Path: rcfnews.cs.umass.edu!barrett From: c.j.coulson@newcastle.ac.uk (C.J.COULSON) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Subject: REVIEW: Microvitec 1438 multisync monitor Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.hardware Date: 20 Sep 1995 03:07:57 GMT Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Lines: 286 Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Distribution: world Message-ID: <43o0id$788@kernighan.cs.umass.edu> Reply-To: c.j.coulson@newcastle.ac.uk (C.J.COULSON) NNTP-Posting-Host: gleep.cs.umass.edu Keywords: hardware, monitor, multisync, commercial Originator: barrett@gleep.cs.umass.edu PRODUCT NAME Microvitec 1438 multiscan monitor BRIEF DESCRIPTION A 14 inch multiscan monitor suitable for all Amiga screen modes, from OCS through to AGA, with the exception of A2024 modes. Display only: does not include speakers. 0.28 dot pitch, 15-40KHz scan rates with 45-100Hz refresh rates. MPR-2 compliant. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Microvitec PLC Address: Bolling Road Bradford West Yorkshire BD4 7TU England Telephone: (0)1274 390011 FAX: (0)1274 734944 LIST PRICE 299.99 UK Pounds SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE A 23-15 pin converter. A simple cable was supplied with my monitor, but I found it unsatisfactory and use the "Silver Blob" converter supplied with my A4000 instead. SOFTWARE None COPY PROTECTION Have you tried photocopying a monitor recently? :-) MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 4000/030 Kickstart 3.0, Workbench 3.0 INSTALLATION Plug the power cable into the back of the A4000 (or any appropriate socket), plug the video cable into the 23-15 pin converter and plug the converter into the RGB port. Switch on and enjoy a crisp, clear image! Depending on your particular Workbench version, you'll have to play around with the monitor settings in Prefs and Devs, depending on which screen modes you're interested in. This is as simple or as complex as you make it. REVIEW NOTE: This review is based in the hardware and associated documentation supplied in July 1994. Since then there may have been changes, particularly to the documentation (I hope!) General thoughts on the monitor are favourable. It looks quite smart sitting on my desk, with a nice tilt/swivel stand built in. Unlike a lot of new monitors, the screen doesn't appear surrounded by acres of casing, although the screen frame is thicker than some monitors I've used (around 4cm wide all round). The case colour goes well with the Amiga casing. With the power off, the screen has a dull appearance. Reflections seem grainy and blurred, and the glass is subtly rough to the touch. Switching the power on results in NO static forming on the glass, which is no bad thing given the trouble it can cause. It takes approximately 4 seconds for the picture to appear if the tube is warm, slightly longer from cold. Although there is some reflection from the screen, it is minimal. Compared to some so-called low-reflectance screens, the Microvitec screen truly is low-reflectance. Looking down at the controls reveals the Microvitecs only real bad point. There are pitifully few picture controls compared to other monitors around today, and all the controls are analogue dials, no digital control here. From left to right we have: Vertical Height Horizontal Position Brightness Contrast Power On/Off What is annoying is the choice of vertical height and horizontal position. Every screenmode the AGA chipset can produce is easily tall enough to fill the vertical height of the screen with only small borders top and bottom. Therefore the Vertical Height control is permanently set to its minimum position. However, the lack of a Horizontal Width control is an oversight, as we shall now see... Horizontal Border Widths (no overscan) Mode Border Width Horizontal Frequency PAL 10mm 15.60KHz NTSC 10mm 15.72KHz Super72 25mm 23.21KHz DBLPAL 32mm 27.53KHz DBLNTSC 32mm 27.66KHz Multiscan 30mm 29.29KHz Euro72 28mm 29.32KHz As the horizontal frequency increases, we can see a corresponding increase in the border widths, and thus a decrease in the visible screen width. Given that people buy multiscan monitors in order to view high frequency modes, this border width problem is somewhat annoying. Brightness and Contrast work as expected, although the range of brightness available seems constrained relative to other monitors. What I mean is that the minimum brightness is still easily bright enough provided the contrast setting is at or above the half-way notch, and the maximum brightness setting is not going to replace your desk lamp as a source of lighting, even with contrast at full. On the other hand, the contrast control does have a large range, with minimum contrast producing a very "washed out" image, visible only with the brightness at around a third or more, and even then barely usable. Finally the power switch, which is actually a rocker switch as opposed to a push switch. This has a soft feel, with no obvious click action. Not only does it make switching on and off a smooth operation, but it also makes the likelihood of contact arcing next to zero, unlike the power