Background

• The monitors are driven by a Sony XC-77 video camera and are used as
  5" (diagonal) viewfinder monitors on professional motion picture film cameras.
  
• These tests were conducted at GPI in North Hollywood, CA
  on December 3,1998.
  
• Members of the test team were:
  Mitch Barham, Phil Joujon-Roche, and George Paddock.

TEST 1 - RESOLUTION

Both monitors were evaluated for resolution using a televised image of the EIA Resolution Chart 1956 (Figure 1), driven by the Sony XC-77 camera.



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Test Conditions

The monitors were set up at a highlight brightness of 264 Ft-L. for the Pro and 64.3 ft-L for the TB-6, as measured with a Minolta CS-100 photometer. These are the comfortable high brightness settings that still provide good resolution without spot blooming. The overhead fluorescent lamps were on in the lab, providing an ambient of 0.8 ft-L normally incident to the CRT screen.

Results

The results of the Horizontal and Vertical resolution readings at 5 points on the PRO and TB-6 monitors are shown in Table 1 below.
 

		PRO Monitor		TB-6 Monitor
Position		Geo	Mitch	Geo	Mitch
1	V	480*	480*	480*	400
1	H	450	450	450	450
2	V	480*	480*	480*	450
2	H	450	500	450	450
3	V	480*	480*	480*	400
3	H	450	500	450	450
4	V	480*	480*	480*	450
4	H	450	450	450	500
5	V	480*	480*	480*	480*
5	H	550	550	500	600

Table 1
Resolution readings by two test subjects for the Pro and TB-6 monitors at 5 positions on the EIA Resolution Chart 1956. Position 5 is the center; positions 1 - 4 are the four corners. One is the upper left; four is the lower right. Readings are in total lines, black and white, that can be resolved in the display height of the monitor.

* denotes readings called higher than 480 lines,
   which is impossible with these 480 active line monitors.

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TEST 2 - CONTRAST

In this test, the Sony XC-77 televised the Gray Scale Reflectance Chart (Figure 3), which contains 9 gray scales from 3% reflectance to 60% reflectance, relative to MgO.



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Test Conditions

The monitors were first adjusted for maximum brightness while maintaining good resolution while displaying the EIA Resolution Chart (Figure 1) under the low ambient viewing conditions. Then a zoomed-in section of the Gray Scale Reflectance Chart was shown on each monitor to facilitate area brightness measurements with the photometer.

Pro monitor conditions:
High Ambient s 8490 ft-candles normally incident on the screen
Low Ambient = .8 ft-candles normally incident on the screen

TB-6 monitor conditions:
High Ambient = 8450 ft-candles normally incident on the screen
Low Ambient =.76 ft-candles normally incident on the screen

Test Results
Test results are shown in Table 2.
All readings are in ft. Lamberts.
Contrast ratio is (position 1 brightness) / (position 9 brightness)

Gray Scale
		Pro Monitor			TB-6 Monitor
Position		High Amb.	Low Amb.		High Amb.	Low Amb.
1		1100	872		200	132
2		1080	812		183	120
3		679	442		156	101
4		447	235		120	76.4
5 U		301	117		101	55.3
5 L		334	111		103	63.4
6		329	83		104	46
7		298	57		99	27.8
8		276	44.5		86	20.6
9		249	31.6		89	13.7
Background		217			54
Contrast Ratio		4.4	27.6		2.3	9.64

Table 2
Brightness readings in ft-L for the 9 areas of a gray scale chart for the Pro and TB-6 monitors. "Background" is the CRT screen reading with the monitor turned off.

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TEST 3 - GRAY SCALE PERFORMANCE
WITH WEAK VIDEO INPUT

Monitor performance is severely tested when the motion picture is being shot under very low light level conditions, typically 1 ft-candle or less. These conditions provide the monitor with a very weak signal, and the camera operator must strain to comprehend the scene in the monitor. The purpose of this test was to observe and measure the contrast and gray scale performance of these monitors under these low light level conditions.

Test conditions

Darkened room, < .1 ft-candle incident on the CRT faces Gray Scale Reflectance Chart (Figure 3) barely illuminated to create a noisy, low-level video image from the Sony XC 77 camera.
The monitors were optimally adjusted for brightness and contrast so as to display the 9 shades of gray.

