upFront.eZine News Archives

Readers Respond: Can a monitor be too big?

Issue #787

 

 

I wasn't all that excited after using for two weeks a 30" monitor Lenonvo loaned me. (See upFront.eZine #786.) But my readers love their 30"ers:

"I've used a 30" monitor since 2003. With the breath of work that I do, I need the bigger monitor. It is so important for CAD work that I can't go back to anything smaller. It has to do with allowing me to see more of the model. (It's a Dell, and it cost about $1750 when I bought it.)

"All the other stuff you said is the same with mine, both pros and cons. But, I use a 24" for emails and writing on a box that's connected to the internet. It's big like that [24"] so the text can be bigger for my old-man eyesight. My CAD station is disconnected from anything but the thumb drive that transfers data."
       - Chris

 

"I have been using Dell's 30" Ultrsharp U3011 (2560x1600) and Ultrasharp U2312HM 23" (1920x1080) side-by-side for about 18 months now. I got the 30" for about $1,100 and the 23" for $210 by tracking Dell sales daily for a couple weeks.

"The motivation for changing from a single Dell 24" monitor was to improve the ergonomics of my workspace; I sustained neck/shoulder injuries in an MVA [motor vehicle accident] about four years ago. (I do a lot of 2D structural CAD, some 3D CAD, and a fair amount of 2D and 3D FEA/ modeling.) Because I could adopt a more distant and relaxed position, I found that the strain on my upper body was reduced. My efficiency/workflow in analysis, design, and drafting greatly improved also. Now I rarely need to plot hardcopy 2D drawings for review/proofing, because the 30" image is so large."
      - Alex Apostoli, P.Eng.
        AAE Structural Ltd.

 

"On 30" monitors, you mentioned you divided the cables into easy to get to/hard to get to categories. I don't agree: I want some cables to not be in my way, or spouting out the side of my monitor like a wayward broccoli plant. Which ones? The video cables that, once connected, just stay there. Also, I leave the USB for mouse and keyboard plugged in all the time, daisy chaining three USB hubs in three monitors with A-B USB cables (the square ports you didn't know the name of).

"Another thought on daisy-chaining the USB ports from three monitors together: two of the three lose the use of their USB ports, because they are adjacent to other monitors, so it is a good thing some ports are on the bottom where they are not lost! This gives me side-mount USB connectors for plugging in temporary USB devices/sd cards; cables that remain plugged in stay out of sight under the back of the monitor.

"Another reason for using large monitors that you didn't think of:

• I am getting older, and my eyes don't focus up close like they used to
• I have my 3 30" monitors positioned further away be a foot or so than smaller monitors/desks allow
• Guess what? that puts me just beyond the out-of-focus-without-my-glasses zone and I can work without any glasses at all.

"Much better than the keyhole-of-focus that bifocals force on me; small bifocal area means I have to move my head around to see the whole screen in focus.

"You are right, however, when you hinted that software needs to catch up with bigger monitors. I use Windows and Linux and both need to make significant advances in displaying things on high-density screens, without having them too small to read quickly.

"Having the plethora of video outputs is great for reasons you didn't mention, as well. I like being able to hook a security camera input right into the monitor for watching experiments in another lab. I appreciate having the extra video ports when hooking microprocessor development boards to the monitor: I have code up in one window, and the microprocessor video output in another window; I can see them both well.

"Another use for large monitors during programing is having several windows open at once: code, reference material, browser for online resources, output window, and several copies of XEmacs for different things. This is glorious, and makes switching between tabbed applications look like the hard way to get things done."
      - Steve Mitchell

"Here are some miscellaneous thoughts and questions prompted by your recent review of the Lenovo ThinkVision LT3053p monitor (upFront.eZine #786):

"Does the monitor include a 10-bit-capable color calibration device? If not, does Lenovo sell an optional device, or recommend suitable devices from other manufacturers? (The NEC link below shows a monitor and colorimeter).

"Did you use a 10-bit graphics card, or an 8-bit graphics card when testing the monitor? How did the Lenovo colors look in comparison to colors on a traditional monitor with 8-bit color, and a more modest Adobe RGB gamut? Less banding in color gradients? More vivid colors?

"You wrote, 'I found the 25-pound unit big and heavy to move'. As I recall, 21-inch CRTs [cathode ray tubes] were about 75 pounds. In comparison, the Lenovo is lighter than a helium balloon.

