by Denis Pelli
visitors since September 17, 1996.
June 1, 2001
Please send corrections and additions to Denis Pelli.
Apple monitors
Sony monitors
Griffin's database of monitor specs, including all brands.
Philips MGD-402 21" BrightView Monochrome Monitor (1000 cd/m2)
Philips MGD-403 21" BrightView Monochrome Monitor (1000 cd/m2)
Mitsubishi 40" gas plasma Leonardo monitor
Clinton Electronics makes fast bright monitors, e.g. 20FP Hi-Brite monitor (180 cd/m2, 150 Hz, 250 MHz). However, we have no experience to report.
Macintouch says (12/31/98), "At Macworld Expo next week, Mitsubishi Display Products plans to formally announce four Mac-compatible products (some of these products were quietly on view at Comdex):"
Ben Singer (bens@cvs.rochester.edu) writes, "Eizo (formerly 'Nanao') Flexscan 6600 monitor is about $1000 (www.cdw.com and search for flexscan 6600). We have one here and th attenuator works with it (it has synch on green). Nanao is now Eizo. The nanao website points to eizo. Spatial resolution wise, using the MacPicasso 523 I could drive it at 1600x1200, 48 Hz (the monitor can do 1600x1200, 85 Hz according to specs). The MacPicasso 540 should be able to drive it at 1600x1200, 75 Hz. Temporal resolution wise, I could do 1024x768 at 100Hz using the MacPicasso 523, but not 640x480, 160Hz. [I have about a foot of adapters: from the monitor to the cpu I have (1) RGB cable with vga-style male connector (2) vga2mac unimacfly set to 21" Multi Res (3) ISR attenuator (4) mac2vga adapter (one of those that comes with Apple monitors for use with PCs) into the MacPicasso vga-style female connector.]"
I wouldn't buy Apple's 1710 or 1710AV multiscan monitors. These monitors are unique in using the ADB bus (i.e. the keyboard and mouse bus) to communicate configuration and resolution settings with the computer. This makes them incompatible with some video software, e.g. the very useful 7500/7600/8500 video driver, which doesn't realize that it is driving a multiscan monitor, because the 1710 monitors identify themselves, on the video sense pins, as a fixed resolution monitor. You can overcome this by using a multisynch adapter to disguise the 1710 or 1710AV as another monitor. The cheaper 1705 is fine. Since Apple is planning to discontinue the 1710 monitors, I wouldn't expect a big effort on Apple's part to enhance compatibility.
Over the last year we've done all our work on Apple Multiscan 17" monitors (the good antecedent to the unfortunate 1710 series), with the ISR video attenuator driving just the green gun. (Reminds me of the 1970's, when everyone used the green P-31 phosphor.) Before 1996, we did nearly all our research using Apple's High Resolution Monochrome monitors, which are no longer sold by Apple, but which were inexpensive and adequate (available, used, from Shreve Systems), though one could wish for higher luminance (100 cd/m2 peak when new), better high voltage regulation, and dc coupling instead of dc restoration.
I suspect that color monitors tend to be better regulated than monochrome monitors. Use with the Pelli-Zhang Video Attenuator requires that you: 1. drive just the green (or red or blue) gun (easy), or 2. build a video amplifier to drive all three channels from the single output of the video attenuator (might be hard, depending on your familiarity with hardware), or 3. snip two of the 75 ohm termination resistors inside the monitor and tie all three channels together (not for the faint of heart--I haven't tried this).
Paul Beckmann, paul@eye.psych.umn.edu, asks, "The lab's Apple Monochrome monitors are losing brightness. Apple no longer produces the monitor. Do you know of a monochrome monitor that will take its place using the old standard Mac video timing?" ANSWER: I'm deciding among 3 choices:
Cheap: "We've been looking for a good, low-cost color display, and we're impressed with the NEC MultiSync XV14, a 14-inch monitor with a full set of digital controls, up to 1024 x 768 resolution, 3-year warranty, an adjustable base and a high-quality image. (No Mac adapter is included, however.) CDW has a special on the monitor: $208 plus shipping." (Macintouch, April 15, 1997)
Fast & Bright: Here's what I know about high-frame rate and bright monitors. (Fast and bright are both interesting, separately and together.) Does anyone have anything to add?
