clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Kathy Strong) (11/11/90)
Thanks to the folks who responded to my question about low-cost portrait monitors. Here's the "executive summary"--full text of replies follows. Nobody knows anything about Samsung or Index monitors. :-) Ehman got one negative vote--"significant distortion," "became fuzzy after being left on a while." Mobius' package, a portrait monitor with 16MHz 68000 accelerator, got enthusiastic support--mentioned were ease of installation, importance of acceleration, sharpness "better than the 3 year old SE we installed it on." Drawbacks were minor: slight problems with sound because of the accelerator, aspect ratio a bit off, request for confirmation on startup. Three monitors not on my original list were also mentioned: Princeton, Mirror's Pixelview I, and Sigma Designs. I'm not sure whether the Sigma or the Princeton monitor meets the "low cost" criterion, though. In case anyone's interested, here's my revised specs chart: Monitor Cost Vert Horz Resolutn DPI Warr Xtras ~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~ Ehman 15" fullpage $499 75Hz ____ 640x870 80 1 yr 30,TS Samsung fullpage 479 69Hz 63Hz " 68 1 yr TS Index fullpage 579 75Hz ____ " __ ____ TS Mobius OnePage 795 75Hz 69Hz " 78 1 yr Acc,30,TS Mirror Pixelview I 567 75Hz ____ " 80 1 yr TS Sigma Designs fp ___ ____ ____ Princeton Labs fp ~600? ____ ____ 30 = 30day money back guarantee TS = tilt/swivel stand Acc = accelerator If you meant to respond but didn't get around to it, or if you missed the first posting, I'm still interested in hearing feedback. Full text of replies follows: ==================================================================== From: "Omar Souka" <souka@uh.msc.umn.edu> You could also take a look at the Mirror Technologies Pixelview I ($500, I think) I have a Pixelview II (19",$900) for my SE/30, and I love it. ------------ From: dana@are.berkeley.edu (Dana E. Keil) I would also be sure to look into the new portrait monitor from Sigma Designs, Inc. Somebody came to BMUG to show it to us the other week and it looks really good. Also, Sigma Designs claims to be meeting the Swedish standards for monitor emissions. Sigma Designs Inc. 46501 Landing Parkway Freemont, CA 94538 415-770-0100 -------------- From: "brian wendell ogilvie" <ogil@midway.uchicago.edu> I used to work for a Mac peripheral and software store here in Chicago, and we got one of the Mobius FPD + accelerator systems a few days before I left. I installed it and played around with it a bit (and used it to do an ad layout). Some impressions: 1. It's really easy to install. Took me under 15 minutes to install the card, from opening up the case to screwing the last screw back in. Plugging the monitor into the Mac and the wall takes no time. The cable seems to be well done--not too long, but not constrainingly short. The tilt-swivel stand seems to be the weakest part of the setup--I was never quite certain I had it installed all the way, though it seemed quite stable. 2. The picture quality is better than that on the 3 year old SE in which I installed the card. It's really sharp. The aspect ratio seems a bit off, though; the image seems a bit taller than it should be. This is especially evident near the bottom, but it's not, in my opinion, bad enough to impede your use of the monitor in any way. 3. The monitor software is well done. It allows you to set your Mac or the Mobius monitor as the main monitor (the one with the menu bar) and to adjust the relative heights of the monitors. You can put the Mobius on either side of the Mac, though Mobius recommends that you put it on the right side so the Mac power supply doesn't cause interference. The only annoying feature is that if you move the mouse pointer anywhere off the side of the Mobius on which the Mac monitor is, the mouse snaps up to the smaller Mac monitor (I know that that sentence is a little vague). This diagram should explain things better: -------- | |------ | Mobius | Mac | | |------ | |<=== if you move the mouse pointer off this edge, it snaps -------- up to the Mac screen rather than stopping. 4. The accelerator is a great feature. It has a few problems; the only serious one is that sounds (actually, snd resources) don't play perfectly. I think that Mobius is working on this. The sounds come out fuzzy, with a lot of noise. But the speed increase is definitely worth it. Speedometer says that overall performance is 1.95 times that of a standard 8-Mhz SE. And since more screen area means that screen updates take more processor time, the acceleration is important. I wouldn't recommend a full page display for the SE without one, either built in, from the same company, or from another party. The Mobius, while only a 16-Mhz 68000, is fast enough to make screen updates painless, and it's on the same card as the video hardware, which makes installation easy. Overall, I think that the Mobius monitor/accelerator combo is a great deal. The only thing I might caution you about (and this applies to any third-party monitor for the SE) is that there may be some incompatibility problems with System 7. ---------- From: tn505981@longs.LANCE.ColoState.Edu I USE THE MOBIUS PORTRAIT/ACCELERATOR AND IT WORKS FLAWLESSLY. EASY TO INSTALL AND VERY EASY TO USE. THE STARTUP INIT IS A LITTLE CLUMSY IF YOU CONSIDER CLICKING A BUTTON TO VERIFY INSTALLATION EACH TIME A PAIN (I DO). SO ALL IS WELL EXCEPT THAT. I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO GET OMNIPAGE TO RUN, BUT I DON'T THINK THAT THE DISPLAY IS THE REASON... SINCERELY, TODD NATHAN -------------- From: jjwcmp@ultb.isc.rit.edu (Jeff Wasilko) I have a Ehman here for Evaluation, and am very unhappy with tfeh display quality. It had significant distortion, and became fuzzy after it was left on for awhile. It interfered with the built-in video of the SE. I also have a Princeton Publishing Labs monitor, and I feel that the display quality is on par with the Radius Pivot or the Apple FPD. It comes withe a Tilt/Swivel. I don't know about the list price, but I'm ppaying around $600 ea in qty with a video card, and $400 without a card (for ci and si built in video). -------------- thanks again to all who replied. --Kathy -- ........................................................................... : Kathy Strong : "Try our Hubble-Rita: just one shot, : : (Clouds moving slowly) : and everything's blurry" : : clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu : --El Arroyo : :..........................................................................: