The acceptable number of defective pixels on an LCD monitor. Check your monitor before purchasing. Testing the monitor online using Online Monitor Test

Every buyer faces this interesting problem when choosing a new TV. It is no secret that when purchasing a modern TV in a store, managers offer a paid service - checking the TV screen for dead pixels and sound quality. The most interesting thing during the conversation is that they refer to service centers where, if you find one or more dead pixels, they will still give you a conclusion that the TV is working and there is no reason to return the defective product. Indeed, according to the ISO 13406-2 standard, a new TV with up to 7 dead pixels must be returned to the consumer without claims to the store. You can find more information about this ISO 13406-2 on the Internet.

Yes, we know that according to the law of consumer rights, within 14 days the store that sold this TV is “sort of obliged to replace” the TV with another or return the money. This cherished word seems to calm. But not everything is as good as it seems. The store will replace your TV or refund your money only when you bring an official conclusion from the warranty service center about the unsuitability of the product called TV.

To save yourself from wasting time and money, I recommend checking the TV before purchasing using a flash drive.

Checking a new TV for dead pixels from a flash drive

If you buy a modern TV with a USB connector, then checking for dead pixels is very simple.

photo 1

The archive below contains 9 photos with a resolution (1920x1080 pix) and a movie trailer in 1920x1080 mkv HD format. They need to be moved to a flash drive.

Install the flash drive into the USB connector of the new TV.

Using the TV remote control in the menu, connect the USB flash drive. Then select viewing photos by pointing to our test photos in the menu.

We look through 9 colors of photographs one by one and in the case of a dead pixel or several dead pixels, we will see them on the TV screen.

photo 2

By viewing each of the 9 screensavers, you can easily determine the presence or absence of dead pixels on the TV screen even before paying for the purchase. Don't forget to check the sound quality in the folder there is a movie trailer in excellent quality and with good sound.

photo 3

Happy shopping!

Files for checking your TV for dead pixels

The files are archived with WinRar. Use the link below and download the archiver.

Atrise Lutcurve
OS: Win2k/XP/Vista/7 To the website
Grade:5/5 - 1.7Mb
Shareware $25
This program will help you calibrate your liquid crystal display (LCD) or CRT monitor. Lutcurve uses the knowledge that the eye has a high sensitivity to neutral gray. The calculation of the test gamma patterns for which you will adjust the monitor is based on the mathematical relationships described in the article by A. Roberts, “Measuring the transfer characteristic (gamma) of display devices.” Atrise Lutcurve will allow you to correct even non-linear color display. This is especially true for LCD monitors. The number of calibration points is unlimited, so it is quite possible to achieve excellent results even on old monitors with a dead backlight. The program fully supports multi-display configurations. You can adjust the image of different monitors to each other, so that the colors are the same everywhere. Atrise Lutcurve has a multilingual interface, including Russian among the supported languages.

CheckeMON
OS: Win9x/Me/NT/2k/XP To the website
Grade:5/5 - 189Kb
Freeware
CheckeMON is a utility for testing quality and setting up a monitor. It consists of 9 tests, including the test of color, geometry, convergence, etc. All tests are provided with a description. Brief information about the current operating mode of the monitor is also displayed.

DDC Test
OS: Win95/98 To the website
Grade:4/5 - 138K
Freeware
This utility provides information about the monitor and its characteristics. The monitor must support Plug and Play.

Dead Pixel Tester
OS: Win98/Me/2k/XP To the website
Grade:5/5 - 188Kb
Freeware
Dead Pixel Tester is designed to check LCD monitor screens for dead pixels. The program allows you to fill the screen with different colors, run some other tests on the LCD screen, and also run the Stuck Pixel Exerciser, which will try to revive a faulty pixel.

EIZO Monitortest
OS: Win98/Me/2k/XP To the website
Grade:5/5 - 522Kb
Freeware
EIZO Monitortest is designed for thorough testing and tuning of monitors. The program has an original interface and includes 24 tests (including: color, moiré, geometry, clarity, brightness, inertia, etc.). Each test is provided with a brief description. Supported interface languages are English, German and Czech.

iiyama Monitor Test
OS: Win9x/Me/NT/2k/XP To the website
Grade:5/5 - 2.6Mb
Freeware
A program for testing and setting up a monitor from iiyama. It includes tests such as geometry, moire, focus, readability, color, LCD tests, etc. iiyama Monitor Test has a nice animated interface.

