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

Alexnova said:
Hello all, hope everyone here is doing well and Happy Holidays!

Unfortunately I have lost interest and desire in this CRT due to some misfortunes upon receipt (which lead to being disillusioned with what I was getting myself into).

Anyway, any progress on real replacements for the CRT yet? How's OLED coming along? Any desktop news on that end?

How long are we going to wait, until 2017 at the earliest?

I just would like a comparable replacement already, the high end choices in the TN/IPS/etc world are so dismal and disheartening. It is crucial I have no input lag whatsoever for some of the games I play.

Sigh.
Click to expand...

Like I always stated on this forum from the beginnings of times .... "You'll get what you paid for...."

It takes special packing and special boxes to properly pack/ship the GDM-FW900 and not every packing outfit has the equipment and materials to do it.

Please do not be discouraged... There are a few good units in the trade...

The bottom line is ..."Nothing beats the glass..." At least... Not now...

Hope this helps...

UV!
 
LAGRUNAUER said:
Like I always stated on this forum from the beginnings of times .... "You'll get what you paid for...."

It takes special packing and special boxes to properly pack/ship the GDM-FW900 and not every packing outfit has the equipment and materials to do it.

Please do not be discouraged... There are a few good units in the trade...

The bottom line is ..."Nothing beats the glass..." At least... Not now...

Hope this helps...

UV!
Click to expand...
Yes I am well aware of your saying, but both parties involved in the transaction knew very well what goes into packing/shipping this monitor. It was who did the packaging that didn't understand and ended up delivering a unit DOA, which is a shame considering it was calibrated with WinDAS and whatever else. It cost roughly the same amount to ship as it would have from BoxCity.

I love CRTs as much as anyone here, I think the tech is pretty incredible but if I'm not utterly obsessed with accurate color reproduction for graphic/photography work, and whatever benefits the FW900 is better than the rest of the monitors currently on the market, I'm not sure its worth $1k or more to me.

Frankly it was a deal I just couldn't pass up, based on the first luminance pass, the tube barely saw much use. And again the previous owner followed the calibration instructions down to the letter. Dollar for dollar it was the best bang for the buck.

It's terrible it didn't work out for both involved, but it was an opportunity to reassess my desire for one of these monitors. In the end I realized I needed no input lag but the sharpness of a LCD panel.
 
Hear so many shipping horror stories with the FW900. Are there no shipping companies that specialize in delicate stuff, where you can be assured that your package isn't left at the mercy of whatever morons might happen to handle it?

I do get that packaging it properly is an important part.
 
Alexnova said:
Yes I am well aware of your saying, but both parties involved in the transaction knew very well what goes into packing/shipping this monitor. It was who did the packaging that didn't understand and ended up delivering a unit DOA, which is a shame considering it was calibrated with WinDAS and whatever else. It cost roughly the same amount to ship as it would have from BoxCity.

I love CRTs as much as anyone here, I think the tech is pretty incredible but if I'm not utterly obsessed with accurate color reproduction for graphic/photography work, and whatever benefits the FW900 is better than the rest of the monitors currently on the market, I'm not sure its worth $1k or more to me.

Frankly it was a deal I just couldn't pass up, based on the first luminance pass, the tube barely saw much use. And again the previous owner followed the calibration instructions down to the letter. Dollar for dollar it was the best bang for the buck.

It's terrible it didn't work out for both involved, but it was an opportunity to reassess my desire for one of these monitors. In the end I realized I needed no input lag but the sharpness of a LCD panel.
Click to expand...

I would try again. You seem to have gotten very close. Did either of you recoup any of the cost?
 
zone74 said:
....The ANSI contrast is so bad on CRTs that I wouldn't attempt to do any kind of post work or video/photo editing on them...
Click to expand...

So maybe an IPS has 3 times the ANSI, but terrible, awful, blacks, and less than a 15th of the CRT's dynamic range without some cheat and that's ok somehow? (I'm asking rhetorically, because obviously the answer in the market was yes. I'll never believe how that could have been so. Or maybe I just choose not to. :) )

Agree...well, hope, anyway...that OLED will finally be the rescue...
 
Registered just to see this thread. I have (sort of, anyway) one of these lovelies myself. A few weeks ago, tragically, it no longer works.

It had started to do this surge of red color in the screen. Sometimes it would flicker a LOT and I woud be able to use it after that, but as of the last time I tried to use it, the monitor would just turn a darker shade of red until it turned itself off.

