LCD Monitor - Screensavers and Power Management

[Barney Rubble]

Just got a new LCD...very nice, I was wondering about screensavers and power
management as compared to CRTs ?
Are screensavers necessary and is powering down advisable?

Thanks

 

[DaveW]

You should power down the TFT monitor because the backlight in it does not
last as long as a CRT monitor's tube lasts.

 

[Mxsmanic]

Just got a new LCD...very nice, I was wondering about screensavers and power
management as compared to CRTs ?
Are screensavers necessary and is powering down advisable?

Just turn the monitor off. Screensavers protected the phosphors in
CRTs, but that's not necessary in LCDs. At the same time, the backlight
in LCDs is the wearing component, so turning it off when not in use is a
good idea (and just having the screen dark doesn't turn it off).

 

[Mxsmanic]

You should power down the TFT monitor because the backlight in it does not
last as long as a CRT monitor's tube lasts.

How long do backlights last?

 

[Not Gimpy Anymore]

How long do backlights last?

Most LCD monitors today spec a backlight life of about 10,000 hours.
That means that after 10k hours the light output will have decreased to half
of the original value. If you do leave a monitor on 24/7, it will accumulate
more
than 8700 hours in one year - OTOH CRT cathode life specs are not all THAT
much longer, being in the 20 to 25k hour range. The difference is many users
know to turn off their CRTs - but not so many know to turn off LCDs.

LCDs do not have "phosphor ageing" so no need for screen savers but
turning
the monitor off when not in use for a while (that is OFF, not standby where
the
backlight is still lit) will extend the life. FWIW recovery time from OFF in
a LCD
is also faster.

HTH
NGA

 

[RobB]

directly.

Most LCD monitors today spec a backlight life of about 10,000 hours.
That means that after 10k hours the light output will have decreased to half
of the original value. If you do leave a monitor on 24/7, it will accumulate
more
than 8700 hours in one year - OTOH CRT cathode life specs are not all THAT
much longer, being in the 20 to 25k hour range. The difference is many users
know to turn off their CRTs - but not so many know to turn off LCDs.

LCDs do not have "phosphor ageing" so no need for screen savers but
turning
the monitor off when not in use for a while (that is OFF, not standby where
the
backlight is still lit) will extend the life. FWIW recovery time from OFF in
a LCD
is also faster.

HTH
NGA

I recently bought my first LCD monitor a Samsung 193P and when using Win XP
"blank screen saver" I can see the backlight is still on, but when I select
"standby mode" the screen goes completely dark. Does that not mean that the
backlight is off? Looks to me like it is.

 

[Mxsmanic]

I recently bought my first LCD monitor a Samsung 193P and when using Win XP
"blank screen saver" I can see the backlight is still on, but when I select
"standby mode" the screen goes completely dark. Does that not mean that the
backlight is off? Looks to me like it is.

Screen savers don't actually turn the monitor off, even though the blank
screen saver sets the screen to black. Power-saving modes and standby
modes actually turn the monitor off (or put it into standby mode, which
is usually the same thing for a LCD, I think--on CRTs, standby isn't
quite the same as turning the power off).

 

[Bob Niland]

... when using Win XP "blank screen saver" I can see the
backlight is still on, but when I select "standby mode"
the screen goes completely dark. Does that not mean that the backlight
is off?

The backlight is in all likelihood off.

The question then becomes, which results in longest
backlight assy life:

1. Short dwell time to powersave mode, possibly resulting
in excess power cycles on the backlight per day, or

2. Least possible backlight on-time, regardless of the
number of cycles needed to accomplish that.

You'd expect the makers to have a recommendation here,
but apparently they rarely do. The web site (FAQ) and
manuals for mine are silent on the topic.

I've seen one suggestion to go to standby after 20 min.
That puts an upper limit on the number of power cycles
per day (72 theoretically, but far less in practice).

Clearly, however, classical screen-savers provide no
"screen saving" benefit whatever on LCDs, except as
a user warning that standby mode is coming soon (and of
course they're useful as a security measure if you've
set a password). When you see the screen saver fire up,
if you know that you won't be using the monitor for at
least 20 min (or whatever you set the dwell time to),
hit the monitor power switch.

 

[Mxsmanic]

I've seen one suggestion to go to standby after 20 min.
That puts an upper limit on the number of power cycles
per day (72 theoretically, but far less in practice).

I have power-saving set to 1 hour, but this is practically a roll of the
dice. I have no idea what the optimum is, and I haven't found any
references, either.

In general, I pretty much keep the screen on if I'm home (if I'm home
and awake, I'm in front of the PC, so this is reasonable). If I go out
for more than a brief errand, I turn the screen off. If I go out for
just a brief errand, I leave the screen as is, and if I end up being
away for more than an hour, it'll shut off anyway.

I don't use screen savers at all now, but I do try to change the desktop
wallpaper and close all windows from time to time, because otherwise the
sides and corners of the screen tend to have the same thing on them
practicall all the time. I try to use some windows at less than
maximized size for the same reason (on a 1600x1200 display).