High Dynamic Range Monitors 131
An anonymous reader writes, "We are seeing more and more about high dynamic range (HDR) images, where the photographer brackets the exposures and then combines the images to increase the dynamic range of the photo. The next step is going to be monitors that can display the wider dynamic range these images offer, as well as being more true-to-life, as they come closer to matching the capabilities of the ol' Mark I eyeball. The guys who seem to be furthest along with this are a company called Brightside Technologies. Here is a detailed review of the Brightside tech." With a price tag of $49K for a 37" monitor (with a contrast ratio of 200K to 1), HDR isn't exactly ready for the living room yet.
Medical Imaging (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Monitors? .. What about input? (Score:4, Insightful)
They just, to me, look a little silly, and that's a result of having an image with more information in it than the medium they are displaying on can handle.
Now, with a display that can ACTUALLY display the full spectrum of a HDR image. THAT I'm interested in.
Why is this story only being posted now though? It's from last year!
Re:Good news bad news (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:They made up the 200k figure... (Score:3, Insightful)
Using the "next lowest intensity" as you described gets them to the 200k figure, not only a few thousand. The perfect black, "off", gets you to infinity.
Re:Contrast actually goes down to 0 (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Does it create projection-type movie images? (Score:3, Insightful)
N.B. if you have something like the left side of the screen one colour and the right side a different one, you may well be able to see that by looking at your face, but that's more due to the fact that your face isn't flat; the left side slopes backwards from centre to edge, and vice versa for the right side. You certainly wouldn't be able to see detail.
Re:Contrast actually goes down to 0 (Score:2, Insightful)
Nope. The specified contrast is the ratio of EMITTED, RADIATED light from a bright pixel to EMITTED, RADIATED light from a dark pixel. Certainly, ambient light will reduce the effective contrast in reality, but the definition of specified contrast ratio assumes no ambient or reflected light. Obviously. How could it be otherwise, or the contrast ratio would be meaningless unless you specify everything from amount of ambient light to the colour of the walls along with it.
Re:I beg to differ. (Score:2, Insightful)
How many silver halide molecules can you fit into any given area?
Now, how many pixels can you fit into that same area?
Exactly.
Re:Good news bad news (Score:3, Insightful)
In both audio and video, this whole idea of quantizing a 0.0 - 1.0 interval is a compromise wrought by insufficient numerical resolution. It has nothing to do with physics or perception or anything else. Once you realize that, you should also realize that the idea of "going outside" the 0.0 - 1.0 range is absurd. You don't go outside the range, you expand the range so as to better approximate the incredible human senses. As long as we're using fixed point image formats and digital video standards, there will always be a range, and we'll always be inside the 0.0 - 1.0 range, and it will always be a compromise.
Audio professionals have worked out their terminology far better than graphics guys have. Audio guys talk about dB, decibels. The reference point is 0db, which is as loud as your amp will go. When you add more bits, you're adding more quiet, not more loud. If you want more loud you buy a bigger amp. Each additional bit gives you 3dB more quiet, and you'd better hope your equipment has a low enough noise floor that you can hear all that fresh new quiet.
So what are you saying? What's the difference between HDR and 48 bit color? To use an analogy to audio, you seem to be saying that HDR is about more loud, and 48 bit color is about more quiet. But as you go on to point out, they're really just the same thing. No matter what, you've got a clipping level (the maximum luminance of your output device), you've got a noise floor (the minimum luminance of your output device), and hopefully you've got enough quantization levels in between for perceptual linearity. That's why HDR and color depth are joined at the hip. You can't get one without the other. There is no meaningful distinction.