This is going to be a longish one so I appologise up front.

I have a Sony CPD-G420 19" CRT monitor running on a GeForce4 MX 460. My machine is a home built Athlon XP 1800+ with 1.15GB RAM. I'm running WinXP Pro with ClearType turned on, Direct 9b, etc.

I bought the monitor 'cos I wanted to run it 1600x1200@85Hz for video editing. But, the text quality at that res is almost unreadable and at 1280x1024@100Hz it's fairly poor (it appears fuzzy and broken). All the reviews I found reckon it's the goods but I've been disappointed with it from the time I got it.

It's been back to Sony (they had it for 6 weeks!!!!) and they made a minor adjustment to it's convergence and they now say that it is up to spec. They say that the problem is with my video card.

This monitor cost me a lot of money and apparently they are no longer sold here in Australia.

What I would like to know is if anyone else has had the same problem. Also, is Sony right about the video card? A friend of mine is going lend me a GeforceFX 5200 to try but I don't hold out much hope. My old 17" CTX has good text quality at 1600x1200@75Hz running on a Geforce2 MX.

Or should I get rid of it and get a 17" LCD? If so, which one?

Thoughts anyone?

Thanks in advance, cheers.
John

Nvidia Cards are terrible image quality

The Best IS matrox followed by ATI

You'll see a big difference with either of those

So you think that the vid card is the problem then?

The video card is going to be your issue, due to the way they regulated the board (the RAMDAC on it I believe) to control RF interference. Matrox *used* to be the best by a longshot, but a lack of engineering initiative has killed them. ATi is definately doing it right now. The text is nice and clear on both Windows and Mac platforms (I use both) with CRTs and LCDs. I would suggest that you keep the monitor if you need 1600x1200 and try an ATi card if you can. The main reason for not going to an LCD is the great difficulty in getting one that does 1600x1200 at a decent cost. I have a 19" Samsung 191t on my main WinXP workstation, at it looks great with my Radeon 9800 Pro, but it will only go up to 1280x1024.

LCD's are great for Text though regardless of the res


a 9000 series ATI card will do fine


Keep the monitor

Thanks for the feedback clutch and sapiens74.

Should I give the GeforceFX a try or is the problem an nVidia thing across the board. I ask 'cos I can fairly easily borrow one to try it out, but it's not so easy for me to get hold of an ATi board to test.

Its an nvidia problem


Thier 2d just plain sucks


Go with ATI bro, take our words for it.

I had a similar model Sony, although it was a 21" and I went from a TI4600 to an ATI 9700 PRo and the difference was night and day

Cheers sapeins74

I'd never heard of that problem before. Thanks for the help.

I'd say it's probably the monitor. I have a Mag 19" CRT and it displays text a little fuzzy. I used to have an nVidia Ti4200, I just upgraded to a Built by ATI Radeon 9600 Pro. Changing video cards made no difference in image quality that my eyes (20/15 vision) can see... well color is a little more vivid maybe

That's not what I wanted to hear mezron
I want the monitor to be right 'cos dealing with Sony is an exercise in much frustration. Replacing the vid card is a much easier proposition.

Do you have another computer you can plug your monitor in to? A friends computer maybe?

Maybe your problem is different than mine is. The only thing I see unusual on mine is the text is a little fuzzy. Kind of like if you've been looking at a monitor for too long past bedtime... makes you want to squint. Everything else looks good though, if I'm playing a game or something like that it looks great.

The text on mine @ the higher res is almost unreadable it's so blurry. At 1280x1024 it's better but still not great.

I do have a 2nd machine but I haven't given it a try. It's a much lower spec machine with a Geforce2 MX on it. I might give it a go tonight...Good thought! Why didn't I think of that? ;(

Im definatly on board, and I am onboard with changing video cards.

Going from nvidia to ati is such a difference.

You'll slap yourself for not choosing ATi initially as yer WS vid card (as clutch said matrox was cool...but how long has it been since a useful product has been released by theM?)

I have seen many 19" Sony CRT's that are excellent. My current monitor has trinitron tubes and its 19". I run at 1600x1200@75Hz (dual monitor) and text quality is perfect.

Well folks, I've got an ATi 9600Pro vid card on it's way to me now. I'll post when I give give it a try.

Cheers to all.