screen saver on an LCD

[diablofish]

After seaarching the forums, I found discussions about burn-in on LCD's. Someone told me today that leaving an LCD on black was better for it's life span than having a regular screen saver on. The reasoning was that the LCD isn't emitting any light when it's black, and the liquid crystals only have a certain amount of light capacity before they expire. Therefore, having the LCD on black would prolong the usable life of the crystals by not emitting light continuously.

Now I'm no expert on LCD's, but this doesn't seem quite right to me.

Can anyone shed some light on this - bad pun intended?

 

[otispunkmeyer]

backlights still on even if your in a screen saver. the pixels dont exactly emit any light i dont think, they just change colour.

the CCFL backlights used in most LCD monitors get dimmer and dimmer with use. my mate just got a second dell 17 inch monitor.....side by side with his 1 year old dell 17incher its noticably brighter (and yes its the same model and everything)

 

[Bobthelost]

I've never heard of burn in for LCDs, plasma screens yes, but never LCDs.

 

[Bartokomus]

yeah i hadn't either until my Dell 1905 decided to burn in the browser window i left open over the weekend without a screen saver with power savings turned off...

 

[diablofish]

Bob-

See this link for information on burn-in (with a pic)

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=38&threadid=1810101&enterthread=y

 

[lavaheadache]

my 2005 fpw got very minor burn in using the Serene Screen saver (you know the aquarium one). It was present for a couple of days but it went away. It was a line from the gravel on the bottom of the tank. I didnt think lcd burn in was possible until that happend

 

[diablofish]

Trying to get back to the question at hand:

Does an "active" screen saver reduce the usable life of an LCD versus just having a black screen saver?

I've seen the evidence for burn-in, but that's not the question. The question is about longevity of the LCD being affected by different screen savers - or does it make a difference at all?

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: Bartokomus
yeah i hadn't either until my Dell 1905 decided to burn in the browser window i left open over the weekend without a screen saver with power savings turned off...

LCD's don't burn in.. ?

 

[xtknight]

Screensavers don't shorten the life of it any more than normally using it. The best thing to do, hands down, is turn off your monitor. That applies for any type of monitor or TV.

The backlight is always on, and being wasted when not being used.

LCDs can suffer burn-in, but it's usually fixable.