i've been looking into purchasing an LCD but while surfing around i found all these terms that i knew nothing about. i decided to do some research after posting in here and i made this little write up to help other people learn some of these terms and understand what is good to have in a LCD monitor and what sorts of things they should look for in a given monitor size.
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LCD.
An LCD is a liquid crystal display. LCDs are most often used for notebook computer screens and is used in electronic computer projection equipment. It is important to note that Liquid crystal displays do not emit light. They only control whether light gets through them or not. The specifics are quite technical and rely on something called the "polarization" of light. For more on polorization check out
http://travel.howstuffworks.com/sunglass.htm
Active and passive matrix LCD.
Active matrix LCDs are more responsive and therefore appropriate for full motion video, computer animation, and fast mouse movement. Active matrix also provides a higher degree of color saturation.
Contrast ratio.
Contrast ratio is an average measurement of a totally white image vs. a totally black image at the 9 points described in lumens measurements. The higher the contrast ratio, the more vibrant the colors will be. Look for monitors with 250:1 or better.
Brightness
Brightness influences contrast (and thus readability) but it's more a comfort thing -- most CRTs display low-100s in brightness, so an LCD of any kind will still be 2x brighter. Brightness should be 250cd/m or better.
Color
Alot of companies will give you the number of colors. Most LCD's are 16.7 Million colors (24bit).
Dot Pitch/Pixel Pitch
The picture on your monitor is made up of lots of tiny dots of the same color. The dot pitch is the distance between dots that make up the image on your screen. The smaller the distance between dots, the better the image. .264 seems the be the best, most others are .29x. if you can get lower than .264 than you'll be very well off.
Response Time
Response Time refers to the screen's input signal reaction speeds, and the time required for the screen to turn from completely white to completely black and vice versa. Technically, this is referred to as the sum of (Rise Time (tr) + Fall Time (tf)). Response time is measured in milliseconds (ms, 1 second = 1000 milliseconds). In general, our eyes can take 24 successive still images per second as an active image. Movies for example display 24 images per second, and television displays 30 images per second.
Generally, lowest response is best. Response times on larger LCD's tend to grow higher. Try to stick around 24ms. On Larger LCD's (19"+) this will be somewhat difficult BenQ LCD's offer 17ms response times for 17" or smaller LCD's. The rest of their numbers are average. If gaming is your thing than these would most likely suit you best as the rest of their specs are about average but the ultra low response will offer smoother play.
