A
computer display monitor, usually called simply a
monitor, is a piece of
electrical equipment which displays viewable
images generated by a
computer without producing a permanent record. The word "monitor" is used in other contexts; in particular in
television broadcasting, where a
television picture is displayed to a high standard. A computer display device is usually either a
cathode ray tube or some form of flat panel such as a
TFT LCD. The monitor comprises the display device,
circuitry to generate a picture from
electronic signals sent by the computer, and an
enclosure or case. Within the computer, either as an integral part or a plugged-in
interface, there is circuitry to convert internal
data to a format compatible with a monitor.
Cathode ray tube


CRT Computer display pixel array(right)
The CRT or
cathode ray tube, is the
picture tube of a monitor. The back of the tube has a negatively charged cathode. The
electron gun shoots
electrons down the tube and onto a charged screen. The screen is coated with a pattern of dots that glow when struck by the electron stream. Each cluster of three dots, one of each color, is one
pixel.
The image on the monitor screen is usually made up from at least tens of thousands of such tiny dots glowing on command from the computer. The closer together the pixels are, the sharper the image on screen. The distance between pixels on a computer monitor screen is called its
dot pitch and is measured in millimeters. Most monitors have a dot pitch of 0.28 mm or less.
There are two
electromagnets around the collar of the tube which deflect the electron beam. The beam scans across the top of the monitor from left to right, is then
blanked and moved back to the left-hand side slightly below the previous trace (on the next
scan line), scans across the second line and so on until the bottom right of the screen is reached. The beam is again
blanked, and moved back to the top left to start again. This process draws a complete picture, typically 50 to 100 times a second. The number of times in one second that the electron gun redraws the entire image is called the
refresh rate and is measured in
hertz (cycles per second). It is common, particularly in lower-priced equipment, for all the odd-numbered lines of an image to be traced, and then all the even-numbered lines; the circuitry of such an interlaced display need be capable of only half the speed of a non-
interlaced display. An interlaced display, particularly at a relatively low refresh rate, can appear to some observers to
flicker, and may cause eyestrain and nausea.
Imaging technologies


19" inch (48.3 cm tube, 45.9 cm viewable) CRT computer monitor
As with
television, several different hardware technologies exist for displaying computer-generated output:
Performance measurements
The performance parameters of a monitor are:
- Luminance, measured in candelas per square metre (cd/m²).
- Size, measured diagonally. For CRT the viewable size is one inch (25 mm) smaller then the tube itself.
- Dot pitch. Describes the distance between pixels of the same color in millimetres. In general, the lower the dot pitch (e.g. 0.24 mm, which is also 240 micrometres), the sharper the picture will appear.
- Response time. The amount of time a pixel in an LCD monitor takes to go from active (black) to inactive (white) and back to active (black) again. It is measured in milliseconds (ms). Lower numbers mean faster transitions and therefore fewer visible image artifacts.
- Refresh rate. The number of times in a second that a display is illuminated.
- Power consumption, measured in watts (W).
- Aspect ratio, which is the horizontal size compared to the vertical size, e.g. 4:3 is the standard aspect ratio, so that a screen with a width of 1024 pixels will have a height of 768 pixels. A widescreen display can have an aspect ratio of 16:9, which means a display that is 1024 pixels wide will have a height of 576 pixels.
- Display resolution. The number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed.
Problems
Dead pixels
A fraction of all LCD monitors are produced with "
dead pixels"; due to the desire to increase profit margins by companies, most manufacturers sell monitors with dead pixels. Almost all manufacturers have clauses in their warranties which claim monitors with fewer than some number of dead pixels is not broken and will not be replaced. The
dead pixels are usually stuck with the green, red, and/or blue subpixels either individually always stuck on or off. Like image persistence, this can sometimes be partially or fully reversed by using the same method listed below, however the chance of success is far lower than with a "stuck" pixel.
Phosphor burn-in
Screen burn-in, where a static image left on the screen for a long time embeds the image into the
phosphor that coats the screen, is an issue with
CRT and
Plasma computer monitors and televisions. The result of phosphor burn-in are "ghostly" images of the static object visible even when the screen has changed, or is even off. This effect usually fades after a period of time. LCD monitors, while lacking phosphor screens and thus immune to phosphor burn-in, have a similar condition known as
image persistence, where the pixels of the LCD monitor "remember" a particular color and become "stuck" and unable to change. Unlike phosphor burn-in, however, image persistence can sometimes be reversed partially or completely. This is accomplished by rapidly displaying varying colors to "wake up" the
stuck pixels.
Screensavers using moving images, prevent both of these conditions from happening by constantly changing the display. Newer monitors are more resistant to burn-in, but it can still occur if static images are left displayed for long periods of time.
