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Muzman · Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2002 7:54 am

Yes, I know this forum is crying out for another monitor thread and here I am!

Now then: want a decent 19"er. I've been looking hard at the Philips Brilliance Pro 190P (or something). Had it recommended to me once eons ago. It's the cheapest in that "class", if you will. Problem is hardly anyone sells it and almost no one in the English speaking world seems to have one. The only place that stocks it is a delivery joint so it's tough to go see it in action. Dicey.
The alternatives are the more common ones like Viewsonic and Diamond/Mitsubishi (which both use the same tube), who have similar specs and are slightly more expensive.
The Sony in that "class" is way outa my price range at $300 more than the others.
I was thinking about going left field and tracking down a Hitachi (who use their own weird version of a shadow mask tube, supposed to be nice and line free for graphics etc but lower res/refresh rates). And I've always dismissed LG and Samsung as cheap rubbish.

That covers most of the brands readily available where I live (they're all CRTs btw). Any thoughts from you folks would be appreciated.

jasonN · Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2002 10:11 pm

How much is that 19 inch phillips one?
I don't know much about monitors, but I recently got a 17inch mitsubishi/diamondtron flat screen for about $440. It's really good!

Sorry I don't really have any information, just thought it'd be good to give this thread a bit of a bump.

ftgjcf · member Member # Joined: 13 Apr 2000 Posts: 184

http://www.consumersearch.com - 19 inch

and samsung isnt crap

Loki · Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2002 10:43 am

Hey Muzzer!

If you can, save some more and buy the Sony. I've been working with them for years now and have to say that they're beyond anything else in color, color-stability and resolution. I had a Mitsubishi Diamondtron 22". It was quite crappy compared to the Sony's.

Just my $0.02

Loki

Fabrys · Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2002 11:53 pm

My next will be an electron 19blue III from LaCie

Price : 399 USD
LaCie.com/ electron 19blue III Infos
Optional accesory, the LaCie Blue Eye to calibrate the screen (499 USD)

LaCie.com/ BlueEye Infos

Edit : if I were you, I would wait to get enough funds for a better material (for me Philipps CRT are not better than Formac or even a Relysis which I find really crappy).

[ April 07, 2002: Message edited by: Fabrys ]

strata · Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2002 5:18 am

sort of speaking of which... anyone know if there are any groovy pci gfx cards that handle 2 monitor output? =)

Marque Pierre S�ndergaard · Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2002 9:46 am

Now listen, I am not big on tech, but my brother is. He has worked as tech support/helpdesk in Holland (you might be able to guess what company he was employed at...). Stay away from Philips monitors. They are crap! You have no idea of the amount of monitors that Philips take back every month, simply due to production flaws. I don't know about you, but I don't have the patience to send stuff back and forth having to explain why I am not the culprit all the time. I can't accept that a hardware manufacturer easily can accept a 2-digit failure percentage of its own products.

My advice is go for Iiyama. Great monitor, where you don't pay an excessive price for a name. However they can be hard to find. In my native Denmark, they are not sold for example.

Leo · Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2002 4:46 pm

I've got that puzzle too... now thinking about TFT display

.

About CRT, well do you wanna pay some extra bucks just for Sony's label? I didn't see any reason. There are other cheaper monitors using that Trinitron tube. And these days Sony isn't that good as you may thinking. You may take a look at Diamondtron tubes... NEC seems to be good. Iiyama, SCOTT are nice too. Anyway think twice cut once.

strata> Matrox used that dualhead function in their old PCI cards if I'm not mistaken.

-leo

Mr. T · Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2002 4:58 pm

i got an LG 19'' recently and i'm very happy with it... you might want to check out those; rather cheap.

good bye · junior member Member # Joined: 22 Mar 2002 Posts: 37

I have a Hitachi CM721F and I love it. I don't know how much it was because it was sort of a gift. The color and sharpness are great.

jasonN · Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2002 11:39 pm

quote:
Originally posted by Loki:
Hey Muzzer!

If you can, save some more and buy the Sony. I've been working with them for years now and have to say that they're beyond anything else in color, color-stability and resolution. I had a Mitsubishi Diamondtron 22". It was quite crappy compared to the Sony's.

Just my $0.02

Loki

YIKES!!! I read that the 22inch mitsubishi was somewhere around the price of $2000 Aussie dollars! I'm surprised it's crappy considering the price. I can't imagine what the Sony would cost!!

strata · Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2002 1:05 am

Leo: but now it's all AGP right? I curse the day DELL started selling computers. Ignorant bastards.

Anyways, I've got a 22' Compaq P1210 here at work and I really couldn't be happier with it... really sharp and nice...

Fabrys · Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2002 4:38 am

quote:
Originally posted by strata:
Leo: but now it's all AGP right? I curse the day DELL started selling computers. Ignorant bastards.

Anyways, I've got a 22' Compaq P1210 here at work and I really couldn't be happier with it... really sharp and nice...

[out of the subject]
Don't you have AGP port on your Dell computer ??

Few days ago, I bought the Matrox G550 DH, which is a really good gfx card (even if you won't be able to play last 3D games, but that's not my purpose).
In any case, if you really must buy a pci card, forget the Hercules ones (soooo crappy).

strata · Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2002 5:00 am

well I used to have a Dell Optiplex... only a p200 (years back) and that only had pci which pissed me off... so one day my father came home and had decided to buy a new computer through his company (this was like a year ago), and brings home this new dell. Identical to the one I had, only it was 700mhz and oodles more ram... but still no AGP port. Might be that they don't really expect them to be graphics machines, but y'know, still...

