24" Widescreen CRT (FW900) From Ebay arrived,Comments.

I don't think it would be worth it for me personally, considering the sides are mostly peripheral for immersion feeling + the bezel gap size. I like the videos I've seen of the fw900 + side lcd eyefinity at 1680x1050. I'm hoping to do 1080 version.

You can see my FW900 next to those 1080P Samsung's and the 1080P vertically stretched image. If you correct for the aspect ratio of 16:9 with black bars the image will be quite a bit smaller, down to somewhere in the 20-21" view-able 1080P range.

I would love to find some 1920x1200 panels to match the same res across all three. Guess I can dream.

I've done quite a bit of research and 22-23" 1920x1200 LCD's with LED back lights just don't exist. Everything that is 120Hz are 1080P or 1680x1050 22" but CCFL thick and won't overlap the FW900 any good. The closest 16:10 I can find are the 60Hz 24" Samsung S24A850D, Dell U2412M and HP HP ZR2440w. They would be slightly larger than the FW900 image, which isn't necessarily a bad thing for peripheral vision but you would be limited with AMD cards as nVidia cannot do mixed refresh rates.

That would be one benefit of going 3x FW900 in Surround is that you could get 3-4 Kepler, run each FW900 off of one each card in the SLI setup. (I've always found nVidia to do Surround better than AMD Eyefinity).

I find 16:10 does Eyefinity/Surround much better than 16:9 displays. That extra height is really a bonus and you don't have as much of a crazy wide and narrow view as three 1080P screens lined up.

That about sums it up. No contest.

Yes, you can really see the IPS glow and back light bleed on the Apple versus the nice blacks on the FW900. And the motion picture is just LOL. Even 120Hz LCD's get smashed by the FW900 in that regard.
 
I've ordered an Eye One Display 2 calibrator to calibrate and match the FW900 and NEC 24WMGX3 next to it. Is it possible to hardware calibrate the Sony with WinDAS or some other software and the i1?

Where could I buy the WinDAS cable? Any Ebay links? I've been reading this thread for the past couple of days and I'm at page 150 now and all the links to the cable and software are dead.

Thank you.
 
21" or so at 16:9 should work out great since the side panel LED edgelit LCDs will be 21.5" viewable 1080p.
 
How many years/hours do you think you have on yours? I am thinking about buying another one to rotate between two to keep their longevity up and for backup.

I've been following Vito's tips to turn it off every time with the front power button when I shut down my computer. I also have it plugged into a UPS. This monitor sure does click a lot which I'd imagine is some sort of relay. Mine clicks about 5 times on every start up so I have been waiting until Windows load until I turn it on. I know relays have finite lives. Has anyone had issue with the clicking relay going bad in the past?

cant really say. friend bought it from a warehouse (not sure how long it sat, or for how long it was previously used), that friend used it for a year or so as his main monitor, then garaged it for a year or longer. i took it off his hands and garaged it myself for a year or so. then one boring weekend i powered it on and it hasnt left my side since. been using it as my daily main monitor for a couple years now maybe.

no clicking whatsoever, unless you count the sound it makes changing resolutions.

i also use the power button to turn it off everytime i need to do so, and i have it connected to a surge protector with a monster of a power cord... because... i dont know, its this huge beastly blue-colored power cord. just looks cool.

just want to hold onto the monitor in proper working condition as a benchmark for future monitors i buy.
 
Why yes, it did feel good, very good. *flex*

I think Nick Cage (8mm, Face Off) would play a great “me”, and for the “HP”, let’s go for Rachael Weisz (The Mummy, Constantine) or Natalie Portman. :D

:cool:

After "Trespass" Nick really needs a hit to bounce him back and I'm pretty sure "Red Headed Stepchild" is gonna be that hit! I'm thinking Rachael Weisz & Natalie Portman, possibly kindling some sort of "Wild Things" vibe...you know gotta spice it up a bit hollyweird style.
 
cant really say. friend bought it from a warehouse (not sure how long it sat, or for how long it was previously used), that friend used it for a year or so as his main monitor, then garaged it for a year or longer. i took it off his hands and garaged it myself for a year or so. then one boring weekend i powered it on and it hasnt left my side since. been using it as my daily main monitor for a couple years now maybe.

no clicking whatsoever, unless you count the sound it makes changing resolutions.

i also use the power button to turn it off everytime i need to do so, and i have it connected to a surge protector with a monster of a power cord... because... i dont know, its this huge beastly blue-colored power cord. just looks cool.

just want to hold onto the monitor in proper working condition as a benchmark for future monitors i buy.

