[nadeama]

I bought a new G4 Dual Gig (wind tunnel) with the ATI Radeon 9000 Pro video card this weekend, and I'm using it with an Apple 17 inch clear CRT display (the one with an ADC connector that came out around the same time as the Cube) that I just bought used.

I notice that the black border at the bottom of the screen is always a few millimeters larger towards the left side than it is towards the right side of the screen, so in effect you see a noticeably slanted black bar at the bottom. It's not a huge thing, but rather annoying once you've noticed it.

Also, the vertical black bars on each side of the screen are disproportionately large at the 1280x1024 resolution. The horizontal bars are of a normal width, but those two vertical bars are very large, which was not the case with my old B&W 17 inch CRT.

The tech at the store where I bought it said that he probably couldn't do anything about the slanted black bar (and wouldn't even look at it) and that the large black bars are normal because of a frequency rate thing and this monitor is supposedly at its optimum resolution at 1024x768, so that's that.

I was wondering if small defects like the slanted black bar are common and unavoidable, or if I should insist that the tech try to do something about it? Also, do other people see those same very large black bars at 1280x1024? Is this really normal for this monitor?

Thanks in advance.

P.S. I'm not sure this is the right forum for this question, but I can't find a forum with an appropriate topic for display questions.

[GORDYmac]

I think you're going to get moved to 'Peripherals' but...

I have the same monitor, and the controls in the Display's Preference Pane adjusts every possible monitor position on my monitor.

You'll need to do a series of settings to correct it. Use the rotate setting so that the angle at top & bottom of the screen are identical, and then use the setting that adjusts the height of the left & right sides of the screen until both sides are identical. From there, use the one that shifts the top & bottom of the screen right/left (parallelogram?) until you get it perfectly square. If the bars are too wide, just use the controls that change the size & position of the screen.

HTH.

[Superchicken]

what he said.

[nadeama]

Originally posted by GORDYmac:
I think you're going to get moved to 'Peripherals' but...

I have the same monitor, and the controls in the Display's Preference Pane adjusts every possible monitor position on my monitor.

You'll need to do a series of settings to correct it. Use the rotate setting so that the angle at top & bottom of the screen are identical, and then use the setting that adjusts the height of the left & right sides of the screen until both sides are identical. From there, use the one that shifts the top & bottom of the screen right/left (parallelogram?) until you get it perfectly square. If the bars are too wide, just use the controls that change the size & position of the screen.

HTH.

Thanks for your reply GordyMac.

I tried correcting with the settings in the Displays preference pane, but I can't get that bottom border to be straight without the top border getting distorted. It looks like a small defect to me, but maybe I'm wrong.

As for the 1280x1024 settings, I'm surprised because only the left and right black borders are very large, the top and bottom ones are a normal width. I've seen all borders be very large at certain frequencies on my previous monitors, but it's the first time that I see only the two side borders be disproportionately large, which makes me wonder if there isn't something wrong. This is impossible to adjust so as to get all borders to be a normal width, without the image being horizontally stretched. Did you get that same behavior with the factory settings at 1280x1024 on your display?

Just out of curiosity, do you use OS X and if so what resolution do you use with your monitor? At 1056x792 I find everything too big in OS X, and at 1280x1024 everything's a little small. I sure wish there was a 1152 x 870 setting!

[GORDYmac]

I use 10.2 at the maximum resolution. I think it's 1600 x 1200 but don't quote me. I haven't tried 1280 x 1024 (5:4), because that would look skewed on a CRT, You need to use a resolution that is 4:3, like 1600 x 1200 which is the optimal ratio for CRTs. Is there a 1280 x 960 setting? The 1056 x 792 also works, but too big.

If you use a resolution that is not 4:3 then you'll have to have larger boders on one dimension (top/bottom or left/right), unless you'd prefer the distorted image.

HTH

[cube-dude]

Topic: display
Forum: Peripherals

Thread moved

[G4ME]

I have my 17 CRT same modle at 1280X1024 75hz and I notice a small bend out in the lower left corner, and in the lower right it is perfectly normal. I don't really care it still gives a great picture and looks sweet