paulb_nl wrote:The Super NT currently already outputs Full Range because it outputs blacks lower than 16 so if you don't see any crushed blacks now then you also wont when the colors are fixed.
A properly configured device sending limited RGB will send data below 16 and above 235 to the display; it's up to the source material (in this case, the game) to determine if anything below or above those values is present. The display then determines what to do with those values. This goes back to a lot of complicated analog stuff that involved somewhat floaty black/white levels on CRTs that was carried forward to digital displays for compatibility (and confusion, unfortunately).
Full RGB tells the display that it should show the entire range. Black is at the bottom and white is at the top. It's much more straightforward and provides for a wider range of colors.
The question that I haven't seen addressed in this thread -- and maybe it is elsewhere -- is whether SNES games are programmed with real content in those extended ranges or if they contain information from 16 to 235 that is being remapped to a full RGB range in a conversion by Higan. For example, the game's programmers determined if the whites on the Super Mario World title screen are 235,235,235 or 255,255,255. If it's the former, then their intention was limited RGB. If it's the latter, their intention was full RGB.
thirdkind wrote:Nt Mini is reported as full Range. Playstation 3 and 4 can also output Full Range. OSSC also outputs Full Range only.
Good to know, thanks. I knew about the PS3/PS4, but the recommendation for those has always been limited RGB unless you have a specific reason to use full. My display handles full RGB fine (I have an Nt Mini and OSSC as well), but not everyone's does, and the Super Nt is not the niche product the Mini and OSSC are.
Retro consoles and games were made in a time when everyone was adjusting their display settings to taste rather than to the actual standard. I never saw a calibration VHS tape with test patterns
And there were wide variances in how consumer CRTs handled these signals, making much of this subjective. As long as nothing is getting clipped and the colors are being appropriately mapped to either space, it's probably "correct".