Regarding monitors, using Windows 10, can it be problematic buying a monitor with 1,07 billion colors?

I have a 27'' Samsung with 16,7 million colors. I found no problem with Windows 10. I think that a billion colors might use temporal dithering/FRC to achieve those colors. What do you guys think? Maybe it's safe to buy a 16,7 million color monitor?

Also what does it means, that on specification a monitor has the following:

Brightness (Typical): 250cd/m2

Brightness (Min): 200cd/m2

Brightness min? The minimum brightness the monitor can achieve? Almost the same has the tipical brightness? Or is a uniformity spec?

  • JTL replied to this.

    tfouto Some true 10-bit moniros exist, but they start around $1500-2000 USD.

    As for your question I'm not entirely sure, but the vast majority of people don't need a 10-bit color palette emulated or otherwise.

      One question:

      Does ditherg disable dithering on intel chips, for all monitors? Or just true 8-bit panel? The ones
      with 6-bit+FRC are also disable or the panel of the monitor dither?

      • JTL replied to this.
        5 days later

        tfouto U2717HR I believe. It's a Dell. iirc 6 bit + AFRC. I tried native 8 bit monitors, too, to no avail. I swear Ditherig still works, but will test more when I'm home from holiday travel.

          tfouto Does ditherg disable dithering on intel chips, for all monitors? Or just true 8-bit panel? The ones
          with 6-bit+FRC are also disable or the panel of the monitor dither?

          If your monitor has FRC ditherig does nothing to it, the monitor dithers independently of the video card output.

              3 months later

              JTL How can we tell whether a monitor has FRC? I installed ditherig on my laptop, and see no difference. There is no banding when I look at gradients, and my eye strain is still terrible. If FRC is the issue, how can I address it? I have a Lenovo Flex 5 with with a MX130 graphics card.

              I am so happy to have found this community because I felt like I was going crazy when screens without PWM were started causing me pain.

              • JTL replied to this.

                  Afsvys It can be hard to know if a monitor has dithering. Here's some advice.

                  • Try and find a list of specifications. If it lists color depth as something like 6+2 bit that is FRC/dithering.
                  • If you know the model number of the PANEL inside the monitor there is a site called PanelLook that might be have the same info, but it's not always accurate.
                  • TFTCentral sometimes lists if a monitor used dithering/FRC.

                  It's honestly easier to get a monitor without dithering. Most IPS panels above 1080p, all BenQ VA panels I think, they don't use dithering.

                      a year later

                      Just for reference - I have updated the original post with my current setup which is usable for 8 hours per day. I'm still extremely sensitive to temporal dithering, and would still love a proper solution to the problem.

                      Really hope this helps someone else as it has changed my life having a workable setup - I don't feel jealous seeing other people able to work for hours on Macbooks any more.. 😀

                        si_edgey thank you very much for your update. Can you post the complete specific of your Dell notebook or a link?

                        Do you fell any discomfort using latest Firefox or Chrome browser with your setup? Is watching YouTube with any of that browsers comfortable for you?

                            si_edgey Cheers for the update! Glad to hear you've found a system that works for you.

                            Markus Do you fell any discomfort using latest Firefox or Chrome browser with your setup? Is watching YouTube with any of that browsers comfortable for you?

                            I've found Microsoft Edge to be the most comfortable web browser by far compared to FF and Chrome.

                                  diop What is more comfortable about Edge? The best for me so far is FF with the Dark Background and Light Text extension. I use a dark theme in my OS.

                                  Forgot to mention my screen is pushed back, my fonts are scaled up in my window manager, and my browser zoom is at 140%. With multiple monitors pushed away, one can enjoy ample screen real estate with these comfortable parameters.

                                  • diop replied to this.

                                      K-Moss What is more comfortable about Edge? The best for me so far is FF with the Dark Background and Light Text extension. I use a dark theme in my OS.

                                      I use a dark theme in Edge as well. It's hard to explain why, but I believe it is cross-platform so worth a try.

                                        Markus Can you post the complete specific of your Dell notebook or a link?

                                        It's a Dell XPS 15 (9560 model), with the 1920x1080 (FHD) matte screen. The spec is i7 7700HQ, 16GB RAM, Intel 630 Graphics (disabled) and Nvidia GTX 1050 (disabled). I've upgraded to have 2x 2TB SSD hard drives, it's a powerful machine and will last for years I hope. The key thing for me is to use Windows 10 v1511 and disable those drivers, and run ditherig.exe (not sure if this does anything but if it ain't broke....!).

                                        https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/cty/pdp/spd/xps-15-9560-laptop

                                        Markus Do you fell any discomfort using latest Firefox or Chrome browser with your setup? Is watching YouTube with any of that browsers comfortable for you?

                                        On this setup I'm fine with anything. I use Chrome all day long. I truly believe it's the intel drivers that are causing the discomfort on my machine, for my symptoms.

                                        diop Cheers for the update!

                                        I waited a good few months to ensure that there's no placebo involved, this is definitely a perfectly working setup for me so I really hope it helps others.

                                                si_edgey Is the panel on your XPS 15 the Sharp LQ156M1 (have it on my 7390)? Thanks to you sharing your experience I am using it on XPS 15 7390 (but with Windows 2015 LTSB, which I believe is based on 1507) with Intel Graphics disabled, and it's pretty good in a brightly lit room. It's unfortunate it uses PWM on lower brightness.

                                                    si_edgey You can download HWiNFO and it will tell you under the Display section of the program.

                                                    My experience using Dasung Paperlike testing is that software like flux and iris introduce additional dithering, so I don't use them.

                                                    Thankfully that particular Sharp panel I mentioned only uses PWM below 26%, but it is still quite bright at the level.

                                                      dev