I haven't heard of this company before, though it seems to have only a few stores in the US.

However, the specs are not very precise on mode support.
Does the display support also 50 Hz or 75/85 Hz?
Can it cope with custom modes used in Timless/Ambience/Luminati or Kukoo2 (also 8514/A mode is usually problematic)?

This is where most later TFTs have weaknesses.

For pre-LCD era CRT is a "must" 😉 Especially with low resolutions of DOS and early Win games.

Recently I got 15" Sony Trinitron for retro computers up to Pentium - although I had 19" Sony Trinitron back in 1998 with P-MMX 166@250MHz. And in spite of it's age (made in 1996) the display quality is still very good.

I have a Micro Center within 50 miles of my house. Their store is the Mecca for (fairly modern) computer components. It is huge and has shelves and aisles of cables, peripherals, cases, etc. It is the closest brick-and-mortar equivalent to a NewEgg, even if the prices usually are not as cheap.

Great Hierophant wrote:

I have a Micro Center within 50 miles of my house. Their store is the Mecca for (fairly modern) computer components. It is huge and has shelves and aisles of cables, peripherals, cases, etc. It is the closest brick-and-mortar equivalent to a NewEgg, even if the prices usually are not as cheap.

They used to be really competitive on some things, I remember in the early Core 2 Duo days going down to the Micro Center outside of Philadelphia and seeing prices on CPUs LESS than NewEgg. 😀

If by "retro systems" you are referring to post Y2K, then I'm sure that monitor might be great. Nice to see a non-widescreen IPS.
Most of my retro systems are pre Y2K, and as such, I agree with kixs that CRT is much preferable. In fact, I keep getting surprised at how great the image quality of CRT are.
I have two CRTs myself, and I'm hanging on to them until they die.

I use a 1280x1024 LCD on my 486 box. Works great.
I don't have space for a CRT and the flicker is really hard on my eyes.

In DOS and games you won't notice any flickering... Windows is another story though

I am very flicker sensitive.

smeezekitty wrote:

I use a 1280x1024 LCD on my 486 box. Works great.
I don't have space for a CRT and the flicker is really hard on my eyes.

It's mostly a space issue for me, as I have very little extra room for CRT monitors. I'm using these Dell monitors on my Pentium Pro system and on my dual Pentium 3 system and they work great, too. It's nice to hear you have no trouble with an LCD on your 486. I've got a 486 project in the works right now.

The nearest Micro Center around here is in Tustin (Orange County, CA) and is about an hour away; been there a few times, nothing stood out. And I already have a Viewsonic VA712 17 inch LCD.

As for CRT monitors, I agree they're great for DOS gaming but don't have the room to spare - unless someone knows a magic spell to suspend one in mid-air and out of the way 😅 (my last CRT died unceremoniously in 2010).

I also agree CRT's are unbeatable for DOS, but we reach a point where we have to face that these will eventually die, so i don't think its a bad idea do discuss decent LCD screens for DOS gaming. We've seen that even LCD monitors can be modified to support digital TTL input enabling pure CGA and EGA.

I think the HP LP2065 and the Dell Ultrasharp 2007 are good candidates for DOS gaming in a LCD. The Ultrasharp even has a composite input, although i serously doubt that it will be able to display composite CGA for instance.

carlostex wrote:

I think the HP LP2065 and the Dell Ultrasharp 2007 are good candidates for DOS gaming in a LCD.

20" 1600x1200 IPS screens are very cool for DOS if you can live with the juddering in 70 Hz VGA modes.

Well here is one place CRTs have it going for them. I saw this on the front page of reddit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXTLVQ1eiik

5u3 wrote:

20" 1600x1200 IPS screens are very cool for DOS if you can live with the juddering in 70 Hz VGA modes.

Will that only happen in IPS screens? Can you give/post some image examples? My Samsung 2032BW is a 16:10 1680x1050 monitor, really bad aspect ratio for DOS, and stretches things a bit, but image is sharp and i have never seen any kind of juddering in VGA modes.

Back in Portugal i have older Samsung 5:4 monitors, that are pretty decent for DOS, only games get affected due to using 320x200 res. Again i never seen any juddering.

Take a look at this one:

5:4 Samsung, claims 8ms response time and scans 30-81KHz Horizontal and 56-75KHz vertical. Contrast kinda sucks 600:1, which makes me think this is an early 2000's monitor. Too bad its not 4:3

carlostex wrote:

Will that only happen in IPS screens? Can you give/post some image examples? My Samsung 2032BW is a 16:10 1680x1050 monitor, rea […]
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5u3 wrote:

20" 1600x1200 IPS screens are very cool for DOS if you can live with the juddering in 70 Hz VGA modes.

Will that only happen in IPS screens? Can you give/post some image examples? My Samsung 2032BW is a 16:10 1680x1050 monitor, really bad aspect ratio for DOS, and stretches things a bit, but image is sharp and i have never seen any kind of juddering in VGA modes.

Back in Portugal i have older Samsung 5:4 monitors, that are pretty decent for DOS, only games get affected due to using 320x200 res. Again i never seen any juddering.

Take a look at this one:

5:4 Samsung, claims 8ms response time and scans 30-81KHz Horizontal and 56-75KHz vertical. Contrast kinda sucks 600:1, which makes me think this is an early 2000's monitor. Too bad its not 4:3

I think you'd find the contrast ratio to be just fine. I have Samsung SyncMaster 710v, which has very similar specs, only listed as 500:1 contrast, and the picture is pretty good. Most modern LCD monitors today have "bullshit" specs posted. 1ms response time (which normally is grey to grey rather than black to black or "off on off" like they should specify), 5.000.000:1 contrast (which uses "dynamic contrast" meaning, it adjusts brightness between very bright and very dark scenes, making it appear as though the screen has higher contrast, when in reality, it's cheap trickery that doesn't improve picture quality in any way). I actually despise the way they give specs for monitors these days. It's just like in the 90's when PC speakers had these "600W PMPO" specs when in reality they had a 8W amplifier built in. Sure "Peak measured power output" can show a momentary spike of much more than what the amplifier actually delivers, at a very specific frequency, the moment before the speakers blow, but that doesn't mean they are "600 watt speakers" like they used to advertise. Monitors, especially consumer ones, tend to use the same BS marketing to sell monitors. Most professional monitors, when set to optimal contrast and colour reproduction, tend to have a contrast ratio of around 800:1, which is MORE than sufficient for an excellent image. I've got my 710v sitting next to a Dell UltraSharp U2410 IPS monitor, and I'm surprised how well the Samsung monitor compares to the Dell, which used to be considered a reference in the "semi-pro" segment.

OK so what would be the ideal LCD monitor specs?

I'm guessing:
- 4:3 1600x1200 or even 1920x1200;
- VGA analog input (rather obvious);
- 50 - 85Hz capable;
- Minimum 16ms response time (the faster the better);
- Good screen adjustment options (borders, aspect ratio, etc);

I guess that even a 20" or 22" modern widescreen monitor would not be a bad option, as long as it has an aspect ratio setting. I don't mind having black bars at all, it is much less annoying than adjusting the screen every time i wanna play a game and everything stretched out.

I use LG M228WA. It has all the necessary inputs (DVI, VGA, SCART, Component, Composit and TV). It's wide screen 16:10 but you can select 4:3 aspect ratio. It's my main everyday retro monitor (for old PC testing, Amiga and Atari ST via SCART, Atari 800XL via TV input, Playstatio2 via Component).

kixs wrote:

I use LG M228WA. It has all the necessary inputs (DVI, VGA, SCART, Component, Composit and TV). It's wide screen 16:10 but you can select 4:3 aspect ratio. It's my main everyday retro monitor (for old PC testing, Amiga and Atari ST via SCART, Atari 800XL via TV input, Playstatio2 via Component).

Have you tried the composite input of the monitor with the composite out of a CGA card? It would probably not work but...

