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I have two of the same monitor and I have connected them to a dock, one with an HDMI cable and one with a DisplayPort cable.

One of my colleagues has complained about a noticeable difference between the pictures but I can't see any.

Windows settings says they have the same resolution @ 1080p, refresh rate @ 60Hz, colour depth etc.

Is it possible that the two of the same monitors receiving a signal from the same machine via the same dock would display differently due to a different cable?

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  • This depends on which revision of HDMI and Display Port the monitor supports, which revisions the cables themselves support, and what revisions of those standards the display adapter on the machine supports. Your question does not provide enough information to determine the reason the picture quality might be different.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Aug 6, 2019 at 14:19
  • You should start be switching the cables between the two monitors to see if the problem follows the cable type or stays with the monitor.
    – I say Reinstate Monica
    Commented Aug 6, 2019 at 14:30
  • Check the monitor setting for your graphics card. HDMI might need adjusting to allow either full or limited "dynamic range". In the Nvidia panel it would be under Display -> Change resolution and at the bottom. I don't know where it would be on AMD or Intel drivers...
    – Mokubai ♦
    Commented Aug 6, 2019 at 15:00
  • I'm just generally interested in whether this could be a real issue or not? I genuinely can't see the difference. It sounds like it could be, but how obvious might these differences be?
    – David Manton
    Commented Aug 6, 2019 at 15:07
  • But yes, there is a potential for them to have different colour ranges depending on the defaults for both outputs. howtogeek.com/285277/…
    – Mokubai ♦
    Commented Aug 6, 2019 at 15:11

1 Answer 1

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If you are not using the monitors regularly or you just look "in passing" then you might not be able to see it but yes, depending on the defaults for each output it could be that the colour range is subtly different.

HDMI has a concept of "RGB full range" where colours run from 0 to 255 and "limited range" where they go from somewhere around 30 to 220.

Theres a nice image showing the difference at HowToGeek

enter image description here

If you look carefully you will notice the picture changes from a full colour range to a slightly washed out limited range. Colours look deeper and whites brighter in the full range, whereas the limited range looks more grey by comparison.

DisplayPort, being a primarily computer to monitor interface, might default to full range while HDMI, used for TVs and other devices as well as computers might default to "limited range".

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  • Thanks for the info, really appreciate it
    – David Manton
    Commented Aug 8, 2019 at 11:38

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