switch on my old but trusty Philips 8833 ! So, we've discussed the physical look of the monitor, we've dissected its ability to display AGA screenmodes. What is it like to use day in, day out? I've been using the monitor now for over a year, and I've accepted the wide borders in >15KHz modes, although occasionally they do still cause problems when doing anything requiring a correct aspect ratio (drawing circles for instance - I have to trust that the circle drawing tools in art packages really are creating circles, because in most screenmodes they look like tall ellipses :). As far as picture quality goes, I have no complaints. The pixels are crisp and clear, even in high resolutions, and there is no visible colour spreading. The image seems to be aligned well with the vertical/horizontal and there is little pin-cushioning or trapezoidal distortion. In short, the lack of controls to alter such picture parameters is not a problem, because the built-in presets are adjusted well. Claimed dot pitch is 0.28, and compared to other monitors with the same dot pitch, I see no reason to doubt the claim. In fact, compared to most monitors I've had the misfortune to use, the Microvitec provides a superb display. Only the Viglen Envy monitor produces a better quality image. Switching between modes takes around 0.2s, sometimes accompanied by a relay clicking. The clicking is something else you get used to after a while, though if you're in the habit of repeatedly switching from one mode to another, you may find it an annoyance. DOCUMENTATION A small, 27-page manual is provided, with instructions in English, French, German, Italian, Dutch and Norwegian. In other words, the manual is effectively 4 pages long, unless you're reading the English section, where you get an extra page detailing some UK, Australia and New Zealand specific things. There is one page given to a diagram of the connecting cables, and one more detailing the pin-out of the video connector. To be honest, the manual is a pile of rubbish. The single most important item of information, the scan rates, is contained within a sentence that is easily overlooked when reading the manual. This is the sort of thing that should be clearly laid out, with big arrows pointing to it if necessary, not tucked away in the middle of an ordinary looking sentence. I wonder if many people have damaged their Microvitecs by supplying out of range scan rates simply because this information isn't instantly clear? The documentation gets a dismal 0.5 out of 5. It would have been zero except for the inclusion of the connector pin-out information. LIKES It's a reasonably priced, well built multiscan monitor that supports ALL standard Amiga screenmodes. Picture quality is excellent, as is the low reflectance/zero static screen. DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS The documentation is good only for the recycling plant, and the lack of a horizontal sizing control is annoying, and may be very off-putting for some users. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS I've used the following monitors extensively: Viglen Envy - 15 inch screen Mitac (no model info) - 14 inch screen Apple colour - 12 (?) inch Trinitron screen HP colour - 17 inch Only the Viglen Envy screen betters the Microvitec in terms of picture quality, although all better it when it comes to supplying control over the picture size/position. Of course, none of the above screens support scan rates down to 15KHz. BUGS The hardware is well put together, and in 14 months of use has not shown any signs of problems. VENDOR SUPPORT Unknown WARRANTY Unknown CONCLUSIONS I personally like the monitor. I like the picture quality and the fact I can use all the screenmodes my A4000 can generate. It definitely ISN'T a monitor for everyone though. Serious graphics users would probably prefer a dedicated monitor for high-res work, with a second medium-res monitor for system screens. Games players and people with OCS Amigas aren't likely to need the abilities of the monitor to scan above 15KHz. In short, if you want to display screenmodes that fall within the scan rates of the monitor, and if you only want one monitor on your desk, this may suit you nicely. As for a rating, I'll give it several... Picture Quality : 5 Styling : 4 Documentation : 0.5 Controls : 2 Price : 4 COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1995 Chris Coulson. This review has been hacked out of granite using only a small plastic tooth-pick found down the back of a sofa one evening in May. Given the hard work that went into it, I'll be really p****d off if someone passes it off as their own work. Please don't do it. If you want to use it for any reason, do so, but remember who wrote it. An e-mail telling me about it would be appreciated as well. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Chris Coulson | A4000/EC030/882 - 18MB/530MB Robotics Postgraduate | (Not for much longer though :-) | Pentium60 - 16MB/1.4GB/CDROM E-Mail: | c.j.coulson@ncl.ac.uk | The Best of Both Worlds ---------------------------------------------------------------------- --- 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