There already is a 'Pixel Perfect' classification - the ISO 13406-2 standard. Zero-defect TFT displays are called Class I displays. More information here:
http://www.nec-mitsubishi.com/specials/online_englisch/iso/

It comes down to how much consumers are willing to pay - some types of pixel defect are more annoying than others, which is what the ISO classes take into account.

CTX sell some of their screens (S-series) with a "+" sign to indicate that they are guaranteed defect free (for a few months, anyway).

Philips also guarantee some of their screens (very limited models though).

Also, aria.co.uk will test your TFT screen for an extra £15 and guarantee you a defect free one (pity they don't sell the model I'm after though).

Well, there are also the problem of live pixel as well as death pixel. Even 4 years ago, sellers in Hong Kong had already promoting their zero-dead-pixel policy...

Where on Acer's website does it mention its dead pixel policy? I couldn't see it anywhere.

I purchased an Acer AL1914 19" LCD monitor today. To my dissapointment, upon installation I discovered one dead (red) pixel on the screen.

I called Acer and was advised that upto 5 dead pixels are acceptable and do not class as a fault. Anything over 5 pixels they will act.

This was my first LCD purchase, having had a CRT previously. Overall I'm real happy with the product and the screen is great. Just wish I knew more about dead pixels before buying.

Under the ISO13406-2 quality standard (which is what most vendors stick to these days), 5 subpixel faults (where one of the red, green or blue elements is stick on or off) per million is allowed for a Class 2 monitor. Class 1 is the only zero-defect class.

Some vendors have a zero-defect policy for whole faulty pixels (red, green and blue all not working properly), but check with the manufacturer before ordering what their policy is.

Is there anyone out there who has started a website or forum on information about the each company's pixel policy links? A comparison of all manufacturers producing 'pixelperfect' screens may be worthy.

I just bought an Acer Aspire Laptop and it has a dead pixel. I have no idea that such a thing could happen when you buy something new from a sealed box. I bought a Philips 17" flat screen before and there were no such problem.

The dead pixel is a bother especially when I may sell the laptop later. I am sure the dead pixel would certainly devalue the re-selling value when a potential buyer sees it.

I knowingly bought a Sony 15 LCD flat screen two years ago with one dead pixel. The reason was I got £50. and felt it was a good buy

Toshiba have just verbally stated to me that they do not have procedure which is in line with the ISO standard mentioned above. Even more revealing , they were NOT prepared to confirm that in writing. I appreciate that a screen is a complex item, but for me, a faulty pixel is a faulty screen if it is sold as new. Expectations might be lower if bought used/second hand etc but that is an individual customer choice. My mission was to buy a new budget laptop. The normal question arises - do I get the cheapest internet price with no guarantee of perfect pixels or do i pay the normal 5-10% premium and buy from a shop ? My solution was John Lewis.

I about a month or 2 ago bought 1500 USD laptop and i now see a dead pixel, sony, who is at top in displays, gives me a dead pixel in such an expensive display?! wtf?! this was supposed to be one of the best laptops in the store...what is sony's policy on dead pixels exactly?

I just bought 2 ViewSonic VX924 19" TFT - BOTH have a single dead pixel. Sale of Goods act FAQ states...

Aspects of quality include fitness for purpose, freedom from minor defects, appearance and finish, durability and safety.

A dead pixel I consider a minor defect and will be getting my replacements shortly.

Last week, my boyfriend bought a Belinea 19" monitor from Misco.co.uk. Misco say it's the manufacturers' fault and told him to ring Belinea. Belinea then spring a surprise pixel policy on him and said all LCD monitors have pixel faults. So he's paid full price for a non-perfect monitor. I've lodged a complaint with Consumer Direct www.consumerdirect.gov.uk and am going to contact BBC Watchdog wwww.bbc.co.uk/watchdog and suggest the more people complain then hopefully the industry will need to buck their ideas.

I would like to mention that I purchased an Acer 19" AL1912 monitor from Tesco recently,and was, and still is, in perfect condition regarding bad Pixels, my other 19" monitor 'iiyama prolite E4815 had no dead pixels when it was purchased 3yrs ago, and it is stil in prefect condition

Like 'K' above (22 Oct 2005) I also this week received two brand new VX924 moniotors as part of my Mesh system and both have bright permanent pixel faults. One has a a permanent lit blue (in the top centre third area) and one bright lit green pixel (in the lower third centre area), the second monitor has a bright green pixel fault smack in centre screen. Mesh don't want to know (that is when you can actually get throught to them), and Viewsonic only agree one monitor is 'classed' as faulty. One replacement monitor 'should' be on its way from Viewsonic direct but as for other one ..... no idea.

I will now write to Mesh quoting the same 'Sale of Goods Act extract as 'K' did above and see what happens. I wish I just stuck with a cheap monitor. It really p&%£$d me off to spend the extra money for a higher spec Viewsonic VX924 screen only to received something worse (in tolerance) than all the cheaper screens we have at work.

Steve G

Sorry, In the above text I meant to refer to the post that was made by 'Rob Hammerton'on 8th Dec 2005, not the one by 'K'. I read the headers incorrectly.

Just received my new Acer Aspire 5652WLMi complete with CrystalBrite Technology
1x Brite green dead pixel about 2" from the side of the screen.

Do any sites out there have something like complaint polls?
Then people can see how many are having the 'same issues' with each manufacturer.

If you are in the UK and you purchased via mail order/Internet etc then distance selling regulations give you a 7 days cooling off period. You can simply send it back for any reason you want as long as it has all original packaging etc. As soon as you receive it unpack it carefully and give it a good testing. If there are any pixel or other problems pack it back up and inform your vendor straight away. The retunr postage is at your cost but its better than being stuck with a faulty unit.

Regards
Bill

I recently bought a veiwsonic va1912wb from Savastore (watford electronics). I noticed it had over 17 dead sub-pixels. After returning it to savastore for testing, after 2 hours they could not find any fault and sent it back. When i received it and ran a lcd test i noticed it still had over 17 dead sub-pixels. Veiwsonic have offered to replaced it for a refurbished one. But you can imagine how i feel after paying over £200 for a faulty monitor. Sent back to savastore for 2nd test. i've mentioned ISO standard to savastore but it seems their techi's are runing the test with windows office applications and trying to find the tiny dead white pixels and not using a black background. What should i do?

Experiences: 15", 17" & 26" LCD TV's, Philips - zero dead pixels (now all +1 year old), Samsung 15" (+3 yr) and 19" SyncMaster monitors - zero dead pixels, Toshiba Tecra T8000 (5 yrs) - zero dead pixels, Futitsu-Siemens Amilo D3060 15" Notebook (3 yrs) - zero, HP Ominbook 500 (6 years) - 1 dead pixel (even so, I'd buy a HP laptop again). Personally I wouldn't accept a single dead pixel, regardless of the companies policies, it's a basic failure to meet the Sale of Goods act, 1 dead pixel on a monitor, (or TV capable of VGA input) means the product does not function according to it's specification (if it states 1078 x 768 and one is dead, that means it doesn't meet this requirement).

Hi , I got a new samsung laptop P29 nice machine..but it had a dead pixel (red, stuck on) i used the machine for 3 days then I realised that this was a serious flaw, and was very irritating on movies since it came on the black strip below!!!...i went to the dealer and said that the panel was faulty....and guess what...the dealer wasnt aware of SAMSUNGs 10 dead pixel policy. He felt sorry and replaced mine with a new sealed machine and issed a new bill in my name...heheh.,....stupid dealer..LOLs!!!

Hey, I just bought a Sony Vaio Notebook and it just so happens that there's a dead pixel right smack in the middle of my display. Now, I got the extended warranty from Sony, so am I entitled to a screen replacement? I don't want a new laptop (being that I already installed Microsoft Office on it, and I know it only works on one computer)so how does that work?? BTW, does anyone know of any more cases of faulty "X-Brite" displays?

Found this link. Lists limits for each manufacturer: http://www.behardware.com/art/imprimer/519/

I bought notebook acer aspire 5552 , however after 1 day i used i noticed 1 blue dead pixel.
Luckily when i complained with the seller he changed me a new one

huff

I think they sould state the dead pixel warrentys on all LCD screens. It's so anoying my moms
17 LCD has a dead pixel (coloure pixel which is red). I will not buy an LCD unless it has a zero pixel policy. I concider dead pixels or stuck pixels, a brocken screen as there is a small component broken. This might be aceptable to manafatures but consumers a very big no!, you would not see them buy a LCD if they knew about dead pixels, I have seen the polices around the net and I am a shamed of the makers of LCDs. I dont care if the price goes up and I dont think the consumers would mind ether.

I'd bet money you're wrong Sam. People want everything and they want it at rock bottom price. Dead/stuck pixels are common due to the complexity of TFT manufacture. If manufacturers were to just start throwing out all panels with even a single bad pixel, cost would go up exponentially. You say "Id pay", but I know you wouldnt. You could buy class 1 devices today and have exactly what you want - higher price with a guarantee. But no one does. They take the risk on the class 2, play dumb, and do anything they can to replace the thing if they get a stuck pixel.

The average consumer is like the guy above calling the retailer "stupid" for being nice enough to take back his monitor. Selfish, and unreasonable. Everyone feels that their $X entitles them to perfection and that there is no burden on them to be educated. This is why hard drives now have to have 2 page disclaimers. Eventually there will be a 200 page book of disclaimers to allow for reasonable margins of error on every product all to appease the anal, deliberately ignorant, consumers who quote legal statutes over the slightest problem with an item.

I do agree with the theme of the post though, that manufacturers should just visibly post a warning on the class 2 devices.

I agree that consumers must take steps to educate themselves, but Mark is dead wrong about one thing.

He says "You could buy class 1 devices today and have exactly what you want - higher price with a guarantee. But no one does."

But in fact, it's neither that obvious nor that easy.

If I want a "class 1" display, where do I go? Does the guy at Best Buy know the standard? Unlikely.

Try searching for "class 1" on any of the major manufacturer's web sites. It ain't there.

The vast majority of consumers don't even have the slightest clue that such a distinction exists, they just see what the manufacturers and resellers tell them, which, frankly, is not much in this regard.

ISO is partly to blame for this situation, but the absurdly complex formulae that manufacturers use to determine "defect" are frankly unsupportable.

Of course people want the lowest possible price, but to claim that all consumers know about the existence of the different ISO specs and are deliberately trying to play the system is, frankly, excessive, and lets the manufacturers off the hook for their failure to clearly elucidate their policies up front.

i too have an acer aspire with a single dead pixel and when i phoned about it they stated "cosmetic flaws aren't covered in the waranty" oh i also told them about the left click button showed visible wear after only 2 months of use. as if i'd used an abrasive solvent. the veneer is just that.
also a strange thing, the touch pad requires contact with human skin to work. only human skin will work so if you're outside and wearing the thinest of gloves you need to take the glove off. hmmm?

Philips does has a 'perfectpanel' range of monitors that is class 1 monitor.

it is B and P series of monitors in my knowledge.

Just bought an Acer Aspire SA85 w/19" Widescreen which has a dead pixel (red). Called the retailer the next day and received a brand new LCD, free of defects. Lucky the retailer had no idea of Acer's 7 dead pixel policy.

Mark you are an idiot!

The sale of goods act is there to protect consumers from people like you, who sell second class goods and expect to get away with it. I work hard for my money and when I spend it on a new product it better be perfect in every way and remain perfect for a reasonable period of time, not just the manufacturers warranty. If it doesn't, then the likes of you will have an appointment before a judge faster than you can say "no refunds"

Brought a Toshiba A100/E00 Laptop/notebook.
About 2 dead pixels meaning about 4 or five bright dots, and they are all red bright dots. Thats straight from the box, not a few hours old. I didn't even boot into a operating system for the first time... not willing to agree to installing an OS on a faulty unit, so it hasn't been used.
Was looking forward to the new machine... only to be bitterly disappointed.

My Lenovo while cheaper, had no LCD fault at all. Have emailed reseller with problem and will call tomorrow, and cross my finger I get a new unit. Otherwise dept of fair trading will recieve a call that day also. If I wanted a defective display I would have bought a refurbished or second hand unit, and saved my money at the same time. Do the right thing, Toshiba - and for that all LCD screen manufacturers should state their policy - where it can be seen before the sale!!!

i have a sharp aquos and it came with a dead pixel in the center. i called sharp and they said i was screwed basically. horrible. do not deal with them.

My wife bought a Sony Vaio Laptop - VGNSZ220. This is supposed to be a top of the line laptop with the accident drop protection system installed. Four months after we bought it my wife turned it on and the entire LCD looked as if someone had shot it with a bullet in the upper left-hand corner.

Sony tells us that the LCD was damaged, that it is not under warranty, and that it will cost 741.00.

The laptop was never dropped. Has anyone else had a problem like this with Sony?

I find it amusing that many people seem to think that the SoGA will protect them against the problem of a single dead pixel.

I wonder whether these people are really aware of the details of the SoGA, and whether they've ever successfully returned a monitor under it, or are simply saying they think they'd be able to do so.

For those who are planning on doing so, it might be worth reading up on the SoGA before spouting it to a retailer (who should really know the finer details of it). The DTI has a useful fact sheet (http://www.dti.gov.uk/consumers/fact-sheets/page38311.html) which states that goods must "conform to contract", that is they must be as described and be of satisfactory quality. Goods are of satisfactory quality if they reach the standard that a reasonable person would regard as satisfactory, taking into account the price and any description.

Having one dead pixel is certainly an annoyance - and possibly an inconvenience - to you, but it is not sufficiently serious to deem a monitor as being of unsatisfactory quality, especially considering the price of TFT monitors these days (which is something taken into consideration when making judgement).

Does a dead pixel render a monitor unuseable, which is something that a county court judge would consider... the answer is clearly no.

Good luck to anyone who wishes to try taking a retailer to court citing the SoGA... you're gonna need it!

Hey, what is this some kind of a support group? well...anyways...to the people complaining about toshiba...i have a satellite l25-s1193, bought it 2 years ago, i have 2 dead pixels(one shows up when the monitor is completely red, and another when it's blue...it happens guys...get over it...obviously I wouldn't say that had i paid over 1200 for it...but i paid 450, and got an all-in-one printer free, and a wireless router free...so i am fine...

I have bought a new sony vaio TZ12 and paid £2100 and as soon as a start the cumputer i have seen a dead pixel I went mad......:(
I can not exept this and i dint know they dead pixel policey.
I want some advise what can I do about this.

Dreading buying a new laptop. Does anyone know of any companies that will implment a no-dead-pixel policy? The only one I know of is Nintendo (for the DS), but unfortunately, that isn't going to help me do any work.

Rod Davis (above) seems to find it amusing that the UK’s Sale of Goods Act [1979] as amended might protect a consumer against purchasing faulty merchandise. His analysis of a requirement for the monitor to be rendered unusable before it breaches the Act is quite wrong.

Whilst I would agree that, given the selective extracts from the Act he has chosen, and the misconceptions he has about the Act generally, Rod would successfully lose his case, there are other aspects of the Act of greater relevance to the issue of dead pixels. In particular s. 14 which relates to implied terms about quality, subsection 2B, part (c) where an analysis of the quality of goods includes the issue of “freedom from minor defects”.

Clearly a dead pixel in a new monitor is a defect, even if manufacturers claim it’s difficult to get right. Depending upon its position, density, colour and prominence it may either be a serious defect or, alternatively, a minor defect. However, even minor defects are potentially caught under the Act.

In my own particular case, my top of the range Sony Vaio LA desktop (http://vaiopro.sony-europe.com/showcase/en/la/la_series.html) retailing at over £1,500.00 arrived with a bright red pixel permanently glowing near the centre of the monitor (www.executors.co.uk/sony).

However Rod does correctly point out that the Act also takes the price paid into account. Thus, given the high cost of the goods, the fact that the pixel is a defect (minor or serious), it is permanently bright red, occupying a central position on a multimedia computer where its display capabilities are of paramount importance, then the Sale of Goods Act undoubtedly offers protection.

I believe that each sub pixel in a TFT monitor is controlled by individual transistors. So if one of these ittybitty transistors goes kaput then you are left with a dead pixel. Surely it wouldn't hurt for manufacturers to build a TFT where each pixel has a 'backup' transistor in case one should fail, thereby eliminating the risk of dead pixels?

yesterday i bought toshiba satellite from comet store and when i brought in home. there was white spot on it.
i thought WTF is this with new machine?
next day i went to comet , and their response was toshiba do not consider it defect if it is one pixel flaw.
its in middle of screen and i spent 650 pound on laptop.
so what should i do?

Since the manufacturers are being such jerks about not standing behind their products, then I say we should fight back. If you get an LCD monitor with a dead pixel, then apply a little high voltage to some of the video input pins, so that something inside fails completly, and the monitor doesn't work at all. Then call for the RMA, and say that it just doesn't work.

It is the people who stay quiet when dealing with manufacturers that do the most harm.

Dead pixel policy is smoke to get poor quality goods that should not pass QA. Yes it has brought the price of TFT screens fairly early on in the technology run. However if people were not accepting of poor quality screens then this would not of occured, they would have higher rejections at QA. Sure the price on screens would be slightly higher still, but eventually they would come down... Or what is more likely with higher rejection manufacturers would still of brought these screens prices down.

Who I blame the most is the institutions that allow such things like this to happen. They should clearly class screens with big labels on boxes (like energy classes). Hell yeah they would probably sell less, but it would by this way up the quality.
The same thing has happened with the ISPs and broadband selling 'unlimited with a cap' broadband...

all of you complain too much. Nothing is perfect. I think all of you need a hobby to stop complaining over silliness. Dead pixels are the norm with LCDs and eventually as the screen ages dead pixels "WILL" develop. for those of you with 1 or 2 dead pixels get a life and stop worrying about nothing

Until Americans team up and avoid buying crap, the big corporations will continue to have 3rd world countries put together crap because theres not enough of us out there that wont settle for less.

I took back 2 monitors, and examined 2 in store and between them all were 10 dead pixels.....needless to say Im still on my old LCD screen.....quality money should be buying quality products.....ohh and for those that assume that I was buying garbage brands....well in the ones I looked at were viewsonic, samsung, acer and soyo which 2 are "big timer" lcd goons and the other 2 arnt really mainstream. but all the ones I opened up 1st hand had issues.....I guess Ill just do the right thing, KEEP MY CASH until they can make a product worth buying.

just got my sager 2090 and its got a dead pixel on it .. i think im going to return it because 30 day refund no questions asked im glad this pixel decided to show up today couple days more and i would of been screwed.