From: rcpt@rwb.urc.tue.nl (Piet Tutelaers)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
Subject: An overview of 17" monitors
Date: 31 Aug 92 22:43:38 GMT
Reply-To: rcpt@urc.tue.nl


	Will 17" monitors soon become affordable?
	-----------------------------------------

Spending a lot of money in computer power with a 14" monitor seems like
buying a splendid stereo equipment and saving on speakers.  I am
following the 486 prices and hoping that soon or later I can afford an
equipment to do some X-window hackery on a 386 based UNIX clone.  A
1280x1024 resolution on a 17" monitor seems an acceptable choice.  The
number of monitors offering this resolution is growing fast.  With
1024x768 there are even more and better affordable monitors to select
from.  But this resolution seems too low for a 17" monitor. 

I have gathered some information for the 17" monitors available today. 
So you can use it and help me to improve it with even cheaper
alternatives.  Aren't we all dreaming of an affordable bigger quality
monitor for UNIX? Most data comes from Personal Computer Magazine (Dutch
magazine), CHIP (German magazine) and the brochures I got from some
Dutch distributors.  The prices are taken from Profi Computer (CHIP
August 1992 pp.  143) or a cheaper source if that was available.  One
Deutsche Mark (DM) is about 1.14 Dutch guilders (DG) and about 0.71
dollar.

1. Graphic controllers
----------------------
As important as the monitor itself is the graphics controller that we
are going to use.  If we want 256 colors (8 bitplanes) on a 1280x1024
screen we need 2 MB RAM (1024x768 only 1MB).  I don't know if all cards
in the next list can have 2MB RAM (I don't have detailed information on
them yet, so any help on this will be appreciated!)

Graphic controllers providing 1280x1024 pixels, 256 colors, 72 Hz refresh
rate in non-interlaced mode:

    ----------------------------------------------------
   |card type       max. memory  refresh rate price (DM)|
    ----------------------------------------------------
   |Excelsior PRO      ?           76Hz/NI       450    |
   |Diamond Stealth    ?           72Hz/NI?      478    |
   |Orchid Fahrenheid  ?              ?           ?     |
    ----------------------------------------------------

If we want to run UNIX we also need a X-server that supports the card. 
From discussions on the net I understand that the Diamond Stealth has
some timing problems and that the supplier is not willing to cooperate
in solving them.  Information on which cards are or will be supported by
386BSD UNIX is very welcome too.

2. Monitors 
-----------
In the next table I have put together the monitors that are available in
Europe.  It contains an overview of important data as refresh rate, dot
pitch, does it obey the low transmission MPR-II norm and the price. 
Data that was not available to me, or where I am not certain about, is
flagged with a question mark (?).  You are welcome to improve the list
with more monitors or with sharper prices!

All monitors seems to provide compatibility with other MSDOS standards
like VGA (640x480), SVGA (800x600) and 1024x768.  For OS/2 there will be
developed a new graphic standard but I don't know anything about it. 

I have omitted the bandwidth because this value is not so meaningfull as
the refresh rate at 1280x1024.  Monitors with a refresh rate of 74 Hz at
1280x1024 have a minimal bandwidth of 120 MHz (EIZO F560i).  With a
refresh rate of 60 Hz the bandwidth is about 110 Mhz (4CM Brilliance
series of Philips) and this is sufficient to provide a refresh rate of
72 Hz at 1024x768. 

monitor type              refresh rate   dot pitch  MPR-II  price
                         1280x1024 (Hz)     (mm)             (DM)
EIZO F560i                   60-74          0.26      yes    3528
Philips 4CM6099                60           0.26      yes     ?
Philips 4CM6089                60           0.26      no     2899
Vortec VT-17HI               60-64          0.26      no     2800
Sony 1704S Trinitron           ?             ?         ?     2799
NEC 5FG                        74?          0.26      yes    2798
ViewSonic 7                    ?             ?         ?     2480
Miro 1766                      ?             ?         ?     2395
ViewMagic MX-17H Trinitron     ?             ?         ?     2388
Addonics mon-c172              60           0.26       ?     2325
EIZO F550i                     60           0.28      yes    2195
Octek 17"                      ?             ?         ?     2045
Highscreen MS 1731             ?            0.31      no     1995
Targa TM 1700                  ?            0.28       ?     1959

You can see in the computer magazins that there is coming some
competition.  In the Dutch Personal Computer Magazine from September
there are at least 8 advertisements of 17" monitors.  I hope that we all
soon can afford a 17" flickerfree low radiation monitor for our home
computers. 

--Piet

internet: rcpt@urc.tue.nl       | Piet Tutelaers
bitnet:   rcpt@heitue5.BITNET   | Computer Center       Room  RC 1.90
phone:    +31 (0)40 474541      | Eindhoven University of  Technology
fax:      +31 (0)40 434438      | P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, NL

Don't translate `flickerfree' into the Dutch `flikkervrij' but in the more
men friendlier `knippervrij' (Philips Brilliance brochure).
Xref: sparky comp.unix.bsd:4947 comp.sources.wanted:4169 comp.unix.sysv386:13886