Path: rcfnews.cs.umass.edu!barrett From: mlb@rekab.demon.co.uk (Martin Leslie Baker) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Subject: REVIEW: Amiga Technologies M1438 monitor (Microvitec M1438) Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.hardware Date: 1 Jan 1996 16:48:37 GMT Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Lines: 241 Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <4c9395$ps@kernighan.cs.umass.edu> Reply-To: mlb@rekab.demon.co.uk (Martin Leslie Baker) NNTP-Posting-Host: maya.cs.umass.edu Keywords: hardware, monitor, multisync, commercial X-Review-Number: Volume 1996 Number 1 Originator: barrett@maya PRODUCT NAME Amiga Technologies M1438S monitor BRIEF DESCRIPTION A 14-inch, .28 pitch, multisync monitor with internal stereo speakers. Vertical Scan Rates: 15-40 KHz Horizontal Scan Rates: 45-100 Hz MPR-II Compliant AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Amiga Technologies GmbH Address: Berliner Ring 89 D-64625 Bensheim Germany LIST PRICE 299 GBP SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE An Amiga Computer :) Not CD32 :( SOFTWARE The Monitor will work on any Amiga but you really need to be using AGA to get the most out of it. You'll also find the following software invaluable in getting the best from the monitor. All of it can be found on Aminet. gfx/aga/1942PatchAGA.lha Patch monitor drivers gfx/aga/MonEd3a.lha Edit monitor drivers utils/boot/Monitor3.0Patch.lha Patch monitor drivers COPY PROTECTION None. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 1200 68EC030/40, 4 MB Fast RAM, 2 MB Chip RAM Seagate 120 MB hard drive, Archos CD-ROM. AmigaDOS 3.0. INSTALLATION With the power off, plug the lead from the back of the monitor into the Amiga RGB port. Plug the supplied audio leads into the phono sockets on the back of your Amiga, or the outputs on the back of your CD-ROM drive as in my case, and the other end into the sockets on the back of the monitor. Then plug in the monitor power lead, either to the pass-thru on the back of your A4000, or like me, to the supplied mains lead. Switch on. REVIEW The M1438S is basically Microvitec's M1438 but with the Amiga Tech logo and built in stereo speakers. The build quality is as good if not generally better than most VGA monitors. Amiga Tech have solved the old problem of banding that used to be experienced when using the Commodore VGA-Amiga adapter. The M1438S comes with a 23 pin connector as standard, wired straight into the back of the monitor. A power lead comes out the back and can be plugged into the monitor supply on the back of your A4000, or A1200T. Or if you're not that lucky you use the supplied "kettle" lead to connect to the mains. I was a little disappointed that there are no other inputs on the back of the monitor, composite, SVHS etc. This means you can't use the monitor with a CD32, although I suppose a multisync is a bit overkill for that. There are just two sockets on the back, for the left and right audio. Before buying the M1438S I was using a 14-inch colour TV and an amber 12-inch monitor so my Amiga booted a standard 640 * 256 display. When I fired up the M1438S it reminded me of the C64 days, the text just looked so big. The first thing I did was to go into the Screen Mode preferences and select a DblPal HiRes No-Flicker screen. Wow. This is how the Amiga should look. I then turned on Mode Promotion in the IControl preferences, and then loaded some software. All my usual applications started up in beautiful HiRes Flicker free screens. Wordworth AGA, PageStream, CygnysEd are all so much better. When I'd gotten over the initial joy of being able to clearly see what my Amiga was up to, I became horrified at the really ugly black borders down either side. So at this point I applied the two sets of patches mentioned above and then got to work with MonEd. I have to say using MonEd isn't the most relaxing past time I can think of, but in no time at all I got rid of those black borders, although unfortunately I couldn't find any way to stretch the Amiga screen to fill the monitor horizontally. At this point I thought I'd try a few games. Ah those colours. The colours on the M1438S are really impressive, and the picture is very sharp; unfortunately this sharpness also tends to make some games look very ugly. Lego city. Some games just look too blocky. For example during the intro to Cannon Fodder, the text that is used has been slightly anti-aliased - on a TV this works in that the text looks really smooth On the M1438S you can see every single pixel. Its not all bad though. I tried a few flight sims and found the monitor makes them a lot better, it's really neat to be able to see what's going on with the Threat Warning Display on Gunship 2000! So being a little disappointed with games that run in normal 15 KHz Amiga modes, I'd thought I'd try SimCity 2000 which really requires the 31 KHz modes. The graphics are very impressive, but they are seriously let down by slow screen updates. After playing games for a while I chanced to find NewIcons on Aminet. I've since installed this and I have to say they look really impressive on the M1438S. DOCUMENTATION There is one multi-lingual manual with instructions in English, French, German, Italian, Dutch and Norwegian. Being English I only read the English instructions which are largely taken up with safety information. The installation instructions are very straightforward, no problems here. One thing that did grab my attention was the following paragraph that was printed under the heading "Guidelines for Safe Operation". "This Product is not intended for use as a critical component in life support devices or any system in which failure could be expected to result in personal injury". You have been warned. :) LIKES I like the bright colours and sharp display. I like the stereo sound. I really like using my applications in a HiRes Flicker free environment. I also really like the way my Workbench looks using NewIcons. DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS There really should have been a horizontal size control and this omission is a major flaw in my opinion. Amiga Technologies really should have included updated monitor drivers to stop users having to patch the drivers and then use MonEd. Personally I would rather the monitor had a VGA connector so that I could use it on my portable PC. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS I've never used a real monitor on my Amiga before. I tried a VGA display once, this is better and it displays all the modes. It looks a tad better than the Microvitec 1438, it sounds a lot better. BUGS None, unless you can count no horizontal size control as a bug. It certainly bugged me. VENDOR SUPPORT I have had no reason to contact Amiga Technologies. WARRANTY This is a bit vague. For the UK the manual states that the legal responsibility for the guarantee rests with the supplier, it then points you to the guarantee card supplied with the product. I didn't get one. I'd advise any potential purchaser to clarify the warranty situation before handing over their cash. CONCLUSIONS It displays all AGA resolutions sharply with great colours. The stereo sound is a bonus when you compare it to the Microvitec M1438. I'm over the moon with mine and I wouldn't be without it, the Amiga just looks so much better in High Resolution screens. This is really a no frills solution. It does what it's supposed to do and does it generally rather well, especially considering it's about 100 GBP cheaper than better equipped multi-syncs. Amiga Technologies have definitely made a good move here, Commodore's 1940 was the same price and had a lower resolution. I rate this product 4.5 stars out of 5. It loses .5 of a star because of the lack of a horizontal size control. All we need now is some good HiRes games and perhaps a much more powerful Amiga to run them. 68060, PowerPC anyone? COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1995 Martin Leslie Baker. All rights reserved. +--------+-------------------------------------+------------------------+ | Martin | Amiga 1200 030 6MB 120MB HD CD-ROM | mlb@rekab.demon.co.uk | | Leslie | AT M1438S Supra V32bis | +44 (0)1724 873718 | | Baker | Motorola Motivated... Amiga CD32 | Scunthorpe | +--------+-------------------------------------+------------------------+ --- Accepted and posted by Daniel Barrett, comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator 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