Special Report:
Issues in Technology
In One Screen … Out the Other
Part 2
by David English
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Samsung
24TFT3
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Workstations
On the computer side, where the digital content can be easily displayed
in any number of unusual aspect ratios, the road to 16:9 is even less
certain, as well as filled with additional obstacles. Samsung, Apple
and SGI, for example, have all introduced 16:10 models to their lines
of LCD monitors.
"What we're trying to do is set standards of resolution and addressability that actually make sense," says Ian Miller, director of the Display Lab at the Samsung Digital Technology Center in San Jose, California. "Forget about the history-where we are today. What we're looking for is a successful structure for the future that will allow simple scaling without a very high cost. The Apple monitor is actually 1,600 x 1,024, so it's a 16:10.24 monitor, despite what the company says. And so is the SGI monitor. [Both companies have] broken away from the integer aspect ratios, which makes scaling really difficult. If you have something extra, which bits do you throw away? We've already killed attempts for 1,600 x 1,280, which the workstation people had started moving toward."
Samsung uses a 16:10 ratio because it's better suited for the world market, according to Miller. "It can display two pages of A4 paper side-by-side with icons and toolbars, or an A3 tabloid size page, again with icons and toolbars," he says. In comparison, he adds, the 16:9 aspect ratio can almost handle those sizes, but not quite. "You can put the image up, but you don't have any space for the toolbars," Miller says. "Or you have to restrict the image to get the toolbars. It's a compromise. With 16:10, you don't have to compromise."
Computer Monitors
In the continuing competition between CRT and LCD computer monitors,
two other trends have developed. The first is cost. Prices should stabilize
and possibly even rise a bit for 15-inch and smaller CRT monitors, according
to Rhoda Alexander, director of monitor research at Stanford Resources
in San Jose, California. "We're still seeing price degradation
for 17-inch and larger," she says. "The price degradation
is more market-driven that it is cost-driven, in that if you look at
the cost of the raw materials on these units, it has actually increased
over time." If oil prices are high in coming months, it could affect
monitor prices.
"Shipping costs are much more significant for CRT monitors than they are for flat-panel monitors," Alexander says. Where the price difference between CRT and LCD monitors has widened during 1999 and 2000, that could reverse in 2001 and 2002. "We see CRT pricing starting to stabilize, while flat-panel pricing will continue to fall," she says.
| Sidebar:
Moving From VGA All the Numbers |
The second trend
is the digital CRT, which is an analog CRT with a digital interface-in
most cases, a DVI interface. At first glance, this appears to be a marketing
ploy meant to capitalize on the fact that almost anything new in technology
is referred to as digital. But when you dig below the surface, there
are actually some sound technical reasons to graft a digital interface
onto an analog display.
Martin Reynolds,
a research fellow at the Gartner Group, also in San Jose, is enthusiastic
about the possible benefits of digital CRTs. "A digital connection
allows the CRT to have a higher quality image than it would with an
analog connection-even one with a relatively expensive cable,"
he says. "You can eliminate a lot of the expensive multisync stuff
and replace it with silicon. Multisync devices have to be optimized
to run at a whole bunch of different frequencies and resolutions. Whereas
with this technology, they have to run at only one frequency, which
can be completely optimized for the display. The timing conversion is
done inside the silicon." A buffer inside the CRT captures the
data and plays it back at the speed that suits the electronics in the
monitor. "That translates to a higher quality at a lower cost.
We're still probably a year or two away from seeing any significant
volume in these devices."
Not everyone is convinced by the arguments for digital CRT. Bob O'Donnell, research director for device technology with the research firm IDC in Framingham, Massachusetts, is skeptical about the value of the current generation of digital CRTs. "The bottom line is it adds cost to your monitor, and it's not clear that you're getting that much benefit from it."
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