Joined: Feb 25, 2006 Posts: 321 Location: Perth, Western Australia
Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 4:08 pm Post subject:
Three ViewSonic 22inch LCD Monitors Plus Matrox Triple Head 2 Go Digital and Track IR 4 Pro.
A computer is only as good as the screen you choose to display its information on. The best computers in the world would look second rate with a black and white CRT monitors and the performance of the user behind that screen would be affected just as much. We are after all visual creatures who thrive on strong colours and vibrant images. Images of land scapes, sunsets and rolling hills with a back drop of snow capped mountains come to mind when people think of the perfect visual image. With three monitors I have immersed my self in colour that give games like FSX enhanced visual appeal through a wider field of view by encompassing my peripheral vision in game for the first time. In FSX the immersion factor can be lifted significantly with the use of larger screen monitors as the virtual world comes alive with colour. New innovative technologies further enhance the scene by allowing me to look around the virtual world as never before. Below we will discuss the nature of these products and how they came together to make the most visual flight simulation experiences even better.
LCD Panel Type TFT Active Matrix WSXGA+ LCD
Display Area 22 inch
True Resolution 1680x1050
Contrast Ratio 700:1 (typ)
Brightness 280 cd/m2 (typ)
Viewing Angle 170° horizontal, 160° vertical (CR>10)
Response Time 5ms
Panel Surface Anti-glare
Input Signal Analog RGB Analog
Digital DVI-D
Frequency Fh: 30~82KHz; Fv: 50~85Hz
Sync H/V separated
Compatibility PC VGA up to 1680x1050 Non Interlaced
Mac Power Mac, up to 1680x1050
Connector Analog 15 pin mini D-sub x1
Digital DVI-D
Power Built-in power adpater, 3-pin plug
Audio Speakers 2.5W x 2
Power Voltage 100-240VAC; 50/60Hz (Switch)
Consumption 47W (Max.)
Controls Basic [1], [2], Power, [Down], [Up]
OSD Auto Image Adjust Contrast/Brightness Input Select Analog/Digital Color Adjust sRGB, 9300K, 6500K(default), 5400K, User Color [R, G, B] Information Resolution, H Frequency, V Frequency, Pixel Clock, Model Number, Serial Number, “www.ViewSonic.com” Manual I
1888: Friedrich Reinitzer (1858-1927) discovers the liquid crystalline nature of cholesterol extracted from carrots (that is, two melting points and generation of colors) and published his findings at a meeting of the Vienna Chemical Society on May 3, 1888 (F. Reinitzer: Beiträge zur Kenntniss des Cholesterins, Monatshefte für Chemie (Wien) 9, 421-441 (1888)).[1]
1904: Otto Lehmann publishes his work "Liquid Crystals".
1911: Charles Mauguin describes the structure and properties of liquid crystals.
1936: The Marconi Wireless Telegraph company patents the first practical application of the technology, "The Liquid Crystal Light Valve".
1962: The first major English language publication on the subject "Molecular Structure and Properties of Liquid Crystals", by Dr. George W. Gray.[2]
1962: Richard Williams of RCA found that liquid crystals had some interesting electro-optic characteristics and he realized an electro-optical effect by generating stripe-patterns in a thin layer of liquid crystal material by the application of a voltage. This effect is based on an electro-hydrodynamic instability forming what is now called “Williams domains” inside the liquid crystal.[3]
1964: In the fall of 1964 George H. Heilmeier, then working in the RCA laboratories on the effect discovered by Williams realized the switching of colors by field-induced realignment of dichroic dyes in a homeotropically oriented liquid crystal. Practical problems with this new electro-optical effect made Heilmeier to continue work on scattering effects in liquid crystals and finally the realization of the first operational liquid crystal display based on what he called the dynamic scattering mode (DSM). Application of a voltage to a DSM display switches the initially clear transparent liquid crystal layer into a milky turbid state. DSM displays could be operated in transmissive and in reflective mode but they required a considerable current to flow for their operation.[4][5][6]
Pioneering work on liquid crystals was undertaken in the late 1960s by the UK's Royal Radar Establishment at Malvern. The team at RRE supported ongoing work by George Gray and his team at the University of Hull who ultimately discovered the cyanobiphenyl liquid crystals (which had correct stability and temperature properties for application in LCDs).
1968: NCR's John L. Janning invented liquid crystal displays (LCD). NCR History. Retrieved on 2008-01-24.
