Do Later LCDs Need Screen Savers?

bwdunn asks: "Do we need to run screen savers again to prevent the burn-in we saw on the very old CRTs? Dell's latest and greatest laptops, the Latitude D800 and Inspiron 8500 both suffer from horrible screen burn-in problems with burn-in visible after as little as 2 hours. Dell claims this is an industry wide problem. The high end displays from Apple also seem to have this problem. I have never seen this problem before 2002. Is this something new due to inferior LCD screen manufacturing compared to screens from just a few years ago?"

Comments

what can save us from burn-in?

[kurosawdust]

The toasters are going to fly again, gentlemen...

We've been observing this problem too

[David McBride]

The local department has recently been replacing the CRT displays in the computing labs with LCDs as part of their rolling upgrade cycle. So that it's easier to distinguish between a working PC and a dead one by whether or not the login screen is showing, we turned off the screensaver -- thinking that ``there's no phosphor to get burned in.''.

Doesn't appear to be true, sadly. A number of displays are now starting to get a burnt-in image of the login window.

Time to update the login manager scripts with a small call to xscreensaver, methinks..

Ick! Screensavers!?

[WWWAvenger]

I don't know about you guys, but I was never a fan of wasting power. All my PCs turn off the monitor when idle!

Do you drive an SUV too?

Re:Ick! Screensavers!?

[SN74S181]

It's rumored that some people actually turn off the whole computer when they're not using it.

The Uptime Fashion Police are working on a rigorous ostricization program, however. It's just not cool to turn one's PC off, and it defeats the main purpose of running Linux.

Article (in German) with picture of burn-in

[Lars T.]

Here. Picture after 15 hours of burn-in and 51 hours of uninterupted reconditioning.

Cut and paste from the docs ...

[Glonoinha]

From the Apple LCD FAQ :

3.1 - Q. I have noticed that my screen is showing some burn in when left with the same image for a long period of time. I thought LCDs were immune to 'burn in'. What should I do?

A. In the event of a mild or even strong burn in, unplug your LCD, lift it off the table and orient it with the screen down, parallel to the Earth. Now shake it all around. The silver powder in the unit will spread all around, returning your display to the original condition. When putting the display back on your desk remember that the two knobs go on the bottom.

-:-

Oh wait, that was from my Etch-a-Sketch.

That said, I read what Apple has to say on the matter and now I wonder - why are LCDs 'burning in' in the first place, and by blasting it with a bright white image to restore the screen ... is that somehow also burning it in a different direction, possibly also causing damage? I would think not, but I thought that LCDs were immune to the effect in the first place.

Ummm...

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds crazy to me. Got three LCD panels at work that basically sit around displaying the same thing for 12 hrs a day

You sure they're not just burnt in?

Depends on how the display is made

[Sunlighter]

Actually it can be done either way. A liquid crystal, when powered, rotates the polarization of light 90 degrees. When unpowered it has no effect. So, a LCD display is made from two polarizers and a layer of liquid crystals. Consider this:

• Horizontal polarizer + horizontal polarizer = transparent (white)
• Horizontal polarizer + vertical polarizer = opaque (black)
• Horizontal polarizer + liquid crystal + horizontal polarizer = black when powered, clear when unpowered
• Horizontal polarizer + liquid crystal + vertical polarizer = clear when powered, black when unpowered

Whether white or black is powered depends on the way the display is made.

Yet another reason to run gentoo!

[Anonymous Coward]

You'll be so busy compiling stuff.... not one thing will be displayed on that screen constantly!

Kills burn-ins too...
---The Gentoo Troll