CRT Monitors

VTR

VTR

VTR

Soldato
Joined
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Anyone still using a CRT? I'm going to be setting up a 2nd PC for local Quake3/UT99/Half Life multiplayer.

Not used a CRT and wondering how it would now compare having used TFT's since the 17" Hitachi. What would be a good CRT to get? Where's the best place to get one?
 
Doubt anyone is. With high refresh LCD, freesync/g-sync, far larger than any CRT monitor, low energy consumption, totally perfect geometry/convergence, slimness, weight, low in heat dissipation, digital inputs, ultra wide and curved monitors, I think anyone still using them is just because viewing them through rose tinted glasses.
 
Still use a Iiyama Vision Master 22" at my parent's house. I also have another three from when my workplace was getting rid of them. I'd imagine that sorting an ebay search via distance would be the best way. Or Facebook recycle group type thing.
 
hornetstinger said:
Doubt anyone is. With high refresh LCD, freesync/g-sync, far larger than any CRT monitor, low energy consumption, totally perfect geometry/convergence, slimness, weight, low in heat dissipation, digital inputs, ultra wide and curved monitors, I think anyone still using them is just because viewing them through rose tinted glasses.
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I know a few years back there was still a few people using them and you could pick them up for next to nothing. Had a quick look on eBay and there doesn't seem to be many about now (not surprising with TFT's being standard tech for so long). I've got a 34" 21:9 on my main rig but was looking to set up a CRT on the 2nd machine, just for nostalgia really!
 
hornetstinger said:
Doubt anyone is. With high refresh LCD, freesync/g-sync, far larger than any CRT monitor, low energy consumption, totally perfect geometry/convergence, slimness, weight, low in heat dissipation, digital inputs, ultra wide and curved monitors, I think anyone still using them is just because viewing them through rose tinted glasses.
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Apart from excellent colours, angles, perfect blacks and near instantaneous response times you mean?
 
Blackjack Davy said:
Apart from excellent colours perfect blacks and near instantaneous response times you mean?
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I remember the Hitachi being one of the first "gaming" TFT's with a response time of 16MS. Upgraded from my Sony CRT and the response time always bothered me, I've stuck with TFT's ever since but really would like to try a CRT for some Quake/UT and to see how the response compares to all the TFT's I've had since.
 
hornetstinger said:
Doubt anyone is. With high refresh LCD, freesync/g-sync, far larger than any CRT monitor, low energy consumption, totally perfect geometry/convergence, slimness, weight, low in heat dissipation, digital inputs, ultra wide and curved monitors, I think anyone still using them is just because viewing them through rose tinted glasses.
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A decent CRT in reasonable condition will make a mockery of the best LCD screens. I think anyone still using one is most likely doing so because it still works.

The only draws back with CRT is weight and size. For the size of the screen the weight is enormous. Thats why we moved to LCD and all the short comings that come from them.
 
If a CRT has been used even moderately for the last 20 years it's going to have issues, so don't overpay without checking it first. Some can command quite a premium these days.

I was a die-hard CRT user, having had 3 Sony FW900 monitors over the years. I've joined the wonderful world of motion blur LCDs and given up competitive gaming as a result.

Scroll down to the VGA monitor list - all of these will do high refresh rates.

https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/wiki/speclist
 
Blackjack Davy said:
Apart from excellent colours, angles, perfect blacks and near instantaneous response times you mean?
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so true..

Mitubishi 2070sb Diamondtron PRO user back in the day..


I think this is why me seeing the OLEDs in a shop yesterday made me make funny noises, because I remember that kind of beautiful contrast & how 'electric' games felt were back then. Really have taken a bit of a step back in lots of ways havent we - imagine if we put our efforts into upgrading CRT tech instead of shifting over to LCD like we did
 
VTR said:
Anyone still using a CRT? I'm going to be setting up a 2nd PC for local Quake3/UT99/Half Life multiplayer.

Not used a CRT and wondering how it would now compare having used TFT's since the 17" Hitachi. What would be a good CRT to get? Where's the best place to get one?
Click to expand...

