Amiga and BENQ BL912 / BL702A Monitors

[Nostromo]

I am pondering buy a new monitor to use with an Amiga @ 15khz mode - a Benq BL912 or BL702A which from what I understand, both are compatible with the Amiga using a cheap RGB to VGA adapter. I have a few questions maybe someone can clear a few things for me. Thanks!

- Do these monitors let you force the picture to display 4:3 with borders, rather than a 5:4 (which would be slightly stretched)
- How good is the picture quality/scrolling for normal games? (I am not interested in funky Workbench screenmodes)
- Which of these two is better for Amiga use (other than the obvious fact that one of them is larger)
- Do these monitors support 50hz using DVI @30khz to get perfect scrolling with an Indivision MK2?

Thanks =)

[Tyball]

Good question. I would like to hear more about this too. I currently have a cheap lcd TV, but those square models are all quite old and have mostly bad picture quality.

[Nostromo]

The 2 monitors I mentioned are pretty recent though

[Zapotek]

I just ordered the BL912 the other day on a whim. Ordered an adapter as well. We'll see how it performs.

I'm currently using an old Dell monitor that I "nicked" from work (had been laying in a closet for three years..). Using it with my indivision mk2.

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by Nostromo

- Do these monitors let you force the picture to display 4:3 with borders, rather than a 5:4 (which would be slightly stretched)
- How good is the picture quality/scrolling for normal games? (I am not interested in funky Workbench screenmodes)

Excellent questions - I wonder how they compare to a real CRT?

Aspect ratio is pretty important for me, I just can't stand stretched out images!

[Tyball]

I guess it's a tft display. Ips would be nice. But tft can be decent. Important to me are viewing angles and deep blacks. And minimal backlight bleeding.

[Vot]

Originally Posted by Tyball

I guess it's a tft display. Ips would be nice. But tft can be decent. Important to me are viewing angles and deep blacks. And minimal backlight bleeding.

Lol in and old tn your unlikely to get any of that.

[eXeler0]

I've had the BL702A for a while. All you get is a single VGA input, no DVI or fancy HDMI...
For the money, it's a nice solution. But if you wanna be a bit picky, it's a little annoying how the image stretches differently in different screen modes so if you adjust the monitor to nicely fill your screen in WB, once you start a game the monitor switches to 15kHz and the screen scaling changes.
The monitor only remembers one setting though, so AFAIK there's no way to get a filled screen in every screen mode without manual adjustments every time...

Edit:
Also, what's wrong with 5:4. That IS Amigas (PAL) native aspect ratio.. not 4:3.. ;-)

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by eXeler0

Edit:
Also, what's wrong with 5:4. That IS Amigas (PAL) native aspect ratio.. not 4:3.. ;-)

I think OP mixed them around. At least I did when I read his post!

[Nostromo]

I don't remember having a 5:4 monitor when I had an Amiga back in the day :P

[Nostromo]

Originally Posted by eXeler0

For the money, it's a nice solution. But if you wanna be a bit picky, it's a little annoying how the image stretches differently in different screen modes so if you adjust the monitor to nicely fill your screen in WB, once you start a game )

Well as long as the image stretches whilst keeping a correct aspect ratio I am fine - I don't mind if it doesn't fill the complete display.

[jack-3d]

I own BL702A.

- Do these monitors let you force the picture to display 4:3 with borders, rather than a 5:4 (which would be slightly stretched)
=> they stretch picture automatically (as most of LCDs these days), but I have no problem with it. Honestly if I someone would not tell me its 5:4 I did not notice it

- How good is the picture quality/scrolling for normal games? (I am not interested in funky Workbench screenmodes)
=> perfect for scrolling, nice colors, ... just lovely picture

- Which of these two is better for Amiga use (other than the obvious fact that one of them is larger)
=> you wont make mistake buying any of these, depends if you like smaller and lighter or bigger

- Do these monitors support 50hz using DVI @30khz to get perfect scrolling with an Indivision MK2?
=> both monitors of course support frequency over 30 kHz, so Indivision is 100% compatible with DVI (question is why to use Indivision when RGB is perfectly shown? ;o)

Personally I am thinking to buy one more BL702A and also BL912 to replace all my RGB monitors.

[Nostromo]

Fantastic reply =) thanks jack-3d

Just to be sure, is it possible to select "aspect" ratio so original 4:3 is retained ?

Also, did you have to play around with settings for optimum display? Like phase settings?

[Predseda]

Recently I discovered a problem with my current LCD, which I didnt mentioned before: slow resolution switching. When it switches from 320x256 to 640x512, there is about 3 seconds lag when screen is black. In some games, especially latest 21st Century ones, it typically causes you to loose a life during the start of multiball session.

Please, perform a test with Slamtilt on BenQ. Run a table, switch it to Hires mode and then to Lores mode again (use keys Help and Del). How quick the change is?

[Retro-Nerd]

- Do these monitors let you force the picture to display 4:3 with borders, rather than a 5:4 (which would be slightly stretched)
=> they stretch picture automatically (as most of LCDs these days), but I have no problem with it. Honestly if I someone would not tell me its 5:4 I did not notice it

A PAL Amiga outputs a 5:4 image. So, everthing's fine here.

[Nostromo]

Everybody keeps saying a Pal Amiga outputs 5:4. How does this work exactly? 1084s monitors were 4:3..

[eXeler0]

Originally Posted by Nostromo

Everybody keeps saying a Pal Amiga outputs 5:4. How does this work exactly? 1084s monitors were 4:3..

There were actually quite a few versions of the 1084 sold worldwide. The one Im familiar with (since I'm in Sweden / PAL territory) is the one that can display 640x512 interlaced (640x256 non laced)
(640×512 = 5:4 aspect ratio)
Those in NTSC land were actually 640x400 and that isn't 4:3 either. (640×480 is 4:3).
Also.. CRTs don't have fixed pixels in the sense an LCD has. They have a vertical mask and then you have a beam that draws the picture by sweeping horizontally over the screen (horizontal sweep frequency, remember? ).

[ReadOnlyCat]

Originally Posted by Nostromo

Everybody keeps saying a Pal Amiga outputs 5:4. How does this work exactly? 1084s monitors were 4:3..

You are correct. PAL Amigas have indeed a 4:3 image ratio.
It is only the resolution ratio which is 5:4 (320/256 = 5/4).

A monitor/TV's ratio has nothing to do with resolution and everything to do with physical dimensions.

[Nostromo]

So in the end, a 5:4 ratio screen will still look slightly stretched? Would a circle look like an ellipse on 5:4?

[ReadOnlyCat]

Originally Posted by Nostromo

So in the end, a 5:4 ratio screen will still look slightly stretched? Would a circle look like an ellipse on 5:4?

The difference should be perceptible on circles but probably not by much
In practice, these two ratios are close enough that this should be perfectly acceptable