Modern games on a CRT...

I recycled two CRT monitors that cost me £1150 in the nineties (probably £2000 at today's rates) a couple of years ago.

Both perfect, both superb picture quality, but couldn't give them away.

Tech moves on, these were simply too large, too heavy, lesser rez and 4:3 ratio.

Don't miss them at all.
 
Not surprising at all, while modern LCD's have gone some way to making up the deficient in IQ, they may never catch up, the technology is a dead end imo.
 
Remember CRT monitors well. From the first 14 inch Packard Bell 1024p to my last 24 inch beast 1600p @ 120htz.
Be Intrested to see a modern version in the correct aspect ratio to see the difference, but no matter how smooth it may be the size and depth was insane. 3440 x 1440p ultrawide 144htz crt built today, Jesus it'd be colossal.
 
Kelt said:
Tech moves on, these were simply too large, too heavy, lesser rez and 4:3 ratio.

Don't miss them at all.
Click to expand...

I do miss my 24" 16:9 Sony FW900. Small by today's standards, but no display i've used since - OLED or gaming monitor - matches picture, motion and depth of image it provided. I'd take it at 1900x1200 over current 4k any day of the week. It even did 2304 x 1440. Not shabby for a monitor released decades ago.
 
Kelt said:
I recycled two CRT monitors that cost me £1150 in the nineties (probably £2000 at today's rates) a couple of years ago.

Both perfect, both superb picture quality, but couldn't give them away.

Tech moves on, these were simply too large, too heavy, lesser rez and 4:3 ratio.

Don't miss them at all.
Click to expand...

Indeed, small screens too. FW900 was actually about 22".

I miss the era/time, but i'd never have one today.
 
I wouldn't mind using one for gaming, but it would have to be a quality one with flat glass:

I5Ngz0i.jpg

Can't be doing with convex curved glass that's like a looking at a goldfish bowl! That bugged me even back in the day.
 
I like the front bit but not a fan of the back part.

50% of my monitor history is CRT :) 17" CRT 1998-2006. 22" CRT 2007-2009. 24" LCDs after that.

ok so I also had CRT for my Amiga too..

Zero motion blur on a CRT and good colours, blacks, well as black as CRTs got :)
 
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I was inspired by that DF video and started to look around for a CRT monitor and realised it wasn't going to be easy. In the end, after months of looking, I asked a family member and it turned out they had one sitting around taking up space that was the exact same model I grew up PC gaming with. Samsung SyncMaster 753DFX. This is a pretty bog standard 'flat' screen 17" model.

I knew that my GPU (RX 570) would not work with it since analogue output is now gone, so I bought a cheap DisplayPort to VGA adapter and tried that. To my amazement the CRT powered up and works. Some familiar noises...

Problem number one was what resolution to use. Since this model can only do 70kHz refresh, the best resolution is probably 1024x768 at 85Hz.

I noticed another issue here - Windows 10 thinks that it is a 'Generic PnP Monitor' and the EDID data is not loaded properly. Maybe something to do with the adapter I was using. After ages of looking for a driver (there isn't one), I eventually unplugged and re-plugged the adapter and it detected it as a similar screen, but most importantly unlocked the 85Hz option with a working driver. Great, no more visible flicker. Until I reboot. Perhaps I'll solve that later.

So, then onto the screen itself. It appears that it has lost some brightness over the years (vs my hazy memory) and also the geometry has some issues that aren't correctable with the OSD, so I think probably some aged capacitors causing issues. There is a 'sag' to the top of the image that can't be adjusted out. Only noticeable in the desktop, barely at all in games. Forget about using it in a bright room. Also due to the moulded-in VGA cable, it's probably not the best connection and things aren't too sharp.

However, load up a game and things change. Once you're into the game and setup at 85Hz, this thing is a joy to use. So smooth and fluid. It's hard to explain the difference to an LCD but the movement is smooth and clear. I've tried this with some older stuff (HL2) and some newer games (Hitman, GTA5) and have just started to re-play many older games as they look and play so well. The input lag is also minimal to none. For instance, I'm playing Max Payne and moving the camera around and things are fluid and retain clarity. On an LCD you get blur and the game frankly doesn't play as well. Also worth saying that although the resolution is low, the games still look nice due to how the screen works. You can get away with very low resolutions and still have something that looks detailed and playable.

For comparison, my LCD is a Samsung P2450H which is an older 1080p fast refresh TN panel.

I'm surprised there isn't a dedicated thread on CRTs on this forum since I think although we got our desks back, we lost something in moving to flat panel displays. There is an active-ish community on reddit but otherwise just folks starting to charge silly amounts (that aren't worth it for a product so old that can die any moment) on fleabay.

For me, I'd like to find a 19" model that can maybe do higher res and refresh rates, then I'll be fully happy, but for now, the CRT monitor I have is proving a great companion for any of my PC games, but especially the older ones.
 
I had a big (the footprint was massive!) 32" 16:9 HD CRT TV and a Sony FW900 monitor back in the day and miss aspects of their pq for sure. I love my current OLED, but it doesn't match the FW900's 3D and real looking images. This is the thing that was great about crt. A few years back I was watching standard definition tennis at a take away while waiting for my food and couldn't believe how good it looked compared to my OLED with HD source. The detail wasn't as pronounced, but the image was noticeably more natural and real looking. And this was with an ancient, smallish crt and a crappy signal. Convincing 3D rather than a picture of 3D. It's hard to explain. We have come a long way with display devices in recent years but there's a way still to go.
 
That Sony 43" CRT weights 200KG :eek:

Think how much a 65" widescreen CRT would weight and how big it would be :cry: Think you would need to get the TV put in place by a crane and then build the house around it :cry::cry::cry:

My first PC monitor back in 1997 or 1998 was a 17" Iiyama monitor and then i upgraded to a 19" Iiyama monitor a few years later.
They both cost roughly around £450 each back then if i remember right (£450 is around £750 in todays money)
 
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100% agree @alex24. Definitely something with CRT's, never really tried modern games on mine, the image is a little darker and I usually compensate by tweaking nVidia and its fine. For classic gaming, Doom looks sublime, even now, on an LCD, Doom doesn't look quite the same as back in the day. Sensible Soccer, Quake (the grenade explosions) are the same, they run so smooth!

The CRT that Spyhop shared is impressive but I could not cope with the yellowing. Reminds me of my Sony G400 back in 2001 when I smoked. Friday, Saturday post pub/club to return to play TF/CS/DoD until the next day. We all smoked. When I moved out; I still have CD's from this time and they turned gold. Grim but I keep for nostalgia. :eek:
 
Have to admit I did google the price of CRT screens after looking at the video.

Logically it's stupid and will be totally not worth it.

But all the same...
 
I remember how much the circa 1996-1998 Packard Bell monitor flickered on the families old Pentium 120. I swear it contributed to my bad eyesight! Maybe it was a badly manufactured one or something, I didn't notice it as much on later CRT monitors.

Did anyone else experience that flickering?

Very interesting watch though, shame I love my desk space, could have avoided my 10 or so video card upgrades over the years if I stuck with CRT and didn't go with LCD/LED!
 
I found any CRT at 60Hz or below the flicker noticeable - even 70-75Hz wasn't great - 85+Hz was where I was happy. Had a bunch of them can't really remember details now including a couple that came with pre-built Gateway 2K systems and later on some flatter ones.

I don't miss the CRTs though - moving house with several of them was a pain.
 
No the picture was rubbish you just remember it as being good.. Fire up the same rig today, compare to a modern rig and you would instantly turn it off and bin it..
 
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