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CTX VL950ST
STANDFIRST
A 19-inch monitor for less than £400, sounds
interesting, and that’s not all, the VL-950ST from CTX has a couple of other
surprises in store
COPY
Judging by the cheapo sticker on the screen
surround, the built-in USB hub on the CTX-950ST 19-inch monitor could be a late
addition. Nevertheless it reflects a growing confidence in the universal serial
bus standard, and the speed at which the market is developing. The five USB
connectors (1 PC to monitor link and 4-downstream ports) on the back panel is
one of the few distinguishing features, not that the design is in any way bland
or uninteresting. Far from it, the styling is slick and unfussy, and the
specification looks ideal for applications like desktop video.
The tube is billed as a short-length
high-contrast FST and the screen is indeed flat with squared corners. It’s also
very dark with low reflectivity it could almost pass for a Trinitron when it is
switched off. Heading up the features list is a full range of PC and Mac display
modes, up to a maximum of 1600 x 1200 (75Hz). Dot pitch is 0.26 mm and it
supports all power management and plug-and-play protocols known to man. In
other words it should be able to work with just about any hardware and software
configuration.
The controls are grouped together on a gently
curving panel below the screen surround. There are three groups of small
buttons and one big on/off button. This
arrangement allows instant access to brightness and contrast adjustments,
everything else has to be set through the on-screen displays. These are divided
into three menus. The Picture menu covers position, size geometry and moiré
cancellation. The Colour menu is initially set to four pre-set values but the
red, green and blue levels can be changed to suit individual preferences or
lighting conditions. The factory pre-sets can be recalled from the third Status
menu. This also has options for setting the length of time the OSD remains on
screen, OSD position, language and current display settings.
Two other buttons on the front fire up the
degauss coil and exit the OSD (this button is also labelled BNC/D15 but since
the only video connection option is a captive cable with a 15-pin D-sub
connector, it’s largely academic.
The USB connection also allows the monitor to
be controlled from the PC desktop via an applet in Windows 95/98 Control Panel.
This effectively overrides the front panel controls. The USB monitor control
program is supplied on a floppy disc; a USB to PC cable is included in the box,
along with a simple to follow guide to setting up USB support on a Windows PC.
PERFORMANCE
There’s a narrow black border along the top
and bottom edges of picture so the display never quite manages to fill the
screen area. Adjusting and fine-tuning the size and position of the image
turned out to be a bit of a palaver. A single zoom control would have made
adjustment easier but once set – following a 30-minute warm up – the image
never wavered. Focus and convergence checks revealed nothing untoward and the
picture looked good at all settings up to our preferred settings of 1024 x 768
and 1280 x 1024. A tiny amount of smearing was evident at sharp black white
transitions; however, this only showed up on test patterns and wouldn’t be
noticeable in normal use. Power supply stability was satisfactory though the
image ‘ballooned’ ever so slightly when fed with an alternating full-screen
black/white raster. Again it was not enough to be concerned about.
SUMMARY
The VL-950ST has no significant flaws and
whilst on screen performance isn’t going to set any new records, it’s well up
to the standard required for DTV and most graphics applications. The USB hub is
a bonus that doesn’t seem to have impinged unduly on the price and whilst you
may not have much use for it right now, you almost certainly will be needing it
in next year or two. Good value, well worth considering.
How Much?
£380 *
Tube size
19-inch
Visible display area
365 x 270 mm
Dot Pitch
0.26 mm
Max Resolution
1600 x 1200 pixels
Max refresh rate
160Hz
Dimensions
460 x 454 x 426 mm
Weight
25 kg
CTX Monitors, telephone (01923) 810800,
www.ctxeurope.com
CV RATINGS
Features ****
Performance ****
Ease of use ****
Value for money ****
Overall Rating 93%
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ã R. Maybury 1999 3007
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