21/22" monitors thoughts

[Snake-Eyes]

I ENVY you Grimace. That's my dream monitor (never happen though- outside my budget range).

------------------
Ace

[rduck]

I am intending to buy a 21" monitor shortly.

I have decided on the Mitsubishi diamond pro 2020u.

I have a G400 MAX.

Does anyone else have this combo, is this a good monitor??

[enKoDed]

rduck, I don't have this monitor, but I went to www.deja.com, and typed in 2020u for a search term. There seem to be mixed reviews. One owner said he had geometry problems that he couldn't fix. Searching the newsgroups via deja for hardware purchase information can be useful as long as one can retrieve a large number of posts. I only use the newsgroups as a source of information when I can get enough of a "sample" to get a balanced view. Many Mitsubishi monitors have received top marks in their class, but some of the newer "true flat" displays from a variety of manufacturers have had reports of "growing pains." By this I mean that an almost true flat screen seems to be a tricky technology to implement to "perfection" at the moment. You may already be aware of the things I mentioned, but I thought I would state them anyway, just in case Finally, may I recommend purchasing a 21" monitor locally if possible? It's a pain to return a monitor of that size to a mail order company if it's not to your satisfaction, and some local vendors will let you exchange a monitor for another of the same brand if you think that you got a "bad apple." Monitors are notorious for having varying differences in quality within a single model. This can be due to rough handling in shipping, or just plain loose quality control at the point of manufacture. If you can find a "close to mail order" price at a local vendor, that may be the way to go. I hope this is info useful to you. Best of luck.

[Bandy]

I have a Hitachi CM814 21", runs at 2048x1536 79 Hz.
Looks best at 1856x1392 85Hz.
Hitachi is better and less expensive than Sony.
--
Bandy

[PeTe]

I have got a Hitachi too, CM752ET 19", just great at 1600x1200@83. No problems. =) And this monitor is CHEAP. Great value. So if you dont have $$$ for Sony GDM-F400 ( best 19" ), just go for HITCHI.

You can get TWO great Hitatchi's for price of ONE Sony. =)

PeTe

[IceStorm]

21" monitor's too heavy. I went with two 19" monitors - redundancy, and I can display two machines side-by-side.

Went with the Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 900u after it won the 19" comparison that PC Magazine did in November/December 1998. Besides the fact that it had excellent visual quality, it also had USB hubs built in, as well as dual inputs, and was a flat CRT - no curves anywhere.

What you have is essentially the same CRT tube as the Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2020u, albeit with Iiyama's electronics. It's a modified version of the Trinitron design, pioneered by Sony over 25 years ago. The patent expired on the Trinitron tube a few years ago, so now everyone is free to build tubes based on the technology. After owning three Trinitron-based monitors, here's what I've seen:

1) Trinitrons, compared to flat-squares (curved in both verticle and horizontal dimensions), have richer, more uniform color.

2) Trinitrons are more sensitive. That apeture grill is a touchy piece of equipment. I don't suggest moving often with a Trinitron, or shaking it. Those wires will loosen over time. The less shaking/moving you do of the monitor, the longer they'll remain tight. Flat-square monitors use a solid piece of metal, perforated with holes, instead of a wire grill. The solid metal expands and contracts, but won't loosen over time like the grill will.

3) Trinitrons seem to have geometry problems as the tubes increase in size. I believe this has to do with the apeture grill and the magnetic fields around the monitor. I've given up on trying to make my display perfect, and am content to leave some slight irregularities around the edges of my display. The trade off is more than worth it.

After all the pecularities I've described above, I still prefer Trinitron tubes to flat-squares. I've NEVER seen a flat-square that can do colors with the purity of a Trinitron - all flat-squares look grainy to my eye. However, flat-squares seem to have an edge on text display - that they do slightly better than Trinitron tubes, but again, not enough for me to buy one.

You've a good monitor. It should keep you happy for several years. By then, the digital LCD panels will be perfected, and we'll all be buying those. :-)

Just my $0.02

[Mindjammer]

Mindjammer's Tips for Enhancing Monitor Goodness:

Go to Display Properties...Effects, and check Use Large Icons.

Then, go to Settings...Advanced...Font Size, and pick Large Fonts.

Reboot the computer.

Now, crank up the resolution!

I'm using 1152x864 on my 17" (ADI Microscan 5A). This trick makes text look incredible, and incredibly readable. You may have to decrease the icon spacing in Display Properties...Appearance, though. It wants to set it to 66 but you need to turn it down to 50.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, before I did this I couldn't put my monitor above 800x600 due to text blurriness. (Now I can't put my monitor above 1152x864 due to low refresh rates. I think 1280x960 is optimal for a 17" but it would be 65hz on my monitor, far too low.)

[This message has been edited by Mindjammer (edited 25 November 1999).]

[paulcs]

Everyone seems to love their monitors.

After purchasing my Iiyama Vision Master 450 (Shadowmask, 19"), I found myself sitting on a fence: should I return it, should I keep it. After some deliberation, the logistics or returning it won out and I kept it.

The monitor won many awards, including PC Magazines "Editor's Choice." And I must say, the image quality and color output is quite good. I couldn't imagine games looking any better.

It's in may ways a great match for my G400. But text is a little blurry, and the unit has moire problems at 640x480 and 1280x1024. Attempts to rectify the problem with the moire control actually work, but also succeed in increasing the text blurriness. I prefer 1152x864, so it didn't go back on that account.

It is also really sensitive to subwoofers. Keeping one on the floor under the desk results in bad distortion.

I find monitor shopping a particularly frustrating experience. They not only vary in quality from brand to brand, and model to model, but from unit to unit. PC Magazine eventually got around to reviewing the aperture grill version of my monitor, the Vision Master 450 Pro. They had the exact same complaints about it as I do about my Shadowmask unit. (They recently gave the Sony F500, a device some people pray to, an extremely lukewarm review.)

The difference is, I suspect, they got a good shadowmask unit and a not so good aperture grill unit. I just don't know how to get around this issue. I can imagine that it would be extremely hard to convince salesmen to unbox this large and heavy device, install the drivers, and configure it to one of the computers on the floor. It just isn't very practical. And returning them, if you don't drive, is a monumental pain.

(I sort of lost faith in PC Magazine after they reported on at least three occasions that the G200 was OpenGL capable, and in the face of open warfare on the Internet over the ICD. Now, I loved my G200 as much as the next guy, but as we all know, it wasn't a great CAD or Quake performer.)

I just wish monitors we a bit easier to shop for.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[Paddy]

Only got a Compaq 151FS