I've heard that if you set your laptop's screen on full bright, you lower it's life span. So, how bright should I set mine usually? low, middle, high? What is the average life expectancy of a Powerbook's screen?
You should not set it so dim that you strain your eyes, because low brightness will reduce their life expectancy (or at least their usefulness) and I think you'd agree that it's better to shave a few days off the life of the screen than to shave a few years off your eyesight.
I've heard that if you set your laptop's screen on full bright, you lower it's life span. So, how bright should I set mine usually? low, middle, high? What is the average life expectancy of a Powerbook's screen?
Where did you hear that? Even if it's true, the life expectancy of the display is longer than the life expectancy of your computer, so that shouldn't be much of a concern. I set mine differently depending on the situation. If I'm running on battery power, I'll lower it to keep my battery going as long as I need to. If I'm plugged in, it depends on the lighting conditions. When it's dark, I'll reduce the screen brightness some so I'm not blinded, etc. Basically you should do whatever is comfortable for you. Don't worry about "using it up" or anything.
You should not set it so dim that you strain your eyes, because low brightness will reduce their life expectancy (or at least their usefulness) and I think you'd agree that it's better to shave a few days off the life of the screen than to shave a few years off your eyesight.
That's old wives tail updated for computers. Low contrast or small fonts on a computer are difficult for you eye to focus on. As a result the eye tries to do it over and over and ends up tiring the muscles that focus your lens. So your eyes get tired. It doesn't change your vision though.
Turn it up all the way unless you need to conserve battery. I've found that lowering the CPU speed almost matters as much as the screen being on. It multiplies my bat life at manyfold if I ratchet it down on my 12" PB.
I've found that I like it bright in any condition. Bright enough outside that I can see it (although that is one thing I'm pissed about, no matter if I'm 4 bars of brightness or full 16 you can hardly see better, it's still dim as all get out. Even in the dark I like it pretty bright, I mean it make everything look crisp...especially when it's dark and you can't see the end of the screen it looks HUGE
The main reason I have it so bright in dark conditions is because I havn't end my screen in yet to fix the uneven backlighting/dark spots that appear on anything less then 12 bars.
Doesn't lower brightness also help color matching between print and screen? Adobe's calibration tool when I used it would have theuser turn the brightness down as far as possible while still being able to see the difference between a certain dark gray and black square they provide in the assistant.
BuonRotto is right. If you care about color correctness, you'll run the ColorSync calibration tool from the Monitors prefs panel and follow the instructions there for setting your contrast and brightness.
I was under the impression that the backlight can be replaced if it fails without having to replace the screen itself \
This was the working theory as to why LCDs were so cool compared to CRTs in the long run. A CRT will lose focus over time, whereas an LCD will always be sharp. The actual panel itself should never fail, rather, the backlight, which is comparatively inexpensive compared to the physical panel, will dim and fail over a long period of time. This eventually requires only the replacement of the backlight itself.
That's the theory, anyway. I've yet to run an LCD's backlight dry, and I've never heard of someone needing to replace one, so I could not comment on the experience of doing that.
You should not worry about the backlight going on your PowerBook. Something more prohibitively expensive on the laptop will fail and need replacing before your backlight goes. At that point, it probably won't be worth fixing, and you will simply retire the unit.
replacing the backlight tho is stil expensive not as much as the panel but I believe its 600$ or so...
at least its not plasma, flat screen plasma tvs when you have to recharge those pups they cost as much as the tv... i just had to have my mom's worked on. 3,000!!!! for a panasonic plasma tv... she doesn't leave it turned on anymore.
I noticed something interesting last night while checking for the dreaded white spots.
When I started up my laptop and used a completely white background, there is a faint dark band, about 1" at the bottom and progressively increases to about 4" at the top of the screen. After increasing brightness to maximum the dark band disappeared and did not return when I decrease the brightness to the orginal level I had it set at. curious.
Comments
Originally posted by Ichiban_jay
I've heard that if you set your laptop's screen on full bright, you lower it's life span. So, how bright should I set mine usually? low, middle, high? What is the average life expectancy of a Powerbook's screen?
Where did you hear that? Even if it's true, the life expectancy of the display is longer than the life expectancy of your computer, so that shouldn't be much of a concern. I set mine differently depending on the situation. If I'm running on battery power, I'll lower it to keep my battery going as long as I need to. If I'm plugged in, it depends on the lighting conditions. When it's dark, I'll reduce the screen brightness some so I'm not blinded, etc. Basically you should do whatever is comfortable for you. Don't worry about "using it up" or anything.
i usually leave mine two - six notches below the brightest settings. it's still very readable for me.
Originally posted by alcimedes
lowering the brightness also is the biggest thing you can do to increase your battery life. it makes a huge difference.
Completely agreed.
Originally posted by Amorph
You should not set it so dim that you strain your eyes, because low brightness will reduce their life expectancy (or at least their usefulness) and I think you'd agree that it's better to shave a few days off the life of the screen than to shave a few years off your eyesight.
That's old wives tail updated for computers. Low contrast or small fonts on a computer are difficult for you eye to focus on. As a result the eye tries to do it over and over and ends up tiring the muscles that focus your lens. So your eyes get tired. It doesn't change your vision though.
The main reason I have it so bright in dark conditions is because I havn't end my screen in yet to fix the uneven backlighting/dark spots that appear on anything less then 12 bars.
Originally posted by MiMac
I was under the impression that the backlight can be replaced if it fails without having to replace the screen itself
This was the working theory as to why LCDs were so cool compared to CRTs in the long run. A CRT will lose focus over time, whereas an LCD will always be sharp. The actual panel itself should never fail, rather, the backlight, which is comparatively inexpensive compared to the physical panel, will dim and fail over a long period of time. This eventually requires only the replacement of the backlight itself.
That's the theory, anyway. I've yet to run an LCD's backlight dry, and I've never heard of someone needing to replace one, so I could not comment on the experience of doing that.
You should not worry about the backlight going on your PowerBook. Something more prohibitively expensive on the laptop will fail and need replacing before your backlight goes. At that point, it probably won't be worth fixing, and you will simply retire the unit.
at least its not plasma, flat screen plasma tvs when you have to recharge those pups they cost as much as the tv... i just had to have my mom's worked on. 3,000!!!! for a panasonic plasma tv... she doesn't leave it turned on anymore.
When I started up my laptop and used a completely white background, there is a faint dark band, about 1" at the bottom and progressively increases to about 4" at the top of the screen. After increasing brightness to maximum the dark band disappeared and did not return when I decrease the brightness to the orginal level I had it set at. curious.