Results

Pro monitor:
Area 1 = 5.11 ft-L
Area g = 0.37 ft-L
CR = 13.8

TB-6 monitor:
Area 1 = 8.4 ft-L
Area 9 = 1.2 ft-L
CR = 7.0
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CONCLUSIONS

After reviewing the data, l arrive at the following conclusions:

1. The Pro monitor consistently exhibited higher resolution than the TB-6, and did so at higher brightness levels. The Pro is the superior monitor for use in low and medium ambient conditions.

2. The Pro monitor consistently exhibited better brightness and contrast performance under high ambient conditions (greater than 8400 ft-candles). The Pro is the superior monitor for use in high brightness ambient conditions.

3. Under noisy low-level video image conditions the Pro is better than tne TB-6 at the very low gray levels - areas 5 through 9.

Phillip Joujon-Roche
Display Systems Engineering
450 Via Vista
Anaheim, CA 92808

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CREDENTIALS

Phillip J Joujon-Roche

Display Systems Engineering
Anaheim, CA 92808

Qualifications

• Familiar with all display technologies - CRTs, liquid crystal (active and passive), plasma, electroluminescent, field emission displays (FEDs) - and their application to customers' needs
• Experience in display product development
• Experience in demonstrating and measuring display devices
• Currently teaching a half-day class for SPIE, "Flat Panel Displays in Theory and Practice: a Technology Overview".

Summary

Mr. Joujon-Roche has over 30 years of experience in display system design, and in applications of display workstations, CRT monitors, flat panel displays, and large-screen displays for Air Defense, Air Traffic Control, and Command and Control systems. He has experience with Graphic Display Controllers, CRT Monitors (both color and high bright monochrome), Flat Panel Displays, and Large Screen Displays.

Experience

1993 to present - Display Systems Engineering, Anaheim, CA
As founder and president of Display Systems Engineering (a display consulting firm), Mr. Joujon-Roche is currently conducting research in field sequential color, and evaluating small area brightness 8 color differences for a large screen display application at the Southern California College of Optometry in Fullerton, CA.

He is also teaching a half-day class for the SPIE (The International Society for Optical Engineering) on "Flat Panel Displays in Theory and Practice: a Technology Overview".

1996-1997 - Image Systems Corporation, Minnetonka, MN
Advisor to top management on flat panel display technologies, market trends, and display product development. Sales responsibilities for the U.S. west coast for Air Traffic Control displays - flat panel and CRT monitors.

1995 - Interstate Electronics Corporation, Anaheim, CA
Chief Scientist, Display Systems. Responsible for maintaining the marketing focus of the Displays IRAD projects, for technical proposal writing and review, and flat panel technology presentations to potential Interstate customers. Generated a strategic business plan for developing and marketing a high resolution militarized AMLCD monitor as a replacement for CRT monitors currently used in the military market.

1965-1993 - Senior Scientist, Hughes Aircraft Company, Fullerton, CA
Most Recent work:
· Evaluation and measurement of high bright CRT monitors for
  Air Traffic Control tower applications.
· Performed color and brightness measurements on
  Sharp, IBM, and Fujitsu flat panel displays
Other positions held:
· Lead Engineer for the Common Console for the FAA's
  Advanced Automated System (2 years)
· Technical Director for the HMD-33 Workstation,
  Project 776 Air Defense System (2 years)
· Department Manager (3 years); Senior Scientist (2 years);
  Section Head (9 years); Group Head (4 years).

ca. 1959-1965 - Aeronutronics, Newport Beach
Senior Engineer. Designed analog and digital circuits for a display generator.

Education

Master of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, plus many post-graduate courses.

Publications/Associations/Affiliations:

Patents:	Co-holder of 2 patents
Publications:	Co-author of "Sunlight Readable Color Display Technologies for Use in ATC Towers", 1993; Author of "Recent Advances in Flat Panel Displays", 1996
Affiliations:	Member of the Society for Information Display (SID), IEEE, and SPIE.
Teaching:	Authored and taught "Display Systems Engineering" for 14 years at Hughes. Guest lecturer at the UCLA "Displays Engineering" course in 1987. Currently teaching a half-day course, "Flat Panel Displays in Theory and Practice: a Technology Overview" at the annual SPIE conference.

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