I'm guessing the red gun failed, but I'm not entirely certain, and my attempts to solicit help through Craigslist and the like have yielded little. Any ideas? Is this something I could potentially fix on my own, or would I be better off just leaving it behind and splurging for an ultrawide IPS? (I'd rather not--this thing was amazing while it lasted!)
 
I'm starting to get the red flashes on one of my units too. Some sort of short most likely. Wonder why it's red though - maybe red gun is shorting? But why is it always the red gun that shorts if that's the case - red flashing is a common occurrence with these units.

It happens when powering up when it's been off for a while.

Wonder if it's fixable with a rejuvenator.
 
spacediver said:
I'm starting to get the red flashes on one of my units too. Some sort of short most likely. Wonder why it's red though - maybe red gun is shorting? But why is it always the red gun that shorts if that's the case - red flashing is a common occurrence with these units.

It happens when powering up when it's been off for a while.

Wonder if it's fixable with a rejuvenator.
Click to expand...

Perform guns cut-off & tracking test, and then shorts and emission tests. Let me know the results...

Hope this helps...

UV!
 
Hi.
After diving into this thread, I've found someone with the same issue I'm having after removing the AG coating with alcohol:
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036675436&postcount=6586

So now I thinking on removing the plastic film. I havent found pics of the procedure, so I have a couple of doubts. For removing/peel off the plastic over the glass, Can I just unmount the bezel? or I have to unmount the whole case?
Is there any tutorial for this? This will be my first FW900 opening.


By the way, does anyone know where can I find modified INF files for x64 with added resolutions and refresh rates?
I've found this in this thrad, but the links are down.
http://hardforum.com//showpost.php?p=1035009057&postcount=5500

Thanks!
 
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amlett said:
So now I thinking on removing the plastic film. I havent found pics of the procedure, so I have a couple of doubts. For removing/peel off the plastic over the glass, Can I just unmount the bezel? or I have to unmount the whole case?
Is there any tutorial for this? This will be my first FW900 opening.
Click to expand...

I just sliced the film around the bezel, sliced vertically into three parts, dug under it with a spudger and pulled it off. The glue came off with xylene.
 
amlett said:
So now I thinking on removing the plastic film. I havent found pics of the procedure, so I have a couple of doubts. For removing/peel off the plastic over the glass, Can I just unmount the bezel? or I have to unmount the whole case?
Is there any tutorial for this? This will be my first FW900 opening.
Click to expand...
removing AG degrade image quality
if it is not completely ruined leave it on
 
XoR said:
removing AG degrade image quality
if it is not completely ruined leave it on
Click to expand...

This is how it looks now after removing most of it.
http://i.imgur.com/Xy9pzx6.jpg

Reading some posts (about 330-370 page in this thread) people was saying it improved the image quality. Now i'm confused. Anyway, the AG coating is already removed (mostly), due to the scratches it had, now I'm thinking about removing the plastic film over the glass for get rid of that dots of AG coating that I cant remove no matter what I use.

Myramond said:
Drivers here:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=45CB64FBC2186C3C%21270
Click to expand...

Thanks so much!!!!
 
amlett said:
Hi.
After diving into this thread, I've found someone with the same issue I'm having after removing the AG coating with alcohol:
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036675436&postcount=6586

So now I thinking on removing the plastic film. I havent found pics of the procedure, so I have a couple of doubts. For removing/peel off the plastic over the glass, Can I just unmount the bezel? or I have to unmount the whole case?
Is there any tutorial for this? This will be my first FW900 opening.
Click to expand...

I'm confused by that post you linked to. What did they mean by "plastic". As far as I knew, there's the AG coating, and then glass. That post makes it seem like there's a plastic coating between the glass and the AG coating.
 
I just ordered a CR-70 a few min ago - should arrive by Christmas. Got it for about $170 USD (that figure includes shipping). Couldn't find any CR7000's at all.

As for the differences, I know that the CR-7000 can test all three guns at once, which can save time.

But other than that, a rep from Sencore told me this:

There are few differences in the display on CR70 an analog meter is used with the CR7000 it has a sliding Good/bad scale. The CR70 requires the user to setup all of the parameters (K, G1, G2, F1,F2) where the CR7000 does not require that which makes setup and testing much quicker. Other than that they both perform the same function and you should receive the same end results with both.
Click to expand...
 
amlett said:
This is how it looks now after removing most of it.
http://i.imgur.com/Xy9pzx6.jpg

Reading some posts (about 330-370 page in this thread) people was saying it improved the image quality. Now i'm confused. Anyway, the AG coating is already removed (mostly), due to the scratches it had, now I'm thinking about removing the plastic film over the glass for get rid of that dots of AG coating that I cant remove no matter what I use.



