Setup guide

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Section
About LCD Monitors
What you gain by using an LCD monitor for your industrial display is the future of display
technology. CRTs although they have dropped in cost significantly, do not offer the
performance, reliability, and mounting options available with LCDs. LCD monitors consist
primarily of an LCD, video board and a backlight. The LCD determines to a large extent the
viewing angle, brightness and contrast. Beyond that it is the function of the video board,
which converts the analog RGB (Red, Green, Blue) signals from a standard video card to a
high quality, digital RGB that the LCD can display.
LCD monitors can can be set for one or more of the following resolutions:
VGA: 640 x480
SVGA: 800x600
XGA 1024 x 768
SXGA 1280 x1024
UXGA 1600x 1200
Note: The VGA acronym stands for Video Graphics Adapter. It is used to describe both the
most common type of display interface used by PC’s and lowest resolution setting for this
interface. Originally only the VGA [640x480] resolution was available on a VGA interface.
Today all of the above interfaces are available on a VGA interface, but not all monitors
support all resolutions. . The native resolution of the LCD is normally the maxium resolution
that the LCD can display, and is the resolution that the LCD will exhibit the best display
charastics Check the monitor specifications (Appendix F) for the resolutions supported by this
monitor.
Recently the video card has taken on a new role. It is the responsibility of this device to
"scale" a particular video resolution to the "native" resolution of the LCD. This enables a
computer set to output a VGA [640x480] resolution signal to be properly displayed on an
XGA [1024x768] LCD screen. Without the scaling engine, the displayed picture would be in
the center
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of the LCD. The scaling engine mathematically converts the 640x480 to
1024x768. This my sound simple but it is in fact a complex algorithm that adjusts for different
aspect ratios and pixel alignment, essentially smoothing text and graphics to produce a
picture that is pleasant to the eye.
All Automationdirect.com displays from 12.1" (800x600) to 18.1” (1280x1024) incorporate
scaling engines in the converter card.
LCD
Introduction