Just because technology can do something, doent meant its always right

[Miyuki]

I don't know. I think the progress is mostly positive. Also tools rarely last a lifetime if you use them lots. My grandfather was a fine example. Lots of lifetime lasting tools that were never used 

The last gen Apple Thunderbolt display which was top notch at the time. Released in 2011. I know people who are still using them 10 years later which is a pretty good lifespan. You can get a massive refinement of one with the Studio Display for about the same price including inflation. I'll be happy with mine if it lasts 5 years. 10 would be amazing.

Whereas my 27" Iiyama that cost 1/4 of the price didn't last 2 years. Grrrrr.

Any decent LCD has a huge lifespan (on cheap ones power supply fails)
I have my old trusty HP LP2475 from 2010 with 27k hours on the backlight counter and still running great
They are getting morally obsolete and maybe have little higher power consumption compared to modern LED backlights
But might work for another decade 

[tom66]

I turned the backlight down to 80% of nominal on my Samsung monitor.

4K LCD backlights are brighter than 1080p equivalents (because the panel has lower transmissibility) but my logic was if 100% backlight can survive the 3 year warranty with high confidence (else they'd not offer it) then 80% will last even longer.

If it's gamma corrected backlight intensity (it seemed like it) then 80% visible intensity is roughly 50% current so maybe even 4x longer.

[james_s]

The thing that ticks me off with the LED backlit and sidelit panels is that in most cases it would be trivial to design it so that he LED module is easily replaceable, yet they are virtually all constructed so that you have to completely disassemble the entire panel.

[SiliconWizard]

The thing that ticks me off with the LED backlit and sidelit panels is that in most cases it would be trivial to design it so that he LED module is easily replaceable, yet they are virtually all constructed so that you have to completely disassemble the entire panel.

It's as though they were designing the panels so that it's not economically viable to repair them.

[Miyuki]

The thing that ticks me off with the LED backlit and sidelit panels is that in most cases it would be trivial to design it so that he LED module is easily replaceable, yet they are virtually all constructed so that you have to completely disassemble the entire panel.

Did you ever meet a panel with a dead backlight? I never.
I had 2 monitors failures in my life and both were processor board issues causing artifacts.
And both lasted well over 10 years.

[PlainName]

Did you ever meet a panel with a dead backlight? I never.

Yep, twice. One a laptop and t'other desktop. But they were CCFL so perhaps not a refutation of your premise 

[Miyuki]

Did you ever meet a panel with a dead backlight? I never.

Yep, twice. One a laptop and t'other desktop. But they were CCFL so perhaps not a refutation of your premise 

And was it just to swap a CCFL power supply or were the tubes themselves damaged?
I know how they degrade over a long time, but they should last almost forever.
I'm just curious.

[PlainName]

Tubes themselves. One involved separating all the layers of the screen, and it was never the same afterwards (although it worked it had obviously been worked on). T'other was just a slide-in job one the old one was slid out. Worked great afterwards, so much so that I wouldn't be able to identify which one it was now.

[Miyuki]

Tubes themselves. One involved separating all the layers of the screen, and it was never the same afterwards (although it worked it had obviously been worked on). T'other was just a slide-in job one the old one was slid out. Worked great afterwards, so much so that I wouldn't be able to identify which one it was now.

Interesting, do you have any closer information on the age and hours they were lit?

[PlainName]

It was a long time ago, so no. At the time the tubes were reasonably easily available, which suggests repairs weren't uncommon.

[tooki]

And even today, there are online shops with gazillions of CCFL backlight tubes, as well as LED retrofit kits.

[james_s]

Did you ever meet a panel with a dead backlight? I never.
I had 2 monitors failures in my life and both were processor board issues causing artifacts.
And both lasted well over 10 years.

Yes, I've fixed two of them and scrapped four more of them, one because the 65" panel cracked while we were lifting it out of the frame. It's very common with modern LED lit LCD TVs, it's actually the most common failure mode I've encountered. Look online for LCD TV LED backlight failures and you'll see lots of examples. Typically one or two LEDs will fail and that causes the driver to shut down after a few seconds.

The TV I'm currently using was less than 2 years old when the backlight failed and it was given to me. Another that I fixed was a similar age, that one was edgelit.

That's just the LED backlights, I've seen scores of worn out CCFL backlights. Often replacing the tubes isn't worthwhile because the plastic optics turn yellow from the UV. I took apart one panel where the diffuser sheets crumbled to bits they were so brittle.

[tom66]

I have fixed a few LED TVs with bad backlights but the reliability has improved somewhat.

Part of the issue was the earlier TV backlights were pretty much set at full brightness from the factory for maximum wow.  Just reducing brightness to 80% reduces current by roughly 40% (because gamma curves) and massively extends their lifespan.

4K panels generally need brighter backlights due to their smaller pixel pitch (less active pixel area) which is one reason (the other being eye strain) that I run my Samsung monitors at 25% brightness.