Because we use them daily, many of us have a lot of questions about our monitors and may not

even realize it. What does "aspect ratio" mean? What is dot pitch? How much power does a
display use? What is the difference between CRT and LCD? What does "refresh rate" mean?

In this article, HowStuffWorks will answer all of these questions and many more. By the end of
the article, you will be able to understand your current display and also make better decisions
when purchasing your next one.

Monitor Display Technology

Often referred to as a monitor when packaged in a separate case, the display is the most-used
output device on a computer. The display provides instant feedback by showing you text and
graphic images as you work or play.

Most desktop displays use liquid crystal display (LCD) or cathode ray tube (CRT) technology,
while nearly all portable computing devices such as laptops incorporate LCD technology.
Because of their slimmer design and lower energy consumption, monitors using LCD technology
(also called flat panel or flat screen displays) are replacing the venerable CRT on most
desktops.

Resolution refers to the number of individual dots of color, known as pixels, contained on a
display. Resolution is expressed by identifying the number of pixels on the horizontal axis
(rows) and the number on the vertical axis (columns), such as 800x600. Resolution is affected
by a number of factors, including the size of the screen.

As monitor sizes have increased over the years, display standards and resolutions have changed.
In addition, some manufacturers offer widescreen displays designed for viewing DVD movies.

Common Display Standards and Resolutions

Standard Resolution Typical Use

15- and 17-inch CRT
XGA (Extended
1024x768 monitors
Graphics Array)
15-inch LCD monitors
15- and 17-inch CRT
monitors
SXGA (Super XGA) 1280x1024
17-and 19-inch LCD
monitors
19-, 20-, 21-inch CRT
UXGA (Ultra XGA) 1600x1200 monitors
20-inch LCD monitors
21-inch and larger CRT
QXGA (Quad XGA) 2048x1536
monitors
 Wide aspect 15.4-inch
WXGA (Wide XGA) 1280x800 laptops
LCD displays
WSXGA+ (Wide Wide aspect 20-inch LCD
1680x1050
SXGA plus) monitors
WUXGA (Wide Wide aspect 22-inch and
1920x1200
Ultra XGA) larger LCD monitors

In addition to the screen size, display standards and resolutions are related to something called
the aspect ratio. Next, we'll discuss what an aspect ratio is and how screen size is measured.

nalog and DVI Connections

To display information on a monitor, your computer sends the monitor a signal. The signal can
be in analog or digital format.

Analog (VGA) Connection

Because most CRT monitors require the signal information in analog (continuous electrical
signals or waves) form and not digital (pulses equivalent to the binary digits 0 and 1), they
typically use an analog connection.

However, computers work in a digital world. The computer and video adapter convert digital
data into analog format. A video adapter is an expansion card or component that provides the
ability to convert display information into a signal that is sent to the monitor. It can also be called
a graphics adapter, video card or graphics card.

Once the display information is in analog form, it is sent to the monitor through a VGA cable.
The cable connects at the back of the computer to an analog connector (also known as a D-Sub
connector) that has 15 pins in three rows. See the diagram below:

1: Red out 6: Red return (ground) 11: Monitor ID 0 in

 7: Green return 12: Monitor ID 1 in
2: Green out
(ground) or data from display
13: Horizontal Sync
3: Blue out 8: Blue return (ground)
out
4: Unused 9: Unused 14: Vertical Sync
10: Sync return 15: Monitor ID 3 in
5: Ground
(ground) or data clock

You can see that a VGA connector like this has three separate lines for the red, green and blue
color signals, and two lines for horizontal and vertical sync signals. In a normal television, all of
these signals are combined into a single composite video signal. The separation of the signals is
one reason why a computer monitor can have so many more pixels than a TV set.

Because a VGA (analog) connector does not support the use of digital monitors, the Digital
Video Interface (DVI) standard was developed.

DVI Connection
DVI keeps data in digital form from the computer to the monitor. There's no need to convert data
from digital information to analog information. LCD monitors work in a digital mode and
support the DVI format. (Although, some also accept analog information, which is then
converted to digital format.) At one time, a digital signal offered better image quality compared
to analog technology. However, analog signal processing technology has improved over the
years and the difference in quality is now minimal.

