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

I own one of these monitors and I was thinking about picking up a PS3. Has anyone tried using an HDMI to DVI and then DVI to VGA to hook up to their FW900? I wasn't sure if that was even possible, and if it was possible how the picture would look.

Is there a better way to do this? When I searched the thread I noticed a few people talked about picking up transcoders. Would that be a better option?

My 360 looks amazing on this thing in 1080p, and it would be great if I could use it for a PS3 as well.
 
I own one of these monitors and I was thinking about picking up a PS3. Has anyone tried using an HDMI to DVI and then DVI to VGA to hook up to their FW900? I wasn't sure if that was even possible, and if it was possible how the picture would look.

Is there a better way to do this? When I searched the thread I noticed a few people talked about picking up transcoders. Would that be a better option?

My 360 looks amazing on this thing in 1080p, and it would be great if I could use it for a PS3 as well.

You'd have better luck with component to VGA methinks.
 
Hey guys,

So I just found one locally that seems to be in good condition , the unit is a 2001 unit as well. I am a bit worried over the overbrightness creeping up and the popping in and out reported here by a couple of members , is there an easy way to test for this while I am picking it up?

Also what kind of tests would you recommend for me to do on the monitor to ensure that its in good condition? just a nokia monitor test after a 15 min warmup?

Thanks
 
More like 20-30 minute warm-ups.

Keep in mind that of the three or four people here who have reported the focus popping in and out, not one of us has actually had the monitor die. . . and every one of us has found that leaving the monitor on alleviates the symptoms.

I've recently started turning mine off again. . . and the problem has not recurred. Still crossing my fingers.

The most important thing to check for is blemishes in the glass and anti-glare coating. I'd bring a couple very soft towels and a bottle of distilled water to clean the screen (in case it's not clean when you get there). . . and then look at the screen from all angles. You might look crazy as you put your nose to the glass and move your face across it, but if you can get a screen that is unblemished, nearly every other problem can be fixed via Windas cable (including convergence. . . see my guide posted above).
 
Thanks Hurin,

I read your guide , amazing info there and I will be getting a windas cable soon just to tweak it with maybe a colorimeter as well. I will use the piece of cloth that comes with glasses and just normal water ( don't have distilled water on hand ). Just wanted to make sure , by blemishes in the glass you mean scratches to the antiglare coating , correct?( sorry , English as a second language) If so I am going to turn the monitor off and go over it with a flashlight to make sure its good. I am quite sensitive to scratches to the antiglare coating as I had one on an old monitor , tiny one but drove me insane!!!
 
Can our 360's look like this on the fw900 with the new vga fix in the coming spring update?

121211492qj0.jpg


121211496th0.jpg


121211553ml0.jpg


untitled11hr2.jpg


these pics are from a 360 via vga on a samsung 56inch 1080p dlp rptv with factory settings
 
Hurin, thanks for the dynamic convergence write up. I'm one step closer to ordering a WINDAS cable now. Is there a guide for adjusting geometry in windas as mine isn't 100% perfect??
 
Can our 360's look like this on the fw900 with the new vga fix in the coming spring update?

121211492qj0.jpg


121211496th0.jpg


121211553ml0.jpg


untitled11hr2.jpg


these pics are from a 360 via vga on a samsung 56inch 1080p dlp rptv with factory settings

It might be stretched to 16:10, I don't know if the FW900 can do 1:1..... Color wise? I don't see why not...
 
Just wanted to add to this thread as I'm now a proud owner of a refurbished grade-b FW900. The casing of the monitor has some scuffs and scratches, but the screen.. oh my.. it looks brand spanking new with not a spec on it. Convergence and focus was very very good right out of the box and calibration has been FAR easier with the FW900 than my 34xs955, which still has a few minor convergence and geometry issues. Text is fantastic, colors pop off the screen, and geometry is near perfect. I can't understand why anyone would pick an LCD over this thing.

I paid around $450, shipping included, and it was well worth the price.
 
Just wanted to add to this thread as I'm now a proud owner of a refurbished grade-b FW900. The casing of the monitor has some scuffs and scratches, but the screen.. oh my.. it looks brand spanking new with not a spec on it. Convergence and focus was very very good right out of the box and calibration has been FAR easier with the FW900 than my 34xs955, which still has a few minor convergence and geometry issues. Text is fantastic, colors pop off the screen, and geometry is near perfect. I can't understand why anyone would pick an LCD over this thing.

I paid around $450, shipping included, and it was well worth the price.

Congrats good to see some people are getting these in good condition out of the box . as for geometry & convergence my 34XBR960 is the same way , I did a lot of convergence / geometry service menu tweaks but its still off a bit in some areas (mainly the corners) while my FW900 is near perfect.
 
Im confused. how exactly?
Well, a CRT that can have its height and width adjusted can do any aspect ratio (most CRTs). There is no "native resolution" for a CRT. If it can display the image. . . you can adjust it to taste. If it's too "squished" just adjust width and height to compensate. If it's too stretched, same fix.

The controls for this are in the basic monitor controls. No magic necessary.
 
Well, a CRT that can have its height and width adjusted can do any aspect ratio (most CRTs). There is no "native resolution" for a CRT. If it can display the image. . . you can adjust it to taste. If it's too "squished" just adjust width and height to compensate. If it's too stretched, same fix.

The controls for this are in the basic monitor controls. No magic necessary.


gotcha. thanks for the info
 
I want to thank everyone in this thread because without it I would probably never have got an FW900. That's right I just found one of these babies after about a year of searching. It was steal cheap (lets say 15€ but I did pay a little more just because I felt like the seller didn't know what he was selling) because it was supposed to be broken, but thanks to this thread I knew that most likely it was repair-able via the WinDAS and cable.

