NES Colour Results

2020-11-22

  • Notes

    • A reminder to read the FAQ. All values below are relative to my display device, and every device will be slightly different.
    • Switched to direct_video over HDMI with an RGB DAC after some errors in the MiSTer IO board that resulted in excessive green boost
    • Used limited_range=1 (white peak 235) due to the combination of direct_video and DAC producing excessively high white levels with limited_range=0 or 2 (white peak 255)
    • AV Famicom CVBS set to NTSC IRE 0 on PVM input
    • Values "avfamicom" and "palnes" are the respective hardware devices each
    • Palettes "hybrid", "nescap", "math", "mathusa", "mathnormalized" are downloaded from their respective author's websites
    • All other palettes are supplied by the MiSTer NES core

  • Hardware

    • Reference system 1: AV Famicom HVC-101, native CVBS connection (IRE 0)
    • Reference system 2: PAL NES NESE-001, native CVBS connection
    • Comparison system: MiSTer FPGA NES core + palettes v20201102, direct_video=1 over HDMI + DAC + limited_range=1
    • Display: CRT, Sony PVM D20L5A
    • Colorimeter: Colormunki Display, model CMUNDIS, firmware version v1.03, firmware date 05Jun12

AV Famicom as reference

  • Raw data available here: https://stickfreaks.com/colour_nes_rawdata/2020-11-22_rawdata/

    • All results come in two flavours: absolute and adjusted (the latter will have "adj" in the name)
    • "Adjusted" results compensate for luma differences. These make the measured value slightly incorrect, but give the benefit of the doubt to the author who may have had a display with slightly different brightness, contrast or gamma settings.
    • "Adjusted" aims to look at a pure colour difference only, and tends to make the results slightly more favourable.
    • "Absolute" uses colours 00 (dark grey) and 20/30 (pure white) with matched luma (as accurate as the display device will allow). These give a better indication of true brightness errors in the palette

  • AV Famicom graphs, adjusted values

  • Mean Delta E 2000

    • Values of 2.0 or lower are below average human visible threshold
    • Lower values are better

  • Standard Deviation Delta E 2000

    • Shows the variability of error
    • Smaller values show less variation in error

  • 10th Percentile Delta E 2000

    • Gives a good indication of the dE of the best colour (ignoring close matches like whites and greys)
    • Values of 2.0 or lower are below average human visible threshold
    • Lower values are better

  • 90th Percentile Delta E 2000

    • Gives a good indication of the dE of the worst colour (ignoring outliers)
    • Values of 2.0 or lower are below average human visible threshold
    • Lower values are better

  • Delta E 2000 Max

    • Worst colour in the palette
    • Values of 2.0 or lower are below average human visible threshold
    • Lower values are better

PAL NES as reference

  • Raw data

    • All results come in two flavours: absolute and adjusted
    • "Adjusted" results compensate for luma differences. These may make the value slightly incorrect, but give the benefit of the doubt to the author who may have had a display with slightly different brightness, contrast or gamma settings.
    • It aims to look at a pure colour difference only, and tends to make the results slightly more favourable.

  • PAL NES graphs, adjusted values

  • Mean Delta E 2000

    • Values of 2.0 or lower are below average human visible threshold
    • Lower values are better

  • Standard Deviation Delta E 2000

    • Shows the variability of error
    • Smaller values show less variation in error

  • 10th Percentile Delta E 2000

    • Gives a good indication of the dE of the best colour (ignoring close matches like whites an greys)
    • Values of 2.0 or lower are below average human visible threshold
    • Lower values are better

  • 90th Percentile Delta E 2000

    • Gives a good indication of the dE of the worst colour (ignoring outliers)
    • Values of 2.0 or lower are below average human visible threshold
    • Lower values are better

  • Delta E 2000 Max

    • Worst colour in the palette
    • Values of 2.0 or lower are below average human visible threshold
    • Lower values are better

All Renders