jeff@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Stearns) (02/23/90)
You may have noticed the ads from Ehman Engineering, offering a 19"
two-page monitor for the SE, SE/30, and Mac II. They're selling for $899.
Ehman strikes me as one of those mail-order companies that's poised
to do real darn well, and this product is going to boost them along.
I've spent many years of my life staring into 19" monitors attached to
Sun Workstations. Sun sells a decent middle-of-the-road monitor. The
hard-to-get OCLI anti-glare coating helps a lot, making it good enough
for continuous use day after day.
I hoped to find something this good for my Mac. The Radius full-page
display is the best Mac display I've found, but it's too small. I've
inspected two of the Radius two-page displays, and they don't come close
to the quality of the one-pager. The display was unsteady, with moderate
to severe swimming along the left edge of the screen. Focus varied across
the screen; I could never bring more than about 40% of the screen into good
focus. The salesman told me that you just focus the part that you're working
on. Right.
I've inspected two Apple 19" displays, and they were worse; the right
1/3 of the displays were so out-of-focus that the desktop grey pattern
really looked grey. They were plagued with nonlinearities at the edges,
and windows would grow and shrink by about 10% as they were moved around
the desktop. This strikes me as odd, since other Apple displays are generally
quite good. I thought these stunk. Both salesmen claimed not to be bothered
by them.
I've looked at less-expensive displays like the Cornerstone, but quality
control seemed real erratic. Some were OK, and others were horrible.
What I really wanted was something with the clarity of the Radius full-page
display, at a price under $1000.
(If you get the chance, look closely at the NeXT display. They set a high
standard for image quality. The pixels are rock steady and sharp, and their
monitors are nicely focused and linear.)
I took a chance on the Ehman display. It's brand new, and the only way to
see one is to buy it. It took several weeks to arrive, because Ehman has
been unable to meet the demand for them. They were honest when I placed
the order, and they even called me once to confirm that I knew it would
take a while to arrive.
It finally arrived tonight. It was worth the wait. And it's certainly
worth the price.
The crt is 19", but the actual image size is 17". When I first turned it
on, it was bowed at the upper left corner, but the image straightened out
after about 10 minutes. It's now perfectly rectangular and nicely focused.
There's about one pixel's worth of very subtle ringing in the transition from
black to white. Thus the white pixels to the right edge of dark pixels
lines are ever-so-slightly darker than those at the left edge. (This visual
artifact is actually quite common on CRT's, and it takes careful amplifier
design and good cabling to combat it.) Most Sun workstations are worse than
this.
The image is rock steady. Pixels don't swim or jitter or float before your
eyes. This is important because it helps to reduce the strain on your eyes.
The pixels aren't quite as well focused as I'd like, but they're certainly
no worse than typical CRT's. They're not quite as sharp as on my wonderful
old SE, but they're far better than the large Apple display's I've studied.
The specs say that the image is 1050 by 817 pixels, but I've been quoted other
numbers by Ehman folks. I suspect that the exact dimensions changed as the
product was borought to market. It refreshes at 78 Hz, so there's no visible
flicker. Phosphor is standard P104. (It's a monochrome display, and Ehman
tells me that it can't ever be upgraded to greyscale because the CRT inputs are
digital rather than analog.)
The case looks exactly like what you'd get if you took a Sun-3 monitor to
Taiwan and told them to duplicate it. It tilts and swivels nicely. It doesn't
get hot; ventilation is ample so long as you don't lay a manual on top of the
cooling slots. (Those kind of things happen when you give up most of your
desk space.)
It comes with Stepping Out II (as though you'd want an even bigger screen!).
It comes with all cables and your choice of interface for the SE, SE/30, or
Mac II.
When I ordered it, I expected that I might box it up and send it back.
No way! I hope to keep it for many years to come.
--
Jeff Stearns John Fluke Mfg. Co, Inc. (206) 356-5064
jeff@tc.fluke.COM {uw-beaver,microsoft,sun}!fluke!jeffjrg@Apple.COM (John R. Galloway Jr.) (02/23/90)
In article <15136@fluke.COM> jeff@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Stearns) writes: >I've inspected two Apple 19" displays, and they were worse; the right >1/3 of the displays were so out-of-focus that the desktop grey pattern >really looked grey. They were plagued with nonlinearities at the edges, >and windows would grow and shrink by about 10% as they were moved around >the desktop. This strikes me as odd, since other Apple displays are generally >quite good. I thought these stunk. Both salesmen claimed not to be bothered >by them. Just another data point: I have an Apple TPD (its called a 21" display I think, the exposd glass measures 20" and the display area measures 19"). It is the best monochrome dispaly I have ever used, and I have used lots of Suns and played with just about everything else (I used to work where they had a porting lab containing one of (seemingly) everything). It is clear, sharp, steady and square and linear corner to corner (it does take about 5 mins to warm up and achive corner to corner lineararity) So, I guess this means that picking a display is hard, since perhaps those in the stores do not represent what you actually get? Also getting my TPD at the develeper price certainly made it all that more attractive. -jrg -- internet jrg@apple.com John R. Galloway, Jr. applelink d3413 CEO..receptionist human (408) 259-2490 Galloway Research These are my views, NOT Apple's, I am a GUEST here, not an employee!!