What Is AMVA?

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Advanced-MVA is a panel technology developed by AU Optronics, or AUO, a Taiwanese manufacturer of display and screen products. There are many different flat panel types -- such as TN, IPS and earlier VA lines -- and AMVA was developed to fix some of the deficiencies of the earlier VA and MVA products.

History of VA and MVA Panels

Vertical Alignment panels were developed by Fujitsu in 1996. The technology suffered from limited viewing angles, however, so further work focused on improving that. In 1998 Fujitsu developed Multi-domain Vertical Alignment panels, which offered greatly improved viewing angles and fast response rates for the time. This panel type had high contrast ratios and deep black color depth, which remained as advantages of later MVA technologies. Later on response times began to lag behind TN panels, so developers focused on that while also improving color reproduction.

AMVA Advantages

AMVA panels attempt to fix the problems of earlier technologies, including color washout and color distortion, by utilizing more domains than standard MVA panels. This technology produces extremely high contrast ratios, which makes for a more comfortable viewing by the user, and can be easier on the eyes. AMVA panels have extremely deep black color depth. In addition, power consumption is often lower because of the backlight module and high cell transmittance, which lowers the number of LEDs used.

Disadvantages

While response times of AMVA panels are faster than earlier tech, it still often lags behind current TN- and IPS-based displays. Viewing angles are better than TN panels, but still not as good as IPS tech. There is typically a noticeable off-center contrast shift at wider viewing angles. AMVA panels are often considered a middle ground between the performance of low-end, inexpensive TN panels and high-end, IPS-based displays.

TN and IPS Panels

TN is an older and inexpensive panel technology that was the first to be widely used in the consumer display market. TN panels have very good response times and offer high refresh rates, but they have extremely limited viewing angles, especially vertically. On TN panels there is major contrast shift and color distortion at even slightly off-center viewing angles. At the other end of panel tech, IPS panels have traditionally had slower response times than TN panels, while having much better color reproduction and wider viewer angles.