Monitor differences?

Is there much of a diff between apature grill and shadow mask?? also whats the big diff between flat screen (not LCD, CRT, just with a flat front glass, not a curved one) I have a trinitron which is an apature grill, the fluctuation of the sides really gets on my nerves at times.(read somewhere that this is because the verticle parts of the grill vibrate, this true?) I have used both but either the monitor or the gfx card on the one with a shadow mask (not flat screen like me trinitron) will only support 1024x768 and its a 17"er. I would probly run it at a slightly higher setting, i run my 19 inch trinitron at 1280x1024 (i think thats the setitng) so i cant tell if shadow masks peroform well at hi res. Im just curious here.

I have had both types. Apeture grill and shadow mask.

I find that the picture is a bit sharper and the colours brighter on the apeture grill. I have a 21 inch trinitron tube which is near flat, and a 20 inch trinitron tube which is curved. Flat looks less distorted. The two support lines which are visible on the screen I hardly notice anymore. I dont seem to get any of the problem with the edges that you mentioned.

I'll stick with the apeture grill until the LCD's come down in price a bit.

ya the lines dont bother me much, do you think the fluttering on the edges might just be a problem? Ill call best buy in a few days, maybee my moms 3 year warranty will pay off *ghasp!*

As a rule, apeture grill monitors offer better color quality and depth, while a good shadow mask will have better text and fine detail quality. (Trinitron and Diamondtron are brand names for apeture grill tubes.)

That's the rule, but the performance of any monitor depends more on the quality of the tube than its type.

I like the True Flat screens because, on 19" and larger monitors, the distortion from the curve of a conventional tube really becomes annoying. If you're in an office the flat screens offer much less glare.

I haven't heard about your problem on apeture grill monitors, and I hate to troubleshoot visual problems via text, but have you used the Degauss button on your monitor in the last six months or so? CRT monitors develop magnetic fields that can cause weird stuff to happen. (Warning: Only use the Degauss feature when you know you need it. This is like giving your monitor shock therapy and, if used too much, can send your monitor to an early grave.)

1024x768 is the resolution most people use for a 17" monitor. But you should be able to crank it up to at least 1280x1024 if you want. Check your display properties to make sure Windows is recognizing your monitor and video card, and not just using the default Window VGA driver.


-BHD

well the vid controller for this POS HP comp is onboard with the intel mobo, grr, i dont doubt that it cant support more than 1024x768. Also, my monitor degausses automatically on power on, so i dont manyally degauss it verry often. I have fiddled with every setting on the monitor. Could a microphone cause these problems? On thursday night ill use my web cam to take some pix of the monitor, there is also red edge to some lines after its been on for a while. You will have to look verry closely to notice the vibrations because i cant take video with the camera anymore because intel wants me to pay them for their software for XP, i can still read pix tho. So you will have to look closely at the edges when i post, the other problem should be more apparent, i will also call best buy tech support thursday night.

The intergrated Intel graphics blow for gaming. But I've seen these mobos generate 16x12 resolutions for 2D applications like Office and IE.

(You need to go back to the really old 2MB PCI video cards to find chipset that won't allow high resolutions. Intergrated graphics that share 16 or 32MB of system memory are resource hogs, but they can handle 16x12 without breaking a sweat.)

I can't see how a microphone would cause a display problem. Try a manual degauss. If that doesn't help you should start shopping for a new monitor because the one you have now isn't long for this world.

Good luck, Z-


BHD

My Daughter bough a HP pavillion earlier this year despite my objections.

Intel chipset, 1 Meg shared memory MAX. Useless.
Her only option was a PCI video card as there was no AGP slot.