Chapter 19: Display Technologies

Install a Video card

(Refer to Chapter 7 on installing new card) Plug the monitor cable into the video card port on the back of the PC, and power up the system. If your PC seems dead after you install a video card, or if the screen is blank but you hear fans whirring and the internal speaker sounding off long-short-short-short, your video card likely did not get properly seated. Unplug the PC and try again.

What do blacklights need?

AC power

Connections

Connections

What MS API supports 3-D graphics?

DirectX

Video cards were developed with smart onboard GPUs. The GPU helped the CPU by taking some and eventually all of the 3-D rendering duties. These video cards not only have GPU but also have massive amounts of RAM to store textures.

How do we talk to the video card? Through a device driver. Need to create standard to speed up the process? Need to create a standardized set of instructions that any 3-D program could send to a video card to do all the basic work such as "make a cone" or "lay texture 237 on the cone you just made."

Thin Film Transistor (TFT) or Active Matrix technology

Instead of using X and Y wires, one or more tiny transistors control each color dot, providing faster picture display, crisp definition, and much tighter color control than passive or dual-scan technologies could provide.

HDMI comes in three standard sizes: Standard Mini Micro Plus there is a Type E connector used exclusively for automobile is what you will find on video cards and televisions and some portable devices.

Mini-HDMI port

HD-15 most people call VGA and DVI.

Most DVI connections on video cards these days natively support analog signals.

Modes

Most video cards add very advanced settings to enable you to finely tweak your monitor.

LCD monitor is composed of three main components: the LCD panel, the blacklight(s) and the inverters.

The LCD panel creates the image, the BLACKLIGHTS illuminate the image so you can see it and the INVERTERS send power to the backlights.

Troubleshooting Video Cards/Drivers

Troubleshooting Video Cards/Drivers

You can plug a single-link DVI monitor into a dual-link DVI connector and it will work just fine

Video card people include both a VGA and a DVI-D connector or they use a DVI-I connector. The advantage to DVI-I is that you can add a cheap DVI-I to VGA adapter (one usually comes with the video card) and connector to an analog monitor just fine.

Different types of displays use different methods and technologies

Video displays for computers come in two varieties: LCD and projector

Working with Drivers

Working with Drivers

shadow masks

a screen that allowed only the proper electron gun to light the proper phosphors

LED monitors

are LCD monitors that use LEDs for backlighting

Phosphors

are dots of phosphorous that glow red, green or blue when electron gun sweeps over them

the native resolution

creates the best display on a screen

native resolution

display sharpest picture when set to this resolution

Video card issues

missing or corrupted video card driver

lumen

the amount of light provided by a light source

Os needs to know how to handle communication between the CPU and the display adapter, which requires drivers specific for each card to interact with the rest of the video system.

the components specific to video fall into the category of DISPLAY TECHNOLOGIES

Digital visual interface (DVI)

used in new LCDs fully digital connections

digital light processing(DLP)

users a single processor and an array of tiny mirrors to project a front-view image Offers a softer image than LCD

If you see an image distortion or incorrect color patterns what should you do?

1. Calibrate the monitor by resetting it with the onscreen display keys 2. Calibrate the monitor colors within windows (screen resolution-advanced settings-monitor-colors

CONFIGURING YOUR VIDEO software is a two-step process

1. Need to load drivers for the video card 2. Then you need to open the Control Panel and go to the Display Applet (Win7-10) or Personalization Applet (WinVista) to make your adjustments.

when a signal pixel fails, what two things can you try?

1. power cycle 2. use software to check/repair dead pixels

you have a projector in a small, dark room. How many lumens should your projector be measured at?

1000-1500 lumens

A projector with a 16:9 aspect ratio needs to be how far the projector should be from the screen?

11-12 feet

What is the resolution of SXGA?

1280 x 1024

What is the resolution of HDTV 720p?

1280 x 720

What is the max bandwith of PCI?

132 MBps

What is the resolution of WXGA?

1366 x 768

What is the resolution of SXGA?

1400 x 1050

What is the resolution of WSXGA?

1440 x 900

What is the resolution of UXGA?

1600 x 1200

what is 1080p resolution?

1920 x 1080

Here are the most common color depths and the number of bits necessary to store the color information per pixel:

2 colors = 1 bit (mono) 4 colors = 2 bits 16 colors = 4 bits 256 = colors 16 bits 16.7 million collors = 24 bits

sprite

2-D images to create the 3-D world is a bitmap graphic moved around the screen

What is the resolution of HDTV 1080p?

2048 x 1152

What is the resolution of SVGA?

800 x 600

If you expose liquid crystal to an electrical potential, however, the crystals will change their orientation to match the direction of the electrical field. The twist goes away and no light passes through.

A color LCD screen is composed of a large number of tiny liquid crystal molecules (called SUB-PIXELS) arranged in rows and columns between polarizing filters. A translucent sheet above the sub-pixels is colored red, green or blue. each tiny distinct group of three sub-pixels - one red, one green and one blue - forms a physical pixel as shown.

If the LCD monitor cracks, it must be replaced. Can't repair.

A flickering image points to an inexpensive panel with too much light bleed from the backlight or a dying CCFL backlight. LEDs don't flicker. Replace the backlight if necessary.

High end video cards run very hot, you don't want them sitting next to another card. Make sure the fan is on and there is space between the cards

A good practice is to leave a slot next to the video card empty to allow for ventiliation

Dual-Scan Passive Matrix

A speedier method of display in which the screen is refreshed two lines at a time

Over-sized Images and Icons

Adjust screen resolution

EXAM TIP: plasma display device asked about

Advise against using a plasma screen as a computer monitor

Very early in the life of PCs, a new type of video, called a GRAPHICS VIDEO CARD was invented. Similar to a text card. enabled more creative control of the screen. It used more video RAM. The first graphics cards ran 320 X 200 pixels. One bit was needed for each pixel (on or off) so 320 x 200 = 64,000 bits or 8000 bytes. That more RAM than is needed for text but it was still a pretty low amount of RAM - even in the old days.

After monochrome was invented, moving into color for both text and graphics video cards was an easy step. How to store color information for each character (text cards) or pixel (graphics cards). Just set aside a few more bits for each pixel or character. This depends on how many colors you want. The number of colors determines the number of bits. If you want four colors, you need 2 bits (2 bits per pixel). then you could have something like this: 00 = black 10 = magneta (reddish pink) 01 = cyan (blue) 11 = white so if you set aside 2 bits, you could get four colors. If you want 16 colors, set aside 4 bits which would make 16 different combos.

LCD pixels are very different from the pixels in a CRT. A CRT pixel's size changed depending on the resolution. The pixels on an LCD panel are fixed and cannot be changed.

All LCD displays on PCs used only passive matrix for many years. Passive Matrix is slow and tends to create a little overlap between individual pixels. This gives a slightly blurred effect to the image displayed

LCD Resolution

All LCD monitors have a NATIVE RESOLUTION such as 1920 x 1080 that enables them to display the sharpest picture possible. The pixels are fixed. You cannot run an LCD monitor at a resolution higher than the native one. LCDs have no equivalent to a shadow mask, they can't run at a lower than native resolution without degrading the image quality.

Rotation

All monitors are by default wider than they are tall. This is called LANDSCAPE MODE. Some LCD monitors can be physically rotated to facilitate users who like to set their desktops taller than they are wide PORTRAIT MODE.

