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

jbltecnicspro said:
Thanks! But I guess my other question is - do you adjust by eye? Or do you wear magnifiers to see how well the guns are converged?
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When you use the proper equipment and correctly perform all the steps that WinDAS calls for, you do not need any special magnifiers to do the adjustment. I have been doing it for years and never had the need to use magnifying glasses (we have magnifying goggles in the lab for other uses).

Hope this helps...

Sincerely,

Unkle Vito!
 
LAGRUNAUER said:
When you use the proper equipment and correctly perform all the steps that WinDAS calls for, you do not need any special magnifiers to do the adjustment. I have been doing it for years and never had the need to use magnifying glasses (we have magnifying goggles in the lab for other uses).

Hope this helps...

Sincerely,

Unkle Vito!
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Okay. Thanks! I need to get my hands on a generator then. :).
 
jbltecnicspro said:
Oh and off-topic, but is this the oldest, non-stickied thread in [H]?
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good question.

I got this thread stickied as a favourite in my adress book.

Back in 2007, people yelled "ban this thread, get rid of these losers that still use CRT monsters" (ok exaggerated bit).

I guess we will end up in the same street as people who love old philips towers, cars without electronics and faxes that run on steam power.. :D

on a more serious note: The reason this thread still exists, is that manufacturers decided they would gamble all the way on flat screens, a gamble indeed, since the tehnology of 'm was crap in the first years they were mass produced and sold worldwide. Manufacturers handily made customers believe this was the new thing, less volume and weight and more suited for offices. The last argument was imho the only valid one. Crt is still best gaming screen (and for other stuff too if like photo and film stuff, if yer a fan), its open to debate if the stroboscope flat screen match up to the Pinnacle of CRT tech, the fw900.

Short story: reason this thread keeps on running is that a small niche of the desktop users know and experienced first hand that this CRT tech, aside from the volume of the thing and the radiation it gives off, is still superior to 95+% of the flat screens produced worldwide, for gaming (which is what people mostly use it for i bet).

I bet some units of the fw900 series will still function in 2050. Try to find a flat screen that has that long longevity... I may be bold, but i think they are produced to malfunction within years, like new generation cell phones. Its all capitalism and consumer market strategies.

One of the reasons CRT tech wasn't continued is cause people just didn't buy a new one fast enough... right?


/rant off hehe :)
 
atwix said:
good question.

I got this thread stickied as a favourite in my adress book.

Back in 2007, people yelled "ban this thread, get rid of these losers that still use CRT monsters" (ok exaggerated bit).

I guess we will end up in the same street as people who love old philips towers, cars without electronics and faxes that run on steam power.. :D

on a more serious note: The reason this thread still exists, is that manufacturers decided they would gamble all the way on flat screens, a gamble indeed, since the tehnology of 'm was crap in the first years they were mass produced and sold worldwide. Manufacturers handily made customers believe this was the new thing, less volume and weight and more suited for offices. The last argument was imho the only valid one. Crt is still best gaming screen (and for other stuff too if like photo and film stuff, if yer a fan), its open to debate if the stroboscope flat screen match up to the Pinnacle of CRT tech, the fw900.

Short story: reason this thread keeps on running is that a small niche of the desktop users know and experienced first hand that this CRT tech, aside from the volume of the thing and the radiation it gives off, is still superior to 95+% of the flat screens produced worldwide, for gaming (which is what people mostly use it for i bet).

I bet some units of the fw900 series will still function in 2050. Try to find a flat screen that has that long longevity... I may be bold, but i think they are produced to malfunction within years, like new generation cell phones. Its all capitalism and consumer market strategies.

One of the reasons CRT tech wasn't continued is cause people just didn't buy a new one fast enough... right?


/rant off hehe :)
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CRT Technology succumbed to greed and green pressure (both dollars and environmental). Is much cheaper to produce an LCD display than a CRT. Then once the technology transitioned to LCD, the manufacturers who controlled the flow of LCD panels pretty much charged whatever they wanted for the new technology at will. When the market stabilized, then the sky rocket prices went down. Now days, anyone can get an entry level 24" LCD for less than $200.00, when in 1998 an 18" LCD would cost almost $4,000.00!

Have anyone ever opened an LCD? Find out for yourself how simple it is made of.

Again, it is only my opinion and I could be wrong...

Sincerely,

Unkle Vito!
 
LCD's are great. Their portability, sharpness, and ability to maintain a calibration for a long time makes them very convenient. I love them for office work and music composition/mixing (stuff like Cubase). However, I don't like the image (pardon the pun) that the industry has put in people's heads regarding LCD's versus CRT. Many people simply write-off CRT's as old junk. And to be fair, there are tons of junky CRT's (just like there are tons of junky LCD's). Most of my friends laughed when they found out that I just hauled in a near-100 lb monster for my desk. But every single one has been stricken with the image quality of the thing.

