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Back to the Forum Archives A few months ago, the monitor for my main computer started acting flaky. The picture would gradually fade after I powered up. As is usual in these cases, I worked out a way around the problem. After eliminating the video card and computer I concentrated on the monitor. Since I have more than one computer, elimination the computer and card was simply a matter of connecting the monitor to a different computer. This was made doubly easy for me since I have a KVM switch. I'll have more to say on KVM later. For now, this switch allows me to attach two computers to one monitor and switch between them. Once I knew I had a monitor problem I discovered when I turned the monitor off and on again the picture would be restored to its proper brightness. Of course, this was kind of a pain in the butt. I had to wait a bit after I turned the monitor off, because the picture tube is more likely to fail completely by being switched too rapidly. Needless to say, the problem was really interfering with my work. I knew there was only one real solution to the problem. That was to buy a new monitor before this one failed completely. So, just to get my wife involved, I began grousing and moaning about the damn monitor and how it was really a serious problem. I made it sound even worse than it was so as to invoke her sympathy. Well, she encouraged me to bite the bullet and invest in a replacement. One thing I must confess is, in my secret heart I really wanted to replace this old monster anyway. The really skinny is, I had been penny wise and pound foolish when I bought the thing. For publishing I really had a need for a large monitor so I bought this one. Until then I had been using a 17 inch ViewSonic which I found to be outstanding, but too small for the work I was doing. My mistake was not going with another ViewSonic. Instead, I saved a couple of hundred bucks by buying a cheaper brand. In truth, I was happy to have an excuse to correct my error. So, I began looking at monitors. To get to the point, I ended up with a new flat screen LCD ViewSonic VP201b monitor. I had read all of the hype and was sure I would like it. In truth, I do like it, but that was not as immediate as I had hoped. It turns out there are some idiosyncracies about this technology which they do not point out in their hype. If you are considering a new monitor, this may be important to you. First off, this monitor has a native mode resolution of 1200 X 1600 DPI. Well, that's real good, you say. Not so fast! What they don't tell you is this thing only works well at that resolution. The picture looks grand. At any other resolution, however, the picture looks poor. It gives you a fuzzy and sometimes jagged image. The bottom line is, you are stuck at a single, very high, resolution. Item number two is, I have found this monitor must be color calibrated to work properly. That could be unique to my particular hardware configuration, but I don't think so. I think it is a function of the monitor. I discovered this problem when I notice there were very thin vertical lines missing from my picture. These were lines I knew were really there. I resolved the problem by calibrating the monitor using tools I already had. The tools are Pantone's OptiCAL Spyder and software. I would have done this anyway before dong real work. Once I had done it, I really was very happy with the monitor. It has an outstanding display and I can actually pick it up and move it or dust under it. That was something I could not do with the 100 lb. monster I had. What happened to the 100 lb. monster? I lowered it onto a two wheel hand-truck and took it outside. From there, with help, I took it up to the road where our trash pickup man could get it. Well, he never got it. The thing was gone within four hours after I put it by the street. Someone had seen value in it. As the saying goes, one man's crap is another man's bread and butter. Just for the record, the new ViewSonic cost me $932.72 including shipping and handling. That was several months ago. What about color calibration? If you are doing graphics where precise color control is important, calibration is a must. I made a serious mistake by not realizing how important it was earlier in the game. Once I understood, I bit the bullet and bought Pantone's color calibration system. This consists of some software and a device called a Spyder. It is not cheap. The system cost me about $300.00. What does it do? It creates color calibration curves for you monitor so that what you see is what you get. So, when you have a picture on your monitor that you think is perfect for color, it will still look that way when it is printed. This is, of course, dependent on the quality of your printer. In my printer it does exactly that. For more on the printer, read my essay " A New Printer" in the Forum archives on this website. Even more important is, when I send a file to my book manufacturer, I know what I get back will be what I expected. This is particularly important to me since I design my own book covers. This system is very easy to use. It is really automatic and it only takes a few minutes to run. In addition, for a computer type gadget, the instructions are remarkably clear. If you have much experience with computer stuff, you already know how unusual that is. Anyway, once the software is loaded, it is launched like any other piece of computer software, be it a word processor or a game. When the software is running it actually tells you what to do next. The main thing is to set up the Spyder so it can see your monitor screen. This is a bit different for LCD that it is for tubes, but the instructions point out the variances. Once the Spyder is set up and you okay the procedure the software does the rest. It sends known Pantone colors to the monitor and, with the Spyder, it reads what is actually displayed. It compares what it reads with its internal standard and creates a color calibration curve to adjust for the difference. One important thing about this is the control of coincident light. The Spyder depends on the monitor display being the only light it sees. If there is considerable coincident light the calibration will be incorrect. To deal with that, you must not have any light shining on the monitor. I manage that by pulling the shade and turning off all lights in the room. I do that after I have the Spyder in place and before I okay the setup. That is really all there is to it. Now what you see on your monitor will be what you actually print. Now to the KVM switch. Most people would not need this thing, but I find it very useful. I have two computers under my desk, but room for only one monitor on top. This would make one of the computers relatively useless without elaborate disconnecting and reconnecting of cables. With a KVM switch I can have both computers on and switch between them as needed. This is particularly useful when I have a long term task, like system backup or a big print job, running on one computer. I can set that up on my backup computer and work right along on my main computer. Like I said, most folks would find this a bit much. Why not go for coffee? Sometimes I do, but sometimes I have things I would rather do. I don't see it as work. Really! Okay, what does KVM mean? Literally KVM means Keyboard, Video, Mouse. The function is implicit in the name. It allows you to connect one set of IO devices (keyboard, monitor and mouse) to more than one computer and switch between them. These come in various configurations. The one I have allows the use of two computers. For me, more than two would be real overkill. For a systems manager, however, it might not be overkill. Of course, there are various prices too. The one I use cost about $100.00. That's not bad considering it eliminates the cost of three IO devices and saves one heck of a lot of desktop real estate. One important think about these devices is the cables. You really need high quality cables, because the lengths required are usually more than poor cables will work over. The other thing about cables is, you can buy them as three cables in one. This is nice if you don't like rat's nests on you desktop. It's handy too, because they are easier to trace. So there you have it, Steinman's ongoing component saga. I
hope you find some of it useful.
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