I'm starting to look for a projector for my almost finished basement and am wondering about the differences between color processing rates (sorry if this isn't the correct term). Can anyone comment on the relative difference between an 8 bit (16.7 million colors) and a 10 bit (or 12 bit) (1 billion colors) projector. Is there a noticeable difference or do other factors (contrast, brightness, sharpness) outweigh this as a consideration?

I vote for other factors being far more of an issue. The thing is, HD source material is 8-bit , so while higher bit depths might play a factor in processing the image, the source won't be more than 8-bits until (perhaps) the next generation HD format arrives. The ability to accept > 8-bits (deepcolor) appears to be useless for direct HD media to projector connections. If you use a scaler in-between, then it might be of some use. Processing of the image inside the projector might benefit from higher bit depths, but like everything, it is all in the implementation. Saying that 10bit processing inside a projector is better than 8bit is not necessarily true. It might be true or not depending on how it is done.

I'm starting to look for a projector for my almost finished basement and am wondering about the differences between color processing rates (sorry if this isn't the correct term). Can anyone comment on the relative difference between an 8 bit (16.7 million colors) and a 10 bit (or 12 bit) (1 billion colors) projector. Is there a noticeable difference or do other factors (contrast, brightness, sharpness) outweigh this as a consideration?


Take this with a grain of salt. On an RS1 with claimed 10 bit processing and on my LCD display with said 14bit processing, there is an improved color palette when playing HDM vs my 8 bit DLP PJ. I see a wider color gamut I find more pleasing to the eye. As usualsuspects pointed out, implementation has to be factored in.