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Large-screen LCD monitors have arrived and they look great. We review the Diamond View DV180, the latest generation in flat-screen displays from Mitsubishi Australia. By PETER SMITH Mitsubishi Diamond View DV180 LCD Monitor A FTER USING A LAPTOP computer with a liquid crystal display (LCD) for a number of months and then moving back to a standard CRT monitor, I immediately became aware of just how easy on the eyes a good LCD can be. So naturally, I wasn’t complaining when one of the latest LCD monitors arrived on my desk for review. Not too long ago, the high cost of LCD panels prohibited their use in desktop monitors, at least for the mass market. In addition, design improvements needed to be made in areas like colour saturation, image persistence and viewing angle before they could 76  Silicon Chip compete directly with CRT displays. All that is now changing as improving manufacturing methods and technological advances push the price down and the display quality up. If you’ve been on the lookout for a new computer or monitor lately, you will probably have noticed the steady increase in the variety of LCD monitors being offered for sale. Manufacturers such as Dell, IBM and Compaq are now offering LCD monitors as options with their systems. Prices are on the way down but are still rather high by comparison – you’ll typically pay as much as 2-4 times more for an LCD monitor than for the “equivalent” conventional type. That’s outrageously expensive, I hear you say. But you do get a lot more (or should I say less?) for your money. So what are the advantages of LCDs? Well, they don’t suffer from the many alignment problems that plague CRTs, like pincushion distortion, colour misconvergence, poor focus, etc. What’s more, they don’t emit potentially harmful radiation, they consume much less power and perhaps best of all, they’re incredibly thin! Big screen If you prefer a large-screen monitor for work or play, until very recently you had no choice but to stick with the CRT variety. From a display viewpoint, the large-screen advantages are obvious but take a tape measure with you when you go to buy one – it might not fit on your desk (hey, this thing’s bigger than my bar fridge!). The good news is that LCD monitors with screen sizes of 21 inches or more are now available – and their image quality is nothing short of amazing! The Diamond View DV180 reviewed here has a generous 18.1-inch (46cm) screen size. Note that this is the actual viewable size, measured diagonally. By contrast, CRT monitors are not listed by their viewable size but rather the tube size, which is usually somewhat larger. This means that the DV180’s 18.1 inches is roughly equivalent to a conventional 19-inch monitor in viewable size. One of the first things you notice about LCD monitors is their size. In comparison to CRT monitors, they occupy only a fraction of the desk space. Of course, this also means that they weigh a lot less – a welcome change from my 21-inch CRT monitor, which is a two-person lift! Setting it up Unpacking and setting up the Mit­ subishi DV180 was a snap. It accepts analog (as opposed to digital) video input, so it simply plugs into your standard SVGA card. Driver software for Windows 95 & 98 is included on diskette, along with a utility that allows automatic adjustment of the display. Unlike some other models that have a separate power pack, the DV180 has an inbuilt power supply – the 240V cable plugs directly into the base of the stand. Having installed the driver software, we went into “Display Properties” to set the display resolution to 1280 x 1024 pixels – the monitor’s “native” resolution. As with most LCD monitors, the DV180 automatically expands lower-resolution images (800 x 600, for example) to fill the entire screen. Unfortunately, expanded images are nowhere near as clear as those displayed in native mode. Scaling images to fill the entire screen while still retaining reasonable picture quality is apparently quite difficult and there is some variation in the results between manufacturers. If necessary, auto-expansion (called “Zoom” in the DV180) can be disabled LCD panels lack the sheer bulk of conventional monitors which means that they’re far easier to fit on the desktop. They’re considerably lighter too! in the DV180’s on-screen set-up. Not all monitors allow you to disable this feature, so the DV180 scores here. The only other settings to consider are the refresh frequency and colour palette. The refresh frequency setting is not critical, as LCD monitors do not suffer from the annoying flickering that haunts CRTs at the lower (60Hz and below) rates, especially under fluorescent lighting. We set ours to 75Hz since the DV180 can handle this quite comfortably. Finally, the DV180 can display 16.7 million colours, so we selected the closest setting – True Colour. Adjustment The DV180’s auto-adjust feature makes display adjustment a simple task. The first step is to run the AUTO. EXE program to display the full-screen alignment pattern. You then push the “Auto” button on the front of the monitor and you’re done! Manual adjustment is also possible with the aid of the On-Screen Display (OSD) system and a single wheel located on the lower, righthand side of the display panel. This wheel also functions as a pushbutton, operating in a very similar manner to the scroll wheel on many mice. Pushing the wheel brings up the on-screen display (OSD) and it also enters your selection (like pressing the Enter key) within the OSD menus. Rotating the wheel moves among the various options, as well as allowing you to increase or decrease any setting you choose. I was about to complain about the lack of separate brightness and contrast controls (these can be varied from within the OSD menu, of course), when I discovered that simply rotating the wheel when the OSD menu isn’t on the screen does the job. Move the wheel in the anticlockwise direction and the contrast setting appears; move it clockwise and the brightness setting appears – brilliant! Next time, I’ll read the manual first, I promise! Subjective impressions Did we mention that the picture April 2000  77 DV180. We didn’t notice it during normal use but then we don’t run video applications. Another problem with some LCD monitors is that variations in the backlighting can cause light and dark spots across the face of the panel. We didn’t notice any evidence of this on the DV180 although we did notice some shimmering (or noise) when displaying certain fine-line dark images. This is probably an artifact of the analog-to-digital conversion process and was easily corrected by performing the auto-adjust procedure or by