The LCD has to use an edge blurring technique called ANTI-ALIASING to soften the jagged corners of the pixels when running at a lower native resolution which doesn't look as good.

Always set the LCD at native resolution.

Most techs will say "I sent my color depth to 24 bits" not that I set my video card to show over 16 million colors. It is assumed you know the number of colors

Any single combo of resolution and color depth you set for your system is called a MODE. For standardization, the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) defines a certain number of resolutions, all derived from the granddaddy of video modes: VGA.

Video cards offer other connectors types for connecting to things like television sets, camcorders, and other multimedia devices RCA BNC Mini-Din

BNC

Inverter and its functions: One should know that the computer doesn't work on the direct current. Many of the appliances that we see in the today's atmosphere do not work with the direct current. The reason behind this is that when we use direct current, it might happen that there is some problem with the fuse in the power supply. If that happens, then the current might flow through the wires in some big amount and it can burn up the machines. O to protect that, in computers, one would find that there is the inverter. It is located at the back of the computer so that when the electric current flows through this, the current gets converted into and alternate current and also, the inverter helps the current to flow in some steady shape. If the inverter doesn't work so well, then it is for sure that the current flown would not be steady and there can be some serious problem that can occur to the computer. So, one should know the location of the inverter. These inverters are located at the back of the displays of the laptops. The inverter takes the power then empowers the fluorescent lights so that we can have the proper display of the computer. So, if it happens that one turns on the computer and then computer doesn't get on, or if someone looks closely, he finds out that the LCD has some problems and if the information is being shown, it is faint, then it is surely the problem with the converter that it is not supplying the power to the backlight properly and it is not getting lit.

Backlight: Backlight, is actually the light which illunminates on behind the computer screen. Everyone knows about the challenges which can be facing when buying the any of these displays. One of them is the black levels. One can get them because one would have to have some backlight which keeps shining at the end. So, having the dark colour can be really difficult specially, when it comes to have the dark black colour on the screen. So, if one is using the LCD, he would get some problems while having the colour match. Also, the LCD's backlight is required so one can see the colours clearly. If the backlight is experiencing some problems, then one would have to take the whole deice apart and then fix that backlight that is attached behind it. Sometimes, it becomes even difficult to replace something when someone wants to get into the LCD. Now, as one can observe, there are many of the components of the laptop. They all have some various types and each of the types have some characteristics. So, one can learn about these types to use this data for the practical implementation. Like, as one knows that the plasma displays can have lots of the consumption of the electricity, then he would avoid that display. Also, if one knows about the advantages of the LED, and knows that it is safe to sue, then one would surely go for the LED and buy the computers which have the LED screen so that the image that appeared on the computer become really bright. Also, with the help of knowing that antenna is actually in the display of the laptop, one can be assured of the fact that he is having the antenna at the best position and he is going to catch the maximum signals. Another thing is that one can know about the importance of the back light. One can know that how the backlights can be used and when one turns on the commuter and sees some really dim display, he can know that it is sue to the backlight. Hence he can repair that himself or can take to the laptop repair shop.

In-Plane Switching (IPS) technology

Better FTF uses this technology to create a wider viewing angle and far better color re-creation than TN panels can provide. Graphics pros use IPS monitors because they can display how something might print more faithfully than TN screens.

Video card issues

Boot VGA (missing or corrupted video card driver artifacts Blue Screen of Death (check video card proper installation, overheat) Video card installed correctly Up to date drivers: video card and mobo chipsets Electro Magnetic Interference Overclocking beyond video card capability Secure Power Supply Cooling System (fans)

Scenario: A user has a distorted display or no display at all. You've verified that this is a software issue. How do you fix this?

Boot with safe mode (VGA resolution) and modify the resolution within the screen resolution tool within control panel

apple Mac desktop models use a DISPLAYPORT connection for connecting to a monitor.

But if you want to connect a computer to your TV (or you've got a new computer monitor), the options tend to be HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI, and sometimes old-school VGA. Each connection has its pros and cons, and perhaps the best cable to use with your display is more than just "what it came with."

To update your drivers, go to Control Panel and double click on the Display applet and click Display Settings, select monitor tab, click advanced settings button. Click Adapter tab, Properties and see dialog box for your adapter, Select Driver tab and click the Update Driver button to run the Hardware Update wizard

CAD = Computer-Aided Design programs Before 1990s, PCs didn't work will with 3-D graphics. The big change took place in 1992 when a small company called ID Software created a new game called Wolfenstein 3D. They launched a new genre of games now called the First Person Shoot (FPS), in which the player looks out into a 3-D world, integrating with walls, doors, and other items and shoots bad guys. Wolfenstein shook the PC gaming world to the foundations. Depending on hardware.

What two technologies are used for backlights in LCD monitors?

CCFL and LED

EXAM TIP: Mentions RJ-45 as a video connector type and Ethernet as a video cable type.

CatLink systems. Cat5 cable enable the video signal to be transmitted across the greater distances more clearly at a lower cost.

Dim or No Image in Screen

Check Cable connection Check brightness Power Save Mode

Display Turns Itself Off

Check Power Manager (settings) Video Card Overheating (replace, better cooling system)

Flickering or Distorted Monitors

Check cable connection Wrong device driver Refresh rate Electro Magnetic Interference Check Color Depth Setting

Application Problems

Check color depth or screen resolution (Right click desktop)

Common Monitor Problems

Common Monitor Problems

What's the path to the screen resolution driver for Win7?

Control Panel-Display-Screen Resolution-Advanced settings-Properties-Drive

Six Aspects that Define a Video Card: Integrated GPUs

Current motherboards have integrated GPUs Placing the computer's display circuitry in the chipset on the motherboard or on the same chip as the CPU. Integrated graphics shares memory with the CPU (see shared video memory) and provides a more economical alternative to the stand-alone card, known as "discrete graphics" or "dedicated graphics." Integrated or on-board graphics are built in to the motherboard or CPU. Integrated graphics use a portion of a computer's system RAM instead of their own dedicated memory. Integrated graphics are less powerful than discrete graphics, but conserve energy

Video memory is RAM installed on a video adapter. Before an image can be sent to a display monitor, it is first represented as a bit map in an area of video memory called the frame buffer. The amount of video memory, therefore, dictates the maximum resolution and color depth available. With a conventional video adapter, the bit map to be displayed is first generated by the computer's microprocessor and then sent to the frame buffer. Most modern video adapters, however, are actually graphics accelerators. This means that they have their own microprocessor that is capable of manipulating bit maps and graphics objects. A small amount of memory is reserved for these operations as well. Because of the demands of video systems, video memory needs to be faster than main memory. For this reason, most video memory is dual-ported, which means that one set of data can be transferred between video memory and the video processor at the same time that another set of data is being transferred to the monitor. There are many different types of video memory, including VRAM, WRAM, RDRAM, and SGRAM.

DDR SDRAM laptop video cards cheap DDR2 SDRAM popular until GDDR3. lower voltage than DDR memory GDDR3 SDRAM similar to DDR2 but runs at faster speeds, different cooling requirements GDDR4 SDRAM upgrade of GDDR3; faster clock GDDR5 SDRAM successor to GDDR4; doublte the input/output rate of GDD44

DISPLAY OPTION: Project to a second screen Available if you have a second monitor connector on the video card

DISPLAY OPTION: Adjust ClearType text Enables you to tweak the front rendering used for the Windows interface, which some folks like to do

Display settings option lets you make changes to settings such as resolution, orientation, etc.

DISPLAY OPTION: Adjust Resolution: Change from native resolution to lower if needed

DISPLAY OPTION: Adjust Brightness Available if support by your monitor, such as a laptop

DISPLAY OPTION: Change Display Settings Another place for changing resolution: also for adding another monitor (ie Multiple Monitors)

New LCDs (and video cards) sport fully digital connections, the most common of which is the DIGITAL VISUAL INTERFACE (DVI) standard.

DVI is actually three different connectors that look very much alike: DVI-D = for digital DVI-A = is for analog for backward compat.) DVI-A/D or DVI-I (interchangeable) accepts either D or A. D and A are keyed so that they will not connect. Two Signal Types: In general, there are only two signal types which run through DVI connectors. The two types are digital and analog, and they are incompatible with one another.

What do you do if you have one video connector type on a monitor and a different video connector type on a computing device? Manuf provide just about any adapter and converter that you need to get connected.

DVI to HDMI Thunderbolt to DVI HDMI to VGA DisplayPort to DVI DisplayPort to HDMI plus you can find cables that do the converting too. One of my three DVI monitors, for example, connect to the HDMI port on my video card using a cable with DVI on one end and HDMI on the other! Sweet!!

Aspect Ratio

Definition - What does Aspect Ratio mean? An aspect ratio is an attribute that describes the relationship between the width and height of an image. Aspect ratio is expressed by the symbolic notation: X:Y. The values of X and Y are not the actual width and height of the image, but describe the relationship between them. [WEBINAR] The Future of Data and Analytics Techopedia explains Aspect Ratio Aspect ratio is generally used to determine the relative horizontal and vertical sizes of computer graphics. For example, if a computer graphic has an aspect ratio of 3:1, this means the width of the graphic is three times of the height of the image. Aspect ratio plays an important role in resizing. During resizing, the aspect ratio must remain same in order to keep the image undistorted. A distorted aspect ratio leads to stretching of the image. Aspect ratio is also used to define display resolution. HDTV displays generally have an aspect ratio of 16:9.

A video card needs to be able to support Dual-Link DVI torun a 120 Hz monitor or television

Digital Visual Interface (DVI) is a video display interface developed by the Digital Display Working Group (DDWG). The digital interface is used to connect a video source, such as a video display controller, to a display device, such as a computer monitor. It was developed with the intention of creating an industry standard for the transfer of digital video content. The interface is designed to transmit uncompressed digital video and can be configured to support multiple modes such as DVI-A (analog only), DVI-D (digital only) or DVI-I (digital and analog). Featuring support for analog connections, the DVI specification is compatible with the VGA interface.[1] This compatibility, along with other advantages, led to its widespread acceptance over competing digital display standards Plug and Display (P&D) and Digital Flat Panel (DFP).[2] Although DVI is predominantly associated with computers, it is sometimes used in other consumer electronics such as television sets and DVD players.

What tool do you use to verify that DirectX is installed and working properly

DirectX Diagnostic Tool

What is the most popular API today?

DirectX and IPS

DirectX and Video Cards

DirectX took control of certain pieces of hardware and talk directly to that hardware; it provides the speed necessary to play the advanced games popular today. DirectX also supports sound, network connections, input devices, and other parts of the PC. Each of these subsets of DirectX has a name, such as DirectDraw, DIrect3D or DirectSound.

A CRT monitor is a grid of read, green and blue phosphors

Directly behind the phosphors in a CRT was the SHADOW MASK

Advantages of an LCD's: LCD's consumes less amount of power compared to CRT and LED LCD's are consist of some microwatts for display in comparison to some mill watts for LED's LCDs are of low cost Provides excellent contrast LCD's are thinner and lighter when compared to cathode ray tube and LED

Disadvantages of an LCD's: Require additional light sources Range of temperature is limited for operation Low reliability Speed is very low LCD's need an AC drive

What is the command to access DirectX diagnostic tool

Dxdiag

All video cards have drivers to support DirectX and you need to verify that DirectX is installed and working properly on your system. To do this, use the DIRECTX DIAGNOSTIC TOOL (dxdiag) Go to Start and typed dxdiag in the Search bar. Press ENTER to run the program. The System gives version of DirectX

EXAM TIP: Exam refers to the DirectX Diagnostic Tool only by its Run command dxdiag

Difference between DisplayPort and Thunderbolt: Technically, the plug is the same and the only difference is that the Thunderbolt connector can carry - in addition to the classic Mini DisplayPort - a Thunderbolt signal, which is a signal PCI-Express (4 lines). Specifically, a Mini DisplayPort adapter runs on a Thunderbolt plug

EXAM TIP: exam might make a distinction between the VGA cable and the HD15 connector into which it plugs.

Many monitors for Windows PC use a 15-pin, three-row D-type connector, and a power plug. The connector has a lot of names: D-Shell or D-subminiature connector DB-15, DE15 or simply VGA CONNECTOR

EXAM TIP: they call this the latest name which is HD15 for HIGH DENSITY to distinguish it from the ancient nine-pin forbearer.

Drivers

Either the driver is built into Windows or you must use the installation media that comes with the video card. Video card makers are constantly updating their drivers. You can always check the manuf. site to check on new drivers.

PCIe

Every current discrete video card plugs into the PCIe slot on a motherboard. Replaced AGP. this interface was developed to replace PCI and, in the process, replace AGP. PCIe was a natural fit for video because it is incredibly fast. All PCI video cards use the PCIe x 16 connector. PCIe replaced the AGP as the primary video interface almost overnight.

Video card rarely go bad but two of their components do: the fan and the RAM.

Excessive heat inside the case can cause some problems. The computer could shut down or distort

EXAM TIP: 901 EXAM expects you to understand the refresh rate, resolution and native resolution of a monitor

Focus on the standard contrast ratio when making decisions on LCD screens

What is the processor on a video card called?

GPU

Lamps

Generate a lot of light and heat. When you turn off a projector, the fan continues to run to cool things off. Lamps are very expensive.

Scenario: You're swapping out a video card and you have no display, what should you do?

Go into BIOS/UEFI and confirm that the onboard video setting has been disabled

Simple facts that should be considered while making an LCD: The basic structure of LCD should be controlled by changing the applied current. We must use a polarized light. Liquid crystal should able be to control both of the operation to transmit or can also able to change the polarized light. As mentioned above that we need to take two polarized glass pieces filter in the making of the liquid crystal. The glass which does not have a polarized film on the surface of it must be rubbed with a special polymer which will create microscopic grooves on the surface of the polarized glass filter. The grooves must be in the same direction of the polarized film. Now we have to add a coating of pneumatic liquid phase crystal on one of the polarized filter of the polarized glass. The microscopic channel cause the first layer molecule to align with filter orientation. When the right angle appears at the first layer piece, we should add a second piece of glass with the polarized film. The first filter will be naturally polarized as the light strikes it at the starting stage. Thus the light travels through each layer and guided on the next with the help of molecule. The molecule tends to change its plane of vibration of the light in order to match their angle. When the light reaches to the far end of the liquid crystal substance, it vibrates at the same angle as that of the final layer of the molecule vibrates. The light is allowed to enter into the device only if the second layer of the polarized glass matches with the final layer of the molecule.

How LCDs Work? The principle behind the LCD's is that when an electrical current is applied to the liquid crystal molecule, the molecule tends to untwist. This causes the angle of light which is passing through the molecule of the polarized glass and also cause a change in the angle of the top polarizing filter. As a result a little light is allowed to pass the polarized glass through a particular area of the LCD. Thus that particular area will become dark compared to other. The LCD works on the principle of blocking light. While constructing the LCD's, a reflected mirror is arranged at the back. An electrode plane is made of indium-tin oxide which is kept on top and a polarized glass with a polarizing film is also added on the bottom of the device. The complete region of the LCD has to be enclosed by a common electrode and above it should be the liquid crystal matter. Next comes to the second piece of glass with an electrode in the form of the rectangle on the bottom and, on top, another polarizing film. It must be considered that both the pieces are kept at right angles. When there is no current, the light passes through the front of the LCD it will be reflected by the mirror and bounced back. As the electrode is connected to a battery the current from it will cause the liquid crystals between the common-plane electrode and the electrode shaped like a rectangle to untwist. Thus the light is blocked from passing through. That particular rectangular area appears blank.

A dim image, especially if only on the top of bottom half of screen, points to a dead or dying backlight as necessary.

If the LCD goes dark but you can still barely see the image under bright lights, you lost either the backlight or the inverter. In many cases, especially with superthin panels, you will replace the entire panel and backlight as a unit.

As monitors age, they lose brightness.

If the brightness control is turned all of the way up and the picture is still dim, the monitor will require internal adjustment.

Video memory is memory located on the video card, in some cases located on the motherboard, that is accessible by the video and computer processor. With more video memory, the video card and computer are capable of handling more complex graphics at a faster rate.

If you right-click the desktop and go to Screen Resolution, then Advanced Settings you should see a table stating the GPU's own VRAM (Dedicated Video Memory) and the maximum amount of normal RAM that the system will allow the GPU to use when necessary (Shared System Memory).

Difference between ANALOG VERSUS DIGITAL SIGNALS

Image result for analog versus digital Digital Signals. Digital signals must have a finite set of possible values. ... That's the big difference between analog and digital waves. Analog waves are smooth and continuous, digital waves are stepping, square, and discrete. Analog computers process analog, i.e. continuously varying, data. Digital computer process data which is binary, i.e. in the form of 0 and 1. Analog computers operate on mathematical variables in the form of physical quantities that are continuously varying. For example temperature, pressure, voltages, etc.

Color Depth

In PCs, to get 256 colors, each pixel would have to be repped with 8 bits and the number of colors is called COLOR DEPTH and this is always the power of 2: 4, 16, 256 64 K etc. The more colors are added, more video RAM is needed to store the info.

Exam tips: Keep in mind brightness, response rate and contrast ratio. Most modern monitors have acceptable specifications on those items

In the general, the dynamic contrast ratio doesn't affect viewing on computer monitors

Lumens

Is the measured brightness of a projector. A LUMEN is the amount of light given off by a light source from a certain angle that is perceived by the human eye. The greater the lumen rating of a projector, the brighter the projector will be. In a small room, 1000-1500 lumen works fine. In a mid-sized room, at least 2000 lumens. Larger rooms are 10,000 plus lumens.

What does the DirectX do?

It's a windows tool used for video, animation and sound components, this helps a PC to get more performance out of multimedia like games and movies

LCD projectors are a natural fit for front projection.

LCD projectors have a specific native resolution.

Note: Many Manuf. refer to LEDS as a display type, but such displays don't exist outside of marketing terms. Even so called LED Monitors and LED televisions are simply LCDs with LED backlights.

LEDs don't need AC power, so there isn't an inverter to get involved in lighting the panel. Many smaller devices such as smartphones and tablets use LED backlights to save battery save. The better panels are in high demand from graphics professionals.

Liquid crystals take advantage of the property of polarization. Liquid crystals are composed of a specially formulated liquid full of long, thin crystals that always want to orient themselves in the same direction. This substance acts exactly like a liquid polarized filter. If you poured a thin film of this stuff between two sheets of glass, you'd get a dark good pair of sunglasses.

Liquid crystal molecules tend to line up together

DISPLAY MODES

Long Ago, RAM was very expensive so video card makers were interested in using the absolute least amount of RAM possible. Making monochrome text video card was a great way to keep down RAM costs. The video RAM is where the contents of the screen are located. You need enough video RAM to hold all the necessary information for a completely full screen

Many high end video cards come as double-wide cards with built-in air vents, so you don't have any choice to take up double the space.

Mid-range to high-end video cards typically require at least one additional PCI power connector because they use more power than the PCIe slot can provide. Make sure your power supply either supports these natively or that you have a PCI-to-molex converter and your power supply can provide adequate power.

Mini-Din

Mini-Din

Resolution

Monitor RESOLUTION is always shown as the number of horizontal pixels times the number of vertical pixels. A resolution of 640 x 480 therefore, indicates a horizontal resolution of 640 pixels and a vertical resolution of 480 pixels. if you multiply the values together, you can see how many pixels are on each screen 640 X 480 = 307,200 pixels per screen.

Multimedia Devices

Multimedia Devices

PCs and Macs originally used a display called CRT.

Note: There is another type of computer display called OLED. They are expensive and likely seen on smartphone or tablet.

Manuf. measures LCD response rates in milliseconds with the lower being better. A typical lower-end or older LCD as a response rate of 20-25 ms. The screen looks fine but you will get some ghosting if you try to watch a movie or play a fast-paced video game.

Now you can find LCD monitors with a response rate of 2-4 ms.

One nit equals one candela/m2.

One candela is roughly equal to the amount of light created by a candle

Top APIs: OpenGL and DirectX.

OpenGL standard was developed for UNIX systems but has since been PORTED, or made compatible with, a wide variety of computers. MS created DirectX.

Passive Matrix

Passive-matrix is an LCD technology that uses a grid of vertical and horizontal wires to display an image on the screen. Each pixel is controlled by an intersection of two wires in the grid. By altering the electrical charge at a given intersection, the color and brightness of the corresponding pixel can be changed. While passive-matrix displays are relatively simple and inexpensive to produce, they have a few drawbacks. Since the charge of two wires (both vertical and horizontal) must be altered in order to change a single pixel, the response time of passive-matrix displays is relatively slow. This means fast movement on a passive-matrix display may appear blurry or faded, since the electrical charges cannot keep up with the motion. On some passive-matrix displays, you may experience "ghosting" if you move the cursor quickly across the screen. Since passive-matrix monitors do not display fast motion well, most modern flat screen displays use active-matrix technology. Instead of managing pixels through intersections of wires, active-matrix displays control each pixel using individual capacitors. This allows pixels to change brightness and color states much more rapidly. While most of today's computer monitors and flat screen televisions have active-matrix screens, passive-matrix displays are still used in some smaller devices, since they are less expensive to produce.

In the Personalization Applet and Devices and Printers you can change the overall theme of the Desktop or make changes to the look and feel for individual users. Screen Savers, High Contrast option

Power Options tweak your power settings

The Laptop has a dim display. How to fix it?