"Questions for Lenovo (and other monitor manufacturers):

• What are the pros/cons/issues of 10-bit high-gamut vs. 8-bit color modest-gamut monitors?
• What laptop brands/models can take full advantage of an external 10-bit high-gamut monitor?
• What ports/cables/graphics cards/printers/operating systems/software/color-calibration devices are required to take full advantage of the 10-bit monitor's capabilities?
• What are the issues (if any) when connecting a 10-bit monitor to an 8-bit graphics card?
• What CAD software is 10-bit-compatible?
• What CAD rendering programs support 10-bit color?
• Suppose a portrait photographer uses PhotoShop on an 8-bit modest-gamut monitor to remove skin blemishes, and the edits appear to be blended smoothly on the 8-bit monitor. Will the edits look posterized when viewed on a 10-bit monitor? (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posterization.)
• Will files produced on a 10-bit monitor look "muddy" (ie. low contrast) when viewed on an 8-bit monitor? If so, what can be done to restore a more natural look?
• What file formats are compatible with 10-bit color?
• What issues can be expected when exchanging 10-bit files with clients? when printing files? when saving to PDF? when preparing images for the Web?
• Will all monitors eventually be 10-bit, high-gamut? When?

"Some other high-performance monitors:

ASUS: http://hothardware.com/Reviews/ASUS-PQ321-Ultra-HD-4K-315inch-Monitor-Review/
LG: http://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-27EA83-D-led-monitor
Dell: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6890/dell-u3014-lcd-review
NEC: http://www.necdisplay.com/p/desktop%20-monitors/pa301w-bk-sv

"I've been tempted to buy a 10-bit high-gamut monitor, but have held off because of the cost, and possible incompatibilities in hardware, software, file format, and data viewing and sharing. If I had clear answers to my questions, I might be more willing to spend the extra cash to get a high-performance monitor."
      - Don Beaton

The editor replies: "I did not test the monitor's 10-bit color capability, because CAD's 2D and 3D vector displays do not take advantage of it."

 

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Out of the Inbox

Randall Newton leaves Jon Peddie Associates to become the new managing editor of Tenlinks CADdigest.com. Former managing editor Ralph Grabowski (that's me) is the new senior editor. http://www.caddigest.com/exclusive

3D Systems buys up TeamPlatform. https://www.teamplatform.com
      In other 3D Systems news, the company releases Cubify Sculpt ($129) for sculpting models in 3D and giving its 3D printer customers something to print. I am useless with freeform design software, but you can try it out for 14 days from http://cubify.com/sculpt

Autodesk continues its acquisition binge, like 3D Systems. Autodesk acquired Firehole Technologies for its composite materials software, and now re-releases it under the names of Simulation Composite Design and Simulation Composite Analysis for laminate design and simplified structures.
       And then today Autodesk acquired technology from UK-based Bestech Systems (Sam software for analysis of small- and medium-span bridges) and Savoy Computing Services (AutoTrack vehicle swept paths). http://www.autodesk.com

At these rates, there won't be anything left to buy up in a year or two!

 

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Notable Quotable

"Customers give you [ie, corporations] data to use for certain purposes, but they may not have allowed you to start crunching it to answer all kinds of questions."
      - Tony Lock, program director, Freeform Dynamics
        http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/19/big_data_security_considerations/

 

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Can a monitor be too big? Lenovo ThinkVision LT3053p

Issue #786

 

 

Robert Scoble used to insist that having two 30" monitors was the only way to be truly productive. I don't know whether he still feels this way, but I am pretty happy with my desktop setup: a 23" 2048x1152 screen as the main monitor and an 18" 1360x768 secondary one. I find the low resolution monitor handy for viewing email and other apps where high resolution is a disadvantage. A third 22" monitor is ready to be plugged in when the writing gets intense.

So when Lenovo asked if I wished to review their "first 30-inch workstation-grade monitor," I was intrigued. Would I love the huge size, as Mr Scoble promised? The monster arrived and I decided to use it for at least two weeks before forming an opinion, pro or con. Taking it out of the box, I assembled the base to the monitor easily, as the three-part instructions come pasted to the base.

The Bad and The Good

I figure that it's better to hear the bad news first, so that the subsequent good news soothes. Initially, I found the 25-pound unit big and heavy to move, but once on my desktop it was fine. The built-in tilt, pivot, and swivel mechanisms work smoothly -- although I have it at its shortest setting, because the monitor's center point is higher with this large screen.

