8-bit, 10-bit, 12-bit… What's the Deal?
Bit depth is what is responsible for the number of colors you can see on a display. Increasing the bit depth of a display product (and matching the source components and cabling to support that display) means that you will incur a much lower chance of experiencing color banding where smooth color gradients cannot be accurately reproduced and break up into bands. To understand how this affects bitrate, let's consider the following:
- 8-bit color = 2^8 x 3 = 2^24 = 16.7 million colors
- 12-bit color = 2^12 x 3 = 2^36 = 68.7 billion colors
Increasing the bit depth results in almost exponentially better color rendition. Now, remember that the old benchmark limit was 1.65 Gbit/s, much more than any home theater enthusiast needed for excellent resolution and performance. After all, at the time, these cutting-edge enthusiasts were only concerned with attaining 1080p at 8-bit color - something that was very new and only available to a handful of elite consumers. A year ago, most of these consumers didn't even know what 1080p was and they almost certainly didn't concern themselves with achieving 12-bit color (let alone 16-bit). Still, 12-bit is nice and will likely result in reduced banding, especially during darker scenes in light-controlled environments.
If you take 1080p resolution at 12-bit color the math comes out to 2.2275 Gbit/s. Fortunately for HDMI Licensing, LLC there are now some chipsets out there finally supporting that resolution in mass quantities. What has transpired is a gradual transition whereby consumer electronics manufacturers have the choice of paying a premium (typically up to $1.50 more per chip) for these chips in order to enable Deep Color support and create a value-added product for consumers and dealers.
So the Cable Drama Continues, With a New Twist
Whereas cable manufacturers were starting to come to grips with the fact that most HDMI cables didn't have the metrics to pass 8-bit 1080p over 10 meters without compensating electronics, they are now faced with a new problem. 1080p at 12-bit. The numbers are crunched but the testing phases are still underway as cable manufacturers send in their products for testing to pass the new requirements. Of course many cable manufacturers don't seek certification - in which case buyer beware. There are also great issues with the certification process, but we'll address those later.
Thanks to v1.3 and Deep Color, distances for passive copper cables have shortened yet again and, in a sense, much has been set back a year until the new effects of this slow transition start to be fully understood. We used to say "Don't put a crappy cable in your wall - it might not pass 1080p." Now we must say "Watch out for 12-bit Deep Color (not to mention any future higher-resolution formats or bitrates) - that same cable might need some electronics to pass it properly." With cables of any length over 3-5 meters it is quickly becoming apparent that active components are playing a major role in signal integrity.
Dealers and custom installers are going to have to bone up on the cable electronics needed to migrate their clients so that they can enjoy the latest technology - and learn what cables can handle this new bandwidth and for how long. Active HDMI cable solutions from respected companies like DVIGear are now certified to work up to 40 meters at 1080p 12-bit color. These active solutions are still the most popular method for long-run installation because fiber solutions are so expensive in comparison.
To put it bluntly, you don't want to get caught putting a cable in your wall (or worse, your client's wall) that won't be compatible with current and future (expected) technologies. Undoing a mistake like that could be very expensive, costing you a lot of time and energy. Many customers are being systematically shortchanged by their installers who are only interested in meeting the needs of current 720p and 1080i requirements. Don't let yourself or your clients be obsoleted too quickly!
