Is wide-gamut video primarily an increase in saturation (for the layperson)?

Question

Moving from SRGB to P3 and soon Rec2020 for most consumer devices... perceptually, is this just an increase in saturation?

I understand the chromaticity diagrams, and there is of course hue expansion from SRGB.

But in real-life consumer viewing, eg. Dolby Vision on iPad Pro, perceptually I notice primarily deep, rich, saturated colours.

Is this what wide-gamut for the masses will be? Or is there more I’m not getting? I know with 10-bit and HDR there is a better brightness and colour range. But to the layperson, will they mainly notice “wow colours!”?

I wanted to comment here FWIW. Recently when I'm at the theatre I look out for how cinemas use Display P3, and "regular" digital projection vs Imax 2D. It's a subtle thing, but very interesting. Black Panther is the best recent example I can think of. There are certain scenes, and particularly costumes, where they use the saturation and/or beyond-SRGB colours to "pop" colours for emotional effect. It can also draw the eye, set the atmosphere, etc. Sometimes though they go for a desaturated look, eg. the start of the movie (flashback).

Answer 1

Wide Gamut color space is primarily just an expanded color space that is capable of covering a larger range of values in the visible color spectrum. This, compared to sRGB and Adobe RGB.

The gamma and white / black points are roughly identical.

So yes this is primarily what Wide Gamut is designed for. Higher levels of vibrance.

The trade off is if the end user is viewing the material in an 8 bit environment, gradients can appear a bit posterized. Wide Gamut is designed to be used and viewed under 16 bit or higher colorspaces.