Taxan Ergovision 985 TCO 99

Taxan has been enjoying some success with its range of flat-screen CRTs of late. One of the most popular higher end models is the 19in Ergovision 980, which has now been superseded by this model, the 985.

Like its cousin, the 985 sports a Mitsubishi Diamondtron Natural Flat tube with a variable 0.25-0.27mm aperture-grille pitch. This isn't as fine as the latest 19in Sony FD Trinitron tubes, such as that sported by the ADI MicroScan G910 (Labs Winner, issue 69, p110), which can manage a constant 0.24mm aperture-grille pitch across the whole screen, but there's more to monitor quality than a single number.

Looks-wise the 985 is pretty austere with square lines, and at around 475mm deep it isn't very compact, but it shares this characteristic with other current flat-screen CRTs. There's nothing fancy round the back - just a single D-SUB video input. Although there are legends for USB connectors printed on the rear, none are fitted to this model.

On the features front, the OSD system is most noteworthy. The front fascia is blank apart from a single select button, with a digital rotary knob on the underside of the bezel. Press the button to bring up the OSD and you can adjust any parameter by turning the knob. The system highlights each menu item in turn, and flips to the next page of options when you reach the bottom. The only drawback is that you must scroll back to the first of four pages to select Exit. As the name suggests, the unit adheres to the TCO 99 standard to allay any fears over emissions, ergonomics or recyclability.

After the requisite half-hour warm-up, the 985 gives a good account of itself. Connected to a Matrox Millennium G400 graphics card and switched first to our primary test resolution of 1,024 « 768 at 75Hz vertical refresh, the picture is bright but colours are less strident than on many aperture-grille displays. This could be a conscious decision by Taxan to give what many consider to be the more accurate, but less beguiling, colour reproduction of shadow-mask displays.

Static geometry performance is virtually flawless, and power regulation is adequate. The overall sharpness and resolution are on the softer side of what we've come to expect from modern tubes, and this isn't helped by a slight but noticeable degree of horizontal colour misconvergence in the review model, which couldn't be fully corrected. This is all relative though, and overall the 985 still gives fine performance. Switching up to 1,280 « 1,024 at 75Hz refresh, the display remains usable, with fine text easily legible and no loss of definition toward the corners. Increase the refresh rate to 85Hz, however, and you start to approach the bandwidth limits of the electronics, with a distinct loss of sharpness and a little ghosting starting to creep in.

The 985 is a worthy successor to the 980, but we'd hesitate to recommend it unconditionally until you've compared it to the immediate competition, primarily the ADI MicroScan G910.

Author: David Fearon