Ya, the clicking when it changes resolutions. It sounds like a relay which has a finite life, was just curious if anyone had one of those go bad on them.

As for the power cord, the FW900 only uses 150-170 watts so you don't need a special cord. ;)

I hear ya on putting the FW900 on the desk and not going back. LCD's just don't do it for me after using the FW900. I am mesmerized by crystal clear motion. :D

People have just gotten so used to LCD blur that they think it's normal and/or acceptable. I'm enjoying the FW900 so much I am going to attempt 3x FW900 bezels removed landscape Surround with Kepler. :eek:
 
Yeah, I did hear about his financial issues...he is waay overdue for a “hit”.
Wild Things +1 for that reference. I tell ya, when I first saw that movie, it was like watching a 2 hour softcore pron :eek:
Can you say IMAX 3D...ha!
 
I forgot to include \ ask:
Has anyone here bought a FW900 from the accurate IT guys recently? Kinda curious what the condition, etc is and if I should hoard more of these pieces of ass (so far I have 3)...
 
I forgot to include \ ask:
Has anyone here bought a FW900 from the accurate IT guys recently? Kinda curious what the condition, etc is and if I should hoard more of these pieces of ass (so far I have 3)...

Is basically... You get what you paid for... I have calibrated and adjusted so many GDM-FW900s from customers that bought their B- units from this outfit. I would say no more...

Hope this helps...

Sincerely,

Unkle Vito!
 
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As for motion, here are two Samsung 120Hz panels flanking the FW900 in Eyefinity playing Skyrim "AFK camera spinning". The FW900 stays very clear and just look at the side monitors. FW900 will appear slightly darker due to the nature of the way it refreshes and camera capture.

Really great example of what has been lost in the transition to LCD. Even the fastest LCDs are just slightly less crappy than the slower ones. A good CRT just blows away every LCD with response time. It makes me want to buy this CRT, but I can't deal with the weight, size, and worries of reliability due to age and being used.

Hopefully soon I'll be able to get something, maybe OLED, that comes close to the way it used to be with CRT!
 
I've ordered an Eye One Display 2 calibrator to calibrate and match the FW900 and NEC 24WMGX3 next to it. Is it possible to hardware calibrate the Sony with WinDAS or some other software and the i1?

Where could I buy the WinDAS cable? Any Ebay links? I've been reading this thread for the past couple of days and I'm at page 150 now and all the links to the cable and software are dead.

Which one of these should I get?

Does WinDAS work with these USB cables?
 
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For fast motion gaming, it should in theory be capable of much better response time than any LCD, and maybe comparable or even better than a CRT. Whether or not this model does is another question. Maybe Vega can buy it and take another motion picture ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLED
"OLEDs can also have a faster response time than standard LCD screens. Whereas LCD displays are capable of between 2 and 16 ms response time offering a refresh rate of 60 to 480 Hz, an OLED can theoretically have less than 0.01 ms response time, enabling up to 100,000 Hz refresh rate."
 
i found a 15" 1600x1200 compaq for 5$ at a local shame shop and hooked it up. It's not my fw-900 but it brings back memories. My monitor died from a powersurge rip. If anyone would like to service it for under 300$ or would like to send me one I would be much appreciated. I have cash. If you have an extra one sitting around let me know and i will provide you ample compensation.
 
I've been enjoying my FW900 for almost five years now, but it broke my heart last night. The on-screen image spontaneously rotated about 12 degrees counterclockwise, and could not be corrected using the OSD. I'm hoping this is a temporary thing, and the monitor will work fine when I turn it on after work today. :confused:

At least the picture still looks great... Maybe I can stick a phone book under the right wheels of my desk chair and sit tilted at an angle to the left? My headphones might fall off, though.

