exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

My old trusty NEC Multisync LCD1990FXp getting older and older and starting to have minor flaws, I wanted to upgrade my gear with something new.

While browsing on miscellaneous Japanese web pages, I found a small article about a NEC Multisync EA224WMi, stating that this monitor is 15 Khz compatible (IIRC all NEC Multisyncs are 15 Khz compatible) and proving it with a nice picture of it connected to a MSX.

I immediately start to look for this monitor on diverse auctions sites (as it is a discontinued product) and found a Yahoo! Japan web store selling it for 6,980 Yen delivery included (around £44,45 or US$ 60.29), a real bargain for a second hand monitor without any cosmetic glitches.

Once connected and powered-on, I was quite surprised by its quality.

Here is the data sheet link:

https://www.sharpnecdisplays.eu/p/datas ... 4wmi.xhtml

and some pictures to judge by yourselves:


The last picture is the MED RES mode and it is definitely better than on my previous monitor.

The only negative point is that there seem to be more vertical bars on the screen then before, but my RF shield is not yet fitted (do not really know though whether it has something in common with this issue...).

I also did not tweaked any settings but just pressed on automatic to have a centred screen.

I will test this new toy with my Amigas and check how it goes with flicker fixers.

Great monitor. It's always great to find a good quality multiscan that can sync down to 15khz.

HigashiJun wrote: 13 Feb 2022 04:39 (IIRC all NEC Multisyncs are 15 Khz compatible)

Not necessarily. I think that 'multisync' is the brand name of their monitor range.

My 21" CRT Multisync FE1250+ certainly cannot do 15khz.

Those vertical lines look like they're caused by the horizontal screen resolution being a non-integer multiple of the ST's output.

mrbombermillzy wrote: 13 Feb 2022 08:45 Great monitor. Its always great to find a good quality multiscan that can sync down to 15khz.

HigashiJun wrote: 13 Feb 2022 04:39 (IIRC all NEC Multisyncs are 15 Khz compatible)

Not necessarily. I think that 'multisync' is the brand name of their monitor range.

My 21" CRT Multisync FE1250+ certainly cannot do 15khz.

Good to know that, because I was looking for one...

Is your statement based on your own experience or just an assumption based on the NEC manual ?

@stephen_usher

And I guess there is nothing that can be done to get rid of those bars.

HigashiJun wrote: 13 Feb 2022 09:11 @stephen_usher

And I guess there is nothing that can be done to get rid of those bars.

I found that with my NEC 1970NX I was able to tweak the settings to eliminate the bars on Low and Hi res by tweaking the settings.

Med res was the kicker though, and there are still some vestiges of lines, but it is very usable.

Got to say that display is very nice, will have to have a look at prices on eBay.

EDIT: I looked at the prices in the UK and they aren't cheap, which is a shame.

@rubber_jonnie

Thanks for your feedback.

I could also tweak the settings on my previous NEC 1990FXp but MED RES was really ugly andunusable.

Are you talking about the hollow vertical lines on the screen, because no matter what my tweaks were, they always appeared on the screen.

The EA224WMi is nice, with its integrated speakers and numerous connectors, you have more options for you retro machines.

HigashiJun wrote: 13 Feb 2022 11:14 @rubber_jonnie

Thanks for your feedback.

I could also tweak the settings on my previous NEC 1990FXp but MED RES was really ugly andunusable.

Are you talking about the hollow vertical lines on the screen, because no matter what my tweaks were, they always appeared on the screen.

The EA224WMi is nice, with its integrated speakers and numerous connectors, you have more options for you retro machines.

I have both the 1970NX and a 1990FXp and favour the NX. In med res, what I see are missing vertical lines which may be the hollow lines you describe (I think it is pixel clock related, I'm not 100% though), and in hi res the desktop background shows bars. Low res just works.

I found that on the NX by tweaking I could get a workable med res screen and also completely remove the bars in hi res. The FXp though, I just could never get med res to work, there were missing vertical lines on the letters.

Unfortunately neither display seems to have pixel clock adjustment, though I did find that adjusting the contrast helped.

Recently it was discovered on another forum that the Dell SE2722H also works well with all ST modes and is fairly easy to acquire being that it is not discontinued.

Here is the thread: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/32938 ... works-100/

HigashiJun wrote: 13 Feb 2022 09:08 Is your statement based on your own experience or just an assumption based on the NEC manual ?

From the stuff thats passed through my hands and tested at 15khz mainly for Amigas/STs. The manuals don't always give the full scanrates (I'm guessing they may play it safe in case they change screen/board details during the model lifespan) so that makes it hard to know.

My NEC Multisync 1250FE+ is just really a Mitsubishi Diamondtron screen with budget electronics. By this time though (mid 90s), scanrates below 31Khz were nonstandard, so generally not bothered with.

I also have 2 NEC 1990FXp TFTs which are 15khz compatible (like yours). My 'monster' Mitsu 37" Megaview CRT also scans down to 15Khz, but then, that's from 1987, when the standards were a bit more open, I guess (C=/Atari viable customer targets still?).

I also worked as a Dell reseller engineer before covid and managed to test a few of their monitors (only a few, as we mainly dealt with reconditioned laptops). Never had any that did 15khz there, but there are some that do it apparently.

(I still have two of the Dell 27" UW TFTs and they don't; well not through RGB anyway).

HTH.