Current state of the CRT display

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Xpl1c1t

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 29, 2004
Messages
478
Seems like everyone, including myself, is using a LCD display these days.

We all know of the benefits of CRT, and those of LCD. Gamers have seemingly converted, but all who lived to game 5-10 years back have a place in their heart for the CRT.

So, in attempt to rekindle my affection for the CRT, i am wondering if there are any renegade CRT manufacturers who continue to produce aggressive quality tubes; even without the market drive to do so. Looking for some hardcore shit.

Let me know if what i hope for still exists.
-xpl1c1t
 
i think NEC and Sony still make them...


i have a 21 inch lcd, but truely miss my CRT... only got the lcd cause i don't think my desk will support the weight of a crt that heavy.
 
CRT's have gone by the wayside due to the lack of availability. If they were still cheap enough and largely available more people would still be using them. Don't forget that the LCD's are getting better all the time. I'm very happy with my 3007WFP and I wouldn't go back to a CRT now.
 
CRT PQ is unrivaled. I hook my PC up to my CRT-TV via s-video every now and then, and things like Oblivion and The Witcher (Oblivion especially, or anything with natural environs) look just orgasmic. If you compare them side by side, my LCD-monitor doesn't even put up a fight.

The only problems are noise and flicker, the latter being enough to sustain my hardcore active-matrix fanboism. LCDs are far, far easier on my eyes.
 
buffbiff21 said:
and things like Oblivion and The Witcher (Oblivion especially, or anything with natural environs) look just orgasmic. If you compare them side by side, my LCD-monitor doesn't even put up a fight..
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Indeed, LCD just cannot do foliage justice in games like a good CRT. I would have loved to have a legend like the FW900, but that thing would collapse my desk. Also want to use my PC for more browsing, and my eyes are strictly LCD acclimated for reading.
 
I picked up a FW900 from a liquidation auction several years back - and I LOVED that thing. Had to reinforce my desk though.

Then I moved house and the workmen destroyed it :(.

I'd be thrilled if some brave company out there began manufacturing something similar.
 
You are pretty much stuck with used CRT's unless you go for the ultra low or ultra high end. I got sick of LCD's and have bought a few used 21" and 22" Sony/Hp/Viewsonic trinatron and diamondtron crt's in the last few months via pawnshops and Craigslist. Did not spend much money on them either. Hoping they last me til LCD's replacement is available at a reasonable cost.
 
GORANKAR said:
You are pretty much stuck with used CRT's unless you go for the ultra low or ultra high end. I got sick of LCD's and have bought a few used 21" and 22" Sony/Hp/Viewsonic trinatron and diamondtron crt's in the last few months via pawnshops and Craigslist. Did not spend much money on them either. Hoping they last me til LCD's replacement is available at a reasonable cost.
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Not for a few years I think. OLED will not be affordable till 2012 I think. We shall see though.
 
i lubs my CRT:D

i actually put it to the side for now because i'm not gaming as much and my benq was sitting in its box for 9 months after i bought it.

if i get the urge to fire up a game like doom or splinter cell or even a twitchy FPS, i'll break out the trusty CRT:)
 
Dunan said:
i lubs my CRT:D

i actually put it to the side for now because i'm not gaming as much and my benq was sitting in its box for 9 months after i bought it.

if i get the urge to fire up a game like doom or splinter cell or even a twitchy FPS, i'll break out the trusty CRT:)
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If you have a good LCD you'll never pull out that CRT again.
 
If you have a good CRT (FW900), you will never want an LCD. Well, at least until the thing dies. :p
 
CRT FTW, I'd check your local cragslist. IBM P275, P1110, any Sony Trinitron FD especially the GDM F series you can get from $20 to no more then $100.

A couple 21" on my desktop and I'm lovin it...

21crtslv6.jpg
 
CRT, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA
I just bought a 26 inch Acer{8 bit}......this panel has transformed my PC compared to my old 19in CRT.

HDTV looks superb...you should see how gorgeous a 720p of Natasha Bedingfield looks.
DVD looks excellent, but HDTV is noticeably better.....but don't think for a second DVD doesn't look good.

Hi res pics look incredible+ all the banners and graphics at any website have come alive with the extra res.

Games at 1920x1200 look awesome and I haven't seen any ghosting whatsoever on the 3 or games I loaded up, also, games at 1680x1080 upscaled to full screen look awesome as well.

When I first got it, text seemed small, but now seems normal.

I can only imagine that there's a world of difference between TN panels and any panel that ghosts compared to my "lowly" Acer.

My next LCD will be a 27....but my 26 makes my 68cm CRT TV look small.

Forget CRT, pay a few bob more and get a massive boost in your multimedia experience.
 
Dogmapog said:
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I don't see how LCDs 'boost your multimedia experience'. If anything, watching movies on a CRT is better. Not to mention the fact that I don't have to upscale anything, so I don't lose image quality. Resolution is still better on CRTs for their size when compared to LCDs (well, not counting IBM's T221). Also beats having to upgrade your video card every 6 months as if I can't run the newest games on the highest settings, I can just drop the resolution a bit.
 
jbzx86 said:
Not for a few years I think. OLED will not be affordable till 2012 I think. We shall see though.
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You are prolly right. I have four 21" and 22" flat ag crt monitors. They all work fine. Only using one at a time til they die should last me til then.
 
Dan_D said:
If you have a good LCD you'll never pull out that CRT again.
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well actually the only reason i put the CRT away is because it was made in 2001. i dont know how much its been used before, so i dont want to wear it out, i want it to last as long as possibe because its the best monitor picture wise i've ever owned. dont think for a minute when this one dies i wont be calling around looking for a new one. there is no equal to the sony FW900, CRT or LCD wise.
i did just recently purchase the NEC 2490 which I would say is equal but not better then my CRT, but its only a one trick wonder, (photo editing) and you really cant game on it. the only disadvantages i see crt's having to lcd's is weight, real estate, and text clarity, thats it. funny how no one complained about these things before lcd's made their debut:D


RangerSVT said:
QFT
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I disagree.

consumer LCD's have a ways to go to catch up to the picture quality of CRT's.
 
Ive been thinking about getting one of the Sony 21" CRTs. Is there anything I need to look for as problems or such when I check them out. I found a few in near me but need to know what to look for.
 
I'm really lovin' my 21" CRT + LCD combo. Both have their strengths. When I do graphics, I start out on the LCD, making use of its perfect geometry, and finish up color work on the CRT.

For gaming, its all about the CRT. Blacks are super-important for just about every first-person / third-person shooter (and even most racing games) I play. I like that I can drop down to 1280x960 in Crysis with maximum eye candy on my single 8800GT. Assuming I had the money for a high-end dual card setup, I don't believe I'd be that comfortable trading my blacks and superior colors for a huge LCD. I think the FW900 would be the perfect display for me, but my current CRT is new and I don't want to gamble with a used FW900.
 
Redleader said:
Ive been thinking about getting one of the Sony 21" CRTs. Is there anything I need to look for as problems or such when I check them out. I found a few in near me but need to know what to look for.
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When CRT's get old they lose a lot of their brightness, sharpness, and start having convergence issues. Make sure the display isn't too dim or blurry and check to see if there is an unacceptable amount of misconvergence, especially in the corners. If there are convergence problems, you'll see colored shadows around text. Minor convergence issues should be expected.

Most Sony Trinitrons have a "color return" feature which can possibly correct these issues.
 
Sorry to deviate from the current flow of posts, but I am truly interested; are there any renegade CRT manufacturers out there that continue to produce aggressively performing tubes? All of my searching has found me nothing, yet I would expect some [H] fellow to know.
 
Blue Fox said:
I don't see how LCDs 'boost your multimedia experience'. If anything, watching movies on a CRT is better. Not to mention the fact that I don't have to upscale anything, so I don't lose image quality. Resolution is still better on CRTs for their size when compared to LCDs (well, not counting IBM's T221). Also beats having to upgrade your video card every 6 months as if I can't run the newest games on the highest settings, I can just drop the resolution a bit.
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WTF are you talking about champ.....I can run Q4 at 12x10 and it still looked good, and as matter of fact, I could only get Q4 to run at 1600x1200 and it destroyed my CRT{fullscreen}.

No offense, but you're talking utter BS about the value of resolution on any small monitor......increasing the dot picth will make things tighter, but you DO NOT GAIN visible resolution, and this is where SIZE matters.....my hi-res photo's look 70 times better on the 26 than they do on a 19 at 1600x1200.....ie, they don't just look better, they also give me more information that I can actually see{visible resolution}.

Visible resolution applies to everything, including DVD and GAMES.....I can't wait to play a hi detailed open area game like HL2 again....

Go into the DELL 27 thread and ask them whether they'd go back to any CRT, LOLOLOL.
 
Scyles said:
I
For gaming, its all about the CRT. Blacks are super-important for just about every first-person / third-person shooter (and even most racing games)
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Black levels are very important for ALL PQ, but if you're using a tiny CRT, you'll see nothing{very little visible resolution}.....once you've seen a game at 1920x1200 on a 24 or larger LCD, you'll give CRT the ass.
 
Dogmapog said:
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You are comparing a crap CRT you had to a rather expensive LCD you currently have. Get back to me when you've tried a 24" widescreen CRT monitor like the one I have. The resolution on that thing is still better than your 26" LCD. I only run my desktop at 1920x1200 at 98hz, but it goes higher than that. Last time I took this thing to a LAN party (which was Quakecon), I still had people envious of it.
 
Blue Fox said:
You are comparing a crap CRT you had to a rather expensive LCD you currently have. Get back to me when you've tried a 24" widescreen CRT monitor like the one I have. The resolution on that thing is still better than your 26" LCD. I only run my desktop at 1920x1200 at 98hz, but it goes higher than that. Last time I took this thing to a LAN party (which was Quakecon), I still had people envious of it.
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Nonsense, my 19in Hitachi CRT was better than my brothers 21in Mitsubishi CRT{my Hitachi is 5.5 yrs old and hasnt broken down, I just upgraded}....also, your 24 is really a 22, mine is a 25.5 actual screen size......now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that your 24 is crap, but it's old, and can't be bought new.

