the lines might be a slight deterrant at the start, you only notice them for a while and then they disappeared, well until i read this thread when i barely noticed them, ive got a lacie electron 22 blue, its a sweet yet extremely expensive monitor, nice 22 incher, the lines are not heat sinks as was previously stated, they are in fact there to lower vibration within the monitor and produce a more stble picture, and this picture is extremely and i mean extremely stable and clear, unbelievable, i also have 2 14 inchers 2 15 inchers an amazing 17 incher gateway 2000 and a [-peep-] 19 inch monitor and have used many many 17-21 inchers, large monitors are extremely poor unless they are either flat or at least vertically flat like the sont trinitrons, not to be mistaken for the sony fd trinitron (the flat tube) the best tube is made by mitsubishi for flatscreens and even though most monitors that use it are expensive especially mine, but they do give a better picture than that of the sony tube