I just went through the 19 inch monitor selection process myself. Thought I
wanted a flat screen model, but they are still too pricey and they all use
an aperture grill tube (Trinitron) which has horizontal shadow lines. I
ended up getting a MAG XJ810 for under $500.

Many of the 19 inch models use the Hitachi semi-flat tube that is advertised
as .22 mm horizontal dot pitch. You can find an explanation of this strategy
on the Hitachi web page http://www.hitachidisplays.com/index1.htm - it is
mostly in how you measure the dot pitch. An aperture grill uses vertical
color lines (red, blue, green) to generate color images. In a shadow mask
tube, there are three dot patterns of these same colors. The dot pitch is
defined as the shortest distance between the three-dot clusters. This is
usually a diagonal distance on the order of 0.26 mm. The aperture grill
measures the distance horizontally between the three stripe sets. What
Hitachi mostly did was to make the dot pitch measure translated to the
horizontal distance that the dot clusters are apart. This translates a 0.26
mm dot pitch to a 0.22 mm horizontal distance. Same tube, different method
of measuring and marketing!

Hope this helps some. Incidentally, I found that the MAG monitor produces
rather crisp text and good color. This is in contrast to the many reviews
that I read. I did get to look at the Viewsonic and Hitachi monitors first,
and did not find them to be better. I especially like the convenient
controls on the MAG. If only there was a perfectly flat shadow mask tube!

Peter Shkabara
[log in to unmask]
http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Lab/8342

-----Original Message-----
We deal almost exclusively with ViewSonic monitors, but I was checking
pricing recently
and the ADI MicroScan 6P 19" is almost 200$ less than the ViewSonic PS790
19". It has
higher refresh rates too, and they mention in the specs 0.22 dot pitch (h)
and 0.26 dot
picth (d)

First time I hear there's a horizontal dot pitch and a diagonal one. I guess
that's what
those letters stand for.

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