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

I'm beginning to wonder if mathesar isn't actually the guy sellin em ....LOL j/k

Mine arrives tomorrow, needless to say i'm itchin to see what the F.E.A.R demo looks like going through my BFG 7800gtx oc on that big arsed screen :)
 
Leadslinger said:
I'm beginning to wonder if mathesar isn't actually the guy sellin em ....LOL j/k

Mine arrives tomorrow, needless to say i'm itchin to see what the F.E.A.R demo looks like going through my BFG 7800gtx oc on that big arsed screen :)

Congrats hope you like it :D Be sure and run Image Restore anytime after the first 30 minutes of warmup (its in the Menu under the Color option) It made the colors look nicer and got rid of a slight green tint mine had. I was told Image Restore does the best job with the brightness (not contrast) turned up slightly higher than you normaly would before running it. for example I normaly had the brightness set at 18 but before running Restore I set it at 35 then turned it back down after running it. I also noticed the brightness had changed after running Restore so I ended up using a differant final brightness setting (its at 28 now).
 
mathesar said:
He sure does,

Original Sony version here

HP OEM version here

Just to add, I bought my Sony from him about a month and a half ago. Packed EXTREMELY well. DHL could've dropped it out of their truck and I never would've known.
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
MOG I'm in such a bind. It turns out that I need to spend a bunch of my bonus at the end of the month on medical expenses cause my insurance is teh SUCK!!! :eek:

Anyhow... I won't see any more excess cash till tax time and I really need to replace my failing 22" Sony CRT. I have around 600$ to play with and I don't want to drop down to a 1280x1024 native screen. I'd love to have the 2405 FPW but because of the money restriction there's just no way. So, I've been looking at the 2005, which is still a very nice monitor. And now there is this.

This monitor looks super nice but I'm always skeptical about used equipment... my 22" was used when I got it but it has lasted me four years easily and its a heat issue affecting it. My father took the thing apart, tested it and did some work on it but its not something that can be fixed without throwing a ton of money at it.

This will save me an additional 100 dollars over the Dell monitor, which I can spend on some other optional computer stuff or games.. I don't play a lot of FPS games aside from HL2 and CSS...

I love the large realestate that I have with my 22"... How long has everyone on this thread had their monitor and have you had any problems? Do you think I would be well advised to go for this one over the Dell? I don't go to any LAN parties or anything. I need guidance... :confused: :confused: :confused:
 
SURsys said:
Just to add, I bought my Sony from him about a month and a half ago. Packed EXTREMELY well. DHL could've dropped it out of their truck and I never would've known.

Yea it was pretty insane packaging I now have a limitless supply of bubblewrap :)

He doesnt seem to have anymore of the HP OEM versions but he's got 5 more Sony models available.
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
FitzRoy said:
I do too, but the chances of someone owning both of those are pretty slim. Would be the ultimate technology showdown, though :)

This is [H]ard forums. I have both too. :D

Yes, to me this CRT monitor is better for gaming. The Dell is nice, but the LCD people that say you never go back didn't describe my verdict. I really wish the "to-me superior" image quality of the Dell didn't smear a bit in FPS, but it is what it is. I also find tearing dramatically less noticeable to the point I can now go without vsync. I mean shit even a mighty GTX will hit 59 fps and below when fighting so I was practically playing BF2 at 30 fps at all times I was engaged in serious combat or cruising in the buggie. Some dips into the 50's on the CRT no biggie. I know thats not fair, it's vsync versus none... but again... it is what it is. I can only offer my opinion on my experience, as things are in my little world.

I didn't give up an inch and a half of gaming screen real estate, nor decide for prolonged weekend gaming come Sunday to dry up my eyes a bit, for naught. The blur was just not my thing. I should get a small lcd for surfing. I bet if I stuck to the CRT for gaming only it wouldn't matter. I hope they get it right in the long haul, but for now I found my Quake 4 / BF2 monitor. If I was trying to compare two spreadsheets side by side at 1920*1200 the Dell would whoop this CRT just as bad as the CRT whoops it in gaming (IMO!). I don't have a prometia and a WC'd graphics card to do that though.
 
mathesar said:
Yea it was pretty insane packaging I now have a limitless supply of bubblewrap :)

He doesnt seem to have anymore of the HP OEM versions but he's got 5 more Sony models available.


He ran out a few days ago too. and more came up yesterday. Im REAAAALLYY hoping he puts more up 5 at a time cause I missed them at $325 and would rather get that then the $400.
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
I took a pic earlier and when looking at it realised my desk has a bend in it from the monitor's weight lol, Kind of worried me at first but when looking at an older pic from when I had my 21" Sony I realised it was bent already back then ;)

So basicly, be sure you have a FW900 certified desk if you happen get one of these beasts. :D

FW900 shot.

