You use it daily but somehow if somebody asks you some questions about it, you just don't know how to answer. That's right, I am talking about your computer monitor. Can you tell me the definition of the computer monitor? Or how it works? If you can't, I strongly suggest that you read this article so that in the future you can make a better decision when purchasing a computer monitor or just participate to the conversations held with other people on this topic.

The display is the main used out put device of the computer, often being considered the monitor and being referred as the monitor when packed in different cases. As you play or work, the display will provide you with instant feedback on graphics and text. The majority of desktop display will use the cathode ray tube (CRT) or the liquid crystal display (LCD) technology and all the portable computing devices, for instance laptops, have LCD technology incorporated. Having a much lower energy consume and a much slimmer design, monitors that use LCD technology, you may call it flat screen displays or flat panels, are slowly replacing all the CRTs on the majority of the desktops.

The number of dots, also known as pixels, is named the resolution that contains the display. It is expressed through identification of the number of pixels on the horizontal axis, rows, and the number on the vertical axis, on columns, for instance 800 x 600. The size of the screen is one of the factors that may affect the resolution. During the years, display standards have changed as the monitor sizes have increased and so the resolutions changed also, many manufacturers offering widescreen monitors strictly designed for viewing DVD movies.

The size of your display is described in two measures: the screen size and the aspect ratio. In the past, most televisions and computer displays had an aspect ration of 4:3, meaning that the aspect ratio of the width of the monitor screen to the height is 4 to 3. The aspect ratio for the LCD monitors is 16:9, 16:10 or 15:9. These monitors are very useful for playing games, viewing DVD movies and having displayed multiple windows next to each other. A widescreen aspect ratio is used also by the High Definition Television (HDTV).

The projection surface, known as the screen, has its size measured, normally, in inches form one corner to the other diagonal corner from it. This kind of measuring started from the manufacturers, which wanted to make their screen size TVs sound much more impressive than they were, and it actually worked. The way the CRT screen side is measured is different from the way a LCD monitor is, being measured diagonally from outside the edges of the display casing, this being included also in the measurement. For the LCD monitors, the measurement will not include the casing. Because of these differences, you can compare a 19 inches CRT display to a 17 inches LCD display.

If you want to know the most accurate size of the CRT's display you would want to find out its viewable screen size, this being the diagonal measurement without the casing. The most popular sizes are 15, 17, 19 and 21 inches, notebooks being much smaller, from 12 to 17 inches at most. Larger screen sizes will become much more available on the market as technology advances and it will improve the notebook and desktop displays. You can also find on the market LCD monitors of 40 inches or much bigger which are used for professional purposes like medical imaging or those for the public information display. Logically, the size of the monitor will affect the resolution, an image of 800 x 600 will look much more clear and sharp on a 15 inches display monitor and being fuzzy and unclear on the 21 inches one.

Most CRT monitors use an analog connection because the need the signal information in analog form (waves or continuous electrical signals) and not digital (pulses the equivalent to the binary digits 0 and 1). The video adapter and the computer will convert data into the analog format. The video adapter is known as an expansion card or component that will provide you the ability to convert display information into signal that will be sent to the monitor. It is also known as the graphics card, graphics adapter or video card.

After being in analog form, the display information will be sent through the VGA cable, that connects your computer to an analog connector, known as the D-Sub connector, which has 15 pins in three rows. The digital Video Interface, DVI, was developed because the VGA connector does not support the use of the digital monitors. From the computer to the monitor, DVI will keep its data in digital form, being no use to transform the data from digital information to analog information.

The DVI specification is based on the Silicon Image's Transition Minimized Differential Signaling TMDS which provides a very high-speed digital interface. On the video adapter you can find a transmitter that will send digital information to a receiver within the monitor. TMDS will take the signal from the video adapter, and refresh the data after it will determine the resolution that the monitor will be using and then will spread the signal to the available bandwidth to optimize the transfer of the data from the computer to the monitor.

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