Types of IPS monitor matrices. Which type of monitor matrix is ​​better? Monitor matrix type AH-IPS

In monitors, manufacturers install matrices made using various technologies; the following types of matrices are used: TN, IPS, VA with various modifications. In the figure below you can see how the picture changes on different screens when viewing the image at an angle.

TN matrix

TN+film- the first TFT panels are still produced as inexpensive screens, with the advantage of low-cost production. The disadvantage is small viewing angles, decreased brightness and contrast when viewed from the side. At first there were TN matrices, then a special film was added to improve color rendering, a kind of filter, and the matrices began to be called TN+film.

Matrices made using IPS technology.

• IPS Generations Summary (Hitachi)
• PLS- Plane to Line Switching (Samsung)
• AD-PLS-Advanced PLS (Samsung)
• S-IPS - Super IPS (NEC, LG.Display)
• E-IPS, AS-IPS- Enhanced and Advanced Super IPS (Hitachi)
• H-IPS - Horizontal IPS (LG.Display)
• e-IPS (LG.Display)
• UH-IPS and H2-IPS (LG.Display)
• S-IPS II (LG.Display)
• p-IPS- Performance IPS (NEC)
• AH-IPS- Advanced High Performance IPS (LG.Display)
• AHVA-Advanced Hyper-Viewing Angle (AU Optronics)

IPS- one of the first technologies for the production of TFT screens, was invented in 1996 (Hitachi) as an alternative to TN displays, it has wide viewing angles, deeper blacks, good color rendition, but the disadvantage is a long response time, which made them unsuitable for games.

PLS— (Plane-to-Line Switching) samsung translated the panel name as "switching-from-plane-to-line" it turned out to be complete gobbledygook, literal translation “ By plane to the switching line" also doesn't make any sense. Most likely, under this slogan they wanted to show that the monitor has a high response time and can switch the picture at the speed of an airplane. PLS is essentially an IPS matrix only manufactured by another company that came up with its own designation and its own production technology. The advantages include:

• response time is 4 miles second (GTG). GTG is the time required to change the brightness of a pixel from minimum to maximum brightness.
• Wide viewing angles without loss of picture brightness.
• Increased display brightness

AD-PLS- the same PLS panel, but as Samsung says, the production technology has been slightly changed, as many experts say, this is just PR.

S-IPS- improved IPS technology in this direction is being developed by NEC A-SFT, A-AFT, SA-SFT, SA-AFT, as well as LG.Display ( S-IPS, e-IPS, H-IPS, p-IPS). Thanks to improvements in technology, response times have been reduced to 5 miles of seconds, making these displays suitable for gaming.

S-IPS II- next generation S - IPS panels, reducing energy intensity.

E-IPS, AS-IPS— Enhanced and Advanced Super IPS, developments (Hitachi) one of the improvements in IPS technology is increased brightness and decreased response time

H-IPS— Horizontal IPS, (LG.Display) in this type of matrix the pixels are arranged horizontally. improved color rendering and contrast. More than half of modern IPS panels have horizontal pixels.

e-IPS — (LG.Display) The following improvements in matrix production are cheaper to manufacture but have the disadvantage of slightly lower viewing angles.

UH-IPS and H2-IPS— second generation H-IPS technology, improved matrix, increased panel brightness.

p-IPS— Performance IPS is the same as H-IPS, the marketing name for the matrix from NEC.

AH-IPS— modification of the matrix for high-resolution displays (UHD), analogue of H-IPS.

AHVA— Advanced Hyper-Viewing Angle is the designation received by the company’s displays (AU Optronics) The company was formed from the merger of Acer Display Technology and the display division of BenQ Corporation.

PVA matrices - Patterned Vertical Alignment

• S-PVA- Super PVA
• cPVA
• A-PVA-Advanced PVA

PVA matrices were developed by Samsung and have good contrast, but have a number of disadvantages, the main loss of image contrast when viewed at an angle. In order to periodically update the production line, a new screen model was released after a certain period of time, so there are the following types of VA screens.

• S-PVA— Super PVA improved matrix due to changes in production technology.
• cPVA- simplified production technology; screen quality is worse than S - PVA
• A-PVA— Advanced PVA small absolutely insignificant changes.
• SVA- another modification.

VA - Vertical Alignment

• MVA— Multi-Domain Vertical Alignment (Fujitsu)
• P-MVA- Premium MVA
• S-MVA- Super MVA
• AMVA-Advanced MVA

TFT display technology (VA) was developed by Fujitsu in 1996 as an alternative to TN matrices; screens made using this technology had disadvantages in the form of long response times and small viewing angles but had significantly better color characteristics. To overcome the shortcomings, production technology has been improved.

