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

hi
I am XoR, the same as before but now with "_"
I cannot login to my old account and I have no access to mail used to register it. Administrator (kyle) doesn't answer my mail so I registered new account.

But it is not important at all. Important thing is that:
I will be getting new used SONY GDM-FW900!!
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It have original AG and will come with original packaging.
Unfortunately it will be sent to my brother in other city because it is much closer to my new future location (I will change job soon far away from where I live now <- not important stuff in my life compared to new FW900 :eek: ) and so I will actually have my real eyes on it in two to three weeks. I will pack 'old' FW900 and storage it to use in future or actually swap them if I find myself missing polarizer too much in which case I might storage new one instead.

Two FW900 should last me next few years until affordable strobed OLEDs come out :cool:
 
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cool, where, and how much? please tell me you didnt but that one off ebay for $1200......
anyways I know your pain, I still got till April till April myself for mine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzqg6GEj5vI | my buddy does video updates, pics, and remote in to play with when I crave it)

Yep, imma need new shades for the future of OLED looks bright.
 
XoR_ said:
hi
I am XoR, the same as before but now with "_"
I cannot login to my old account and I have no access to mail used to register it. Administrator (kyle) doesn't answer my mail so I registered new account.
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I had the same issue a few days ago. Had to do a password recovery on my account for some reason.
 
Fortunately cheaper than $1200 :)
I gave much more for it than I could try to get it for just to be double sure I will be the one to get it and I also demanded additional packaging of original box to be double sure it will get in one piece. "I pay much more for it so I demand more hassle with packaging" kind of logic.

I do not know if this is some sort of mental sickness or something but when I see linked video I am kind of jelly of this two FW900s
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I would love to have storage space rented that is filled with these monitors
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Yea I actually bought these from a local user here from hardforum for $300 for both, I know not in the best of condition but $300 I feel was well worth the purchase.

Thanks! for saying you like them(engage buyer bias now)

Yea im lucky to have two friends in MINN. one to pick it up with his van and one to hold them hahaha. Took a bit of coordination but managed to pull it off without a hitch.
 
Bias light is a bandaid for "perceived" black levels, and while at least is something to fake it, does not take the place of true blacks like on a crt.

It doesn't change the fact that gradients and working in photoshop is garbage unless you invest in the topmost tier of tft displays. Something any decent basic crt can do on a VGA cable even.

In fact, I've never used anything but a VGA cable in my life, lol. The one i have cost like 6 bucks and is damn near an inch thick. I lived next to power lines once and it could not penetrate that fking cable.

I don't want to juggle 2 lcd displays, or whatever just to cover all the bases.
"To me" more is not better in that regard. It just means i have to spend more money on crap i hate anyway to do the same job, and it's still lacking. Fk that.
I'm a cheap and hard headed bastard. I'll pay, If it's worthy. If not, I'll go without or buy the cheapest pos i can find to get by until a later date.

I find it ironic that someone would complain about the size or power draw of a crt, and then have two or three huge tft screens or more, taking up two desks worth of space just to cover all their needs. All of them still lacking.

I personally like to work in the dark, or with one 40 Watt bulb with a shade on it, or by candle light, it's my comfort zone. It keeps my ADHD mind on my work, or whatever im doing. It's non negotiable. I've done it all my life even before using PC, just hate bright light, and at 45yrs old my vision is Still pretty excellent. Luckily i guess.

I also don't stare at white screens, everything is custom or dark or black on my computer Web Programs everything. Like this Forum actually, and It takes many many many hundreds of hours of work to get them all that way. I've made so many custom UI's over the years for programs i didn't even know how to use yet, because i couldn't even start to use them without changing the UI first.

So something like IPS glow, and shty blacks Is a NO start. Not going to change my entire joy of working on pc/happiness to cover up for sht.

I have had 4 monitors in the last 18 years that i bought and have kept and used.
2 fw900's, one Viewsonic crt and one IMB or something crt i can't remember.
Less than 2 thousand dollars spent for all of them ( one was free). I Never compromised in any single way whatsoever. Yet I bought two of the best NEC LCD monitors for their time and purpose and returned or sold them within weeks.

If i had a review channel on utoob, for most various products It would go like this.
"This is Crap, This is Crap, Horrible, Don;t waste your money, close but no cigar, crap. total crap".

In fact, most of my stuff i value and use is generally 10-20 years old or more and still works, and some of it looks basically almost new.

I hate being a person who hates most everything. It's really annoying.
Everything has to be custom, or it takes forever to find something i need that i am willing to spend money on. I bitch and become annoying :rolleyes:

Ehhh...
 
Can't say I would've felt good about paying $2500 retail for an FW900 back in 2001, but at used prices I feel like CRTs, the FW900 especially, are actually an epic deal for what they offer. Until cheap, low-persistence OLED panels with fast onboard processing and reliable color production all in one package are out there for the price, there's really nothing better. I'll take the loss of about 4 cubic feet of space and less than a cent to the dollar on my power bill in stride.
 
XoR_ said:
Imho CRT suck for anything than playing games on it :rolleyes:
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Edit:
/ delete disgruntled refute...

I must have read you wrong. Internet sarcasm i assume.
I had came across another post you made by coincidence in the past searching for some other information and it would seem that statement is not how you actually feel.

Old 06-13-2013, 07:13 AM
XoR Gawd, 4.5 Years

I can say without any doubt: GDM-FW900 have the best image quality in the world.

My bad.
 
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I have two calibrated FW900 units. FW9011 SGI and Sony GDM-FW900, and I can say after owning three oled screens and a panny plasma, that CRT checks so many of the boxes on what a display should be and especially for gaming. I adore my units but only wish they weighed about 80lbs less! They are hell to move and I am a big guy!
 
I keep telling folks, train your deadlifts and squats, makes handling these units a piece of cake ;)

And very important to do a proper valsalva when handling these puppies, to help protect your spine.
 
haha I need a spare Atlus stone to train with on account of how the FW900 is so awkwardly shaped. It really is not as heavy as it is just unorthodox.
 
bramabul5353 said:
I have two calibrated FW900 units. FW9011 SGI and Sony GDM-FW900, and I can say after owning three oled screens and a panny plasma, that CRT checks so many of the boxes on what a display should be and especially for gaming. I adore my units but only wish they weighed about 80lbs less! They are hell to move and I am a big guy!
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It was a tough call when I had a Kuro plasma & FW900 hooked up to PC in the same room. The plasma's contrast output triumphed the CRT (using the Standard video mode on plasma) and when combined with CRT like black levels Kuro's are known for it really is a stellar looking display for Gaming & Movies (Still using it today! PS4 / XB1).
 
I do not have a kuro unit, so I cannot speak to its comparisons, but after calibrating luminance on my CRT and white point balance. The contrast cannot be touched by my FW900 in a pitch black room. I have a 2012 Panasonic VT60 and I love every single thing about it as a TV and prefer it for my console gaming experience as well! I cannot even look at LCD without the urge to hate them! Everything is so detailed an lifelike in plasma that just simply cannot be replaced. Input lag is the main advantage of the FW900 in FPS games. Its PQ is neck and neck with my plasma.
 
horrorshow said:
This was hip in 2006, now it's just a moot point.

This thread has become silly.
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This isn't about being contrarian for the sake of style. CRT's have real features that modern LCDs still are not able to replicate. And they're not even that expensive. No one here had to pay $5000 for a CRT that can do a less than 0.0025 cd/m^2 black level, though they might have to spend some of their own time to get it there. CRT's are a actually a deal for anyone who cares about having contrast and motion clarity at the same time in a desktop display. 0 ms nominal input lag is just the icing on the cake for gamers. This one, in particular, is also widescreen on top of that. You don't have to move to Brooklyn to want in on this monitor.
 
Well said aeliusg! It is hard for the general public to relate to the FW900 because it is like how most people who drive a Honda relate to Ferrari owners. These Displays require some TLC to get the most out of them but it is well worth it! It is eye opening when used as a direct comparison in a controlled viewing environment of how breathtaking some content looks in industry standard color and motion production!
 
bramabul5353 said:
Well said aeliusg! It is hard for the general public to relate to the FW900 because it is like how most people who drive a Honda relate to Ferrari owners. These Displays require some TLC to get the most out of them but it is well worth it! It is eye opening when used as a direct comparison in a controlled viewing environment of how breathtaking some content looks in industry standard color and motion production!
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Yep. FW900's are like the vintage sports car that somehow only a few people are catching on to. Meanwhile you're a hipster if you're not driving a Subaru or something.
 
bramabul5353 said:
I do not have a kuro unit, so I cannot speak to its comparisons, but after calibrating luminance on my CRT and white point balance. The contrast cannot be touched by my FW900 in a pitch black room. I have a 2012 Panasonic VT60 and I love every single thing about it as a TV and prefer it for my console gaming experience as well! I cannot even look at LCD without the urge to hate them! Everything is so detailed an lifelike in plasma that just simply cannot be replaced. Input lag is the main advantage of the FW900 in FPS games. Its PQ is neck and neck with my plasma.
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Unfortunately I didn't get around to calibrating my FW900 before it quit working (flyback failure) but it was in really good shape out of the box, ive never owned another CRT with near perfect convergence / geometry like the FW900 unit I had.
 
mathesar said:
Unfortunately I didn't get around to calibrating my FW900 before it quit working (flyback failure) but it was in really good shape out of the box, ive never owned another CRT with near perfect convergence / geometry like the FW900 unit I had.
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ahhh the dreaded flyback failure. I got a flyback and D-Board unit from Unkle Vito here on this thread as a backup. A calibration makes a world of difference in the contrast and color accuracy especially on a tube of this age. Good to see a fellow Plasma fan here as well. I do believe that most that visit this thread on the FW900 are Videophiles.
 
mathesar said:
Unfortunately I didn't get around to calibrating my FW900 before it quit working (flyback failure) but it was in really good shape out of the box, ive never owned another CRT with near perfect convergence / geometry like the FW900 unit I had.
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We have the D-board (and other parts for the GDM-FW900 and other GDM, CPD and SDM line of CRTs), which houses all the HV components including the FBT in stock. PM me for more info.

Hope this helps...

UV!
 
LAGRUNAUER said:
We have the D-board (and other parts for the GDM-FW900 and other GDM, CPD and SDM line of CRTs), which houses all the HV components including the FBT in stock. PM me for more info.

Hope this helps...

UV!
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Wish I still had my FW900 but ended up giving it away before we moved to another home, the person who picked it up seemed confident they could fix it, I live around 4 hours away from your place hopefully one day if I can afford the extra $$ I'll drive down there and pick up one of your calibrated units.
 
I had a scare with one of my units the other day while I was going through the alignment procedures. Selecting alignment at max frequency in WinDAS caused it to immediately start freaking out and rolling over horizontally at the window where it tells you to make sure it's getting a 1200p 107 kHz signal. After that the unit shut down with a thermal protection fault, and it smelled like something was singed down in the left side of the D-board past the FBT.

Having looked at the schematics given in the service manual the thermal detection circuit is down there near the bottom side of the board nestled in between two pairs of MOSFETS, which are part of the scan correction circuits according to this webpage: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/deflfaq.htm#dswew

It seemed like it would make sense that something wasn't right down there given the behavior of the monitor and the burnt smelling odor, but I was pretty miffed at the time and drove down to the hardware store to get a 16" screwdriver while this veritable blizzard we're getting over here on the East Coast was just getting started. Saw a couple of fishtails and a few near-misses on the road (people aren't used to wintry weather here), but I got back to opening up the case on this thing and getting at the D-board.

Alright, the funny thing is I still don't really know what's going on with it, but I saw a little burnt-ish looking spot on the back side of the D-board where all the connections are right at one of the MOSFETs- in-question's pad. This made me think of all the trouble I'd have to go through to get new components or a new board altogether and the work I'd have to do to put it back together again (lazy thoughts, but they'll get to you while one of your displays is out of commission). I was also thinking about what happened when the screen rolled-over when I double-clicked on the procedure in WinDAS and how setting up custom resolutions in the Nvidia CP was kind of buggy. At some point I think the sync polarity got reversed (-/+ instead of -/-) in the video output, and that might've added to or been the problem, too.

I'd also been getting busy with the monitor bezel (use a wide surface pry tool if you don't want it getting cracked or bent) and had removed the top shield and opened up the the D-board tray (it swings out on the hooked hinges near the back, unplug the bottom ribbon cables and loosen up the wire harnesses to get it out all the way).

Where I don't really know what the hell is going on is that I saw a browned-looking possibly-a-cocoon-thing at the bottom of the chassis where the rest would be happening also, while the chassis is closed up. I'd seen a couple of moths flying around on the day of this "incident," but this hadn't really piqued my thinking at the time. In any case I brushed it aside and made a thorough scan of the component side of the D-board by eye and didn't really see anything off. Unkle Vito got back to me about the high-voltage power supply and costs for replacements, which while appropriate (I can really appreciate what you do now, UV, after dealing with all this) were still prohibitive. Seeing as everything else checked out in the failure codes in WinDAS and everything looked fine, I decided to give it a go again and try to reload the EEPROM with a backup from before all of this. Well, it loaded up fine and the picture doesn't seem anything amiss.

I don't want to put it through its paces right now while the snowstorm is going on for fear of losing power and having it really blow if the power goes out, but that's the story so far. Moral is to watch the bugs, literal and metaphorical, and trust in the heyday of Sony engineering! Too early to say how it'll turn out, perhaps, but I hope you enjoyed this hardware fairy tale.

I should've put up some pictures to help anyone who's trying to open up their units nowadays, but I don't have a camera.
 
KG-Prime90 said:
I must have read you wrong. Internet sarcasm i assume.
I had came across another post you made by coincidence in the past searching for some other information and it would seem that statement is not how you actually feel.
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CRTs are like blondes, looks good, fun to play with but not necessarily good for spreadsheets

I use my FW900 mostly on weekends to play games and it stay powered down most of the week. LCD destroys it in desktop stuff, text stuff, and is sufficient in watching YT videos, TV series, music videos, even movies, etc. Speaking purely about accuracy of colors my LCD's are better than CRT. Overal image presentation is better on CRT especially with lights off, dark scenes, etc.

Best advantage of CRT is seen in games such as Dead Space, horror games like Silend Hill, Doom3, etc. In movies everything that is dark like eg. Bladerunner will look bad on LCD and superb on CRT. For most movies LCD is ok though.

I love my CRT but I am far from saying it is perfect for everything. By image quality I didn't mean all image characteristics. In desktop CRT suck a...
 
I recommend anyone who has calibrated their FW900 or any CRT according to spacediver's near-infinite contrast method to obtain a high quality rip of Under the Skin. The film itself is not all that great, but it really shows off the capabilities of a high-contrast display. On the FW900, the image quality is comparable to the early-generation LG OLED that I originally saw this film on, the differences being that the LG OLED exhibited its own kind of "liquid" motion blur during light scenes and the FW900 exhibits the same coincidentally during dark scenes because of the medium-persistence phosphor. No display is perfect, apparently.
 
aeliusg said:
I recommend anyone who has calibrated their FW900 or any CRT according to spacediver's near-infinite contrast method to obtain a high quality rip of Under the Skin. The film itself is not all that great, but it really shows off the capabilities of a high-contrast display. On the FW900, the image quality is comparable to the early-generation LG OLED that I originally saw this film on, the differences being that the LG OLED exhibited its own kind of "liquid" motion blur during light scenes and the FW900 exhibits the same coincidentally during dark scenes because of the medium-persistence phosphor. No display is perfect, apparently.
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I thought the film itself was outstanding tbh too. One of my favorites if not my favorite of that year.
 
lilbthebasedgod said:
I thought the film itself was outstanding tbh too. One of my favorites if not my favorite of that year.
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Maybe I'm a boor, but I couldn't take ScarJo seriously. :p Visually, it was incredible. I can't imagine the few theaters it played at had the setup to display it "properly."
 
aeliusg said:
I recommend anyone who has calibrated their FW900 or any CRT according to spacediver's near-infinite contrast method to obtain a high quality rip of Under the Skin. The film itself is not all that great, but it really shows off the capabilities of a high-contrast display. On the FW900, the image quality is comparable to the early-generation LG OLED that I originally saw this film on, the differences being that the LG OLED exhibited its own kind of "liquid" motion blur during light scenes and the FW900 exhibits the same coincidentally during dark scenes because of the medium-persistence phosphor. No display is perfect, apparently.
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I'll have to check it out on the Kuro, currently the highest contrast display I've witnessed (when combined with it's black level capability.)

Older pic I took in 2008 (I left it as a clickable link instead of spamming thread with photo): http://i.imgur.com/t5IDzsF.jpg
 
fwiw, flod and I developed a method for measuring the black level of an FW900 calibrated for high contrast. Here are the results.

(measured luminance was 0.0006362 cd/m2)

For comparison, here are some black level measurements for a number of kuro's, although the values are in Foot Lamberts.

The lowest black level in that list is 0.0005 FL, which is 0.0017 cd/m2, so it appears the FW900 is darker. But keep in mind that the kuro likely blows the FW900 out of the water when it comes to ANSI contrast.
 
mathesar said:
I'll have to check it out on the Kuro, currently the highest contrast display I've witnessed (when combined with it's black level capability.)