I threw out two crt monitors last summer, a 17 and 21 inch. Both perfect and cost me £1200 back in the day.

Wouldn't want to go back to that aspect ratio.
 
hornetstinger said:
Doubt anyone is. With high refresh LCD, freesync/g-sync, far larger than any CRT monitor, low energy consumption, totally perfect geometry/convergence, slimness, weight, low in heat dissipation, digital inputs, ultra wide and curved monitors, I think anyone still using them is just because viewing them through rose tinted glasses.
Click to expand...

The best light guns only work with CRT's. Unless I missed a recently development Lightgun games are rubbish on LCD's .
 
I don't really agree with the whole "CRTs have perfect blacks" thing. Maybe I only had crap CRTs but as I understand it Sony Trinitrons were considered pretty high-end and even that didn't have great blacks. Sure, when the whole screen was dark it had excellent blacks, but as soon as you had a mix of colours the blacks got brighter, resulting in reduced contrast. Very noticeable when switching between a mostly black image and a "normal" one. I saw this on my old crappy TV in my room when I was a kid too.

CRTs have some advantages but there are just too many disadvantages compared to modern flat panel technology to bother with them, IMO.
 
DragonQ said:
I don't really agree with the whole "CRTs have perfect blacks" thing. Maybe I only had crap CRTs but as I understand it Sony Trinitrons were considered pretty high-end and even that didn't have great blacks. Sure, when the whole screen was dark it had excellent blacks, but as soon as you had a mix of colours the blacks got brighter, resulting in reduced contrast. Very noticeable when switching between a mostly black image and a "normal" one. I saw this on my old crappy TV in my room when I was a kid too.

CRTs have some advantages but there are just too many disadvantages compared to modern flat panel technology to bother with them, IMO.
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You might not agree, but generally CRT's support better contrast ratios than LCD's. Also they allowed for multisync had less lag and (if well calibrated) gave better colour reproduction.

Though CRTs could be described as more analogue a technology and as such suffer from interference more easily and drift over time.

I had a wide sony 24" CRT for many years and cut my teeth in IT for a Monitor repair/service company working for Dell/IBM/Sun etc back in the day.

I left the job, less than 6 months after our first LCDs rolled in, sometimes just good enough with other advantages is clearly going to win.
 
I had an LG Flatron 915FT back in the day. I was too young to know a whole lot about it at the time, but I remember it was very good and high tech for the day.
 
I've a 19" LG Studioworks 995E attached to the PC I use for emulation and retro gaming, works a treat. The picture quality is still very good and motion is buttery smooth.

Still, I'd never use a CRT over an LCD day-to-day now. People talk about CRT's advantages but I mainly remember endless geometry tweaking to try and get straight lines of the things.
 
stewski said:
You might not agree, but generally CRT's support better contrast ratios than LCD's.
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I'm not even sure that's true. Different numbers from different sources would both agree and disagree with that. LCDs that quote ridiculous contrast ratios of 1,000,000:1 are obviously lying but measured contrast ratios of 1000:1 aren't unheard of among LCDs and that's higher than some sources I can find regarding CRTs' real-world contrast ratio. It's also variable with a CRT and they suffer from worse reflections (compared to matte LCDs anyway), which would reduce the visible contrast ratio.

stewski said:
Also they allowed for multisync
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Do you mean different resolutions were supported? That was always pretty useful, especially for games.

stewski said:
had less lag
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Yep, probably the most quoted advantage among gamers. These days you can get panels that have less than 1 frame of input lag though, particularly at high refresh rates. I imagine not many people would notice such a small difference but maybe some are out there.

stewski said:
(if well calibrated) gave better colour reproduction.
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This one I really know nothing about. I have stuck to VA/IPS panels since my first LCD and I can tell that they have better colour reproduction than TN panels, but the technology is still improving. Are there any HDR CRTs around? If not then I imagine this advantage, if it exists, will disappear soon. ;)

Early LCDs were awful, I remember the ones my school had. Obvious ghosting, the Windows login screen burned into all of them, poor blacks, etc. These days things are a lot different, although you have to buy quality screens still. The really cheap ones are still pretty bad.
 
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