laptop Screen Settings - Do You Care

[eyes-open]

The screensaver thread in 10F tweaked my interest. I suddenly came to wonder how many people give their monitor backlight's life expectancy a second thought. Sure the screensavers can be fun - but a black pixel is a still a lit pixel. Depending on where you read it - some monitors can be down to half strength after 5yrs, if not burnt out totally. On many laptops all you have to do is push a combo of fn + 1 other button (F6/F7 for me) to raise & lower the brightness of the backlight, and so extend it's life.

So keeping it simple where do you fit in ?

[WSFuser]

i dont have a laptop (yet if ever) but it would be something i should keep in mind.

[Rmus]

On all of the Toshiba laptops I've owned, I've always run at Maximum Performance and Maximum Brightness.

I either turn off the Monitor (Fn/F5) or Hibernate when not using for a period of time.

I've never had a monitor go bad.

EDIT: I was going to vote but realize your are specifying using screen savers, and I don't use them.

[eyes-open]

Hi Rich :)
{QUOTE-> EDIT: I was going to vote but realize your are specifying using screen savers, and I don't use them. <-QUOTE}
I see how you would think that - but no I just meant that screensavers were what had me thinking about this. Just generally would do - if you leave your machine on & unattended with or without a screensaver........

[Rmus]

OK, I vote for the last selection, except my "changing settings" is to just turn off the monitor when not in use :)

This is an interesting topic: Two articles mention that newer laptops have LCDs that don't require a backlight, (which is just a CCFL tube). This has helped with longer battery life.

I'll have to do some checking about my Toshiba. The brightness changes with the power setting, but "backlight" is not mentioned anywhere.

[aigle]

{QUOTE-> Two articles mention that newer laptops have LCDs that don't require a backlight, (which is just a CCFL tube). This has helped with longer battery life.
<-QUOTE}
Can U give the link of these articles.

[aigle]

I have toshiba Power saver that is very nice. My screen wil auto shut down after 3 min( on battery) and after 5 min( on AC), so screen saver can,t start( it will start after 6 min). I use my LCD brightness on level 3( max 8) to avoid strain.

Toshiba Satellite M 70.

[Rmus]

{QUOTE-> Can U give the link of these articles. <-QUOTE}

Here is one - I can't find the other:

http://www.fonerbooks.com/laptop_5.htm

I spoke with a friend who has the same model Toshiba that I have and she thinks that it does have backlight that is controlled by the brighness settings, even though there is no "backlight" setting per se.

I'll have to check further on this.

[eyes-open]

A problem with laptop screens is said to be that the needs of backlighting - a screen with good transmissive values that will allow the backlight through, is exactly opposite to the needs of a laptop that would work well with ambient lighting - that is a good reflective screen surface.

There is a compromise state called Transflective:-

{QUOTE-> Finally, Transflective LCD technology is a combination of Reflective and Transmissive types. The rear of the LCD's polarizer is partially reflective and combined with a back light for use in all types of lighting conditions. The benefit here is the back light can be left on where there is insufficient outside lighting. Conversely when there is enough ambient light it can shut off to conserve power. Transflective takes the best of both worlds and enables viewing in dark environments. Additionally the display won't "wash out" when viewed in direct sunlight. However the contrast rating is not as high as a purely Transmissive display. <-QUOTE}

Source of above Quote (http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=487)

Apple have introduced a sensor to their notebooks which alter the backlighting depending on available ambient lighting. I haven't followed it up - but one review stated that these aren't based on transmissive screens - but rather a special anti-glare display.

{QUOTE-> Though widescreen displays and special transflective screens are becoming the norm in consumer notebooks, Apple sticks to its guns by retaining a 1,024-by-768 antiglare display. <-QUOTE}
Source of above Quote (http://shop.pcmag.com/shop/product/Apple+iBook+G4+M9846BA+Mac+Notebook/26055763.aspx)