What's so different between xvYCC color standard and Deep Color?

What's so different between xvYCC color standard and Deep Color?

What is so different between xvYCC color standard and deep color? That is a good question because with all the new technologies on the market, it helps to understand exactly what you are getting and what each different term means. Both deep color and xvYCC are part of the new HDMI 1.3 specifications as a color standard. But what does each standard do? And why is it so important?

Basically, deep color increases the colors on the display unit from millions to billions. This gives the display a color accuracy and vividness which has never been pictured before in display technology. Deep Color defines colors by using an formula that can indicate any color in that is found in nature. Deep Color eliminates the need for on-screen color banding, for tonal transitions that are very smooth, and graduations of colors that are very subtle. It allows increased contrast ratio, and can represent many times more shades of gray between black and white. Deep color with a color bit depth of 24 bit is usually called true color. However, some people use the term true color interchangeably with the term deep color. Keep in mind that these two terms do not mean the same thing.

The amount of colors seen by the eyes of humans has been numbered in the tens of thousands by researchers. Depending on the lighting conditions, though, and the surrounding colors, this number is actually in the millions of differing shades that can be discerned. Shades of black will show more in darkness and less in well lit places. But, depending on the lighting conditions and any surrounding colors, a human eye can tell the difference between millions of differing shades, an example is that you’ll be able to distinguish many more shades of black in darkness than you can see in brightness, so the additional shades will show a noticeable difference.

Extended-gamut YCC, or xvYCC as it is called, is a color space that is used in video electronics, and it supports 1.8 times as many colors as the sRGB color space. An xvYCC display, along with Deep Color to reduce the posterization, can display the complete range of colors that can be viewed by the human eye. The color specification of HDMI 1.3 is formed from these two technologies. XvYCC was specified in October 2005 by the IEC, and it was published in January 2006 as IEC 61966-2-4. The LCD display color gamut has been extended because of cold cathodes being replaced by a wider range of LED back lighting. Posturization refers to the effect that happens when shades of gray or a small number of colors are used to print or display a picture image.

The xvYCC color standard is used along with deep color to give a crystal clear picture that is full of clarity. What does the term xvYCC color standard mean? The term xvYCC refers to Extended-gamut YCC. XvYCC is a color gamut. This term means that it is made up of the entire range of colors that are available on a certain device such as a monitor or television. When a color is said to be "out of gamut," this means that the color cannot be correctly converted to the target device.

The difference between xvYCC and deep color is easy to understand. Deep color maximizes the numbers of available colors within the borders defined by the color space Red, Green, Blue, or RGB, or the color space YCbCr, while xvYCC maximizes the available range, or limits, to allow for the display of colors that will meet and even exceed what the human eye can recognize.

YCbCr is a whole family of color spaces that are used in video systems. The luma component is the Y, and Cb and Cr are the blue and the red chroma components. Luma is a signal that does not carry color, only black and white. Chroma components are signals that carry only the color information. There are three separate signals used in this color space. By converting the video into chroma and luma, chroma subsampling can be accomplished. This subsampling is a method that is used by DVD players and JPG images that helps reduce requirements for storage of video and images. YCbCr signals are called YpbPr before the scaling and offsets are done to place the signals into digital form. These signals are created from the matching gamma-adjusted RGB (red, green and blue) source.