Defect subpixels
Posted on August 07, 2003 @ 11:34 in Tech
My research rig was almost ready when I returned from our holiday, so I picked it up last Tuesday. There's an important lesson to be learned right away: when buying a LCD monitor, always insist to check the screen for dead pixels, before paying for it. If the shop won't let you do this or if they say that it's under the manufacturer's warranty, just don't buy the monitor from them. I'm really glad I checked out my monitor before buying. I had ordered an Acer AL732 LCD monitor to go with the system, but when hooked up to a test system in the shop, it showed two defect blue subpixels; these subpixels stay on at all times, showing up as bright little blue dots. The computer shop agreed, even advised me to not take the monitor home, and said they were going to inquire with Acer about swapping the monitor for me.
It turns out that Acer will only replace LCD monitors that have two or more defect pixels in the middle of the screen. I guess two defect subpixels towards the edges of the screen doesn't qualify, regardless of the annoyance factor. What's worse for Acer though, is that the shop advises me to order a monitor from another manufacturer, because they're not confident that ordering another Acer monitor will yield a trouble free screen. In fact, they say that the chance of getting a monitor with defects from Acer is greater than when ordering a monitor from LG or Iiyama. Interesting... I'm just glad I didn't take that monitor home, because as it turns out, I would have been stuck with it.
So now I have to do some research on suitable LCD screens again, since I had settled on that Acer screen because of its 16ms response time. Quick response times in LCD screens are good for reducing ghosting and trailing, which is like the afterglow of an image on the screen with those old green and amber phosphor monitors. The quicker a (sub)pixel can switch between off and on, the less 'afterglow' will be visible on the screen.
In case you're wondering how to check a LCD screen for defects in the store, here's how. If the shop has a PC with an internet hookup, go to the Monitors Direct Toolkit, run the Flash based toolkit from their website and check the screen for dead (always blacked out or always on) (sub)pixels. In my case, they didn't have internet access in the shop, so I used the desktop appearance settings in the Windows Display Properties (right-click the desktop and choose Properties). Set the Background Picture to None, minimize the taskbar to that 2 pixel high grey/blue line at the bottom of the screen and then cycle the Desktop background color through: white, black, red, green, blue. Really put your nose to the screen and inspect every square centimeter. Don't forget to drag the desktop icons around to look at the pixels 'under' them.
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"Research rig." Sure. How's the "research" progressing? :-)
Posted by Martin on August 07, 2003 @ 22:33
When the university pays, it's called research ;-)
I spend 2 days looking for my original copy of Everquest, because I had the new box with all the expansion sets, but after moving last year, the original discs had managed to hide them at the bottom of a not-yet-excavated moving box. So now I'm going to see what happened to Norrath since I last played there, which was before any expansion sets at all.
I'll also look around if there are newer MMOGs that may need some investigation. I might even fire up my ancient copy of UO in the process.
Meanwhile, I'm trying to organize some interviews with personal homepage authors, but due to the weather, 30+ degrees, things move rather slowly.
Posted by Frank on August 08, 2003 @ 14:42
So you found the expansion packs? I have copy of EQ: New Dawn (Ruins of Kunark, Scars of Velious, Shadows of Luclin) that I'm not using. Free if you want it!
Posted by Martin on August 10, 2003 @ 22:59
Thanks :-) I have everything for EQ now. My original copy and all the expansion packs. I installed everything and did the online auto-update, which took 30 minutes or so. I'm set to go now :-)
Posted by Frank on August 11, 2003 @ 18:51
Sorry for bugging you, but I can't google this.
Does acer AL732 allow to switch between S-Video/composite and computer input without cable unpluging?
Posted by Stanislav Linke on December 26, 2003 @ 13:54
Hmm... good question, I never checked about that when I was researching it, and I never got to take the AL732 home, so I never got to plug things in myself. Sorry...
Posted by Frank on December 27, 2003 @ 01:05
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