LCD – For the Novice and the Expert
by Kristopher Kubicki on September 4, 2003 12:13 AM EST- Posted in
- Displays
Fixing a dead (sub)pixel?
The largest fear an LCD consumer has is that a dead pixel will ruin the display. While older LCDs used to be plagued by dead pixels, manufacturers are getting pretty good at producing monitors with (almost) no defects.When analyzing LCDs for dead pixels, there are a couple of pretty easy rules to follow.
1.) In almost every case, the monitor is shipped with a dead pixel. Very rarely does a pixel actually “burn out”. Thus, when buying an LCD, especially from a retail store, ask to see the LCD on before actually carrying it out the door. If a sales rep gives you a hard time, be persistent. It doesn’t cost Best Buy anything to ship a monitor back to Samsung, and they would rather make money off your purchase than see you walk out the door.
2.) “Stuck” pixels have no easy fix. Sometimes you can get the store to take the monitor back, but if you order online, it can be difficult.
As an act of desperation, some people recommend “rubbing” the pixel to see if it will come back to life. We have seen dozens of monitors and dead pixels, but unfortunately, this has not worked once. From the experience of others, the majority of dead pixels that are stuck red seem to be totally broken and no amount of rubbing will fix them.
Click to enlarge.
Above, you can see an image of an LCD screen. We attempted to rub out a red pixel (seen in the lower-center of the image). However, not only were we unsuccessful, we ended up scuffing the monitor, which is also visible.
Other pixels stuck off or on seem to have much greater chances of success. Personally, it seems that rubbing the pixels does more harm than good so continue at your own risk. Take a piece of lint free cloth and wrap it around your index finger. Push about 1/4 of an inch above the broken pixel with about as much force as would take to depress a doorbell. Pull your finger down past the pixel to about 1/4 of an inch below the broken pixel. Repeat in a left to right manner as well. If you’ve tried it about 10 times and are still without success, then you most likely are not going to be able to bring that pixel back to life (and you will probably have a light scuff mark on your anti-glare coating as well).
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Anonymous User - Sunday, September 7, 2003 - link
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1730Its ok from what I hear.
Anonymous User - Saturday, September 6, 2003 - link
Great article - typical AnandTech coverage/information! I have a question though - I would like to get a 17" LCD with DVI and S-Video inputs (for playing console games). The Samsung MP series has VGA and S-Video, but no DVI. Albatron has a one with some nice specs - the L17AT.http://www.albatron.com.tw/english/ia/pro_view.asp...
The only problem is that I have seen no reviews of them. I am a little leery of spending $500+ on a monitor sight unseen. Any suggestions?
KristopherKubicki - Saturday, September 6, 2003 - link
#49, Ill add that into Part II then.#50, perhaps down the line I will try to do that. It would not really fit into part II right now.
Cheers,
Kristopher
artifex - Saturday, September 6, 2003 - link
Also, I'd really like to own an LCD because of the weight and size issues (I want larger than my current 16" viewable CRT, 17 or 19 maybe), but also because of the expected power savings. Would you consider adding a comparison of the power consumption in future roundups?artifex - Saturday, September 6, 2003 - link
I am disgusted to discover that many manufacturers using the 262000 color panels are lying and claiming 16.7 million. I challenge Anandtech to clearly identify these manufacturers in future product reviews, because if they can't tell the truth about this simple spec, how can we trust them on things like warranties?KristopherKubicki - Saturday, September 6, 2003 - link
#47 - Yes, SamsungUSA anyway. Computex is around the corner, maybe we can find out something new there =)Anonymous User - Friday, September 5, 2003 - link
Hi Kristopher, is Samsung still denying/not talking about their X line of 16ms panels?KristopherKubicki - Friday, September 5, 2003 - link
Hi Dan,The Apple 23" monitor is OK, but its more bark than bite (Apple does these amazing things with advertising). I would be very hesitant to judge a monitor by its contrast ratio.
In fact, one monitor we reviewed a few months ago, the Samsung 192T claimed a 500:1 contrast ratio when we recieved. Now, the specifications claim 750:1 even though nothing has changed on the monitor.
In any case, do remember that the Cinematic Displays are expensive as well. Samsung has done some very neat things in the 21 and 23" area, and in my opinion they are better than apples. To further sweeten the deal you wont need a seperate adaptor to convert the signal.
If you use graphics heavily (as in professionally) CRT is still your only option.
As for your question about DVI, there are actually about 3 versions of the technology. However, almost all hardware on the PC uses the DVI-I format. This format is backwards compatible with the other two, so you'll be just fine.
Cheers,
Kristopher
Anonymous User - Friday, September 5, 2003 - link
Hi my old 17" CRT is dying, and I'll need to replace it very soon. I have found that when working in PhotoShop, my old 17" monitor is just to small, and my eyes get quit sore. I think I would like to get and LCD of around 19". I am a PC user and am running Windows 98se.In my research "the Monitor to which all others is compaired" is the Apple 23" Cinem HD Display Having a resolution of 1920 by 1200, 170 viewing angle, brightness of only 200 cd/m2, lowsey 350:1 contrast ratio, and a half decient pixel pitch of 0.258.
Here in Australia coumptor stores aren't at all helpful in showing you their monitors in real world sisutions. So I've only been able to read the technical specs found on the internet. It seems a number of monitors have hit the 700 to 1 mark, and Planar offer a 19" with a pixel pitch of 0.242mm at 1600 x 1200 while most offer a auful 0.290mm at 1280 x 1024.
Going on specifications alone, I think I would like a 19" LCD with 1600 x 1200 resolution, 300 CD/m2 brightness, 700 to 1 contrast ratio, 25ms or less response time, 170 degree horizonal and vertical viewing angle, 0.242 mm pixel pitch, and of course a DVI coennection. I am not a gamer.
Is this reasonable and practical, or is a CRT a better option, and if so which one would best suit the graphics environment?
I recently read something about there being two kinds of DVI, DVI and DVI-D, is this a concern?
Thank You for any help you can give me, my e-mail address is danandrews@optusnet.com.au
Sincerely, Dan Andrews
Anonymous User - Friday, September 5, 2003 - link
What's the deal with all the misleading and irrelevant hypertext links in the article (e.g. "computer", "connection", "solution", etc?)