subject: Research An Lcd Monitor Purchase [print this page] New LCD monitor technologies have developed vastly in the past five years. Purchasing a new monitor can be difficult for individuals to decide what the best one is and what specifications are important to picture quality. It is also important to research the computers manual for the precise interfaces the system supports. With this information in hand, one can move forward to looking at specifications to assist in the purchasing process.
Signals now create more defined video since the interfaces have progressed to digital. When purchasing a new LCD monitor it is important to review the hardware connectors as not all are digital. If the device mentions that it can support VGA or SVGA only, an analog monitor produces a slightly fuzzier picture. This is because the computer has to convert the signal into analog for the display to understand it. A digital monitor utilizes DVI-D or HDMI interfaces to bring the signal to the display in a natural form. This allows more information to be sent at one time leading to a sharper image at higher resolutions.
There are four important specifications that an individual should review when purchasing a new device. Resolution is the number of pixels, or dots, that your screen can display at one time. The higher then number of resolution, the sharper the image becomes as it has the ability to draw more detail in the same space. For comparison, the resolution of 1080p high definition television is 1920 x 1080 pixels, while 720p is 1280 x 720. Correlating with resolution is dot pitch, or the distance between the colors of dots. Ideally, a smaller dot pitch is the best as it is able to define more color contrast in a defined area. Currently a .27 dot pitch is the market average while .23 is the considered top of the line.
Screen size is a personal preference, but high resolutions can be difficult to read on 19-inch and smaller devices. It is recommended that while at the store, change the resolution to the highest available on a display model and test it out. The refresh rate is the speed that a screen redraws the pictures per second. If the refresh rate is too high, it can cause flickering that will cause the eye to become fatigued prematurely. An average refresh rate is 5ms, while the top of the line devices boast 2ms.
