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PHILIPS BRILLIANCE 109MP
STANDFIRST
Philips strive to make things better, though
not necessarily smaller or cheaper as this formidable 19-inch multimedia
monitor proves
COPY
One thing you learn very quickly with the
Philips Brilliance 109 monitor is not to put anything on the top of it. If you
do it will almost certainly turn off because that's where the on/off switch is,
slap-bang in the middle of the top panel. It's hard to say whether Philips has
done it deliberately -- to prevent owners using the top of the monitor as a shelf
-- or maybe it is some kind of tricky design statement, either way it is a damn
nuisance. Where else are you going to put your stuff with one of these monsters
taking up all the desk space…?
Make no mistake, it is a whopper, the 109 is one
of the plumpest 19-inch monitors on the market, but that's because it has a
pair of multimedia speakers and a microphone set into the screen surround. It's
also one of the dearest, though looking through the features list it's not hard
to see why, the specification is very impressive. Maximum resolution is a
theoretical 1800 x 1350 with auto-scan horizontal frequency range between 30kHz
and 107kHz and a vertical frequency of 50Hz to 160Hz. Dot pitch is just 0.22mm
so it is well suited to a very wide range of demanding applications, including
of course desktop video.
It has so many pre-sets and adjustments that it
is unlikely you'll ever get any work done when it first takes up residence on
your desk. In addition to all of the usual picture geometry control there's compensation
for distortion caused by the Earth's magnetic field. Of more immediate interest
to those living and working away from spurious geodetic phenomena and big
magnets is the facility to connect to a PC and other peripherals using a USB
interface. However, closer inspection of the specs reveals this is an optional
extra, requiring a plug-in USB hub module costing a further £50.00.
Conventional rear-panel connections to the
109 comprise a 15-pin D-sub and a set of BNC sockets, for the benefit of Mac
users; there is also a pair of phonos for audio-in and a jack for the
microphone output. The monitor comes supplied with a removable shroud, to
protect the cables and tidy up the appearance of the backside. On the right side
of the cabinet there's two minijack sockets for an external microphone and
headphones.
And so we come to the on-screen display. You
will see from the photograph that the front panel has just a couple of buttons,
the small one is for sound mute, the other one calls up the OSD. Underneath the
screen surround there's a large thumbwheel, that steps through the options, and
boy is there a lot of them! Once you've found the adjustment you want to change
you have to press the front panel button again to select it. Because they're
spaced quite far apart this requires a certain amount of manual dexterity, or very
long fingers. Then it's back to the wheel, to make the changes. The point is
that it's quite a long-winded business, thankfully not the sort of thing you
need to do very often.
In amongst the menus there are some very
useful features, like three colour balance presets, (Cad/Cam, DTP and Photo
Retouch) each of which can be customised and stored. Incidentally, it also comes
with a copy of Colourific colour matching software on CD-ROM. There's a zoom
facility, that adjusts the overall size of the image to suit the application,
and moire cancellation. On the audio menu there are settings for volume, bass, treble
and balance.
PERFORMANCE
The flat, high-contrast screen has excellent
anti-glare properties and produces a bright crisp image, even in brightly-lit
surroundings. We use a combination of static test patterns and moving video
across a number of standard resolution settings; overall the display is excellent
and it passed all of our colour, focus, convergence and power supply stability tests
without a hitch.
Sound quality from the built-in speakers is
perfectly adequate for all normal Windows application, though serious game
players might find the bass response is a bit limited.
SUMMARY
The OSD and top-mounted switch are a bit of a
pain, and the price seems at first glance to be on the high side -- the extra
£50 for USB connectivity doesn't help -- but when you factor in flexibility, speakers
and microphone it doesn't look quite so bad. We have absolutely no problems
with the video performance of the 109; image quality is up there with the best
of them. The wide range of resolution settings and the extra display facilities
mean that is capable of handling just about anything that you're likely to
throw at it.
How Much?
£540 (inc.VAT) *, USB hub £50
Tube size
19-inch
Visible display area
365 x 255mm
Dot pitch
0.22mm
Max Resolution
1800 x 1350 pixels
Max refresh rate
auto scan to 93kHz
Dimensions
485 x 490 x 515mm
Weight
24.5kg
CV RATINGS
Features 9
Performance 9
Ease of use 7
Value for money 8
Overall Rating 88%
Philips UK, telephone (0181) 665 6350,
http://www.monitors.philips.com
* Dabs Direct
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ã R. Maybury 1998 2311
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