[Will Thompson]

Eric – I have the same problem with my Dell monitor + RMBP, and the issue seems to be that for some reason the newer Macs are recognizing these monitors as TVs and sending out a YPbPr signal instead of RGB. All of the OS’s profiles and calibration tools are intended for RGB.

You can verify this if you navigate the settings menu on the monitor. Manually switching to RGB only distorts the signal since it really is receiving YPbPr from the Mac.

Although I haven’t tried it the current workaround is to use a TB-to-DVI cable, which evidently causes it to be detected correctly. I have reported this issue to Apple, since I think that should be unnecessary; please be a squeaky wheel and do the same. Hopefully Apple will fix it if they get enough complaints.

[Will Thompson]

I plan on using two monitors, but I wanted to avoid purchasing an IO box, since I don’t need capture or additional outputs. It sounds like this will work.

But it seems that OSX is limited to 8-bit, so Windows would be the only option for software-only 10-bit:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2747703?start=0&tstart=0

https://discussions.apple.com/message/19228496#19228496

This is pretty shocking, considering the graphics card manufacturers advertise 10-bit support in the Mac versions. Evidently, in order to get 10-bit in OSX you must use external IO, even for Photoshop!

Thank you for all the info, Angelo! Hopefully others will find this thread useful.

-Will

[Will Thompson]

Color management is weird, period.

Weird and quite complex, it seems!

I have a Dell U2410, which is wide gamut and 10-bit (8-bit panel with AFRC and 12-bit 3D LUT) over DisplayPort. If I had a 10-bit capable graphics card and connect it directly to the display via DP, is there any disadvantage over hardware monitoring solutions? Would I want to leave the display in sRGB mode, or does that matter (I calibrate my displays with an i1Display Pro)?

To keep cost down, I will likely not buy a broadcast monitor and instead get the 27″ version of this Dell, and I’m curious if there is any reason to also buy an IO box, or if the money would be just as well spent on a decent pro graphics card.

(Sorry for the barrage of questions)

[Will Thompson]

Thanks Angelo. If they’re designed for sRGB, is there any advantage to using a wide-gamut monitor? And would there be a difference in accuracy compared to a fully color managed app like FCPX – or to the same prosumer monitor but attached to an external IO (Matrox mini, DeckLink, etc)?