Choosing the Right LCD - Laptop Screens

I’ve been fond of writing about the “right” and “perfect” equipment lately. And this includes the considerably substantial bLaptops writeup I made a while back. It’s about choosing the perfect laptop, considering tons of factors like size, weight, ergonomics, and yes, even the brand! Then, of course, speaking about the “perfect” eqipment, there’s the LCD vs. CRT question–but that’s a non-issue in the case of what we’re about to discuss.

Let’s now talk more specifically about choosing the right screen for your laptop. After all, you’ll probably spend hours on end staring at your laptop’s LCD, so you might as well get something that suits you well. Moreover, once you choose that laptop (and screen), you won’t be able to change it, unlike with regular desktop LCDs!

So you’ll have to live with whatever screen your laptop comes with. I have to admit, having used several laptops in my life (and hopefully more laptops to come), I know some screens are great. Some are bearable. Some are so-so. Some had been downright crappy!

What should I look for?

There are a few basic things to look for in laptop screens. What’s important is that you’re comfortable with viewing your screen, and the size, clarity and viewing angles would be essential, in this case.
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Portable TDP-FF1 Digital LED Projector from Toshiba

The purpose of projectors is for you share your screen with a group of people, say at conferences, meetings, or maybe even just for watching movies with your family (as an alternative to big-screen LCD or Plasma displays.

What’s not so great, however, is that no matter how small and portable projectors can be, you would always have to be tethered to the mains in order to power them up–they use just so much power to light up the lamp that real portability is virtually non-existent. Add to that the fact that lamps may break when the projector is mishandled, and you have yourself worrisome times travelling. Further, try sitting beside a projector, and pretty soon the heat (and exhaust fumes) will get to your head. Quite an uncomfortable situation! (I’ve been there, having presented in weekly meetings in my day back as a government economist, and I absolutely hate sitting next to the projector!)

Toshiba tries to change all this with its TDP-FF1 digital LED-based projector. For one, it’s powered mainly by batteries, so you can enjoy unwired freedom. As long as your laptop battery has juice, this little baby will let you project your screen even when power mains is unavailable.

The LEDs consume a very low amount of energy and emits very low heat levels. Hence it’s ideal in that even if you’re sitting right next to the projector, you won’t have to endure the heat (not to mention the bad smell emitted by the exhaust fans).

Power on the go

The FF1 weighs just below one-and-a-half pounds, and can run on batteries for up to two hours. That’s just enough for even a long presentation, and can last you a short feature-length movie (okay, movies nowadays usually exceed 2 hours, but some still come below the two-hour mark).

Longevity and Quality

The FF1’s LEDs have an operating life of about 10,000 hours–this means it’s not likely that you’ll have to replace it during the projector’s expected lifetime. After all, gadgets these days are rarely expected to last a year without the next better, smaller, lighter, more powerful (and usually cheaper) model appears. But still, you can expect LED replacements to be cheaper than lamp replacements, in the case yours gets extinguished early on (from watching too many videos every day perhaps).

The FF1 projects images using a digital mirror device chip, and can deliver a high contrast ratio of 1500:1 for crisp, razor-sharp images.

A Multimedia Affair

Not only can you show your presentations with wireless, untethered freedom, you can also watch movies on the FF1. It comes with built-in speakers, and retails with a portable screen. Not really the high-end multimedia setup, but nonetheless complete enough for your viewing and listening pleasure.

The TDP-FF1 retails for about £640 (including VAT).

[via Pocket-Lint]

Choosing the Right Monitor: LCD vs. CRT

If you’re a techie, a computer geek or a display afficionado, you’re most likely to be well-versed in the intricacies of choosing the ideal display for your new computer, or the ideal replacement or upgrade for that old flickering mass of plastic and cathode ray tubes sitting on your desktop right now. But for the rest of us mortals, sometimes it’s a matter of just going with what the retail package includes as standard or what the sales people at the retail store recommend.

