"Why do Monitors Display Colors Differently?"

[glengraegill]

Here's a link to the video uploaded by the techquickie team, have a watch of the video before you read the rest of this post.

 

No, you didn't watch it, go back man.

 

 

If you did watch it you'll hear Luke talk about how bits work for monitors, here's the full quote.

 

Quote

"Many monitors use 8 bits per channel, meaning that the intensity of red, green and blue is expressed with an 8 bit value. With an 8-bit display you wind up with 255 possible values ranging from white, to a completely saturated red, green or blue."

 

 

Watching this video and having this explained like this is simply, disappointing.

I know everyone at LMG works long and hard on all of their videos and I myself find them very useful and educational, and don't get me wrong I have the utmost respect for everyone who can put together videos that as they make, but come on guys, this one is pretty obvious.

 

 

For those of you who don't know the way that colour of display works pretty much as Luke explained it, however my difficulty is the expression of how the binary and combinations work. First of all programmers count from zero, not 1. So yes the code is sometimes labelled 0-255, however when using 0 there are 256 different possible values for those 8 bits. Another way of proving 8 binary systems work this way is doing 2^8 which equals 256.

 

Also, each value of RGB code have individual Red Green and Blue values, that's why 8-bit colour is expressed as a hex value "#FFFFFF" or "#8A2EF3" where the scale goes from 00-FF for each value, and a pair of each digits represents the corresponding RGB value. What this means is that the possible combinations of an 8-bit RGB system are expressed as (2^8)^3 or approximately 16.8 Million different colours (That RGB Mechanical keyboard advertisment makes more sense now Eh?").

 

 

So back to the original quote "With an 8-bit display you wind up with 255 possible values." It's more like 16.8 million Luke...

Also the line "Ranging from White to a completely saturated red, green or blue." That's wrong too, but that's for another post.



To sign off, I want to make this clear, I do not want to undermine any of the work that the writers and producers all across LMG do, and I have barrels of respect for everyone at LMG, however Techquickie is an educational channel and it's about delivering information to the viewer in the best way possible. I want to see LMG continue to be the wonderful media company they aspire to be, but I also strongly believe that if they are to do this, they should probably put some more effort behind some QC, because it's videos like these that make me question the legitimacy and validity of other Techquickie videos.

 

I just hope that in the future John and the other writers for this tech company realize that 8-Bit and 10-Bit systems generally involve numbers that are 2^8 and 2^10, not 2^8-1 and 2^10-1.

 

[TheGamingBarrel]

Just now, glengraegill said:

No, you didn't watch it, go back man

You are right, I didnt.

[vanished]

Just now, TheGamingBarrel said:

You are right, I didnt.

It's working for me

[TheGamingBarrel]

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

It's working for me

It appeared as a broken image, now its working, I have been having network problems today

[glengraegill]

7 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

It's working for me

 

8 minutes ago, TheGamingBarrel said:

You are right, I didnt.

*Ooh, three replies already*

 

Oh, they're just talking about errors

[vanished]

1 minute ago, glengraegill said:

 

*Ooh, three replies already*

 

Oh, they're just talking about errors

Well you're right about the 255 vs 256 thing, and I too think there could have been more clarity about how the total number of colours is achieved by combining all 3 channels, etc.

Edited July 20, 2016 by Ryan_Vickers
3 channels, not 2... lol

[glengraegill]

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

Well you're right about the 255 vs 256 thing, and I too think there could have been more clarity about how the total number of colours is achieved by combining all 2 channels, etc.

Thanks, it is a tiny thing, but it is the basis of how computer colours work, and I just hope they don't give anyone incorrect foundations

[TheGamingBarrel]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Well you're right about the 255 vs 256 thing, and I too think there could have been more clarity about how the total number of colours is achieved by combining all 3 channels, etc.

We just need RG, no B where you come from

[vanished]

1 minute ago, TheGamingBarrel said:

We just need RG, no B where you come from

 yeah I fixed that...

[LAwLz]

I don't think saying 255 instead of 256 is that big of a deal. I think the bigger issue with the video is that they did not mention anything about calibration. They just listed a bunch of things you might see on the spec sheet and then ended the video. Calibration is one of the biggest factors which separates a 200 dollar consumer monitor from a 1000 dollar professional monitor. I was expecting them to come to calibration, bringing up things like DeltaE and explain that but nope.

 

Judging by this video as long as you buy a monitor with the same bit depth, same contrast and the same color space then they will look identical. In reality though, even two monitors of the same model might look slightly different. 

[glengraegill]

Just now, LAwLz said:

I don't think saying 255 instead of 256 is that big of a deal. I think the bigger issue with the video is that they did not mention anything about calibration. They just listed a bunch of things you might see on the spec sheet and then ended the video. Calibration is one of the biggest factors which separates a 200 dollar consumer monitor from a 1000 dollar professional monitor. I was expecting them to come to calibration, bringing up things like DeltaE and explain that but nope.

 

Judging by this video as long as you buy a monitor with the same bit depth, same contrast and the same color space then they will look identical. In reality though, even two monitors of the same model might look slightly different. 

Yeah, good point, I was surprised they didn't talk about those devices that calibrate monitors with a camera. Sorry i don't know their name.

[vanished]

Just now, LAwLz said:

I don't think saying 255 instead of 256 is that big of a deal. I think the bigger issue with the video is that they did not mention anything about calibration. They just listed a bunch of things you might see on the spec sheet and then ended the video. Calibration is one of the biggest factors which separates a 200 dollar consumer monitor from a 1000 dollar professional monitor. I was expecting them to come to calibration, bringing up things like DeltaE and explain that but nope.

 

Judging by this video as long as you buy a monitor with the same bit depth, same contrast and the same color space then they will look identical. In reality though, even two monitors of the same model might look slightly different. 

Believe me, I've seen this first hand at work, and it can be quite dramatic actually.

 

Didn't they mention manufacturing variations causing differences?  I thought I remembered hearing that... 

[NavyCuda]

I know that with HID lighting, no two lamps produce exactly the same colour.  As the lamps age their lumin output is reduced and there is a colour shift.

 

Similiar situation with fluorescent lighting too.  

 

I believe LED lighting has the same problem, but I don't have enough experience with LEDs to know that for sure.

 

Incadescent lamps get brighter as they age, because the tungsten evaporates.  Though sometimes the evaporated tungsten creates a film on the bulb, reducing output.  Very common to see in automotive lamps with small bulbs.