Ubuntu's Prolific GNOME Developer Is Looking To Tackle Deep Color Support

[Vistaus]

10 bits per channel are like 10 years late to the party. Not to Gnome, but to Linux in general. Afaik, what held us back was driver support. Are drivers providing proper support these days?

Android also only supports 10-bit since not too long ago, and Android is much bigger, so we're not that far behind.

[bug77]

Android also only supports 10-bit since not too long ago, and Android is much bigger, so we're not that far behind.

Nobody's mastering content on Android, so there was no pressure there. But considering we've had proper HDR Android TVs for years, it's debatable when Android started offering support.

[starshipeleven]

Nobody's mastering content on Android, so there was no pressure there. But considering we've had proper HDR Android TVs for years, it's debatable when Android started offering support.

The android on "proper HDTVs" may or may not have been "proper Android" (i.e. the feature was implemented as a custom hack).

It's embedded stuff after all, the amount of custom stuff is always off the charts.

[tildearrow]

I believe the more commonplace terminology for this is “HDR” and “10-bit” color instead of “deep” and “30 bit.”

Kinda reminds me of "CRTC" still being used today to mean "display".

[bug77]

The android on "proper HDTVs" may or may not have been "proper Android" (i.e. the feature was implemented as a custom hack).

It's embedded stuff after all, the amount of custom stuff is always off the charts.

Ok, you made me look it up, it's Android 7: https://source.android.com/devices/tech/display/hdr
It doesn't say 10 bit per se, but the HDR standards mentioned require 10 bit per channel.

[pal666]

Afaik, what held us back was driver support

you are disagreeing with article text

[pal666]

“10-bit”, “Wide Gamut”, and “HDR” are more commonly used terms.

of which only first one relates to channel bit width. wide gamut is about color coordinates, hdr could mean just brightness range

[pal666]

I'm just happy we're starting to move past sRGB.

srgb has nothing to do with channel bit width. you can have 16*3 bit wide srgb

[bug77]

you are disagreeing with article text

The article only says there's some level of support in Intel drivers. Nothing about its reliability.

srgb has nothing to do with channel bit width. you can have 16*3 bit wide srgb

I know. But we are starting to move past sRGB.

[emblemparade]

I believe the more commonplace terminology for this is “HDR” and “10-bit” color instead of “deep” and “30 bit.”

That's simply wrong. You can have 10 BPC and even or 12 BPC and not be HDR. One feature is not directly related to other (8 BPC HDR would probably look awful, but that's a different issue).

I do wonder, though, if this feature is only for 10 BPC RGB. Could GNOME/Mutter also support YCbCr encodings (4/4/4, 4/2/2, 4/2/0) for those channels? It seems we are getting very close to HDR support in Linux!