LCD Panels Need More Class

摘要

A customer shells out good money for an LCD monitor (or a notebook with an LCD screen), turns it on, and discovers a couple of tiny colored dots that continue to glow even when the screen is supposed to show black. The immediate reaction is "I've got a defective unit," and the user tries to exchange it for one without defects - only to be told by technical support that such defects are normal with LCD panels and the company will not exchange it. The user is unhappily surprised. The good news is that product manufacturers now are making more of an effort to explain their pixel-defect policies up front to consumers, in the user manuals and on Web sites. The bad news is that it is not always easy for end users to understand. As an example, the following policy from an unnamed company was selected at random. "The LCD monitor shall not show more than (whichever of the following limits is reached first): 1. A total of eight non-performing pixels (of whatever type), or 2. Five bright non-performing pixels appearing as a red, green, blue, yellow, cyan, magenta, or white dot on a dark or black background, or 3. Five dark non-performing pixels appearing as a black dot on a bright or white background, or 4. Two non-performing pixels of any type located less than 10 mm from each other."