SIM2 focus on building a flexible and open system resulted in an unique peculiarity of the HDR47E: the flexibility in the inputs selection including true HDR data feed.
All the monitors of SIM2 HDR47E series provide 3 working modes in order to manage different inputs signal and working situations:
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NORMAL MODE
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HDR MODE
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DVI-Plus MODE
Each one of them is the result of extensive research, engineering and integration of several physical and informational processes. The whole systems must deal with high and low dynamic range sources while translating them into an output which is the final result of two different physical components: backlight and LCD panel.
NORMAL MODE
This is the simplest, plug and play, way of seeing HDR results for any pre-existing source material.
HDR47E monitors include a powerful programmable (FPGA) board which can take charge of converting a standard signal into an HDR image, allowing to get very impressive images from a standard HD source via HDMI connection. Any standard dynamic range source material is converted on the fly into a wide, high dynamic range rendering.
Such image processing is called inverse tone mapping.
For total flexibility, in NORMAL MODE the monitor is fed through a specific HDMI port.
HDR MODE
HDR MODE is the preferred and most widespread way of using the HDR47E monitors.
The monitor is fed with true HDR data sent through an inexpensive standard DVI physical bus. Source data are encoded in order to fit on the available bandwidth as a Log (L), u, v representation.
Data encoding required for this mode is easily implemented including the custom SIM2 shader as a filter to software producing the source data (very usual in rendering and CAD/CAM) or using an HDR Player Software allowing the application of the shader as a filter (or already including it as a standard). Another widespread strategy is pre-encoding the source data and reproducing it with any standard player, thus turning any existing system into a full HDR system at no cost.
In HDR MODE, every calibrated HDR47E will generate an output matching the absolute input brightness level and color coordinates (obviously within its hardware limitations). This means that every time I give as input a value of 1000 to a given image area, I will get a 1000 nits from the corresponding area of the image. More about that in the CALIBRATION paragraph.
When operating the monitor in NORMAL MODE, the user benefit from the extensive research and testing which led to creating refined and effective algorithms for the integration of backlight and LCD panel contribution to the final image.
As in normal mode, a specific port is dedicated to this kind of operation making it easier to operate with complex workflows.
DVI-Plus MODE
When a total degree of control is requested, HDR47E monitors allow to adopt a radical configuration: it is possible to directly and independently drive each backlight LEDs and LCD panel with the "DVI-Plus Mode".
In this case, the user can freely manage 8bit of data depth for each color of the LCD panel AND the 12bits data depth of the 2202 LEDs individual light level.
The final result, which is the result of the integration of the two independent streams, is left under total control of the user who will perform all the computations on the source data before sending it to the monitor, based on its own algorithms.
SIM2 can provide the customer interested in interfacing to the monitor via DVI-Plus MODE all the available optical information making it easier to create the required code.
The “DVI-Plus” mode have proved particularly useful for scientific and testing purposes on new HDR technologies (HDR algorithms developing, monitor development, experimental environments...). In particular, DVI-Plus allows to avoid many uncontrolled variables for experimental design.
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