ADi MicroScan L712 17-inch TFT LCD Monitor Specifications
Display	17-inch diagonal viewable screen TFT (thin film transistor) Active Matrix Display area : 337.92 x 270.34mm Viewing angle : 100° (vertical) / 120° (horizontal)
Max. Video Input Bandwidth	108MHz
Luminance	250cd/m² (typ.)
Contrast	300 (typ.)
Pixel Pitch	0.264mm (H) x 0.264mm (V)
Response Time	40msec.
Signal System	Analog RGB signals DVI Analog/Digital S-Video
Plug-and-Play	VESA DDC 2B compliant
Display Colors	16M
Resolution	1280x1024 @ 60Hz (max.)
Input Signals	Horizontal : 31.5 - 64KHz Vertical : 56- 75Hz Video : 0.7 Vp-p Sync : TTL Level
Power Management	VESA DPMS
Input Connectors	15-pin D-sub (for analog RGB signals) 3P mini-DIN power connector (for DV12V, 6.5A input) Mini-DIN 4 connector (for S-Video signals) DVI connector (for DVI Analog/Digital signals)
Dimensions (W) x (H) x (D)	486.5 x 479.0 x 214.1 mm
Weight	6.0 kg
Power Consumption	45 Watts (max.)

The ADi MicroScan L712.

 

TFT LCD panels are getting increasingly popular nowadays especially when prices of such products are fast becoming affordable for the average consumer. It's amazing to see how much prices for 15-inch TFT LCD panels have dropped to between S$600 to S$800 in the recent months. Thanks to manufacturers moving into volume production of TFT LCD panels, production costs have been lowered significantly. Due to the lucrative nature of such products, the number of players producing TFT LCD panels have also increased.

Manufacturing a TFT LCD panel is not as simple as it looks since it involves rather complex processes. One thing for sure, it is not as easy to manufacture TFT LCD panels and it is certainly harder than building transistors on silicon wafers. This is the main reason why TFT LCD panels are still so expensive today, mainly due to its complexity and poor yields. Imagine building a few million transistors on a 15-inch glass panel without a single defect. That's pretty hard to achieve as a single dust particle can spell trouble for the entire manufacturing line. In semiconductor manufacturing, a single dust particle (hypothetically speaking) would probably cause a single die to fail, but since there are hundreds of dies on a single wafer, the other unaffected dies would still come out perfect. On the other hand, the chance of a large TFT LCD panel escaping a single pixel failure would be very slim indeed. That's the reason why manufacturing specfications would allow for a certain number of dead pixels in their final shipping products.

The new ADi MicroScan L712 is a 17-inch diagonal viewable screen that allows the display of up to a resolution of 1280x1024. Packed with standard features, the MicroScan L712 is currently one of the more affordable 17-inch LCD monitor around. The monitor comes with a 12V DC adapter, a wall-mount plate (with screws), an S-Video cable, an RGB cable and a user's manual.

 

The ADi MicroScan L712 has a wide display area that would make an ideal monitor for those who requires a desktop space of up to 1280x1024. Besides an increased desktop space that provides a lot more of viewing convenience to the average user, the MicroScan's large viewing angle of 120° horizontal and 100° vertical makes it more comfortable when viewing from different directions. Although the viewing angle specifications are not the best we've seen so far, it is still far better than the previous generation of LCD panels.

Equipped with the convenience of an analog RGB D-sub, S-Video and analog/digital DVI inputs, the MicroScan L712 provides a wide variety of connectivity that allows one to use it with either their current graphics display card or newer cards that come with a DVI output (e.g. Matrox G550 and most NVIDIA GeForce2 MX or GeForce3). With DVI, users are always ensured with the highest video quality possible and should be free from problems due to poor pixel tracking and inaccurate timing lock. On the other hand, the S-Video input allows one to convert it into a video display unit as it permits video sources from DVD, VCD or video cassette players. This gives the MicroScan L712 an ideal monitor with the added advantage of viewing high quality movies. Unfortunately, the MicroScan L712 would have immediately turned into a TV if it had come with an additional tuner. Besides that, the monitor gives one the flexibility to choose which of the three video source to display. This means that you can have all the three different sources connected to the monitor at the same time and you can switch between these sources via the OSD menu.

The monitor comes with two different types of mounting options. You can choose to either place the monitor on the table just like any other display unit or hang the monitor on a wall using the wall-mounting bracket. A bracket is provided for those who wants to mount the monitor on the wall. Tilting of the monitor is rather limited when it is mounted on the wall due to the way the bracket is constructed. Unlike using the monitor stand where one can freely tilt vertically from -5° to 15°, there are only a few tilting angles available when using a wall-mount bracket.

You can detach the monitor from the stand.

The gray ADi logo at the back of the stand releases the lock on the panel - this makes it extremely easy to remove the display panel.

 

ADi could have made a more friendly monitor stand and it would have helped a lot if it could swivel. The stand that came with the monitor could only tilt and not swivel. You would have to move the entire stand to turn the monitor from left to right or vice versa. On the other hand, the wall-mount bracket could have been made more appealing with better mobility. It is a hassle to unmount and remount the monitor on the bracket when there is a need to tilt the monitor. Since viewing angles can change significantly whether you are sitting or standing, a flexible wall-mount bracket would grant users a larger degree freedom.

Just like the ADi LCD panel we've reviewed previously, the panel is clamped too tightly to the frame and this produces a rippling effect on the screen whenever we try to handle the monitor. Although not a major cause for concern, we think ADi could have added better cushioning to prevent this unsightly problem.

For office users where space is a constraint, an integrated pair of stereo speakers would have made the monitor a little more attractive and it would have made an ideal all-in-one solution.

The wall-mounting bracket attached behind the TFT LCD panel.

You can attach the panel to different slots on the bracket for various tilting angles.

 

We tested the monitor's performance using test patterns generated with DisplayMate for Windows 2.0 (Multimedia Edition). We found that the performance of the ADi MicroScan L712 to be comparable with most of the other TFT LCD panels we've tested so far.

Although we only used an analog RGB input with the MicroScan L712, we found no faults with pixel tracking and timing lock. The monitor was able to sync with the analog signal and reproduced very sharp images on the screen.

Color tracking tests revealed uniformly reproduced grays of different shades and intensity. There were no color tints on the gray test patterns and this indicates uniformity in the intensity of the three primary colors (red, green and blue). On the other hand, the color patterns were rich and well saturated on the MicroScan L712.

The MicroScan L712 was exceptionally good at reproducing colored text on colored backgrounds. We did not find any irregular ridges around the text or graphics (that some TFT LCD panels exhibit) and this demonstrates the monitor's ability to render colored fonts on colored backgrounds correctly.

The video bandwidth index of the monitor was measured to be about 92.2, which is a fairly good value. Moreover, you can comfortably view text as small as 9 pixels (or 6.8 points).

Tested Display Resolutions and Maximum Refresh Rates
Resolution	Refresh Rate
640 x 480	75 Hz
800 x 600	75 Hz
1024 x 768	75 Hz
1152 x 864	not capable
1280 x 720	not capable
1280 x 960	not capable
1280 x 1024	60 Hz
1600 x 1200	not capable

You need only three buttons to set your screen preference.

From left to right : analog RGB D-sub, S-Video, analog/digital DVI and power supply connectors.

 

At an attractive price of only S$1,999, the 17-inch ADi MicroScan L712 is currently one of the better buys around. Packed with good features (wall-mounting, DVI and S-Video inputs) and fairly good performance, the MicroScan L712 would make an ideal large screen TFT LCD display for budget conscious professionals.