Path: rcfnews.cs.umass.edu!barrett From: christon@powertech.no (Christopher Naas) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Subject: REVIEW: Sony Trinitron Multiscan 17sf monitor Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.hardware Date: 7 Aug 1995 20:53:00 GMT Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Lines: 267 Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Distribution: world Message-ID: <405ufc$fhd@kernighan.cs.umass.edu> Reply-To: christon@powertech.no (Christopher Naas) NNTP-Posting-Host: snoopy.cs.umass.edu Keywords: hardware, monitor, multiscan, commercial Originator: barrett@snoopy.cs.umass.edu PRODUCT NAME Sony Trinitron Multiscan 17sf monitor BRIEF DESCRIPTION A 17" Trinitron Multiscan monitor for the 31.5 to 64kHz range. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Sony Deutschland GmbH Address: Hugo Eckener Str. 20 50829 Kvln Deutschland [Sony also has branches in many other countries.] LIST PRICE I bought mine here in Norway for around $1600. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE A 23-pin to 15-pin RGB adaptor (like the one included with Amiga 4000, or a graphics-card with a 15-pin out-connector. SOFTWARE AmigaDOS 3+ monitor drivers that push the display frequency up to the range the monitor can handle, or graphics card drivers that do the same. COPY PROTECTION None. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 4000T with 25MHz 68040 CPU 2MB Chip, 12 MB Fast RAM Kickstart 40.68 (3.1) Workbench 40.42 (3.1) Standard Commodore-supplied RGB adaptor. CyberVision 64bit graphics card with 4MB onboard memory. INSTALLATION Select the appropriate monitordriver in ScreenModePrefs and save. Power off and plug in the monitor, power on, and you're in business. The power lead is a standard 3-pin thing as found on most computer appliances these days (including the A4000). If you have a cable with such plugs in both ends, you can plug it directly into the main pass-through on the back of the A4000. If not, you will have to use the supplied standard power cable. REVIEW I picked up my monitor at a dealer 60 kilometers from my house. The first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the box was "Wow, this thing is *huge*!". And the box it came in really is huge. So big, in fact, that I couldn't get it into the taxi on my way home. Anyway, when I finally got the thing home and unpacked it, I found that the box also contained quite a bit of padding. ;) But still, upgrading to a 17" monitor, even from my old 15" IDEK was shock. The display is really a lot bigger than it used to be, which is nice, of course. The 17sf is a beautiful looking beast. In comparison, my old IDEK truly was the Beast whilst my new Sony is definitely Beauty. It is difficult to describe the appearance, but I'll give it a shot. It has a very flat screen. Flatter than my old IDEK 15" Multiflat, in fact. :) There's about 4-5 cm. gray plastic around the edges of the screen. On the bottom, there is a "sunken" control panel with buttons for Color, Geometry, Size and Center, and a "raised" control panel with up-down-left-right buttons, a power LED, a power save LED and the On/Off button. The 17sf has digital control, thus the buttons. No "wheels" to turn around; you just hold in the buttons. I will explain the controls in detail later. After unpacking it and breaking my back lifting it onto my desk, I plugged it into the Commodore RGB adaptor on the back of my A4000T, and turned on the power. I was greeted by a rather bulky looking 720x564 DBLPAL screen. The 17sf has a .25 dotpitch, and thus lower resolutions and few-color gradients look like crap. It is excellent for higher resolutions and lots of color, though, and chances are you have that if you're investing in a 17" monitor. As I mentioned earlier, it scans from 31.5 to 64kHz, and from 50 to 120Hz. You would think this excludes most Amiga resolutions, but luckily it manages to scan below these ranges, so you can use the following AGA resolutions: DBLPAL DBLNTSC Euro36 MultiScan Euro72 Super72, Pal, NTSC and A2024 are not displayable. Using the Size and Center settings, I managed to eliminate the "black borders" you normally get with most monitors in the above resolutions, and get the picture to fill the entire screen. Big plus. I guess if you fiddle enough with MonEd, you could push Super72 up to a working kHz as well. I never tried. I used DBLPAL for about a month before I got my CyberVision. Screen switching is as fast as you could possibly want, both with AGA and CyberGFX displays. I now use a 1120x832 Workbench screen. That is the biggest resolution I can display while keeping above the 72Hz mark. I am also able to display 800x600 in 100Hz, 1280x1024 in 52Hz and 1600x1200 in 50Hz, all flicker free, of course. Making new resolutions with CyberMode is easy, and the 17sf happily displays them as long as they keep within the scan area. In a