The screen is super bright, so bright that it hurt my eyes. After my eyes hurt for long enough, I fumbled my way to the brightness control and reduced it to 30%. Should the super brightness not be sufficient, then this monitor comes with a three-part hood that shields the screen from extraneous light beams. See figure 1.

Figure 1: Lenovo's 30" monitor with its light hood.

 

Speaking of controls, they are as dreadful as on all other monitors: a group of five small buttons that touch each other, each labeled with an icon colored in dark gray, which we have to see against the bright white screen. With them, we are expected to change all settings. Yeh, as if. I don't understand why monitor manufacturers cannot provide a utility program that lets us change monitor settings with a mouse interface. (The enclosed CD has a user manual and drivers for Windows Vista/7/8. I found driver installation difficult, as Windows would not accept the driver until after I rebooted it.)

The bezel is not particularly narrow, so if we have two of these monitors next to each other, there will be a 2" gap between the images.

The final sad news is the price: $1,500 -- about 10x more than what we expect to pay today for a 21" hi-def monitor (1920x1080).

With most of the bad news behind me, let me start describing at the good parts.

The native resolution is 2560x1600, giving a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.6 (or 16:10 for the TV-minded folks.) Now, high resolutions, they give and they take. They let us see more at a time (think of more rows of a spreadsheet) but also they make everything smaller (think of tiny icons and even tinier text).

There are, of course, workarounds to the size problem: hold down the Ctrl-key and zoom the body of the program, such as of Web pages and documents. Set the Large Toolbar option. Use Windows to scale all UI elements by 150%. All of these solutions, however, defeat the purpose of employing an ultra-high resolution monitor. (By now you might be sensing the purpose of me having a second, lower-resolution monitor.) So, it's not great for Web browsing, email handling, or word processing; as for viewing movies, this activity benefits only from the large screen size.

After the initial set of irritations, however, I began in the second week to appreciate the high resolution for applications that benefit from it. Spreadsheets show many more rows and columns. CAD programs show more detail at a given level of zoom. Image editing displays the image larger while making the UI smaller. Desktop publishing (InDesign) makes the palettes move off the pages. (I usually have the palettes on the second monitor so they don't obscure the pages I am working on.) And Google Maps shows a whole lot more map!

Another benefit is the plethora of ports, which I have sorted into two categories.

 

Easy to access (these are easy to access, because they are located on the side of the monitor):

• Three USB 3.0 ports, of which one is always powered on for charging portable devices
• One audio 3.5mm out for headphones (from DVI-I, HDMI, and MHL sources)

Hard to access: (these are hard to access, because they are underneath the monitor, where we cannot look to see what we are inserting where. Monitor makers put the connectors underneath on the off-chance we might mount the screen on a wall, and so in this way the ports are still "accessible." Why not have them all on the side, like the three USB 3 ports?):

• One USB 3.0 port (T-shaped input)
• One USB 2.0 port (square-shaped input)
• Two USB 2.0 ports, one each for mouse and keyboard
• VGA input
• DVI input (digital video interface), dual-link needed for high resolutions
• HDMI input
• MHL input (mobile high-definition link), a form of HDMI used by portable devices
• DisplayPort (DP), one each for input and output

 

Multi-workstation Function

The monitor comes with a multi-workstation function that works like this: plug a keyboard and a mouse into the back of the monitor. Then run cables from the monitor to two workstations. Pressing a button at the front of the monitor switches the KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) between the two computers. I did not try this out, although I have a similar arrangement between my touchscreen all-in-one Windows computer and Mac mini.

A related function lets us view two inputs at the same time. Pressing the correct sequence of buttons makes the monitor display images from both computers. Now this I had to try, and it turns out there are two modes:

• PIP (picture-in-picture) displays a small "picture" in the lower right corner; the second input is 1/16th the area of the full screen (i.e., 640x400).
• PBP (picture-beside-picture) displays both inputs, side by side. The practical outcome is impractical, because both images are reduced greatly to fit side-by-side: two 1280x800 images -- the size of what we would see on a typical Android tablet -- with big black bands top and bottom. There is an option to change the ratio of the image sizes between 1:1 to 3:1 (i.e., 2010x1200 next to 640x400).

In the end, however, I did not find PIP or PBP useful. I am a full-screen kind of guy, and so if I want to see a second image, I'll just use a second monitor. I was not able to take screen grab to show you what pip/pbp looks like (after all, they are inputs from two different Windows computers), so I simulated the PBP 3:1 effect in Figure 2.

