970p 6-bit + dithering

[pwrstick]

My 970P is my first LCD monitor. I purchased it after my 9 year old Dell 17" started to develop some awesome "features".

I almost bought the VP930b, but thought I would spend some extra cash to get another monitor that would (hopefully) last another 9 years. I wanted something that would replicate a CRT as best as possible with today's technology and be excellent for games.

So I went with the 970p, and upon viewing this image from the website ddeknay mentioned, I'm realizing that what seemed a little odd was the dithering.

One of the reasons I went with this monitor was for the 8-bit color reproduction. So I'm a little peeved now that I understand it is dithering. I guess I'm just venting. Anyone else care? Or do you not even notice it?

 

[kranky]

If it's a 6-bit panel, what justifies the hefty price tag?

 

[pwrstick]

Originally posted by: kranky
If it's a 6-bit panel, what justifies the hefty price tag?

LOL yer not helping. Now I'm even madder.

I almost went VP930b but was worried about backlight issues. Plus this looked cooler.

blech.

 

[ddekany]

I don't know how/why Samsung has ended up with 6 bit + dithering, instead of using 8 bit. (I can't even know for sure if Samsung sells 970P-s like these in all countries... they can safely do it here in Hungary, as consumer rights are practically non-existent here, but maybe not in some other countries. Who knows...) So this is just a guess, but I think this is very simple: Samsung has realized that customers are ignorant enough on this field (computer graphic and TFT-s) so that they will not noice it anyway (they will not know that the image should not look like this), and it's most certainly cheaper to produce a 6 bit monitor than 8 bit monitor. So, calculating with the minor money loss caused by some guys who notice it, and the extra income caused by cutting some corners in the manufacturing and simply claiming that this is 16.7M, they realized that the later money difference is bigger. So, it's a kind of obligation for them to do this. Because, as for any other firm, the only output they are looking at is the money income, nothing else. (Thus, the only thing one could do about this behaviour is to cause their money "equation" to fail, so that it will be better business to sell real 8 bit monitors as 16.7M.)

An important notice: I didn't read a single statement from Samsung that says its 8 bit... it's just that people believe it because of the 16.7M (which is probably not true anyway, but whatever, that's hard to prove without disassembling the monitor and then getting the datasheet of the IC-s inside), and then they do the free advertisement for Samsung. So again, as far as I know, Samsung did't say that it's a 8 bit monitor.

And, back to "ignorance"... it's prefectly OK that a customers don't notice the dithering, or if they do, they don't know what are they seeing. However, how on the earth none of the reviewers I have read did notice this? It's their job to review, so they should be familiar in this topic. Again, just an idea, but maybe, the ones that Samsung was sent out for review was not exactly the same that you can buy in the shop. (The one that the Hungarian Web magazine, prohardver.hu has received was surely not exactly the same, because that one have an USB connector on it (USB on the box), and mine had none.)

 

[yhelothar]

should've bought a CRT if you had the space for it

 

[pwrstick]

Perhaps I should have gotten a CRT but ... meh. They're so frigging huge.

I'm starting to come to terms with my $500 purchase... I'm not happy, but then I'm noticing that Viewsonic's VP930b is apparently 6bit as well. And for the size savings and prettiness, I guess this thing is all right.

Like I said, I'm starting to come to terms with it...

 

[ddekany]

If accurate color grade reproduction and image authoring is not important for you, I certainly wouldn't recommend a CRTs over 970P. And most certainly there are true 8 bit TFT monitors as well, just the question is, how should one know which monitor is that...

 

[Philippine Mango]

The OP can't return it?

 

[johndifo]

Hi all

let me quote my 970P opinion from this thread



"If this monitor is realy 6 bit, wich I think it is, it only have 262144 (64x64x64) true colors, these colors are good, but still lacks the true emission of the remaining 16million+ colors.

When testing colors with colorimeters they dont measure all the midtones, but the main ones.


I have a 970P and I see dithering artifacts when image moves fast, in DVD play due to the video noise, image is not quiet and pixels are always busy in the dithering grid morphing process, even in scenes where nothing moves.

here is also something very strange in the dark grays, they look all black. If I try to correct this the color balance become wrong.

Odd thing is the fact that the image is better when you look the monitor in a angle view, not in front."


Anybody with this monitor think the same?, is my calibration wrong?

cheers

 

[ddekany]

Well as I warn visitors on my page about this topic, do not call things dithering that are not dithering. 970P uses "standing" dithering, or how could I call it. This means that it doesn't cause any flickering, so movie scenes that doesn't move will not show any moving patterns because of this. I can image two things why you see those: 1) MPEG compression artifacts and whatever noise in the original film is much more visible with this monitor than with old TFT-s or CRT-s. I think it's primarly because it's steep brighness line (kind of contrast), and because it doesn't have the bluring like CRT-s have. 2) The standing checkboard pattern can cause the illusion of flickering or noise if you move your head or eyes. I have experimented that myself, however it was not a serious issue, at least with my brain.