Ok, I’ll confess it’s pretty OT 
Im looking at getting a decent 19" CRT, to display OpenGL graphics (that’s about as close as I can get!!!)
I was looking at an Iiyama Pro 454, but several online user reviews have raised doubt about the sharpness at the edges/corners.
Can anyone recommend a good monitor, or perhaps provide definate no-no’s?
Cheers
Mark
I have a old iiyama8617, and it is a pretty good monitor, but it took 3 RMAs to get it good.
The best thing to do is goto some store, and look at the display, since some people like certain monitors better than others.
A word of “OpenGL” in the post doesn’t make it less OT.
I would get the biggest screen as possible for development. I have been developing software on 21 inches screen for years, going back to 19 inches is almost impossible.
Unfortunately, because of space (and finance) restrictions, a 19" is about as far as I can go, without going down the TFT route - which are basically crap.
I’m looking at getting some decent boxer shorts, to wear while I’m writing OpenGL code. Can you recommend anything?
– Tom
The 454 has a newer Mitsubishi Diamondtron M2 tube, I would normally seriously doubt it has sharpness problems (but see my observations below after a little bit of online research) although it looks like it supports resolutions that are obviously beyond it’s capability to resolve. 1920 x 1440 @ 85 Hz On an 18 inch viewable area CRT at ~.25mm dot pitch, good luck, this isn’t a bad thing in itself. High res and fast refresh are always nice to have even if you don’t use them. The only way to really get higher res you can actually see with a CRT is to buy a bigger one or get a really small dot pitch (and they all seem to have about the same limit of approximately 1/4 mm so that’s not an option).
The point of that monitor/tube design is increased brightness.
I noticed something interesting on the Mitsubishi site:
Diamond Plus 93SB
Grille pitch 0,25 - 0.27 mm
Diamond Pro 930SB
Grille pitch 0.24 mm
Hmm… a varying apperture grille size on the 93 SB, dunno what tube is in it, both have the superbright technology which I think means it’s the Diamondtron M2.
The iiyama Pro 454 claims a dot pitch of 0.25mm on their site (not really dot pitch since the mask is really a grille on one axis but the principal is the same), other info online says .24mm but iiyama says .25mm, this would correlate with the diamondtron tube with the .25mm-.27mm grille.
Now varying aperture implies varying sharpness but a grill has to align with the phosphor on the screen so unless that varied too it would make absolutely no sense, this is all a bit strange frankly, but that’s what their site says.
Anyway, this means there is a genuine question over the sharpness of the Diamond Plus 93SB and perhaps the Iiyama Pro 454 if it has the same tube.
This is all a bit speculative but why take the chance.
Conclusion: See what price you can get for a Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 930SB.
Note that Mitsubishi honestly state that the optimal resloution for these monitors is 1280x1024 and I wouldn’t expect any better from an 18 inch viewable area on a CRT.
FWIW I have an older iiyama (Pro 502) and it is excellent, I’ve had it for years with no problems.
Originally posted by Tom Nuydens:
I’m looking at getting some decent boxer shorts, to wear while I’m writing OpenGL code. Can you recommend anything?
– Tom
Yes, I would recommend you to go to
http://www.opengl.org/developers/about/overview.html#1
and look under Developer-Driven Advantages.
Replace “OpenGL” by “Tom’s Boxers”, and you will find your best boxers.
Various quotes:
[i]I bought a Pro 454 in May 03. It worked fine for a couple of months, and then started to exibit the lack of sharpness in the corners problem. This deteriorated to a very obvious ‘wobble’ of the image, especially along the left side. It is like a sine wave with an amplitude of about 3 mm. It made reading text under about 16 font size impossible. I contacted Iiyama who brought out a replacement monitor this week. It worked fine for one day, and now we are back where we started.
I have exactly the same problem. Ive set the geometry a number of times and still find it soft and slighty out of focus in the corners. I rang iiyama (uk) and got a replacement. Got the new one and guess what? Same problem. I have another monitor with a Diamondtron tube in and that is pin sharp in the corners. Im going to try and get a refund. Has anyone else had similar probs also?
I’ve got two 454s and they both exhibit identical symptoms. All edges are blurred; the left edges being particularly bad. My office has just got a bunch of Iiyama Pro 1413s (a basic 17" version of the 454) and these are blurry too. It really does look like a weakness in the Mitsubishi M2 tube design.[/i]
Maybe these are just isolated examples. Who knows.
But the spec for this monitor seems pretty good - I like the idea of two D-subs and the ability to code @ 1600x1200 at good refresh rates, although 1280x1024 is acceptable. Also, this is one of the more expensive 19" monitors around (£260 ish), so it really ought to be of a certain quality. Unfortuantly, It’s not easy to find a local supplier where I can view one first. All the bigger stores like PC World (argh) are concentrating on TFT’s.
I guess it’s a case of suck it and see!
BTW - Tom, it’s christmas soon - I’m sure you’ll get some new boxers 
Originally posted by Tom Nuydens:
[b]I’m looking at getting some decent boxer shorts, to wear while I’m writing OpenGL code. Can you recommend anything?
– Tom[/b]
One word, commando! 
BTW, here is a link to some “top” monitors : http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=11101
[This message has been edited by Elixer (edited 12-04-2003).]
Originally posted by Tom Nuydens:
[b]I’m looking at getting some decent boxer shorts, to wear while I’m writing OpenGL code. Can you recommend anything?
– Tom[/b]
Tom, I think they have something appropriate: (ABSOLUTELY MUST-SEE LINK)
Not tested by myself though, so can’t recommend. Be sure to post a review here if you get one of those!!!
(edit)
damit, Coconut was faster
[This message has been edited by MZ (edited 12-05-2003).]
forget the boxers. do like me and start wearing your girlfriend’s strings. no mather if you’re coding or not, you’ll like it, trust me, he he.
Personally I prefer the boxer briefs from the Buffalo store.
I have a dual head card. I purchased a 19" NEC FE950 for about $350 CDN. And then purchased a used 15" Sony Trinitron for $20 CDN.
My advice would be to go dual head. Even two 15" monitors work very well and used ones are as cheap as hell.
This thread is deteriorating!
I too would like a 19" dual head … or at least the ladies would like me to! Complete with an openGL tatoo.
I would also like a pair of OpenGL boxers with two slits …
BUT - this doesn’t address my original post … what’s a good monitor?
EDIT - you lot need to get out a bit more
EDIT #2 - dave … you need help my friend!!!
[This message has been edited by Shag (edited 12-05-2003).]