Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: dreamcolor, hewlett-packard, monitor | Themes: Display Panels and Monitors
- 1. Color-Critical Consumers
- 2. DreamColor Features and Specs
- 3. First Impressions
2. DreamColor Features and Specs
The most important thing to know about what HP’s promising with the DreamColor monitor is that it is a 30 bit panel intended to display one billion colors when paired with a 10 bit graphics card. Most high-end monitors — and graphics cards - max out at 24 bit, or 16.7 million colors. If you don’t get your hands on a 10 bit video card, you’ll never be able to see all 1 billion of the DreamColor’s colors.
The second-most important thing to know: The DreamColor features an RGB LED backlight rather than a typical fluorescent backlight. This means users can control the “white point” of their display and make true white equal to anything they want. Because most monitors have a pre-set white point that looks almost blue (this tricks the eye into thinking the monitor creates brighter and whiter light), the rest of the colors in the spectrum get aligned towards that bluish-white. This creates an inaccuracy problem.
DreamColor owners can either set their own white point, or, they can choose from among several industry standard presets, including sRGB (popular with cameras and computers sold by HP that run Microsoft operating systems), Adobe RGB (popular in publishing and printing industries that rely on Adobe software), “full-gamut,” Rec. 601 (a standard calibration for analog TV), and Rec. 709 (a standard calibration for HDTV). DreamWorks has its own standard color space that the company has programmed into its DreamColors.
Here’s a chart of the DreamColor’s various color gamuts.
HP will also sell a colorimeter and software package called the “HP DreamColor Advanced Profiling Solution” for about $500 to help organizations come up with their own customized standard color settings.
Another unusual perk built-in to the DreamColor seems targeted directly for programmers, animators and photographers who spend a lot of time working in the dark. The “Night Vision” settings temporarily light up the buttons and controls on the right side of the monitor, as well as bring up on-screen labels that remind in-the-dark workers where the right buttons actually are.
| Screen size | 24" diagonal, widescreen |
| Maximum white luminance | 250 candelas/meter squared |
| Minimum white luminance | 40 candelas/meter squared |
| Pixel pitch | .270 mm |
| Color gamut | Native gamut aprox. 133% NTSC |
| Native resolution | 1920 x 1200 pixels |
| Video inputs | DVI-I (2), DisplayPort 1.1, HDMI 1.3, Component, S-Video, Composite |
| Powered USB 2.0 hubs | 1 upstream, 4 downstream |
| Dimensions with stand (h x w x d) | 16.7"-20.67" x 22.4" x 10" |
| Weight | 27.5 pounds |
| Warranty | 3 years parts/labor/on-site service, 90 days 24 hour toll-free support |
- Previous page Color-Critical Consumers
- Next page First Impressions
So they have more colors than the rainbow - nice. Can they do anything about the world's ugliest bases for their displays? I had an HP 2015 - beautiful picture - had to buy a wall mount because of the horrid looking base. It looks like a footprint from bigfoot. AARGH!
Could you shed a little more light on the ATI card used for the demo? Is the card from ATI's consumer Radeon lineup or their professional FireGL line? What interconnect was used between the video card and monitor (DisplayPort, DVI, HDMI?) Are you aware of any Nvidia cards that support 10-bit color output? Is 10-bit color supported in Windows Vista (were they running vista for this demo?) and/or by the ATI drivers so that, assuming I have a 10-bit capable video card, display, and am using the proper interconnect, do I now get a 30-bit color option in Catalyst Control Center? Sorry for the bombardment of questions! I've recently been researching this exact topic but am still unclear on exactly what is required to get 10-bit color out of Vista (or if it is even possible).
Most likely ATI FireGL V8600
"The second peculiarity is the support of 10-bit color instead of the standard 8-bit. This expansion of color space is used primarily in medical applications that lack gray gradients for tomography and x-ray visualizations. For these particular cases AMD offers 10-bit color representation and 1024 gray gradients instead of the standard 256."
i didn't knew it did anything for color tho.
as stated the demo that was shown was about Gray colors
Most likely ATI FireGL V8600
"The second peculiarity is the support of 10-bit color instead of the standard 8-bit. This expansion of color space is used primarily in medical applications that lack gray gradients for tomography and x-ray visualizations. For these particular cases AMD offers 10-bit color representation and 1024 gray gradients instead of the standard 256."
i didn't knew it did anything for color tho.
as stated the demo that was shown was about Gray colors
Most likely ATI FireGL V8600
"The second peculiarity is the support of 10-bit color instead of the standard 8-bit. This expansion of color space is used primarily in medical applications that lack gray gradients for tomography and x-ray visualizations. For these particular cases AMD offers 10-bit color representation and 1024 gray gradients instead of the standard 256."
i didn't knew it did anything for color tho.
as stated the demo that was shown was about Gray colors
Does anyone know what system and software is running in the photo on page 1 (with the panda)?
wonderful monitor connected to a POS system. makes no sense to me. APPLE needs to buy the patent for this one and connected to their system
just imagine how sweet it would be to have a 30 inch cinema display with this technology, wow.