Thank God - the monitor seems to work fine now. I think the problem was due to a cat jumping off of the top of the monitor... Shook something inside, maybe?
 
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A month ago, I've rebuilt my main desktop to be used for development purposes only, and installed a clean version of Windows 8 DP, ditching my old Windows XP along with a couple games I'd play occasionally.

Since then, I've been slowly getting an itch to play something, at least now and then. So I've decided to use my old desktop and set it up together with my trusy 21" CRT sitting in the basement in another room. It's gonna be great! :D
 
I just got a Accurate IT FW900 in and it is pretty blurry compared to my Vito FW900. I've adjusted all of the on-screen controls and the fly-back focus pots but I cannot get it to clear up. Do you guys know what else I could try? If I adjust the horizontal convergence the bottom half vertical screen goes way off convergence from the top and vice-versa.

I've noticed there are quite a few adjustable rings on the electron guns in the back that are held in position with anti-slip glue. Would adjusting those have any benefit? Also this monitor has a faint buzzing sound from the electron gun area whereas the Vito FW900 is nearly silent.

EDIT: Just been reading the service manual, talk about Engrish. I see there are rough convergence pots off the side boards on the yoke. Kinda hard to understand what they want you to do with the purity, 4, 6, and 2 pole magnets. Going to have to school myself up on this stuff if I will keep these screens for a long while. Anyone got a good CRT adjustment image?
 
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Not sure on that. It could be the convergence but there are other things you could eliminate as possibilites too. What rez are you trying to run? Did you try a lower rez to see if its still blurry? Sometimes timings can cause that, from what I remember about messing with powerstrip a long time ago. Also signal strength, electric/magnetic interference on the signal wire and power feed. With age these monitors can bloom from what I understand also, and often take 1/2 hour or more to warm up fully to full display clarity and contrast.
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I'd try a shorter cable direct from another device in order to eliminate any signal possibilities for testing purposes. I also used to run mine on a line conditioner to keep the power clean. Another quirk I found is rotating and refitting the bnc caps slightly onto their ports was necessary on occasion.
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.. Speaking of testing on another device -- I've been running my fw900 off the vga output of my windows xp netbook, which it works fine off of. However I can't get it to display from my 6990 windows 7 machine. It will show up in display properties and catalyst control center and I can manipulate its properties on those display applets, but no image will display on the monitor itself. To be fair, I'm adapting either the dvi output or mini displayport output (tried both) off the 6990 to hdmi to run the distance, then to dvi, and then to female dvi -> vga so I might be converting too much. This is a longer run that I used to use for the crt so I'll have to order a long dvi to vga cable to test with and though I have a dvi to bnc cable it is too short so I'll have to order a longer one of those as well.
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I just thought of something else I could try with my existing cables that I haven't done yet : I could swap my mini displayport extension cable run from my 27" monitor and slap one of the active mini displayport to female dvi-adapters on the monitor end of the run, then attach my dvi to bnc cable to it.
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Tomorrow I will bring the fw900 crt close to the pc with the 6990 in it and try the medium length dvi to bnc cable I have for a more direct connection on the 6990's single dvi output. Vega (or anyone else with a 6990) , I just want to make sure that you actually got your 6990 to display on your fw900 at all before I buy cables and waste time trying to get this to work. If you could let me know thanks. If its just a matter of getting a more direct cable run that would be no problem, but otherwise I'd have to start considering selling my 6990.
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Yes, 6990 can display fine for FW900. That is one crazy conversion chain you have going on there. You definitely want the least amount of those as possible. Like on mine, I go from GPU > DVI out (RAMDAC analog of course) and convert that right to BNC5 all the way. (I have a 25 foot run).

Don't bother with active DP to VGA adapters, they are rubbish. They only have low frequency RAMDAC's that can only do 1920x1200@60Hz. My eyes would bleed at that Hz.

I run my blurry Accurate IT FW900 on the same BNC5 cable and power cord that my terrific Vito monitor runs off of so it is the monitor. I use a super high quality Belkin cable and power comes off a UPS.

