shades of a color per channel. I don't know how many channels that it has, but since there is 3 colors - RGB, then I conclude that there are 3 channels+ extra ones for other things unknown to me. This gives use 256 to the 3rd power gives us 16.7 million colors @ 8bits per channel @ 3 channels. So, it support all colors possible. Other manufacturers that have 10bits per channel, have those extra bits for extra stuff. Like you have the option to choose 32 bits in your settings. those extra 8bits are for 256 shades of transparency. So your LCD is fine.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: VIAN
Let me try to clarify. I don't know much about CRT end though, so I can't compare.
The VP171b supports 16.7 millon color being 24-bit color - which is full color support. It having 8 bits per channel means that it can support 256 different shades of a color per channel. I don't know how many channels that it has, but since there is 3 colors - RGB, then I conclude that there are 3 channels+ extra ones for other things unknown to me. This gives use 256 to the 3rd power gives us 16.7 million colors @ 8bits per channel @ 3 channels. So, it support all colors possible. Other manufacturers that have 10bits per channel, have those extra bits for extra stuff. Like you have the option to choose 32 bits in your settings. those extra 8bits are for 256 shades of transparency. So your LCD is fine.

Ok, I wasn't sure of the first part - I thought the LCD might be "cheating" by dithering or something. That it is a true 8 bits/channel LCD is good to know.

Now, 32 bit color does not offer any more bits per channel than 24 bit color. Instead, it uses the extra 8 bits for an alpha channel (to determine transparency) in programs that need that feature; otherwise, the space is just wasted. True 10 bits/channel would be called 30 bit color (Matrox Parhelia, P650, and P750 have this), and some SGI workstations have 12 bits/channel, which is known as 36 or 48 bit color (depending on whether they include the alpha channel or not). I am not aware of any systems that use 16 bits/channel, but they might exist.

 

[Mark R]

The Viewsonic 171b is supposedly based around an 18-bit panel (capable of display 262k colours) - the almost ubiquitous AU optronics 17" 16ms panel.

Since the critical component, the digital-to-analogue converter is integral to the panel unit the monitor OEM has little ability to override its operation. Dithering colours would theoretically be possible, but I've not inspected enough LCD monitors to see if it is done.

It's worth pointing out that Viewsonic never claim 16.7 million colours displayable, only that 16.7 million are 'supported' - presumably referring to the input.

Many LCDs do use 24-bit panels so can display the full gamut of 16.7 million panels. A new panel built by Sharp offers 30-bit colour resolution - however, the overal monitor only supports 16.7 million colours - DVI is limited to 24 bit colour, and the analogue input is sampled at 8-bit resolution - however, the 8-bit input is converted to 10-bits which allows for more accurate colour, contrast and gamma correction adjustment.