To buy a Parhelia.....

[Zanna]

I have opportunity to buy a Parhelia Retail version from an ex-matrox user, of course at a lower price than the new.

Only I have some doubts, can you other MURCers give me a suggestion about ?

1) I have an LCD monitor with an ANALOG input. Will does theoretically the banding problem affect me in any way??

2) The Matrox Warranty is in act after the product is acquired by another user?

3) At how much euros/dollars you think a second-hand parhelia (retail version) can be purchased / sold ? Now the Matrox Store in Italy say 429 € VAT excluded, but the price on a WEB shop is 377 € VAT included....

Thanks to all for the suggestions.

P.S.: Now I have a G400Max and I want an Update..... Soon (tm)

[thop]

1) yes
2) yes (if he didn't mess around with the card)
3) ~300€

Anyway since you have a g400 now i assume games aren't that important to you ... so the P650/750 might be the better card for you. Has all the features that the Parhelia has, but is a lot slower. But a lot cheaper too. And no banding.

[mungu]

I have a parhelia with an analog LCD (Sony SDM-S71) and
I have never experienced any sort of banding, but then again the banding issue is also very card specific.

[Sasq]

my Parhelia has very faint banding on my CRT but it isn't noticable on my analog TFT

[rylan]

The banding artifact seems to be more apparent on CRTs. The analog capture process in LCDs seems to mask the banding a bit (by adding its own noise), since it has to go to digital to drive the panel.

[UtwigMU]

1 Possibly

2 Matrox says it's not transferable, I'd post and aski in Tech support forum. I heard though that they replaced 2nd hand bought cards still under warranty.

3 Parhelia Retail costs 380€ at nb-computer.de in Munich.

2nd Hand 300 - 350€ range.

[BuckRogers]

so, how do you tell if a parhelia you're considering is affected by this banding effect? is there a way to tell on the box stickers what revision it is, etc? are all parhelias affected or just some?
are there new revisions with the problem fixed? thanx

[albatorsk]

Originally posted by BuckRogers
so, how do you tell if a parhelia you're considering is affected by this banding effect? is there a way to tell on the box stickers what revision it is, etc?

Well, if the box says "Matrox Parhelia High Fidelity Graphics" and the sticker starts with "PH", there's a 99% probablility that it's affected by banding.

No, you can't tell by the serial number or the box if it's affected or not. Most are, some aren't. Do you feel lucky?

[mutz]

Guess I'm lucky. I've had this card for ten months and never noticed any banding at all.

[Che Guevara]

With my P-512, the banding is very hard to notice, I first saw it after I read about the bug because then I started searching for it .

But I hope of course the fix it in future parhelia-products (Pitou?, even a 8x Parhelia without banding would be nice too). Are the Millenium-P Cards are affected of banding too?

[Che Guevara]

Silly question I know, but there is no banding with a DVI monitor, right?
Perhaps another reason to buy a TFT...

[NetSnake]

Are those parhelias sold worldwide all come from the same "batch"?
Are there any more recenty manufactured cards that might not be affected by the banding problem?

[SitFlyer]

Yes
No

[NetSnake]

Originally posted by SitFlyer
Yes
No

Damn
Damn

But I guess a fresh batch of chips/cards (or hopefully a new revision) will not have that problem. I hope they'll run out of stock parhelias Soon™...

[Zanna]

Thanks to everyone answering me for this dilemma.

Now I have a more precise idea of what kind of businness I'm going to do if I will decide to buy this card.

It's really disappointing that the banding problem is still unresolved, I.E. if the cards actually in commerce was without this problem (and a bit less expensive or a bit more speedy), this will can make the difference and let me decide to buy a new card in opposite of a second-hand one.

Naturally, the guy that sold me the Parhelia have a number precise motivations to sell the card and I think one of this motivations can be it want to buy a new card from another manufacturer...... I don't think this guy will sell the Parthelia for a P-Series, is less expensive but is also more slow....

This means that another time again, M. is losing real or potential customers, and this doesn't like me, because I am a Matrox fan.

Strange but buy or not to buy a Parhelia with a Potential Banding Problem (new or second-hand, now this doesn't make the difference), this is the question !