The DVI specification is based on Silicon Image's Transition Minimized Differential

Signaling (TMDS) and provides a high-speed digital interface. A transmitter on the video
adapter sends the digital information to a receiver in the monitor. TMDS takes the signal from
the video adapter, determines the resolution and refresh rate that the monitor is using, and
spreads the signal out over the available bandwidth to optimize the data transfer from computer
to monitor.

DVI cables can be a single link cable that uses one TMDS transmitter or a dual link cable with
two transmitters. A single link DVI cable and connection supports a 1920x1080 image, and a dual link
cable/connection supports up to a 2048x1536 image.
There are two main types of DVI connections:

 DVI-digital (DVI-D) is a digital-only format. It requires a video adapter with a DVI-D

connection and a monitor with a DVI-D input. The connector contains 24
pins/receptacles in 3 rows of 8 plus a grounding slot for dual-link support. For single-link
support, the connector contains 18 pins/receptacles.
 DVI-integrated (DVI-I) supports both digital and analog transmissions. This gives you the option
to connect a monitor that accepts digital input or analog input. In addition to the
pins/receptacles found on the DVI-D connector for digital support, a DVI-I connector has 4
additional pins/receptacles to carry an analog signal.
 DVI-D connectors carry a digital-only signal and DVI-I adds four
pins for analog capability. Both connectors can be used with a
single-link or a dual-link cable, depending upon the
requirements of the display.

If you buy a monitor with only a DVI (digital) connection, make sure that you have a video
adapter with a DVI-D or DVI-I connection. If your video adapter has only an analog (VGA)
connection, look for a monitor that supports the analog format.

LCD Monitors
Liquid crystal display technology works by blocking light. Specifically, an LCD is made of two
pieces of polarized glass (also called substrate) that contain a liquid crystal material between
them. A backlight creates light that passes through the first substrate. At the same time, electrical
currents cause the liquid crystal molecules to align to allow varying levels of light to pass
through to the second substrate and create the colors and images that you see.
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disabled.

Active and Passive Matrix Displays

Most LCD displays use active matrix technology. A thin film transistor (TFT) arranges tiny
transistors and capacitors in a matrix on the glass of the display. To address a particular pixel, the
proper row is switched on, and then a charge is sent down the correct column. Since all of the
other rows that the column intersects are turned off, only the capacitor at the designated pixel
receives a charge. The capacitor is able to hold the charge until the next refresh cycle.

The other type of LCD technology is passive matrix. This type of LCD display uses a grid of
conductive metal to charge each pixel. Although they are less expensive to produce, passive
matrix monitors are rarely used today due to the technology's slow response time and imprecise
voltage control compared to active matrix technology.

Now that you have an understanding of how LCD technology works, let's look at some specific
features unique to LCD monitors.
LCD Features and Attributes
To evaluate the specifications of LCD monitors, here are a few more things you need to know.

Native Resolution
Unlike CRT monitors, LCD monitors display information well at only the resolution they are
designed for, which is known as the native resolution. Digital displays address each individual
pixel using a fixed matrix of horizontal and vertical dots. If you change the resolution settings,
the LCD scales the image and the quality suffers. Native resolutions are typically:

 17 inch = 1024x768
 19 inch = 1280x1024
 20 inch = 1600x1200

Viewing Angle
When you look at an LCD monitor from an angle, the image can look dimmer or even disappear.
Colors can also be misrepresented. To compensate for this problem, LCD monitor makers have
designed wider viewing angles. (Do not confuse this with a widescreen display, which means the
display is physically wider.) Manufacturers give a measure of viewing angle in degrees (a greater
number of degrees is better). In general, look for between 120 and 170 degrees. Because
manufacturers measure viewing angles differently, the best way to evaluate it is to test the
display yourself. Check the angle from the top and bottom as well as the sides, bearing in mind
how you will typically use the display.

Brightness or Luminance
This is a measurement of the amount of light the LCD monitor produces. It is given in nits or one
candelas per square meter (cd/m2). One nit is equal to on cd/m2. Typical brightness ratings range
from 250 to 350 cd/m2 for monitors that perform general-purpose tasks. For displaying movies, a
brighter luminance rating such as 500 cd/m2 is desirable.

Contrast Ratio
The contrast ratio rates the degree of difference of an LCD monitor's ability to produce bright
whites and the dark blacks. The figure is usually expressed as a ratio, for example, 500:1.
Typically, contrast ratios range from 450:1 to 600:1, and they can be rated as high as 1000:1.
Ratios more than 600:1, however, provide little improvement over lower ratios.