LSoft Testbild
OS: Win9x/Me/NT/2k/XP To the website
Grade:4/5 - 163Kb
Freeware
A German program designed for testing a monitor. It has the usual set of tests, 6 in total. The interface is in German.

Monitor Asset Manager 2.9
OS: WinXP/Vista/7/8 To the website
Grade: 5/5 - 699K
Freeware
Monitor Asset Manager is the successor to DDC Test, supporting the latest versions of Windows and multi-monitor configurations. The utility provides detailed information about the monitor and its characteristics by accessing the monitor directly and without relying on data contained in the registry. The monitor must support Plug and Play.

Monitor Calibration Wizard
OS: Win9x/Me/NT/2k/XP To the website
Grade: 4/5 - 771K
Freeware
Monitor Calibration Wizard is a program for adjusting the color gamut and brightness of your monitor.

Monitor Expert
OS: WinXP/2k3/Vista To the website
Grade:4/5 - 600Kb
Shareware $15
A program designed for testing and setting up monitors, both LCD and CRT. Monitor Expert contains more than 10 tests, as well as a monitor information screen.

Monitor Test 5
OS: Win9x/Me/NT/2k/XP To the website
Grade:4/5 - 27Kb
Freeware
Monitor Test is a program for setting up monitors. Includes several tests to adjust beam convergence, focus, and image brightness and contrast. Has a Russian-language interface.

Monitor Test
OS: Win9x/Me/NT/2000 To the website
Grade:4/5 - 163Kb
Freeware
A Russian program with a Russian-language interface that allows you to check your monitor for color, geometry, screen resolution, etc.

Monitor Tester
OS: Win9x/Me/NT/2000 To the website
Grade:5/5 - 348Kb
Freeware
This program will be very useful when setting up your monitor. With its help, you can adjust the image size and position, color reduction and purity, white balance, brightness and contrast, focus, moire, etc.

Monitors Matter CheckScreen
OS: Win9x/Me/NT/2000 To the website
Grade:5/5 - 836Kb
Freeware
One of the best utilities for testing a monitor at the moment. It allows you to properly configure the monitor before testing, conduct tests of color, focus, geometry, power supply, etc. In addition, the program provides separate tests for liquid crystal monitors (LCD). Among them there are tests for blur, pixel quality, etc.

NEC Monitor Test
OS: Win9x/Me/NT/2k/XP To the website
Grade:4/5 - 152Kb
Freeware
This development from NEC is designed for testing monitors. It includes 14 different tests that can be performed in different resolutions, as well as with different colors.

Nokia Monitor Test
OS: Win95/98
Grade:5/5 - 379Kb
Freeware
One of the few high-quality monitor testing programs! You can contact her separately.

PassMark MonitorTest
OS: Win98/Me/NT/2k/XP/2k3/Vista To the website
Grade:5/5 - 1.3Mb
Shareware $24
PassMark MonitorTest allows you to run a series of standard monitor tests at various resolutions. The tests themselves and the necessary permissions are set before testing begins, i.e. no need to switch manually. The program also provides some information about the computer's video system.

Philips Test Pattern Generator
OS: Win9x/Me/NT/2k/XP
Grade:5/5 - 3Mb
Freeware
Monitor setup program from Philips. It has an impressive number of different settings and test screens. It is possible to select the aspect ratio (4:3 or 16:9).

Pixel Persistence Analyzer
OS: Win9x/Me/NT/2k/XP
Grade:5/5 - 67Kb
Freeware
A very interesting program designed for LCD testing. It allows you to compare the pixel inertia of different LCD monitors. It has several tests, a contrast adjustment function, an original interface, an entertaining game, and much more! Recommended to all owners of LCD monitors without exception!

When purchasing a TV or monitor, sellers offer an additional service - checking for dead pixels. Moreover, the service is paid, costing from 500 rubles and more. If you discover a defect at home, you will not be able to return the TV back, they explain. After all, this is not a warranty case, and they are right. In fact, you can perform such a matrix test yourself and for free, there is nothing complicated about it. You just need to bring with you a special video or pictures on a flash drive for verification, having read our article beforehand.

