Judging a good monitor
Date: Tue Aug 3 07:40:03 MST 1999
From: Guy McLoughlin <theguy@interlog.com>
Subject: Judging a good monitor
> Can anyone provide me with arguments for switching all of the design
> staffs' monitors to Sony Trinitrons?
The MAIN thing that most folks here seem to be missing so far,
is that there are MANY quality grades to each manufacturers
monitors.
i.e. A top of the line Viewsonic will ALWAYS beat a bottom
of the line Sony
Here are some things to consider when buying a new monitor:
- A medium grade 19" monitor will almost ALWAYS beat out
a top grade 17" monitor, and cost about the same or less.
(Check out the Viewsonic G790. This 19" can be bought in
Toronto for about $700 Canadian, or about $475 US)
- You need a high quality video card to really see what a
monitor can do.(On the PC side of things check out any
of the 16Mb/32Mb cards based on the RIVA TNT or TNT2
chip-sets. The Matrox G200 is an excellent card, and
the new G400 enables you to plug in 2 monitors into
the same card, automatically providing you with double
the resolution of 1 monitor.)
- Do not trust any of the manufacturers specs. I've seen
many monitors that look great on paper but crummy in
real life. ALWAYS check out the monitor with your own
2 eyes, before deciding on anything.
- Pop open a window with text in it, then use the mouse to
drag this window to each corner of the desktop, and
carefully judge how sharp the text is. Keep upping the
screen resolution, and repeat this text until the text
starts to fuzz a bit, and you've now found the real
maximum USEABLE resolution of this monitor.
- Remember to check the refresh rate of the monitor
before testing anything. If it's too high or too low
it will affect the sharpness of the screen image.
When you're working late nights with a tac-sharp
monitor, your eyes will thank you 10 times over.
- Open a blank white window, and maximize it to fill
the screen. Now step back and compare how even the
illumination/colour of the screen is. Repeat with
a light grey window if possible.
- Lastly check what the maximum brightness of the
monitor is. Most monitors get dimmer as they age,
and unless you can effectively boost the brightness
in a year or two, you'll end up working on a very
dim looking monitor.
i.e. Normal brightness should be about 50-70
percent of the maximum brightness when
the monitor is brand new.
Trust you own eyes above anything else!
Good-luck,
Guy
Senior Programmer
OBERON Interactive Inc,
Toronto, Ontario