Hitachi CM721F
The CM721F by Hitachi has a tube using the technology called EDP (Enhanced Dot Pitch), or elliptical mask. This is based on the Shadow Mask, though it is different in several ways, notably in that it has a much finer horizontal pitch than a conventional shadow mask. On the CM721F, the pitch is 0.20 mm, which is very low, but typical of EDP monitors. The CM721F is not very well endowed when it comes to connections - it has an RGB 15-pin wired-in cable, no more, no less. So, for example, if you ever snap one of the pins, you'd have to send the whole monitor back for repair, which is not exactly convenient. A bandwidth of 205 MHz and refresh rate of 95 kHz give it a theoretical rate of 75 Hz in 1600x1200. And this rate holds in practice, too. This figure being the strict minimum for working in this resolution, we cannot recommend this monitor for those who need higher resolutions. For instance, all you get in 1920x1440 is a meager 63 Hz.
The CM721F performed well in the geometry tests. In 1024x768 and 1280x1024, it was very good and no major deformation appeared. Beyond this, you have to tweak it a lot to get something that's close to acceptable. The OSD is fairly conventional; you use four buttons to browse through the available options. They include adjustment of geometry, calorimetry, brightness, contrast, horizontal and vertical moiré, but not purity. As to its image quality, the CM721F is not unlike the LG915FTPlus. It has many of the good points of shadow mask and aperture grill tubes combined, so the tube seems completely flat and small characters are fully readable. Sometimes there is a bit of moiré, but this can be easily resolved with a few adjustments. Colors are warm and fairly faithful, and convergence is fine, requiring no adjustment at all.
