A 4K monitor can either cost you from ₹25,000 to even 1 LAKH rupees. Not because of their size, resolution or even refresh rate – but simply for… (drum roll) the colour.And yes, having the exact shade which evokes the exact-required emotion – can make your content go from just good-looking to world-class.
But… is spending 2x, or 4x REALLY WORTH IT?? And if you do decide to get that expensive colour-accurate monitor… how do you even make sense out of these terms like, sRGB, DCI-P3 8-bit, 10-bit, displays?
So before starting this video – a short disclaimer, if you’re spending extra for colour accurate monitors under 27” – just don’t, and we’ll explain throughout this video why that is… but this video is more focused towards monitors above 32” and 4K resolution – because that is where most confusion lies – and with that, let’s begin.
Colour Space
So very simply put- colour is just light, split into 7 different wavelengths. And to identify these different wavelengths, our eyes have 3 types of sensors. One for high wavelengths, one for medium, and one for low.
Now the primary colour for each of these sensors is Red, Green & Blue – RGB, get it?
Another thing it tells you is that the colours outside this spectrum like pink and brown, come from mixing these sensor data in our brain, instead of that colour actually existing.
So understanding that colour is actually subjective – in 1931, we took a bunch of people and started testing how their eye sensors reacted to all the different wavelengths
This data was used to create a map of all the colours our eyes can see. And these kinds of Maps are called a Colour Space. This one in particular is called the XYZ colour space.
Now, depending on the medium & function, like print, photography or displays. We created more colour spaces like RYB, LUV & RGB… respectively.
Think of it like this – XYZ is a map of all the colours that exist – and all other spaces are models that are trying to either capture or represent these colours depending on the function and materials.
And RGB is the colour space every monitor has used – to reproduce colours from real life.
This is why COLOR SPACE is really important – because it gives you the right context to understand the most important specifications of a colour accurate monitor.
Starting with…
Colour Depth.
So every Monitor is made up of Millions of pixels, and each pixel has 3 individual colour channels (Red, Green, Blue), and each colour channel is divided into bits for adjusting intensity
The more bits, the more unique colours each pixel can create. And the more combinations you can make. And we have the main specs here.
8 bit (256x256x256) which is 16.7 Million Colours.
and 10-bits (10x10x10) which is 1.07 Billion Colours.
Most monitors are 8-bit, especially under 32 inches – mainly because if you compare a 24” and 32” monitor of the same resolution – each pixel will have to be roughly 50% smaller in size. And it gets really difficult to split the pixels at such a small scale.
8-bit is fine though, as long as you’re not working for Cinema or OTT-level stuff.
So if you’re going for 32” and above – just find a monitor which is truly 10-bit, because a lot of manufacturers will label 10-bit, but actually keep 8-bit FRC under the hood.
And 16 Million colours, no matter how much they’re optimised, will always look stale compared to 1 BIllion colours, so look for reviews and make sure your monitor is TRUE 10-bit.
But that still isn’t enough – regardless of 8-bit or 10-bit, different types of software optimisations on these pixels can get you different results.
This software optimization is the next important specification and it’s called..
Colour Gamut
and the reason why it gets problematic – throughout time, different organisations came up with their own software versions with their own made up names, each better than the last.
And These arbitrary labels in order – are sRGB or Rec 709 (worse than) DCI-P3 by Digital Cinema Initiatives (worse than) Display P3 by Apple & Adobe RGB which are similar, but all of this is under the Golden Standard, Rec 2100 or True HDR.
everything about color (literally)
Like we said earlier, if you’re going for 8-bit, you will not get anything above sRGB, which is fine – as it’s the standard. Just look for the maximum, that is 99% or 100% coverage. And you are good to go.
Don’t go for the highest end ones with all the validations, because like we said earlier, if they are 8-bit, no matter how much they are optimised – they’ll look 99% the same because of the hardware limitation.
Here’s a great example – this is a 10K Samsung monitor and this is a 17K ProArt display, both 24” – one double the cost, but the colours are barely different.
And in 10-bit, try to find the highest coverage in your budget, and if you really want the best of the best – Rec 2100 HDR is the term you should be looking for.
Because that’s the only True HDR, all other HDR validation is just software optimization, which is still good – but doesn’t compare with Rec2100.
Panel Type
So those were the main 2 metrics for understanding the colours of your monitor, apart from that – the panel type can also make a difference, especially with the blacks.
Because most monitors actually use LCD displays. And the way LCD works is it has a backlit panel with liquid crystals & RGB filters on the front, this is very inefficient or slow & you will never get deep & full blacks because the backlight is always on.
The filters hamper viewing angles, so while LCD variations might be better or worse in each one of these segments like Accuracy, Contrast, Refresh Rate and Viewing angles – LED is simply better.
Because they’re just lights that switch on and off as instructed.
But Again below 27” LED is not suggested, because reaching the size of pixels for achieving 4K is just not possible. And lower resolutions main, you will be able to make out the pixels individually – which is even worse.So for under 27” – IPS LCD is your best bet, with 99% sRGB – I think people under this range cannot go wrong with Samsung models, as they’ve been manufacturing displays for the longest time (even Apple gets their iPhone displays from them)
And for 32” – OLED is the only true LED monitor. There are options called mini-LED, and QD-LED – but they are just LED panels with LCD filters, so we’re not really solving the problem here.
So if wanna skip all the hassle of choosing the right hardware – visit one of our stores in Gurgaon, Bangalore, Hyderabad or Mumbai – and if you’re not from one of those cities, because we’ve been servicing nationally since 2015
Until next time, Cheers!
