Why do "LCD e-Book reading devices" keep coming

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by GreenMonkey

1) Right
2) Brighter, but less accurate. The only good more brightness does you is in ambient light. Anyone that has calibrated a home theater will tell you that most devices are set WAYYYYYY to bright and out of whack. It has to do with catching the eye at the store. And color accuracy still lags CRTs, plasma and DLP.
3) Wrong. 90% of LCDs have a 60hz refresh. In the PC gaming world that means you have to use Vsync more often which is a performance hit and creates more display lag. My FW900 100hz at a lot of resolutions, and 85-92hz at recommended resolution. Progressive scan - wrong - CRT monitors are progressive devices. Only old school TVs were interlaced, along with some early CRT HDTVs. Very few devices actually do 120hz these days, which is an improvement (most interpolate to 120 from other rates).
4) Fine, but so what? Good for datacenters. Less heat = less AC. But it means more heat needed in the winter

Lastly: There is no such thing as a LED screen. There's a LED backlit LCD screen - it is still an LCD - it's just backlit with LEDs instead of a CCFL.

P.S. I'm a home theater hobbyist with a DLP projector. CRT went away because LCDs are "sexy", thin, and very sharp (perfect geometry). But they are inferior technology to CRTs in color accuracy, black level detail, refresh rate. And like almost all digital displays, they are one-resolution devices that require scaling to display any other resolution, which looks terrible compared to a CRT at native rez on older sources.

I still prefer my CRT over any LCD. The only LCD so far that I've seen that I've actually comptemplated buying is a LED LCD, it looked more vibrant than the average LCD. That my CRT is bulkier than a LCD, I don't care, I have a desk with a corner and I could fit almost two monitors behind each other before I hit the wall. That it is heavier? So what? I never carry it around (nor would I carry around a LCD...).

But, if you're working with CRT, you'll be more concious of backlight. If I were to sit in my room with all my lights off, my eyes will water in no-time. But I have a small light, that faces the wall behind my monitor and that makes all the difference in the world: the difference in light between the monitor and the surrounding areas is much lower.

[HarryT]

Almost all LCD displays have LED backlights these days, certainly on laptops. The old fluorescent backlights are rapidly becoming obsolete.

[Donnageddon]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I still prefer my CRT over any LCD.

Oh Sweetpea, you are such an "outlier"!

[MangaEbooker]

Crt is still better, I miss my Crt....

But nah I would never read on a LCD, E-Ink is tons better on my eyes.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I still prefer my CRT over any LCD. The only LCD so far that I've seen that I've actually comptemplated buying is a LED LCD, it looked more vibrant than the average LCD. That my CRT is bulkier than a LCD, I don't care, I have a desk with a corner and I could fit almost two monitors behind each other before I hit the wall. That it is heavier? So what? I never carry it around (nor would I carry around a LCD...).

But, if you're working with CRT, you'll be more concious of backlight. If I were to sit in my room with all my lights off, my eyes will water in no-time. But I have a small light, that faces the wall behind my monitor and that makes all the difference in the world: the difference in light between the monitor and the surrounding areas is much lower.

No one remembers that when High speed electrons strike the Phosphors of a CRT to make them Fluoresce, They also emit X-Rays that a only mostly blocked by the thick, leaded faceplate glass. The larger the CRT, the higher the voltages needed on the Anode. The more X-Ray.
And YOU are square, pop, in front at a short distance. (and the thicker the heavy, leaded glass)

LCD does not involve high voltage induced fluorescence. (Neither does E-Ink)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by theducks

No one remembers that when High speed electrons strike the Phosphors of a CRT to make them Fluoresce, They also emit X-Rays that a only mostly blocked by the thick, leaded faceplate glass. The larger the CRT, the higher the voltages needed on the Anode. The more X-Ray.
And YOU are square, pop, in front at a short distance. (and the thicker the heavy, leaded glass)

What do you mean "no one remembers"? I am perfectly well aware of the fact that CRT monitors emit X-rays, thank you very much . That is why the glass of a monitor contains lead, as an X-ray shield, and why there is protective circuitry to prevent the anode voltage from rising above a safe level. All CRTs have to tested to ensure that their emission levels falls within safe limits.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by GreenMonkey

Lastly: There is no such thing as a LED screen. There's a LED backlit LCD screen - it is still an LCD - it's just backlit with LEDs instead of a CCFL.