 

Figure 2: Displaying inputs from two computers, side by side on the large monitor

 

While trying to attach the second video cable underneath the monitor, I hit upon a partial solution to the access problem: tilt the monitor upwards to see the connectors and their icon labels. Later, I found a better way: rotate the monitor by 90 degrees

Tip: DisplayPort adapters have a button we have to press before they connect properly. And before they disconnect.

Why 2560x1600?

We hear of Android and Apple tablets with much higher resolutions than this monitor; as I write this, word is that Dell will this fall ship a new laptop workstation whose screen displays 3200x1800.

So why does this monitor display only 2560x1600? Because this is the highest per-monitor resolution interfaces like DisplayPort can handle. To go higher, those other devices -- tablets, laptops -- use GPUs adapted specifically to the higher resolution. Speaking of resolution, this is the first monitor I've seen in which displaying a lower resolution looks just fine.

Finally, I tested the monitor with my Mac mini. Lenovo does not have drivers for OS X, and so I wondered how the Apple product would react. It reacted by displaying resolution at 1920x1080. But, as I noted above, the image looks just fine, even if it is not a pixel-for-pixel match. The same would be true of Linux computers.

Summary

So, would I buy this monitor? No. I can't justify $1,500 when $150 monitors are sufficient to my needs.

Should you buy this monitor? I have no experience with other 30" models on the market, although I see that HP's ZR30w has somewhat lower specs at a somewhat lower price, and so $1000-plus seems to be the going price. I suppose if you need to see a lot of drawing in accurate colors, then you might be able to justify this ThinkVision to your boss.

Model ThinkVision LT3053p
Screen 30" (diagonal) AH-IPS (advanced high-performance in-plane switching)
Adobe RGB 99% color gamut; displays 1.07 billion colors (10-bit color).

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/itemdetails/60A4RAR1US/460/202AF4280F534EBA8E923DE37D954D31

[Disclosure: Lenovo provided me with the monitor and paid for the return shipping. No, I didn't get to keep it.]

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Out of the Inbox

CIMdata in their comprehensive report on the PLM industry says it grew 11.6% to $33.4 billion in 2102, but that "PLM leaders" moderated in 2012. Report is available in modules to members of http://www.cimdata.com

Graebert GmbH appoints Surya Sarda as director of marketing and business development for its new Graebert India division, which will lease licenses of ARES at Rs2500 (a mere $41) /user/year. The company plans to introduce a mobile version in early 2014.

A group of CAD and CAM engeers with 20+ years of experience formed GO2cam International in France. Their project: move CAM from where the aim is primarily tool path calculation, to something that is independent of the type of machine tool and reduces NC programming. GO2cam is an open CAM solution compatible with all major CAD software. http://www.go2cam.net

Rand Worldwide updates its collection of utilities for Civil 3D 2014. New are Import from Google Utility, and Point Station and Offset Report Utility; enhanced is AutoOffset. Standalone is $345; free to those who purchase an Autodesk subscription with IMAGINiT Technologies. http://imaginit.com/software-solutions/civil-engineering/imaginit-utilities-for-civil-3d

  BTW, overheard at a trade show: in the end, there will be just three Autodesk resellers for all of North America.

Dassault Systemes' V6R2014 release makes the IFWE Compass navigation interface consistent on all software. There is a video about it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7myZ4SiS_Hw&list=UUNGW_S871w3akMVcCd0wAbQ&feature=player_detailpage . Skip ahead to 1:40 to bypass the initial marketing-speak section about "business leaders worldwide."
   In other Dassault news, its Q2 revenues reached e522 million (roughly US$710 million).

Autodesk is creative-commons'ing all its documentation, starting with its Media & Entertainment division, in which 20,000 pages of documentation, 70 videos, and 140 downloadable 3D files can be re-purposed without lawyers worrying about copyright restrictions. As well, Autodesk hopes users will take over tasks it used to have to pay for, like "a Finnish translation of new Maya software features." The Autodesk Open Learning Initiative will extend eventually to all divisions. Modify, remix, and shared globally at http://area.autodesk.com/creativecommons

And finally, HP has new models in its Z series, such as the Z22i ($239), Z23i ($259), and Z24i ($399) IPS displays that are 25% more power efficient than the previous models. (The numbers refer to the monitor size; all are 1920 x 1080 resolution.) http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/workstations/zdisplays.html
   The desktop Z230 ($999 and up) workstation is available in two sizes, compact-expandable and small-form-factor, and supports six monitors. http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/workstations/z230.html

 

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Letters to the Editor

Re: Report from Siggraph 2013 in Anaheim
"I was reading your report on Dell and their upcoming 4K monitor. I noticed that you had 3840x2860 resolution listed, but I'm pretty sure that 4K is 3840x2160.

