30th November, 2000.
Advertising standards Authority
2 Torrington Place
London WC1E 7HN
Reference: A00-10216/PJG
Dear Sir,
Enclosed are sales promotion leaflets available from Evesham, Tiny and Time stores, stating the size of their monitors. With their permission, I have measured the monitors in these stores and found discrepancies between the advertised size of the monitor and the actual size (corner to corner). Due to time constraints I was unable to check that the height/width ratios were correct. If they are not, adjustment of the screen will reduce picture size even further. One of my own monitors had this problem. As you will see from the table, LCD screens are measured by the screen size but cathode ray tube monitors are not.
| Manufactor | Advertised Size | Measured Size | Shop Sold By | Type | System From |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | 15" | 13.5" | Time | CRT | |
| Tiny | 15" | 13.75" | Tiny | CRT | Home Copywriter Explorer |
| Tiny | 15" | 15" | Tiny | LCD | Home Power + cw, upgrade |
| Mitsubishi | 17" | 15.5" | Evesham.com | CRT | Origin 1000MX |
| liyama | 17" | 15.875" | Evesham.com | CRT | Evolution 800E |
| LG | 17" | 16" | Time | CRT | |
| Tiny | 17" | 16.125" | Tiny | CRT | Home Copywriter |
| Mitsubishi | 19" | 17.25" or 17.75" | Evesham.com | CRT | Origin 1100GTS |
| Tiny | 19" | 18" | Tiny | CRT | Entertainment Power |
It is clear from the above table that monitors claiming to be the same size are in fact different sizes. Misleading adverts are available in any computer magazine, such as Computer Shopper, which is the UK's most popular monthly computer magazine and has a large number of pages given over to adverts. To confuse things further, people use TV tuner cards, that enable them to watch television on their computers.
I have also enclosed two extracts from PCPlus, Oct 1995 issue, which mention the problem.
Tarquin Mills
Tarquin Mills