21" G520P shot.
 
Get yourself a BNC cable, you will see a difference. VGA cables are noisy in comparison, especially if you didn't invest in an aftermarket cable. You will really notice it at the higher resolutions
 
Do they make antiglare screens, or anything that will fit this moster. I got this same time a mathesar. I been using forever the antiglare screen in my old 17 in, and i'm used to it, need my protective screen.
 
ellover009 said:
Don't u need a special BNC video card?
No. The cable is a 15pin male to 5 BNC. It's noticably heavier than your average run of the mill cable. I just threw out a couple of those cables the other day while cleaning. I didn't know folks were buying these monitors used. I could have given them away. I'm an ass.
 
How does the monitor deal with 4:3 resolutions? Is there an option to set it to fill and aspect?
 
synergyo1 said:
How does the monitor deal with 4:3 resolutions? Is there an option to set it to fill and aspect?

You can stretch 4:3 content but you have to do it manualy by adjusting the Size setting in the user menu , when you want to go back to proper 4:3 aspect theres a ASC button (stands for Active Signal Correction) on the front of the monitor that will resize it automaticly.
 
mathesar said:
You can stretch 4:3 content but you have to do it manualy by adjusting the Size setting in the user menu , when you want to go back to proper 4:3 aspect theres a ASC button (stands for Active Signal Correction) on the front of the monitor that will resize it automaticly.

Thats what I wanted to hear :)
 
Hello and thank you for all the great information,

I was about to buy one of the remaining 24 inch monitors on ebay but noticed the size is too big for my computer desk console opening. I only have 18 inch deep x 23 wide x 20.1 inches high. It would fit but monitor would practically be right in my face :eek:

I also looked into the dell 24 inch but that is too high for my desk. I really want another all around monitor for games, internet, text, etc.. Something good as my Viewsonic CRT G773 17inch but bigger than 21 inches.

I researched online and found this one Planar PX2320MW 8ms, believe it is new model.
Anyone know if this is good for games, etc.?

Thanks in advance for any help,

Rich

viewsonic g773
AMD64 3400
1gig mem
radeon 9800 pro
dual sata 80hd
 
I dunno but i notice that widescreen movies running the monitor at 1600*1200 resolution widescreen movies don't take too much advantage of the screen size, i see too much vertical space lost any way to make it better?
 
ellover009 said:
I dunno but i notice that widescreen movies running the monitor at 1600*1200 resolution widescreen movies don't take too much advantage of the screen size, i see too much vertical space lost any way to make it better?

1600x1200 is a 4:3 resolution , You need to run a widescreen resolution such as 1600x1024.
 
are u having this issue with the fw900, when i run most resolution below 1600x my screen is not filled n i have to manually adjust it to fit screen ? If I adjusted a resolution it remembers it when I go to it again but i do something else it changes. exp 1600x1200 I changeg refresh rate from 75 to 85hmz then the screen readjusted but it also reseted screen size. could this be my aging video card i'm running a geforce 4 ti4200 with 64mb.
 
ellover009 said:
are u having this issue with the fw900, when i run most resolution below 1600x my screen is not filled n i have to manually adjust it to fit screen ? If I adjusted a resolution it remembers it when I go to it again but i do something else it changes. exp 1600x1200 I changeg refresh rate from 75 to 85hmz then the screen readjusted but it also reseted screen size. could this be my aging video card i'm running a geforce 4 ti4200 with 64mb.

When you tell the monitor to display a 4:3 resolution such as 800x600, 1024x768 , 1280x960 ,1600x1200 etc. it's suppose to have black bars on the sides of the screen to maintain the proper aspect ratio , the FW900 is a 16:10 aspect monitor so you'd need to run widescreen resolutions such as 1280x800 / 1600x1024 / 1900x1200 / 2048x1536 wich should fill the entire screen.
 
Dang, $400 shipped for argueably the best crt monitor ever made. Ten years ago I bought a 15 inch Sony Trinitron for twice that. What an easy buy, now I can stop agonizing over a 2405fpw.

I can't wait to view some 1080i media on this or to finally use my consoles component cables (with a vga box)!
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Wow....omg.....

for the remaining die hard CRTers this is a great deal - if I had any reason to jump on it I would without hesitation

especially since LCD's are are the devil
 
you guys may not see, but aperture grile on these monitors is not full screen .23dpi, it's 23 and 27 at corners. i think the full screen 23dpi cost more $$$.
 
