[lug] Monitor tuning

Gary Hodges Gary.Hodges at noaa.gov
Mon Oct 22 08:09:16 MDT 2001


Rob Riggs wrote:

> There are some shops in Denver that act as service centers for some of
> the bigger manufacturers. I remember having to send a Sony to one of
> these for warrantee repair work. You might ask Mitsubishi who they
> recommend.
>
> If you don't mind me asking, what exactly do you perceive to be the
> problem with these two monitors?

There are two problems, possibly related, with both the monitors.  Now, I
call them problems, but I'm willing to believe they are normal.  The first
is the screen is not uniform.  With a pure blue background, there are two
noticeable darker areas.  Both monitors have them in approximately the same
locations, but the first one was much worse/noticeable.  If you change to a
pure white background, the same areas look grayish.  There may or may not be
vertical lines in these areas.  It's tough to tell.  With pure red or green
backgrounds, these areas are not noticeable.

The second issue/problem is admittedly less noticeable, but still apparent
to me.  At 1600x1400 text is not uniform across the screen.  For example, if
I open a window with a white background and black text so that the text
stretches across the entire screen, some parts look very clear and distinct
to me, while others are fuzzy.  All my colleagues I've asked to verify what
I'm seeing can easily notice the dark areas I described first, but fewer see
the text issue.  The text issue is much less noticeable at lower
resolutions.  The fuzzy text portions seem to be independent of the darker
screen areas.

I spoke with a Mitsubishi tech support supervisor late Friday afternoon.  He
claims that the altitude is more than likely responsible for the problems.
The manual doesn't list any altitude limitations in the environmental specs,
but I do seem to recall reading somewhere that large monitors can have
issues at higher elevations.

I played around with the monitor(s) in three different office and lab
spaces, as well as with two different computers and it never made any
difference.  I'd really like to find someone local who is an expert on
monitors, and that can tell me if what I have is normal, or if I should
insist they send another monitor.  I'd prefer to find someone who can come
to my location, but I may take it to Denver if that is my only choice.

Cheers,
Gary





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