Because the (very slight) humming of the 19 inch LG monitor that I was using for my retro computer setup was annoying me, I had been on the lookout for a replacement for a while now. I knew it had to be at least 19 inch and preferably a black one to match the Benq BL702a monitors for my Commodores. I found a worthy successor in the EIZO ColorEdge CG19 monitor, a professional monitor that cost 1.500 euros when first released in 2004! Wow, talk about a lot of money.

Because it uses CCFL backlighting instead of LED, it’s a bit a throwback from the LG. And that shows a bit with the uniformity of the display. But only when the screen shows one uniform color and when viewed from an angle. Otherwise the display looks every bit as nice as the LG, maybe even better. And knowing that you’re looking at such a high end device for it’s time period certainly adds to the charm. It’s not period correct for playing DOS games from the early nineties, but more so than the LG monitor.

The EIZO certainly is a beast weighing in at 8.1 kilograms! As might be expected, it offers a wide array of customization options for finetuning the display. Input lag maybe an issue for faster moving games, but I’m mainly playing adventure games and older RPGs anyway.

It also featured a USB hub, which definitely is a plus, because I’ve exhausted all four USB connections on the Raspberry Pi. I have quiet hopes that the hub is of the powered persuasion because the Pi offers limited power and some devices benefit from external power. The specifications say that the two downstream ports offer a maximum of 500 mA for each port.

Right now, I have it connected to one of the two DVI connections through the HDMI-to-VGA adapter that I was using. I tried using a HDMI-to-DVI adapter that I had lying about, but that wasn’t successful. Also, that adapter was a bit fragile on the HDMI port of the Pi.

I’m considering a Raspberry Pi 4 to replace the 3b and that has mini-HDMI outputs so I’m not going to invest in another HDMI-to-DVI solution right now.