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(POLL) What kind of monochrome monitor do you prefer?

(POLL) What kind of monochrome monitor do you prefer?

  • Total voters
    38
Apparently they started being standardized around WWII, and interestingly enough phospor P1 is green. This is an excerpt from here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphor#Standard_phosphor_types
Code: 
P1, GJ	Zn2SiO4:Mn (Willemite)	Green	528 nm	40 nm[20]	1-100ms	CRT, Lamp	Oscilloscopes and monochrome monitors
P2	ZnS:Cu(Ag)(B*)	Blue-Green	543 nm	–	Long	CRT	Oscilloscopes
P3	Zn8:BeSi5019:Mn	Yellow	602 nm	–	Medium/13ms	CRT	Amber monochrome monitors

patscc
 
I daresay that you'll not find any extant computer monitors in P1 phosphor. P39, yes, but not P1. P1 was for oscilloscopes and the like--too-long persistence.
 
barythrin said:
What was the horrible screen that the Compaq Portable III used? That seemed all red (not amber) and was ok for a while but I wouldn't want to use it for extended periods of time.
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Horrible? I like my Portable III's screen. Most of those screens have vertical lines through the screen, but I'm glad mine hasn't developed those yet.
 
I voted white because for many years I was using a monochrome white VGA monitor.I think that paper white used on old VGA monitors is the easiest for my eyes.I'm also wandering why the paper white phosphor wasn't used on B/W tv's..
 
angel_grig said:
I voted white because for many years I was using a monochrome white VGA monitor.I think that paper white used on old VGA monitors is the easiest for my eyes.I'm also wandering why the paper white phosphor wasn't used on B/W tv's..
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One's personal history can indeed play an important role with one's comfort zone. When I first saw a paper white monitor, I thought it was pretty cool. I think VGA is a little newer that what we're talking about here though. The other thing about having a bright white background is that it causes problems for people with glasses, though modern anti reflection coatings helps a lot. Nevertheless having a bright light shine in your eyes while you're reading text must have at least some deleterious effect on everybody.

The B/W TV colour is an interesting question. The earlier ones, certainly most of the ones that I ever saw in the days of B/W, used a mixture of green and blue phosphors. I don't know if there were less phosphor choices in those days, but I used to hate the blue tint of B/W TV. Anyway, perhaps it had something to do with phosphor persistence for that particular purpose.
 
animekenji said:
Am I the only one who remembers VGA grayscale monitors?
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No. angel_grig just mentioned them two posts back. :)

I think the Mac folks know them from a long time back, but as a DOS user, when I first saw one I thought it was a refreshing look. I've got several of them, but only as collectibles as they're not hooked up to anything. IIRC, my IBM model 25 has one of those though.

Edit: And Stone is talking about them too!
 
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...and I mentioned them somewhere around the start of the thread. I think I had a couple of Tatung monitors. They were useful for a time, but then when color started to be used more, it became nearly impossible to operate a GUI application with one.
 
angel_grig said:
If I remember well I think that the Amstrad PC 1640 had a paper white CGA/EGA monochrome monitor..
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I have a sewing machine style no-name "luggable" PC case (sort of a "build your own Compaq Portable") that has a 9-inch white monochrome monitor that accepts either a CGA or MDA/Hercules input. It's the only monochrome monitor I've seen which displays CGA monochrome through the RGB connection, rather than composite.
 
Kinda of a related though that crossed my mind, has anyone ever seen a MDA, or other 9-pin video out PCI video card ? I'd think in the industrial PC world there oughta be something.
patscc
 
AlecRob said:
Because i have an old green phospher HP MDA monitor that I think would look good on my desk next to my DEC amber phosphor vt420.
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Not only would it look good, but to my way of thinking, all the superior qualities of MDA we've seen discussed above would be applicable. That said, I don't find the test too bad on my cheapo Acer LCD when it's connected to my DOS box and I use NANSI to have it green on black. With, of course, a red prompt for a little accent. ;) It's not as good as the green on black display I get in my Linux terminals on the same screen and not the same warmth as a 5151.

patscc said:
Kinda of a related though that crossed my mind, has anyone ever seen a MDA, or other 9-pin video out PCI video card ? I'd think in the industrial PC world there oughta be something.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure there isn't. I've never found one, and I'd certainly like one. However, I find that the environment in which I want to have an MDA is about maxed out at the point where ISA slots are still available. For example a 166MHz pentium board is about as fast as you can use for DOS text and they mostly come with a couple of ISA slots as well as the PCI.

As for industrial, why would they care about the look? After the ISA bus started disappearing, VGA (or better) became cheap while ISA VGA cards were still available.
 
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