     "And your suggestion to the Dell representative of a $1,500 for the price-point of the big monitor cracked me up! I'll bet he was aghast, what with the Sharp PN-K321 32" 4K monitor running at $5,000, and the ASUS PQ321Q 31.5" 4K monitor at $3,500."
      - Ron Keeley, NPI project management
        PMTC

The editor replies: "I rechecked the specs to find that you are correct. It is 3840 x 2160 pixels; I write down the number incorrectly. ('4K' is not four thousand, but 4x HD, so 4 x 1920 x 1080 = 3840x2160.)

     "Thank you for helping with the pricing. I looked around briefly Monday morning, but could not find anything similar quickly enough. The following article, however, suggests even higher prices: '[The Dell 32"] is likely to fall somewhere between the $4,000 Asus PQ321 and the $7,000 Sharp PN-K321.' See http://www.digitalversus.com/lcd-monitor/ultrasharp-32-p16889/dell-presents-ultrasharp-32-ultra-hd-monitor-n30551.html ."

Mr Keekley responds: "Perhaps a $1,500 price for the big monitor isn't so far off. At https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4K_resolution, it says, 'As of June 2013, 4K-compatible televisions are under the $1000 barrier.' I see that Seiki has a 50-inch 4K TV for $1,299 -- or at Amazon for $1,092.61 with 2% back in rewards, low-price guarantee, free shipping, and enhanced delivery. Crazy."

 

 

"RTT DeltaGen had a presence in Siggraph booths all over the floor, including at nVIDIA, Christie, Canon, Vicon, SuperMicro, ARM, and at The Limelight event. But no mention?"
      - Hillary Forsythe, marketing director
        RTT USA, Inc.

The editor replies: 'I visited only with companies who contacted me ahead of time. I had no extra time to make spontaneous visits; sorry about that!"

 

"I always find it fascinating, the things they are cooking up in technical-land."
       - Ron Powell

The editor replies: "I was stunned at how little coverage tech publications like Engadget and TechCrunch gave the Siggraph. It seems to me that they think 'Verizon launches LTE version of old cell phone' is more important news than 'Thinkbox aims to model all 300 billion cells of the human body."

 

"No kidding: '...Hollywood is in trouble...'. We don't watch much of the new stuff, because it's filled with gratuitous violence, promotes the mass-murder and mass-destruction through police-state imperialist NWO [new world order] take-over schemes -- and there isn't any dialogue or story line.

      "Let Hollywood revisit the old black-white movies and see what acting is all about. They can even learn from the silent movies, which aptly expressed the story line with no words at all -- and little to no violence, I might add."
       - Chris

The editor replies: "It is hypocritical of actors to make public service videos protesting gun use in the USA, seeings how much they enjoy blowing up people in movies. Money speaks louder than actions."

 

"I wanted to thank you for taking time to visit with AMD and spend time in the booth talking about AMD's support for 4K displays and OpenCL. I look forward to your future articles."
      - John Swinimer, pr manager of professional graphics
        AMD Global Communications

"Good one, Ralph."
       - Jon Peddie
        Still chasing pixels

 

"I quite enjoyed your recent CAD Insider post on Thinkbox at SIGGRAPH, though I wanted to clarify some of the numbers mentioned:

• Krakatoa can render 40 billion points, though 28 minutes is the render time for about 7-10 billion particles, depending on the hardware.
• Meshing with Frost is closer to 1 billion particles in the 28-minute timeframe.

"While Thinkbox has received customer feedback noting its software is orders of magnitude faster than competing tools, the 37,000-value doesn't really factor in here."
      - Frances Ratliff
        RAZ Public Relations

The editor replies: "Thanks for the corrections. Ceo Chris Bond rattled off many numbers, so it was hard to keep track. But I did capture his claim of 37,000-times-faster in my notes."

 

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Notable Quotable

"You're asking how would we react to a strategy to go to a ratable model, but we haven't actually haven't declared a strategy to go to a ratable model, so it's hard to answer that question."
      - James E. Heppelmann, ceo, PTC
       http://seekingalpha.com/article/1571912-ptc-inc-pmtc-management-discusses-q3-2013-results-earnings-call-transcript

 

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