Quick newbie question

[Guest]

Okay, I don't know anything at all about electronics, or stuff like that so please don't flame me for this more than likely stupid question

I was told a few days ago that LCD screens don't last as long as regular CRT screens. Is this true? This informant went so far as to suggest that a LCD screen would only last for say 2 years

 

[flamethrower205]

Oh, man r u gonna get flamed! My name is flamethrower, u r gone boy! J/k LCD can last longer than a CVRT- backlight is teh thing that goers, and tthat often has a lifetime of 50,000 hours, so assuming that you use it for 10 hours a day, you have 5,000 days, or nearly 13.7 years. It'll last CRT does go quicker, and usually what happens with that over time are faded colors, etc (especially w/ my 15" CRT). Also, when teh backlight dies, it can be replaced. Are you looking for an LCD?

Sig of the week.

 

[imo]

actually only few use the 50,000hrs figure, most are rated at 25,000/30,000! still a long time!

but one problem is the backlight might lost some brightness over time (correct me if I am wrong, I am too lazy to found the link for that claim)!

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the Info.

As of right now I am not going to be buying one(to poor), but someone at my work made this claim that the LCD screens don't last long, which I did not believe, and I just wanted to confirm that this was not true. Thanks again for the info

 

[flamethrower205]

Now that u have seen the light, go and flame that motherf! J/k

Sig of the week.

 

[GoSharks]

Life span of a monitor is a good question. Lets look at the CRT itself first. The life span of a CRT is usually considered the time it take to get to half brightness. As you use CRT's the phosphors and the cathode of the electron gun start to degrade. These days we are using techniques that make the cathodes last much longer than the rated life of the phosphor.

There are two technologies Aperture grill and shadow mask. On an aperture grill more beam current hits the phosphor. This is why AG monitors typically have more vivid colors. The downside of that is that the phosphors are more prone to screen burn and will degrade faster. Thus it is my opinion that shadow mask monitors will have a longer life span. Turning the brightness and contrast down will help prolong the life of the CRT. Based on this you can see there are a number of variables involved.

For this discussion, I will assume that a typical monitor used 8 hours a day 5 days a week. Most CRT’s will reach half brightness in about 4-5 years.

The life span of the electronics used is much more easily determined. There are military standards based on active component count. Most CRT monitors are rated for 70,000 hours MTBF.

LCD backlights are the weakest link. Most CCD tube manufacturers state that the backlight tubes have an MTBF of 50,000 hours based on the same military calculation. These fluorescent tubes will degrade over time and loose brightness just like a CRT.

Jim Witkowski
Chief Hardware Engineer
Cornerstone / Monitorsdirect.com

Jim at http://www.monitorsdirect.com