However, purchasing a monitor without knowing the specifications and the nuances of that type may not exactly be a smart move, for display technology moves as quickly as you can say “screen,” with graphics capacity and power doubling every eighteen months, and monitor prices dropping as soon as newer models are released every six months or so. For all you know, an LCD or a CRT might not be the ideal display for you after all!

Today let’s talk about the LCD versus CRT issue. There are advantages and disadvantages to either side, and it would depend on you, the buyer and the user (and unfortunately, the sufferer of eyestrain if your monitor is excessively and improperly used).

Let me cite myself as an example of the arguments for and against LCD and CRT.

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The 20-20-20 Rule

Here’s another tip for keeping healthy and sane while computing. It’s the 20-20-20 rule. This basically revolves around the idea that you should not keep staring at your monitor for extended periods of time, whether you’re working on documents, spreadsheets, Web content, or that latest cool MMORPG or first-person shooter game.

Do take a break sometime.

Hence, the 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 minutes, pause whatever you’re doing and stare at something 20 feet away about 10-15 paces away) for 20 seconds.

Again, that’s

• 20 minutes - Take a break every 20 minutes
• 20 feet - Look away from your monitor, and stare at something 20 feet away
• 20 seconds - Stare at it for at least 20 seconds

This would give your eyes enough time to relax. OF course it would also help if you can stand up and walk around a bit, and perhaps even do some stretchings–it doesn’t only help your eyes, but your muscles as well. After all, you’re only as productive as you’re comfortable.

Monitor Ergonomics - Keeping Sane and Healthy

I’ve written time and again that I preferred working on my laptop because of ergonomics. Simply put, working on a desktop computer for extended times–especially one with a CRT monitor at that–isn’t very good for the posture and for one’s eyes. For one, I usually work at night, and the fact that the general environment is usually dark means more difficulty for one’s eyes. And as for ergonomics, laptops are built and used as an all-in-one package, so ergonomics is also built-into the laptop’s functionality and form factor.

I do hope people who spend much time in front of the computer would find these tips helpful. Take it from me–my work and business venutres require me to be at my workstation for most of my waking hours.

One concern usually associated with CRT monitors is radiation. There seems to be urban legends that say CRTs generate enough radiation to kill your or make you blind. Well, this is not exactly true. Only the CRT monitors of old (as in the early 1980s) would put off large amounts of radiation to be harmful. Today’s monitors would generate very minimal radiation, and only enough to affect you if you stay very close to the sides or back of CRT monitors for extended times (yes, not at the screen or front of the monitor). As for blindness? Well this is mostly associated with eye strain, and we’ll touch on this further on.

Positioning

Perhaps the most danger associated with computing is not in radiation emission nor even eye strain. Problems associated with extended periods of computing would be the repetitive-stress syndrome or repetitive-strain injuries (RSI) associated with bad ergonomics. One would usually be affected with such injuries if computing equipment are incorrectly-positioned, and the body is forced to move and act in unnatural ways. RSIs usually affect the muscles, tendons and nerves in the arms and the lower and upper back.

So what’s the best way to position your monitor?

• Center your monitor. Generally, you should place your monitor right in front of you, meaning at a zero-degree angle. Same goes with your keyboard, which should ideally be in-line with the monitor. On the desk, your monitor and keyboard should not be to your left nor right, because this would cause strain on your neck and arm muscles, because you would then have to twist to either position when typing.
• Keep a safe distance. You should keep about two feet or approximately an arm’s length away from your monitor. Staying too near or too far would only cause eyestrain.
• Position the top of the screen parallel to your eyes. With the usual 15- or 17-inch monitors, the top-part of the screen should be in line with your eyes. You can either adjust your seat height or the monitor’s height to attain this ideal (though you should not sacrifice seat positioning–your feet, legs, and thighs should be at right-angles, and your feet should ideally be parallel to the floor).