tweaking the “clock phase” setting in the OSD menu. Audio & USB The rear panel of the DV180 carries the audio input and output sockets plus four powered USB ports. A pair of multimedia speakers is also included in the stand, along with a 1W stereo amplifier. quality is outstanding? The high brightness and excellent contrast of the DV180 results in a really crisp, clear image that just can’t be matched on a conventional monitor. Lack of refresh-induced flicker is noticeable by its absence too, as images are rock steady. A common complaint about LCDs in the past concerned their narrow viewing angle – shift your body position slightly and the display appeared to fade. However, this is no longer a problem because current high-quality monitors have a wide viewing angle – 160° or more horizontally for most large-screen panels (the DV180 has 180°). CRTs still have the edge over LCD panels when it comes to image persistence. Fast-moving objects, such as those in video clips or animations can cause a slight smearing effect on an LCD monitor. This is due to the speed at which the crystal elements themselves can be switched (or polarised) and although this effect has been minimised, it is still apparent to a small degree on the latest panels. This effect seemed small on the LCD Monitors & Interface Standards The majority of LCD monitors on the market today accept analog video input. While this means that they connect directly to existing VGA/ SVGA graphics cards, the LCD panel is a digital device, so the incoming analog signal needs to be converted to digital. As you may be aware, the reverse process occurs at the PC side. The graphics card receives information in digital form and converts it to analog at the output stage (CRT monitors are analog devices). The downside to this double conversion (digital to analog to digital), 78  Silicon Chip apart from the cost of the redundant electronics, is some loss of signal information. This can result in lower-than-possible picture quality and side effects like pixel “jitter”. The solution, of course, is to use an all-digital system. Graphics cards based on a new standard called DVI (Digital Visual Interface) that provide both analog and digital support will be available in the near future. In the meantime, a few digital LCD monitor and graphics card bundles are available but the choice is limited and the cost is higher than otherwise. Included within the monitor stand is a pair of multimedia speakers and a 1W stereo amplifier. Input to the amplifier is via a standard 3.5mm stereo socket, situated at the rear of the stand. The volume control is located on the side of the stand and can be accessed without too much difficulty by reaching under the display panel. Two additional 3.5mm sockets are to be found at the rear of the stand; one is the headphone output and the other the microphone output. The microphone itself is hidden behind a tiny pinhole at the top of the display panel. Adding to its list of impressive features, the DV180 also includes a powered USB hub with four downstream ports – just the ticket for connecting up that ZIP drive, mouse, etc. The USB connectors are also positioned at the rear of the stand and while you need to reach around the back to hook things up, it’s not too difficult due to the super-slim LCD casing. Warranty The Diamond View DV180 is supplied with a full 3-year warranty, which includes the LCD backlight. This is a distinct advantage, as many other manufacturers cover the back­ light for the first year only. Why only one year? The backlight is actually one or more fluorescent tubes that have a limited life in comparison to the LCD panel itself. They are also quite fragile, although this concern applies more to portables than to desktop displays. It follows that to get the longest life out of your LCD monitor, you should set up power saving in Windows so Diamond D iamond View View DV180 DV180 Specifications Spec wications At At AA Glance Glance Displ ay type Thin film transistor (TFT) acti ve matrix panel Max. vi ewabl e size 46cm (18.1 i nches) diagonal Max. resolution 1280 x 1024 pixel s at up to 75Hz refresh rate Displ ay size 359mm (H) x 287.2mm (V) Pi xel pitch 0.28mm Colour depth Quasi-full colour (16.7 mil lion colours) Luminance 200 Cd/m2 (typical) Contrast ratio 200:1 (typical) Vi ewing angl e ±80° horizontal, ±45° verti cal Video We couldn’t help taking a peek inside the rear panel. The large vertical board is a switchmode power supply for the LCD panel. that it is powered down when not in use. By the way, it is probable that your LCD monitor will arrive from the manufacturer with one of more defects on the display panel. Defects occur when a cell is stuck on (creating a bright spot) or stuck off (creating a dark spot). Each pixel is composed of a group of three cells and with 1280 x 1024 pixels in all, that’s a total of over 3.9 million cells, so the chances of a defect must be high. Often, manufacturers consider not just the number of defects to be important but also their grouping and whether they are bright or dark. Generally, a maximum of about six defects is considered acceptable but policies and specifications do vary. Contact Mitsubishi Australia for a copy of their “Pixel Defect Specification” if you would like the whole picture. Horizonta yrequency 31.5 - 80.5kHz, auto scanning Verti ca yrequency 56 - 75Hz, auto scanning Synchroni sation Separate Vi deo bandwidth 135MHz Input signal Vi deo analog RGB (positi ve) Plug & Pl ay Compatible with Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows 2000 (DDC-1 and DDC-2B) User control s On-Screen Displ ay (OSD) Audio Speaker output power 1W per channel (stereo) Input impedance 50k S/N ratio 50d B Mi crophone sensiti vity -68dB Frequency response 100Hz ~ 20kHz Power Requirements Power input 90-264 VAC (47/63Hz) Power consumption 75W maximum (supports VESA DPMS power saving modes) Input Connectors Vi deo 15-pin mini D-sub Audio Stereo audio input - 3.5mm jack Headphone j ack 3.5mm Mi crophone output j ack 3.5mm U SB 1 upstream, 4 downstream ports Physical Characteristics Dimensions (H x W x D) 457mm x 469mm x 217mm Weight 9.8kg net Final say The Diamond View DV180 is a fine example of current large-screen, stateof-the-art LCD monitors but at $6229 (incl. tax) it’s not for everyone. If you see one, you’ll almost certainly want it on your desk but of course, it will need to fit your budget too! Also available is the Diamond View DV150, a 15.1-inch LCD monitor with a more affordable price tag of $2440 (shop around for the best deal). Check out Mitsubishi Electric Australia Pty Ltd’s website at www.mitsubishi-electric.com.au for more details or phone (02) 9684 7777. SC April 2000  79