MVA - the next version of the technology in 1998, the difference was that the pixel consisted of several parts, this made it possible to achieve a higher quality image.

P-MVA, S-MVA— improved color rendering and contrast.

AMVA - next generation manufacturing, faster response time, better color rendering.

Describing the differences between IPS and TN matrices as part of advice when buying a monitor or laptop. It's time to talk about all the modern display production technologies that we may encounter and have an idea about types of matrices in devices of our generation. Do not confuse with LED, EDGE LED, Direct LED - these are types of screen backlighting and display technologies are indirectly related.

Probably everyone can remember the monitor with a cathode ray tube that they used before. True, there are still users and fans of CRT technology. Currently, screens have increased in diagonal size, display manufacturing technologies have changed, and there are more and more varieties in the characteristics of matrices, denoted by the abbreviations TN, TN-Film, IPS, Amoled, etc.

The information in this article will help you choose a monitor, smartphone, tablet and other various types of equipment. In addition, it will highlight the technologies for creating displays, as well as the types and features of their matrices.

A few words about liquid crystal displays

LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) is a display made from liquid crystals that change their location when voltage is applied to them. If you come close to such a display and look closely at it, you will notice that it consists of small dots - pixels (liquid crystals). In turn, each pixel consists of red, blue and green subpixels. When voltage is applied, the subpixels are arranged in a certain order and transmit light through them, thus forming a pixel of a certain color. Many such pixels form an image on the screen of a monitor or other device.

The first mass-produced monitors were equipped matrices TN- having the simplest design, but which cannot be called the highest quality type of matrix. Although among this type of matrices there are very high-quality specimens. This technology is based on the fact that in the absence of voltage, subpixels transmit light through themselves, forming a white dot on the screen. When voltage is applied to the subpixels, they are arranged in a certain order, forming a pixel of a given color.

Disadvantages of TN matrix

• Due to the fact that the standard pixel color, in the absence of voltage, is white, this type of matrix does not have the best color rendering. Colors appear duller and faded, and blacks appear more of a dark gray.
• Another main disadvantage of a TN matrix is ​​small viewing angles. Partially they tried to cope with this problem by improving TN technology to TN+Film, using an additional layer applied to the screen. Viewing angles became larger, but still remained far from ideal.

At the moment, TN+Film matrices have completely replaced TN.

Advantages of TN matrix

• fast response time
• relatively inexpensive cost.

Drawing conclusions, we can say that if you need an inexpensive monitor for office work or surfing the Internet, monitors with TN+Film matrices are best suited.

The main difference between IPS matrix technology and TN— perpendicular arrangement of subpixels in the absence of voltage, which form a black point. That is, in a state of calm the screen remains black.

Advantages of IPS matrices

• better color reproduction compared to screens with TN matrices: you have bright and rich colors on the screen, and black remains truly black. Accordingly, when voltage is applied, the pixels change color. Considering this feature, owners of smartphones and tablets with IPS screens can be advised to use dark color schemes and wallpapers on the desktop, then the smartphone’s battery life will last a little longer.
• large viewing angles. On most screens they are 178°. For monitors, and especially for mobile devices (smartphones and tablets), this feature is important when the user chooses a gadget.

Disadvantages of IPS matrices

• long screen response time. This affects the display in dynamic pictures such as games and movies. In modern IPS panels, things are better with response time.
• higher cost compared to TN.

To summarize, it is better to choose phones and tablets with IPS matrices, and then the user will receive great aesthetic pleasure from using the device. The matrix for a monitor is not so critical, modern ones.

AMOLED screens

The latest smartphone models are equipped with AMOLED displays. This technology for creating matrices is based on active LEDs, which begin to glow and display color when voltage is applied to them.

Let's take a look features of Amoled matrices:

• Color rendition. The saturation and contrast of such screens are higher than required. The colors are displayed so brightly that some users may experience eye strain when using their smartphone for long periods of time. But the black color is displayed even blacker than even in IPS matrices.
• Display power consumption. Just like IPS, displaying black requires less power than displaying a specific color, much less white. But the difference in power consumption between displaying black and white in AMOLED screens is much greater. Displaying white requires several times more energy than displaying black.
• "Picture Memory". If a static image is displayed for a long time, marks may remain on the screen, and this in turn affects the quality of the information displayed.

Also, due to their rather high cost, AMOLED screens are currently only used in smartphones. Monitors built on this technology are unreasonably expensive.