Thanks so much!!!!
Click to expand...

The glue/film traces left on the screen are the results of an improper removal of the AG film on the GDM-FW900s. I have removed thousands of them, and to this date, I've never experienced any glue traces and/or film traces left on the screen.

UV!
 
sharpness will be better without AG coating due to how CRT become less sharp with higher emmision levels. At eg. 100cd/m2 less coating => less emission needed. You also remove one layer from optical way that light have to go to hit your eye. So with that image improves. AG-less FW900 is by far sharpest CRT monitor I have ever used.

What removing AG also does is ruin contrast ratio, especially in non-pitch-black room. It is impossible to have pitch-black room without any light in it because monitor emits light thus create ambient light.

In terms of contrast ratio AG-less FW900 for me was worst CRT monitor I ever used and it was completely unusable except in pitch black room. Having LCD next to it at minimum brightness displaying white screen devastated its black level. Having any ambient light was even worse, black looked like color of phosphor which is not even dark gray but some sort of putred pale greenish-cyan tint. This was worst mod I ever did this removing AG coating.

But people are different, some do not mind how it looks with AG removed like I did and for them sharper make image better despite worse contrast ratio. You will see how you like it when you remove AG.

BTW. you removed actual AG layer from this plastic using alcohol?
have you tried different types of alcohol like isopropyl or acetone or other stronger stuff?
 
XoR said:
What removing AG also does is ruin contrast ratio, especially in non-pitch-black room. It is impossible to have pitch-black room without any light in it because monitor emits light thus create ambient light.
Click to expand...

Bias light.
 
Hello,

I have a "mint-condition" GDM-FW900 to sell - sadly, but my wife does not tolerate this monstrous screen on our shared desk anymore... :(

Only lightly used (maximum of a few hours per week, most times a lot less).
Excellent convergence & geometry, great colors & contrast, excellent focus. I've had a few of these, with this one being the best _by far_!

Is anyone here interested in it? I'd love for it to have a nice place with somebody who truly appreciates a screen of this kind in such a great condition!
Only problem is: I don't have the original packing anymore, so shipping is not possible unless one provides me with an original packing in advance.
Best thing would be to pick it up at my place, which is in Vienna, Austria - yes, the one in Europe ;).

Would USD 800,- be asked too much for this almost flawless (technically & cosmetically) monitor?
 
spacediver said:
Bias light.
Click to expand...
or have black screen to begin with ;)

BTW. I checked this whole rejuvenation thing
it can be done without any specialized equipment
thought I would probably buy CR-70 too if my FW900 started to act up and not risk of destroying it to save few bucks.

still I wonder what kind of voltages and currents are needed for Trinitron tube rejuvenation in case my other Trinitron dies first :p
Anyone know?
 
XoR said:
thought I would probably buy CR-70 too if my FW900 started to act up and not risk of destroying it to save few bucks.
Click to expand...

Hopefully I'll be able to provide some good feedback about the CR-70 over the holidays! Just got an email saying it just shipped.
 
I know were all PC gamers here but I have been using this monitor for some retro console gaming with some pretty nice results. Now normally the monitor cant output anything less than 480p signals but I have been using an upscaler to play my 240p consoles on this monitor.

I'm not sure how to embed pictures here without them being too big so I will just link to the album of all the pictures I uploaded.

http://imgur.com/a/ao6wi
 
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PCnerf said:
I know were all PC gamers here but I have been using this monitor for some retro console gaming with some pretty nice results. Now normally the monitor cant output anything less than 480p signals but I have been using an upscaler to play my 240p consoles on this monitor.

I'm not sure how to embed pictures here without them being too big so I will just link to the album of all the pictures I uploaded.

http://imgur.com/a/ao6wi
Click to expand...

What kind of scaler? I'm looking to do something similar to this.
 
I used the XRGB Mini along with a HDMI to VGA adapter. These are high end and cost a bunch but they are worth it if you have a flat screen and cant get a good crt to play old school games in rgb. Of course you can still use them with crt monitors that can't display at low resolutions like most pc monitors.

There are a couple of other high end up scalers you can use but the XRGB products are the most popular. I think there are two models that are supported by the company at this time both the XRGB Mini and the XRGB 3.

https://solarisjapan.com/collections/micomsoft

There was also a receiver that had the chip built in

http://www.onkyousa.com/Products/model.php?m=TX-NR609&class=Receiver

you will need a HDMI to SCART transcoder if you go this route but a nice deal if you want to get both a receiver and a high end upscaler.
 
there is site with tons of informations about scalers for 15KHz signals http://retrogaming.hazard-city.de/

for VGA CRT's the best one imho will be Micomsoft XRGB-3
for panels like plasma and LCD winner will be XRGB Mini
almost all other scalers add frame or two of input lag. Also with playing 240p signals the very important feature is scanline support. Without it it would look like DOS games with square pixels.

