Short Cases / Discussion Memo - Business Strategy

L.C.D. Palette Wins Over Some C.R.T. Loyalists - The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/25/technology/circuits/25howw.html?...

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September 25, 2003

How It Works

L.C.D. Palette Wins Over Some C.R.T. Loyalists

By SEÁN CAPTAIN

IN the tech world, the slender liquid crystal display monitor has become synonymous with cool, making

steady inroads against its rotund predecessor, the cathode ray tube. By the fall of 2002, sales of flat-panel

L.C.D. monitors in the United States had exceeded those of C.R.T.'s in terms of dollars spent, and by the end

of this year L.C.D.'s should surpass C.R.T.'s in units sold, according to the research firm iSuppli/Stanford

Resources.

Although L.C.D. displays are winning over the masses, conventional wisdom has held that C.R.T.'s would

remain the product of choice for the most discriminating eyes: professional designers, video editors and

hard-core gamers who prize tubes (especially large ones) for their color quality and the fluid rendering of

motion. Sony , the maker of the Trinitron tube, decided as much in March when it stopped making C.R.T.'s in

all but the large 21- and 24-inch sizes. But even many users who might be expected to prefer C.R.T.'s are now

abandoning them in the belief that L.C.D.'s have improved enough in color quality, or because of benefits like

brightness, efficient use of power and a pleasing style.

Color quality is perhaps the most pressing quality issue. Monitor makers often measure color in terms of a

triangle representing the range of hues produced on the TV screen. The "pure'' colors red, green, and blue

each occupy a corner of the triangle and gradually blend toward the center, which appears white. The triangle

was developed by the National Television System Committee, or N.T.S.C., in 1953 to include the most

important shades of color for viewers. While far more shades exist in nature, those outside the triangle are

rare, and most people would have difficulty distinguishing them from very similar shades within the triangle.

The electron beams and glowing phosphors of a computer C.R.T. can produce about 70 percent of the

N.T.S.C. colors. The fluorescent backlighting and color filters of an L.C.D. have always yielded a smaller

triangle, although the difference continues to narrow, and some experts contend that it has disappeared.

"L.C.D.'s offer a color gamut as broad as a C.R.T., relative to the N.T.S.C. spectrum," said Scott Brodrick,

who manages Apple Computer's line of monitors, all L.C.D.'s. Mr. Brodrick's counterparts at monitor

manufacturers like Sony, NEC- Mitsubishi , and Samsung had declined to go that far, but at least one of them

has reconsidered. Ian Miller, director of display technology for Samsung's American operation, said he

recently measured the color range for several of his company's L.C.D. and C.R.T. monitors and concluded

that models of both types covered a percentage of the N.T.S.C. triangle ranging from the high 60's to the low

70's. "That was sort of a surprise to me," he said.

Even more progress is on the horizon. NEC-Mitsubishi, for example, says it has developed some prototype

L.C.D.'s with a color range beyond the triangle by replacing fluorescent backlighting with light-emitting

diodes. But the company has also built a modified version of its Diamondtron C.R.T. that yields 93 percent of

the triangle.

Whichever technology performs best or holds the most promise, color differences are becoming more of a

theoretical issue and less of a real-world concern, even for many professionals. "The popular myth has been

that you need a C.R.T. for accurate color," said Stephen Sugg, a freelance retouching artist in San Francisco L.C.D. Palette Wins Over Some C.R.T. Loyalists - The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/25/technology/circuits/25howw.html?...

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who does color correction for national magazines and advertisers.

Mark Rutherford, a professional photographer in Oakland Calif., agrees with Mr. Sugg. As an experiment,

Mr. Rutherford has been working on both Apple's 23-inch HD Cinema Display L.C.D. monitor and Sony's

Artisan, a C.R.T. model that he and other photographers call the "gold standard" for color quality. He found

the two monitors to be about equal, with the Apple better at some tasks and the Sony better at others.

However, while the Artisan produces pretty accurate colors right out of the box, Mr. Rutherford said that the

Apple L.C.D. required a lot of calibrating.

Aside from professional uses, C.R.T.'s have also been favored for the most serious of leisure activities:

gaming. The main benefit there is in response time. Using beams of electrons, some C.R.T.'s can "paint" over

100 new screen images per second, keeping up with fast-action games and high-powered video cards.

L.C.D.'s are slower because they create images through the relatively poky process of rotating crystals to

control light passing through a liquid. Until recently the differences were painfully obvious: games appeared

to leave streaks or "ghosts" because the scenes moved faster than the pixels could respond to refresh images.

But L.C.D.'s are now close enough in response time that many gamers are satisfied.

C.R.T.'s will undoubtedly hang on for special functions and devoted users, but the number sold is expected to

drop rapidly in coming years. "It really is a very personal decision," said Bruce Fraser, a co-author of the

book "Real World Color Management" (Peachpit Press, 2003). "You have to sit down with some of your

images and see how they look. And if it makes you happy, go out and buy an L.C.D. with a clear conscience.

And if you aren't happy, wait a year or two."