1.04.22_V : BUG ? 12 bit color depth

Community Archives WD TV Live Firmware
1

Hi,

 With the latest firmware, I’m not able to set 12 bit color depth if  HDMI auto resolution is selected. It always goes back to 8 bit… If I manually select the resolution, then I can correctly set it to 12 bits. Is there a way to set HDMI resolution to AUTO and HDMI Deep Color Mode to 12 bits ?

Thanks,

-zeekay

2

WD disabled it on purpose when auto is enabled.

8-bit won’t look any different anyways.  All your DVDs and BluRays have 8-bit colour.  All the 12-bit mode does is multiply each colour register value by 16 to turn it into a 12-bit value.  There’s still only 256 steps to the colour register values – you don’t get any more colour on the screen in 12-bit mode, even if your screen is capable of displaying it.

Adding 12-bit mode to the WDTV was necessary for HDMI compliance – WD was required to offer it, even if it does nothing different than 8-bit.  Regardless of what the TV can display, the WDTV will only output the 2^24 colours that the source material has.

Until the next generation of media actually starts using more than 8-bits of colour information in the registers, the extra colours (2^36 vs 2^24) will never get displayed on your TV.

Probably in 5 years’ time you’ll be able to purchase 12-bit discs. :wink: