Is it the monitor or is it me?

[ScanDisk]

I have had a Panasonic Panasync C1381i vga monitor from 1992 for a little over a couple years now.

However about 6 months ago or so, I started noticing it being "too bright" or "too dark", often times when it was "too bright" it would look a little washed out, and if I was in the DOS (not windows) I'd see a white tint, and of course I'd get rid of that by turning the brightness down a bit, but then it'd be too dark in windows, and too dark in some games like doom, and duke3d for example.

Sometimes when adjusting I think I have managed to get it to the perfect mix of brightness/contrast settings, and initially it does seem like there's good colour and like it's sharp, but then a few minutes later, it starts to look a little fuzzy, but if I come back later it looks sharp again.

Is it some effect with my eyes and other light sources in my room such as the LCD tv I use as a monitor for my modern computer, or the desk lamp I have, etc?

It just seems a little weird to me.

Of course, being this old, it is completely analog, so unfortunately there is no "default" that I could switch it back to.

 

[Stone]

It's not you... it's the monitor.

 

[andy]

The brightness should be adjusted so that black is just barely black. A DOS text, or POST screen is a good reference for that. After that, don't touch the brightness again. Often there is a detent in the middle of the brightness control that should be the correct setting, but it can drift with age. I usually adjust the sub brightness, or screen control to correct for this. After that, only use the contrast control to compensate for varying ambient light and taste. Games sometimes have a gamma adjustment to brighten up overly dark graphics.

If the black level keeps changing on its own, then something is wrong with the monitor.

 

[Stone]

Try a test pattern on for size:

 

[ScanDisk]

^ Thanks, I'll use this image to set adjust settings tomorrow.