TFT Monitors

Understanding TFT monitors

TFT monitors utilize a thin film transistor on each pixel that makes up a LCD TV. This is a very small electronic device that switches the color sub-pixel on or off to allow light to pass through. Because of the size of the transistor, it can turn off and on rapidly and uses very little energy.

Before TFT LCD monitors were on the market, the most common kind was passive matrix technology. They used a grid of wires to activate a particular cell. The major problems with passive matrix technology were slow response time and slow refresh rates. Sometimes ghosting would occur when an image would move across the screen too fast because of the imprecise ability to deliver a full current to the correct cell.

Standard 19 inch TFT monitors use switching transistors and capacitors to deliver current to the correct cell. The capacitor can store and release energy very quickly and provides not only a faster refresh rate but a sharper image.

Shopping for a TFT Flat Panel Monitor

A TFT LCD monitor can have millions of pixels and transistors. If a transistor malfunctions, it will create a dead pixel. It won’t be a black spot like you’d expect, but rather because the pixel is letting light in the dead pixel will either be red, blue or green.

Because of the high refresh rates and brilliant colors gamers will benefit from a TFT monitor. There are only a few companies that manufacture panels for many of the most common monitor brands, so there is usually not a lot of variation from brand to brand. LG TFT monitors, for example, will use panels manufactured by one these companies. TFT viewing angle can vary based up manufacturers’ specs but Samsung TFT monitors tend to have a viewing angle of 170 degrees. This means that after that there will be color and image distortion. Some of the newer models with high refresh rates up to 120 Hz will use a dual DVI input to handle the amount of information sent from the computer to the monitor. Unless a truly advanced gamer, the general user will not need this feature and a single VGA input should be satisfactory for everyday viewing.