The monitor is a hardware device which physically connects to the video card.

The monitor allows information and current status be visually outputted similar to a TV. Two widely used monitor types are :
CRT
LCD

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CRT monitor uses older technology that has the same working principles as the conventional CRT TV. It consists of one electron gun (monochrome) or 3 electron guns (color) and a phosphor coated screen.

Within the CRT are three electron guns, Red, Green and Blue. Each of these guns streams a steady flow of electrons left to right for each line of your monitor.

A CRT is an evacuated glass bottle, with a heating element on one end and a phosphor coated screen on the other. When a current flows through this heating element, called a filament, the conductivity of the metal filament is reduced due to the high temperature. This cause electrons to pile up on the filament, because they can not move as fast as they would like to. Some of these electrons actually boil off of the filament. These free electrons are attracted to a strong positive charge from the outer surface of the focusing anode cylinder. However, the inside of the cylinder has a weaker negative charge.
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Thus when the electrons head toward the anode they are forced into a beam and accelerated by the repulsion of the inner cylinder walls. By the time the electrons get out they're going so fast that they fly past the cathode they were heading for. The next thing that the electrons run into are two sets of weakly charged deflection plates. These plates have opposite charges, one positive the other negative. While their charge is not strong enough to capture the fast moving electrons they do influence the path of the beam. The first set displaces the beam up and down, and the second displaces the beam left and right. The electrons are sent flying out of the neck of the bottle, called a yolk, until they smash into the phosphor coating on the other end of the bottle.

The impact of this collision on the out valence bands of the phosphor compounds knocks some of the electrons to jump into the another band. This causes a few photons to be generated, and results in our seeing a spot on the CRT's face.

In order to generate image on the entire screen, the electron gun must sweep across the screen one row at a time, from left to right and from top to the bottom. While sweeping across, the beam intensity is varied to create different brightness (and color) for each position (pixel). Once the phosphors on the CRT have been hit with an electron they will only glow for a short period of time, because of this the CRT must be refreshed which means the screen will be redrawn again and again.

Refresh rate (scan rate) is the number of time the CRT screen is redrawn in a second. It is measured in Hz. Typical CRT monitor refresh rate range from 60 120Hz. Refresh rates below 75Hz can produce an often imperceptible flicker that can cause eyestrain after long viewing. Some video cards can support refresh rate higher than 100Hz but it is recommended you run 85-90Hz, rates beyond 90 Hz add an unnecessary processing burden to the video card.

If the video cards refresh rate is not set high enough you may encounter a flicker or a noticeable steady line scrolling from the top to the bottom of your screen. If you are encountering this issue, try to increase the refresh rate of the video card. But due to the limits in standard VGA connector bandwidth, the rate at which the screen is redrawn decreases as the resolution increases. Bandwidth is the rate at which the monitor receives data from the video card.

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The standard for flicker free images has been set to 85Hz. Nevertheless, most viewers won't detect flicker as low as 72 Hz. The best test to detect flicker is to look slightly above or to the side of the monitor.

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The dot pitch is the distance between two adjacent pixels, or phosphor dots, that make up an image. The finer (smaller) the dot pitch, the better image quality you will have. It is usually measured in millimeters (mm). Todays monitors have a typical dot pitch of 0.24 to 0.28mm

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LCD are organic molecules that, in the absence of external forces, tend to align themselves in crystalline structures. But, when an external force is applied they will rearrange themselves as if they were a liquid. Some liquid crystals respond to heat, others respond to electromagnetic forces. When LCDs are used as optical (light) modulators they are actually changing polarization rather than transparency. In their unexcited or crystalline state the LCDs rotate the polarization of light by 90 degrees. In the presence of an electric field, LCDs behave like a liquid and align the small electrostatic charges of the molecules with the impinging E field.
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The LCD's themselves have extremely low power requirements. A very small electric field is required to excite the crystals into their liquid state. Most of the energy used by an LCD display system is due to the back lighting. Response Time of an LCD monitor is the amount of time it takes for a liquid crystal cell to go from active (black) to inactive (white) and back to active (black) again. It is measured in milliseconds (ms). Lower numbers mean faster transitions and therefore less visible image artifacts. Typical response time for LCD nowadays is 2-10ms. Older LCD with long response times (>20ms) would create a smear or blur pattern around moving objects (ghosting effect), making them unacceptable for moving video.
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Defective pixels are pixels on a LCD not performing as expected. Three different types of defective pixels:
Hot Pixel always on (white) pixel Dead Pixel always off (dark) pixel Stuck Pixel one or two sub-pixel is always on or always off.

