Perceptually Dithered HDR for 8bit Interfaces

This paper explores the performance of applying dither when quantizing High Dynamic Range (HDR) achromatic images to lower bit depths. We found that by applying “perceptual dither”, or dither in the ITU-R BT.2100 IC_TC_P color representation, it is possible to reduce the bit-depth necessary for visually consistent reproduction by 2bits. We conclude that by using perceptual dithering, it is possible to achieve the precision of a 10bit source signal with only 8bits, or the precision of a 12bit source signal with only 10bits.

Published

2020-11

Content type

Original Research

Keywords

High Dynamic Range (HDR), Dithering, Quantization, Banding

DOI

10.5594/M001924