I wanted to buy XRGB-3 but price is completely ridiculous so I passed. I usually play emulators anyway for simplicity and savestate support and then it works fine, at least when I use finetuned 50/60Hz modes
 
Agreed, the xrgb 3 is more ideal for pc crt monitors simply because it has vga inputs. I bought the mini first, intending to use it with my plasma tv. And it worked excellent with that display. Picture looked nice and lag was very minimal. And yes the prices of these devices are really expensive. And there is also other expenses to take into account like rgb modding certain systems like both the NES and SNES. Plus you have to get a SCART cable for each of your consoles to display in rgb.
 
spacediver said:
I'm confused by that post you linked to. What did they mean by "plastic". As far as I knew, there's the AG coating, and then glass. That post makes it seem like there's a plastic coating between the glass and the AG coating.
Click to expand...


LAGRUNAUER said:
The glue/film traces left on the screen are the results of an improper removal of the AG film on the GDM-FW900s. I have removed thousands of them, and to this date, I've never experienced any glue traces and/or film traces left on the screen.

UV!
Click to expand...

I havent removed the film. I mean. I haven't done this yet:
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/F12Bwth2/media/GDM-FW900/IMG_7947.jpg.html

I've just applied alcohol to the surface and rubbed as there is no tomorrow. The AG coating on the film was removed but the film remains over the galss.

My problem as you can see in the pic I've posted, is that there are some dots in some parts of the film that haven't gone with the alcohol.

XoR said:
BTW. you removed actual AG layer from this plastic using alcohol?
have you tried different types of alcohol like isopropyl or acetone or other stronger stuff?
Click to expand...

I haven't tryed acetone, but I'm thinking on removing the film. I'll try other isopropyl I've oredered that is sotronger than the medley I used, but if it doesn't removes the reamining dots, I'll remove the film. Now it only protects the glass surface, but at cost of having less sharper image, without the benefits of the AG coating.

About the contrast lost, this wasn't a choice, the unit I got had scratches over the AG coating.

Thanks everyone for the advices.
 
rabidz7 said:
Metal will not scratch glass. You could take blades to it and it wouldn't do shit no matter how hard you tried.
Click to expand...

I think it depends on how sharp the blades are and what material they're made of... Some very sharp and hard blade could make a cut in glass probably.
 
SH1 said:
So maybe an IPS has 3 times the ANSI, but terrible, awful, blacks, and less than a 15th of the CRT's dynamic range without some cheat and that's ok somehow? (I'm asking rhetorically, because obviously the answer in the market was yes. I'll never believe how that could have been so. Or maybe I just choose not to. :) )

Agree...well, hope, anyway...that OLED will finally be the rescue...
Click to expand...

All my heart is for CRT, but I need to agree that nowadays for professional graphic work I would recommend high-end Eizo or NEC displays. Blacks are compensated with ambient light and they keep their contrast ratio no matter what. That would result in more repetitive results which is sometimes the key for proper printing. Not to mention wider gamut that covers entire CMYK space (and CRT sRGB is far from that unfortunatelly).

But still LCDs struggle in so many regards that I would never change my main display from CRT to LCD. Waiting for backstrobing OLEDs though.

amlett said:
Hi.
After diving into this thread, I've found someone with the same issue I'm having after removing the AG coating with alcohol:
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036675436&postcount=6586

So now I thinking on removing the plastic film. I havent found pics of the procedure, so I have a couple of doubts. For removing/peel off the plastic over the glass, Can I just unmount the bezel? or I have to unmount the whole case?
Is there any tutorial for this? This will be my first FW900 opening.
Click to expand...

Oh that changes a lot. If you peeled entire AG coating there is I think absolutely no need to keep plastic on. Here are pics of my AG removal:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1041409585&highlight=#post1041409585

I forgot to take photos of first step, removing back cover. You need to lever 4 latches at the top, 4 at the left and 4 at the right side of hood. I used few old credit cards AFAIR.

DSC_0268.jpg


I left marks at each side just in case I ever need to take hood off again (and surely I will to mount polarising foil).

