CES: LCD flat panels get faster

The race was on for the LCD display with the fastest response time at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week.

Response time for LCD flat panels is measured in milliseconds. The faster the response time, the more fluid video images appear.

Samsung and ViewSonic were two vendors going neck and neck with their flat panel displays at the show. Samsung introduced two models with a two-millisecond response time, one of the fastest on the market. But ViewSonic is poised to beat that time with its one millisecond technology slated to launch later this year.

Samsung’s two millisecond SyncMaster 740BF and SyncMaster 940BF models are ideal for motion video and streaming video and measure 17 inches and 19 inches respectively.

To achieve fast response time the monitors use Samsung’s proprietary MagicSpeed and Response Time Accelerator technologies. The latter is a video processing circuit that jump-starts the liquid crystals, enabling them to turn faster. When that happens, the brightness increases more quickly and viewers don’t notice a lag time or see a blurring image or ghosting.

ViewSonic will also use proprietary technology to achieve the one-millisecond response time, a chip architecture called OverDrive.

For now, though, the company is showing off a new lineup of four widescreen flat panels with a response time of eight milliseconds and feature sets such as tilting capabilities, ultra-slim bezels and multiple digital inputs.

The VX2025 is a 20-inch model with 1680 x 1050 resolution, 300 nits of brightness and a 600-1 contrast ratio. The 23-inch VP2330wb boasts a resolution of 1920 x 1200, 250 nits of brightness and an 800-1 contrast ratio.

The 19-inch VA1912wb and 20-inch VA2012wb will appeal to cost-conscious customers who want to buy widescreen monitors to multitask by opening several windows at once but don’t need top-of-the-line motion video capabilities.