The efficacy of two medical-grade, self-calibrating, gray scale displays were compared with regard to impact on sensitivity and specificity for the detection of interstitial lung disease (ILD) on computed radiographs (CR). The displays were a 5-megapixel (MP) cathode ray tube (CRT) device and a 3-MP liquid crystal display (LCD). A sample consisting of 230 anteroposterior (AP), posteroanterior (PA), and lateral views of the chest with CT-proven findings characteristic for ILD as well as 80 normal images were compared. This double-blinded trial produced a sample sufficient to detect if the sensitivity of the LCD was 10% or more reduced (one-sided) from the "gold standard" CRT display. Both displays were calibrated to the DICOM gray scale standard and the coefficient of variation of the luminance function varied less than 2% during the study. Five board-certified radiologists specializing in thoracic radiology interpreted the sample on both displays and the intraobserver Az (area under the ROC curve) showed no significant correlation to the display used. In addition, an interobserver kappa analysis showed that the relative disagreement between any observer pair remained relatively constant between displays, and thus was display invariant. This study demonstrated there is no significant change in observer performance sensitivity on 5-MP CRT versus 3-MP LCD displays for CR examinations demonstrating ILD of the chest.