Warranty case

Why is a certain number of dead pixels allowed? The fact is that the technology for producing LCD display matrices is very complex, and not even every device manufacturer can afford their own production. And such a defect can only be detected on an assembled device. If the manufacturer writes off screens even with minor defects as scrap, the price of TVs and monitors will increase several times. Therefore, the following compromise was found:

Manufacturers leave production at the same level and do not increase prices.
Buyers assume the presence of a certain number of dead pixels, which is not a warranty case. However, the buyer has the right to check the display before purchasing.

Acceptable quantity

How many dead pixels are acceptable? The answer to this question is contained in the international quality standard for LCD TVs ISO 13406-2. It defines 3 types of defective points:

Open or white - such pixels freeze in the open state and constantly glow white.
Closed or black - such pixels freeze in a closed state and constantly glow black.
Colored - the control transistor of such pixels fails, and they constantly light up in one of 3 colors: red, green or blue.

LCD devices are also divided into 4 classes. The first class is the highest; in the matrix of devices of this class, the presence of defective points is not allowed at all. The bulk of devices on the market are second class. The standard defines the permissible number of defective points of various types depending on the maximum resolution that it supports. Information for popular class 2 devices is given in the table below.

How to check

To check the screen for defects, you need to sequentially feed pictures of primary colors onto it, and at the same time look at it carefully, trying to detect dots of a different color. This is what dead pixels look like. For example, when there is a white picture on the screen, it is easy to detect black and colored dots. If the color is black, it is easy to detect white dots, etc. Before the test, with the TV turned off, make sure there are no particles of dust or other debris on the screen.

We have prepared a special archive for you, which contains a video test. It sequentially displays pictures of different colors, which allows you to check for defects. There are also pictures themselves so you can look at individual colors in more detail. You can download the test from the following link: . Unzip it and burn it to a flash drive before going to the store. Before purchasing, ask the seller to play this video from your flash drive on your TV.

Recovery

There are several methods for repairing dead pixels found during the test. They give results extremely rarely and only in correcting colored dots (type 3). Tests also show that this usually helps only for a short time; the next day the pixel fails again. In addition, you can easily spoil neighboring points. Therefore, we strongly do not recommend doing restoration, but we will still consider the methods.

When buying a monitor, checking for dead pixels is not a superfluous procedure. What is a “dead pixel” and why do you need to check it? For buyers who are far from the intricacies of production and performance characteristics, all this sounds unusual and incomprehensible.

An LSD monitor is made up of small dots (pixels) that produce light and color. A dead pixel is a defective pixel that does not work properly. It either does not work all the time (black dot), or constantly lights up in the same color (white, blue, red or green), regardless of the color of the image. Checking for allows you to see the defect BEFORE purchasing and demand that the seller replace the low-quality product. Ignoring verification allows some unscrupulous sellers to sell obviously defective goods to inexperienced buyers.

Checking your monitor for dead pixels is actually an absolutely easy and simple procedure. This is true. When purchasing, it is enough to have with you a flash drive on which a program for checking for dead pixels is recorded and a few seconds of time to launch this program. After installing the program in a few minutes, you can see exactly what you will be paying your hard-earned money for. As a rule, any seller who values his reputation will not interfere with the verification procedure.

A few words about what the program should be like. There are mountains of software to check for dead pixels. It works extremely simply. After installing and launching the program, the entire area of the monitor glows in one color. consists of simply clicking the left/right mouse button. This press changes the color of the monitor. When changing colors, it is possible to see defective (broken) pixels.

There is no point in listing all existing programs for checking dead pixels. Any search engine for the query “check for dead pixels program” will return several hundred pages with links for downloading. Choose any one, download, test and then put it on a flash drive. In the store, she will provide you with invaluable help, saving money, time, and a lot of nerves.

Why is it important to check BEFORE purchasing? After all, the law is on the buyer’s side, and according to the law, the product can be returned or exchanged. Yes it is. However, the seller is not always willing to make an exchange, citing the ISO 13406-2 standard, which allows a certain number of dead pixels and this is not considered a defect.

The most interesting thing is that this is true. This standard prescribes the characteristics that LCD color, backlight uniformity, etc. should have. One of the parameters is the permissible number of defective pixels. “Fifteen” - no more than two defective pixels, 17-19 inches - no more than four, 21 inches and more - no more than six.

Manufacturers of LCD panels are naturally familiar with these numbers. And, based on this, there is a division of LCD matrices into quality classes: the first class does not contain dead pixels at all, the fourth allows 256 defective units. Please note: branded manufacturers do not produce monitors lower than the second class. Accordingly, “no-name” products can be of any quality. Checking for dead pixels in this case is simply necessary.

