|
|
|
This thread is locked; no one can reply to it.
|
| Blurring on an aging LCD monitor. |
|
Chris Katko
Member #1,881
January 2002
 |
That's right, I said it, and no, I'm not an idiot. I actually thought my eyes were getting worse because it became a chore and straining to read long bouts of text on my monitor. Then I got a new one and it's night-and-day clearer and easier to read. Using the same DVI cable, and the same videocard it's been using for years. The LCD is an eyesore. It is an eyesore no matter what computer is attached to it. It seems like every moron on the planet recites "cable quality" (on DVI? Try again.) and "clear type". Clear type doesn't make graphics blurry. It makes Clear Type fonts blurry. It does not make pre-rendered text blurry. They also mention "correct resolution" and again, I'm not an idiot. So I'm pretty convinced that my LCD is physically getting worse. Anyone experience this, or know of possible failure modes that would cause this? The only thing I can think of is perhaps the backlight got much dimmer over the years (causing a reduction in contrast) and it was so gradual it wasn't noticeable. -----sig: |
|
Thomas Fjellstrom
Member #476
June 2000
 |
Old LCDs had shit update rates. (no i don't mean the "refresh rate" most people talk about) It takes a few milliseconds on the fastest LCDs for a single sub pixel to change colors, where as the old ones could take tens of ms. That causes horrible motion blurring , especially if it gets slower. Though I didn't know individual LCD cells could get slower... But it kinda sorta makes sense of the liquid crystal itself is starting to die? -- |
|
Chris Katko
Member #1,881
January 2002
|
I should have mentioned, I'm talking about static imagery, and that the monitor is only 4 years old as of this month. It's also a high quality Samsung one I paid almost $200 for. Though, as I checked my e-mail, it was refurbished! -----sig: |
|
Thomas Fjellstrom
Member #476
June 2000
|
Hm, I could swear I read something about movement being blurry. I guess it's just the panel aging or something. But I've not seen an LCD actually degrade that way. I have one that has issues, most of them were fixed by replacing the RGB cable, but it sometimes gets jittery or even I guess a little fuzzy, but turning it off, and back on again usually fixes it. Have to say though, that LCD is OLD. Like 2004ish? Maybe earlier. I honestly can't remember how long its been since I got it. -- |
|
Gideon Weems
Member #3,925
October 2003
|
|
Matt Smith
Member #783
November 2000
|
As LCD pixels are discrete and generally don't blur even in a failing panel, may I suggest a few other failure modes. Auto align. try it. in theory it should do nothing with a DVI input, but you may have DVI-A signalling active, due to card, cable, adaptors etc Backlight failing. the CFL on my thinkpads goes pink at one end when it's failing, which gives me warning. I'm about to transplant a tube from one to the other as they're not worth the expense of new tubes at their age. I have a cunning plan to ditch the CFL for a row of white led, but I haven't implemented it PSU fail. more than 50% of the LCD I've revived have been dead caps in the psu. I haven't had one where the picture quality was degraded rather than dead, but I can imagine if the voltage dropped to the backlight that might happen. Delamination. modern panels are sandwiches of many membranes, mostly involved with distibuting the backlight evenly, and then there's the critical polarising layer. Try pressing the panel (not too hard obviously) to see if that makes a local difference. Photography. for debugging hardware over the internet the golden rule is. Pics, Or It Didn't Happen. |
|
m c
Member #5,337
December 2004
 |
I have a very blurry old LCD, I thought that it was always like that. I can only guess. Maybe there is leakage of voltage to neighboring contacts causing the nearbye liquid crystal to twitch beyond the individual cell. Like whatever insulation they use breaking down, or corrosion or something providing a partial bridge or something like that, if that is possible then that would fit the symptoms would it not? Perhaps the feed circuitry has developed a beyond-pixel memory effect, maybe capacitance has fallen out of specification or a solid state device has become compromised due to heat damage or electro-migration? It all sounds plausible to me. (\ /) |
|
Thomas Fjellstrom
Member #476
June 2000
|
Or perhaps the native res is lower than it advertises. Also some LCD controllers are absolute shit (all of them used to be), especially when scaling. -- |
|
Chris Katko
Member #1,881
January 2002
|
m c said: Like whatever insulation they use breaking down, or corrosion or something providing a partial bridge or something like that, if that is possible then that would fit the symptoms would it not? That's what I'm wondering about. The idea that "pixels are pixels" is rather simplistic. Those things can warp from heat, even leak, or possibly separate layers causing an unfocused pixel. An unbalanced pixel (three separate colors each with different gamma/brightness/contrast responses!) would certainly be hard on the eyes, moreso if they became unfocused (think about a diffuse LED, which radiates in all directions as opposed to forward). I'll bring one of my microscope lenses to work one of these days coming up if I can get the time and take a picture. I might even still have pictures of it from about a year ago that I took using the same lens. -----sig: |
|
m c
Member #5,337
December 2004
|
That's a good idea. The unfocussing part especially. What my old LCD looks like is the picture is all smoothed / diffused. (\ /) |
|
|
