Computer and Monitors
Jun 26
2011
I remember that many of us thought, when we were young, that the computer monitor actually holds the entire computer inside it and that it is the most important part of every PC. Don’t worry, now I know better. I learned that a computer monitor only has the display device circuits inside it.
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Time has passed and now most computer monitors are LCDs (Liquid Crystal Displays) . But for those of you not born yesterday , I think that the image if a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) is not something unfamiliar.
Actually, the first computer monitors were CRTs, because that was the dominant technology in this area at the time. They weren’t always known as monitors either; in the early days, they were “video display terminals”. Back then, they were attached to the rest of the computer. On top of that, they were monochrome and the image quality was seriously lacking and flickers were a sight that wasn’t so rarely seen. IBM changed that with their CGA (Color Graphics Adapter), which could display no less than 4 colors (it was a lot back then). Later, they made this number bigger, the monitors being able to show 16 colors. Along with this, there came a change in the maximum resolution. The CGA ones could only go as far as 230 by 200 pixels, while the EGAs went up to 640X350. Nowadays it’s all about the LCDs. Actually, there was a time when CRTs and LCDs coexisted and when having a CRT had more advantages. Back then, LCDs were made for less demanding rigs in terms of power consumption, like laptops. The LCDs had the advantage of being lighter and occupying less space, but they were much more expensive than the CRTs. Thus, people often bought CRTs.
While the CRTs used a vacuum tube and a fluorescent screen to display the images, the LCDs use the liquid crystals’ special properties to show them. Over time, LCDs became more popular and their prices went downhill and slowly but surely the CRTs were overthrown this new generation of displays. They’re everywhere nowadays. Apart from being smaller and lighter, LCDs are also much easier on your eyes’ health. But it’s not just the manufacturing technology that’s changed. There is also the aspect ratio of the things. They all started out 4:3. Some even had 5:4. But now, things changed and the 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratios are all the rave. This new aspect ratio has a lot of advantages: watching movies is better, widescreen gaming is awesome, viewing two documents side by side is easier. Nowadays, “square” displays are less and less wanted and they might just stop producing them in a couple of years or so. So let’s embrace the new display technology and make the most of it.
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