Quote from Canoe007:
backlighting flicker in the standard LCD monitors, but problem solved with LED backlit monitors.
You are entirely forgiven to think so, because the area is far more confusing than anyone could have thought. Actually, those 'new' TN panels with LED backlight (Edge or white LED, not RGB LED), have worse color gamut (being 6 bit only, with 2-bit dithering) than good (i.e. 8-, 10-, or 12-bit) x-IPS panels with 'old-fashioned' CCFL backlight (e-IPS, S-IPS, H-IPS being the ascending quality order). Not to mention their appalling viewing angles, unsuitable for multi-monitor setups.
A good Dell / NEC LCD monitor with an x-IPS matrix plus the 'old-fashioned' CCFL backlight wins hands down (viewing angles, contrast at high angles, color gamut, static contrast /only static is useful!/, black point) over 99% of TN's with LED backlight. This is because TN, the entry level panel technology, is never combined with good versions of LED backlight (RGB), while good panel technology, such as the x-IPS family is still too expensive to be combined with any LED backlight, not to mention a good one. The only exception I know of was the LG W2420R 24-incher where an excellent S-IPS panel was combined with top RGB LED backlight. Apple cheaped out with their Cinema Displays (and indeed iPads) and used white LEDs for backlight (which are worse than CCFL when it comes to color accuracy, but sure they are thinner).
The eye fatigue is the thing of the past, gone with CRTs, not even substandard 60 Hz 'refresh rates' still prevalent in virtually all LCDs can cause you a headache, because there is no flicker to speak of in LCD panels, no periods of darkness that is. Just like with an old-fashioned lightbulb, there is considerable momentum in those liquid cristals, they just don't find time to go dark in between frames.
As to the LCD backlight flickering, that is another misconception probably from substandard energy-saving lightbulbs that used to flicker at the 60 or 100 Hz rate, depending on continent (they did manage to go dark, being cold). CCFL backlight which is used for LCD panels has sufficiently high frequency not to bother with, varying from 200 Hz to... 60 kHz. Yes, backlight refresh rates are measured in kHz's... the field is full of confusion
The more modern LED backlight has frequency range also measured in kHz's (20-30), so nothing better really with respect to eyestrain.
So do avoid the overhyped poor Edge implementations of the LED backlight, wait until the good one, RGB LED, becomes mainstream and choose x-IPS panels any day, even though they invariably have the older backlight technology.
More importantly, pixel reaction times, while indeed slightly lower in TN's (than x-IPS), don't really matter. It is the little known
input lag than accounts for most of the latency, not the advertised pixel reaction times. For a 'fast' 5 ms monitor, the input lag can be 10 times higher, i.e. as large as your network latency! And you would never know unless you found that information in some geeky in-depth review...
Since backlight flicker cannot be an issue, and pixel reaction times are already minimal everywhere, low input lag is the only thing a trader should prefer (to minimize) in monitors for the trading station. Apart of course from contrast and color at high viewing angles (important with multi-monitor setups), which currently require an x-IPS panel.
So which monitor would have the lowest input lag? A gaming one of course
Here's a recent example from LG: their W2363D 23" model has the so-called "Thru-mode" designed with the sole purpose of reducing the input lag (which is very bad for gamers and traders alike
. Without the Thru-mode enabled this "3 ms" GtG monitor clocks a respectable 6-15 ms input lag (yes, 2-5 times the advertised latency
. But once the Thru-mode is activated, then according to a series of tests run by a FlatpanelsHD rewiever, this beauty showed an input lag reduced to 0 ms! This is as low as it gets, and a perfect monitor for traders it would make, if it also used a decent panel technology (sadly, it is the usual suspect, TN, so no multi-monitor setups possible here).
Disclosure: still an unashamed owner of two old-timers: NEC 1980FXi S-IPS's, but switching to three Dell U2311H monitors with e-IPS panels and a respectable 10.6 ms average input lag (4 ms faster than the 24" version (14.4ms) at half the price and 3 times faster than the 27" model (30ms). This explains the extensive research which I shared with you, because the LCD area is very complex indeed. Someone may in return share their graphics card choice for their multi-monitor setup