Other
With exceptions of
DLP, most display technologies, especially LCD, have an inherent misregistration of the color planes, that is, the centres of the red, green, and blue dots do not line up perfectly.
Subpixel rendering depends on this misalignment; technologies making use of this include the
Apple II from
1976 [1], and more recently
Microsoft (
ClearType,
1998) and
XFree86 (
X Rendering Extension).
Display interfaces
Computer Terminals
Early CRT-based VDUs (Visual Display Units) such as the
DEC VT05 without
graphics capabilities gained the label
glass teletypes, because of the functional similarity to their electromechanical predecessors.
Composite monitors
Early home computers such as the
Apple II and the
Commodore 64 used
composite monitors. However, they are now used with
video game consoles.
Digital monitors
Early digital monitors are sometimes known as TTLs because the voltages on the red, green, and blue inputs are compatible with TTL logic chips. Later digital monitors support
LVDS, or
TMDS protocols.
TTL monitors


IBM PC with green monochrome display
Monitors used with the
MDA,
Hercules,
CGA, and
EGA graphics adapters used in early IBM PC's (Personal Computer) and clones were controlled via TTL logic. Such monitors can usually be identified by a male DB-9 connector used on the video cable. The disadvantage of TTL monitors was the limited number of colors available due to the low number of digital bits used for video signaling. Modern monochrome monitors, such as the one pictured to the right which was manufactured in 2007, use the same 15-pin SVGA connector that standard color monitors use. They're capable of displaying 32-bit grayscale at 1024x768 resolution, making them able to interface and be used with modern computers.
TTL Monochrome monitors only made use of five out of the nine pins. One pin was used as a ground, and two pins were used for horizontal/vertical synchronization. The electron gun was controlled by two separate digital signals, a video bit, and an intensity bit to control the brightness of the drawn pixels. Only four unique shades were possible; black, dim, medium or bright.
CGA monitors used four digital signals to control the three electron guns used in color CRTs, in a signalling method known as
RGBI, or
Red Green and Blue, plus Intensity. Each of the three
RGB colors can be switched on or off independently. The intensity bit increases the brightness of all guns that are switched on, or if no colors are switched on the intensity bit will switch on all guns at a very low brightness to produce a dark grey. A CGA monitor is only capable of rendering 16 unique colors. The CGA monitor was not exclusively used by PC based hardware. The
Commodore 128 could also utilize CGA monitors. Many CGA monitors were capable of displaying composite video via a separate jack.
EGA monitors used six digital signals to control the three electron guns in a signalling method known as
RrGgBb. Unlike CGA, each gun is allocated its own intensity bit. This allowed each of the three primary colors to have four different states (off, soft, medium, and bright) resulting in 64 possible colors.
Although not supported in the original IBM specification, many vendors of clone graphics adapters have implemented backwards monitor compatibility and auto detection. For example, EGA cards produced by Paradise could operate as a MDA, or CGA adapter if a monochrome or CGA monitor was used in place of an EGA monitor. Many CGA cards were also capable of operating as MDA or Hercules card if a monochrome monitor was used.
Modern technology
Analog RGB monitors
Most modern
computer displays can show thousands or millions of different colors in the
RGB color space by varying red, green, and blue signals in continuously variable intensities.
Digital and analog combination
Many monitors have
analog signal relay, but some more recent models (mostly LCD screens) support digital input signals. It is a common misconception that all computer monitors are digital. For several years,
televisions,
composite monitors, and computer displays have been significantly different. However, as TVs have become more versatile, the distinction has blurred.
Configuration and usage
Multi-head
Some users use more than one monitor. The displays can operate in multiple modes. One of the most common spreads the entire desktop over all of the monitors, which thus act as one big desktop. The
X Window System refers to this as
Xinerama.
Terminology:
- Dualhead - Using two monitors
- Triplehead - using three monitors
- Display assembly - multi-head configurations actively managed as a single unit
Virtual displays
The
X Window System provides configuration mechanisms for using a single hardware monitor for rendering multiple virtual displays, as controlled (for example) with the Unix DISPLAY
global variable or with the -display command option.
Major manufacturers
See also
External links
A piece of
electrical equipment is a machine, powered by electricity and usually consists of an enclosure, a variety of electrical components and often a power switch.
Examples of Electrical Equipment
- Cathodic protection rectifier
- Fire alarm panel
..... Click the link for more information. IMAGE (from Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration), or Explorer 78, was a NASA MIDEX mission that studied the global response of the Earth's magnetosphere to changes in the solar wind.
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computer is a machine which manipulates data according to a list of instructions.
Computers take numerous physical forms. The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century (around 1940 - 1941), although the computer concept and various machines
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Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and/or video signals which transmit programs to an audience. The audience may be the general public or a relatively large sub-audience, such as children or young adults.
