LCD Screen issues

[nath]

Hiya,

I've had for quite some time now a problem with my LCD when displaying blank screens. Here's a picture:

It's not incredibly easy to tell from that, but what's happening is from all four sides I've got white areas creeping in. This is noticeable in all particularly black areas and when the screen goes blank (i.e. goes to windows blank screen saver). If it the lcd goes to powersave mode, it goes completely black. When using windows/browsing the web etc I don't notice it at all. It doesn't seem to affect the colours of the screen.

It's out of warranty I've no doubt (had it over a year), but I have a feeling it's always been like this I just either never noticed or never thought much about it.

Any help is appreciated!

 

[Jonty]

Hi nath

I think this is just normal 'light leakage'. It's a design and manufacturing defect that currently afflicts all LCDs to varying degrees. Sadly there's nothing that can be done, short of playing with the display settings to minimise its appearance.

As you say, in every day usage it's not usually noticable, but it can appear more pronounced in high contrast situations (such as movies and games etc.). When the LCD goes into powersaving mode the display lamps are effectively off, so that's why it's no longer noticeable.

I've not heard of displays getting worse over time, so perhaps it's like you said: it's just something we gradually notice as time goes by. Sadly manufacturers don't usually consider this a problem (especially not out of warranty) unless it's very pronounced, so it seems you just have to options:

• Tweaking your display settings and learn to live with it
• Buy a new monitor (good excuse! )

Kind regards

Jonty

P.S. Some new and forthcoming LCDs are offering ever higher contrast ratios and the promise of 'pure blacks' (i.e. not just very dark grey). Light leakage tends not to be an issue for these displays, but they presently cost a lot of money.

 

[Lazarus]

you havent got any magnets (or kit with magnets included - say speakers) in close proximity to the screen?

had a problem with me telly similar to that cos by speakers were too close

 

[Ch3tan]

I've not heard of magnets affecting lcd's? It's backlight bleed as Jonty said.

 

[SheepCow]

you havent got any magnets (or kit with magnets included - say speakers) in close proximity to the screen?

had a problem with me telly similar to that cos by speakers were too close

Magnets won't affect the backlight. Unlike a CRT, an LCD screen uses a white backlight shines through the display. The colour is created by bits infront of the backlight changing colour.

Magnets affect CRTs (big monitors) because they work by firing electrons from the back of the monitor to the front. Electro-magnets inside the monitor are used to bend the beam of electrons so that they hit the correct part of the screen and give the right colour.

 

[Mazling]

My old lcd was bad for this leakage, but my new one (nec 20wgx2, just above mid-range) is very nice. Roll on SED.

 

[nath]

Bah, when I got this all reviews said the Viewsonic VX922 was a kick ass display. I'm certainly not ready to replace it. Oh well, before I posted this message I fired off a message to viewsonic support including the image - I expect they'll say what everyone has said here

Thanks for the responses everyone.

 

[Clown]

Be honest though. You only notice it when it's not showing much, right?

 

[nath]

That's the reason I've never really done anything, however when I played the bioshock demo there were lots of dark areas that made it fairly noticeable and quite annoying. I can (and will) live with it, but doesn't hurt to find out more.

 

[Kryten]

You can lessen the effects of this by twiddling the controls a little. Many TFT's will allow you to finetune the colour tone's and brightness levels, you may find that lowering the brightness of the screen itself and raising it via software (in windows) to counteract it may help.
This is something I see rather often on laptops these days, same sort of age.

 

[Jonty]

Hi guys

No matter how bad things may be, there is always someone worse off than you (to be honest, I think the camera settings exaggerate the problem, but certainly this is a bad case).

I'm soon to buy a Dell laptop, so touchwood things don't go awry as above

Kind regards

 

[nath]

Heh, always nice to have some perspective