1970: On December 4, 1970, the twisted nematic field effect in liquid crystals was filed for patent by Hoffmann-LaRoche in Switzerland, (Swiss patent No. 532 261) with Wolfgang Helfrich and Martin Schadt (then working for the Central Research Laboratories) listed as inventors.[4] Hoffmann-La Roche then licensed the invention to the Swiss manufacturer Brown, Boveri & Cie who produced displays for wrist watches during the 1970's and also to Japanese electronics industry which soon produced the first digital quartz wrist watches with TN-LCDs and numerous other products. James Fergason at the Westinghouse Research Laboratories in Pittsburgh while working with Sardari Arora and Alfred Saupe at Kent State University Liquid Crystal Institute filed an identical patent in the USA on April 22, 1971.[7] In 1971 the company of Fergason ILIXCO (now LXD Incorporated) produced the first LCDs based on the TN-effect, which soon superseded the poor-quality DSM types due to improvements of lower operating voltages and lower power consumption.
1972: The first active-matrix liquid crystal display panel was produced in the United States by T. Peter Brody.[8]
2008: LCD TVs are the main stream with 50% market share of the 200 million TVs forecasted to ship globally in 2008.
When choosing a monitor for normal gaming purposes it's very important to look at a few key aspects before making your choice. These aspects are as follows,
Contrast Ratio is the light intensity between true black or dark levels and true white or light levels. Higher contrast ratios usually equates to better black and dark levels which in tern improve the other all quality of image. One of the true challenges of LCD monitors is how well they display black and that's a key indication of quality when choosing to purchase one brand of monitor over another. The deeper the black the better quality the monitor and ViewSonic have done a fantastic job at producing some of the richest deep blacks on the market.
Response time is the average time it takes a pixel to change from one color to another, measured in milliseconds. Note: Response time is different for many combinations of color and contrast transitions. The response time of the ViewSonic 22" LCD monitor is exceptional for a large monitor. The larger the monitor the higher response time you will normally see. In this case the ViewSonic demonstrates a response time of 5ms and the ViewSonic brand were one of the first monitor manufacturer's to produce 5ms monitors in this size. Will the response time is a little less important in single monitor Flight Sim applications it does improve the over all experience once you start moving into multi monitor setups.
Screen Resolution is the measurement of unit pixels, usually measured by height and length in the following format: LENGTH x HEIGHT. For example: 800x600. Note: A higher screen resolution does NOT mean less anti-aliasing is needed. In this case, a high resolution with a small screen size would indicate pixels with small pixel pitches packed closer together, thus making aliasing (“jaggies”) less noticeable. Higher screen resolutions in this size monitor greatly enhance the appearance and sharpness to the image. While being somewhat of an illusion its a simple trick that requires less power from your graphics card. Allowing you to run some applications at high resolution without the need for anti-aliasing or anisotropic filtering at all while still providing fantastic image quality. The ViewSonic 22" LCD supports up to 1920 x 1080 screen resolutions. My preference however is with the more standard single monitor resolutions of 1680x1050.
Bezel (For multi monitor purposes) A term for the plastic or metal frame/cover surrounding the actual display panel. This is very important if you want to have a multi-monitor setup as the biggest downside is the width of the Bezel between monitors. At the time of purchase the ViewSonic 22" LCD's had the least amount of Bezel between the sidewalls of the monitor. The side walls of course being the most important factor for side by side monitor applications. But it is also possible to mount the monitors in a number of other configurations, so choose the monitor that best suits your purposes when thinking about Bezel width.
The Matrox Triple Head 2 Go Digital has made Multi Monitor applications far easier and less resource hungry. What once required two DVI outputs on a graphics card can now be done with just one. Opening the door of multi monitor greatness to a far wider audience. The improvements don't stop there either, previously to run something like FSX with two monitors required far more graphical power and those attempting to run FSX with two monitors would be forcing there graphics card to work very hard to render the second image. This is were the big savings can be seen by using the Matrox Triple Head 2 Go. Instead of creating and rendering a second image to produce a wider field of view. We now stretch the resolution across either 2 or three monitors as in my case. The performance reduction is less because your not asking the computer to render a second image your just enlarging the one you already have. The graphics card doesn't need to work anywhere near as hard to perform this task and Microsoft FlightSim has supported image stretching since the days of A Century of Flight also know as FlightSim 9. The Matrox Triple Head 2 Go supports more than just Flight Sims, there is a huge list of games supported that include Car simulations and first person shooters.
Windows and other software applications are also unaffected by the stretched resolution and everything about your desktop will appear normal. The software included is up to date and Matrox have a great support system if you should come across any problems. I needed there help when I upgraded to 64bit Vista recently and I received a reply within 12 hours. Not bad considering we are on opposite sides of the planet. My issue was fixed within a few emails and the problem related to windows security and not the software provided by Matrox. Even though this was a windows problem they were more than happy to help.
