Could have been perfect, but one bad problem blew it... (UPDATED)

I bought two of these monitors for my office upon reading recommendations on the web and trusting the Hitachi name. Here are my views:


PROS:

I only use Invar mask/aperture grid monitors because my eyes are very sensitive and can not tolerate the horizontal black lines across the Trinitron monitors. This said I like this monitor.

The image is crisp and sharp. And the colors are dead on. I work with photography a lot so I am picky when it comes to colors.

There is very little distortion in the image and the text is darn near perfect as expected from a Shadow Mask/aperture grid.

There are many manual adjustments possible and the interface is easy to use.

The monitor is as flat as can be this side of an LCD.

After 1 year of use it appears to have been properly built. They still look new and seem to be good work horses.

Overall there are many PROS...

CONS:

But then comes the one and only CON...

This monitor has horrible MOIRE patterns. No matter how much time I fiddle with the controls I can not eliminate them. You can live with it but the patterns are always there especially with a clear background.

MOIRE PATTERNS: Strong striping of the image that
appear in elliptical or other curved shapes all over the
screen. Color and brightness changes are observed from stripe to stripe.

This is certainly a characteristic of the shadow mask/aperture grid technology but it appears to be excessive. I dont think there is anything wrong with my units since I have two and they both exhibit excessive patterns.

So I can live with it but I dont like it. For the price they should do better. My home monitor is a Phillips 109B20 (see my review for that one) that cost less and has no patterns whatsoever.

RELIABILITY:

Virtually trouble free

CONCLUSIONS:

Almost perfect but the Moire patterns are excessive. Especially considering the price. It is still a good monitor but I cannot recommend it. I suggest the Phillips 109B20 as a better flat 19" Shadow mask/aperture grid monitor for less money and smaller foot print.

Thanks for reading! :)