Vito - one of these days, I'm going to grab an A+ FW900 off of you.

Edit - Or Artisan (or both :D)
 
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Potential customers and clients often ask me why I don't take credit cards and/or PayPal for purchases. After a few instances in which I got robbed by dishonest and unethical "customers", I just got tired of the loses. Basically, in all instances, they either switched/removed parts, sent me their washout units, or other items in the box, then filed chargebacks with their credit cards companies and cases with PayPal under "not as described"... It is a loophole often used by fraudsters to steal.

The most interesting case I had was one of these thieves who send back the shipping box full of bags of potatoes. When I got back the box, I opened it in from of the FedEx driver, and we both laughed.

In all cases, I filed complaints with the local police that went no where.

Because of the actions of a few, I no longer accept credit cards and/or PayPal for purchases. I hope you all put yourselves in my position and understand my course of action.

Sincerely,

Unkle Vito!
 
jbltecnicspro said:
LCD's are great. Their portability, sharpness, and ability to maintain a calibration for a long time makes them very convenient. I love them for office work and music composition/mixing (stuff like Cubase). However, I don't like the image (pardon the pun) that the industry has put in people's heads regarding LCD's versus CRT. Many people simply write-off CRT's as old junk. And to be fair, there are tons of junky CRT's (just like there are tons of junky LCD's). Most of my friends laughed when they found out that I just hauled in a near-100 lb monster for my desk. But every single one has been stricken with the image quality of the thing.

Vito - one of these days, I'm going to grab an A+ FW900 off of you.

Edit - Or Artisan (or both :D)
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Artisan? 0.24 pitch tube though...thought you wanted the GDM-F520 with its legendary 0.22 pitch tube? (That said the GDM-FW900, 0.23 to 0.27 pitch, is courser on the sides, but those sides are ones the others don't even have. Kind of apples and oranges really and can go either way and have.)

As to CRT's demise, always figured part of it was the technology lost its economy of scale. At one point, folks would have bought the GDM-FW900 just because how great it was with spreadsheets along with all of those lesser CRTs for such mundane purposes. Then they had another and arguably better option for such things. Though often it was just manufacturers taking advantage of consumer ignorance.

Leaving us picture quality enthusiasts with few options and without a chance to see what would have followed from Sony and others on the CRT front... :(
 
I meant the GDM-F520 Artisan model. :)

Also - there's a neat Linux program out there - Screentest, which allows for a magenta crosshatch pattern to really align the red and blue together.
 
Alright - just used the Linux program - Screentest - to adjust the dynamic convergence and convergence on the screen. Fantastic! Having magenta around is perfect in the sense that it allows you to adjust the red/blue alignment part in WinDAS.

Vito - do the bottom two parameters (I think Vmc and Hmc?) adjust the alignment of the red+blue lines with respect to green? The top two seem to adjust red with respect to blue. Is this correct (HAMP and VAMP)?
 
since this is the main crt thread I figured i'd ask this here. I have a NEC FE2111SB, it's been fine but recently the picture will shift left and right by about 1/4 inch a few times then stop. It happens at random and the picture doesn't lose focus or anything, it simply shifts. Any idea why it's happening and if it's fixable?
 
jbltecnicspro said:
I meant the GDM-F520 Artisan model. :)

Also - there's a neat Linux program out there - Screentest, which allows for a magenta crosshatch pattern to really align the red and blue together.
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Would have been nice. When interviewed, Sony said the reason they could not use the 0.22 pitch tube for the Artisan was cost...would have made the Artisan too expensive....
 
nervx said:
since this is the main crt thread I figured i'd ask this here. I have a NEC FE2111SB, it's been fine but recently the picture will shift left and right by about 1/4 inch a few times then stop. It happens at random and the picture doesn't lose focus or anything, it simply shifts. Any idea why it's happening and if it's fixable?
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No clue... Bad flyback?
 
SH1 said:
Would have been nice. When interviewed, Sony said the reason they could not use the 0.22 pitch tube for the Artisan was cost...would have made the Artisan too expensive....
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The first prototype of the Sony GDM-C520 Artisan had a .22mm aperture grille CRT. I have one of them. Then the tube was changed to .24mm aperture grille but had the USB hub on it (I have one of those as well). Then both the .22 aperture grille CRT and the USB hub were dropped from the final production version.

Sincerely,

Unkle Vito!
 
nervx said:
since this is the main crt thread I figured i'd ask this here. I have a NEC FE2111SB, it's been fine but recently the picture will shift left and right by about 1/4 inch a few times then stop. It happens at random and the picture doesn't lose focus or anything, it simply shifts. Any idea why it's happening and if it's fixable?
Click to expand...

This can be many things from cold soldering(s), or HOT (horizontal output transformer), or FBT, etc... Hard to tell without a diagnostic check.