I've tried lower and higher resolutions and they are all blurry. Since this is the cheapo FW900 I don't mind fiddling with the adjustments. I am pretty good at this sort of thing.
 
ok thanks. I appreciate the definitive response. I thought I'd ask you first to be positive before I went too crazy with buying cables lol. I do have a decent dvi to bnc cable from when I formerly ran my fw900 alongside a hannspree 27.5" tn, but its far too short (around 12') for the run distance to my pc case that I have evolved into now. I only tried the varied multiple conversion runs since all my runs up until recently were hdmi and adapted at the ends, usually just a long heavy gauge hdmi cable with a dvi adapter on each end for pc's, or straight hdmi to my tv. That is up until recently when I added a few long heavy gauge mini display port extension cables for my display port monitors. I did have a shopping cart with some long analog cables set up last week but I haven't finalized the order yet. I wanted to make sure my fw900 was working first before I invested in more cables. I hope the dvi to bnc cable I have will allow my 6990 to display on the fw900 tomorrow when I get around to lugging the crt into the same room as the pc case. I appreciate the heads up that it did work for you. I'll just confirm tomorrow in case of anything quirky with my setup.
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Ah nice thanks.

I turn on this Accurate IT FW900 and when it is warming up and I open up a full screen window like Chrome the CRT image expands or "zooms" in and then warps back to normal size. Something else my my main FW900 doesn't do. This is in addition to the convergence issues. I think this thing is definitely on it's last legs.
 
Ah nice thanks.

I turn on this Accurate IT FW900 and when it is warming up and I open up a full screen window like Chrome the CRT image expands or "zooms" in and then warps back to normal size. Something else my my main FW900 doesn't do. This is in addition to the convergence issues. I think this thing is definitely on it's last legs.

Based on what you are describing, the AccurateIT GDM-FW900 has a bad FBT, among other issues. Again, that is an assessment made based on your description of the initial blurriness issue. The unit may have other functional issues that need to be diagnosed including the CRT for shorts, guns integrity, and emission, among others... You may be correct about this unit being at the end of its life.

Hope this helps...

Sincerely,

Unkle Vito!
 
ah thats too bad. I've had two from accurate IT that were good, other than a few mars on bezel and maybe slight one on anti glare. Being made in 2002 I think, lifespan could come into question on any, and refurb could be a bit of a dice roll on anything.
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No offense but calibrated or no, I can't stomach $1k with no clear shipping option, the only option being considerably more $ setting up shipping myself from cali somehow - so I'd have to stick with accurate IT or scouring forums and craigslist .. $1k + figure out your own shipping at cost is steep especially considering that these screens can have a limited lifespan at their best quality. "A to A+" condition used to go for $460 - $650 at most shipped, and used from prev owners are found for $150 - $350 usually. If I found a dealer who priced more like $750 including freight shipping for an "A - A+" it would have been more of a consideration.
... I never pay for calibration on any of my stuff, I'd rather tweak it myself.. so that is another issue that it is rolled into the premium price. Unless it was so bad that it was basically in need of "repair" (a repair locally here is around $150 + parts), or was given a complete overhaul with newer parts installed or something, I can't see that kind of price.. I wouldn't pay extra to tweak the rest that I could mess with myself well enough for my purposes. I could buy three of these "B - B+" 's (some mars and scratches) from accurate IT including shipping to my door for the same price, though I know there is no guarantee that they will be great and "all sales final".
... So for me personally - I might roll the dice on one more from accurate IT, or I have someone in the northeast that might be willing to ship their used one for around $375 total to my door eventually.. Hopefully having two + one for parts (or to be repaired later), or my single working one + non-functioning one for parts/repair, will last me until some better tech like oled becomes more affordable at the enthusiast level some year. Otherwise I'd get by with my 120hz 27" TN even though it blurs. I'll be comparing 21.5" 60hz TN + fw900 100hz 1080p + 21.5" 60hz tn LLL eyefinity soon. Eventually I may sell the 120hz tn if I am happy enough with the fw900 eyefinity but I'll have to see how it goes.
 
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You have to realize that as these monitors get older, low time A+ calibrated unit prices will increase not decrease. The quality of these monitors over LCD still hold true. Also considering inferior LCD tech has pretty much plateaued and affordable consumer OLED/surface LED is easily still 3+ years away. Pretty much one of the reasons I am clearing out the last of Vito's A+ stock.