  Exceptions. If your screen is larger than the standard sizes (such as 19″ or larger), then you should position the top-most part of the monitor about three inches above eye-level. Likewise, if you wear progressive eyewear (such as bifocals or trifocals), you should keep your screen even lower than eye-level so you won’t have to strain your neck when looking at the monitor.

• Tilt your monitor upward. It’s best if your monitor is at a perpendcular angle to your eyes, so you see as much screen real-estate as possible at decent viewing angles. Just ensure adequate tilt to reduce or avoid glare from windows or overhead lights.

Eyestrain

So much for positioning–just follow the above tips and you will most likely avoid having to visit your doctor or therapist for RSI-related problems. Now as for eye strain, that’s another serious problem associated with extended periods of computing.

Our eyes are sensitive organs, and our eyesight degrades with age and with improper use of visual equipment. Eyesight-related stress usually comes as an effect of having to stare at bright objects for extended periods of time. I usually get nauseous after extended use of my CRT monitor in dark environments. Eye strain can also come from needing effort to read visuals effectively, such as text that’s too small or with not enough contrast.

Here are some tips on reducing eye strain.

• Ensure adequate lighting. If your parents have always reminded you not to read against the light, it’s a different thing with monitors. You usually need to have some light behind the screen itself, and also the general environment so your eyes won’t have to strain with a dark environment and a very bright screen.



• Balance lighting and monitor brightness. If you can’t ensure adequate lighting in your environment, make sure you adjust your monitor’s brightness in accordance to the room lighting. If your room is dim, then dim down the screen’s brightness to a comfortable level. If you are in bright lighting, then it’s best to increase brighness also. Any imbalance in this regard would only force your eyes to strain themselves while reading what’s on the screen.
• Ensure adequate contrast. Set your monitor’s contrast level such that you can easily distinguish across different colors and shades.

  Contrast would also depend on what work you’re doing on your computer. Word processing and spreadsheet applications usually have black text on white backgrounds, so maximum contrast is ensured. However, when viewing website content this can be more difficult to control, as contrast level would depend on the design of the website. Some sites are reader-friendly in this regard, with high-contrast designs. Some are more difficult to read, because text colors are almost the same as background colors.

  If you are viewing web content, consider using a reader that will strip the websites or weblogs of formatting, such as with RSS (”rich site summary” or “really simple syndication”). RSS readers allow you to read the main content of RSS-supported websites without having to load the design and layout.

• Ensure adequate text size. Small text and unreadable fonts can also cause your eyes to exert more effort than necessary, and hence lead to eye strain. Hence, make sure you work with text that’s set to a comfortable size. It’s usually enough to set your on-screen sizes to three points higher than the minimum you can comfortably view.

  Remember, text size usually varies with screen size and resolution. If you’ve set your screen resolution to a higher level, then you can see a larger amount of screen real-estate. However, this is at the expense of smaller text sizes. You can adjust your operating system’s settings to increase text size as necessary (in Windows, this is adjusted through Display Properties–Appearance–Font Size).

• Reduce glare. Glare can also force our eyes to exert more effort and thus strain easily. This is because we manually have to filter the glare from the screen’s actual display. Sunlight from windows and overhead lighting are usual culprits of glare. Consider positioning or angling your monitor such that it does not directly face windows. Simiarly, angle your screen such that it doesn’t reflect off overhead lighting. You may also purchase glare-reduction screens or filters.
• Opt for LCD monitors. Liquid Crystal Display screens may be more expensive than their CRT counterparts, but they offer advantages in terms of comfort and power-efficiency. LCDs put off less light, and hence your eyes are saved from strain. LCDs also don’t reflect as much glare as CRTs do. Lastly, you would have an easier time positioning an LCD monitor on your desk because of the small footprint.

This is only the tip of the iceberg, as monitor positioning and glare reduction are only a part of an overall maintenance of your health (and sanity!) while working with computers. I’ll keep on the lookout for better tips and tricks, and will be sharing these soon.

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