Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Monitor

What are some of the factor that affect the sharpness of a monitor? How do I physically check the performance of a monitor? What is vertical frequency and how does it affect the monitor? Do I need to buy a low emission monitor? How do I decide on which screen size to buy? What is the key difference between a Computer Monitor and a TV? What are some considerations when selecting a location for my monitor? What is power Management? How does power Management Work? Why is power Management important? What is PC9x (97, 98 or 99)? What does the "Designed for Windows" logo signify? What's the O/S & Hardware Requirements for using multi-monitor? What's the advantages of multi-monitor? What's the disadvantages of multi-monitor? How can I set up multi-monitor? How to set up primary display? How to program for multi-monitor? What are some of the factor that affect the sharpness of a monitor? High Bandwidth, Low misonvergence, small horizontal pitch and a good video display card are some key factors that determine a good display. Video dot rate (also known as BANDWIDTH) is a specification that indicates how fast a monitor can respond. A monitor with a Higher video dot rate specification will provide a sharper, clearer and more defined picture. The horizontal pitch specification is used as an "apple-to-apple" comparison of the specifications on the GRILLE-APERTURE of a TRINITRON tube, the MASK STRIPE of a CROMACLEAR tube and the pitch of SHADOWMASK, as well as to provide consumers with a clearer and fairer means by which to compare technical specifications. Misconvergence refers to the accuracy of the beams in a picture tube. When a picture tube has high misconvergence a white line will appear with a red (or green or blue) fringe which will affect the overall sharpness of the picture. Go to Top How do I physically check the performance of a monitor? The four corners of a monitor is the most critical area. This is the area where the display is usually the least sharp. Open an application like Excel or Words and observe the text File at the top left hand corner. A good monitor together with a good video display card will display a clean and crisp text. Never judge a monitor by watching moving graphics or video (eg. VCD or DVD). You need a still display to observe the performance of a monitor. A monitor displaying 640 x 480 means it can display 640 vertical lines and 480 horizontal lines. A monitor display at a higher resolution can display more information and finer graphics. For example, a user will find that more columns can appear on screen in an Excel spread sheet when hiss monitor runs at a higher resolution. Displaying more information and finer graphics can mean that the user has to strain his eyes to view the display. For comfortable viewing, we recommend the following: Monitor Size Comfortable Resolution 14" 800 x 600 15" 800 x 600 17" 1024 x 768 19" 1280 x 1024 Go to Top What is vertical frequency and how does it affect the monitor? Vertical frequency (also known as refresh rate) refers to the number of times the picture on the monitor is drawn per second. For example. when a monitor is operating at 75Hz, it mean s the monitor is " drawing" the picture 75 times in one second. A monitor operating at a higher refresh rate has less flicker. Therefore the rule-of-the-thumb is to display the monitor at the highest refresh rate possible. NOTE that a monitor is a passive device, that is, it will display what the video card tells it to. If a video card is set to operate at 75Hz, the monitor will display 75Hz although the monitor may be able to display at say 85Hz. Please check the control software and manual that comes with your card on how to set the vertical frequency of your display card. Different video display cards have different ways of setting the vertical frequency. Go to Top Do I need to buy a low emission monitor? Intensity of radiation increases exponentially with proximity. It is therefore very important to get a monitor that confirms to low emission standards. Otherwise extended use of the monitor becomes a health hazard . Check that the monitor confirms to international standards such as MPR-II and/or TCO. Do not be taken by just a "Low Emission" label. "Low Emission" in itself does not mean that the monitor conforms to any standards. Also, some manufacturers may take claims that their monitors conform to low emission standards when they do not. Because of the lack of enforcement of safety standards, you should buy a monitor from a brand that you can trust. Go to Top How do I decide on which screen size to buy? If you can afford it, go for a large screen monitor (eg. 17" or 19"). The larger screen area is less straining on eyes, especially when running at high resolutions such as 1280 x 1024. The larger screen area allows you to fully exploit the graphical interface of modern operating systems such as Windows NT, Window 95,OS/2 and MacOS. The larger monitor also has greater impact especially with the latest applications which are higher graphical and feature rich. Go to Top What is the key difference between a Computer Monitor and a TV? Computer Monitors are made with a small dot pitch so that it can display fine lines. What it makes up for in clarity & sharpness, loses out in brightness. TV on the other has a bigger dot pitch and thus displays fine lines poorly. However it can display a brighter picture. This explains why VCD pictures appear dimmer on a computer monitor. Go to Top What are some considerations when selecting a location for my monitor? Ensure that the monitor is NOT PLACED NEAR THE TRANSFORMER OF SOME COMPUTER PERIPHERALS such as printers and zip drives.The electric fields from these transformers will cause flicker on the monitor. AVOID placing the monitor near a column or pillar which houses HIGH POWER TRANSMISSION LINES. Close proximity to high power lines causes flicker on the monitor also AVOID ANY LIGHT SOURCE THAT PROJECTS DIRECTLY ONTO THE MONITOR as this will "whiten" your screen. PLACE THE MONITOR AT A HEIGHT WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE TO LOOK UP TO VIEW THE SCREEN. Many users find it more comfortable when they tilt their heads at a slightly lower angle when viewing the screen. Go to Top What is power Management? Power Management is the system used for reducing a monitor's power consumption when it is not in use for any period of time. After a pre-set time of inactivity, a genuine power-down unit automatically cuts virtually all