Probably in power saving mode which can be changed in power management

Projector Technologies

Projector Technologies

Burn in

Replace monitor

AGP

Replaced PCI. This is a single, special port, similar to a PCI slot that is dedicated to video. You will never see a motherboard with two APG slots ONLY on the ancient models.

What do you call the time it takes for all of the sub-pixels on the panel to go from pure black to pure white and back again?

Response rate

EXAM TIP: exam will be adding extra acronyms to your plate with connector types. 901 exam objectives refer to the mini-Din used with S-video as a miniWIN6. Most techs refer to the port as an S-video port.

S-Video connector.

DVI-D and DVI-I connectors come in two varieties: single-link and dual-link.

SINGLE-LINK DVI has a max bandwith of 165 MHz and limits the max resolution res of a monitor to 1920 x 1080 at 6 Hz or 1280 X 1024 at 85 Hz. DUAL-LINK uses more pins to double-throughput and thus grant higher resolutions. With dual-link, you can have displays up to 2048 x 1536 at 60 Hz.

Click the Start button, and then click Control Panel. In the Control Panel window, click Adjust Screen Resolution under Appearance and Personalization. On the Screen Resolution page, click the Advanced settings link. Click the Monitor tab and select 60Hz for the optimum refresh rate of your monitor.

Screen flickering in Windows 10 is usually caused by an incompatible app or display driver. To determine whether an app or driver is causing the problem, check to see if Task Manager flickers. ... Open Task Manager by pressing the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys on the keyboard at the same time.

Early 3-D games used fixed 2-D images called SPRITES to create the 3-D world. A sprite is a bitmapped graphic

Second generation of 3-D games began to replace sprites with true 3-D objects which are drastically more complex than sprites.

When installing a video card, watch for three possible issues: long cards, the proximity of the nearest expansion card, and the presence of power connectors.

Some high end video cards won't fit in certain cases or will block access to needed motherboard connectors such as the SATA sockets. There's no clean fix for such a problem - you simply have to change at least one of the components (video card, motherboard or case).

DirectSound

Supports direct access to the hardware for waveforms

Direct3D

Supports directly access to the hardware for 3-D graphics - the most important part of DirectX

DB 15

The DB style connector is a common connector found in many computer, audio/video, and data applications. The official name is D-subminiature, but many people call it "D-sub" or just "DB". ... Most DB connectors have two rows of pins

Multiple Monitors

The Display Applet enables you to modify multiple monitors function. Click the Change Display Settings link in the Display applet. Monitors may work together, etc. To set them up in several ways, you can plug in two or more video cards or use a single video card that supports multiple monitors. Both methods are quite common and work well. Multiple monitors are easy to configure: just plug in the monitors and Win should detect them. By default, the second monitor is not enabled. Choose Extend desktop

WUXGA: 1920 x 1200 16:10 for 24" + widescreen monitors

The Most common aspect ratios: The most common aspect ratios used today in the presentation of films in cinemas are 1.85:1 and 2.39:1.[2] Two common videographic aspect ratios are 4:3 (1.33:1),[a] the universal video format of the 20th century, and 16:9 (1.77:1), universal for high-definition television and European digital television. Other cinema and video aspect ratios exist, but are used infrequently. In still camera photography, the most common aspect ratios are 4:3, 3:2, and more recently being found in consumer cameras 16:9.[3] Other aspect ratios, such as 5:3, 5:4, and 1:1 (square format), are used in photography as well, particularly in medium format and large format. With television, DVD and Blu-ray Disc, converting formats of unequal ratios is achieved by enlarging the original image to fill the receiving format's display area and cutting off any excess picture information (zooming and cropping), by adding horizontal mattes (letterboxing) or vertical mattes (pillarboxing) to retain the original format's aspect ratio, by stretching (hence distorting) the image to fill the receiving format's ratio, or by scaling by different factors in both directions, possibly scaling by a different factor in the center and at the edges (as in Wide Zoom mode).

dots per inch = DPI

The brightness of an LCD monitor backlight determines the brightness of the monitor. The brightness is measured in NITS. LCD panels vary from 100 nits on the low end to over 1000 nits or more on the high end. Average panels are around 300 nits which is considered excellent brightness.

Contrast Ratio

The contrast ratio is a property of a display system, defined as the ratio of the luminance of the brightest color (white) to that of the darkest color (black) that the system is capable of producing. A high contrast ratio is a desired aspect of any display.

Display Adapters

The display adapter or VIDEO CARD. A graphics processor crunches data from the CPU and output commands to the display. Needs a lot of RAM and a fast connection with the CPU and system RAM. The display adapter must have a connection compatible with the monitor

Only three companies make the vast majority of graphic processors found on video cards: NVDIA, AMD and Intel. NVDIA and AMD make and sell graphics processors to third-party manuf. who then design, build, and sell video cards under their own branding. Intel made its own line of cards, but now concentrates on graphics processors built into motherboards.

The graphics processor is your most important choice when buying a videocard. Low end graphic processors usually work fine for the run of the mill user who wants to browse and write letters. High end graphic processors are designed to support 3-D games that are so popular today.

Two LCD panels that have the same physical size may have different native resolutions

The hard-wired nature of LCD resolution creates a problem for techs and consumers when dealing with bigger, better quality monitors.

INSTALLING AND CONFIGURING VIDEO

The installation steps in this section apply to Windows PCs and Linux computers. Apple doesn't make any Mac OS systems with an upgradable display adapter, but you can still configure it.

The Electron guns swept across the Phosphors as a group, turning rapidly on and off as they moved across the screen. When the group reached the end of the screen, it moved to the next line. Turning the guns on and off, combined with moving the guns to new lines, creating a mosaic that was the image you saw on the screen.

The number of times the guns turned on and off, combined with the number of lines drawn on the screen, determined the number of mosiac pieces used to create the image. These individuals pieces were - and are - called PIXELS, from the term PICTURE ELEMENTS.

The Control Panel applets enable you to make changes that affect many aspects of visual output for your customers.

The personalization-branded components handle user preferences, such as background picture, colors of various interface elements, etc.

This standardization manifested themselves in a series of APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACES (APIs). An API is a library of commands that people who make 3-D games must use in their programs.

The program currently using the video card sends API commands directly to the device driver. Device drivers must understand the API commands. If you picture the graphics system of your computer as a layer cake, the top layer would be the program making a call to the video card driver that then directs the graphics hardware.

Refresh Rate

The sweeps across the screen start at upper left corner of monitor and moved across and down to the lower right corner. The screen was "painted" only in one direction; then the electron guns turned off and retraced their path across the screen to be ready for the next sweep.

Light waves emanate from a light source in three dimensions. To visualize this: think of light emanating from a flashlight. think of the light emanating from that flashlight as though someone was shaking a jump rope. This is not a rhythmic shaking, back and forth or up and down; it's more as if a person went crazy and was shaking the rope all over the place - up, down, left, right constantly changing the speed. That's how light really acts.

The varying speeds create wavelengths from very short to very long. When light comes into your eyes at many different wavelengths, you see white light. If the light came in only one wavelength, you would only see that color.

A monitor of DISPLAY shows you what's going on with your program and OS. It's the primary output device for most computing devices.

The video card or DISPLAY ADAPTER handles all of the communication between the CPU and the monitor or display.

