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CRT MONITORS ARE GETTING BIGGER and better, with improvements that once commanded a premium now standard and new features being added every day to enhance multimedia appeal. Monitors now sport reduced dot pitch, increased brightness, simplified features, color matching, smaller footprints and lighter weight. Special multimediaaccess attractions include built-in speakers and microphones. In the future, users can expect digital cameras and touch screens.
The CRT product mix is changing as 14-inch monitor sales slow and those of the mainstay 15-inch products begin to decline. On the upswing is the 17-inch size, the largest growth segment in the CRT-monitor market. Indeed, Lee Schugar, an industry analyst in Dataquest Inc.'s PC Technical Directions Program, says a 17inch monitor may prove to be a better price/performance choice than any other size. It's also more productive, Schugar said, and just more fun to use.
Over the past couple of years, more players have entered the market, driving prices down. Korean and Taiwanese manufacturers have jumped in with 17-inch CRTs designed to compete with the performance of their Japanese counterparts. Prices for the lowest-end products are plummeting, while those for high-end CRT monitors are following the price-decline slopes typical for computers whenever newer technology comes onstream. Analysts expect street prices to be about 10 percent under manufacturers' suggested retail prices.
Even though cathode-ray-tube technology is 100 years old, CRTmonitor quality continues to improve. The two major technologies on the market-aperture grille and Invar shadow mask-both claim recent improvements in contrast, clarity and light transmission.
A new Trinitron CRT that's 40 percent to SO percent flatter than its predecessor is being used in the 19-inch GDM-400 PS and 21-inch G5DM-500 PS series of CRT monitors from Sony Electronics Inc. (San Jose, Calif.). Because larger CRTs require it, Sony has added enhanced elliptical correction, along with active signal correction to automatically size and center images on the screen when the monitor is first activated, a setup feature for standard VESA timing. For nonstandard timing, it engages with a push of a button.
Both the 19- and 21-inch monitors offer .25 to .27 aperturegrille pitch, a vertically flat, short-neck CRT design, 90 deg deflection, D-sub and BNC inputs, AR film coating and TCO 95 compliance. The GDM-400 PS has an 18-inch viewable image...