lcd panel to replace 11 crt factory

Use our 10.4” LCD Replacement Display to substitute the 12” CRT monitor used in your Mazak CNC Mazatrol, Mitsubishi Meldas or Yamazaki machine tools. This rugged industrial 10.4” LCD Display mounts right onto the CRT mounting studs of the existing 12” CRT monitorchassis and was designed to operate with legacy systems built by Philips, Bosch, Cybelec, Delem, GE, Heidenhain, Sinumerik, JUNG, E machine, Marposs, Mitsubishi, Okuma, Mazak, and Siemens. The QES1510 Series 10.4” LCD displays replace most 12” CRT monitor models and extend the life of CRT-based HMI interfaces.

Designed to operate from 15.75KHz through 100KHz, these rugged 10.4” LCD displays can be configured to operate with CGA, EGA, MDA video formats and many other legacy timings used in systems such as JUNG, E machine, Marposs, Mitsubishi, Okuma, Mazak, and Siemens Control Systems.

Optional TTL CGA, EGA, MDA video capability, contrast ratios of 500:1 and brightness levels of 250 cd/m2, and standard features such multi-language on-screen display, DDC1/2B Plug and Play, and wide viewing angle capability makes this versatile 10.4” LCD display an excellent choice for many legacy industrial display needs.

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A CRT, or cathode ray tube, screen is the precursor of LCD. This older technology uses millions of phosphor dots that are struck by an electron beam to create an image. Blank spots on your monitor or can lead to programming issues and an inoperable screen may render your machine inoperable.

Choose our repair services to restore your monitor. K+S can work with your existing technology and use our inventory of both modern and obsolete components to repair your current setup without changing the footprint or functionality.

Repairing a CRT monitor allows you to continue to use the same tried-and-true system you have been using with your equipment. A CRT monitor is not as efficient as an LCD screen, but it can still provide a reliable display for your systems.

Because of the inefficiencies of a CRT monitor (slower startup, increased energy usage and smaller viewable screen area), many industrial facilities are switching to LCD monitors. An LCD, or liquid crystal display, offers many benefits, none more important than the extension of operational life.

Ask your K+S Sales Representative about the pros and cons of conversions and repairs. Depending on the type of monitor you’re using, a repair project may be more affordable, but can cost more in energy usage over time. Either way, you can be confident that your monitor will be fully functioning to your required specifications.

Replace your old monitor with a modern LCD screen to improve your energy efficiency, reduce heat emission and enjoy a 100% viewable screen. Compared to a CRT monitor, LCD monitors have very little to no electromagnetic radiation.

A high-resolution screen can assist your technicians in operating the controller. A CRT screen is difficult to read, particularly in a busy, fast-paced working environment. LCD screens offer higher resolution and a wider range of viewing.

Once you switch to LCD, you’ll enjoy far less energy usage. A CRT monitor uses up to 250% of the power of a modern LCD screen. While the monitor power usage may be minor compared to your industrial equipment, this can still result in real energy savings over time.

Our inventory includes a wide range of components you need for a quick repair or conversion project. We remanufacture components to restore your old CRT monitor and can provide complete replacement services to upgrade your existing system. Because of our diverse inventory, we can accelerate the timeline of many of our services to reduce downtime.

Upgrade responsibly by using our recycling program. Defective or outdated electronic devices, hydraulics and motors all contain usable components. Some contain components that aren’t environmentally friendly and need to be disposed of properly. We offer recycling services to responsibly remove obsolete systems.

Recycling not only reduces your impact on the environment but also reduces the cost of removing inoperable equipment. These services can avoid the junk removal costs that you would otherwise pay to clear your electronics, motors and other obsolete equipment.

Contact us today to learn more about our CRT monitor services. Enjoy an up-to-date monitor system for your CNC machining line and other industrial equipment. Whether you need prompt repairs for a damaged monitor or a facility-wide conversion project, work with K+S Services.

CRT displays use the same picture tube technology with many enhancements as the first color televisions did more than half a century ago. But old doesn"t necessarily mean obsolete. A good CRT display, such as the Samsung 997DF 19" model shown in Figure 11-1, provides excellent image quality at a reasonable price. CRT displays are an excellent choice for many people, and will remain so for years.

In autumn 2005, Robert finally replaced his beloved Hitachi SuperScan Elite 751 19" CRT display which he had been using as his primary display for six years with a 19" Samsung 930BF LCD display. The Hitachi is a top-notch display, and Robert would have sworn that its image quality was as good then as the day it was first installed. Until, that is, he connected the Samsung 930BF. The difference was startling. The Samsung provided much better brightness, contrast, and color saturation.

Does that mean that a good LCD display always beats a good CRT display, or that current display technology is worlds better than that of six years ago? Nope. It just means that every CRT display even the best models decreases in brightness, contrast, and saturation as it ages. From day to day, the difference is imperceptible, but as the months and years pass the accumulated difference becomes large.

There is a happy ending to this story, though. Robert had been running the Hitachi CRT at 50% brightness and 85% contrast for years. Boosting brightness to 75% and contrast to 100% greatly improved the display quality, so there"s life in it yet. Barbara promptly grabbed the Hitachi for her own office, where it will probably live for another few years.

The CRT is essentially a large glass bottle, flat or nearly so on one end (the screen), tapering to a thin neck at the back, and with nearly all air exhausted. The inside of the screen end is covered with a matrix of millions of tiny phosphor dots (or stripes). A phosphor is a chemical compound that, when struck by electrons, emits visible light of a particular color. Phosphors are organized by groups of three, collectively called a pixel. Each pixel contains one phosphor dot that emits each of the additive primary colors, red, green, and blue. By choosing which dots to illuminate and how brightly to illuminate each, any pixel can be made to emit any one of thousands or millions of discrete colors. The distance between nearest neighbors of the same phosphor color on adjacent rows is called the dot pitch or stripe pitch. A smaller pitch results in a sharper image and the ability to resolve finer detail.

The phosphor dots are excited by one or more electron emitters, called electron guns, located in the neck at the back of the monitor. A gun comprises a heated cathode, which emits electrons, and circuitry that focuses the free electrons into a thin beam.

The deflection yoke is located around the tapered portion of the CRT, between the guns and the screen. This yoke is actually a large electromagnet, which, under the control of the monitor circuitry, is used to steer the electron beam(s) to impinge on the correct phosphor dot at the correct time and with the correct intensity.

The mask sits between the electron guns and the phosphor layer, very close to the latter. This mask may be a sheet of metal with a matrix of fine perforations that correspond to the phosphor dot triads on the screen, called a shadow mask, or a series of fine vertical wires that correspond to phosphors laid down in uninterrupted vertical stripes, called an aperture grill. In practice, and despite the marketing efforts of manufacturers to convince us otherwise, we find that the mask type makes little real difference. Good (read: more expensive) monitors produce good images, regardless of their mask type. Inexpensive monitors produce inferior images, regardless of their mask type.

Screen size is specified in two ways. The nominal size the size by which monitors are advertised and referred to is the diagonal measurement of the tube itself. However, the front bezel of the monitor conceals part of the tube, making the usable size of the monitor less than stated. Various consumer lawsuits have resulted in monitor manufacturers also specifying the Viewable Image Size (VIS), which is the portion of the tube that is actually visible. Typically, VIS is an inch or so less than nominal. For example, a nominal 17" monitor may have a 15.8" VIS. Small differences in VIS for example, 15.8" versus 16" make little practical difference. The smallest monitors still available are 15". While 17" remains the most popular size, 19" models are now so inexpensive that they have nearly overtaken 17" models in unit sales. Monitors 21" and larger are still relatively expensive, and are used primarily by graphics artists and others who require huge displays.

Dot pitch or stripe pitch is measured in millimeters, and specifies the center-to-center distance between the nearest neighboring phosphor dots or stripes of the same color. Smaller pitch means a sharper image that resolves finer detail. Unfortunately, dot pitch, which is used to describe shadow mask monitors, cannot be compared directly to stripe pitch, which is used to describe aperture grill monitors. For equivalent resolution, stripe pitch must be about 90% of dot pitch. That is, a 0.28 mm dot pitch monitor has resolution similar to a 0.25 mm stripe pitch monitor.

Maximum resolution specifies the maximum number of pixels that the monitor can display, which is determined by the physical number of pixels present on the face of the tube. The maximum resolution of many low-end monitors is identical to the optimum resolution for that monitor size. For example, 1024x768 is optimum for 17" monitors, so many low-end 17" monitors provide 1024x768 maximum resolution. Conversely, midrange and high-end monitors may have maximum resolutions higher than practically usable. For example, a high-end 17" monitor may support up to 1600x1200. There is no real benefit to such extreme resolutions, although it can be useful to have one step higher than optimum (e.g., 1280x1024 on a 17" monitor or 1600x1200 on a 19" monitor) available for occasional use for special purposes.

The synchronization range specifies the bandwidth of the monitor, which determines which combinations of resolution, refresh rate, and color depth can be displayed. Synchronization range is specified as two values:

Vertical Scanning Frequency (VSF) is the inverse of the time the monitor requires to display one full screen. VSF (also called refresh rate) is measured in hertz (Hz) and specifies the number of times per second the screen can be redrawn. To avoid screen flicker, the monitor should support at least 70 Hz refresh at the selected resolution. Within reason, higher refresh rates provide a more stable image, but rates beyond 85 or 90 Hz are necessary only for specialized applications such as medical imaging. Most monitors support a wide range of refresh rates, from very low (e.g., 50 Hz) to very high (e.g., 120 to 160 Hz).

Horizontal Scanning Frequency (HSF) is the inverse of the time the monitor requires to display one full scan line. HSF is measured in kilohertz (KHz), and specifies the overall range of bandwidths supported by the monitor. For example, a monitor running 1280x1024 at 85 Hz must display 1024 lines 85 times per second, or 87,040 scan lines per second, or about 87 KHz. In fact, some overhead is involved, so the actual HSF for such a monitor might be 93.5 KHz.

Resolution and refresh rate are interrelated parts of synchronization range of an analog monitor. For a given resolution, increasing the refresh rate increases the number of screens (and accordingly the amount of data) that must be transferred each second. Similarly, for a given refresh rate, increasing the resolution increases the amount of data that must be transferred for each screen. If you increase resolution or refresh rate, you may have to decrease the other to stay within the HSF limit on total bandwidth.

Note that manufacturers often specify maximum resolution and maximum refresh rate independently, without consideration for their interrelatedness. For example, specifications for a 19" monitor may promise 1600x1200 resolution and 160 Hz refresh. Don"t assume that means you can run 1600x1200 at 160 Hz. 160 Hz refresh may be supported only at 640x480 resolution; at 1600x1200, the monitor may support only 70 Hz refresh.

Resolution and refresh rate alone determine the required bandwidth for an analog monitor. Color depth is immaterial, because the color displayed for a given pixel is determined by the analog voltages present on the red, green, and blue lines at the time that pixel is processed. Therefore, at a given resolution and refresh rate, an analog monitor uses exactly the same bandwidth whether the color depth is set to 4, 8, 16, 24, or 32 bits, because the video card converts the digital color data to analog signals before sending it to the monitor. For purely digital monitors, such as LCD displays, greater color depth requires greater bandwidth, because color information is conveyed to a digital monitor as a digital signal.

Monitors use one of three geometries for the front viewing surface. Older monitors used spherical tubes or cylindrical tubes, both of which have noticeably curved surfaces. Flat square tubes (FST) are nearly flat. Other than some "value" models, all current monitors use an FST. Don"t consider buying a monitor that is not FST.

CRTs cost less than LCDs. For the same price as an entry-level 17" LCD, you can buy a midrange 19" CRT or two good 17" CRTs. The pricing differential has somewhat narrowed recently, but LCDs are likely for the foreseeable future to cost more than CRTs with similar size, features, and quality.

LCDs are designed to operate at one resolution, typically 1024x768 for 15" models and 1280x1024 for 17", 18", and 19" models. Although you can run an LCD at lower resolution than it was designed to use, you don"t want to. At nonnative resolution, you must choose between having a sharp image that occupies only a portion of the screen or using pixel extrapolation, which results in a full-screen image with significantly degraded image quality. CRTs, conversely, can operate at various resolutions, which means that you can choose the resolution that suits your own preferences and vision.

A high-quality CRT normally lasts for many years. It"s common for a CRT to remain in use for five years or more, and even ten years is not unheard of. LCDs use an array of cold cathode ray tubes (CCRTs), which are similar to fluorescent tubes, to provide the backlight required to view the image. A failed CCRT is not economically repairable. When a CCRT burns out, the LCD display must be replaced.

CRTs use phosphor pixels, which can be turned on or off almost instantly. LCDs use transistorized pixels that respond more slowly. This slower response may be visible as a smearing or ghosting effect when an LCD displays fast-motion video, such as DVD video or graphics-intensive games. Although better LCDs don"t exhibit this problem, at least not as severely as cheaper models, it is common and intrusive with entry-level LCDs.

CRTs present essentially the same image quality regardless of viewing angle. Conversely, LCDs present their best image quality only within a relatively small viewing angle, although midrange and better LCD models typically have larger viewing angles than entry-level models.

Many graphic artists refuse to use LCDs because the appearance of colors and the relationship between them changes with viewing angle. This problem is particularly acute with inexpensive LCDs, although even premium units exhibit it at least to some extent. The best LCD models are good enough in this respect for routine use, but most who insist on accurate color reproduction still prefer high-quality CRT monitors.

A CRT never has defective pixels. An LCD panel is manufactured as a monolithic item that contains more than a million pixels, and on some LCD panels one or a few of those pixels are defective. Defective pixels may be always-on (white), always-off (black), or some color. People vary in their reaction to defective pixels. Many don"t even notice a defective pixel or two, while others, once they notice a defective pixel, seem to be drawn to that pixel to the exclusion of all else. Most manufacturer warranties specifically exclude some number of defective pixels, typically between five and ten, although the number may vary with display size and, sometimes, with the location of the defective pixels and how closely they are clustered. As long as the display meets those requirements, the manufacturer considers the display to be acceptable. You may or may not find it acceptable.

Although the contrast and brightness of recent high-end LCDs are excellent, most LCDs provide subjectively less vibrant color than a good CRT. This is particularly evident in the darkest and lightest areas, where tones seem to be compressed, which limits subtle gradations between light tones or dark tones that are readily evident on a good CRT. Also, some LCDs add a color cast to what should be neutral light or dark tones. For example, dark neutral tones may appear shifted toward the blue (cooler) or red (warmer) ranges. This problem is less prevalent in high-quality LCDs than in entry-level units, and is also more likely to occur if you are using an analog interface rather than a digital interface.

If your budget is limited, a CRT offers far more bang for the buck than an LCD and, particularly for entry-level models, overall display quality will also be higher.

Remember that a CRT display is a long-term purchase. Even with heavy use, a high-quality CRT can be expected to last five years or more, so buy quality and choose a model that"s likely to keep you happy not just for your current system, but for one or even two systems after that.

Make sure the CRT is big enough, but not too big. We consider 17" models suitable only for casual use or those on the tightest of budgets. For not much more, you can buy a 19" model that you"ll be much happier with. Conversely, make sure your desk or workstation furniture can accommodate the new CRT. Many people have excitedly carried home a new 21" CRT only to find that it literally won"t fit where it needs to. Check physical dimensions and weight carefully before you buy. Large CRTs commonly weigh 50 lbs. or more, and some exceed 100 lbs. That said, if you find yourself debating 17" versus 19" or 19" versus 21", go with the larger model. But note that if your decision is between a cheap larger CRT and a high-quality smaller one for about the same price, you may well be happier with the smaller CRT. A $130 17" CRT beats a $130 19" CRT every time.

Stick with good name brands and buy a midrange or higher model from within that name brand. That doesn"t guarantee that you"ll get a good CRT, but it does greatly increase your chances. The CRT market is extremely competitive. If two similar models differ greatly in price, the cheaper one likely has significantly worse specs. If the specs appear similar, the maker of the cheaper model has cut corners somewhere, whether in component quality, construction quality, or warranty policies.

RECOMMENDED BRANDS Our opinion, which is shared by many, is that NEC-Mitsubishi, Samsung, and ViewSonic make the best CRTs available. Their CRTs, particularly midrange and better models, provide excellent image quality and are quite reliable. You"re likely to be happy with a CRT from any of these manufacturers.

If possible, test the exact CRT you plan to buy (not a floor sample) before you buy it. Ask the local store to endorse the manufacturer"s warranty that is, to agree that if the CRT fails you can bring it back to the store for a replacement rather than dealing with the hassles of returning it to the manufacturer. Mass merchandisers like Best Buy usually won"t do this they try to sell you a service contract instead, which you shouldn"t buy but small local computer stores may agree to endorse the manufacturer"s warranty. If the CRT has hidden damage from rough handling during shipping, that damage will ordinarily be apparent within a month or two of use, if not immediately.

BUY CRTS LOCALLY After shipping costs, it may actually cost less to buy locally, but that is not the main reason for doing so. Buying locally gives you the opportunity to examine the exact CRT you are buying. CRTs vary more between samples than other computer components. Also, CRTs are sometimes damaged in shipping, often without any external evidence on the CRT itself or even the box. Damaged CRTs may arrive DOA, but more often they have been jolted severely enough to cause display problems and perhaps reduced service life, but not complete failure. Buying locally allows you to eliminate a "dud" before you buy it, rather than having to deal with shipping it back to the vendor or manufacturer.

Most mainstream CRT manufacturers produce three Good, Better, and Best models in 17", 19", and 21". In general, the Good model from a first-tier maker corresponds roughly in features, specifications, and price to the Better or Best models from lower-tier makers. For casual use, choose a Good model from a first-tier maker, most of which are very good indeed. If you make heavier demands on your CRT such as sitting in front of it eight hours a day you may find that the Better model from a first-tier maker is the best choice. The Best models from first-tier makers are usually overkill, although they may be necessary if you use the CRT for CAD/CAM or other demanding tasks. Best models often have generally useless features like extremely high resolutions and unnecessarily high refresh rates at moderate resolutions. It"s nice that a Best 17" model can display 1600x1200 resolution, for example, but unless you can float on thermals and dive on rabbits from a mile in the air, that resolution is likely to be unusable. Similarly, a 17" CRT that supports 115 MHz refresh rates at 1024x768 is nice, but in practical terms offers no real advantage over one that supports an 85 or 90 MHz refresh.

Choose the specific CRT you buy based on how it looks to you. Comparing specifications helps narrow the list of candidates, but nothing substitutes for actually looking at the image displayed by the CRT. For example, CRTs with Sony Trinitron tubes have one or two fine horizontal internal wires whose shadows appear on screen. Most people don"t even notice the shadow, but some find it intolerable.

Make sure the CRT has sufficient reserve brightness. CRTs dim as they age, and one of the most common flaws in new CRTs, particularly those from second- and third-tier manufacturers, is inadequate brightness. A CRT that is barely bright enough when new may dim enough to become unusable after a year or two. A new CRT should provide a good image with the brightness set no higher than 50%.

Like all other component manufacturers, CRT makers have come under increasing margin pressures. A few years ago, we felt safe in recommending any CRT from a first-tier maker, because those companies refused to put their names on anything but top-notch products. Alas, first-tier makers have been forced to make manufacturing cost reductions and other compromises to compete with cheap Pacific Rim CRTs.

Accordingly, low-end models from first-tier makers may be of lower quality than they were in the past. The presence of a first-tier maker"s name plate still means that CRT is likely to be of higher quality than a similar no-name CRT, but is no longer a guarantee of top quality. Many first-tier CRTs are actually made in the same Pacific Rim plants that also produce no-name junk, but don"t read too much into that. First-tier CRTs are still differentiated by component quality and the level of quality control they undergo. There is no question in our minds that the first-tier CRTs are easily worth the 10% to 20% price premium they command relative to lesser brands. In fact, we think it is worth the extra cost to buy not just a first-tier CRT, but a midrange first-tier CRT.

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Alibaba.com has a massive stock of durable and proficient crt panel at your disposal that are worth every penny. These spectacular crt panel are available in varied sizes, colors, shapes, screen patterns and models equipped with extraordinary features such as being waterproof, heatproof and much more. These are energy-efficient devices and do not consume loads of electricity. The crt panel you can procure here are equipped with advanced LED chips, dazzling HD quality, and are fully customizable.

Save money by browsing through the distinct crt panel ranges at Alibaba.com and get the best quality products delivered. These products are available with after-sales maintenance and are also available as OEM orders. The products are ISO, CE, ROHS, REACH certified.

Information on two types of flat-panel display at the Zürich Hauptbahnhof railway station: an orange LED display (top right) and a LCD screen (bottom)

A flat-panel display (FPD) is an electronic display used to display visual content such as text or images. It is present in consumer, medical, transportation, and industrial equipment.

Flat-panel displays are thin, lightweight, provide better linearity and are capable of higher resolution than typical consumer-grade TVs from earlier eras. They are usually less than 10 centimetres (3.9 in) thick. While the highest resolution for consumer-grade CRT televisions was 1080i, many flat-panel displays in the 2020s are capable of 1080p and 4K resolution.

In the 2010s, portable consumer electronics such as laptops, mobile phones, and portable cameras have used flat-panel displays since they consume less power and are lightweight. As of 2016, flat-panel displays have almost completely replaced CRT displays.

Most 2010s-era flat-panel displays use LCD or light-emitting diode (LED) technologies, sometimes combined. Most LCD screens are back-lit with color filters used to display colors. In many cases, flat-panel displays are combined with touch screen technology, which allows the user to interact with the display in a natural manner. For example, modern smartphone displays often use OLED panels, with capacitive touch screens.

Flat-panel displays can be divided into two display device categories: volatile and static. The former requires that pixels be periodically electronically refreshed to retain their state (e.g. liquid-crystal displays (LCD)), and can only show an image when it has power. On the other hand, static flat-panel displays rely on materials whose color states are bistable, such as displays that make use of e-ink technology, and as such retain content even when power is removed.

The first engineering proposal for a flat-panel TV was by General Electric in 1954 as a result of its work on radar monitors. The publication of their findings gave all the basics of future flat-panel TVs and monitors. But GE did not continue with the R&D required and never built a working flat panel at that time.Aiken tube, developed in the early 1950s and produced in limited numbers in 1958. This saw some use in military systems as a heads up display and as an oscilloscope monitor, but conventional technologies overtook its development. Attempts to commercialize the system for home television use ran into continued problems and the system was never released commercially.

The Philco Predicta featured a relatively flat (for its day) cathode ray tube setup and would be the first commercially released "flat panel" upon its launch in 1958; the Predicta was a commercial failure. The plasma display panel was invented in 1964 at the University of Illinois, according to The History of Plasma Display Panels.

The MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor, or MOS transistor) was invented by Mohamed M. Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs in 1959,Paul K. Weimer at RCA developed the thin-film transistor (TFT) in 1962.Bernard J. Lechner of RCA Laboratories in 1968.dynamic scattering LCD that used standard discrete MOSFETs.

The first active-matrix addressed electroluminescent display (ELD) was made using TFTs by T. Peter Brody"s Thin-Film Devices department at Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1968.Westinghouse Research Laboratories demonstrated the first thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT LCD).active-matrix liquid-crystal display (AM LCD) using TFTs in 1974.

By 1982, pocket LCD TVs based on LCD technology were developed in Japan.Epson ET-10Epson Elf was the first color LCD pocket TV, released in 1984.Sharp research team led by engineer T. Nagayasu demonstrated a 14-inch full-color LCD display,electronics industry that LCD would eventually replace CRTs as the standard television display technology.high-resolution and high-quality electronic visual display devices use TFT-based active-matrix displays.

The first usable LED display was developed by Hewlett-Packard (HP) and introduced in 1968.research and development (R&D) on practical LED technology between 1962 and 1968, by a research team under Howard C. Borden, Gerald P. Pighini, and Mohamed M. Atalla, at HP Associates and HP Labs. In February 1969, they introduced the HP Model 5082-7000 Numeric Indicator.digital display technology, replacing the Nixie tube for numeric displays and becoming the basis for later LED displays.

Ching W. Tang and Steven Van Slyke at Eastman Kodak built the first practical organic LED (OLED) device in 1987.Hynix produced an organic EL driver capable of lighting in 4,096 colors.Sony Qualia 005 was the first LED-backlit LCD display.Sony XEL-1, released in 2007, was the first OLED television.

Field-effect LCDs are lightweight, compact, portable, cheap, more reliable, and easier on the eyes than CRT screens. LCD screens use a thin layer of liquid crystal, a liquid that exhibits crystalline properties. It is sandwiched between two glass plates carrying transparent electrodes. Two polarizing films are placed at each side of the LCD. By generating a controlled electric field between electrodes, various segments or pixels of the liquid crystal can be activated, causing changes in their polarizing properties. These polarizing properties depend on the alignment of the liquid-crystal layer and the specific field-effect used, being either Twisted Nematic (TN), In-Plane Switching (IPS) or Vertical Alignment (VA). Color is produced by applying appropriate color filters (red, green and blue) to the individual subpixels. LCD displays are used in various electronics like watches, calculators, mobile phones, TVs, computer monitors and laptops screens etc.

Most earlier large LCD screens were back-lit using a number of CCFL (cold-cathode fluorescent lamps). However, small pocket size devices almost always used LEDs as their illumination source. With the improvement of LEDs, almost all new displays are now equipped with LED backlight technology. The image is still generated by the LCD layer.

A plasma display consists of two glass plates separated by a thin gap filled with a gas such as neon. Each of these plates has several parallel electrodes running across it. The electrodes on the two plates are at right angles to each other. A voltage applied between the two electrodes one on each plate causes a small segment of gas at the two electrodes to glow. The glow of gas segments is maintained by a lower voltage that is continuously applied to all electrodes. By 2010, consumer plasma displays had been discontinued by numerous manufacturers.

An OLED (organic light-emitting diode) is a light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound which emits light in response to an electric current. This layer of organic semiconductor is situated between two electrodes; typically, at least one of these electrodes is transparent. OLEDs are used to create digital displays in devices such as television screens, computer monitors, portable systems such as mobile phones, handheld game consoles and PDAs.

QLED or quantum dot LED is a flat panel display technology introduced by Samsung under this trademark. Other television set manufacturers such as Sony have used the same technology to enhance the backlighting of LCD TVs already in 2013.wavelength such as blue LEDs. This type of LED TV enhances the colour gamut of LCD panels, where the image is still generated by the LCD. In the view of Samsung, quantum dot displays for large-screen TVs are expected to become more popular than the OLED displays in the coming years; Firms like Nanoco and Nanosys compete to provide the QD materials. In the meantime, Samsung Galaxy devices such as smartphones are still equipped with OLED displays manufactured by Samsung as well. Samsung explains on their website that the QLED TV they produce can determine what part of the display needs more or less contrast. Samsung also announced a partnership with Microsoft that will promote the new Samsung QLED TV.

Volatile displays require that pixels be periodically refreshed to retain their state, even for a static image. As such, a volatile screen needs electrical power, either from mains electricity (being plugged into a wall socket) or a battery to maintain an image on the display or change the image. This refresh typically occurs many times a second. If this is not done, for example, if there is a power outage, the pixels will gradually lose their coherent state, and the image will "fade" from the screen.

Amazon"s Kindle Keyboard e-reader displaying a page of an e-book. The Kindle"s image of the book"s text will remain onscreen even if the battery runs out, as it is a static screen technology. Without power, however, the user cannot change to a new page.

Static flat-panel displays rely on materials whose color states are bistable. This means that the image they hold requires no energy to maintain, but instead requires energy to change. This results in a much more energy-efficient display, but with a tendency toward slow refresh rates which are undesirable in an interactive display. Bistable flat-panel displays are beginning deployment in limited applications (cholesteric liquid-crystal displays, manufactured by Magink, in outdoor advertising; electrophoretic displays in e-book reader devices from Sony and iRex; anlabels; interferometric modulator displays in a smartwatch).

William Ross Aiken, "History of the Kaiser-Aiken, thin cathode ray tube", IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Volume 31 Issue 11 (November 1984), pp. 1605–1608.

Kawamoto, H. (2012). "The Inventors of TFT Active-Matrix LCD Receive the 2011 IEEE Nishizawa Medal". Journal of Display Technology. 8 (1): 3–4. Bibcode:2012JDisT...8....3K. doi:10.1109/JDT.2011.2177740. ISSN 1551-319X.

Castellano, Joseph A. (2005). Liquid gold: the story of liquid crystal displays and the creation of an industry ([Online-Ausg.] ed.). New Jersey [u.a.]: World Scientific. pp. 176–7. ISBN 981-238-956-3.

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First off, NTSC is a standard for video transmission, which can exist in its "raw" form (called baseband video) or a modulated form (called broadcast video). The modulated form can take use almost any RF connector, including the RCA and BNC connectors you mentioned, along with screw type connections, various flavors of F connectors, or wireless transmission using antennae. The "raw" baseband video, which is not modulated to a carrier frequency, is typically supplied with a BNC or RCA type connector, as you mentioned, although frequently in proprietary electronics products it is connected directly using soldered coax cable with no connectors at either end.

The 9 pin connector that you mention was used to carry CGA, EGA, and also the original MGA (monochrome graphics) standards. To my knowledge, VGA was NEVER used with a 9 pin connector, it started out as a 15 pin connector (not the 13 pin you mention) and has not changed since.

The SVGA and XVGA standards you mention are not really different physical standards as far as cabling, connectors, etc. but rather industry names for pixel resolution count (800X600 and 1024X768, respectively). You mention that SVGA and XVGA are for 1024X768 and above, but this is not really the case - only XVGA is 1024X768 - not "above". SVGA, as I previously mentioned, is only 800X600 - definitely not "1024X768 and above".

Initially, the graphics card and monitor companies supported plain VGA (640X480 and lower) and anyone who wanted higher resolution used some kind of proprietary video card/monitor combination (usually involving 4 or 5 BNC connector terminated coax cables) to achieve higher resolutions. The SVGA and XVGA came about as an attempt not only to standardize higher resolutions, but also to standardize the way in which the video card memory was used for each pixel and color. Both of these standards, however, used exactly the same connector pinouts and signal levels as normal VGA, unlike the differences between the first 3 standards (monochrome, CGA, EGA) - which all used different electrical specs. However, for the purposes of converting NTSC to VGA, this is irrelevant due to the vertical scan line limitations of NTSC which, as you point out, are limited to 525 lines.

The last thing I would like to talk about, while not a technical error on your part, may be an economic one. Buying a pre-made monitor/keyboard combination for the machine in question might be the slickest and nicest way overall, but is VERY expensive compared to doing it the "home brew" way this thread has been discussing. These monitor/keyboard kits you mention would cost quite a bit more than putting in a standard off the shelf LCD monitor, which could be shielded with clear plastic covers, etc. with a little ingenuity.

Hope I haven"t offended you in any way, that is not my intent. Just wanted to correct a few technical errors and point out that doing it the "industry standard" way, while often the nicest, is not always the most economical or fun.

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Behind a nondescript Manhattan storefront, Chi-Tien Lui is stockpiling objects many people wouldn’t think twice about trashing: cathode ray tube televisions. The first floor of CTL Electronics — whose clientele includes the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney, and other museums across the country — is lined with a rich mix of vintage TVs, from tiny boxes to big, looming screens. In his bedroom upstairs, Lui has a 1930s mechanical television, an early image transmission system that passed light through a spinning metal disc. In his workshop, there’s a grid of old screens that once sat inside the Palladium, an iconic New York nightclub that closed in 1997. “They used to have 16 of these, rotating in the club — everybody danced underneath,” Lui recalls. “When they went out of business I took all the equipment back. And right now, I’m restoring them.”

CRTs were once synonymous with television. By 1960, nearly 90 percent of American households had one. But at the turn of the millennium, their popularity rapidly decayed as LCD panels flooded the market. Even though CRTs comprised an estimated 85 percent of US television sales in 2003, analysts were already predicting the technology’s demise. In 2008, LCD panels outsold CRTs worldwide for the first time. Sony shut down its last manufacturing plants that same year, essentially abandoning its famous Trinitron CRT brand. By 2014, even stronghold markets like India were fading, with local manufacturers switching to flat-panel displays.

Despite all this, picture tube televisions continue to linger. You’ll find them in museums, arcades, video game tournaments, and the homes of dedicated fans. But as the CRT slips further into obsolescence, devotees like Lui are navigating a difficult transition between simply maintaining an aging device and preserving a piece of technological history.

The concept of television predates the electronic CRT display by decades. Scholar Alexander Magoun’s book Television: The Life Story of a Technology describes it as a natural extension of the telegram, fax machine, and telephone. In 1879, a cartoonist envisioned families communicating across continents via a wall-mounted “telephonoscope.” In the 1880s, German inventor Paul Nipkow imagined capturing slices of an image through holes in a spinning disk, then projecting the light patterns through an identical disk on the other end. Russian scientist Constantin Perskyi reported on this new theory of “television by means of electricity” at the 1900 Paris world’s fair, coining the term that we still use today.

The first actual working television, demonstrated by Scottish inventor John Baird in the mid-1920s, used Nipkow’s mechanical disk idea to show dim, fuzzy images of a ventriloquist dummy named Stookie Bill. Several similar devices followed, some backed by major companies like GE and AT&T. By 1928, Americans could pay for a mechanical “radiovision” kit from inventor Charles Jenkins, and tune in for thrice-weekly “radiomovie” pantomimes on his broadcast network. But these TVs were inherently limited by the number of holes you could put on a disk, and the incredibly bright lights that were required to capture an image.

Electronic CRT TVs flourished in the years after World War II, and for the rest of its lifespan, manufacturers looked for ways to iterate on it. Perhaps the most obvious advance was color television, which took off in the 1960s after a bitter standards war between Columbia Broadcasting System and the ultimately victorious National Broadcasting Company. Once these standards were set, individual companies built loyalty with technological tweaks. Sony’s iconic Trinitron abandoned the perforated metal “shadow mask” that most color TVs used to keep their electron streams separate, for instance, using vertical wires that produced bright, clean colors and a flatter screen.

Toward the end of the CRT era, manufacturers began directly competing with the plasma and liquid-crystal displays that were threatening to overtake the market. The mid-2000s saw a brief enthusiasm for “ultra-slim” models, which touted tubes as miraculously thin as 15 inches. Some manufacturers adopted new high-definition HDMI connections. These machines maintained a tenuous advantage at first: new flat-panel TVs cost thousands of dollars, and consumers had to sort through a confusing assortment of unproven display technologies. But as these screens got cheaper, bigger, and had higher-resolutions, there was no way for the CRT to win. Its design relied on a fat glass tube, which became deeper and heavier with every added inch of screen space. Sony’s hulking 40-inch Trinitron from 2002, one of the biggest consumer CRTs ever produced, weighed over 300 pounds. A modern 40-inch Sony TV, the second-smallest option in its current lineup, weighs less than 20 pounds.

But flatscreens haven’t won everyone over. Ian Primus, an IT repair technician and CRT aficionado, has amassed a basement and storage unit full of old TVs. He has a reputation as one of the increasingly few people who will take CRTs off people’s hands. “If you let people know that you’re looking for old TVs, suddenly you’ve got three or four people calling you,” he says. He gives out his number to thrift stores that have decided the bulky sets are more trouble than they’re worth and want to direct donors elsewhere. Sometimes he simply drives around at night before garbage collection, looking for castoffs.

Primus says he doesn’t just hoard old TVs; he uses them constantly in his daily life. “I don’t have an LCD computer monitor, and I don’t have an LCD TV. Everything is CRTs,” he says. “I know I’m crazy.” Most new devices exclusively support current TVs, including one of Primus’ newer tech purchases — Nintendo’s NES Classic — which, ironically for such a retro-looking device, only features a modern HDMI adapter. But it’s still possible to use adapters with many of them. As long as that’s true, Primus says he’ll probably stick with CRTs.

“I’m not going to try to be one of those guys who says, ‘Yeah the picture on a CRT is better than the LCD,’” he says. But he likes the deep blacks and high color contrast and the sturdiness of old hardware. Primus, like Lui, is also helping keep CRTs available to the people who can’t do without them. In his case, that’s the retro gaming community.

A video game’s look and feel is often highly dependent on specific hardware setups, and for most of the medium’s history, those setups often involved a CRT. The iconic black scanlines we associate with old games, for instance, exist because consoles would tell a TV to only draw every other line — thus avoiding the flickering that interlaced video could produce, and smoothing out the overall image. (For more detail, retro gaming enthusiast Tobias Reich maintains an exhaustive guide about scanlines and other CRT rendering issues.) Old games may look torn or feel laggy on a new TV. That’s in part because LCD screens process an entire frame of an image and then display it, rather than receiving a signal and drawing it right away.

Some games are completely dependent on the display technology. One of the best-known examples is Duck Hunt, which uses Nintendo’s Zapper light gun. When players pull the trigger, the entire screen briefly flashes black, then a white square appears at the “duck’s” location. If the optical sensor detects a quick black-then-white pattern, it’s a hit. The entire Zapper system is coded for a CRT’s super fast refresh rate, and it doesn’t work on new LCD TVs without significant DIY modification.

A less extreme — but much more popular — case is Super Smash Bros. Melee, a 2001 Nintendo GameCube title that’s become one of the most beloved fighting games of all time. Originally designed for casual players at parties, Melee upends the conventions set by series like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat: instead of memorizing combos to chip down an opponent’s health bar, players try to knock each other off the screen using careful positioning and improvised, super fast moves. Despite its age, and the increasing difficulty of finding a copy, it’s a mainstay at fighting game tournaments.

Melee’s frantic pace has kept players coming back year after year, even after Nintendo released subsequent Super Smash Bros.games in 2008 and 2014. But it also makes the game exceptionally unforgiving of lag. On CRT monitors, which were dominant when the game launched, a character will react almost instantly when you push a button. On a newer TV, the animation may start just a little later, forcing players to adjust their timing, which can put them at a disadvantage.

As with many debates in the gaming world, there’s disagreement over whether new TVs are truly unusable. Not everyone believes the lag is bad enough to justify keeping an old CRT around, especially as flat-panel displays have gotten more responsive. But for now, visiting the Melee section of an e-sports tournament is a little like stepping back in time, as sleek LCD screens give way to bulky black boxes. Some of those boxes belong to Primus. He leases them out to gatherings around his hometown of Albany, as well as larger events across the region, like the Boston-based tournament Shine.

Shi Deng, co-founder of Shine’s organizing body Big Blue Esports, estimates the tournament used about 100 CRTs last year. Some events let players bring their own displays, but Shine doesn’t; they’re a pain to set up, and there’s too much liability if someone drops a 50- or 100-pound television on the ground. (An abandoned CRT caused real panic at one Detroit tournament last year, when police shut down the surrounding block out of fear it might be a bomb.) Instead, they rent from a handful of providers, who might truck the screens in from hundreds of miles away, coordinating tournament dates so there are enough TVs to go around.

Deng has his own small CRT, a hand-me-down from his mother. But rounding up old TVs is one of the most inconvenient parts of running a tournament, he says, and he’d love to see Nintendo come out with a remake so the Melee community could move on. That may not happen anytime soon. Some Smash players have rallied around the 2014 Wii U sequel, but it’s still a sideshow. A Nintendo Switch remake was widely rumored last year, but so far, it’s proven elusive.

Even if it does come out, CRTs will have a place in gaming for years to come. Speedrunners, for instance, use them to get the absolute best reaction time on old games. And CRTs aren’t just a pragmatic consideration for experts, either. They’re also the only way to give people a sense of how a game’s original players would have experienced it.

The CRT’s slow extinction is also becoming a pressing problem for arcades, especially with the rise of arcade bars over the past decade. Establishments like San Francisco’s Brewcade, Portland’s Ground Kontrol, and Chicago’s Emporium Arcade Bar all line their walls with dozens of nostalgia-inspiring cabinets and by extension, dozens of CRT displays.

Barcade, one of the largest — and most strictly retro-focused — chains, has about 350 games spread across seven locations. It has almost an equal number in storage. The company carefully preserves original, untouched cabinets for games like Centipedeand Tetris. But it also buys a lot of sloppy “conversions” — machines that arcade operators hacked to install new games, with different paint jobs and controls. It strips these down for parts, operating out of what Barcade co-founder and CEO Paul Kermizian jokingly refers to as a “secret lair” on the outskirts of New York City. They give the cabinets to collectors for restoration, swap individual components into vintage machines, and hold onto the tubes until they can’t possibly be fixed.

These places may eventually have to start installing LCD monitors in cabinets, and the results might not be disastrous. Software filters can approximate a CRT’s trademark image distortions, like scanlines or the curve of a screen, and a tinted glass panel can enhance the illusion. Not all arcades are so dependent on CRTs, either. Classic arcade series like Street Fighter switched to LCD-based cabinets years ago. A wave of indie game developers have designed a host of cabinet-based games with modern displays, ranging from weird, arty experiments to traditional-looking two-player boxes.

Barcade, for one, will hold onto CRTs as long as possible — and Kermizian thinks that will be a while. “I think there’s plenty around for at least 10 years, before anyone even stresses about it,” he says. It’s still cheaper to buy old parts than to retrofit a cabinet for LCD, a process Kermizian says would cost about $350. And paradoxically, he says fear of an impending shortage could free up more tubes, as some competitors preemptively adopt LCD displays to get ahead of the curve.

“The day maybe will come when we have to do an emulation of a CRT. We’ll be pretty sad,” he says. “But there are a lot of tubes out there. It’s not dire at this point. Not for us, anyway.”

It’s one thing to round up screens for a video game tournament, or even swap out the tube in an arcade cabinet. But what if an artist has turned a mass-market television set into something truly one-of-a-kind and that television set is about to wear out? This is the question that Chi-Tien Lui has built his life around, and one that few people are so well equipped to answer.

When Lui started CTL Electronics in 1968, he and his customers were working in the vanguard of film and video. He had learned to fix TVs as a teenager in Taiwan, and he came to America working as an electrician in the merchant marines. He opened his shop just after Sony released its first Portapak system, a comparatively tiny video camera that attracted artists like Andy Warhol and Nam June Paik, the Korean-born father of video art. Paik and others came to CTL for help with their work, and as their installations aged, shaping the future of media became less important than preserving its past.

Today, Lui specializes in maintaining pieces like Paik’s Untitled (Piano), a player piano piled high with televisions displaying closed-circuit footage of its interior workings. He’s been fixing TVs for so long that he knows exactly which brands have compatible parts, across decades’ worth of hardware, including the now-rare Korean monitors that Paik favored. That’s particularly important for the museums that hire him to help replicate the precise original look of video art installations. It’s a task that’s much easier if you can just replace a broken tube with one of the right shape and size, rather than replacing the entire set. When he eventually retires, the prospect of losing that expertise makes the future of CTL Electronics — which employs Lui’s daughter and a handful of other employees — uncertain.

CRTs are tough pieces of hardware, but as they age, plenty of things can go wrong. The electron gun can weaken, giving screens a dim, yellowish tinge. An electrical transformer can blow out. The phosphor can burn away unevenly, leaving permanent, ghostly outlines of images behind.

Lui works with a German engineer who helps refurbish tubes — by installing a new electron gun to fix yellowing, for example. Much of his work involves sifting through the vast but shrinking pool of CRT detritus. He scours eBay for old TVs and parts, snapping them up in bulk, and hopes that most of them will work when they arrive. “It’s getting harder and harder, and the price goes up and up and up,” he says. He gestures toward a sizable Sony Trinitron, one of his prize finds. “Ten years ago, I could get them under $100. Now it’s $2,000. Certain TVs, everybody wanted to grab.”

Getting rid of the broken or unwanted CRTs, though, is a nightmare. “CRTs are essentially the bane of the electronic recycling industry,” says Andrew Orben, director of business development at Tekovery, one of the companies Barcade uses to dispose of irrevocably broken hardware. The tubes contain toxic metals that could leach into a dump site, and 18 states specifically ban sending them to landfills. They’re made of raw materials that are often impossible to sell at a profit, primarily glass that’s mixed with several pounds of lead. When CRTs were still being made, that was a useful resource, but recyclers have struggled to find other uses. Companies could once export the tubes abroad, but as LCDs become more commonplace, CRTs are becoming less and less attractive.

Tekovery doesn’t dismantle the CRTs it receives, and Orben says few e-waste companies in America will handle that part of the operation. Over the past few years, several supposed CRT “recyclers” have been caught secretly abandoning their old displays in vast television graveyards. Iowa’s attorney general sued the now-defunct company Recycletronics in January for storing 4.6 million pounds of leaded CRT glass, along with other e-waste, across eight facilities in two states. A lawsuit last year targeted a former partner of Recycletronics, which kept a staggering 113 million pounds of glass in two Ohio warehouses.

The problem isn’t going away anytime soon, either. A 2011 EPA-commissioned report estimated that over 580 million CRT televisions (not counting computer monitors) had been sold in the US since 1980; the average CRT was used for 11 years and kept in storage long after that. Recyclers don’t want to deal with them, and even if TVs are dismantled correctly — and not dumped in a landfill — the dust from leaded glass can have long-term health effects on workers and their families, including birth defects in children.

“There are companies in the industry that are specifically looking for long-term solutions” to the CRT recycling question, says Orben. But they’ve faced their own difficulties. Nulife, a company that legitimately smelted down old tubes for commercial sale, was ordered to scrap its backlog of glass after failing regulatory checks. It pulled out of the US market last year.

The CRT television has had a vast impact on American culture, but it’s come at a cost — and the companies that created this crisis aren’t the ones paying it. “The manufacturers made their money on this type of stuff,” complains Orben, “and now, they’ve basically left all these private recyclers to clean up.”

The few people still using CRTs are trying to preserve the best experiences these machines made possible — to prolong the lives of objects that don’t die gracefully. “We as a society have developed this mentality where everything CRT-based is obsolete and needs to be trashed,” Primus says. “They’re a lot more robust than people think they are.”

Aging televisions will eventually stop feeling merely old and start feeling vintage. It’s unlikely that CRTs will enjoy a sudden resurgence in popularity like vinyl records have. They’re extraordinarily large and heavy, and depend on other obsolete technologies like VCRs and old gaming consoles. But people may start thinking more carefully about how to maintain or donate them, rather than just throwing them away — something that would be good for both preservationists and the environment. For now, Lui sees the bright side of our nearly century-long love affair with CRTs. “America’s a good place to collect antiques,” he says. “It’s much easier to get old equipment in this country than anywhere else.”

In the meantime, he has no intention of moving into the world of repairing flatscreens. “When the iPod, iPad came out, I quit learning new things,” he says. The new generation of electronics, he says, is fundamentally different from the old one. You could go to a factory training program and learn how to repair a CRT. “The new TVs, they don’t want you to repair.”

But when it comes to actually watching television, Lui is less nostalgic. Across from the grid of Palladium monitors, he shows off a Chinese TV station playing on a massive screen above his desk. “This is an LG, Korean TV, OLED monitor,” he says. “I think this is the best TV I’ve ever seen.”