Each ASCII character needs 8 bits so a monitor with 80 characters/rows will need 80 characters x 24 rows = 1920 = 15,360 bits or 1920 bytes

The video card would need less than 2000 bytes of memory which isn't much not even in 1981 when the PC first came out.

Controlling a CRT requires an ANALOG SIGNAL from the video card, meaning a signal that rises and falls in waves like a series of Ss on their side. LCDs and computers, on the other hand, use digital signals on or off, one or zero

The video information stored on a video card's RAM is clearly digital. Video cards include a special chip for function embedded into a chip that does several other jobs called RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY DIGITAL - TO - ANALOG CONVERTER (RAMDAC). The RAMDAC takes the digital signal from the video card and turns it into an analog signal for the analog CRT.

With the driver installed, you are ready to configure your display settings.

This applet is a central location for all your display settings including resolution, refresh rate, driver info and color depth.

Thunderbolt

Thunderbolt is an interconnect technology developed by Intel in cooperation with Apple. Thunderbolt combines PCI Express and DisplayPort into a single connection, allowing for a combination of up to six peripherals, like storage devices and monitors, to be daisy-chained together.Jan 3, 2014

I want to connect my MacBook Pro to an LCD monitor. What type of adapter should I use?

Thunderbolt to DVI

The closest equivalent to a refresh rate on an LCD monitor is its FRAME RATE, which is often locked at 60 fps. But this is rarely a problem, because the only part of an LCD monitor that could produce CRT-like flicker—its backlight — typically operates at around a minimum of 200 Hz.

To recap: Refresh rate is how often a TV changes the image (also known as a "frame") on screen. With traditional televisions, this was 60 times each second, or "60Hz." Some modern TVs can refresh at much higher rates, most commonly 120Hz (120 frames per second) and 240Hz.

When struck by a stream of electrons, phosphors quickly released bursts of energy. The phosphors on the display screen had a quality called PERSISTENCE which meant the phosphors continued to glow after being struck by the electron beam.

Too much PERSISTENCE and the image was smeary, too little and the image appeared to flicker. The perfect combo of beam and persistence created the illusion of a solid picture. Electron guns sweep from left to right

SXGA : 1280 x 1024 5:4 lowest resolution for HDTV

UXGA: 1600 x 1200 4:3 larger CRT monitors

Scenario: A user has a distorted display or no display at all. You've adjusted the resolution and the screen is still distorted, what should you try next?

Update/rollback the driver

Color Correction

Use this to fine-tune the colors on the screen to get the look you want

Using the Display and Personalization Applets

Using the Display and Personalization Applets

Standard monitors connection through one of six connections:

VGA DVI DB-15 DisplayPort Thunderbolt HDMI (including Mini and Micro)

Six Aspects that Define a Video Card: Video Memory

Video memory is crucial to the operation of a PC. Updates to reflect every change that takes place on the screen. Video memory can prove to be a serious setback in three ways: data through-put speed, access speed and simple capacity. Manuf. have overcome these bottlenecks by upping the width of the bus between the video RAM and video processor; using specialized , super-fast RAM, and adding more and more total RAM

Light flowing through a polarized filter (like sunglasses) is like putting a picket fence between you and the people shaking the ropes. You see all the wavelengths but only the waves of similar orientation.

What would happen if you added another picket fence but put the slats in a horizontal direction? This would cancel out all of the waves. This is what happens when two polarizing filters are combined at a 90 degree angle - not light passes through.

Dynamic Contrast Ratio

When Dynamic Contrast is enable, you will theoretically get a better Contrast Ratio (i.e. measuring a pure black square against a pure white square). However, you'll be losing detail in the high intensity and white areas of the image, as well as in the dark areas of the image (aka black crush).

Enter Mini and Micro HDMI The solutions came thanks to updated standards released in 2006 and 2009; the 2006 HDMI version 1.3 included support for a "type C" HDMI mini-connector, and 2009's HDMI version 1.4 added support for a "type D" HDMI micro-connector. Both HDMI mini and micro cables provide exactly the same signal quality and transmission capabilities as their original big brother, but the mini port and connector are 40% smaller than the large "type A" ones used for HDTVs and other large equipment, and the micro port and connector are 50% smaller. Camcorders and digital cameras started to appear on the market with mini HDMI ports shortly after the new standards were released, and cables were quickly made available for equipment featuring the new digital ports. The availability of mini HDMI finally allowed easy transfer and transmission of signals between common home and portable entertainment devices. The technology has now become an everyday part of our lives, with not only cameras but some projectors, cell phones and navigation devices also featuring mini HDMI ports along with a number of computer graphics or video cards. Most HDMI mini cables are equipped with a type C mini connector on one end and a "normal" type A HDMI connectors on the other, so the portable devices can easily be hooked up to an HDTV or monitor for full digital playback on a large screen. There are also mini-to-mini HDMI cables to connect two smaller digital devices. The story was a bit different when type D micro HDMI connectors and cables appeared on the market in 2009. Mini HDMI had been widely integrated into digital cameras and camcorders, and there weren't yet many digital devices ready to accept the micro HDMI ports. Shortly after that, though, rapid advances made in smartphone technology and the huge popularity of tablets changed the picture in a hurry. The relatively-tiny type D port was tailor-made for the brand-new phones and tablets hitting the market, and micro HDMI quickly became standard on both devices. An inexpensive micro HDMI cable allowed anyone to display pictures and movies from their portable devices on their HDTV or monitor with ease. Picture of Micro HDMI to HDMI cable Gold Plated - 10 Feet Today, devices such as LG and Samsung smartphones will charge the phone via micro HDMI connection, and game consoles come with mini or micro HDMI ports as standard. As with mini HDMI, most micro HDMI cables have a micro connector on one end and a standard HDMI connector on the other, although micro-to-mini and micro-to-micro connectors are also available. Adapters can also be used to interconnect devices with "mismatched" cables; the beauty of HDMI digital signals is that there's no loss of signal quality as long you use properly-manufactured cables or adapters Not all devices are equipped with mini or micro HDMI connectors, so don't automatically assume that you'll be able to transfer digital signals from your phone or tablet to your high-def television. If it's important to you that a device is able to send pictures or video via HDMI, be sure to check for an HDMI port before buying it.

Which cable to use? Which Cable Do I Need? Thankfully, there's no hocus-pocus necessary to determine whether you need a standard, mini or micro HDMI cable for a device. It should say right in the product manual or specifications which type of port is on the equipment. If you can't find the manual, though, it's still pretty easy; they're all similarly-shaped and have 19 pins, but standard HDMI connectors and ports are about 0.55 inches wide and 0.18 inches high, mini connectors and ports are a little more than 0.4 inches wide and about 0.1 inches high, and micro connectors and ports are about 0.25 inches wide and 0.11 inches high. The internal wiring for the 19 pins is different for each type of connector - but that isn't anything you need to be concerned with. Once you've figured out what type of HDMI cable you need, the rest is simple: find a properly-manufactured product that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Many companies charge an obscene amount of money for mini HDMI and micro HDMI cables, but what they don't tell you is that all cables which meet or exceed HDMI standards are basically the same. There's nothing extra a company can do to provide a superior digital signal; every cable that meets HDMI standards delivers the same performance. The design features you should look for, though, are gold-plated connectors on each end, molded strain relief construction, and a large gauge PVC outer jacket. The gold connectors ensure a quality connection and prevent corrosion over time, strain relief relieves pressure on the connector and wires, and a tough PVC jacket can protect against wear and tear. Our Cmple HDMI mini and micro cables include all three of these important features, which are integral to any high-quality HDMI cable.

