Frame rate control

Frame rate control (FRC) is a method for achieving higher color quality in low color resolution display panels such as TN+film LCD or even - on some IPS, like LG IPS226 (really - 6bit per color channel!).

Most TN panels represent colors using only 6 bits per RGB color, or 18 bit in total, and are unable to display the 16.7 million color shades (24-bit truecolor) that are available from graphics cards. Instead, they use a dithering method that combines adjacent pixels to simulate the desired shade.

FRC is a form of temporal dithering which cycles between different color shades with each new frame to simulate an intermediate shade. This can create a potentially noticeable 30 Hz flicker. FRC tends to be most noticeable in darker tones, while dithering appears to make the individual pixels of the LCD visible.[1]

This method is similar in principle to field-sequential color system by CBS and other sequential color methods such as used in Digital Light Processing (DLP).

18 bit TN+film panels with dithering are sometimes advertised as having "16.2 million colors".

References

  1. ↑ Oleg Artamonov (2004-10-26). "X-bit’s Guide: Contemporary LCD Monitor Parameters and Characteristics (page 11)". xbitlabs.com. Retrieved 2009-08-05.

See also