[ham]

I have a G11 and am in the market for a scaler. Like many others, I am thinking about the Rock. Someone on one ot the other forums said that it is not worth waiting for the "Emerald" with 10 bit whatevers because a DILA can only resolve a color depth of 8 bits.


This would certainly simplify things. A rock with the Radeon board would do nicely vs a more expensive "gem".


any thoughts?


------------------

ham

 

[Iceman]

It is not quite as simple as bits when it comes to D/A-conversion. This is because we are leaving the digital domain on the analog side of the DAC (Daah!). An 8 bit DAC may have a true resolution of say 7 bits (some 42 dB in the analog world) due to linearity problems or excessive noise levels. A 10 bit DAC is more likely to be able to resolve the full 8 bit signal due to the errors being 'shifted' to 12 dB (or 2 bits) lower levels. This is what is generally the case in practice.


OTOH, theoretically it is possible to design a 10 bit system with e.g. 6.5 bit practical resolution and an 8 bit system with 7.9 bit practical resolution. Bottom line: it all comes down to engineering.


Whether small differences in resolution can be seen or not on your regular video signal with source noise masking effects is another question.

 

[kevin gilmore]

The dila projectors all have 10 bit a/d converters on the

input and 10 bit a/d converters on the output to the panels.

The gamma tables are non-linear and reduce the accuracy a

bit or two. There are certainly other things that enter into

the mix such as black level and peak white tracking the

video card. To prevent posterization however it is best to

drive the projector with a video card that has at least 10 bit

d/a converters.

 

[Iceman]

That settles it, then. Perhaps what one should try to find is at least ACTUAL 8 bit precision converters (48 dB S/N) as long as we are talking about 8x3=24 bit color space signals.