LCD Technology Question...

[DariustheSandman]

I thought about sticking this question in another thread that was going on, but it seemed a bit flame heavy at the moment. We've all seen the LCD v. CRT discussions on this board and others. We pretty much all know the pros and cons. My question is this:

Are the problems that many people have with LCDs, such has issues with color reproduction, lack of high contrast in comparison to CRT, resolutions, particularly multiple resolutions as well as refresh rate and input lag just unavoidable consequences of the way in which LCD works, or are LCD tech just suffering from a good enough syndrome, where the way things are is good enough for most folks, so they don't worry to much about fixing those issues?

 

[brumwald]

I'd say both.
CRTs were versatile, LCDs are very specific. Where a good CRT basically was good for everyone the situation for the LCD is completely different.
You have gamer LCDs, and even 120 Hz ones. You have more expensive LCDs with better color reproduction, and you have high-end LCDs with even better color reproduction etc. but where theres typically no focus at all on gamers or for watching movies.

All that results in a compareable very small market for a certain LCD, and there isn't room for a million niche displays.

Add to that that most people are quite satisfied with LCDs. All the drawbacks are easily outweighed by the size of it, no geometry problems etc. This is of course bad for the enthusiasts, since enthusiasts to begin with are a small market but when even that market is divided into many different sizes, resolutions, panels, cost etc. And thats just the technical side of it, add to it the styling that attracts different groups as well.

The whole LCD camp seems to be overwhelmed with compromises. Though if the majority thought that was an issue more effort would be spent trying to fix it, rather than having price as it's main sellingpoint. I think thats the main argument for why people are happy with whatever crap they can find as long as it's an LCD it's OK.

And in a way thats true. An old out of focus CRT with geometry problems won't ever pleas anyone where as most could work with cheap a ten year old LCD without a problem what so ever.

 

[nomu]

Some of them are unavoidable, but mostly it's just that manufacturers need to identify a market for the technologies we want before they commit to bringing a display with those technologies to market.

LCDs will never reach the measured contrast of a CRT, but 0.03 cd/m is getting close to visually identical territory. Refresh rate, color, input lag are all issues that have been solved in different models but there is no one model that passes all tests.

The obvious reason for this is that the cost of such a display would presumably limit its appeal too much to be worth making. But... everyone's favorite CRT cost 2 grand plus 10 years of inflation and also had the CRT drawbacks like huge size/weight, and somehow that beast got to market. I think that either manufacturers are more cautious now, or else the high end that might have been the target for the 'perfect' LCD is STILL crowded out by old CRTs.