| Halloween Animations | October 99 |
| Introducing Firewire | November 99 |
| DV video cameras | December 99 |
| The new computer user | Jan - April 2000 |
| Laptop | May - July 2000 |
| UPS Power | August- Sept 2000 |
| Storage Junky | October 2000 |
| Find the Finder | November 2000 |
| 1PC 2 OS systems | December 2000 |
| Building a Basic Office | Feb/March 2001 |
| Big Enough | April - May 2001 |
| Digital Age | June - July 2001 |
| CD - R / CD - RW | August - Sept 2001 |
| We Stand Stronger Together | September 2001 |
| Reflections | October 2001 |
| Seeing Is Believing | May 2002 |
| Why is my Modem Slow? | June 2002 |
| Status Code Definitions | November 2002 |
| A Year in Review | December 2002 |
| No I Know Monitors | April 2003 |
| Upgrade: Yes or No | June 2003 |
| Protect yourself | September 2003 |
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When I had bought my first computer it was the monitor I had enjoyed the most. Maybe that was because I stared at it almost eight hours daily. When it finally burnt out I mourned for it like I had lost an important part of myself. I was lost for a while but luckily I had recently bought a laptop and was able to transfer most of my route work over to it. For months I use the lap top with its 15 inch LCD monitor. I found the monitor difficult to see in certain light conditions but under current circumstances did the best that I could. I did learn however that there was a monitor adjustment or calibration that gave you a little control over how the monitor could be set up for me to use. Like my former CRT 17 inch monitor I was able to control just about everything that really mattered to me in order for me to see the best picture on screen. Maybe laptop computers still lack when it comes to viewing a good LCD screen. However the LCD that are being sold as an independent monitor are better. I tried to do the homework to determin wether I should buy one or stick to what I knew best. In this article I will present to you my opinion and information that I had obtain while looking for the best monitor for my present situation. |
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I read in our local news paper and saw a similar story on how LCD monitors were coming down. True I did notice that plasma screens sold at my favorite computer store were coming down several thousands of dollars. But I still saw price on LCD screen out of my price range. I was not prepared to pay over a thousand dollars for new technology that I hardly knew anything about. The nice thing was that because LCD monitor were coming to town CRT monitors were falling in price. My original monitor cost well over $1000.00 dollars seven years ago. At the time I had compared it to the cost of a good stereo television. I would soon lean all the same that the monitor was worth every penny. |
| I learned that LCD screens worked on several principals. One was to use a lot of lights. One light for one pixel, something that the naked eye can not see. In Photoshop if you magnify a photo image you can see this pixel as a square. I learned that light do burn out on these monitors. Manufactures do not tell you about this but there is a hidden warranty that covers problems there. One such idea present is if seven or more light pixels are burnt out the warranty will fix or replace the monitor. However what if you have seven burnt out pixel scattered over the screen. You are likely not going to be able to see the problem. What happens when these pixel burn out your image loses light support, and image quality. Don't forget that the naked eye can not see one burnt out pixel and the chances are very rare to see many in the same area for the coarse of the screen. |
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Just a thought but why are these LCD of a variety of prices? I saw monitors for under four hundred dollars and others of the same size for more than one thousand dollars. I had asked a sales man once who told me that there was no difference. But there is a difference and again it is worth every penny you spend. When you look at the screen the only difference that is noticeable is that it is thinner and not as heavy as CRT monitors. Deep inside the thin casing is a lot of technology, such as a micro processor or chip. The chip does routine checks making sure that the monitor is running okay. When you use an on screen button to change a setting the processor is the one making those changes. The better the technology the better the monitor. Better light which lights the monitor so that you can see it in all kinds of lighting |
| Even though my monitor had lasted seven years on average a CRT five years is a good bet. When using a flat screen they are rated in hours of candle light and some suggested 50,000 hours. This suggest that they will last much longer than conventional monitors. You pay a little more and your flat panel screen will be around ten plus years down the road. |
| If you are not sure about buying a flat screen CRT are cost driven. As inventory lessens at production companies Flat screen panels will also drop in their price. Many of this years computers were sold with flat screens and many were sold to larger companies and work very well for them- but the choice is still yours - but be quick about it. |