A pixel (picture element) is an addressable point in an electronic image.
A group of adjacent red, green, and blue phosphor dots is called a triad.
The number of triads per pixel is determined by the engineering design of a particular CRT. It is not necessarily 1-to-1.
The number of pixels in a display is related to the amount of memory needed to support that display. Indirectly, it is related to the visual resolution of the display. For a 1280 x 1024 display, the resolution as pixels/inch on a 15-inch display is greater than the resolution as pixels/inch on a 17-inch display.
The Energy Star program is an environmental issue related to reducing energy consumption, and hence to reduce environmental damage due to the production of energy. This is not an ergonomic issue.
If your eyes do not normally blink more often than every 5 seconds, see your ophthalmologist.
If you need glasses for work and you use a computer monitor a lot, measure the distance from your eye to the monitor screen, and the height of the center of the monitor screen above your eye. Your optician can use this to adjust the focal length of your lens, and to adjust the horizontal partition of your lens if you need multiple focal-length lens. Lens optimized for working with a computer are different than used for normal book reading.
Next to last sentence of paragraph #2 in the right column is misleading.
The reason for the faster refresh rate is driven by the desire for displaying an image that can change faster. This leads to the choice of shorter persistence phosphors, which require a faster refresh rate to control flicker to an acceptable level. A monitor used to display DVD movies needs a shorter persistence phosphor than a monitor used for word processing. The typical business office can usually function quite well with a 60 Hz monitor, while the home entertainment computer will perform better with an 85 Hz monitor.
http://www.pc.ibm.com/ww/healthycomputing/vdc-dfc.html 29 December 2003
"Recent display applications have become dependent on rapid image updates. For example, when the cursor is moved by a mouse, a long persistence phosphor, like P39, will show the track that the movement followed. Motion effects blur. In page turning, remnants of the last image fade away so slowly that they interfere with the contrast of the desired image for a fraction of a second. This is called ghosting or smearing. Because of these considerations, general purpose VDTs use medium persistence phosphors, which require the use of higher refresh rates."
The design of a CRT begins with considering the application. This includes viewable size, flatness of glass envelope, resolution, permissible distortion, number of colors, color range, average luminance, dynamic response in rise time and persistence, latitude on earth for use, electrical power supply considerations. Persistence is the time required for the intensity to decay to 10% of its initial value after the excitation is removed. One decision is the selection of phosphors, particle size, geometry of coating, method of application, and mask material and geometry. These determine the required refresh rates needed to achieve the desired dynamic response.
For TV and computer monitors, the phosphors are selected for color and dynamic response. A data entry monitor does not need to change the image rapidly, but an entertainment display does. A data entry monitor can use a higher persistence phosphor and slower refresh rate than an entertainment display. The refresh rate is selected to reduce flicker after the phosphor is selected. That rate is called the Critical Fusion Frequency, which is the frequency above which flicker is not perceived by 90% of the population of expected viewers. Increasing the refresh rate will reduce the percentage of the population that will perceive flicker. In general, younger people are more able to detect flicker than older people.
For a fixed phosphor and fixed beam intensity, increasing the refresh rate causes a spot to be excited for a shorter period of time by the beam, and decreases the time between visits to that spot. Decreasing the time the spot is excited per sweep reduces the energy transmitted to that spot during that sweep. This decreases the luminosity increase per sweep. This can be compensated for by increasing the beam intensity. Decreasing the time between visits reduces the amount of decay in luminosity between visits. This decreases flicker perception at the expense of also decreasing the light output of the display for a fixed intensity beam.
The higher refresh rates permit use of lower persistence phosphors without appearance of flicker. The reason for changing to 75 Hz has little to do with people suffering eye strain when using a 60 Hz refresh rate CRT monitor. It has more to do with having changed to a lower persistence phosphor.
I have not seen plots of luminosity as a function of excitement time, so I do not know the relative importance between dwell time and refresh rate. I suspect it could be modeled by the charge and discharge of a capacitor in an RC circuit. The beam itself does not act exactly like a binary switch. Its intensity pattern has a shape. Further, that maximum response axis intensity is also time-varying. Sample persistence plots are readily available on the Internet.
All analog TVs following the NSTC National Television Standards Committee standards broadcast 525 lines using a 60 Hz refresh rate.
The claim, "The best analog televisions have a resolution of only 520 x 400 pixels" is a false statement. This is a problem of journalists and educators that specialize in computer publications that know how to produce content without assessing facts. HDTV is better than NSTC, but that does not change the fact that the publisher has again made a false statement.
All video signals begin as an analog signal. It is impossible to not lose information when a signal is sampled. A the best well-calibrated analog system will produce a higher quality picture that the best digital system.
HDTV will produce a better quality image than NSTC, but that is not due merely to HDTV being digital and NSTC being analog.
Response (h) end of sentence should read "one candela/square meter"