LCD Monitor: Worth it for your eyes

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): The Liquid Crystal Display, or LCD, is not a new technology. You have it almost on every gadget that you wear today: Your wristwatch, your pager, your cell phone, your Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), and, certainly, your notebook computer. This display technology has evolved slowly but remarkably.

Today, the best type of LCD screens uses the Thin Film Transistor (TFT), active matrix technology. On the low end you have LCD screens that use the Dual Scan Twisted Nematic (DSTN), or passive matrix, which is typically found in today's budget notebook. Somewhere in between is a newcomer, the Advanced Display System, or ADS. A growing number of leading notebook makers are already using the ADS technology, which offers high contrast and brightness levels closer to those of the TFT LCD but is much cheaper to implement.

Since a couple of years back, the LCD monitors have migrated from the notebooks to the desktops. They are beginning to replace the power hungry and emission-rich Cathode Ray Tube (CRT), the type of monitors that most of us are still using today. Almost all of the LCD monitors use TFT, and they all cost a fortune.

Personally, I would really love to have an LCD monitor to replace my 20" Sony 2038. Not because this gorgeous monitor of mine has begun showing its age, but more because I am getting concerned with the impact of the electromagnetic emission that it has subjected me to. I stare at it for hours every day, and because of my myopia my eyes are only 5 to 6 inches away from the faceplate. An LCD monitor does not produce electromagnetic emission, and therefore it would be safer to my eyes, and yours, too.

Unfortunately, the price of an LCD monitor -- also known as "flat panel monitor -- is typically still about three times higher than a comparable CRT monitor. Remember that a 14" LCD monitor is usually capable of producing a display at 1024 by 768 resolution. It means that there are 1024 dots, or pixels, from the left edge of the screen to the right edge, and there are 768 dots from top to bottom. For an LCD monitor of this size, a comparable CRT will be the 17" monitor, which is capable of producing the same level of resolution.

Courtesy of Siemens Nixdorf (SNI), I was able to test drive a 13.8" LCD monitor that they had introduced during last year's CeBIT in Hannover, Germany. A gorgeous monitor, the MCF3501T is capable of displaying 1024 by 768 pixels and 16.7 million of colors. Because it uses the so-called Panel Link method of transmitting display data from the system to the monitor, it also comes with a proprietary graphics card.

Space saving

The depth of a typical CRT monitor is usually slightly larger than the diagonal dimension. So, for a 17" monitor, the depth of the cabinet is usually more than 17". A new technology enables monitor makers to design the so-called "short-depth", "slimline", or even "short-neck" monitors. In this new monitor design, the depth measures up to 3" less than the diagonal dimension of the CRT. Still, they can fill up cramped work cubicles very easily.

An LCD monitor, on the other hand, requires a very minimal space on our desk. Perching on its standard base, the MCF3501T occupies a space as deep as the keyboard. If you like, you can buy the optional pivotal arm and rotate the monitor 90 degrees to have a vertical display as in the accompanying picture. The standard base is heavy enough to keep the monitor steady, and it can swivel to give you the perfect viewing angle. The hinge at the back of the monitor also lets you tilt the monitor as necessary.

To power the monitor, SNI provides a power adapter similar to the one you usually find in a notebook. I wonder why SNI did not simply place the transformer in the base to reduce cable clutter. Anyway, the power consumption is 30 watts at the max, which is probably less than one-third of the power drawn by a typical CRT monitor.

There is only one button on the monitor, and it controls brightness. There is no need for other controls, as the signals sent by the CPU are digital. We usually have more controls in a CRT monitor because the signals it receives from the CPU are analog. However, because of my limited vision, I do wish MCF3501T had a higher contrast level. It would make it easier for me to read the text on the screen. Normal eyes will have no problem reading the text, though.

The colors are brilliant. CorelPhoto-Paint image is displayed very beautifully. Cursor movement leaves no trails or shadows behind. The brightness level is relatively uniform all over the screen. SNI claims that you still can view the image at the angles of 60 degrees horizontally and 30 degrees vertically.

An LCD monitor is completely flicker-free and unlike the CRT, an LCD monitor doesn't have any electron gun that lights up the phosphors on the face glass to create an image. Therefore, an LCD monitor doesn't emit as much radiation as a typical CRT.

For architects, design engineers, graphics designers and computer artists, a flat screen also means distortion free images. Lines are perfectly straight, and CAD users love it. Besides, displayed text is as sharp at the edges as it is in the center.

The most glaring downside of the LCD monitors is, as mentioned before, their steep prices. Although the prices have come down significantly, they are still unaffordable for most users. There's a good reason for the high cost, though. Since each pixel in a TFT monitor such as the MCF3501T has three transistors--one for red, one for green and one for blue, the total number of transistors that must be knitted closely to each other is more than 2.3 million. The LCD panel of MCF3501T, for example, requires nine process stages in clean-room conditions. However, when quality control finds that there are more than 20 defective transistors on the panel, the entire thing should be trashed. This makes the manufacturing costs of this type of monitor extremely high.

Incidentally, if you decide to join the exclusive club of flat-screen monitor users, the first thing you should check is whether the TFT panel has too many "dead pixels". You should never buy a monitor of this caliber without thoroughly examining its condition.