The RAMDAC translates the digital signal to an analog signal. This makes sense for CRT monitors. If you want to plug an LCD monitor into a regular video card, however, you need circuitry on the LCD monitor to convert the signal from analog to digital. Many LCD use exactly this process. These are called ANALOG LCD MONITORS. The monitor really isn't analog; it's digital but it takes a standard VGA input

Why convert the signal from digital to analog back to digital? Originally, using a VGA connector with an LCD promoted adoption of the new then tech. A customer had only to swap a CRT for an LCD - no new video card required. Why many LCDs today have VGA connectors is anybody's guess.

VGA

With the intro of the IBM personal system/2 (PS/2), IBM introduced the VIDEO GRAPHICS ARRAY (VGA) standard. This standard offered 16 colors at a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. VGA supported an array of colors using an analog video signal instead of a digital one; as was the case prior to the VGA standard. A digital signal is either all on or all off. By using an analog signal, the VGA standard can provide 64 distinct levels for the three colors (RGB) - that is, 64 to the third power or 262,144 possible colors though only 16 or 256 could be seen at a time. For most purposes, 640 x 480 and 16 colors defines VGA mode. This is typically at the display resolution and color depth referred to on many software packages as a minimum display requirements

video card discussion revolves around the graphics processor the video card uses and the amount of RAM abroad. A typical video card might be called anAFX Radeon HD7970 3-GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0.

XFX is the manuf. of the video card Radeon HD7970 is the processor. GDDR5 3 GB describes the dedicated video RAM and the connection between the video RAM and the graphics processor; and the PCI Express 3.0 describes the motherboard expansion slot the card requires.

EXAM TIP: You don't need to know all the video modes for the exam. Focus on XGA, SXGA, UXGA and WUXGA. you will need to know the common aspect ratios on today's displays, such as 16:19, 16:10 and 4:3

XGA. eXtended Graphics Adapter (1024 by 768 pixels; 1.33:1 aspect ratio) = projector

An LCD monitor may have bad pixels. A bad pixel is any single pixel that does not react the way it should. A pixel that never lights up is a DEAD PIXEL, a pixel that is stuck on pure white is a LIT PIXEL and a pixel on a certain color is a STUCK PIXEL.

You can find ways to revive the pixel using techniques found online. All LCD panel makers allow a certain number of bad pixels, even on a new monitor.

sub-pixels

a color LCD screen is composed of a large number of tiny liquid crystal molecules called ______ arranged in rows and columns between polarizing filters

Exam calls the mini-DIN used with S-video as a miniDN6.

a composite connector provides a video signal through a single cable that plugs into a standard RCA jack, whereas a component adapter provides a split signal, red, green and blue (RGB)

LED

a display that directly illuminates pixels from behind and floods the panel with light from the edges of the bezel

Is your monitor is leaving a streak mark across the screen, what could be the problem?

a dying CCFL

Application Programming Interface (APIs)

a library of commands that programmers use _____

Shadow Mask

a screen that allowed only the proper electron gun to light the proper phosphors. This prevent, for example, the red electron beam from "bleeding over" and lighting neighboring blue and green dots.

Color Issue

adjust tint Degauss

Phosphors and Shadow Mask

all CRT monitors and dots of phosphorous that glowed RED, GREEN or BLUE (RGB) when an electron gun swept over it. These PHOSPHORS were evenly distributed across the front of the monitor

Vertical Refresh Rate (VRR)

amount of time it took to drawn the entire screen and get the electron guns back to the upper left corner The number of times per second the electron guns can draw the entire screen and then return to the upper left corner

You have a projector in a large room. How many lumens should your projector be measured at?

at least 10,000 lumens

You have a projector in a mid-sized room with typical lighting. How many lumens should your projector be measured at?

at least 2000 lumens

What provides the illumination for LCD monitors?

backlights

When configuring brightness and contrast, you should always start with configuring the

brightness

A true 3-D object is compared of a group of points called VERTICES. Each vertex has defined video game character in a 3-D world. the computer must track all of the vertices of all of the objects in the 3-D including the ones you cannot currently see.

calculation process is called TRANSFORMATION and taxing on the systems

Ghosting, streaking or fuzzy edges

check cable connections and the cable itself. Otherwise, it's most likely the video card.

A color is missing

check cables for breaks or bent pins. Check the front controls for that color. If the color adjustment is already maxed out, the monitor will require internal service

Dark Screen

check power cable

vertices

composed of a group of points defined X, Y and Z position in the 3-D world

3-D graphics

create images with the same depth and texture as objects seen in the real world

Six Aspects that Define a Video Card

display modes motherboard slot graphics processor circuitry video memory Integrated GPUs Connections

Twisted Nematic (TN), most common TFT display technology

displays for a modest price. Most TN displays use only 6 bits for each color - red, green and blue and that 18 bit display will not reproduce the full 24-bit true color that video cards can send to it. This means the panel fudges a little bit when asked to do something it can't do, and this can produce noticeable problems with reproduction A twisted nematic (TN) display is a common type of liquid-crystal display ( LCD ) that consists of a substance called a nematic liquid crystal that is confined between two plates of polarized glass.

projectors

enable display of computer to an audience

Projectors

enable you to display computer images to an audience. There are two ways to project an image on a screen: rearview front view

textures

every 3-D game stores a number of image files called _____

refresh rate

for an LCD monitor, this refers to how often screen can change or update completely the industry standard is 60 hz

passive matrix

gives a slightly blurred image effect

video card or display adapter

handles communication between the CPU and the monitor

Six Aspects that Define a Video Card: Graphics Processor

handles the heavy lifting of taking commands from the CPU and translating them into coordinates and color information that the monitor understands. Most techs today refer to the device that process video as a GRAPHICS PROCESSING UNIT (GPU)

nits

how brightness is measured

Nits

how the brightness of a monitor is measured

EXAM TIP: Be familiar with 4:3, 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratios for the 901 exam

https://calculateaspectratio.com/

The 3D world must refresh at least 24 times per second. Keeps track of the positions of characters on the screen. How do we talk to these video cards?

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2034487/the-10-most-important-graphics-cards-in-pc-history.html

lamps

in a projector, get very hot expensive

pixels

individual pieces of the picture are called ______ from the term picture elements

rear view projector

is self enclosed and shoots an image onto a screen from the rear

resolution

is shown as the number of horizontal pixels times number of vertical pixels

Response Rate

is the amount of time it takes for all the sub-pixels on the panel to go from pure black to pure white and back again. An individual LCD sub-pixel holds its intensity until the LCD circuitry that sub-pixel making flicker less of an issue on LCDs.

