Slashdot Mirror
Will Flat Screens Save Your Eyes?
An unnamed corrrespondent asks: "Are LCD flatscreen monitors better for your eyes than CRT's? Have studies shown that LCD's reduce eyestrain, red-eye, or other eye fatigue compared to CRT monitors due to less radiation, no flicker, or other differences in the technology?" Studies aside, I certainly find it more comfortable when working for hours at a time to be staring at a nice TFT LCD than even a high-quality CRT, which is one reason that I'm growing resigned to laptop keyboards.
I think you might want to checkout the reccomended resolution for the monitor. If the fonts look screwy, then it's just that the video card is running the monitor at a different resolution than the monitor runs natively. Switch the videocard's resolution to match the monitor's resolution.
There's one other significant difference between monochrome and color monitors.
If you look at two monitors that were produced, say, 10 years ago, you'll notice some significant differences. The color VGA monitor, even at the default 640x480 resolution, still has somewhat fuzzy text. In contrast (pun intended), the monochrome monitor has very sharp text.
This is because of the dot pitch used on those older monitors, and the whole issue of having a screen mask (dots commonly, or wires with a Trinitron display). Because monochrome monitors didn't have a mask, there's nothing that diffuses the electron beam striking the phosphor. There are also no focus and alignment issues with multiple electron guns.
Back at school, we had 19" monochrome monitors for our Xterminals, they rocked! Too bad you can't buy that kind of stuff anymore.
Of course, now I'm completely dependent on my LCD screens (SGI 1600SWs of course). I am so spoiled, I don't know how I managed without colorization of program code and color-ls.
You might want to look at the Apple LCD display. It uses a digital interface (Apple Display Connector) between the video card and display, avoiding the problems inherent in LCD displays that are driven by analog video.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
It would be nice if PC vendors adopted the ADC. I'm not sure if there are any patent or licensing issues. When I got my Apple LCD display, I took it out of the box, put it on the desk and attached a single cable to the Mac. Turned on the Mac and everything worked perfectly.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
As someone who works for a rather large telco firm, we get our hands on decent displays. All of the admins in my group have one of two monitors: Either Sun's 21" premium flat CRT or Sun's 18" LCD.
I myself chose the 21" CRT over the 18". Not only is a) the resolution higher; b) the screen bigger; but c) it looks _sharper_.
Sun's 21" tube is a Sony Trinitron OEM'd. And it's probably the BEST 21" tube I've ever used.
We're split about half-and-half between the CRT's and LCD's. Truthfully, the LCD is a bit brigher (albeit fuzzier), but working a long day on the CRT tube is painless. It's a GREAT tube.
I've worked only for a few hours on the LCD's at a time, not a full, long day, but I truly missed my CRT.
And my eyes were never as bad when I was 15 years younger either. What's your point?
Black on white displays...just another thing that we have Mr. Jobs to thank for. Yet another Apple innovation that looks looks cool and really doesn't serve much purpose [especially now that screens don't burn in so easily].
_____________
I don't want free as in beer. I just want free beer.
Looks like behind (just try to focus on a piece of dust on your screen and compare to where the image is: looks like some 3mm behind).
Solution: keep your screen dust free, so your eyes won't find any point of reference on the glass surface, and the only thing it notices is the image. If the image is at the "wrong" place, make sure the eye does't know where the right place should be...
Say no to software patents.
Yes, there is a speed beyond which the human eye cannot track changes in briliance (ie ammount of light) fast enough. Basically nervous conections have a minimum recovery time between passing two nervous impulses - if i'm not mistaken, for neurons it's about 18 ms (i got this from my neural networks class some years ago).
So, even if the optic nerves were faster than this, the information couldn't get to the brain any faster.
The basic principle of CRTs is to produce light by firing high speed electrons against a "brick wall" (actually lead and glass if i'm not mistaken). The problem is that, when a high speed electron is quickly decelerated (as in hitting a solid surface), it will release energy across the whole Electro-Magnetic spectrum (what i call an EMP Scream).
Guess what - i'm siting just behind one of those brick walls, getting bombarded by thousands of bilions of electrons per minute. The tought is not very conforting ...
flickers noticably when refresh rate is set too low
I've always been a little curious about this; I know the brain can subconsciously (and sometimes consciously) see the image refreshing if the refresh rate is too low, but does it really get that much better if the refresh rate is set really high? Does the eye ever get physiologically incapable of seeing it refresh?
Personally I like my flatscreen at work, simply because I have to look at it for 12 hour stretches at a time, and it's a lot easier on the eyes. A good crt has much better image quality I think though.
--
At home I use text-mode applications exclusivly, with all text in a single primary colour. I'm on the lookout for a cheap dumb terminal (preferably green on black) for the spare room.
My eyes were never as bad when we used monochrome monitors and text only apps.
but what really matters most to me is the fidelity/luminence of a given display's ability to show red. this is where tfts fall short.
::I will not moderate my opinions for your stinking karma
If you use Windows and don't want to download Microsoft Reader, I suggest trying out Steve Gibson's ClearType Sub-Pixel Font Rendering Demo, available here, which is a small application to demonstrate ClearType technology.
Also, Slashdot (last year) ran an article on ClearType technology here.
Quoted directly:
21. Are LCDs better for you?
There is some research work that has been carried out that suggests that LCDs should be easier on the eye than CRT monitors, because the eye finds it easier to focus on the sharply-defined pixel edge. One or two small research projects have found evidence to support faster reading speeds on LCDs. Anecdotal evidence also points to users being happier to spend longer periods looking at LCDs. There are also reports from users that they can find it difficult to constantly switch between the two technologies.
In the future, LCDs are likely to run at higher resolutions than CRTs, with consequent improvements in reading speed and accuracy.
-snellac