I'll have to get a new puter pretty soon anyways, but as I'll be spending shitloads of cash on software (getting legit copies of everything), I'm not really in a financial position to do that...

Fabrys · Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2002 5:25 am

quote:
Originally posted by strata:
but as I'll be spending shitloads of cash on software (getting legit copies of everything), I'm not really in a financial position to do that...

I knew this problem... the graphic progs are very expensive, especially for freelances on their start. Now, Photoshop 7 is coming and I'll have to save up money once more

strata · Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2002 6:42 am

tell me about it! I mean have you seen quark?? It's like $2000!! For ONE program!! it's just rediculous... my calculations say that I'll be spending around 5k on software... *sigh*

Not sure how to proceed though... I mean I couldn't possibly buy it all at once... but I don't want to use warez software for professional work... I might be forced to use warez and buy one program after another hoping in the end to be warez free... just to be able to work..

Muzman · Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2002 8:24 pm

Hey looky here, replies! (some about something else entirely but that's the way it goes)

Jase: all the ones I'm looking at are around $900. They're supposed to be slightly better than average 19"ers (better grille pitches etc) which go for $650-700ish. All except the Sony that is, which is $1200

Loki must be right about them being good to justify that jump.

Thanks to everyone else for writing too. I have heard the Philips often have problems, but they're good if you get a good one. I think they have a newer version out, maybe more consistent. Still it worries me. Maybe I'll find a nice showroom one and they'll give me that.
LGs don't look too bad I guess, but scant reviews as yet. They have really swishy looking buttons too, which doesn't hurt.

Most of the recomended ones on the net don't distribute to this end of the earth, it appears. Iiyama, Cornerstone, Scott, others of that sort; can't find 'em anywhere. Pity. The only conistently good reviewers I can get here are Viewsonic (who have a stupid name btw. Actually, the Samsung Syncmaster is worse. Yes, I'm sad. I let such things get in the way of otherwise good products

). Might be able to get near an NEC for a try-out though.
The real problem is the kind of reviews. Pro/wannabee Pro monitor reviews are nonexistent. All the reviews just talk about wordprocessing, price, games and say wow a lot (most imply that cheaper monitors are about the same as expensive ones, which is probably not true if my experience with Hi-Fi equipment is anything to go by). By contrast, Pro level audio equipment talk is easy to find on the net.
Pity. Anyway, cheers all and keep talking if you wish.

Dr. Bang · Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2002 8:39 pm

When it comes to buy a monitor for painting, you should NEVER look for the cheapest one Because you will be spending the next 3-4 years looking at it. Sure the Sony is expensive, but you use it for 4 more years and its color is still bright and vibrant as ever. The cheaper one will look almost as good, but their quality will degrade over a short period of time.

jasonN · Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2002 11:56 pm

I agree with Dr Bang. Forking over the extra money will be worth it. All my digital art has been done on my almost 6 year old Acer monitor. I thought that everything was fine with it, but now when I view my images on my new Diamond View, they're all way too saturated or too pale! And some have strong red tones. It sucks to find out after all this time what my images really look like

Leo · Posted: Wed Apr 10, 2002 3:39 am

strata: Yes I know these days it's kinda hard to find good PCI gfx card especially with 2 monitors support. But check out old Matrox cards... like Matrox Millenium-II... sure some of them can handle 2 monitors output.

Back to our monitors duscussion, take a look at this link: http://www.glencoe.com/norton/online/updates/1999/41399-4.html - there are also some links to other places in the end.

About reviews, most of them are written to sell the product. But it can be useful as a guideline, like a starting point. Do not buy via online if possible - use your local stores. There are tons of slightly visible differences in calibration, colors, geometry, focus, convergence etc. so YOUR eyes and monitor test (http://www.3dnews.ru/documents/1237/ntest.zip) are the best tools here.

I myself using Sony monitor for 5-6 years... recently checked out CTX... can't say that Sony is better. Still wanna be a pro? Well, why not save some more and buy Radius? Or something cool from Panoram tech?

-leo

Xiphoid · Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2002 12:55 pm

Samsung is "cheap rubbish" ?

When my 17" blew, I did a WHOLE lot of research before dropping money on a new 19".

I bought a Samsung 900NF 19".

According to CNet, its the second best 19" monitor is the world. Only reason I didn't get the #1 pick was because I couldn't find it. Heh.

CNet Editor's Top Five 19-Inch Monitors

How do I like it? The 900NF runs 1280x1024 at 100hz. If the picture got any sharper, my eyes would bleed.

[ April 15, 2002: Message edited by: Xiphoid ]

DarkVVulf · Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2002 3:22 pm

I have a 19" Samsung SyncMaster 955 DF. I friggen love it, very clean display and big enough to bother watching a movie from if you wanted.

Muzman · Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2002 6:03 pm

Ya, I do hear good things about Samsung (despite associating the brand with cheap rubbish

). If I can find one I'll think about them.
I still can't decide between a shadow mask tube and a grille tube. Some say there's a big difference when it comes to doing arty stuff (not just because of the old grille lines across the screen but there's some colour considerations too). Some say it just doesn't matter any more.
Although, anything I get is likely to be such a huge improvement on what I've got I wonder if I'll notice.