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Simply... BRILLIANT! By LEO SIMPSON Philips BDM4350 4K Brilliance Monitor Many people use two or three monitors to keep a whole range of windows open while they are working. But this takes up a lot of desk space and it can be frustrating if you “lose” the mouse while moving from screen to screen. Why not take the simple approach with a single large 4K monitor? B ack in September 2015, in an article entitled “4K Monitor Shoot-Out” we compared two large 4K monitors which, at that time, were the best available for the price. The article was triggered by my using two screens to view a bunch of open windows at any one time. This is a great time-save measure so since you don’t have to wait for the PC to switch between windows. It also streamlines the process of “dragging and dropping” text or files from one application to another. In my set-up I had a 24-inch 16:10 HD monitor set up in Landscape mode while the second, a 23-inch 16:9 HD monitor, was set up in portrait mode which is good for displaying files in folders, long reports or emails. But eventually I became sick of “losing the mouse” when moving from one screen to the other. The solution? Use a single UHD display (4K resolution). We had several 30inch Dell 2K monitors and while they are good, I wanted something much larger, if I could get it. I was already using an LG 32-inch smart HD TV at home with my laptop but it was only good for displaying, say, three windows at a time. Besides, it was an HD monitor and I now wanted a UHD monitor with its higher resolution which is most desirable when using a large screen. One of the advantages of a larger screen is having room for multiple windows. 18  Silicon Chip siliconchip.com.au Comparing the three monitors: a 23-inch at the front, 40-inch in the middle and the Philips 43-inch at the rear. With much larger screens, the individual pixels are much more apparent and this detracts from the overall image. It just so happened that at that time, Aldi had a special on their “Bauhn” 42-inch 4K 16:9 monitor. I had no interest in using it for watching TV but I thought it would be a bargain at the price of around $500. I duly purchased one and set it up on my desk. This caused Nicholas Vinen to go green with envy, as I was upstaging him with his two Dell 30-inch monitors. Naturally, he wanted to go one better but he turned up his nose at the Bauhn monitor and he found that Philips had a 40-inch 4K monitor, their model BDM4065UC which was almost exactly twice the price. He duly ordered one (at company expense!). You can read the rest of the story in the September 2015 issue (www.siliconchip.com.au/Issue/2015/ September). Suffice to say that Nicholas Vinen thought that the Philips monitor was clearly superior to the Bauhn monitor and that was mainly because of its better latency, being much faster in response to mouse movements. The Philips also had a faster refresh rate of 60Hz instead of 30Hz and that is most important if you use the monitor for playing games (no, I have not seen Nicholas playing games on the monitor but you never know...) Being a scrooge, I put up with the worse latency of the Bauhn, justifying it in that I really didn’t need it to be really fast and besides, I quite liked its slightly siliconchip.com.au brighter picture. (To be honest, the slow mouse response could be frustrating at times!) But quite a few months later, the Bauhn’s picture started to become intermittently jittery and ultimately it failed completely. I was subsequently given a full refund by Aldi, with no quibbles on their part. You can guess what I did next: I purchased the Philips monitor. Fast forward to the present and Philips have released a significantly larger monitor with improved specs. It is a 43-inch model, the BDM4350. While a diagonal measurement of 43 inches does not sound much larger than 40 inches, it looks quite a bit larger when compared side-by-side and the screen area is actually 17% larger. You might need a larger desk. In fact, such a large screen lends itself very well to being on a “stand-up” desk. By the way, I should mention that 4K resolution refers to 3840 x 2160 pixels (ie, about 4000 pixels wide, hence 4K), four times as many pixels as a 16:9 HD monitor. The pixel pitch is 104 PPI (pixels per inch) horizontally