LCD Monitors
The majority of computer displays use a liquid crystal display (LCD) that is formed of a number of rows and columns of liquid crystal molecules that are coloured red, green or blue and form a pixel.
The LCD is formed of an LCD panel that produces the image, a backlight that illuminates the image and an inverter that provides the power.
Types of LCD Panel
The three most common panel types are TN (Twisted Nematic), which are generally the fastest, IPS (In-Plane Switching), which generally provide the best colours and VA (Vertical Alignment) provide a balance of responsiveness and colour.
Types of Backlighting
Early LCDs used Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp technology (CCFL), however, they have been replaced for LED technology that is more efficient and emanates less heat and, due to requiring AC electricity also included an inverter to convert the DC power feed from the power supply, which also resulted in the monitor being thicker than those using LED technology.
Edge LED backlighting includes a backlight at the top and another at the bottom of the panel, however, these often mean that the edges of the display are brighter than the centre, that is not directly backlit.
Direct LED backlighting provides an LED matrix behind the entire display that, whilst more expensive to manufacture and less energy efficient that Edge LED technology, provides better image uniformity and brightness, making it more desirable in providing a better image and display.
The liquid crystals can be aligned differently within a monitor including, Twisted Nematic (TN) which are generally the fastest but provide the worst colour and contrast ratios, Vertical Alignment (VA) are the slowest but provide the best picture with good colour contrast and In-Plane Switching (IPS) providing a blend of both.
OLED Displays
OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) is a type of LCD monitor that uses LED’s to provide the light source as well as the image, avoiding the need for a backlight. This means that an OLED display can be much thinner than an LCD.
OLED displays also provide better images with improved contrast ratio over an LCD display, as OLED pixels can completely switch off.
They are more expensive to manufacture than LCD and, therefore, are only found within high end televisions, monitors, smart watches and they can also be made to be flexible, providing function within flexible smartphones.
Refresh Rate
The Refresh Rate, or vertical scan frequency, relates to the number the image can be redrawn in a second and is measured in Hz (hertz) and provides an indication as to how frequently the monitor checks for updates to the image being sent.
Response Rate
The Response Rate is the time taken by the monitor for the pixels to change, for example from black to white (BtW) or grey to grey (GtG).
As it is quicker for the pixels to change from one grey to another, that is normally significantly faster than the black to white response and, therefore, normally is the advertised response time for a monitor.
Contrast Ratio
The contrast ratio is the measure of the difference between dark and light colours that the monitor can display.
Initially LCD monitors were not able to provide the same colour contrast of an older CRT type monitor, however, later screens now capable of matching and improving on those older monitors.
By dynamic contrast ratio and standard contrast ratio, the dynamic contrast is less relevant to the viewer of a computer monitor and the standard ratio is important.
Colour Depth
The Colour Depth of a monitor or display relates to the number of colours that it can display. Normally, a monitor provides an 8-bit colour depth panel, meaning that it can display 16.7 million colour variations, with some providing more than 1 billion colour variations.
About Athena Forensics
For information on our computer forensic expert services or if you require any advice or assistance please contact a member of our team on 0330 123 4448 or via email on enquiries@athenaforensics.co.uk, further details are available on our contact us page.
Our client’s confidentiality is of the utmost importance. All correspondence is treated with discretion, from initial contact to conclusion of the matter.
We are fully aware of the significance and importance of the information that they encounter and we have been accredited to ISO 9001 for 14 years.
Our premises along with our security procedures have been inspected and approved by law enforcement agencies and we do not disclose personal information to other companies or suppliers.
Our team are all security cleared and we offer non-disclosure agreements if required.
Our premises along with our security procedures have been inspected and approved by law enforcement agencies.
Athena Forensics do not disclose personal information to other companies or suppliers.
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