10 Bit Panel

HDTV displays, whether they be LCD or plasma, are all composed of large numbers of pixels. The number varies with the HDTV’s resolution which is a measure of the number of horizontal rows and vertical columns of pixels.

Each pixel is made of three individual green, red and blue (RGB) subpixels. A display’s electronics control the intensity of each subpixel to mix an overall color for that pixel. The number of discrete levels of intensity with which each subpixel can be varied corresponds to the bit-depth of each subpixel color. A single 8-bit subpixel can produce 256 (2 x 8) discrete levels of intensity and a 10-bit subpixel 1024 (2 x 10) discrete levels. The combination of variations of intensity levels of individual green, red, and blue subpixels within a single pixel enables the reproduction of (256) x3 = 16,777,216 and (1024) x3 = 1,073,741,824 for 8-bit and 10-bit displays respectively. This translates to an increase in the number of reproducible colors by 64 times from an increase of 2 bits per subpixel bit-depth increase from an 8-bit to a 10-bit display panel.