vbob@umd5.umd.edu (Bob Shields) (07/16/90)
Has anyone had any experience with the PixelView monitor/cards from Mirror Technologies? Specifically, I am interested in getting the PixelView I (portrait display) for my MacPlus. At $567 (including video card), the price seems good enough to consider this upgrade. Although their "direct to you" sales approach may save a number of dollars, I guess this means I can't go to my local Apple dealer and see one on display. -- Bob Shields vbob@umd5.umd.edu
lbaum@bcsaic.UUCP (Larry Baum) (07/17/90)
In article <6891@umd5.umd.edu> vbob@umd5.umd.edu (Bob Shields) writes:
: Has anyone had any experience with the PixelView monitor/cards from
: Mirror Technologies? Specifically, I am interested in getting the
: PixelView I (portrait display) for my MacPlus. At $567 (including
: video card), the price seems good enough to consider this upgrade.
:
: Although their "direct to you" sales approach may save a number of
: dollars, I guess this means I can't go to my local Apple dealer and
: see one on display.
: --
: Bob Shields vbob@umd5.umd.edu
I have had the PixelView II for my MacPlus for a couple of
months.
Installation was quite easy, even for me (I had never opened
up the Plus before); it took about 15 minutes. The
instructions were clear.
The display is quite crisp but not as bright as the regular
Plus screen, though definitely bright enough for comfortable
usage. When I asked them about it, they said that they
deliberately chose a lower brightness level to extend the life
of the monitor. (Is this reasonable?)
Things are a LOT slower, even things like putting up dialog
boxes. I guess 2 pages of area is a lot to ask from my poor
Plus. I suspect one page display would be noticeably faster.
As a result, I typically decide at boot time whether I intend
to do work such as word processing or drawing which will
benefit from the extra area. If not, I stick to the old
monitor. The INIT that comes with it makes it simple to do
this; you can set it to always ask at boot time.
The software that comes with it is in the form of a combined
INIT/CDEV and has some good features, though not as good as
what comes with a Radius, for example. At boot time you can
specify whether or not to use the PixelView and if so how the
two monitors are physically arranged. If you use both, you
can use the Plus monitor in one of 3 ways:
1) A la the Monitors CDEV where the Plus screen is at a fixed
position and the mouse moves over only if itpasses thru the
correct "passageway" on the side of the larger monitor.
2) The Plus screen can be a virtual window into an area the
width of the screen and the height of the Pixelview. In this
mode, the mouse always goes over, and you can scroll the area
by pushing the mouse against the top or bottom of the screen.
3) The Plus screen can be used as a magnifying glass on the
PixelView for whatever the mouse is over.
The CDEV provides a number of features:
1) you can make the mouse cursor really big
2) you can have it always add grow boxes to windows, even if
the application doesn't.
3) you can choose larger menu font
4) you can turn on the magnifying glass I mentioned abova and
control its magnification
5) you can choose which monitor to put the menu bar on (Why
you would choose the PLUS is beyond me!)
6) screen saver (but no sleep now or never corner)
7) screen inverter
8) popup menu key which puts the menu bar into a popup menu
like a number of other inits
9) Select Application which is supposed to let you set which
monitor to use for a particular application. THIS DOES NOT
WORK IN ANY SENSE AND SHOULD NEVER BE USED!
The software definitely does not coexist well with a number of
popular inits; e.g. Application Menu, HierDA, SuperClock; i.e
anything which touches the menubar.
Overall I am happy with my purchase, especially considering
the price.
--
Larry Baum
Advanced Technology Center
Boeing Computer Services uucp: uw-beaver!bcsaic!lbaum
(206) 865-3365 internet: lbaum@atc.boeing.com