VA (Vertical Alignment)- this technology, developed by Fujitsu, can be considered as a compromise between TN and IPS matrices. In VA matrices, the crystals in the off state are located perpendicular to the screen plane. Accordingly, the black color is ensured as pure and deep as possible, but when the matrix is ​​rotated relative to the direction of view, the crystals will not be visible equally. To solve the problem, a multi-domain structure is used. Technology Multi-Domain Vertical Alignment (MVA) provides protrusions on the plates that determine the direction of rotation of the crystals. If two subdomains rotate in opposite directions, then when viewed from the side, one of them will be darker and the other lighter, so for the human eye the deviations cancel out. There are no protrusions in PVA dies developed by Samsung, and the crystals are strictly vertical when turned off. In order for the crystals of neighboring subdomains to rotate in opposite directions, the lower electrodes are shifted relative to the upper ones.

To reduce response time, Premium MVA and S-PVA matrices use a dynamic voltage increase system for individual sections of the matrix, which is usually called Overdrive. Color rendition of PMVA and SPVA matrices is almost as good as that of IPS, response time is slightly inferior to TN, viewing angles are as wide as possible, black color is the best, brightness and contrast are the highest possible among all existing technologies. However, even with a slight deviation of the viewing direction from the perpendicular, even by 5–10 degrees, distortions in halftones can be noticed. This will go unnoticed by most, but professional photographers continue to dislike VA technology for this.

MVA and PVA matrices have excellent contrast and viewing angles, but the situation with response time is worse - it grows as the difference between the final and initial states of the pixel decreases. Early models of such monitors were almost unsuitable for dynamic games, but now they show results close to TN matrices. Color rendering *VA matrices, of course, is inferior to IPS matrices, but remains at a high level. However, due to their high contrast, these monitors are an excellent choice for working with text and photography, with drawing graphics, and also as home monitors.

In conclusion, I can say that the choice is always yours...

Selecting a liquid crystal matrix

The debate about which type of monitor matrix displays color better and has the minimum response time does not subside and is constantly fueled by leading manufacturers, for example, APPLE and LG are behind IPS technology, Super AMOLED and PLS technologies are promoted by the no less powerful Samsung. Fans are divided into warring factions, but as always happens in life, there is no clear answer.

We immediately remove matrices using TN and TN+film technology. Despite the fact that they are still sold, the technology has been obsolete for a long time. A small viewing angle, limited color rendering and edge distortion limit the scope of application of these matrices exclusively to office programs.

Matrices *VA

An intermediate option between the outgoing TN and modern IPS. It is possible to determine which matrix is ​​better, VA or IPS, only upon closer inspection - *VA has slightly worse color reproduction and response time. Of the well-known companies, similar matrices are produced by Samsung using proprietary PVA (Patterned Vertical Alignment) technology, but progress in reducing the cost of IPS has practically driven them out of the market.

OLED

The image dots are created using multilayer polymers that glow when voltage is applied. Constant illumination is not required; the polymer base allows you to make a flexible screen. Despite many years of efforts by manufacturers such as LG, it has not yet been possible to significantly reduce the cost of the technology.

IPS

LCD screen technology, called IPS, was developed by Hitachi and NEC to eliminate the main drawback of TN and TN+film matrices - incomplete display of the RGB 24 bit color space. This led to color problems and professionals using outdated and bulky CRT monitors. Since 1998, LG has added to the improvement of IPS, which gradually became a leader in production and created the most famous option - the Retina IPS display for Apple devices, the resolution of which does not allow individual points of the image to be seen. In the picture on the left is the Retina matrix, on the right is the usual TN+film.

Due to good color reproduction and a large reserve for increasing pixel density, IPS matrices are widely used in 3D monitors and 4K TVs.

Advice: before purchasing, always remember that it is almost impossible to visually accurately determine which monitor matrix is ​​better in a store. Displays and TVs almost always operate in demo mode, which hides possible deficiencies in the backlight and color rendering systems. The settings are usually too high for ideal picture quality in large shopping areas, and you can be very disappointed if you turn on the “Standard” or “Normal” mode at home. Therefore, check all modes in advance!!

IPS technology has several modifications and the most popular are the following:

• S-IPS from Hitachi. Compared to the first IPS, the matrix response in dynamic images (games, videos) has significantly decreased;
• H-IPS from LG. High contrast, wide viewing angles and color uniformity over the entire screen area have made this type of matrix the de facto standard for professional graphics processing;
• AH-IPS. Development of previous technology from LG. Even better brightness and color reproduction, increased pixel density and reduced power consumption.

The emergence of alternative technologies, in addition to the marketing component, eliminated a significant drawback of the first IPS: small viewing angles, long response times and high production costs. But at the moment, these shortcomings have been practically eliminated and when asked “tn or ips which is better,” we can confidently say that IPS will be the best choice.

With competitors the situation is not so clear and you need to be guided solely by your own visual preferences. As an example, let's take Samsung and its proprietary PLS and Super AMOLED technologies, positioned as an alternative to IPS in the following parameters:

As you can see, there is no clear leader and the final choice must be made based on the scope of application: a gaming or 4K monitor should always have better characteristics compared to the office option.

In conclusion, the article is about another frequently encountered search query - “what type of matrix is ​​better for a tft or ips monitor.” What is it and how is it different from regular IPS? The answer is simple: nothing, since TFT is the short name for any LCD screen with an active matrix (Thin Film Transistor), and IPS is its next modification.

Greetings to all, dear readers of the blog site. This short note will answer the question of which monitor matrix is ​​better, TN or IPS, or maybe *VA? To answer this question you need to know the pros and cons of each type of matrix. And each type of matrix has them, these pros and cons, so you have to ask a leading question - “for what purposes do you need a monitor?”

If you need a monitor for gaming then this is perfect TN matrix, it has the shortest response time (latency), which has a very positive effect on the gaming experience. Another undeniable advantage of such matrices is their low cost; they are the cheapest of all types of matrices and therefore the most common. The disadvantages are very modest viewing angles, at which the image is not yet inverted (fades), mediocre (compared to IPS, *VA) color rendition, low contrast, and the inability to obtain perfectly black color.

If you are a photographer/designer, do video editing, or just like natural colors when working on a computer, then IPS or *VA will be an excellent choice. Monitors with such matrices are much more expensive, but in return you get something that no TN matrix can provide. IPS and matrices of the *VA family (PVA or MVA) are very similar, they all have high viewing angles and decent color rendition, but there are still differences and they are quite significant.

Let's start with the fact that the average IPS has worse response time compared to *VA. Although there are varieties, such as: E-IPS (increased viewing angles, reduced response time to 5 ms), AH-IPS (improved color rendition and reduced minimum permissible pixel size) and many other varieties. Another disadvantage of IPS is the inability to obtain realistic black, just like with TN, the black in them is more like dark gray. But despite all this, monitors with IPS matrices(and their varieties) are suitable for gaming and watching movies.

As for *VA matrices, they are something between TN and IPS, they usually cost less than IPS, but at the same time they boast better response time, greater backlight uniformity on a black background, and black color on *VA is really black. However, not everything is so smooth. Viewing angles on such matrices are worse than in IPS, as is color rendition, but it is far from certain that these differences will be noticeable to the eye, at least not for everyone. As is the case with IPS, *VA also has variations in which some indicators are improved compared to regular *VA. The most popular of them are: MVA (the problem with color display when watching a video at an angle has been resolved) and PVA (pixel response time has been reduced). Monitors with *VA are also great for games and movies.

Very often, only before buying a new TV, many of us begin to realize that there is a difference between LCD and LED. It turns out that models with IPS (In-Plane Switching) or VA (Vertical Alignment) panels are more expensive, while configurations with TN (Twisted Nematic) panels will cost significantly less.

Why is this so, what is the difference and how to choose the most suitable option, we will try to figure it out in this article. Let's start with something simple.

Twisted Nematic (TN)

LCD panels based on twisted liquid crystals (Twisted Nematic TFT) are usually equipped with inexpensive and so-called entry-level models.

Thanks to its simplicity and low cost, TN technology is still one of the most widespread on the market. However, price today is perhaps one of the main and few advantages of Twisted Nematic technology. TN panels differ from IPS and VA panels primarily in their smaller viewing angles.

Those. Due to the non-optimal color rendering inherent to this technology, TN panels are not able to transmit images with the same quality over their entire area. Therefore, even sitting directly in front of a TN TV, the user will still notice “blurriness” in the picture on the screen.

On the other hand, TN panels have the shortest response time among various types of matrices, although most users learn about this from the inscription on the box or from the words of the seller. In practice, the difference in response speed between inexpensive TN panels and IPS or VA is extremely difficult for the average TV viewer to notice, so many people prefer not to bother with this issue and, for example, buy TN TVs for the kitchen or dacha, thereby saving money.

In general, at the selection stage, you can identify such TVs by their brief specifications: if the viewing angles do not exceed 160 degrees vertically and 170 degrees horizontally, and the matrix response time is 2 ms, then you have a Twisted Nematic panel in front of you.