Dead Pixel

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Aspect ratio refers to the ratio of the display's width to the display's height. Most traditional computer monitors and TVs have a 4:3 aspect ratio where the width is slightly larger than the height. With the emergence of technologies such as HDTV, many of these type displays carry either a 16:9 or a 16:10 aspect ratio. HDTV has a 16:9 aspect ratio, but for computer displays, a 16:10 aspect ratio is optimal for rectangular displays because it allows for two full pages of text to be shown side-by-side on one screen. Contrast ratio is the measure of the difference of brightness levels between the brightest white and the darkest black. Larger contrast ratio generally is better. Typical LCD screen nowadays has absolute contrast ratio of over 300:1.
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CRT

LCD

Size
Response Time Contrast Ratio Viewing Angle

Bulky
Quicker Very high No limit

Slim
Slower, 2-10ms High 150-170

Power Consumption
Life (Half life) Price

17 70watt
15,000 hours Cheaper for smaller size but expensive for bigger size Rich and accurate color

17 30 watt
50,000 hours Cheaper for larger size (>17) Bright and flicker free
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Image Quality

Some newer LCD monitors use LED as back light. This type of LCD monitors has many advantages over the conventional LCD monitors which use fluorescent lamp (CCFL).
LED backlight is smaller in size and thus make it possible to build

slimmer and lighter LCD panel. LED consume less power compare to CCFL and thus making the overall power consumption of the LCD monitor lower. Using multiple LEDs as backlight make it possible to turn off some LEDs when displaying black/dark regions and thus producing much better contrast ratio. LED has longer lifespan compare to CCFL (about double). As the lifespan of LCD monitor normally is limited by the lifespan of the backlight, using LED as backlight increase the lifespan of LCD monitor.
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The monitor size is an important factor on deciding your screen resolution. When picking the resolution, try to base on the following recommended setting (4:3 aspect ratio).
15-inch 800 x 600

17-inch 1,024 x 768

19-inch 1,280 x 1,024

For LCD monitor, it is recommended to use the default (native) resolution of the LCD (i.e. 19 1280 x 1024)

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A higher resolution display lets you see more on your screen at one time and is particularly useful for operating systems like Windows. The maximum resolution that a monitor can display is limited by the size of the monitor and the characteristics of the CRT/LCD. While running the monitor at a higher resolution can be useful, it's important to remember that this makes each pixel on the screen appear smaller as well. Running a high resolution display on a small monitor can be very hard on the eyes.

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Here is where you set your resolution.

And here is to set the color depth

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There are two common types of interface used to connect the video card and monitor :
15-pin VGA connector which is analog only. Digital Visual Interface (DVI) which can carry analog or digital

video signal.

Other types include : HDMI, S-Video

VGA Connector

DVI Connector

HDMI Connector
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Clean the monitor every few months to clean up oily substances and dust. Place monitor at suitable place, not in the kitchen cause it will get dirty very fast. Use a smooth cloth to wipe away finger prints on the monitor. The monitor should not be used near water or exposed to excessive moisture to reduce the risk of electric shock or fire. Proper ventilation is very important so never block the ventilation openings with cloth or other materials. Should not be placed in book shelf or inside cabinet. The monitor should be cleaned only with soft, dry or slightly damp cloth.

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Symptom : Monitor has a tint of one color. Monitor cable is defective Temporarily disconnect the monitor from the back of the computer and verify that there are no bent, burnt or broken pins. If the end of the cable appears to be fine reattach the cable and ensure it is firmly connected to the back of the computer. If you continue to experience the same issue, try to connect the monitor to another system unit to verify that the video card is not causing the problem. If the same problem persist, then Monitor is bad
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Symptom : No display on monitor Cable not connected properly. Ensure that you are connecting the monitor to the VGA/DVI output of the video card. Ensure that the computer is turned on and that the monitor is getting power. You can do this by checking whether the status LED of the monitor is lit or not. Monitor settings are not correct. Ensure that the brightness and contrast is turned up or attempt to adjust the brightness and contrast (for analog control monitor).
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Symptom : No display on monitor No Post. Check whether the computer perform POST when it is powered on and or does it appear that the computer has activity. If the computer does not beep or beeps abnormally it is possible that the computer itself is experiencing a hardware issue or is exhibiting a No Post.

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Symptom : No display on monitor Hardware issue. Disconnect the monitor and attempt to connect it to another computer; OR, borrow a computer monitor and connect it to your computer. If your monitor works on another computer it is safe to assume that the video card within the computer is bad. If another monitor works on your computer it is safe to assume that your monitor is bad.

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