From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Apr 28 23:27:42 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AD43816A4CE for ; Thu, 28 Apr 2005 23:27:42 +0000 (GMT) Received: from zircon.seattle.wa.us (dsl231-043-165.sea1.dsl.speakeasy.net [216.231.43.165]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 831DF43D45 for ; Thu, 28 Apr 2005 23:27:30 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from joe@zircon.seattle.wa.us) Received: (qmail 37264 invoked from network); 28 Apr 2005 23:28:22 -0000 Received: from localhost (HELO localhost.zircon.seattle.wa.us) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 28 Apr 2005 23:28:22 -0000 From: Joe Kelsey To: /dev/null In-Reply-To: <60716.216.177.243.35.1114726636.localmail@webmail.dnswatch.com> References: <57436.216.177.243.42.1114582155.localmail@webmail.dnswatch.com> <1072.172.16.0.199.1114624239.squirrel@172.16.0.1> <200504280257.j3S2vXEO007344@dungeon.home> <200504280606.45379.lofi@freebsd.org> <1587.66.166.104.222.1114717166.squirrel@66.166.104.222> <60716.216.177.243.35.1114726636.localmail@webmail.dnswatch.com> Content-Type: text/plain Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 16:28:19 -0700 Message-Id: <1114730899.712.60.camel@zircon.zircon.seattle.wa.us> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.2.2 FreeBSD GNOME Team Port Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: Ryan Sommers cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: boot banner project X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 23:27:42 -0000 On Thu, 2005-04-28 at 15:17 -0700, /dev/null wrote: > > Michael Nottebrock said: > >> With CRTs on the retreat though, less and less people care about refresh > >> rates ... you'll probably join that camp at some point as well. :-) > >> > > > > I wouldn't count them out just yet! I still have a 7 year old 19" Sony > > Trinitron that is kicking butt, despite the fact that it has about 10 > > battle scars from rolling around in a truck bed (don't ask). I haven't > > switched it with an LCD just because it still has better clarity and color > > quality than any LCD I've seen. > > > > Yes! I couldn't agree more. I've been *enjoying* a 20" NEC Multisync XL > (is trinitron too) that inspite of being a 60Hz fixed freq. is *still* > clearer and provides more brilliant color than any LCD I've seen. The only reason you *think* your CRT looks better than the LCD is due to the misaligned LCD's on display at most stores. In order to really appreciate the clarity and sharpness of an LCD you must either plug it into a DVI interface, in which case no alignment is necessary, or spend a significant amount of time adjusting it to work correctly on an analog interface. Since most stores do not bother to hook up DVI interfaces, you must spend a significant amount of time adjusting each monitor to make sure that it matches the analog signal exactly with the dots on the screen. If the signal does not match the dots, you get an ugly, blurry image. You must also make sure that your screen resolution matches the LCD resolution *exactly*. Do not ever run an 1280x1024 LCD at 1024x768 or even at 800x600. You will hate the results. Recently, a friend and I went to the Seattle Frye's and spent almost 2 hours in front of the row of 19" LCD monitors very carefully going through each one's setup menu and finding the hidden control which adjusted the analog signal with the monitor dots. None of them called the signal the same thing (not even two different Viewsonic monitors!), but they all had a signal which essentially worked to align the input signal with the dot mask of the monitor. Once we got them all aligned, it was very tough to tell the difference between the monitors. We ended up buying the ViewSonic V910 fir $400. As soon as I got it home and plugged into my Matrox MGA 550 (which has two interfaces, one analog and one digital) it worked instantly with no adjustment other than the brightness (backlight intensity). If you buy a LCD, please make sure you have a card with digital I/O. I recommend that you stay as far away as possible from anything recent as none of those idiotic NVIDIA cards do anything reasonable. Buy an old Matrox, at least a MGA 400 with the dual monitor plugs on it. /Joe