All I'm doing is putting CRT in it's place+ IMO, LCD's only really got good from early 2007 with the Acer 26 and DELL/Samsung 27's.

I realize that not everyone will buy a 26-27, but I don't want these good quality LCD's brought down by bad quality small TN panels.

It would only take a 5 min demo to convince CRT owners to upgrade to good quality LCD.
 
Dogmapog said:
Nonsense, my 19in Hitachi CRT was better than my brothers 21in Mitsubishi CRT{my Hitachi is 5.5 yrs old and hasnt broken down, I just upgraded}....also, your 24 is really a 22, mine is a 25.5 actual screen size......now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that your 24 is crap, but it's old, and can't be bought new.

All I'm doing is putting CRT in it's place+ IMO, LCD's only really got good from early 2007 with the Acer 26 and DELL/Samsung 27's.

I realize that not everyone will buy a 26-27, but I don't want these good quality LCD's brought down by bad quality small TN panels.

It would only take a 5 min demo to convince CRT owners to upgrade to good quality LCD.
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I think you need to put some brand/model. Which monitors are good quality LCD?
I ask honestly because I've never seen one that blew my mind away...
 
Dunan said:
the only disadvantages i see crt's having to lcd's is weight, real estate, and text clarity, thats it. funny how no one complained about these things before lcd's made their debut:D
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Have you seen how small and flimsy the average desk has become since LCD's became predominate? Most of the crap out there that passes as a computer desk these days, can only barely support the weight of a 19" crt. When I switched back to crt, I took one look at my glass topped desk and knew it would not come to a good end.

It didn't.
 
I'm still running on three 21" Sony Ultrascan Trinitrons here (along with three more CRT backups) using fully shielded 3-foot cabling with ferrites.

For one full year back in 2006 I tried a high end LCD. I could never really get used to the fake colours and scaling issues. Gaming wise, it was noticably slower input lag than the CRT.

LCD does have some compelling visual improvements, no pixel crawl coming from the digital signalling is the main one. Desk space is not an issue (Three CRT's takes up a fair chunk of room) Electical power is not a huge issue either.

Sony and NEC do still make CRT's. Samsung was a holdout for a while, but they also moved over. I believe when Peter Jackson filmed Lord of the Rings, he used standard aspect Sony CRT's shader masked to widescreen with a simple tint cover on the screen (so you can see both aspects and scale accordingly)
 
ZenOps said:
Sony and NEC do still make CRT's. Samsung was a holdout for a while, but they also moved over. I believe when Peter Jackson filmed Lord of the Rings, he used standard aspect Sony CRT's shader masked to widescreen with a simple tint cover on the screen (so you can see both aspects and scale accordingly)
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Do you know anywhere I can find a list of Sony's current CRT lineup? I've not been able to find anything on their site. I sort of thought they ended their CRT lineup a few years ago.
 
the current state is this: pay my 100 dollars plus shipping and I will give you a near mint mitsubishi 2070sb.

otherwise i dont think you can find a decent one, well at least not that decent.
 
The consumer CRT lines are long gone. All you will find nowadays are special order products.

But you should be able to find a few 2002 CRTs left, for a very good price.
 
GORANKAR said:
Have you seen how small and flimsy the average desk has become since LCD's became predominate? Most of the crap out there that passes as a computer desk these days, can only barely support the weight of a 19" crt. When I switched back to crt, I took one look at my glass topped desk and knew it would not come to a good end.
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I have this glass desk from Office Depot: http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/863040/Office-Brand-Onyx-Matrix-Computer-Desk/

It's holding my 75lb, 21" CRT. I admit that I was certain that I was playing with fire and I even rigged up a safety net for the first few days in case the desk came crashing down. It has been well over 6 months now and everything is still fine. I have the CRT offset from the center now, closer to the left leg support, and I make sure I don't stack anything heavier than a Coke can on the desk.

Dogmapog said:
once you've seen a game at 1920x1200 on a 24 or larger LCD, you'll give CRT the ass.
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I sit pretty close to my CRT (it's on the edge of my desk) and it takes up a most of my field of view. There is a point that I am very near where having a larger display would mean that I would have to dart my eyes around quite a bit to see everything on screen, and that is counter-productive for gaming. This is why I believe the FW900 would be perfect for me.

I have had the pleasure of using the Dell 3007wfp and I must say that it "wow'ed" me. For graphics design, a 30" monitor is highly desirable. I very much preferred having all of my work on the one monitor versus my dual monitor setup. For gaming and movies, however, I found myself sitting further back from the monitor, effectively giving me the same effect as sitting closer to a smaller monitor.
 
The main problem with LCDs is black levels, they havent even come close to a CRT yet especially when you have them side by side (like I do now).

But if you want CRT quality in a bigger screen check out the Pioneer Kuro plasma's ..I just bought a 50" and, take it from a die-hard CRT fan, these plasmas absolutely rock and have by far the best non-crt black levels on the market.
 
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