While your money is still in your pocket, the seller will make every effort to do well for you: he will tell you, show you, test it with you, replace it (if necessary) or select another model. But as soon as you paid the money and took the goods, the degree of tenderness rapidly drops. You may not recognize the sweetest seller. Deliberate distortion of information, free interpretation of regulations and acts, and references to non-existent documents may be used. To restore justice, you will need to butt heads with stubborn “managers”, and even after that it (justice) cannot always be restored.

Checking for dead pixels is not a whim. This is a justified necessity that will help make both the purchase and further use of the monitor as pleasant as possible.

Despite the fact that LCD TV production technologies are constantly improving every year, there is still a risk of buying defective TVs with dead pixels.

That is why, before the transaction, you should diagnose the plasma display for the presence of such “surprises”. And today we will look at what program there is to check a TV for dead pixels and how you can use it.

A few words about pixels

A pixel is the smallest detail of a digital image or display matrix. It is an indivisible object of a round (usually rectangular) shape. It is the pixels that form the image on the monitor or TV screen.

The process of manufacturing plasma screens is very complex and labor-intensive, requiring high precision and expensive tools. LCD displays are used in almost all digital devices. These can be cameras, mobile phones, laptops, PC monitors, TVs and navigators.

Crystals

Plasma TVs and LCD monitors are based on light passing through them, from which an image is then obtained. Often the outer layer of an LCD panel is made of glass. In this case, a thin-film transistor is placed between the panel and a layer of crystals with a backlight module inside. The latter can be either rear or side. While the TV is operating, light passes through a layer of crystals, which is instantly converted into a finished image.

Subpixels

The pixel itself consists of several subpixels (blue, green and red). With their help, an LCD screen can distinguish between millions of different colors and shades; the crystal molecule behaves like part of some liquid substance, that is, it is constantly in motion.

Diagnostic program on TV

At the moment, there are two most popular utilities for diagnosing and checking LCD displays for “dead” pixels:

TFTTest.
DeadPixelTester.

They are quite easy to use. Below we will tell you how to check a TV for dead pixels from a flash drive with both programs.

So, we have a flash drive and the TFTTest utility. First you need to write down the required software package. It should include both the program itself and a separate archive with a set of color fills and gradients with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. You can also download a set of videos with which you can see how the TV perceives and displays a picture in 3D format and the quality of rendering (from 100 to 800 Hertz).

Next, install the flash drive into the USB connector of the TV. Using the remote control, go to the menu and connect the drive. Next, select pre-prepared color fills. Most often in the archives there are 9 such fills with yellow, black, white, green and other colors. We launch the utility and look through all the photos one by one. If there are defects on the LCD display, we will immediately notice them on the screen - they will differ in shade from the general background fill (or they will be automatically detected by a program for checking the TV for dead pixels). It is also recommended to check the quality of the reproduced sound and the contrast depth of the picture itself. This way you can accurately determine whether the TV is defective or not.

DeadPixelTester, a program for checking a TV for dead pixels, was also created to check LCD screens. Thanks to it, you can highlight any dubious areas of the screen with any of the colors suggested by the program.

To do this, a program for checking your TV for dead pixels will require you to select any color you like and check its display quality over the entire display area. If a dead pixel is detected, you can go to the window with 5 basic shades. This way you examine the suspicious area in more detail.

How much does a professional check for dead pixels on a TV cost?

Oddly enough, electronics stores can offer you professional TV diagnostics for such defects. There is nothing distinctive about it - all actions are similar to those you perform with your own hands. True, for this they will demand from you from 600 to 1000 rubles. To check it yourself, you only need a flash drive and Internet access, from where you can download the necessary utilities and color fills.

Dead pixels - is this normal or not?

In fact, manufacturers allow TVs with defects to enter the market, although their concentration per 1 million pixels should not go beyond a certain limit. first class does not allow the presence of such defects at all. Most often these are very expensive and rare TV models that are not very popular and in demand on the world market. The second class allows for no more than two type I and II defects per million pixels. This class is the most popular on the Russian market. The third class allows the presence of up to 5 dead pixels of grades I and II, as well as up to 50 of grade III. The fourth may contain up to 500 defects of various types, but such TVs have not yet been found in Russian electronics stores.

So, we found out how the screen is checked for dead pixels, as well as what is the norm for their content in various types of TVs.