Making LCD Displays Snappier

newSlashUser points out a very interesting article at ExtremeTech about a new means of more quickly controlling LCD panel response, so the old complaint that LCD panels make poor displays for gaming and high-motion video may be whittled down a bit. As a bonus, the change is all in the controller, so it doesn't require any change in the way the panels are manufactured.

Comments

Active LCD Screen

[ZenJabba1]

Having just upgraded all my CRT monitors to LCD, The difference in refresh was only noticable after the first week or so. But the clarity of the LCD screen makes all the difference. I look forward to this coming forward and letting me spend more money :)

One Key question is how does microsoft's ClearType work with this, as is uses Aliasing across pixels, does it effect the the refresh rate as well?

Re:Active LCD Screen

[Edgewize]

Microsoft's ClearType technology is really very simple, and contrary to what they say, it doesn't use direct sub-pixel addressing. At least not in the way they make you think it does.

It simply relies on the fact that each LCD pixel has three separate cells (for red, green, blue). It adjusts the colors of any pixels that border glyphs, lowering or removing color components depending on which area of the pixel should be darkened. There are some color adjustments to neighboring pixels as well, to avoid obvious color distortion.

But as long as a LCD display is made of sub-elements for RGB, and that display can take raw RGB data, ClearType will work.

LCDs lifespan limited by OLEDs anyway

[bryan1945]

Organic LEDs are on the way in probably about 5 years or so, and I am willing to wait for them. Cheaper to produce, no backlight, and flexible. Production screens for cell phones and camcorders are being produced, so it's only an engineering step to up-size them. They are also more durable and scaleable than LCDs.

It's nice that LCDs are getting better, but even better stuff is just down the pike.

Re:WTF

[toast0]

that is correct...

as an example, most digital watches use LCD technology and when you take out the battery, everything turns white (or greenish, or whatever color it is :), but when you have the battery in, some areas are black

the voltage 'turns on' the liquid crystal, and blocks out the light

Re:WTF

[tcc]

Two polarizing filters encase the liquid crystals in the LCD. One filter is etched with horizontal lines; the other with vertical. Light enters the liquid-crystal compartment parallel to the first filter's lines and follows the path of the liquid crystals. If the liquid crystals become energized, the crystals and light rays do not twist to become parallel with the second filter. Light rays reach the second filter perpendicular to its lines and cannot pass through to the viewer's screen image. If the crystals are not energized, they twist themselves and the light rays to allow light to pass through and illuminate the LCD.

taken from

http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article. as p?article=articles%2Farchive%2Fg0903%2F36g03%2F36g 03%2Easp

Amazing displays

[ZaneMcAuley]

http://www.panoramtech.com/

The ultimate monitor :D pretty close to it :D

Re:Captain Obvious, or Admiral Oblivious?

[toast0]

teh way lcd screens work is (through magic) they seperate the white backlight into vertical bands of red, green, and blue (not necessarily in that order).... so you have three sub pixels per pixel, each one is individually controlled.

(that is what microsoft's cleartype(tm) leverages... since, the order of the subpixels are known, you can render to individual subpixels by using color values... and stuff)

(grc.com has a better explination of cleartype)

Re:What?

[ncc74656]

What do you mean, fixed resolution? Are you saying that you cannot change resolutions at all on LCD screens (which I seem to be able to)?

You can change resolution, but it looks like crap since the image has to be scaled (and pixels interpolated) to fill in. The worst displays used to be 800x600 panels run at 640x480; the available controllers usually just doubled some rows/columns to produce a chunky, uneven image. Newer displays interpolate the pixels so it doesn't look as nasty, but the image still has a blurred appearance at anything other than its intended resolution (typically 1024x768).

Re:Look to Apple

[Simba]

No, I have a thin film transistor (TFT) active-matrix Liquid Crystal Display (LCD). Regardless of what method they use, they are indeed LCD displays.

Now, perhaps a little education is in order as you seem to be the slashdot moron here.

There are two types of Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD). Active Matrix and Passive Matrix.

First, I'd like to point out that the article did not specify between Active or Passive Matrix LCD screens, and as such my comment on the high quality apple Active Matrix LCD's is perfectly valid.

Now, Active Matrix LCD screens are also known as TFT screens, which stands for Thin Film Transistor. In this type, each pixel is controlled by one to four transistors. The TFT system offers the best resolution and image quality of any LCD, and as such is more costly to produce and buy. Thusly you will note my comment about spending a few extra bucks for something that does not suck.

Passive Matrix LCD Screens come in three major flavors. DSTN (Dual Scan STN), CSTN (Color Super Twist Nematic), and TSTN (Triple Super Twist Nematic). There are numerous differences between them, for exmaple DSTN divides the screen into halves and scans seach simultaneously, thusly giving twice the refresh rate and a sharper appearance. Many Sony Vaio laptops use this type, and have the characteristic line through the middle of the screen.

In future, I would suggest you do your homework before telling someone who knows what they are talking about that TFT is not LCD.

Re:1600x1200 displays

[benh57]

Sure they are. The 22" Apple Cinema Display - 1600x1024.

Get It here. [Apple Store]

Price: $2499. To run this on a PC you will also need a 3dlabs card with the ADC connector. I think those are over $1k as well.