Article-I.D.: dciem.1775
Posted: Tue Jan 21 10:01:38 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 21-Jan-86 10:21:26 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 39

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 > This conjures up images of Amiga owners everywhere standing back 3 feet
 > from their flickering terminals, using long sticks to operate the keyboard
 > and a 3-foot extension on the mouse, just so that they don't have to put
 > up with that awful flicker! Why didn't you just buy a 70Hz paperwhite
 > monochrome terminal?..... 

       ... so I take out my ruler and make some measurements...
For myself, the optimal viewing distance for a terminal (even at 132 columns)
is between 2 and 2-1/2 feet. Moving back an extra foot in no way necessitates
the use of 'long sticks', and the mouse already has a sufficiently long cord.
(okay, I know, tongue in cheek 8-)) If I had wanted a paperwhite monitor, I
would have bought that, but not 70Hz - that will not work with the Amiga,
or as a TV.

 > The only thing I don't like about the AMIGA (apart from its
 > price) is the fact that it doesn't manage to produce 640x400
 > graphics. I have seen several demos in high-resolution mode,
 > and the flicker is really unbearable for any real work.

What you probably saw was a demo shown under high ambient light conditions.
This means that the monitor brightness was cranked up to full. The persistence
of the phosphors effectively decreases when this is done. I use the (Sony)
PVM1271Q at about 1/2 the maximum brightness in a room with low ambient light.
(I have a desk lamp to provide more light where it is needed). As I stated
previously, hi-res graphics look very good. In fact, I have found that most
people are quite impressed by the lo-res graphics, and find the flicker in
hi-res far from 'unbearable'. I have not been able to test this, but I
firmly believe that hi-res animation, with a full screen, will show no flicker
at all. Why should it? (any more that a normal TV does anyway)

I bought an Amiga partly because of NTSC compatibility. Frame grabbers
and gen-lock are a natural extension to the machine because of the
compatability, something which will make similar additions much more
complex (and expensive) for other (unmentionable) machines.

						-sjk.