old debate: better to leave monitors on? (LCD)

[lozina]

Long gone are the days which we were advised to shut off our old CRT monitors when idle before they actually 'burnt' an everlasting impression on the screen of the last image you had (what fun that could lead to though!)

So it is generally fine to leave your CRT monitors on all day long... but what about LCDs?

It is true that an LCD monitor has a flourescent backlight in them, right? And it is widely known that leaving your flourescent lights on all the time rather than shutting them on/off often will lead to many more hours of life... so are screen savers actually doing LCD monitors harm? Should I be leaving my LCD on while I go for a break from my computer instead of shutting it off?

Some good questions...

[EDIT] in screen savers I mean the automatic shut off ones which are popular in many OS' and included on some of the monitors themselves... not the fancy graphical screen savers

 

[zephyrprime]

LCDs definitely use flourescent backlight.
Screensavers have no effect because the flourescent lights are entirely on even while the screen saver is blanck unless you use a DPMS screen saver or use the "turn off screen" power saving option for your screen.
It's true that cycling flourescents on and off reduces their lifespan, but leaving them on also eats up thier lifespan. It's a matter of which is using up lifespan more. I once calculated that for a hot flourescent, clycling the lamp on and off would eat up about 2 hrs of life. But LCDs use cold cathode flourescents and I don't what effect that would have on my crude calculation.

 

[Antoneo]

Hmm... I think by the time you actually notice your LCD's backlight starting to dim, the prices of LCD (or maybe even LED) displays will have dropped dramatically to the point where CRTs are no more. I think the backlights are usually supposed to go for 3-5 years, correct me if I'm wrong.