I have found other benefits of having three monitors to be the increased workload I can now achieve Rather than taking my hands from the keyboard to use the mouse and navigate research documents below the main document, I can now just setup those WebPages on either the left or right monitor for easy viewing and fast access. Those in the Engineering, Legal or Editorial industries can benefit greatly by the multi tasking ability the Triple Head to go can provide them in there daily jobs.
Features a dual-link digital input for high-end workstations and DVI monitors.
Brings digital monitor support to systems with an analog (VGA) output.
Flexible device supports both dual-monitor configurations at a maximum resolution of up to 3840 x 1200 (2x 1920x1200) 1 and triple-monitor configurations with a maximum resolution of up to 3840 x 1024 (3x 1280x1024)1 with digital or analog monitors.
Harness your existing graphics hardware's full capabilities for 2D, 3D and video.
Experience Surround Gaming by expanding supported 3D games across three displays; achieve a much wider in-game field of view.
Experience Surround Graphics and execute your workload faster by expanding your desktop across three displays.
Includes Matrox Monitor Bezel Management™ software feature for an enhanced gaming experience2.
Natural Point's Track IR is the industry leader in head tracking technology. What this product does is allow you to look around the simulation as if you were there. You can remove the POV hat switch from your HOTAS setup all together because with Track IR you wont need it. Have you ever been turning onto final and lost site of the runway because a part of the planes structure is in the way. Well not any more because with Track IR you simply move your head to look around the object as you would in the real world. Some of those dials can be a little hard to read in low light conditions so why not lean in and take a closer look.
At last years OZ FlightSim Expo 2007 on the Gold Coast I demonstrated the effectiveness to hundreds of interested onlookers. Using the 3 x 22" ViewSonic monitor and Matrox Triple Head 2 Go setup I looked to demonstrate the future of realistic aviation simulation hardware. As part of my demonstrations I sought out people who have been using MS FlightSim for a long time. These people were used to using the POV Hat switch on there HOTAS system to look around the virtual world. After less than 5 minutes of flight using the Track IR4 Pro I would turn off the Track IR4 and was amazed to see what happened. I even informed them in advance that I would turn the Track IR off at some stage in there flight. The results of the experiment were amazing, even though these veterans of the POV hat system had as much as 5 years experience using a POV Hat to look around the virtual world. After just 5 minutes with Track IR4 they had forgotten all about the POV Hat switch and were now turning there heads to look around the cockpit with no effect and a little frustration. Using the POV Hat switch had already become very un-natural to them and they almost forgot about it completely.
For me this clearly demonstrated that TrackIR 4 Pro was going to be a "must have" product for anyone looking to get the most realistic performance from there FlightSim experience. That was enhanced further buy having the 3 x 22" Monitors provide better peripheral vision over standard single monitor displays. These two combinations worked to create a seamless enhancement both benefiting and enhancing the enjoyment of the other. A winning combination for those looking to improve the visual entertainment factor ten fold.
The advantages of 3 x 22" Monitors are many and the enhancements provide a heightened experience as well. Below I will list a few of those enhancements in short.
Above is a great little video showcasing Track IR in action. The Video i s hosted by YouTube and features Track IR in Flight Simulation, Racing Car simulation and First Person Shooters.
Advantages of 3 x 22" Matrox + Track IR 4 Combo
Improved Peripheral Vision Enhancing Immersion
Improved Productivity
Higher Resolutions and Wide Angle Applications
Flawless Design with Well Built Components
High Speed Refresh Rates Designed for Gamers
Duel DVI and Analog support
Cost, 3 x 22" View Sonic monitors can cost less than $900 AU
Disadvantages
Cable Management
Desk Space
Stretched Resolutions Do Not Work Well In 2D Cockpits
TrackIR Does Not Work Well Under Red Bull Air Race Conditions And May Lead To Special Disorientation.
Time Spent In Simulation May Lead To Spousal Conflicts
The Ability To Look Around The Cockpit May Result in Airsickness
Cost, The Matrox Triple Head 2 Go Digital is a little expensive at over $500 AU
Round Up
For some people having three LCD monitors might seem excessive but with the higher Australian Dollar value we can now get high quality LCD Monitors for less than $300. In my mind and probably in the mind of anyone interested in performance Flight Simulation this would be the Ideal setup available on the market currently. The response from demonstrations at the last OZ FlightSim Expo showed that you could teach old dogs new tricks and that the new tricks were easy to learn and would change the way people simulate aviation in the future.
All times are GMT + 10 Hours Goto page Previous1, 2
Page 2 of 2
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Forum FAQ
Search
Usergroups
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