Vertical Alignment (VA)

This technology was first used by Fujitsu back in 1996 as a compromise between TN and IPS. Compared to TN panels, VA panels allow the user to be further away from the center of the screen to see color shifts. VA panels practically do not lag behind their TN counterparts in terms of response time, but significantly exceed them in depth and accuracy of color reproduction. At the same time, the disadvantage of VA panels is, firstly, the loss of details in the shadows when looking at the screen perpendicularly, and secondly, the noticeable dependence of the color balance of the “picture” on the viewing angle.

An improved version of VA panels S-PVA (Super Pattern Vertical Alignment) is now widely used by Sony and Samsung. S-PVA features wider viewing angles and deeper blacks. Both companies often indicate that their S-PVA TVs have viewing angles of 178 degrees horizontally and vertically, and in this parameter these panels are not inferior to their IPS counterparts. Sharp also produces its version of VA panels - Axially Symmetric Vertical Alignment - with similar technical and consumer characteristics.

You can identify a VA TV, for example, by lightly pressing the surface of the screen: a noticeable mark remains at the point of pressing for some time. However, this method does not work for VA models with frameless screens, which have an additional layer of protective coating above the panel itself. In addition, VA TVs can also be recognized by viewing angles.

In-Plane Switching (IPS)

IPS are popular among fans of FullHD video and, in particular, users of high-quality video. IPS technology provides the largest viewing angles, high color accuracy and minimal color shift. The picture is equally clearly visible both if you sit directly in front of the TV and if you look at the screen at an angle.

In addition, today only IPS matrices are capable of fully transmitting RGB colors - 24 bits. Therefore, IPS are used not only in HighEnd-class TVs, but also in those used in particular by designers in printing, advertising, etc. However, IPS TVs also have disadvantages: they are expensive, have a long matrix response time, not the highest contrast, and high power consumption.

Today, the most popular IPS panels on the market are two types: S-IPS and IPS-alpha. In S-IPS matrices, inertia has been reduced and contrast has been increased. In turn, in IPS Alpha panels, through the use of a more complex electrode shape and pixel structure, the response time was reduced to 18 ms, and the contrast was increased to 700:1.

In 2005, LG.Displays engineers completed the development of E-IPS panels, in which, due to the special Over Driving Circuity pixel overclocking technology, the response time was reduced to 5 ms, and the dynamic contrast ratio was 1600:1. Somewhat later, an optimized version of E-IPS was introduced, which received the designation H-IPS and differed from the basic technology in thinner electrodes and a progressive organization of LCD elements, which made it possible to increase the contrast of the panels and reduce light leakage. Today, TVs produced by LG and Philips are equipped with S-IPS matrices. IPS-alpha is used by Panasonic mainly due to the higher brightness and contrast that this type of panel is capable of delivering.

Panel types most commonly used by the world's leading TV manufacturers
As we have already said, many manufacturers equip inexpensive TVs with TN panels; models in the mid- and high-price ranges use the following types of matrices:

Other factors: LCD color depth and contrast

Color rendering largely depends on the type of LCD matrix. The term color depth is used to define the color quality of a screen. This takes into account the amount of memory in bits that is used to store and represent color when encoding one pixel of graphics or video. In theory, the higher this value, the better the image.

An expensive 10-bit LCD screen is capable of transmitting more than 1 billion discrete colors; the most common TVs with 8-bit panels transmit no more than 16.7 million colors - the difference is obvious. However, in stores you can often find TVs with 6-bit panels, the color rendering quality of which leaves much to be desired, but in such models, to improve performance, they use a lot of auxiliary functions with complex names that can mislead an inexperienced buyer.

Therefore, it is necessary to understand that manufacturers are not required to indicate all the technical features of a particular LCD TV model, and, as a rule, mention only the most important figures from the point of view of successful sales.

TVs with VA and IPS panels are superior to TN models in terms of contrast. But there are also a number of other factors that affect image quality. For example, the type of screen backlight is of great importance - whether it is a traditional CCFL backlight or a more advanced LED, the coverage of the backlight (side or back) and the presence of local dimming are also important. Today, VA and IPS TVs with LED backlighting and local dimming are considered the best on the market. Another thing is that not every manufacturer provides the potential buyer with detailed information about these and other parameters.

TOTAL

When choosing the “main family TV”, it is better to avoid TN panels, even despite their clearly affordable cost. Models with IPS or VA matrices are better suited. You already know the advantages and disadvantages of these technologies. Another tip: try to get as much technical information as possible about the LCD TVs you have chosen.