New 19" Monitor - which one?

[AJ]

Thanks Az,

There not available in the US yet either, hopefully they will be soon.

-AJ

[sasa]

If you are asking for top quality picture you should take Sony. While in smaller monitor sizes there is a great competition (samsung nf bets sony) in 19 inch sony is a clear winner. Hitachi has blurried picture, and it is irritable rounded.

[Liquid Snake]

I have a Sony 400PS. Has BNC connectors, and the regular cable is not built-in. It's a somewhat old monitor, so it isn't the sharpest (.25 dot pitch I think). Not flat screen either. No fancy USB hubs. But all around, nice monitor. I run it at 1280x960@85hz on my G400 MAX and have NEVER had eye strain, even after hours of use.

Unfortunately, 1600x1200 is too blurry on this monitor, but at that resolution, things get too small on a 19" monitor. Perhaps it will improve with a BNC cable, but I don't have one right now. The two apeture grille lines don't bother me at all. I've been using Trinitron monitors for many years, and I guess I've gotten used to them, and I don't notice them anymore. My friend, on the other hand, can't stand them. If you aren't annoyed by these lines, the Sony monitors are indeed very nice. I bought my 400PS almost two years ago for $599.

[az]

I think if I can afford it, I'll get the Sony, and if I can't, I'll look at all the others, that is, Samsung, Iiyama, Eye-Q and so forth..

I've had a Diamondtron (which is the same tech as Trinitron and thus has the two lines) for four years now and never had a problem with them (I noticed them but didn't find them annoying, distracting or anything else negative, found them amusing if anything )

AZ

[Sitting Bull]

Hi all,

NEC has a new line of Diamondtron monitors out call the FE+ line. They are a step down from their top of the line models but they are truly excellent!

I have bought their NEC FE950+ Black model and it is the finest 19 inch monitor I have ever laid eyes on--and at a really reasonable price, too!

The screen is perfectly flat. Its maximum resolution is 1792x1344x68Hz, which is way more than you will ever need on a 19 inch monitor. I use 1600x1200x32 at 75Hz all day long and it has a rock solid display and perfectly crisp text. A fine match for a G400 card any day of the week!

The display is backed by a completely stable power regulator. The Displaymate torture test that flashes a white screen doesn't budge the edges one iota!

Did I mention it is black? It looks so cool I can hardly stand it and it matches so nicely with my black Logitech wheel-mouse, black Acer keyboard, and black Yamaha YST-Ms28 speakers and subwoofer.

It has so many display correction controls and colour temps that you just can't shake a stick at them. What ever your problem may be, there is a control to deal with it.

And the price? I paid $599 Canadian, which is less than $400 US. I'm afraid you Brits will have to work it out in pounds sterling.

If you don't hunt down the NEC FE950+ and take a look at it, you only have yourself to blame. It is every bit as good as any Sony and costs a lot less.

[az]

Sitting Bull, have you evere tried a Sony to justify your statement?

(and BTW, I find 75 Hz still not enough for my eyes - I need 85 Hz )

And to everyone: Do you know when the new Sony line will be out (esp. in germany)?

AZ

[Rags]

85? I need 100. Really.

Rags

[Sitting Bull]

Oh yes, I've looked at Sony monitors many times.

Have you seen the new NEC MultiSync FE950+ monitors and compared them to a Sony?

[Digital_Hell_Native]

Who said anything against Belinea?

[ALBPM]

I use a NEC-950+ at work right now. It dosen't even stand up to my 4 yr old Dell Trinitron. The newer Sony's are even better.

Paul

[Maggi]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by Rags:
85? I need 100. Really.

Rags

</font>

hmm, considering you live in NTSC land, I'd say 90Hz or 120Hz should be an even better option, Rags ...

I have my Primary @ 1280x960x100Hz and my 2ndary @ 1280x1024x75Hz to maintain a multiple refresh rate of PAL (25fps) to avoid tearing and frame skipping.

Cheese,
Maggi

[xortam]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by Maggi:
hmm, considering you live in NTSC land, I'd say 90Hz or 120Hz should be an even better option, Rags ... </font>

For DVD playback, you'd want a multiple of 24; say 72Hz or 96Hz.

[Maggi]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by xortam:
For DVD playback, you'd want a multiple of 24; say 72Hz or 96Hz.</font>

Hi Xortam,

do you mean that US-DVDs are coded in 24fps ?

Didn't know ...

[xortam]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by Maggi:
Hi Xortam,

do you mean that US-DVDs are coded in 24fps ?

Didn't know ... </font>

If you set your monitor to a multiple-of-24 synch rate, you can play back DVDs without enabling 3:2 pulldown which will result in smoother playback. Here's an explanation from the article entitled "How Film Is Transferred to Video":

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">With NTSC the speed problem has to be solved differently: 30 fps and 24 fps don't mix very well. However, if we remember that NTSC has 60 fields/s, you might also notice that 5 fields take 5/60s = 1/12s time, which is exactly the amount it takes for a film to show two frames.
So here's what we do: We take a film frame, and show it for 3 NTSC fields, i.e. 3/60s. Then we take the next film frame, and show it for 2 NTSC fields, i.e. 2/60s. The total time for the original film should be 2/24s = 1/12s, which is exactly the same it took for NTSC to show the same frames (3/30s+2/60s = 5/60s = 1/12s). Now we just continue repeating the pattern.

The problem with this is, that every other film frame is shown for 1/20s, while every other is shown for 1/30s. That makes pans look less smooth than what they did in the movie theatre, or PAL video for that matter. This also leads to the fact that if you have an NTSC VCR with frame advance, you'll see duplicate frames from time to time. With 12" laserdiscs this problem is solved by putting so-called white line codes on the discs that tells the player when a new film frame has begun. DVDs have similar codes put to films, although they are not always at correct places.

If in a nitpicking mood, or if trying to sync video with audio, it is good to remember that NTSC video is not exactly 60 fields/s, but 59.94 for several practical reasons. Thus also NTSC plays films with a slightly wrong speed. The error, however, is only 3.6 s/hour.</font>

[Novdid]

I´m also going to buy a 19" monitor and I have narrowed the field down.

I have three choices: Sony E400, NEC FE950, Iiyama NF VM Pro451.

Which one is the best? I´m open to other advises.