READ: LCD Screen Burn - A Warning
Excerpt:
Ever hear of screen burn on a LCD monitor? Chances are that you haven't. Most people believe that LCD screens can't get screen burn. Do a search of the Internet and you'll see hundreds of articles comparing LCD to CRT (cathode ray tubes) monitors and you'll find that one of the advantages of LCD monitors is that they don't suffer from screen burn like CRT monitors do. Well, I also believed that LCD's couldn't get screen burn until about 2 months ago when I made a horrifying finding. There was a afterimage on my Dell 2001FP LCD monitor in the exact shape of my Windows wallpaper. Did my LCD just get screen burned? Noooo!!!!! It can't be!!!!
Screen Burn On LCD Is Unanimously a Problem!!!!!!
Interesting how some people must reply that they have not had the problem, but have not given specifics to their use for their LCD monitors. I GUARANTEE, if you use your monitor for "still" video (windows applications), such as myself, YOU WILL GET SCREEN BURN!!! I open a Studio Recording application, called Cubase, and have to leave the same application window open for hours at a time, day after day, 4 to 5 days a week -much the same for half the MAC/PC user market. It only took a few months before the burns became severe, let alone noticeable after only 2 months. What is interesting is that the burns will not be as noticable in some colors, and with the brightness adjusted higher. HOWEVER, adjust your screen to a pale blue, pale gray, or any pastel/pasty solid background and it will display every detail of the windows. I can see my control functions of my applications on my screen after the application is closed.
There is a gentleman who posted a thread (I believe the opening was on this website with a link that takes you to another website) that explained it took him quite some time to run screen savers to clean up his screen. I have been running a "3D Pipes motion screen saver" for 24 hours today and on other days with no luck. What did help was leaving my monitor off altogether when I traveled the country for 4 months -BUT GEE, THAT DEFEATS THE PURPOSE OF HAVING A MONITOR if I have to leave it off to keep it from getting screen burned!
I guess the bottom line is, if you want to use LCD, buy 2 monitors and alternate using them every other day. Keep in mind, I am not some gaming junky that uses constant changing video so much, burns cannot occur. Nor am I a "grandma" that uses it so little, it doesn't matter. Alternatively, if you are an intensive professional or hobbiest who is using one program for hours at a time, BOTTOM LINE IS THE LCD IS NOT FOR YOU! I am going back to the CRT (which I have left on for days at a time and have not gotten one single tiny "etch" of a ghost - and it is a sorry-a_ _ Compaq).
I can promise you this, The LCD (if things don't change) will go out phase so fast you will start to recall and laugh about what happened with BETA VCR machines just prior to the time VHS soon came out. Remember; Beta screwed up - came up with a good invention, but poor quality (and compatibility issues), and VHS took over the Beta market. Much the same, I see Plasma getting perfected and the LCD will be out - or users, such as myself, will continue with CRT's - AT THIS POINT, there is no way around Ghosting and Screen Burns. In fact, I recently visited a sizable video editing outfit, and I was informed quite clearly that in the professional ranks of video animating, video editing, or any video arts level, 80 to 90% of this professional market still uses CRT, and most will not go near LCD. This outfit had 20 CRT's and NOT one LCD! - there is no comparison in quality. I only went to LCD for I needed to have my Visual monitor between two Professional Audio Reference Speakers and the magnets can harm CRT. This calls for constant "deguising" (demagnetizing and releasing free electrons gathering in the tube so magnetic fields and free electrons don't hurt or reduce the life of the CRT) (which the CRT would still last years longer than my LCD at the rate the LCD is burning out!)
LCD is not worth it! Anyone who is even slighlty a professional or hobbiest with the slightest bit of "perfectionism" in their blood will quickly become annoyed, if not outraged, with the Screen Burning that is driving so many LCD users nuts. Ghosting and Burns have got to get fixed, or LCD's are going to have a short life!!! Mine is 13 months old, paid $500 bucks for it and it is headed to the dumpster!!!!! Welcome back home, CRT!!!!!!!