and vertically and this is better than the pixel pitch of typical HD monitors (1920 x 1080) of around 24 inches. It is also important to note that if you want to drive The BDM4350 is really thin, too: just 82mm (plus 160mm for the stand). It weighs a reasonably hefty 9.4kg. March 2017  19 a 4K monitor at its native (ie, highest possible) resolution and with refresh rate of 60Hz, your video card needs to drive it from a Display Port. If you are not worried about getting that refresh rate, you can use an HDMI port; preferably HDMI 2.0 but HDMI 1.4 is OK. As reported in the September 2015 issue, we used a GeForce GTX750 video card and set-up for the Philips 43-inch monitor is quite straightforward. The Philips monitor has an IPS (in-plane switching) LCD and in this respect, its horizontal viewing angle is noticeably wider than the aforementioned 40-inch model. In fact, the viewing angle is quoted at 178°; horizontally and vertically. The LED screen illumination also appears brighter and more even across the screen; another worthwhile improvement. Brightness uniformity is quoted at 96~105%. Its brightness is quoted is 300cd/m² and contrast is 1200:1. While the viewing angle for the 43-inch monitor’s IPS LCD screen is much better than the 40-inch model, the contrast ratio of 1200:1 is not as good as the 40-inch monitor’s figure of 5000:1 but few users are likely to notice this or be fazed by it. As with the vast majority of large screen monitors, the sound quality is really quite mediocre. It has two built-in speakers, driven by a 7W amplifier. Yes, it can be quite loud but if you want better quality, you will have to invest in sound bar at the very least. Again, most users probably won’t bother. Just in case you might worry about the power consumption of such a large monitor, it really isn’t a concern at around 60W in normal viewing mode. Standby power consumption is less than 500 milliwatts, dropping to zero if you use the rear-mounted power switch. One feature I don’t like is the rubbery 4-way switch to access and select the various modes. Because the switch is at the back of the monitor, you have to crook your wrist around from the front (naturally) and then somehow manipulate the rubbery toggle to move up and down the menus and then press it to select one. Surely, it doesn’t have to that tricky. Of course, most users will only make changes very occasionally but when you do, you have to go through the same fiddly process. That complaint aside, the Philips 43-inch monitor is a very satisfying unit to use. Priced at around $1000+GST, it should be high on your list if you want a high performance, large screen 4K monitor. SC This gives a much better idea of the sheer size of the 43inch monitor when compared to a 21-inch. 20  Silicon Chip Compared to some monitors of the past, the rear panel is positively spartan: two HDMI inputs, two Display Ports, audio in, headphones plus a 4-port USB hub. Main Specifications – Philips BDM 4350 Picture/Display • LCD panel type: IPS • Backlight type: W-LED system • Panel Size: 42.51 inch (108cm diagonal) • Effective viewing area: 953 (H) x 543 (V) mm • Aspect ratio: 16:9 • Optimum resolution: 3840 x 2160 <at> 60Hz • Response time (typical): 5ms (Gray to Gray) • Brightness: 30cd/m² maximum • Contrast ratio (typical): 1200:1 • SmartContrast: 50,000,000:1 • Pixel pitch: 0.2451 x 0.2451mm • Viewing angle: 178° (H) / 178° (V), <at> C/R > 20 • Picture enhancement: SmartImage • Display colors: Color support 1.07 billion colors (10 bits) • Scanning Frequency: VGA/HDMI: 30 - 99 kHz ; DP: 30 - 160 kHz (H) / VGA: 56 - 80 Hz ; HDMI/DP: 23 - 80 Hz (V) • Mobile HD link: 1080P <at> 60Hz • Colour Space: sRGB Connectivity • USB: USB 3.0x4 (1 w/fast charging) • Signal Input: VGA (Analog), DisplayPort x 2, HDMI (2.0)/MHL x2 • Sync Input: separate sync, sync on green • Audio (In/Out): PC audio-in, Headphone out Power • Eco mode: 46.5W (typical) • On mode: 63.1W (typical) (EnergyStar 6.0 test method) • Standby mode: <0.5 W (typical) • Off mode: zero watts with AC switch • Power LED indicator: Operation - White, Standby modeWhite (blinking) • Power supply: Built-in, 100-240VAC, 50-60Hz Dimensions • With stand (maximum height): 968 x 630 x 259mm • Without stand: 968 x 562 x 82mm Weight • With stand: 9.72kg • Without stand: 9.40kg siliconchip.com.au