Wesley1357 said:
you guys may not see, but aperture grile on these monitors is not full screen .23dpi, it's 23 and 27 at corners. i think the full screen 23dpi cost more $$$.

Actualy all FW900's are like that as shown on this Sony site and this older review from 2000. The good thing is Text is still very clean at the sides of the screen vs. center. even when I look at a Focus test pattern that has boxes in all corners filled with text and one right in the center of the screen.

Copy/Paste from review:

"Image Quality
One word. Beautiful. From a CRT monitor, never has there been such clarity and precision than with the FW-900, except for maybe Sony's 21" GDM-F500R. The Widescreen FW-900 has a variable dot pitch rate that goes from 0.23mm in the center of the screen to 0.27mm on the edges. Fortunately, my eyes could not tell the different between a piece of text in the center and in a corner of the screen."
 
I am so tempted to order one of these things, but I can't justify owning a 2405 and one of these at the same time >_<

Looking at the Doom III picture of the two displays side by side makes me cry. I have played Doom III on my 2405 and it doesn't look nearly as bad that as picture suggests, it must be due to the exposure time, but it sure makes the backlighting issue on LCD's much more evident.
 
Mathesar, how does the text on the FW900 compare to the text on your G520P? How about in the corners? I know you said you thought the FW900 had better color... I'm really interested in how the two compare. If you wouldn't mind elaborating on the subject, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks :)
 
I have a pair of G520s and a pair of FW900s . The text quality is pretty close between the models (and the individual monitors), but if I "had" to choose, I'd say the G520's have slightly sharper consistent text focus across the entire screen real estate. I checked out 4 FW900's before I settled on the pair I have, and they did vary more than the G520s for text focus in extreme corners. That was the most time I ever spent looking at Displaymate and Nokia monitor test screens, tweaking monitor controls, and swapping between numerous machines and NVIDIA, Matrox, and ATI cards :)
 
Here's a Q: Do these make any noise or are they dead silent? High pitched PSU whine like crt tvs? Any fans in the unit?

Thanks.
 
My FW900s are dead silent. My G520s have a very faint buzz, that I can only hear if I go behind the monitor and put my ear against the top of the chassis, and I have pretty good hearing.
 
gr33dy said:
Mathesar, how does the text on the FW900 compare to the text on your G520P? How about in the corners? I know you said you thought the FW900 had better color... I'm really interested in how the two compare. If you wouldn't mind elaborating on the subject, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks :)

Hrm well I ran my G520P at 1600x1200 desktop res ever since I bought it and currently running the FW900 @ 1900x1200 desktop res so its not really an easy comparison ,however when I switch the FW900 to 1600x1200 it actualy appears exactly the same clarity wise vs. the G520P but on the FW900 the sides of the screen have black bars due to the aspect,at 1900x1200 text does have a VERY slight loss of sharpness in the corners but its NOTHING like the 19" Viewsonic P95F+ that I briefly owned ,it also had aperture grille with a .27 dot pitch on the sides & .25 in the center but the differance was much more dramatic (to the point I sent it back to newegg and this was only at 1280x960 res) ,during the exchange I ended up getting the G520P from newegg for $600 and it has served me very well for 3 years and still going strong, the G520P has .24 dot across the entire screen so technicaly it does have the advantage of being evenly focused corner to corner. But on the FW900 when playing games or watching movies you'd never notice the differance and the widescreen aspect makes it even more worth it.
 
Skane, wow, that's a nice setup you got there! Thanks for the great info and quick reply... sounds like you really know your stuff. I know you didn't comment on the color but mathesar said compared to his 520, the 900 had noticeably better color. Would you also agree?

Also, has anyone seen a F520 next to a G520P? I'm wondering if the .22 dp makes a significant difference.

Thanks again.
 
Thanks :) I'd say my G520s and FW900s are about equal in the color-quality arena... making this comparison based on normal everyday use and also running through a bunch of Displaymate color intensity and gray-scale test screens.

That's a good point mathesar raised about the dot pitch differences between the G520 and FW900, and text clarity across different areas of the screen. I'd forgotten about the dp difference on these monitors.

If you're getting a CRT, I don't think you could go wrong with either one. If you have a local dealer that sells these used, check out a few side by side with a good set of test screens. Or get it from an online dealer with good return/satisfaction policy.
 
I attempted to get a decent shot showing Text on my FW900 ,unfortuately the shot I ended up keeping was one that used flash and it picked up some weird Moire patterns (wavy lines) that you wouldnt see in person.

Upper left corner shot, monitor is running 1900x1200 resolution and as you can see text is still very doable in the .27 dot pitch areas of the screen.

fw900_Text_corners.jpg
 
Back
Top