Date: Thu, 22 Aug 91 10:42:18 CDT From: Rick Russell Organization: Rice University Subject: SUMMARY: SE/30 External Video Solutions Back at the beginning of August I posted a question on the Info-Mac digest about external video solutions for the SE/30. I didn't receive very many replies, but those which I did receive were quite good. Many thanks to everyone who replied. Included below is a digested copy of the replies, with messages separated by "--" marks. Rick Russell wruss00@ricevm1.rice.edu WRUSS00@RICEVM1.bitnet -- > Date: Fri, 2 Aug 91 07:24 PST > From: "Robert T. Rubin" > Subject: Video displays for SE/30 We have SEs, SE/30s, and have both Radius 2 page displays and Megagraphics displays, the latter up to 4 years old. Other than a burned out power supply in one of the older Megagraphics monitors, we haven't had any problems with either brand. The Radius used to be more expensive than the Megagraphics, but the price gap has closed, at least from the dealers we use. The software supplied by both Radius and Megagraphics works well; we really don't pay too much attention to it, we just use it! All-in-all, we now wouldn't work on a Mac without at least a black-and-white 2 page display; they're just too con- venient to be without. I also put a do-it-yourself Mirror Technologies 2 page display on my old Mac Plus at home; other than a weaker contrast of the monitor than we get with the Radius or Megagraphics, it's a pleasure to use. Robert T. Rubin Dep't of Psychiatry Harbor-UCLA Medical Center Torrance, CA 90509 (213) 533-3775 -- > Date: Fri, 2 Aug 1991 10:45 CST > From: Dan Lunderville > Subject: Mac SE/30 external monitor... > X-Organization: University of Wisconsin - River Falls Hi Rick, We use the Apple 13" RGB monitor when we need an external monitor for an SE/30. It works quite well and has good color. We use a third party card from Micron Technology, model MG3016. This card goes for about $300 mail order or from Micron. The combination has worked well for us. Take care - Dan Lunderville Internet: Dan.D.Lunderville@uwrf.edu Academic Computing Center AppleLink: U0095 University of Wisconsin - River Falls River Falls, WI 54022 Telephone: (715) 425-3583 -- > Subject: Monitor for SE/30 > Date: Fri, 02 Aug 91 12:54:46 EDT > From: tjp@athena.mit.edu I am using the Sigma Designs L-* MultiMode monitor (yes, that is the real name) with my SE/30. It is a 19 inch B/W with six different user-selectable resolutions (36, 48, 60, 72, 90, and 120 dpi, if I remember correctly). The resolution can be adjusted while you work, except that some programs do not work properly when the resolution is changed while they are running (especially - you guessed it - Microsoft products). The 36 dpi mode is great for games - the same image as on the 9 inch B/W screen, but magnified two times. It is a really good monitor - low emission, low weight, low energy use, easy to use, good brightness and focus, good linearity, and so on. I will not claim that it is the best in each category, but it is certainly good. I paid $1330 for it (card included). I have seen it advertised for as little as $1295 by one mail-order house recently. No special software comes with the monitor - just the driver and a screen saver. Screens can be used simultaneously (I would rather turn off the small screen, but I cannot). The size of the arrow cursor can be changed, the font of the menus can be changed. I really wish I could reverse the screen, but I have not found anything which works correctly for an SE/30. Hope that this is informative - tjp -- > From: Mark Alldritt > To: wruss00@ricevm1.rice.edu > Subject: Re: SE/30 External Monitor Hi, I have a SE/30 with a Radius monochrome two-page display (19 inch) driven using Radius's monochrome driver card. This display is capable of being driven using a gray-scale card (I don't need anything more than B&W, so the extra cost could not be justified). I made my decision based primarily on a series of monitor reviews in MacUser and Mac World. The Radius was the least expensive of the acceptable monitors at that time. Important: Radius's 19inch monitor is an 82dpi display. This means that everything is about 7/8s the size it is on an apple monitor. Radius sells a 21 inch display that is 75dpi (almost 1 to 1 with an apple display). Impressions: When I first received the monitor I had a number of problems with focus in certain regions of the screen. All of these problems have gone away now that the monitor has hade time to break-in. In terms of brightness, the display is not as bright as the SE/30's display, but it does meet my needs (I have the system in a room near a large north facing window). The display does have a little jitter. This is most noticable when the monitor is cold. The bottom line is that I can't live without it now, and I can't figure out how I got along without it before. Software: Radius ships a software package with their display systems that provides a number of usefull features including a screen saver, screen capture, enlarged menu bar, auto-centering of dialog boxes, and tear-off menus (no longer available in system-7). I have discovered that this software is not required to operate the monitor if you already have these features as part of other packages. The relationship between the SE/30's monitor and the Radius monitor is controlled using Apple's Monitors control panel. This control panel allows you to define the point on the desktop at which the two monitors join, and a number of other things. -Mark -- > Date: Thu, 08 Aug 91 15:50:21 PLT > From: Jerry Tangren > Subject: External monitors for the SE/30 Rick, in regards to your 30 July request on Info-mac I have been using an Apple 13" RGB monitor on my SE/30 for about a year. For the most part it seems okay. It's driven by a Nutmeg 8 bit board which cost us about $300 direct on an educational discount from Nutmeg. My only problems so far are that I have to designate the internal 9" monitor as my primary screen to use Pagemaker 4.0, and some features of Cricket Graph cause a system bomb. So, I quit using Cricket, other packages work fine, and switch monitors to use Pagemaker. There was some kind of included software I never bothered installing. Jerry Tangren Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center Washington State University -- Date: Wed, 14 Aug 91 09:43:50 CDT From: Robert Blystone Subject: infomac Saw your infomac posting. We have had good luck running a RasterOPs board with an Apple RGB monitor on our SE30. Should you like to know more. A former student of mine is now at Rice in Biology by the name of Tod Romo. Tod really knows the MAC. from AUX-2 to OS. He could give you much information about equipment. Bob Blystone Trinity University 512 7367243 --