the power to the monitor. A very small amount of current continues to flow so that the monitor can be restored to action at the press of a button. This saves energy -and help to create a better environment. Power Management should not be confused with "screen savers". The latter simply blanks out the screen when not in use and is designed only to save the screen phosphor and as power Management systems. Go to Top How does power Management Work? Even though a monitor is not in use, it continues to consume a lot of energy. A power management system senses the state of inactivity and reduces power consumption to the bare minimum. How? Either by sensing a signal from the video controller to the monitor or by sensing use of the keyboard/mouse. Console detection is generally carried out according to VESA DPMS interface signal. VESA DPMS (Display power Management System) This is the standard interface signal used to check the state of the monitor and to trigger different levels of power Management. It is triggered by the absence of horizontal sync and vertical sync signals generated from the video controller. (RGB detection is another system, which detects the absence of RGB signal when the screen saver is activated.) Go to Top Why is power Management important? Power Management is good news for user, for the environment. Improved working condition Reduced heat emission reduces humidity levels and makes the Working environment more pleasant. Better screen quality improves viewing. With an inactive screen. In addition, the fatigue and eyestrain caused by screen flicker is correspondingly reduced. Conserve energy; save money. According to NUTEK, power management delivers an average saving of more than 400kWh, per year, per monitor. With large graphic screen, auto power-down could realize total savings of 3200kWh per year. (Source: NUTEK) More benefits: power management extends the life of PCs and peripherals. Reduced heat from office equipment means reduced cooling costs, doubling overall savings. Protect the environment Wherever energy can be saved, it is playing a part in reducing the drain on the earth's natural resources as Well as reducing resultant harmful emissions. Go to Top What is PC9x (97, 98 or 99)? The PC9x (97, 98 or 99) System Design Guide provides a series of design guidelines for PC systems and components -- including monitors -- that insure an optimal user experience when compliant hardware is used with Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT. Go to Top What does the "Designed for Windows" logo signify? The "Designed for Windows" logo means your Philips monitor fulfills the requirements and recommendations of the PC9x (97, 98, or 99) System Design Guide and passes stringent WHQL tests. Go to Top What's the O/S & Hardware Requirements for using multi-monitor? Each monitor must have its own video card (i.e. 3 monitors would require 3 video cards). The exception being if you have special multi-monitor video cards. Whether or not the primary or secondary displays can consist of traditional (CRT) monitors or (LCD) flat-panel displays is video card dependent. Most new graphics chipsets will have models which support flat-panel displays either by default or through the use of an add-on adapter. All display adapters must be either PCI or AGP (ISA/EISA/VESA is not supported). Supported directly by Windows 98 & Windows 2000 (formerly NT 5.0) via Win32 APIs (Mac users have had multi-monitor support from almost day one). Some video card manufacturers support multiple displays on Windows 95 & NT 4.0 with specialized drivers (this FAQ discusses multi-monitor support as implemented in Windows 98 & 2000). Virtually any adapter can be used for the primary display (on-board adapters may cause some problems). Additional adapters require specific driver support. Anywhere from 2 - 9 monitors are supported. Go to Top What's the advantages of multi-monitor? Each monitor can be set at its own color depth and screen resolution. Windows lets you specify the position of each monitor with respect to one another. Go to Top What's the disadvantages of multi-monitor? Full-screen mode (DOS sessions or DirectX applications) are always locked to the primary monitor. For example, Microsoft Flight Simulator has multi-monitor support, but secondary display views must be in windowed mode. Hopefully future versions of DirectX will solve this dilemma. Not all secondary display drivers support DirectDraw or Direct3D. Running multiple displays results in a slight performance hit on your system, depending on what you're doing. Cool Computing has a good review on this. Go to Top How can I set up multi-monitor? The Windows 98 display.txt file has some preliminary information regarding basic setup and troubleshooting for multiple monitors. Some common chipsets are supported as secondary displays right from the Windows 98 CD (as outlined in the display.txt file). If your card is not directly supported by Windows, check with your video card manufacturer for an update. Virtually every manufacturer has multi-monitor compliant drivers available from their web site. Go to Top How to set up primary display? The primary display is set by the order in which the display adapters are initialized by the system BIOS. If all adapters are PCI, then you can just switch the order in which you place the cards in the slots on your motherboard. Most BIOS's initialize PCI adapters before AGP adapters, meaning that your AGP adapter will default to a secondary display. Contact your motherboard manufacturer for an updated BIOS that will allow you to configure the order in which your AGP adapter is initialized to set it as the primary display. If your display adapter allows you to disable the VGA BIOS on the card, then it will automatically default to a secondary display. In Windows 2000, primary/secondary displays can be set through software. Please refer to Multi-Monitor Resources in the right side links for more information. Go to Top How to program for multi-monitor? Specific system APIs (introduced in Windows 98 & 2000) allow new applications to exploit multiple monitors. Please refer to Microsoft in the right links for more information.Go to Top Customer Reviews - | FAQ-General | Hard Drives | Hard Drive(2) | ATA66 | Motherboards | | Video Cards | Cases | Memory | AMD K7 | CD, CDRW&DVD | CPU | | Monitors | Modems | Networks | Printers | Sound Cards |

Useful Links: Philips Sony Microsoft multi-monitor introduction Display.txt Multi-Monitor Resources Clay Calvert's Multiple Monitor Page