Expert: Scottgem - 5/21/2008

Question
Scottgem

I am shopping for a new computer LCD monitor for my home office.

My question is what does the Image Contrast Ratio 2500:1 and 1000:1 mean?

what does the Input signal mean: VGA, DVI, HDMI, HDMI with HDCP, D-Sub?

What does image brightness 300 cd/m2 and 300 nit mean?

Sorry but I grew up in an age with no computers and I do not know what these terms are referring to. I and trying to replace my CRT monitor with an LCD monitor (the flat one) and I want the 20" size.

I think I know what Digital and Analog mean and I think I need Digital is that correct?

Thanks
Shirley

Answer
This is really not an area of great expertise for me. Its really a hardware, not a software question. But I know some of the answers.

Contrast ratio is a measure of brightness and sharpness. The higher the number, the better the display.

VGA, DVI, HDMI etc are all different ways of displaying data on the screen. Most graphics adapters are VGA only. So unless your graphics adapter supports DIVX or HDMI, then its superfluous to you. If it does supprt those, then each will give you better resolutions than VGA.

Image brightness is also a measure of how bright the pixels are.

Whether you need Analog or digital depends on your video adapter. Digital is better and its backward compatible.

Hope this helps
Scott<>