HP's billion-color monitor gets a price: $3,499

Computerworld - Hewlett-Packard Co. has released a monitor aimed at animators, printers, game developers and other professionals who want to know that the colors they see on a screen will be the exact same colors that appear in a printed product or on a movie screen.

HP says it DreamColor LP2480zx will deliver true colors because of its ability to display 30-bit color, which can provide up to 1 billion colors. Standard monitors use 24-bit color, making 16.7 million colors available per pixel. The 24-in. HP monitor includes a new LED backlight technology developed specially for it; it has a list price of $3,499.

HP first unveiled the monitor in April at the National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas and said it was produced in collaboration with DreamWorks Animation SKG.

Should less color-focused users care about 30-bit color? While a deep-pocketed consumer might eye a 30-bit display, people using a good 24-bit system won't necessarily notice the improved contouring and gradations in the 30-bit display, said Matthew Brennesholtz, an analyst at the research firm Insight Media Inc.

Where most of the interest will arise, said Brennesholtz, is among professionals working in cinema post production, where monitors with 30-bit color displays can cost as much as $25,000. HP's price "is a major savings, and Hollywood and the cinema and video industry would like to have thousands of these," he said.

The display technology requires a graphics card that can support 30-bit color; HP has been using one from ATI Technologies Inc., which was acquired last year by Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

The strength of a 30-bit display is its ability to deliver true colors. That means a printer displaying a brochure or photographs on a monitor with this capability can be reasonably certain that the exact same colors will appear on the printed product. "It's obviously high-end," said Brennesholtz, adding that he nonetheless expects that some consumers will want it as well.

Crawford Del Prete, an analyst at IDC, said he believes 30-bit color displays will ultimately filter down to broader markets, but for the next several years, this monitor "will be the safe domain of the high end." That market is measured in just hundreds of thousands of units shipped, he said.

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