How is laptop LCD dithering handled?

Hi there.

Bit of a weird question for you guys today. I'm currently working with a laptop LCD to make myself an external monitor, and it's only a 6-bit panel. Now it's only displaying 6-bit colour through the scaler I'm using at the moment, and wanted to ask:

Is dithering either

- handled by software (video drivers, firmware on scaler?)
or
- handled by hardware (scaler itself, or something else?)

Because I really want to get dithering working so I can emulate 16.2 million colours, since the colour banding is driving me crazy. Every laptop on the Earth uses dithering, but I don't know where it's handled.

I'm using a scaler from China which I bought off of ebay, one of the very few plug and play type deals available and it doesn't appear to have any colour depth options.

Could someone shed some light on this? It is pretty impossible to actually find the information, and this seemed like the perfect place

Thanks

 

Bump - anyone?

 

not sure, I know on my good screens it is handled by both. but I am not sure how many members have played with those LVDS converters. I would assume it should be a display driver option more than hardware on consumer panels.

 

Since you are seeing banding on a stock panel it would seem firmware of the GPU.

 

Hmm. I certainly know the chip supports 8-bit but it's seeing a 6-bit panel, because it is a 6-bit panel and not doing any compensation. Not sure if it can, or if it should (if it's the software instead).

It's a GTX 560Ti. I'm using the screen with a desktop.

I've seen mention of dithering being a software/driver option in Linux, but I can't find anything about it under Windows. If there's a registry entry or something I could try modifying that, but I haven't found one online.

 

Any more ideas on this?

 

I'm not sure if its a hardware adjustable component is possible since that's a design limitation. However, it most certainly is software adjustable. That's how it works in Photoshop.

It gives you these option when saving your work depending on where you want it to go.The 6bit limitation of your panel is a prime example why this capability is needed.

 

Hmm. Thing is when you install Windows anew on a system with a 6-bit panel, it automatically approximates to 16.2 million colours... If it's software, is there a facility within an OS to pick up on the fact it is?