Quote:
Originally Posted by
chs4000 
I got a response from Oppo on Qdeo True Color (QTC). It turns out QTC is disabled when you use a "dithered" deep color setting, and that another, slightly lower quality method of producing deep color is used. So I'd advise using a non-dithered setting, if you are able to use 10-bit or 12-bit color with your equipment. The only case I'd see for using dithering is if you'll be using 8-bit color because your equipment doesn't support deep color, in which case using dithered output might improve quality very, very slightly. So the best-practice settings are probably: 8-bit, 8-bit dithered, 10-bit
non-dithered, or 12-bit, depending on your equipment. IMO
10-bit dithered is probably best avoided, though in any case we're talking about very, vanishingly small differences.
Dithering should happen whenever a higher bit depth video stream (perhaps the result of intermediate video processing) is reduced to a lower bit depth for display.
For example, no consumer "Deep Color" capable displays can actually produce 36 bits of discernible video difference at the pixels. Better displays are generally 30 bit at the pixels. So if you send 36 bit video to the display, dithering should happen at some point before the pixels light up.
The width of the video processing path through the AVR or display is also important. There are still "Deep Color" displays being sold which accept 30 or 36 bit video but simply strip off those extra, low order bits on input and use only 24 bits of that. If they truncate instead of dithering when they do that, dithering added in the player might work better.
Now usually you don't have to worry about this as dithering is done in the display. But this may not be true for lower quality displays or for displays engineered for use as computer monitors. That last can be the gotcha as some displays disable dithering when sent their "native" resolution.
As you point out, Dithering will most likely be of use if you have a display with 24 bit pixels (8 bits per component), but there can be cases where it is useful even if you have a 30 bit pixel display.
The bottom line is simple: Check for yourself and see which setting works best with YOUR AVR and display. ODDS ARE you will not need to turn on Dithering in a modern, 1080p, "Deep Color" capable display. But it is still worth a check.
Similarly, it is not guaranteed that 36 bit will be better than 30 bit, and 30 bit better than OFF (i.e., 24 bit) even if you have an AVR and a display that accept all of those. Sometimes this is just due to bugs in the AVR or display. Just try it and see for yourself.
--Bob
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Oppo NEVER promised Vudu or Amazon streaming. If you based a part of your buying decision on support for these streaming technologies, then either you have to wait patiently and see if Oppo will offer this support or continue to use your Sony.
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. I can understand how you interpreted what the reviewer was saying. Although he does not mention Sabre32 specifically he says ESS DACs which is even more vague. But as I said in my post if the reviewer wants to be taken seriously I would think he would point out specifically that the 95 has better Sabre32 DACs than those used for the 83SE. And yes for the record he does not mention the model number but I'm not sure how that matters