Do you have the specialized equipment to calibrate the monitors to their fullest? Some people seem to have luck with the Accurate IT but this one here I have is pretty unusable. And now as I type this the image is shimmering back and forth half way up the screen arg. Oh well if Accurate IT won't exchange it for another at least I am only out $325 and I can use it for parts if a power supply board goes out or something on my A+ units.
 
yeah like I said, it is a roll of the dice and my personal decision from a risk/cost and lifespan standpoint. Others may come to different decisions. I've had luck with accurate IT on my first fw900 from ebay years ago, though it was listed as "A" condition, and crossed my fingers on the second "B" one recently Luckily it looks good other than some scratching on the bezel and a thin single vertical scratch on the anti glare. I'll prob remove the AG eventually. After I get some time on the eyefinity to compare vs the 120hz 27" more I'll decide which I'll stick with. I still have another used fw900 I can have shipped from a home user if I bother him enough about it too but I'll see how I feel about everything first.
 
I found out that putting de-bezeled FW900's right next to each other they seem to both operate fine and no interference. Back to using the Vito FW900 as the other one was making me go cross-eyed. ;)

I wonder if Fresnel lenses could be used to help with the bezel gap, hmm.
 
I have two FW900s that I got from accurate IT recently and they are great. The first one was apparently owned by Ike Turner and has 5 scratches that went all the way to the glass, but the picture is great and the second one is pretty much perfect except for scuffs on the bezels and shroud. At $325 bucks out the door with shipping included, I am very happy and hope they last me until we get newer displays that dont suck.

I would love to own an A grade example from Unkle Vito, but spending that kind of green isnt in the cards for me at the moment, so I have to put his beautiful fw900s on my wish list.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v725/l88bastard/AlphaDesk.jpg

I think its important to note that whether your unit is A grade, B Grade or naughty grade it doesn't really matter in terms of reliability. I have seen A grade units die early after having only a xanax & glass of champagne in the bathtub while gnarly C grade units can rock a wicked lifestyle of cheap booze & tawdry hookers and live on forever .
 
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I heard Ike was sad seeing his FW900 go. He was quoted on CNN before he died as liking the exceptional motion clarity when the monitor was thrown across the room. (He lifted a lot of weights).

We should have a "strongest desk contest". How many FW900's can your desk hold before it implodes or the floor cracks. ;)
 
I actually keep mine on a heavy wooden pillar stand that was made to hold microwaves I think. It looks nice and has a cabinet door on the lower half. It happens to be the same height as my desk so I am able to keep the fw900 butted up against my desk were it appears much like an lcd screen as long as I don't look behind it.
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old pic from when I tried out a 37" westinghouse but it shows the idea of the stand against the desk. On the other side of the stand there is an open area beneath the surface the monitor is on, and beneath that a nice door with trimming and a knob.

westy-FullDesk-B_10-31-06.jpg


I don't keep the desk there anymore. I took over a corner of the room to the right of it , with the desk facing out. but I still use the pillar stand for the fw900. It makes it look a lot cleaner, aligns with paired LCD's better, and keeps its footprint from overtaking the desk. Some of the other stuff and peripherals changed from that pic too btw.. the pic is from '06.
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On the other hand my 34" widscreen xbr960 crt tv is around 196 lb and is nearly crushing the tv stand its on. I wouldn't even lean on the top of the tv for fear that it would collapse. I really should do something about it now that you reminded me of it.
 
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Hi guys. I've got a mitsubishi 2070sb -- its been getting blurry and ive been thinkng of chucking it... is this something worth trying to save?