When you take off back hood you need screwdriver to unscrew the bezel. There are four or six screws AFAIR. From there you are good to go. You will have lots of glue on your glass after foil removal, but water with vinegar would do the trick.


amlett said:
By the way, does anyone know where can I find modified INF files for x64 with added resolutions and refresh rates?
I've found this in this thrad, but the links are down.
http://hardforum.com//showpost.php?p=1035009057&postcount=5500

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Wouldn't Custom Resolution Utility work? It's much easier and faster way to handle custom resolutions. There is a way to get your EDID as data file, modify it and write down as .inf, but it's pain in the ass. If you can't use CRU for some reason then let me know, I have all necessary programs for this somewhere.

XoR said:
sharpness will be better without AG coating due to how CRT become less sharp with higher emmision levels. At eg. 100cd/m2 less coating => less emission needed. You also remove one layer from optical way that light have to go to hit your eye. So with that image improves. AG-less FW900 is by far sharpest CRT monitor I have ever used.
Click to expand...

Totally agree - less emission equals sharper image. Unfortunatelly. But I think F520 would be sharper than FW900, even though I never had F520 in my hands.

XoR said:
In terms of contrast ratio AG-less FW900 for me was worst CRT monitor I ever used and it was completely unusable except in pitch black room. Having LCD next to it at minimum brightness displaying white screen devastated its black level. Having any ambient light was even worse, black looked like color of phosphor which is not even dark gray but some sort of putred pale greenish-cyan tint. This was worst mod I ever did this removing AG coating.
Click to expand...

Dark phosphors tend to change their color over time (mostly towards green), but if you do WinDAS WPB procedure once every 3 months or so then they would always be totally gray. Just did that yesterday after half a year and what a relief to my eyes :)

WBP is necessity IMHO.

-- Polish chatting ---
przeglądam warsztaty w okolicy i niektórzy mają komory bezpyłowe. Zadzwonię do kilku, czy podjęliby się nałożenia folii polaryzacyjnej z klejem na monitor w takiej komorze. Jeżeli kładą folie na szyby w samochodach, to pewnie mają temat obcykany jak ta lala :) Możliwe, że podejmą się zadania (bo oczywiście warunkiem jest brak jakiegokolwiek pyłka i pęcherzyka z powietrzem między oflią a ekranem) i dam znać co i jak.

-- / Polish chatting ---

PCnerf said:
I know were all PC gamers here but I have been using this monitor for some retro console gaming with some pretty nice results. Now normally the monitor cant output anything less than 480p signals but I have been using an upscaler to play my 240p consoles on this monitor.

I'm not sure how to embed pictures here without them being too big so I will just link to the album of all the pictures I uploaded.

http://imgur.com/a/ao6wi
Click to expand...

Fantastic result. I think you would be better with 4:3 CRT tho: rebranded Sony G520 would cost you few bucks and should have slightly better image with no black bezels around.
 
igsux3 said:
Oh that changes a lot. If you peeled entire AG coating there is I think absolutely no need to keep plastic on. Here are pics of my AG removal:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1041409585&highlight=#post1041409585

I forgot to take photos of first step, removing back cover. You need to lever 4 latches at the top, 4 at the left and 4 at the right side of hood. I used few old credit cards AFAIR.

DSC_0268.jpg


I left marks at each side just in case I ever need to take hood off again (and surely I will to mount polarising foil).

When you take off back hood you need screwdriver to unscrew the bezel. There are four or six screws AFAIR. From there you are good to go. You will have lots of glue on your glass after foil removal, but water with vinegar would do the trick.




Wouldn't Custom Resolution Utility work? It's much easier and faster way to handle custom resolutions. There is a way to get your EDID as data file, modify it and write down as .inf, but it's pain in the ass. If you can't use CRU for some reason then let me know, I have all necessary programs for this somewhere.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tutorial. really.

Is the polarising foil worth it???

about the driver, yes, I finally setup the custom resolutions with the nvidia control panel. currently
1920x1200@96hz (most of the time)
1600x1000@110hz
1280x800@120hz
 
spacediver said:
Oh jesus dude, I didn't realize you tried to remove the AG without removing the bezel!!!
Click to expand...
It started when I saw the srcatches at the ag coat first time I turned it on. I applied alcohol trying to clean it for seeing how bad were the sractches (the monitor came very dirty) and I saw the coanting was wiped of a little bit, so I ended wiping all of it, until the last dots remained.

I think this guy had the same issue:
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036675436&postcount=6586
 
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ok, but when you and that other posted say "plastic", are you referring to the bezel? Or to something else? That other post doesn't make sense to me, when the poster refers to "factory plastic".
 
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