Sincerely,

Unkle Vito!
 
Has anyone dared to use a DP-to-VGA adapter with their FW900? Apparently, the new Hawaii video cards will NOT have VGA. Our option is to go DP-to-VGA. How do these work, exactly? Do they have crappy RAMDAC's in them? Or will these actually be better than through a video card (because of them being external and away from electrical interference)? Thanks!
 
my understanding is that an active displayport adaptor has its own RAMDAC. I'm assuming they are decent quality (they ain't cheap). So I don't think there's reason to fear.
 
DP to VGA...I hope someone is building an expensive and capable one. What I've seen so far are 1920 by 1200 units. And the one example I saw which specified the refresh rate said that was at 60 Hz...
 
Hello, im about to buy FW900 and i want to ask few things. Is there a way to check how many hours the monitor has been working in the past? What should i look for when i go to check it?

The guy im going to buy it from said he's the 1st owner and he didnt use the monitor past 5-6 years also he said the monitor is manufacturer late 2003 by OSD but the sticker on the back says 2001. He said "i've no idea why is that".

Edit: Some pics of the monitor working for few mins in long time -

http://imgur.com/j0Iwrh3
http://imgur.com/w3vSFWE
http://imgur.com/AkSO2CW
http://imgur.com/2xgyYJH
http://imgur.com/7RGlYNB
http://imgur.com/LqliBHR
 
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As far as i see the picture is too bright (But that could be because he took pictures before warm up). And the Landing in the upper right corner should get corrected.

But thats not an big mess. You can correct both with OSD settings.
 
as Always, i recommend to ask the owner to let the monitor warm up before you arrive for 30+ minutes, so you can look at it when it is warmed up.

We can help you set alll options right etc after you buy it. 25 euro is a real bargain if the monitor is in good condition.

There is a post of me on page 438 (link in first post) that has ton of info on how to configure your monitor using software and OSD buttons.

Let us know how it goes :)
 
I know the seller bough a video card from him few years ago and he lives 10 mins away from me. Gonna get the monitor today and test it for few days :)

I still regret selling my old CRT monitors (GDM-F520, P1130) hope this one will last long.
 
I am on my third Sony FW900 and this one I removed the Anti-Glare after seeing how great the colors looked on a friends and I am never going to leave the Anti-Glare on a CRT again. I wish you could do this with all the dull LCDs.

Anyway has anyone got Windas up and running recently and do you have a good link for the programs? The last time I setup Windas I was running Windows XP and now I have Windows 7 and Windows 8 on two different computers.

I have a USB version of the cable and a serial version of the cable. Please provide links and what you did to set it up recently because even though I used it years ago this will be all new and not sure if I need an XP computer to do this. If I do I will reload an old Dell I have laying around and use it just for Windas.

Thank you for any help.

Also I have 2 Sony FW900 in the Eau Claire, WI area I will give away for free if you come and get them. The one had water drip on it and run down the inside so when it is on lots of screen flicker. The other one was just blurry but both had nice color before going into storage. I am pretty sure you can use the parts from the blurry one to make the one that got some drips of water in it working. I just kept them for parts on mine but the one I have works perfect and my son has one two that I can use for parts when the first one starts going out.
 
SH1 said:
Swapped out internals or cover? Does the serial number from the OSD match the sticker?
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Turned out to be 2001 by the OSD. Got the monitor 1 hour ago, the text seems kinda blurry (is not sharp as LCD) or maybe is something normal for CRT other than that is working great on 1920x1200@85Hz

Some lame pic from my phone (35 brightness and 70 contrast)

http://i.imgur.com/n0Fm3kf.jpg
 
nice, let us know how it performs once u've left it on for an hour and done an image restore, and then fine tuned the convergence and landing.

Be sure to watch some high quality high def videos and prepare to be delighted :)
 
paradox404 said:
Turned out to be 2001 by the OSD. Got the monitor 1 hour ago, the text seems kinda blurry (is not sharp as LCD) or maybe is something normal for CRT other than that is working great on 1920x1200@85Hz

Some lame pic from my phone (35 brightness and 70 contrast)

http://i.imgur.com/n0Fm3kf.jpg
Click to expand...

It's normal for CRT's. 1600x1024 is razor if you want to drop it down a little. Just use it as your gaming monitor and have fun. :)
 
A question - my FW900 has some geometry issues that I can't seem to resolve through the OSD - or WinDAS. Is it possible that a CRT may have gone so long without calibration to be permanently disfigured? How can I resolve this issue? It seems that if I adjust the landing far enough, the shape restores but the colors are off. How can I fix this?
 
Sadly the blur problem was extending after few hours of work (so blurred i wasn't able to read any text) . Next on the line is that 7 euro IBM trinitron tube.
 
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