Guides Tips And Info

  Below is some information to give you an idea of the different
  types of displays on the market, their advantages, disadvantages
  and some technical information.
  Much of the below has been sourced from other articles from all
  over the web then compiled here for your convenience.

As always any further information or corrections can be submitted here for us to update this article.

Plasma
LCD
TFTLCD
TFT
OLED
AMOLED

Monitor response times and input lag - this links to another page.

Plasma display:

A plasma display panel is a type of flat panel display often found in large TV displays (32" inches or greater). They have tiny cavities between two panels of glass that hold a mixture of gases. These gases are colorless, odorless, tasteless, and non-flammable under standard conditions and have an extremely low level of reactivity.

The gas in the cells is electrically turned into a plasma which then excites phosphors to emit light.

Plasma is a partially ionized gas, in which a certain proportion of electrons are free rather than being bound to an atom or molecule. The ability of the positive and negative charges to move somewhat independently makes the plasma electrically conductive so that it responds strongly to electromagnetic fields.

A phosphor is a substance that exhibits the phenomenon of phosphorescence (sustained glowing after exposure to energized particles such as electrons or ultraviolet photons).

Advantages

•     Slim profile
•     Lighter and less bulky than rear-projection displays
•     Achieves better color reproduction than LCDs (68 billion versus 16.7 million colours)
•     Produces deep, true blacks allowing for superior contrast ratios (up to 1:1,000,000)
•     Wider viewing angles than that of an LCD
•     Fast response times.(up to 0.001 milliseconds)

Disadvantages

• Susceptible to Screen burn-in and image retention. Newer models have built-in technologies to prevent this such as pixel shifting, however success varies and extended static image exposure may still result in it occuring.
• Phosphors lose luminosity over time, resulting in gradual decline of absolute image brightness, newer models are less susceptible to this, having lifespans exceeding 60,000 hours.
• Susceptible to "large area flicker"
• Generally do not come in smaller sizes than 32 inches
• Susceptible to reflection glare in bright rooms
• Heavier than LCD due to the requirement of a glass screen to hold the gases
• Damage to the glass screen can be permanent and far more difficult to repair than an LCD
   

LCD :

A liquid crystal display (LCD) is a thin, flat panel used for electronically displaying information.

It is an electronically-modulated optical device made up of any number of pixels filled with liquid crystals and arrayed in front of a light source (backlight) or reflector to produce images in color or monochrome

In color LCDs each individual pixel is divided into three cells, or subpixels, which are colored red, green, and blue, using pigment filters, dye filters and metal oxide filters. Each subpixel can be controlled independently to yield thousands or millions of possible colors for each pixel.

Most LCDs use TFT technology.

Advantages

• Lightweight construction
• Portability
• Can be produced in much larger screen sizes than are practical for CRT displays.
• Low electrical power consumption. this enables it to be used in battery-powered electronic equipment.

Disadvantages

• LCDs produce crisp images only in their native resolution. Attempting to run LCD panels at non-native resolutions usually results in image scaling which may introduce artifacts or distortion lessening image quality.
• Cheaper or older LCDs can have "backlight bleed" where light (usually seen around corners of the screen) leaks out and turns black into gray.
• The use of the backlight may reduce the accurate reproduction of black in older displays. However, as of 2009, the very best LCD TVs that do not use LED backlighting can achieve a dynamic contrast ratio of 150,000:1.
• LCDs typically have longer response times than plasma and CRT displays,. Older displays may show visible ghosting when images rapidly change or have an increased input lag to compensate.
• LCD panels tend to have a limited or preferred viewing angle
• Dead pixels can occur. Research a companies dead pixel policy before making a purchase. Some manufacturers think it is acceptable to ship a display with one or two dead pixels. If a manufacturers stipulates a dead pixel policy  then even if the unit is brand new it may not be fixed under warranty. It is rare for modern displays to ship with or even develop dead pixels, it may however be a concern if you are the victim of that rare occurance.

TFTLCD:

Thin film transistor liquid crystal displays are a variant of liquid crystal displays, they use thin film transistor (TFT) technology to improve image quality. Transistors are embedded within the panel itself, reducing "crosstalk" between pixels and improving image stability.The new AMOLED (Active Matrix OLED) screens also contain a TFT layer.

The most beneficial aspect of TFT technology is a separate transistor for each pixel on the display. As each transistor is small, the amount of charge needed to control it is also small. This allows for very fast re-drawing of the display. Prior to TFT, passive matrix LCD displays could not keep up with fast moving images resulting in ghosting. TFT LCDs are the most widespread display at present. (2009)

OLED:

An organic light emitting diode (OLED), also light emitting polymer (LEP) and organic electro luminescence (OEL), is any light emitting diode whose emissive electro-luminescent layer is composed of a film of organic compounds. The layer usually contains a polymer substance that allows suitable organic compounds to be deposited. They are deposited in rows and columns onto a flat carrier by a simple "printing" process. The resulting matrix of pixels can emit light of different colors.

Advantages

• OLEDs do not require a backlight to function.
• They have very low power requirements.
• Because there is no need for a backlight, an OLED display can be much thinner than an LCD panel.
• OLEDs can be printed onto any suitable substrate using an inkjet printer or even screen printing technologies they can theoretically have a significantly lower cost than LCDs or plasma displays.
• OLEDs on flexible substrates in the future mayopen the door to new applications such as roll-up displays and displays embedded in fabrics or clothing.
• Because OLED pixels directly emit light a greater range of colors, gamut, brightness, contrastand viewing angle than LCDs is possible.
• OLED pixel colors appear correct and unshifted, even as the viewing angle approaches 90 degrees.
• An "off" OLED element (pixel) produces no light and consumes no power which allows it to show true blacks and save energy.
• OLEDs also have a faster response time than standard LCD screens. The fastest LCDs currently have a 2ms response time, an OLED can have less than a 0.01ms response time.

Disadvantages

• A limited lifetime of the organic materials. Blue OLEDs historically have had a lifetime of around 14,000 hours (five years at 8 hours a day) Technology has been developed to reduce or eliminate this problem.
• The intrusion of water into displays can damage or destroy the organic materials. Therefore, improved sealing processes are important for practical manufacturing and may limit the longevity of flexible displays.

AMOLED

This is an active-matrix OLED (see above). An active-matrix OLED display consists of OLED pixels that have been integrated onto a thin film transistor array to form a matrix of pixels that illuminate light upon electrical activation. (TFT - see TFTLCD above for more info)

Active-matrix OLED displays provide the same performance as OLED displays but they consume significantly less power. The amount of power the display consumes does vary depending on what kind of color it shows and bright colors may under some circumstances consume more power than a normal TFT-LCD. (this is in respect to "per pixel")

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