Response Rate
The response rate indicates how fast the monitor's pixels can change colors. Faster is better
because it reduces the ghosting effect when an image moves, leaving a faint trial in such
applications as videos or games.
Adjustability
Unlike CRT monitors, LCD monitors have much more flexibility for positioning the screen the
way you want it. LCD monitors can swivel, tilt up and down, and even rotate from landscape
(with the horizontal plane longer than the vertical plane) to portrait mode (with the vertical
plane longer than the horizontal plane). In addition, because they are lightweight and thin, most
LCD monitors have built-in brackets for wall or arm mounting.

Besides the basic features, some LCD monitors have other conveniences such as integrated
speakers, built-in Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports and anti-theft locks.

CRT Monitors
A CRT monitor contains millions of tiny red, green, and blue phosphor dots that glow when struck by an
electron beam that travels across the screen to create a visible image. The illustration below shows how
this works inside a CRT.

Display History 101

Displays have come a long way since the blinking green monitors in text-based computer systems of the
1970s. Just look at the advances made by IBM over the course of a decade:
 In 1981, IBM introduced the Color Graphics Adapter (CGA), which was capable of rendering four
colors, and had a maximum resolution of 320 pixels horizontally by 200 pixels vertically.
 IBM introduced the Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) display in 1984. EGA allowed up to 16
 different colors and increased the resolution to 640x350 pixels, improving the appearance of the
display and making it easier to read text.

 In 1987, IBM introduced the Video Graphics Array (VGA) display system. The VGA standard has
a resolution of 640x480 pixels and some VGA monitors are still in use.

 IBM introduced the Extended Graphics Array (XGA) display in 1990, offering 800x600 pixel
resolution in true color (16.8 million colors) and 1,024x768 resolution in 65,536 colors.

The terms anode and cathode are used in electronics as synonyms for positive and negative
terminals. For example, you could refer to the positive terminal of a battery as the anode and the
negative terminal as the cathode.

In a cathode ray tube, the "cathode" is a heated filament. The heated filament is in a vacuum
created inside a glass "tube." The "ray" is a stream of electrons generated by an electron gun that
naturally pour off a heated cathode into the vacuum. Electrons are negative. The anode is
positive, so it attracts the electrons pouring off the cathode. This screen is coated with phosphor,
an organic material that glows when struck by the electron beam.

There are three ways to filter the electron beam in order to obtain the correct image on the
monitor screen: shadow mask, aperture grill and slot mask. These technologies also impact the
sharpness of the monitor's display. Let's take a closer look at these now.

CRT Features and Attributes

To evaluate the specifications of CRT monitors, here are a few more things you need to know:

Shadow-mask
A shadow mask is a thin metal screen filled with very small holes. Three electron beams pass
through the holes to focus on a single point on a CRT displays' phosphor surface. The shadow
mask helps to control the electron beams so that the beams strike the correct phosphor at just the
right intensity to create the desired colors and image on the display. The unwanted beams are
blocked or "shadowed."

Aperture-grill
Monitors based on the Trinitron technology, which was pioneered by Sony, use an aperture-
grill instead of a shadow-mask type of tube. The aperture grill consists of tiny vertical wires.
Electron beams pass through the aperture grill to illuminate the phosphor on the faceplate. Most
aperture-grill monitors have a flat faceplate and tend to represent a less distorted image over the
entire surface of the display than the curved faceplate of a shadow-mask CRT. However,
aperture-grill displays are normally more expensive.
Slot-mask
A less-common type of CRT display, a slot-mask tube uses a combination of the shadow-mask
and aperture-grill technologies. Rather than the round perforations found in shadow-mask CRT
displays, a slot-mask display uses vertically aligned slots. The design creates more brightness
through increased electron transmissions combined with the arrangement of the phosphor dots.

Dot pitch
Dot pitch is an indicator of the sharpness of the displayed image. It is measured in millimeters
(mm), and a smaller number means a sharper image. How you measure the dot pitch depends on
the technology used:

 In a shadow-mask CRT monitor, you measure dot pitch as the diagonal distance between
two like-colored phosphors. Some manufacturers may also cite a horizontal dot pitch,
which is the distance between two-like colored phosphors horizontally.
 The dot pitch of an aperture-grill monitor is measured by the horizontal distance between
two like-colored phosphors. It is also sometimes are called stripe pitch.

The smaller and closer the dots are to one another, the more realistic and detailed the picture
appears. When the dots are farther apart, they become noticeable and make the image look
grainier. Unfortunately, manufacturers are not always upfront about dot pitch measurements, and
you cannot necessarily compare shadow-mask and aperture-grill CRT types, due to the
difference in horizontal and vertical measurements.
The dot pitch translates directly to the resolution on the screen. If you were to put a ruler up to the glass
and measure an inch, you would see a certain number of dots, depending on the dot pitch. Here is a
table that shows the number of dots per square centimeter and per square inch in each of these
common dot pitches:

Approx. number of Approx. number of

Dot Pitch pixels/cm2 pixels/in2
.25 mm 1,600 10,000
.26 mm 1,444 9,025
.27 mm 1,369 8,556
.28 mm 1,225 7,656
.31 mm 1,024 6,400
.51 mm 361 2,256
1 mm 100 625

Refresh Rate
In monitors based on CRT technology, the refresh rate is the number of times that the image on
the display is drawn each second. If your CRT monitor has a refresh rate of 72 Hertz (Hz), then it
cycles through all the pixels from top to bottom 72 times a second. Refresh rates are very
important because they control flicker, and you want the refresh rate as high as possible. Too few
cycles per second and you will notice a flickering, which can lead to headaches and eye strain.
Because your monitor's refresh rate depends on the number of rows it has to scan, it limits the
maximum possible resolution. Most monitors support multiple refresh rates. Keep in mind that
there is a tradeoff between flicker and resolution, and then pick what works best for you. This is
especially important with larger monitors where flicker is more noticeable. Recommendations
for refresh rate and resolution include 1280x1024 at 85 Hertz or 1600x1200 at 75 Hertz.

Multiple Resolutions
Because a CRT uses electron beams to create images on a phosphor screen, it supports the
resolution that matches its physical dot (pixel) size as well as several lesser resolutions. For
example, a display with a physical grid of 1280 rows by 1024 columns can obviously support a
maximum resolution of 1280x1024 pixels. It also supports lower resolutions such as 1024x768,
800x600, and 640x480. As noted previously, an LCD monitor works well only at its native
resolution.

LCDs vs. CRTs

If you are looking for a new display, you should consider the differences between CRT and LCD
monitors. Choose the type of monitor that best serves your specific needs, the typical
applications you use, and your budget.

Advantages of LCD Monitors

  Require less power - Power consumption varies greatly with different technologies.
CRT displays are somewhat power-hungry, at about 100 watts for a typical 19-inch
display. The average is about 45 watts for a 19-inch LCD display. LCDs also produce
less heat.
 Smaller and weigh less - An LCD monitor is significantly thinner and lighter than a
CRT monitor, typically weighing less than half as much. In addition, you can mount an
LCD on an arm or a wall, which also takes up less desktop space.
 More adjustable - LCD displays are much more adjustable than CRT displays. With
LCDs, you can adjust the tilt, height, swivel, and orientation from horizontal to vertical
mode. As noted previously, you can also mount them on the wall or on an arm.
 Less eye strain - Because LCD displays turn each pixel off individually, they do not
produce a flicker like CRT displays do. In addition, LCD displays do a better job of
displaying text compared with CRT displays.

Advantages of CRT Monitors

 Less expensive - Although LCD monitor prices have decreased, comparable CRT
displays still cost less.
 Better color representation - CRT displays have historically represented colors and
different gradations of color more accurately than LCD displays. However, LCD displays
are gaining ground in this area, especially with higher-end models that include color-
calibration technology.
 More responsive - Historically, CRT monitors have had fewer problems with ghosting
and blurring because they redrew the screen image faster than LCD monitors. Again,
LCD manufacturers are improving on this with displays that have faster response times
than they did in the past.
 Multiple resolutions - If you need to change your display's resolution for different
applications, you are better off with a CRT monitor because LCD monitors don't handle
multiple resolutions as well.
 More rugged - Although they are bigger and heavier than LCD displays, CRT displays
are also less fragile and harder to damage.

So now that you know about LCD and CRT monitors, let's talk about how you can use two
monitors at once. They say, "Two heads are better than one." Maybe the same is true of
monitors!