Also, so i dont have to read through 400 pages, can someone link me to "uncle vito's" store? lol
 


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Sung to the tune of "proud mary"

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Left a "good" LCD.. but-don't pity
I'm still play'n on the WAN ev'ry night and day
And I never lost one minute of sleepin'
Worryin' 'bout the (smeared)way things might have been

LCDs keep on Blur'n
Big F-dub-ble'ya keep on Show'n
Mo-shin', mo-shin', mo-shin' without blur~r

Played a lot of FPS's
Shred a lot of Gibs on all kinds of screens
But I never saw the good side of some spinning
'Til I hitched a ride on a FW900-C-R-T

LCDs keep on Blur'n
Big F-dub-ble'ya keep on Show'n
Mo-shin', mo-shin', mo-shin' without blur~r


If you come down to the thread
Bet you gonna find crt-people who live
You don't have to worry 'cause you-don't-like liquid crystals
People on the thread are happy with this

LCDs keep on Blur'n
Big F-dub-ble'ya keep on Show'n
Mo-shin', mo-shin', mo-shin' without blur~r
..
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Mo-shin', mo-shin', mo-shin' without blur~r
Mo-shin', mo-shin', mo-shin' without blur~r
Mo-shin', mo-shin', mo-shin' without blur~r

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I can confirm the Ikea Galant 64" desk tolerates 3 pretty well. Since I put them far back as possible rather than directly on the load bearing frame the wood warped marginally. You'd never know it though. It's really one of Ikea's least worst products and I think looked pretty good. Precisely the minimum width required to triple your FW900 fun.
 
ah thats too bad. I've had two from accurate IT that were good, other than a few mars on bezel and maybe slight one on anti glare. Being made in 2002 I think, lifespan could come into question on any, and refurb could be a bit of a dice roll on anything.
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No offense but calibrated or no, I can't stomach $1k with no clear shipping option, the only option being considerably more $ setting up shipping myself from cali somehow - so I'd have to stick with accurate IT or scouring forums and craigslist .. $1k + figure out your own shipping at cost is steep especially considering that these screens can have a limited lifespan at their best quality. "A to A+" condition used to go for $460 - $650 at most shipped, and used from prev owners are found for $150 - $350 usually. If I found a dealer who priced more like $750 including freight shipping for an "A - A+" it would have been more of a consideration.
... I never pay for calibration on any of my stuff, I'd rather tweak it myself.. so that is another issue that it is rolled into the premium price. Unless it was so bad that it was basically in need of "repair" (a repair locally here is around $150 + parts), or was given a complete overhaul with newer parts installed or something, I can't see that kind of price.. I wouldn't pay extra to tweak the rest that I could mess with myself well enough for my purposes. I could buy three of these "B - B+" 's (some mars and scratches) from accurate IT including shipping to my door for the same price, though I know there is no guarantee that they will be great and "all sales final".
... So for me personally - I might roll the dice on one more from accurate IT, or I have someone in the northeast that might be willing to ship their used one for around $375 total to my door eventually.. Hopefully having two + one for parts (or to be repaired later), or my single working one + non-functioning one for parts/repair, will last me until some better tech like oled becomes more affordable at the enthusiast level some year. Otherwise I'd get by with my 120hz 27" TN even though it blurs. I'll be comparing 21.5" 60hz TN + fw900 100hz 1080p + 21.5" 60hz tn LLL eyefinity soon. Eventually I may sell the 120hz tn if I am happy enough with the fw900 eyefinity but I'll have to see how it goes.

Buying a A+, B+/-, C+/- or D or F rated monitor is all 100% preference of the buyer. If the buyer wants to pay for a Lamborghini and can afford it, it will be solely his/her preference. If the buyer is on a tight budget and wants to roll the dice and take a chance on a low rated unit, it will be solely his/her preference. In the end... "you'll get what you paid for..." and it always works out that way. Sometimes low rated units will turned out to be good units, but in my 35 years + experience in the industry, I have seen the majority of low rated units ending up either in repair shops (mine included) and/or in the e-Waste scrap yard. It never fails...

The process of calibrating and adjusting these units is time consuming and burdensome (5-6 hours), if done correctly without cutting corners and steps; and specialized high end laboratory grade equipment is used. This is the "value added" element that goes into every unit in my shop.

Lastly, my only purpose of posting in this forum is to educate and share knowledge and not to sell my products... Thats is all!

Like I said earlier, whether a buyer wants to buy an A+ fully calibrated and adjusted monitor to Sony factory specs and pay premium market price for it, or for the price of one of these units buy two or perhaps three or more low grade units, it will be solely and 100% the buyer's preference...

Hope this helps...

Sincerely,

Unkle Vito!
 
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