Ask HN: Monitor for programming – modern LEDs are poor for text | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Monitor for programming – modern LEDs are poor for text

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When looking for a new monitor I found out that old LED screens were far better in displaying text, especially white/gray on black (a Linux terminal).

Particularly a modern Dell LED IPS screen is worse than Benq TN LCD model from 2009, and far worse than Eizo 2004 LCD MVA model (it was a budget model).

I checked other cheap modern LED monitors and they all seem to have the same problem with displaying text - it looks like "shining neons" whereas on old LEDs text is more "flat" and looks closer to real paper. Games and videos look brighter and shinier but text is inferior.

I'm using Ubuntu (I find it's text antialiasing to be generally superb), and I mainly work inside xterms for many hours a day. I know that my issue sounds petty, but I actually feel discomfort when working on modern LED screens and I'm looking for a replacement.

The questions is: has anybody felt the same issue and found a solution? Do more expensive monitors are better in this regard? Are cheap 4k monitors good for text?

Your choice of words suggests that you might be a little confused about what "LED" means, and clearing up that confusion might be necessary for you to achieve monitor happiness.

"LED" refers to the type of backlight used in the monitor. Before 2006 or so, no monitors that I know of used LED backlights. Instead, flat-panel monitors (and displays in laptops) used a type of backlight called CCFL (fluorescent).

I humbly suggest that what you find objectionable is the light produced by LED backlights. I don't like them much either.

Fluorescent lighting technology has a bad rep because fluorescent room lighting used in schools and offices used to flicker, but the fluorescent lamps used in monitors and in laptop computers do not flicker (unless they're near the end of their life, and if that is the case, replacement lamps can be bought for about $15).

The last time I looked, a couple of years ago, monitors with CCFL backlights were still being made because they could produce a wider range or "gamut" of colors than LED backlights could, but those monitors were on the expensive side.

I bought 2 ten-year-old 20-inch monitors for $25 each, and am happy with them. Again, all ten-year-old flat-panel monitors will have CCFL backlights.

I can use devices with LED backlights, and indeed I have no reasonable choice when I want to use a tablet (because all tablets made in the last 5 years or longer have LED backlights) but I distinctly prefer my ten-year-old monitors.

Extended use of a device with an LED backlight seems to leave me more tense than the same duration of use of one my CCFL-backlit monitors.

"shining neons"

This sounds like an upscaling problem. If a monitor isn't being used at it's native resolution the video signal will be upscaled by the monitor ... and it'll do a bad job of it.

Turn off antialiasing and see what the text looks like. If it's still blurry, you have a software problem.

No, the resolution isn't upscaled. I think the issue is in LED technology (at least in cheap models), because all LED screens I worked on share it. The issue is definitely a subtle one, but my eyes definitely prefer LCD backlight.

The possibility is I got actually good LCDs and the cheapest LEDs, it's why I'm asking about experiences with non-budget modern monitors.

Most Dell IPS screens are quite good, although they often suffer from a "crystal effect" from the anti-gloss coating, which some people can't stand, but that isn't related to the backlight. Could it be that maybe you have either some image optimization active that produces bad effects or are running the screens otherwise at different settings? Have you tried different brightness settings? I've seen complaints that people can see the PWM flicker on a dimmed LED backlight.

BTW, minor nitpick on terminology: All these screens are LCDs, "LED screens" are LCDs with LED backlighting, what you call "LCDs" are LCDs with CCFL backlighting.

Thanks for the tips, it might be Dell and/or CCFL issue.

http://i.imgur.com/z9bWcxm.jpg

;)

I don't think I'm an old Unix bearded guy going for nostalgia: 1) I'm not that old, 2) I don't have a beard, 3) I like modern things, but I don't like when they are inferior to old things.

Sorry if that seemed like an insult. Rather, I was (only slightly tongue in cheek) pointing out that one of my favourite text-only experiences was my old green-phosphor Hercules monitor. I'll grant you it was lousy for anything other than text :)

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