I have stumbled recently into this website. If what they advertise is true this could be the ultimate monitor for retro computers and the like.

What i find weird though is the monitor only has 15 pin VGA input, so there's the need of a 9pin to 15 pin adapter cable. My guess is that the cable just reroutes the pinout through the 15pin input and then the monitor inside accepts both analog and digital TTL signals and makes proper conversions there.

Specifications: […]
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Specifications:

Active screen size - 15.0 inch (33.27 cm) diagonal
Outline Dimension - 357.5(H) x 295(V) x 13.5(D) mm(Typ.)
Pixel Pitch - 0.264 mm x 0.264 mm
Pixel Format - SXGA 1280 x 1024 RGB stripe arrangement
Display Colours - 16.7M colours
Luminance, white - 250 cd/msq(Typ. Center 1 point)
Power Consumption - 13.35 Watts(Typ.)
Weight - 1400g (Typ.)
Display operating mode - Transmissive mode, normally white
Surface treatments - Hard coating (3H), Anti-glare treatment of the front polarizer
Size - 15 inches
Resolution - 1280 x 1024
Size from appearance (including pedestal) (L*W*H) - 386x376x190 (mm)
Weight kg/1PCS - 1.4
Supporting signal - 15K - 80K
Signal interface - VGA(D-SUB), (options: DVI, AV, SV, HDMI..)
Voltage input - 12V / 4A
Form of pedestal - semicircle
Size and weight of outside box - 420x420x150(mm.), 5.2 kg

CGA + EGA + VGA + SVGA + XGA Input Specifications:

CGA - 15.4kHz x 58.8Hz (Resolution - 640x198 @ 58)
CGA - 15.1kHz x 57.6Hz (Resolution - 640x215 @ 57)
CGA - 15.7kHz x 60Hz (Resolution - 640x215 @ 60)
CGA - 16.0kHz x 61Hz (Resolution - 640x215 @ 61)
CGA - 16.3kHz x 62Hz (Resolution - 640x215 @ 62)
CGA - 16.6kHz x 63.4Hz (Resolution - 640x215 @ 63.4)
CGA - 16.80kHz x 64Hz (Resolution - 640x215 @ 64)
CGA - 15.6kHz x 50.3Hz (Resolution - 640x265 @ 50)
CGA - 18.4kHz x 50Hz (Resolution - 640x350 @ 50)
EGA - 21.8kHz x 58.9Hz (Resolution - 640x350 @58)
EGA - 24.4kHz x 59.5Hz (Resolution - 645x355 @59)
EGA - 23.5kHz x 52Hz (Resolution - 720x378 @52)
EGA - 26.4kHz x 57.4Hz (Resolution - 720x400 @57)
VGA - 31.469kHz x 70.087Hz (Resolution - 640x400 @ 70)
VGA - 31.469kHz x 59.940Hz (Resolution - 640x480 @ 60)
VGA - 37.861kHz x 72.809Hz (Resolution - 640x480 @ 72)
VGA - 37.500kHz x 75.000Hz (Resolution - 640x480 @ 75)
SVGA - 35.156kHz x 56.250Hz (Resolution - 800x600 @ 56)
SVGA - 37.879kHz x 60.317Hz (Resolution - 800x600 @ 60)
SVGA - 48.077kHz x 72.188Hz (Resolution - 800x600 @ 72)
SVGA - 46.875kHz x 75.000Hz (Resolution - 800x600 @ 75)
XGA - 48.363kHz x 60.004Hz (Resolution - 1024x768 @ 60)
XGA - 56.476kHz x 70.069Hz (Resolution - 1024x768 @ 70)
XGA - 60.023kHz x 75.029Hz (Resolution - 1024x768 @ 75)
please note - may work with other frequencies

Product PDF here.

Of course this is a specialized product so the pric is also specialized: 475USD. That and adding shipping and customs costs makes this proibitive. May philscomputerlab gets crazy and tries one. At least its easier to get for aussies. 🤣

No idea... I've never used anything but VGA on PCs.