[rec.video] Proton Monitors, Anyone?

phil@diablo.amd.com (Phil Ngai) (12/22/89)

In article <17854@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU> chou@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu (Chih-Hsiang Chou) writes:
|For another record, Taiwan also holds the first place in the
|world for exporting color computer monitors. Many of the IBM PS/2 monitors
|are MIT.

The readers of these groups may also be interested to know that at the
last Comdex there were a number of Taiwanese showing 19" VGA monitors.
They said they'd be cheaper than the 16" monitors that have been
available because they used TV tubes! 

(disclaimer: I'm not Taiwanese but I do own some of their products.)

--
Phil Ngai, phil@diablo.amd.com		{uunet,decwrl,ucbvax}!amdcad!phil
Ann Landers says "Let's talk about legalizing drugs."

cyc2@sword.bellcore.com (Chung Yu Chen) (12/27/89)

In article <28506@amdcad.AMD.COM> phil@diablo.AMD.COM (Phil Ngai) writes:

>The readers of these groups may also be interested to know that at the
>last Comdex there were a number of Taiwanese showing 19" VGA monitors.
>They said they'd be cheaper than the 16" monitors that have been
>available because they used TV tubes! 
>
This statement implies that monitor tubes are supposed to be
different from TV tubes. I am not in this line of business, so I
don't know for sure. But I always thought that the difference
between a monitor and a TV is in the front end signal processing
circuitry.  The tubes should be basically the same. Can anyone
explain why they should be different? What is the disadvantage if you
use TV tubes in monitors?

Jason Chen

emmo@moncam.co.uk (Dave Emmerson) (12/29/89)

In article <534@sword.bellcore.com>, cyc2@sword.bellcore.com (Chung Yu Chen) writes:
> This statement implies that monitor tubes are supposed to be
> different from TV tubes. I am not in this line of business, so I
> don't know for sure. But I always thought that the difference
> between a monitor and a TV is in the front end signal processing
> circuitry.  The tubes should be basically the same. Can anyone
> explain why they should be different? What is the disadvantage if you
> use TV tubes in monitors?


There's not generally much difference if you ignore green/amber screens,
and assuming you're talking monochrome. Some monitor tubes have longer
persistence phosphors though, to reduce flicker. A few have overdone it
making scrolled text a nightmare to read. As you state, the real difference
is in the signal processing, this needs a greater bandwidth to prevent
your text from 'smudging'. 


Dave E.

phil@pepsi.amd.com (Phil Ngai) (01/01/90)

In article <534@sword.bellcore.com> cyc2@sword.bellcore.com.UUCP (Jason Chen) writes:
|In article <28506@amdcad.AMD.COM> phil@diablo.AMD.COM (Phil Ngai) writes:
|
|>The readers of these groups may also be interested to know that at the
|>last Comdex there were a number of Taiwanese showing 19" VGA monitors.
|>They said they'd be cheaper than the 16" monitors that have been
|>available because they used TV tubes! 
|>
|This statement implies that monitor tubes are supposed to be
|different from TV tubes. I am not in this line of business, so I

What I mean is that 19" TVs are common so the volume of their CRTs is
high. I don't know of too many 16" TVs so 16" VGA monitors have to use
low volume CRTs, hence high cost. As far as I can tell you have to
pay twice the price to go from 14" VGA to 16" VGA.

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Phil Ngai, phil@diablo.amd.com		{uunet,decwrl,ucbvax}!amdcad!phil
Ann Landers says "Let's talk about legalizing drugs."

greg@sj.ate.slb.com (Greg Wageman) (01/05/90)

Opinions expressed are the responsibility of the author.

In article <534@sword.bellcore.com> cyc2@sword.bellcore.com.UUCP (Jason Chen) writes:
>In article <28506@amdcad.AMD.COM> phil@diablo.AMD.COM (Phil Ngai) writes:
>
>>The readers of these groups may also be interested to know that at the
>>last Comdex there were a number of Taiwanese showing 19" VGA monitors.
>>They said they'd be cheaper than the 16" monitors that have been
>>available because they used TV tubes! 
>>
>This statement implies that monitor tubes are supposed to be
>different from TV tubes. I am not in this line of business, so I
>don't know for sure. But I always thought that the difference
>between a monitor and a TV is in the front end signal processing
>circuitry.  The tubes should be basically the same. Can anyone
>explain why they should be different? What is the disadvantage if you
>use TV tubes in monitors?

Color monitors intended for computer use generally have finer
dot-pitch than color television tubes.  "Dot pitch" is the distance
between the adjacent, discrete phosphor dots on the screen face.
(Recall that color tubes use triads of red, green, and blue dots.)  In
order to display a single white pixel, at least one dot of each color
must be illuminated by the electron beam, and ideally an exactly equal
area of each is illuminated.  Displaying areas of high detail and
contrast requires fine dot pitch to avoid blurring.  High-resolution
displays of 600 pixels or more are not possible with
television-quality CRT's, which are generally only required to display
half to a third as many vertical lines.

The phosphor on monochrome tubes is continuous, and except for
phosphor color and persistance factors in some tubes, is essentially
the same as a monochrome television tube.

Copyright 1990 Greg Wageman	DOMAIN: greg@sj.ate.slb.com
Schlumberger Technologies	UUCP:   {uunet,decwrl,amdahl}!sjsca4!greg
San Jose, CA 95110-1397		BIX: gwage  CIS: 74016,352  GEnie: G.WAGEMAN
 Permission is granted for reproduction provided this notice is maintained.

wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (David Lesher) (01/05/90)

{long discussion on bigger_crt_cheaper_cuz_tv_tubes_are_
_that_size_too}

How much of the cost is related to making and handling the envelope,
bottle or whatever you call it?

Even with different masks, etc, I can envision savings because
of these factors. Any production engineers with CRT experience
out there?

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emmo@moncam.co.uk (Dave Emmerson) (01/05/90)

In article <1413@umigw.MIAMI.EDU>, wb8foz@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (David Lesher) writes:
> 
> [deleted] 
> How much of the cost is related to making and handling the envelope,
> bottle or whatever you call it?
> [deleted]

Very little. Cost is a factor of the quality of the gun assembly, and the
resolution. It gets more difficult to coat with higher res phosphor spots
evenly without any flaws. If you want a flatter squarer screen, the
correction circuits get more complex (=expensive) too.
Leastways that's how it was when I was a TV tech.

Dave E.

icsu6000@caesar (Jaye Mathisen) (01/12/90)

I have a proton monitor from several years ago, a 619S, as I recall.  

I'm looking to buy a new monitor, but nobody local has a proton, and I have one
gripe about the proton that will keep me from getting another one if it still
has the same 'mis-feature'.  (Did that make sense??? :-)).

My proton seems to be hyper-sensitive to every one of my remotes.  Pressing
almost any button on any of the remotes causes the proton to power-off,
or change channel, or mute, or any one of a number of annoying things.  So
now I have to carefully "aim" my remotes to avoid the proton.

Does this still exist?  I've tried all of my remotes with other brands
of stuff (RCA, Toshiba), and they seem to not be affected...
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