GBM,
I'm not speaking about the dimming of just the displayed data. I'm talking
about the back glow of the powered up screen itself. The back glow on some
of these PC screens will light up the whole cockpit ruining your night
vision. No software fixes that.
Steve

"GBM" wrote in message
...

"Steve Lusardi" wrote in message
...
David,
There are several issues that make PC screens unsuitable for marine use.
There are considerations for power, protection from the harsh enrinment
etc., but a real driver that few people are aware of is night viewing. It
is
imperitive that the display dims to black. PC monitors will not.

Steve,

For night viewing, a special monitor is not needed, because software can
compensate. For example, Fugawi, one of the popular Nav programs has this
feature. To quote from their feature list:

"Dusk and Night vision display with color shifts designed to international
maritime standards."

We use this program on our boat and our car nav program 'iGuidance' has
the
same feature whether I am using the laptop or iPaq.

GBM