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Television (often abbreviated to TV, T.V., or more recently, tv; sometimes called telly, the tube, boob tube, or idiot box in British English) is a widely used telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures
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1. Electron guns 2. Electron beams 3. Focusing coils 4. Deflection coils 5. Anode connection 6. Mask for separating beams for red, green, and blue part of displayed image 7.
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thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) is a variant of liquid crystal display (LCD) which uses thin film transistor (TFT) technology to improve image quality. TFT LCD is one type of active matrix LCD, though it is usually synonymous with LCD.
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An electronic circuit is an electrical circuit that also contains active electronic devices such as transistors or vacuum tubes. They can display highly complex behaviors, even though they are governed by the same laws as simple electrical circuits.
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Electronics is the study of the flow of charge through various materials and devices such as, semiconductors, resistors, inductors, capacitors, nano-structures, and vacuum tubes. All applications of electronics involve the transmission of power and possibly information.
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signal is any time-varying quantity. Signals are often scalar-valued functions of time (waveforms), but may be vector valued and may be functions of any other relevant independent variable.
The concept is broad, and hard to define precisely.
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An electrical enclosure is a cabinet for electrical or electronic equipment to mount switches, knobs and displays and to prevent electrical shock to equipment users and protect the contents from the environment.
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Interface may refer to:
In
computer science:
- Interface (computer science), an abstraction of a software component
- Interface (Java), an abstract type which is used to specify an interface that classes must implement
..... Click the link for more information. In computer science, data is any information in a form suitable for use with a computer[1]. Data is often distinguished from programs. A program is a set of instructions that detail a task for the computer to perform.
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1. Electron guns 2. Electron beams 3. Focusing coils 4. Deflection coils 5. Anode connection 6. Mask for separating beams for red, green, and blue part of displayed image 7.
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An electron gun is a component that produces an electron beam that has a precise kinetic energy, being used in televisions and monitors which use cathode ray tube technology, and in other instruments, as electron microscopes and particle accelerators.
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Electron
Theoretical estimates of the electron density for the first few hydrogen atom electron orbitals shown as cross-sections with color-coded probability density
Composition: Elementary particle
Family: Fermion
Group: Lepton
Generation: First
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pixel (short for picture element, using the common abbreviation "pix" for "pictures") is a single point in a graphic image. Each such information element is not really a dot, nor a square, but an abstract sample.
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Dot pitch (sometimes called line pitch, phosphor pitch or pixel pitch) is a specification for a computer display that describes the distance between phosphor dots (sub-pixels) or LCD cells of the same color on the inside of a display screen.
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An electromagnet is a type of magnet in which the magnetic field is produced by the flow of an electric current. The magnetic field disappears when the current ceases. British electrician William Sturgeon invented the electromagnet in 1825.
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In raster scan equipment an image is built up by scanning an electron beam from left to right across a screen to produce a visible trace of one scan line, reducing the brightness of the beam to zero (horizontal blanking
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scan line is one line, or row, in a raster scanning pattern, such as a video line on a cathode ray tube (CRT) display of a television or computer. A scan line represents a row of picture elements (pixels) in the image being displayed.
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The vertical blanking interval (VBI), also known as the vertical interval or VBLANK, is the time interval between the end of the last line of one frame or field of a raster display, and the beginning of the next.
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The refresh rate (or "vertical refresh rate", "vertical scan rate" for CRTs) is the number of times in a second that a display is illuminated. This is distinct from the measure of frame rate in that the refresh rate includes the repeated illumination of identical frames, while
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hertz (symbol: Hz) is the SI unit of frequency. Its base unit is cycle/s or s-1 (also called inverse seconds, reciprocal seconds). In English, hertz is used as both singular and plural.
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Interlace is a technique of improving the picture quality of a video signal without consuming any extra bandwidth. It was invented by RCA engineer Randall C. Ballard in the 1930s.
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Flicker may mean:
- Flicker (razor), women's disposable razor by ASR
- Flicker (movie), intermittent darkening of projection screen
- Northern Flicker, a type of woodpecker
- Flicker, the original bass guitarist for the band Manic Street Preachers
- Flicker
..... Click the link for more information. Television (often abbreviated to TV, T.V., or more recently, tv; sometimes called telly, the tube, boob tube, or idiot box in British English) is a widely used telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures
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liquid crystal display (commonly abbreviated LCD) is a thin, flat display device made up of any number of color or monochrome pixels arrayed in front of a light source or reflector.
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1. Electron guns 2. Electron beams 3. Focusing coils 4. Deflection coils 5. Anode connection 6. Mask for separating beams for red, green, and blue part of displayed image 7.
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Vector graphics (also called geometric modeling or object-oriented graphics) is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and polygons, which are all based upon mathematical equations to represent images in computer graphics.
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