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From: wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.att
Subject: Re: AT&T 6300 Color Monitors & 30 Meg. RLL drives in 6300
Message-ID: <551@neoucom.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 20-Apr-87 00:02:43 EST
Article-I.D.: neoucom.551
Posted: Mon Apr 20 00:02:43 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 20-Apr-87 23:46:52 EST
References: <614@ttidca.UUCP> <2096@mmintl.UUCP>
Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine
Lines: 54
Summary: Taxan 640 is pretty good (mostly), I agree.


Hi netland,

	In the previous article, Jeff mentions the the Taxan 640
for AT&T color.  I'm staring down the barrel of my 640 as I right
this right now.  I have to agree that it gives much higher quality
text than the NEC multisync that I am using at work on an EGA card.

	The only thing I can really fault the Taxan 640 for is that
it seems fairly sensitive to picking up RF interference.  This
never happens in text mode, but seems peculiar to graphics modes,
especially the 640 * 400, and only with certain patterns on the
screen.  I found that placing my hand on the monitor's case cuases
the picture to regain its stability.  I called Hitton Patel, an
engineer at Taxan.  Hitton suggested that the cable that goes
between the monitor and the computer is the culprit, as the vendor
obtains the peculiar AT&T cable from a source other than Taxan
itself.  He sent me an IBM PC compatible cable (not sure what I'll
do with it yet).  He pointed out that the video cable needs to
carry the frame ground of the computer through to the barrel of the
DIN connector on the montior.  Sure enough, my AT&T cable does not
carry the shield through.  I haven't had the opportunity to make a
new cable to see if it helps.

	With that caviat, I can very much recommend the Taxan 640.

	By the way, STB makes an EGA card that supposedly is
compatible with the Taxan.  I'm not sure what magic it works, as
the 640's sweep frequency is not the standard EGA rate.  I have the
card sitting on a shelf at home, and haven't been able to try it
yet, as I don't have ROM BIOS 1.43 that is necessary to get the
computer to recognize EGA cards.

	I also agree with Jeff that the AT&T color text is much
superior to EGA.  If you don't give a hoot about graphics and only
want colorful text, stick with AT&T.  You might even give some
thought to the DEB plug-in board to enhance AT&T graphics.  I've
been [pleasantly] surprised that quite a number of graphics
programs provide support for the DEB.

	By the way, if you want the primo monitor, try the Sony
CPD-1302.  It is expensive but worth it, and will be compatible for
quite a while in the future since it has a rahter wide range on the
horizontal and vertical scan rates.  I just got done looking at six
differnt multisync monitors side-by-side.  The only major player
absent was the Thompson Ultrascan.  The Sony monitor looked
particularly nice when we attached it to the AT&T Targa-16 analog
video board.

Bill Mayhew
Division of Basic Medical Sciences
Northeastern Ohio Universities' College of Medicine
Rootstown, OH  44272  USA    phone:  216-325-2511
(wtm@neoucom.UUCP   ...!cbatt!neoucom!wtm)