Dead pixel

Vigil · 7 Mar 2006 at 00:29

Then they should offer that.

djohn · 7 Mar 2006 at 01:07

I doubt very much they would cost five times as much. Dearer yes, but I think all of us would rather pay an extra £15 to £20 on a monitor costing over £300 to know we are getting one without faulty pixels or back light bleed.

Spyhop · 7 Mar 2006 at 01:13

scousegit said:
hi, you could try a program called UDPixel, it's freeware, this program allows you to run a 1x1 pixel ( refreshing) and set the responce time on this pixel, you then put the "pixel" or cursor over the lazy or stuck pixel and let the program run for a few hours, I have heard of some people using it and it worked. It however never worked for me.

try a search on google for it.

Cheers

Thanks for the tip. That's a great little app.

gizmo1990 · 7 Mar 2006 at 16:52

djohn said:
I doubt very much they would cost five times as much. Dearer yes, but I think all of us would rather pay an extra £15 to £20 on a monitor costing over £300 to know we are getting one without faulty pixels or back light bleed.

Yep, what he said.

fish99 · 7 Mar 2006 at 17:25

djohn said:
I doubt very much they would cost five times as much. Dearer yes, but I think all of us would rather pay an extra £15 to £20 on a monitor costing over £300 to know we are getting one without faulty pixels or back light bleed.

None of us know really how much more it would be, you're just guessing. It could be £50 or more. Chances are most people with dead pixels never realize it (home office types rather than picky gamers). It could be a lot of LCD panels they'd have to bin to guarantee everyone got a perfect screen, and checking them all would be time consuming and expensive. Even then it wouldn't be an absolute guarantee since screens do sometimes develop dead pixels.

Of course no one wants to pay a lot of money for something that isn't perfect, but the situation isn't about to change, not until something comes along to superceed LCDs. In the meantime all you can do is use the distance selling regs, or use a store that does a pixel dead check (and get a confirmation from them beforehand that the check includes subpixels).

gizmo1990 · 7 Mar 2006 at 17:39

fish99 said:
In the meantime all you can do is use the distance selling regs, or use a store that does a pixel dead check (and get a confirmation from them beforehand that the check includes subpixels).

Therefore why not just offer the option for people to guarantee no dead pixels for a slight increase?

Some stores offer this service already so it's obviously acheivable...

djohn · 7 Mar 2006 at 17:45

I agree with you fish99 regarding many people would not notice a dead pixel. friend of mine has one with a dead sub pixel, asked me to find it looking at the panel while a website, then word doc was open. I couldn't find it, looked on several different colour backgrounds and still I didn't see it. Once pointed out to me then yes, but it was a bright red background that made it show as a small dot the size of a pinhead.

It could then be found on backgrounds of different colours but once text or graphics were on the screen it was very difficult to see, even though I now knew were it was. I could quite happily live with one that was like that, but fine in all other specs. I think I could accept one that was slightly larger, IE: a full pixel if it was near the edge of the display. I could not live with one that was in the centre, really obvious or if there were several of them.

So, easy way is to leave things pretty much as they are and treat each case on an individual basis, those who do not see them or can live with them, fine. But if it really is getting to you then I think the monitor manufacturer should e prepared to change out. If this means price going up by £10 to £15 per unit, I think we as customers would accept this. The present standard or requirements for an exchange are too strict. I paid almost £400 for my panel, if I had paid 6 - 7 - £800 for it, I would be pretty damn upset if it was bad enough to annoy me for the next couple or more years of use.

fish99 · 7 Mar 2006 at 18:11

gizmo1990 said:
Therefore why not just offer the option for people to guarantee no dead pixels for a slight increase?

Some stores offer this service already so it's obviously acheivable...

The stores you speak of still sell screens with dead pixels - to the 90% of their customers who don't pay for the check. If you're just saying you want OcUK to offer a pixel check, well that's for them, but they've said in the past they just don't have the time to check screens.

djohn said:
If this means price going up by £10 to £15 per unit, I think we as customers would accept this. The present standard or requirements for an exchange are too strict. I paid almost £400 for my panel, if I had paid 6 - 7 - £800 for it, I would be pretty damn upset if it was bad enough to annoy me for the next couple or more years of use.

Sure, we all would. I'm just saying your £15-20 (which seems to have gone down to £10-15

) is just a guess and could be way off. What if it turned out to be 15-20%?

fish99 · 7 Mar 2006 at 18:26

I wonder if anyone has ever explored whether a dead pixel is suitable grounds for rejecting a monitor? (irrespective of the distance selling regs, which only applies to online sales)

I mean I think I'm right in saying warranties are in addition to your statutory rights, not instead of them, so what the manufacturer states the defects on a screen must be to qualify for a warranty exchange has no relevance to whether you personally find it fit for it's purpose, and whether you can demand a replacement or refund from the retailer.

djohn · 7 Mar 2006 at 23:25

I don't think anyone has yet tried to take a supplier/manufacturer to the small claims court over a dead pixel or back light bleed. It would be interesting as I think they would settle just prior to going to court in case they lost and a precedent was then set in law, or would it be seeing its a small claims court?

Well spotted Fish, I was just checking to see if the class were all awake!

Vigil · 9 Mar 2006 at 12:36

I seem to remember someone questioning this and being told that it was impossible, because the sale was described accurately by the manufacturer, or they didn't guarantee a perfect screen, or something. I could be wrong. This is probably a redundant post :-)

djohn · 9 Mar 2006 at 16:32

Could be right Vigil, but most suppliers don't have this spec on the front page of the website or magazine, hidden away in small print on most sites among the specifications, so might have a case because its not made obvious.