Throw

is the size of the image at a certain distance from the screen. All projectors have a recommended minimum and maximum throw distance that you need to take into consideration. A projector with a 16:9 image aspect ratio needs to be 11-12 feet away from the projection surface to create a 100 inch diagonal screen. A LONG THROW LENS has about 1:2 ratio of screen size to distance so to display a 4 foot screen, you would have to put the projector 8 feet away. Some SHORT THROW LENSES drop that ratio down as low as 1:1.

light-emitting diode (LED)

light for backlighting, either directly illuminating pixels from behind or flooding the panel from the edge of bezel

LED Monitors (light-emitting diode)

light for backlighting, either directy illuminating pixels from behind or flooding the panel from the edges of the bezel. The former producers outstanding contrast and color, but costs a lot than the edge types. The edge types function similiarly to a CCFI-style display sp they produce similar contrast and colors to the older technology. Manf. have rebranded LCD monitors that use LEDs for backlighting as LED MONITORS

backlights

llluminate the image

How do you measure the brightness of a projector?

lumens

The majority of video cards sport GDDR5, DDR3 RAM is the most popular memory on low end non-gaming cards.

many advanced 3-D video cards come with huge amounts of RAM. Even with PCI Express, accessing data in system RAM always takes a lot longer than accessing data stored in local RAM on the video card. The huge amount of video RAM enables game developers to optimize their games and store more essential data on the local video RAM.

VGA connector

many monitors use a 15 pin, three row, D-Type connector

Connector Types and Associated Cables

many types connectors types on video cards plus variations within those types. COMPTIA makes a distinction between the names of the ports on the cards and the cables associated with them.

aspect ratio

most resolutions match a 4:3 ratio

Adjustments

most take place with the monitor at installation. Adjustments include brightness/contrast, color tones every monitor has an onboard menu

How LCDs work

need to understand the polarity of light. Light travels in waves and the wavelength of the light determines the color

Display Options in Mac OS X and Linux

offer pretty clear options to change display settings. The dock option gives you access to settings that can be used to change the user experience a lot.

Cathode ray tube (CRT)

original computer monitors, heavy boxy and took up a lot of space

CART (Cathode ray tube)

original computer monitors. Contains a large cathode ray tube, a type of airtight vacuum tube. Three electron guns and power created the visual on the screen. This stream was subject to magnetic fields generated by a ring of electromagnetics called a YOKE that controlled the electronic beam's point of impact. When the electron beams struck the phosphor coating, the coating released its energy as visible light.

cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL)

popular for its low power use, even brightness, and long life

Plasma Display Panels (PDP)

popular tech for displaying movies, competing directly with LCD screens for the flat panel space

yoke

power applied to the electron guns generates a stream of electrons. This stream is subjected to a magnetic field generated by a ring of electromagnets called a YOKE

Video memory and stuck pixels might be easily repaired with a

power cycle of the display, PC and surge suppressor the equipment is connected to

inverters

power the backlights

twisted nematic (TN)

produced a decent display for a modest price, most displays use only 6 bits for each color

DirectX

provides direct access to hardware and is used for more than just video

dual-scan passive matrix

refreshes the screen two lines at a time

Defective Pixels (Dead or Stuck)

replace monitor

Physical Damage

replace monitor

Rearview Projector

shoots an image onto a screen from the rear. These are self enclosed and were once very popular for television but are virtually unhead of in the PC world.

Frontview Projector

shoots the image out the front and counts on you to put a screen in front at the proper distance. Front view projectors connected to PCs running MS PowerPoint have been the cornerstone of every meeting almost everywhere since the Clinton Administration.

front-view projector

shoots the image out the front and required a screen at the proper distance

monitor or video display

shows what's going on with programs and the operating system

Remember this: the onboard video controllers rely on the ___________ as opposed to the video card with their own RAM and GPU

sticks of RAM in the motherboard

DirectPlay

supports direct access to network devices for multiplayer games

DirectDraw

supports direct access to the hardware for 2-D graphics

DirectMusic

supports direct access to the hardware for MIDI devices

DirectInput

supports direct access to the hardware for joysticks and other game controllers

DirectShow

supports direct access to video and presentation devices

Plasma Display Panels (PDPs)

technology for displaying movies, competing with LCD screen for the flat-panel space. Offer a wider viewing angle from LCD and cost less. Bad for PC use for two reasons: Burn-In: screen leaving a "ghost image" even after the image is off the screen. Plasmas TV makers have eliminated the burn-in when used for PC displays. Overscan: is when the TV blows up the image, cropping off the edges of the picture. On computers the task bar gets cut off.

Six Aspects that Define a Video Card: Motherboard

techs will encounter Four Ways that display adapters connect to a motherboard: PCI, AGP, PCIe, integrated graphics

polygons

the 3-D process then groups triangles into various shapes

Two other modes that have gained traction though more on tv than monitors are 4K (ultra) and 5K Ultra HD

the 4K means a resolution that's twice the width and twice the height of HD in one panel For computer monitors, the ultra HD resolution here applies as 4K. When you head to Hollywood, the Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) defines 4K as 4096 x 2160.

a client complains that his new LED monitor is flickering. What is the problem?

the CCDL backlight is failing.

OpenGL

the ______ standard was developed for UNIX systems but has since been ported or made compatible with a wide variety of computer systems

response rate

the amount of time it takes for all the sub pixels on the panel to go from pure black to pure white and back again

vertical refresh rate

the amount of time taken by the monitor to draw to draw the entire screen and get the electron beam back to the start

High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)

the best connections for outputting to television. Some devices off HDMI output directly while other video cards support HDMI through a special cable that connects to a dual-link DVI port.

contrast ratio

the difference between lightest and darkest spots that the monitor can display

A small 17 inc LCD usually has a 1366 x 768 or higher

the larger LCDs will go higher

TN

the most common Thin Film Transistor display tech and has 6 bits for each color

Inverters

the part of a LCD display sends power back to the backlight

Backlights

the part of an LCD display that illuminates the image

persistence

the phosphor coating releases energy as visible light when struck by the electrons. They continue to glow momentarily after being struck

How do you know when a pixel is dead?

the pixel doesn't light up

LCD monitors (liquid crystal display)

the primary visual output component on a computing device.

throw

the size of an image at a certain distance related to aspect ratio

Horizontal Refresh Rate (HRR)

the speed at which the electron beam moved across the screen The time it takes to draw one line across the screen and be ready for the next. This is measured in KHz (thousands of lines per second)

Horizontal refresh rate (HRR)

the speed at which the electron beam moves across the screen

Video

the term encompasses a complex interaction among numerous parts of personal computing devices, all designed to put a picture on the screen.

Resolution

the term that shows the number of horizontal pixels times the number of vertical pixels

Older or low-end LCDs cause ghosting during video games or movies. Why?

they have a response rate between 20-24 seconds

in-plane switching (IPS)

to create a wider viewing angle and far better color re-creation than TN panels can provide

anti-aliasing

to soften the jagged corners of the pixels when running at lower than native resolution

DirectX Diagnostic Tool (dxdiag)

to verify DirectX is installed working properly on your system

T/F A BSOD issue to be related to a driver not being updated

true

LCD projector

two types of video display for computing devices: 1. used on modern pcs 2. found in boardrooms and classrooms

CCFL

used by most LCD backlights and provides low power usage, even brightness, and has a long life?

PCI

used today only additional card support extra monitors on older systems. Image result for what is a pci video card Today, the most common expansion slot for video cards is PCIe, which replaced AGP, which replaced PCI, which replaced ISA. Note: Some OEM computers and motherboards may have a video card on-board or integrated into the motherboard The PCI bus cannot handle the video cards of any current system

Leaving the PC off for a couple hours can fix

video memory problem

Another word for video memory is

video retention

PCI AGP PCIe

ways that display adapters connect to a motherboard