There are AMOLED screens, however, which are actual LEDs, not backlit.

[JeremyZ]

Originally Posted by Donnageddon

Oh Sweetpea, you are such an "outlier"!

OK, Donnageddon, we get it. You love your iPad. I'm sorry I hurt your feelings enough so that you feel the need to make snippy little comments every so often.

As you can guess by my avatar, I'm an Apple fan too.

GreenMonkey: Great, informative post on CRTs and such.

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

But, if you're working with CRT, you'll be more concious of backlight. If I were to sit in my room with all my lights off, my eyes will water in no-time. But I have a small light, that faces the wall behind my monitor and that makes all the difference in the world: the difference in light between the monitor and the surrounding areas is much lower.

That is well-articulated. The same holds true for LCDs. Looking at a light source in a dark room causes eye strain. CRT more so than LCD, and LCD more so than the reflected light from an eInk screen. It is something the LCD fans should keep in mine while they are reveling in the glory of reading in the dark with no other lights on.

That is the point the original poster was getting at, simply that reading on eInk is easier on the eyes. I polled the group to confirm it. Most agree, and of course there are a few whiners.

I don't think he knew he would start a war though.

[Lo Zeno]

Originally Posted by JeremyZ

That is well-articulated. The same holds true for LCDs. Looking at a light source in a dark room causes eye strain. CRT more so than LCD, and LCD more so than the reflected light from an eInk screen. It is something the LCD fans should keep in mine while they are reveling in the glory of reading in the dark with no other lights on.

But that's exactly why many (me included) have already told that reading on LCD doesn't cause eye-strain provided that you adjust the brightness to be at the same level as the room's lights and you adjust the position of the screen to be comfortable.

No one said that you can comfortably read with your screen's brightness turned to MAX in a completely dark room.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Me! I have a CRT at home

Do you have an LCD TV and if so, does it bother you to watch TV?

[JeremyZ]

Originally Posted by Lo Zeno

But that's exactly why many (me included) have already told that reading on LCD doesn't cause eye-strain provided that you adjust the brightness to be at the same level as the room's lights and you adjust the position of the screen to be comfortable.

No one said that you can comfortably read with your screen's brightness turned to MAX in a completely dark room.

I didn't say the LCD had to be at max in the dark room. Even with it turned all the way down, you are looking AT the light source. Compare that to an e-ink reader who has some sort of accessory light. This accessory light provides not only light to the reading surface, but also ambient light all around the screen. As someone earlier pointed out, this is what makes the difference.

The LCD, with its inherent light, is certainly more convenient. But also harder on the eyes in a dark room.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JeremyZ

I didn't say the LCD had to be at max in the dark room. Even with it turned all the way down, you are looking AT the light source. Compare that to an e-ink reader who has some sort of accessory light. This accessory light provides not only light to the reading surface, but also ambient light all around the screen. As someone earlier pointed out, this is what makes the difference.

The LCD, with its inherent light, is certainly more convenient. But also harder on the eyes in a dark room.

Thought some of you might be interested in this...

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/0...se-eye-strain/

[HarryT]

Very interesting article - thanks, Brian. I liked this bit:

“It depends on the viewing circumstances, including the software and typography on the screen,” said Mr. Bove. “Right now E Ink is great in sunlight, but in certain situations, a piece of paper can be a better display than E Ink, and in dim light, an LCD display can be better than all of these technologies.”

which essentially supports what I've been saying all along - that each type of display technology has its particular strengths and weaknesses.

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Very interesting article - thanks, Brian. I liked this bit:



which essentially supports what I've been saying all along - that each type of display technology has its particular strengths and weaknesses.

True, but I would say from a viewing perspective... you can usually turn up the lights.. but it can be awfully hard to turn down the sun .

That being said, the viewing qualities of LCD versus eInk mean far less to me than the very long battery life eInk allows. Its amusing when I see people in the Nook forum complaining about the battery running down in a week when the iPad would probably be two days at most .

--
Bill

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Do you have an LCD TV and if so, does it bother you to watch TV?

Very few people watch TV at a distance of 20" or less.

We have LCD TVs and a 19" LCD monitor; nobody in the house has ever complained of eyestrain from any of that. They're more likely to complain of back strain from sitting in one position to watch it, or wrist strain from operating the videogame controls.