Tuesday, July 27, 2004
How Many Dead LCD Pixels Are Ok?
Posted by Suhit Gupta in "OFF-TOPIC" @ 08:00 AM
"Toshiba Europe has a warning on a page advertising its Satellite M30-901 notebook, which says that "small bright spots" which may appear on notebook screens are things you have to live with. The warning, on this page, says: "Small bright dots may appear on your TFT display when you turn on your PC. Your display contains an extremely large number of thin-film transistors (TFT) and is manufactured using high-precision technology. Any small bright dots that may appear on your display are an intrinsic characteristic of the TFT manufacturing technology.""
It turns out that there is an ISO specification which covers this problem of dead pixels and classifies pixel faults as Types One, Two, and Three, as well as fault clusters. (Read the article to find out more). But it is very interesting that Toshiba has placed this disclaimer on their site which seemingly exonerates them of any dead pixels on the LCD screen. I have had several devices with LCD screens over the years and only two stick out in my mind with dead pixels (a Sony Vaio laptop and a ViewSonic monitor). But both devices are fairly old now. Other than that I have been very lucky. More importantly, I have been under the impression that LCD technology and manufacturing processes had gotten really good over the last few years so as to severely minimize dead pixels. Have any of you had dead pixel problems?
It turns out that there is an ISO specification which covers this problem of dead pixels and classifies pixel faults as Types One, Two, and Three, as well as fault clusters. (Read the article to find out more). But it is very interesting that Toshiba has placed this disclaimer on their site which seemingly exonerates them of any dead pixels on the LCD screen. I have had several devices with LCD screens over the years and only two stick out in my mind with dead pixels (a Sony Vaio laptop and a ViewSonic monitor). But both devices are fairly old now. Other than that I have been very lucky. More importantly, I have been under the impression that LCD technology and manufacturing processes had gotten really good over the last few years so as to severely minimize dead pixels. Have any of you had dead pixel problems?
