Monitor RGB mess, 0-255 or 16-235 [solved]

dasPaul · 05-24-2015, 04:12 AM

Hi there
Today I tried to visual calibrate my monitor contrast&gamma. I am totally confused by my monitors (Benq GL2460) internal settings. I know this is an "desktop monitor" so I do not expect any super accurate calibration result.
The problem is the setting: HDMI RGB PC-Range:
0-255
or
16-235 (factory default)

My understanding was that 16-235 is needed for reduced colour range of video playback (blueray,dvd,psp,xbox...). I believe it has also something to do with YUV or color compression.

And 0-255 should be the choice for image editing, but when I enable it the monitor is absolutely to bright in dark areas in images. Spots which should be black are quite grey. A black desktop background is also noticeable grey. Even if I turn brightness and contrast to zero in the monitor. I did not touch any gamma settings of the graphics card nor changed the monitors gamma (set to 3 of 1-5). And color setting is set to "sRGB"
Does anyone use 16-235 for image-editing? If I use that I get a good blackpoint.

Last edited by dasPaul; 05-24-2015 at 10:32 AM.

dasPaul · 05-24-2015, 10:32 AM - **1 Like**

Problem solved.
I found out my graphics card also needs to be set to full color range and not only the monitor. Because Iam on Linux I can verify the current
setting with:
xrandr --prop | grep "Broadcast RGB"

Broadcast RGB: Automatic
supported: Automatic, Full, Limited 16:235

And can be set with:
xrandr --output HDMI1 --set "Broadcast RGB" "Full"

05-24-2015, 04:12 AM	#1
dasPaul Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Dresden,Saxony Photos: Albums Posts: 51	Monitor RGB mess, 0-255 or 16-235 [solved] Hi there Today I tried to visual calibrate my monitor contrast&gamma. I am totally confused by my monitors (Benq GL2460) internal settings. I know this is an "desktop monitor" so I do not expect any super accurate calibration result. The problem is the setting: HDMI RGB PC-Range: 0-255 or 16-235 (factory default) My understanding was that 16-235 is needed for reduced colour range of video playback (blueray,dvd,psp,xbox...). I believe it has also something to do with YUV or color compression. And 0-255 should be the choice for image editing, but when I enable it the monitor is absolutely to bright in dark areas in images. Spots which should be black are quite grey. A black desktop background is also noticeable grey. Even if I turn brightness and contrast to zero in the monitor. I did not touch any gamma settings of the graphics card nor changed the monitors gamma (set to 3 of 1-5). And color setting is set to "sRGB" Does anyone use 16-235 for image-editing? If I use that I get a good blackpoint. Last edited by dasPaul; 05-24-2015 at 10:32 AM.

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05-24-2015, 10:32 AM - 1 Like	#2
dasPaul Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Dresden,Saxony Photos: Albums Posts: 51 Original Poster	Problem solved. I found out my graphics card also needs to be set to full color range and not only the monitor. Because Iam on Linux I can verify the current setting with: xrandr --prop \| grep "Broadcast RGB" Broadcast RGB: Automatic supported: Automatic, Full, Limited 16:235 And can be set with: xrandr --output HDMI1 --set "Broadcast RGB" "Full"