monitor test in PCWorld, the Sony Trinitron Multiscan 15sf came out on top. The 15sf is essentially the same monitor as the 17sf, only with a smaller screen, so the same goes for the 17sf, I guess. It was stated as having a better dot pitch than all the other monitors, better color and better screen control. Here's a rundown of the available controls: The "lowered" panel acts as a switchboard for what you want to set. The "raised" panel with the up, down, left, right buttons increases or decreases the values of the currently selected "control mode". If you press the "Color" button. "Left" and "Right" switch between the maximum and minimum values, while "Up" and "Down" are gradual. If you press the "Geom" button, you can rotate the display slightly to the left or to the right with the "Up" and "Down" buttons, while "Left" and "Right" gives/removes the "barrel" effect. If you press the "Size" button, "Up" and "Down" size the display vertically, while "Left" and "Right" size it horizontally. If you press the "Center" button, you center the picture on the screen ;) If you haven't selected a "control mode", "Left" and "Right" control contrast, and "Up" and "Down" control brightness. When you have reached the maximum values, the PowerSave led blinks to let you know there's no point in holding down the button any longer. You can leave a "control mode" by pressing the button again, and there's also a timer, which switches it of automatically after a few seconds of inactivity. All values are saved for the current screen. The 17sf can store 10 user defined modes, and has preset values for the 6 most popular modes in the PC world. If you have filled up the memory with 10 modes and set a new one, the first one is replaced with the new one. Here are the specifications: Picture tube: 0.25mm aperture grille pitch, 17 inches measured diagonally (16" maximum viewing image) 90-degree deflection Video image area: Approx. 328 x 242 mm (w/h) (13 x 9 5/8 inches) Logical resolution: Horizontal: Max 1280 dots Vertical: Max 1024 lines Physical resolution: Horizontal: Max 1280 dots Vertical: Max 1024 lines Standard image area: Approx 300 x 225 mm (w/h) (11 7/8 x 8 7/8 inches) Deflection frequency: Horizontal: 31.5 to 64kHz Vertical: 50 to 120Hz AC input voltage/current 100 to 120V, 50/60 Hz, 1.8A 220 to 240V, 50 - 60Hz, 1A Dimensions: 406 x 426.5 x 451 mm (w/h/d) (16 x 16 7/8 x 17 7/8 inches) Mass: Approx. 19.0kg (41lb 14oz) It comes with a tilt swivel, which is extremely easy-floating. This is a good thing, since the monitor is quite heavy. My old IDEK had a rather hard swivel. I can't imagine lifting the 17sf every time I want to move the swivel like I had to do with the IDEK. DOCUMENTATION An A4 size stapled booklet with good instructions in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. LIKES I like the sharp and clear picture quality. The best I have seen on any monitor to date. I also like the fact that I can display 1600x1200 flicker-free even though the documentation states that 1280x1024 is the maximum resolution. The controls are extremely easy to operate, and I have found that the displaymode memory has proven to be invaluable. I wouldn't like to have to fiddle with the controls every time I used a different display mode. DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS I have no dislikes. This is an excellent product. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS It leaves all other monitors I've seen way behind. The easy controls, extremely crisp and clear display and high dotpitch are excellent compared to my old IDEK. VENDOR SUPPORT I have had no reason to contact the vendor. WARRANTY There is a one year dealer warranty (as required by Norwegian law). The manual does not mention a factory warranty, but I think my dealer said something about 30 days. CONCLUSIONS This is the best monitor I've ever seen. It came out on top of both the Brilliance and Nec monitors in the PCWorld test, and I can understand why. It might not be the cheapest monitor available, but if you want a big display and the best colors money can buy, it is a safe bet. Coupled with my CyberVision, it is excellent for both graphics and DTP. I give it 4.8 stars out of 5. Mo product is perfect, and there are always others that are better (although at a much higher cost). COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1995 Christopher Naas. All rights reserved. This review is freely distributable. You can contact me by mailing me at: christon@powertech.no __ __ Christopher Landmark Naas < EML: christon@powertech.no /_ /_ /\ Reg. Amiga Developer > WWW: http://www.powertech.no/~christon/ __/__//_/ Fusing the clear threat! < IRC: KarmaComa --- Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu Moderator mail: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu Anonymous ftp site: math.uh.edu, in /pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews