On Monday, January 17, 2005, at 11:33 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
At 12:15 AM -0800 01/17/2005, Frank P. Eigler wrote:Can anyone knowledgeable clarify the issue of longevity of LCD monitors?
"I heard" (sorry) that, while they certainly look amazing, their
life-cycle is (currently) substantially less than CRTs.
I heard this in connection with TVs, and wondered: 1) is that true; and 20
if so, would that also be true of computer monitors.
Google is your friend.
Ratings vs actual: There's a big variance, and it depends on your actual usage pattern - if you leave the product turned on 24/7, or only 8 hrs per day, etc. My experience has been that LCDs die earlier than their MTBF ratings and CRTs die later. YMMV.
A MTBF (mean time between failure) *rating* of 30,000 hours for an LCD's backlight is considered GREAT. 30,000 hours is only 3.4 years.
That's ONLY if it's on 24/7, and that means *on* displaying a picture.
Used 8 hours a day, 5 days a week means a lifespan of 14+ years.
Used in a typical home environment 4-5 hours a day, maybe 3-4 days a week...that's a LOT longer.
And, *that's* discounting sleep mode...
Let's be honest about the numbers here if we're going to sling them about.
Also, replacing the cold cathode fluorescent that's the usual reason for LCD's to 'die' is relatively cheap if you do it on your own, and the tubes only run about $10-$20 for the part. Moreover, as the achieve greater market penetration there will be lots of folks willing to refurb them.
Anecdotally, we had a bunch of Gateway Profile II's in our computer labs, they were on 24/7, though not displaying anything much of the time, and while they all died of one thing or another none were from LCD failures, and they were there from whenever the iMac originally came out until last summer, when they were replaced with newer Profiles. Man, talk about a line of computers that's been generationally beaten with an ugly stick!
(I know because I really tried to get them to put in the new iMacs; they would have been as capable and about $500 cheaper per unit, but the tables were really narrow and there was been no room.)
We also have 4 LG LCD panels up in the College that ARE displaying room scheduling information 24/7 and none have failed in well over three years of service. (and they were poked for about the first month until people believed the sign we were forced to put above them "these are not touch screens!")
Finally, of all the flat panels in use (we've replaced about 30-40% of the systems in the College with CRT's with either all-in-one systems like iMacs or Profiles,or new systems purchased with an LCD monitor, as well as all the laptops in use in the College) we've only had two or three fail.
As I am fond of saying, the plural of anecdote is NOT data, however, I've been around a LOT of these things and my feeling is that LCDs seem pretty durable, certainly as durable as the many many CRT's I've been around.
Moreover, power cycling CRT's does age them much more than power cycling LCD's. And LCDs don't go out of focus as they age, the way CRTs do.
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