Older pic I took in 2008 (I left it as a clickable link instead of spamming thread with photo): http://i.imgur.com/t5IDzsF.jpg
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It will probably look even better on the Kuro, from what I've heard of it. The coating on that screen was a game-changer.

spacediver said:
fwiw, flod and I developed a method for measuring the black level of an FW900 calibrated for high contrast. Here are the results.

(measured luminance was 0.0006362 cd/m2)

For comparison, here are some black level measurements for a number of kuro's, although the values are in Foot Lamberts.

The lowest black level in that list is 0.0005 FL, which is 0.0017 cd/m2, so it appears the FW900 is darker. But keep in mind that the kuro likely blows the FW900 out of the water when it comes to ANSI contrast.
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Thanks for those numbers. I'll have to re-run dispcal with 0.0006 instead of 0.0001, even though I'm already very satisfied with the results so far. Need to measure my ambient light level also, the power LED on my PC is way too bright and the snow has been lighting up the whole sky here.
 
XoR_ said:
CRTs are like blondes, looks good, fun to play with but not necessarily good for spreadsheets

I use my FW900 mostly on weekends to play games and it stay powered down most of the week. LCD destroys it in desktop stuff, text stuff, and is sufficient in watching YT videos, TV series, music videos, even movies, etc. Speaking purely about accuracy of colors my LCD's are better than CRT. Overal image presentation is better on CRT especially with lights off, dark scenes, etc.

Best advantage of CRT is seen in games such as Dead Space, horror games like Silend Hill, Doom3, etc. In movies everything that is dark like eg. Bladerunner will look bad on LCD and superb on CRT. For most movies LCD is ok though.

I love my CRT but I am far from saying it is perfect for everything. By image quality I didn't mean all image characteristics. In desktop CRT suck a...
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Actually desktop multitask is the main reason i require an fw900 lol.

See, if someone doesn't use something in certain ways, they never realize why or how it may be used by others.

I can scroll through a 2Gb+ folder full of high res textures and see what i am doing without blur. I can spot depth of blacks or shadows in a thumbnail of an image, colors or shades of different rock or brick or whatever, fast while in motion.
Spend hours doing this It makes a huge difference.

I don't stare at static white spread sheets personally usually, but i can scroll and skim read through pdf files and text files and web pages and actually read the text as it's going by. And that i do a lot.

On lcd i have to scroll stop, scroll stop. And try not to look at it directly even as it's a blurry mess that hurts my eyes. So in fact i cannot even use my pc like i want in the very most rudimentary ways. I speed read somewhat. I even watch youtube videos at 1.25 speed most of the time anymore, lol, i love that feature.

Yeah, I can clearly see the difference between the text on my Fw900 and the text on my 1080p 5.2" phone, but both are fine to me. Fw900 is still about as good as a 27" 1440p monitor, and better than a 24" 1920x1200 lcd.

And exactly as you said, i mostly am a person who likes dark games, dark movies, sci fi, and everything on my screen and web and OS is custom dark background styles and themes.
That's really non negotiable. Which would be an ips glow fest. Va is not good enough. Tn of course not, Ips neither really. But the only choice right now.

Color, contrast, clarity in motion, glass screen, all that before ultra high resolution or screen size. I don't care about the size of screen if those things aren't there to begin with personally "for me".

And Lcd pc monitor vs fw900 for movies is like the difference between a drive in movie compared to Oled, lol.
 
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Roflcopter_Down said:
is this thing still better than those $1000+ gsync monitors? especially for games and nice on the eyes
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G-Sync has its own merits. When I have time to game during the day I prefer my PG278Q (8-bit TN panel) because of its better ambient contrast, but when the lights are off the FW900 looks way better hands down. Only differences between my TN panel and the newer IPS monitors is that the latter have better viewing angles and thus better colors at any given angle, but the TN is close as long as you're in the ballpark of optimal viewing position (its mostly gamma shift rather than the colors going awry). Your choice in image quality would be between having a monitor that doesn't look that spectacular in daylight viewing conditions but shines at night with the FW900 and having a monitor that is good all-round with any lighting but can't really do anything special with your TN or IPS G-Sync monitors. For gaming the tradeoffs are having the ability to multi-sync in the FW900 to maintain a high framerate for the smoothest gameplay possible or being able to deal with any kind of framerate above 30 and still have a "smooth" experience with G-Sync. CRT also has a motion clarity quality that can't be beat, but if you're used to LCD's you won't really be missing anything if you don't go down that road. If you have a slow IPS or an ugly TN, either way will be a big improvement.
 
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