Jason Alexande Nier mentioned (5/96 on MacPsych) that the NEC XP17 monitor has a refresh rate of up to 160 Hz.
Harry Orbach mentions that the Philips 21" BrightView Monochrome Monitor achieves 550 cd/m2.
Dotronix sells a high resolution (100 MHz) bright (up to 300 cd/m2, optional) 20" multisynch gray-scale monitor (ASM2400) for about $1450. I haven't seen it yet.
$1,100, Sony Multiscan 17seII Trinitron Graphic Display, 30-85 kHz, 48-150 Hz, max resolution: 1280 x 1024 @ 75 Hz. This display consistently gets favorable mention in Macintosh discussion groups. Users say its picture is very sharp (prefered over the cheaper 17sfII). Sony's literature specifically mentions Mac compatibility, which isn't surprising, given that they manufacture most of Apple's monitors.
Takao Sato writes (8/96) "the Sony 17SEII is one generation down from their GDM17se. Sony says that although they made some effort to lower the cost, the main difference is in the ROM to improve the manipulation from the front panel. They also said the GDM-2038 is quite rare in the market."
John Troy writes, "We are using a Sony Trinitron Color Display Multiscan GDM-17SE1 (a 17" monitor). [The antecedent to the 17seII listed above.] There is a sister 20" monitor (GDM-20SE1) whose properties are presumably similar. Although ours is a color monitor we have only used it so far as a white stimulus. (We've made accurate measurements of chromaticity.) We run the refresh rate at 153 Hz (Line rate: 82.3 kHz, Dot rate: 108 MHz); the capacity to run this fast was what attracted us to the monitor. [John is not using a Mac--he's using a Cambridge Research Systems VSG board in a PC.] At that rate, in our hands, the mean luminance is 82 cd m-2. At that luminance with a 5 mm diameter pupil we find that the cat ganglion cells we've studied so far resolve around 70-75 Hz; if the screen luminance were higher, we'd need a faster frame rate to satisfy the Nyquist criterion. According to the Sony spec-sheet, at 155.30 Hz the display has 640 dots x 480 lines (82 kHz line rate). We have currently only displayed one-dimensional patterns (e.g., sinusoidal gratings, edges). We've achieved very good control over stimulus contrast and accurate generation of sinewave gratings. We are very satisfied with it. It was priced quite reasonably at $999."
We bought Apple's 17" Multiscan for about $900. It's a Sony Trinitron. Peak luminance is about 100 cd/m2. Using the Monitors control panel, or the new Display Manager (see GDVideo.c), you can select among several resolutions. Apple's 17" and 20" multiscan monitors are made by Sony, but only go up to 120 Hz, like the Sony 17sf. (The "sf" is cheaper than the "se".)
In 1994, Tom Robson of Cambridge Research Systems gave me a brochure for what appears to be a rather nice color monitor: Sony 20-inch Trinitron Multiscan GDM-2038. 50-160 Hz. Max luminance 160 cd/m2. $2,500. However, it doesn't appear on Sony's current web site, so it may no longer be available.
John Troy, jbtroy@casbah.acns.nwu.edu, writes, "I came across a new monitor, Optiquest 2082DC which might be better than the Sony. It is a 20 inch color monitor with an advertised price of $1399. It has a 90 MHz dot rate. Like the Sony, it has a shadow mask and various energy-saving features that may be troublesome. I don't have much information yet." ViewSonic.
Harry Orbach writes "I have noticed that some monitors (NEC XP15, XP17, XP21 and Panasonic C1791E) are advertised in MacMall to run at 160 Hz."