In the early 2000’s it was common to see computer monitors display interesting and sometimes psychedelic animations when the computer was not in use known as screen savers. You’ve probably noticed its been a while since you’ve seen one of these as today they're a very rare sight. In the video we’re going to have a look at why we don’t use screensavers anymore.
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To understand why we don’t use screensavers anymore, we first need to understand why we did us them. Old box like computer monitors are known as crt monitors with the crt standing for Cathode Ray Tube. These monitors were prone to burn in when displaying the same still image for too long. Burn in is where a faint outline of an image is still visible on screen after the image is no longer being displayed, we can see an example here.
CRT monitors were prone to burn in because they work by firing electrons at a phosphor-coated glass screen, which emits light when excited by the electrons. This process creates the images you see on the screen. However, prolonged exposure to the same image, especially high-contrast and static images like computer desktop elements or logos, could cause uneven wear on the phosphor coating.
Burn-in occurs when certain areas of the screen, which frequently display the same image, become permanently imprinted onto the phosphor layer resulting in the ghostly outline of an image even when the screen is displaying something else. Having a screen saver as a constantly moving animation on screen stops uneven wear on the phosphor coating and thus prevents burn in.
So that’s why we used screensavers but why did we stop using them? Most monitors today are LED. These don’t use the same phosphor layer that crt screens use and use light-emitting diodes or LEDs to produce light directly. This means they aren’t prone to burn in in the same way crt monitors were. This makes screensavers completely unnecessary and is why we don’t use them anymore!
With OLED displays becoming increasingly common these days there's days it’s a slight possibility we see a return of screensavers as OLED’s can also suffer from burn in. However with modern operating systems and monitors coming with power saving, screen dimming and sleep mode features, burn in is much less likely to be a risk.
Which screen saver did you used to use?
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#screensaver #windowsxp #screensavervideo
28 июн 2024
