Contrast Sensitivity Experiment to Determine the Bit Depth for Digital Cinema

Matthew Cowan, Glenn Kennel, Thomas Maier, Brad Walker

The SMPTE Color ad hoc group was formed in 2001 (under DC28.2) to investigate the colorimetric requirements for the Digital Cinema Distribution Master (DCDM). A draft specification on color image encoding was published in September 2002 that recommended the use of XYZ color space, a gamma 1/2.6 transfer function, and 12 bits per color. With the support of Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI), a test was designed to verify these color image encoding parameters. This paper reports the results of the contrast sensitivity experiment, which showed that many of our observers could see a modulation corresponding to a one code value change with 10-bit encoding, but few observers would see a one-code value change with 12-bit encoding. This result matches the results of published contrast sensitivity experiments.

Print ISSN
Electronic ISSN
2160-2492
Published
2004-09
Content type
Original Research
DOI
10.5594/J11549