Old CRTs

Jong1 said:
I should have added OLED to my perfect monitor - added.

And that Sony FW900 is certainly the pinnacle of CRT tech. Very nice, if you can fit it on your desk :).
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And if your desk can bear the weight even if it fits! That thing's north of 40kg!

The time I had two large CRT monitors (19" and 17") was also a time I moved house a lot. Man, those things were a right royal pain to heft around and transport from place to place. And they were light and compact compared to the FW900!
 
I got an old desk, black finish that actually pretty small and over 20 years old and it holds my Ultra Tower + FW900 which is 42Kg.

Not the kind of thing I move much bar a few inches back and forth to dust/clean around.

At end of they day quality over size or power use for me.
 
spoffle said:
The quality of CRT monitors is hugely overstated
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I hope you are right.

Well it seems my CRT must have heard me and its heart broke as it died a death with a pop and smoke. RIP.

So I've had to order instead of waiting for freesync (Which I have found out my 280X will not support anyway).

I decided to go for:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-024-AO&groupid=17&catid=1851

As it seems to suite what I was after at a very good price (thanks black friday).
Should be here for monday. I hope it wont disappoint.
 
Hmm, I don't think upgrading to a modest/cheap TN panel will be a 'fair' way to judge 'modern' screens compared to what you've been using. You will no doubt fire up your new purchase and bemoan this pointless new technology :)

I currently have on my desk the following LED monitors: a quality Dell IPS, a very good TN (Rog Swift) and an older Dell VA based screen (2407Wfp).
Over in the corner I also have old my CRT (Mitsubishi diamond pro, 19"), one of the best of the times.

I recently fired up my old CRT again, and whilst I was initially very impressed for the first 10 minutes or so (motion clarity and lack of blur as we know), after a while the old niggles started to come back. Especially for desktop use - looked horribly blurred compared to my other screens and text difficult and really unpleasant to read.
Also, the blacks and contrast weren't a million miles better, if at all really, certainly not the chasm of difference I thought I remembered.

This was also before I got the Rog Swift too a few months ago. Hands down, if you get a good one, this is the best gaming monitor you can currently buy, and the closest thing to a CRT experience you can currently get I think if you use the ULMB feature.
 
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wunkley said:
I recently fired up my old CRT again, and whilst I was initially very impressed for the first 10 minutes or so (motion clarity and lack of blur as we know), after a while the old niggles started to come back. Especially for desktop use - looked horribly blurred compared to my other screens and text difficult and really unpleasant to read.
Also, the blacks and contrast weren't a million miles better, if at all really, certainly not the chasm of difference I thought I remembered.
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I see what you mean about desktop use. Even this cheap TN seems much clearer for reading and general use on the desktop then the CRT. Anything else though and the CRT tops it easily.
Now I have experienced the many pitfalls of a TN panel. Black is grey, colors are washed out, viewing angle is not adequate for 24" (discoloration at sides even when sat right in front). I should be disappointed, but it was dirt cheap for a 144hz and it delivered what it promised which is pretty good response time.
I will, however, never purchase another TN panel unless is dirt cheap again. Its just poor tech IMO.
 
Have you done much in the way of adjusting the settings or trying to calibrate it? It may not bridge the gap that you're experiencing from your old CRT, but in my experience most TN panel monitors are completely horrible out of the box, especially in brightness and contrast settings, and colours generally need some adjusting too. You can find ICC profiles for your monitor if you look around.

All of my monitors were improved hugely after some basic calibration. I'm not saying you'll suddenly fall in love with TN as a tech but it should make a big difference from the out of the box experience.
 
Not matter how well you calibrate a TN panel, it'll never deal with the biggest problem of all, the gamma shift/poor viewing angles.

That's my number 1 issue with TN.
 
spoffle said:
Not matter how well you calibrate a TN panel, it'll never deal with the biggest problem of all, the gamma shift/poor viewing angles.

That's my number 1 issue with TN.
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Yes, I'm not suggesting that you can calibrate away all of TN's shortcomings, just that you can make a huge improvement especially to contrast, black luminance and colour saturation with a modicum of tweaking.

I mean for me, motion blur is such a big issue that I prefer TN despite its limitations, but if I had to live with the out of the box experiences I've had, no amount of motion clarity would make me stick with it...
 
I used a Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2060u for many years (manf. date 11/2001!) and thought I would never change it until OLED became affordable. I used to play Quake 2/3 and a lot of other fast paced games which needed a monitor with a fast response and quite frankly a lot of monitors were absolutely dire at handling motion, such is the limitation of LCD technology.

I tried quite a few different displays during this period and found much the same as the poster with regards TN panels and they were always relegated to secondary displays or returned, also IPS glow used to really annoy me.

It wasn't until 2 years ago that I finally retired the 2060u and ended up buying 2x Dell 2412s (1920x1200) and although only 60hz were the closest compromise to the CRT (which incidently is still in working order and I can't bear to part with it, let alone able to move it further than the garage ;))

They aren't perfect, but I still play a fair amount of Quake Live and other FPS games and to be honest I tend not to notice their limitations now, and the benefits of a increased clarity of text has more than made up for the shortfall.

PS. The Dell 2415 was released in September. 1920x1200. TFTCentral reviewed it and seemed to like it a lot.
 
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strumpusplunket said:
Have you done much in the way of adjusting the settings or trying to calibrate it?
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Yep, spent most of my time adjusting the setting because the starting settings seem to be adjusted to burn your eyes out. Way to bright. I have got things to an acceptable level for me now but thanks for the tip. I am slightly annoyed that I can't really use the dynamic contrast because it just goes way too bright again which is a bit of a bummer.

A bit more about the new screen. The supplied cables are inadequate for 144hz! A single link DVI (needs dual), a VGA that cant handle above 60hz it seems, full DP port but I only have DP mini's to connect to, and a HDMI connector but hdmi is limited in settings and refresh. Thankfully the old VGA cable from the CRT came to the rescue with the help of a little hack to the monitor settings. I have ordered newer cables and I am interested to see how well the DP works as I wasnt even aware they existed.

"They aren't perfect, but I still play a fair amount of Quake Live and other FPS games and to be honest I tend not to notice their limitations now, and the benefits of a increased clarity of text has more than made up for the shortfall"
Quake is another old thing that still kicks butt. I havent tried quake live yet so I will add that to my steam. You are so right about the clarity by the way.

I am making the new screen sound like its really bad but its not that bad really. I am not surprised about any of the issues I have. I was warned, and I knowingly bought it while keeping my expectations low. I cant expect miracles, I bought it cheap and got ok quality thats limited only by the TN tech it uses. I could probably have spent a lot more and still had the same issues. I have to say though, the clarity of the desktop and text over the CRT is a very big plus point that I did not expect. Very pleased with that. Reading your comments is a much nicer experience now. That alone seems worth the price.

I am going to keeping an eye out for the last of the ultimate wide CRTs though, like some of the ones mentioned in this thread, because they just look awesome, I have the space for one and I love the fact they still out do a lot of the newer tech in important areas. The only problems will be finding one, and then how to get it shipped :eek:
 
Hi, I'm still a Quaker! :D aswell as other things !

I think you made a good choice really with the monitor for the price but with an unlimited budget, I'd have suggested that VA panel EIZO 23.5" 120hz ( fake 240hz) LCD, but it ain't cheap.

I've been through all the major crt's and fast hz lcd's ever made pretty much over the past 15 years. I even had a few widescreen FW-900 CRT beasts where I'd run them at 1440x900@120hz! They were real nice at the time! But I've now just got used to the advantages of fast hz tn panels over time, with the txt clarity etc, and no response drawbacks ingame.
 
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