Monitor was supposed to be turning itself of after a couple of minutes. Turning off occasionally most likely resulted from bright background as I've read in this thread and I've not had any problems because I have black background and I changed the VGA cable just because the old was quite bad already.

This is made 2001/42 and image quality is perfect. Only thing that worries me is the snapping when changing resolution, it may be a bad omen and that's why I'm looking for another one just because I'll never be using lcd's until the new technologies are introduced and for sale.

dsc00278gi8.jpg

Not exactly the lan party display, but luckily no-one was sitting on my left side!

dsc00289vb8.jpg

On the table

dsc00292zv8.jpg

Project Reality has never looked so good!

dsc00295rq8.jpg

Yes, it is a cell phone camera...

dsc00299ry2.jpg

Benefits of the widescreen. I run Source games at 1920x1080 so I can get the greatest FOV.

I fell in love with this monitor as soon as I first saw it in action on my table. I've been trying to play with lcd's but low refresh rate and bad response time and lag really turned me away. I knew it was good, but never imagined it's be this good. Anyways thanks for everyone here, because this is the best source if FW900 information in the entire interweb. Also I'd probably have never knew about this without this thread.
 
Well, a CRT that can have its height and width adjusted can do any aspect ratio (most CRTs). There is no "native resolution" for a CRT. If it can display the image. . . you can adjust it to taste. If it's too "squished" just adjust width and height to compensate. If it's too stretched, same fix.

The controls for this are in the basic monitor controls. No magic necessary.

Doesn't it start making you feel old when you have to explain "ancient" non-native resolution analog CRT technology to people? :eek:

:D
 
This is made 2001/42 and image quality is perfect. Only thing that worries me is the snapping when changing resolution, it may be a bad omen and that's why I'm looking for another one just because I'll never be using lcd's until the new technologies are introduced and for sale.

Actually the loud "Click" sound you hear when changing resolutions is normal on the FW900, A lot of CRTs do this but the FW900 is just louder than average here.

If i'm not mistaken there's a certain value you can adjust with WinDAS that will prevent the monitor from shutting off on a bright background (if it becomes a problem) ..I believe the info is somewhere in this thread lol.
 
Ok thanks for clarifying that.

Because these things run pretty hot, would it help if I'd add a small fan running at 5V inside (or outside) the case? To suck air out and boost circulation? Or is it a bad idea and would just shorten the life of the screen? At least components would last longer if temperature was lower. Screen has internal 5V psu for USB hub so the power would be there already.
 
I doubt a fan would help the random shut-off due to bright backgrounds that you describe above. As Mathesar mentioned (and I can confirm), somewhere in this thread there is a Windas tweak that can be done that is known to fix that issue in some cases.

Keeping it cooler might proglong the monitor's life. But it might also introduce more dust into the cabinet. My thinking is that the monitor is designed to operate at those high temperatures. . . so I'd just leave it alone. But that's just one opinion.
 
Yo, here's a way to max-out your monitor's brightness without having to use the special mod with serial port (new motherboards don't have this!!!)-- (EDIT: that's called WinDAS)

adjust your monitor color settings by going to "Expert" tab, then choose 9300K setting and change the following:

R Gain: 100
G Gain: 100
B Gain: 100

that pretty much maxes it out but yet, the gamma is still pretty low, so to further increase it, change the setttings in the same tab:

R Bias: 55
G Bias: 90
B Bias: 77
(EDIT: after some more calibration, i discovered that the monitor just cannot handle any more green or blue bias or it would add too much tint overall, especially to the brighter colors--this monitor has difficulty between balancing both the GREYS and the bright whites in keeping both neutral. I had to turn it down a bit but you can compensate for that by turning up brightness and contrast).

There, the gamma and brightness are increased considerably.

After that is done, adjust your brightness until you can see the full range of colors (on the dim scale from the blackest black to the barely visible (it's up to you).

Since it's CRT technology, you'll see some ghosting, bad BLOOMING, and the blackest blacks will no longer be black if you leave the gamma at 1.0 but you want to see the faintest gamma. That's the price we have to pay if we want to keep on enjoying CRT technology at its maximum even though it's being replaced by LCD.

The ONE advantage the CRT technology has over LCD's is the REFRESH RATE--only a few truly appreciate the refresh rate advantage over the usual LCD maximum of 60Hz. It's especially applicable for 3D stereo glasses for true 3D experience under Nvidia drivers. Just google stereoscopic nvidia. Also, higher visual refresh rates means less screen tearing and quicker response times in fast-paced games and online games. Disabling Vsync wont be as bad with higher refresh rates as it is on LCD monitors. The LCD technology still has serious limitations to overcome (REFRESH RATE and response time or input / visual LAG). Ghosting has been pretty much cured on LCD monitors BUT that has prevented the true response time from ever getting as good as those of CRT's (....maybe a few years from now as LCD's advance will they finally have quick enough response time).

I have both a 24" CRT and a 24" LCD. That is, a Sony GDM-FW900 and a Dell 2405FPW, baby! All right, bragging is a bad thing, but what's wrong with being proud with what you have? Those 2 threads on those monitors are two of the biggest threads on Hard Forums, by the ways. Am I being too optimistically-minded right now?

Well, the settings that I have for my GDMFW900 might not be close to the sRGB specifications but heck, sRGB is nowhere close to real-life image! sRGB is way too red, too dirty, too creamy orange-ish yellowish, RED color! The reason they use sRGB is because it helps them to see the most details in photography, in the gamma allowed by those monitors with limited brightness scale especially in the darker section of the light scale. sRGB is like having only the lower-end amplified but with the normal and higher-end of the light-scale being way too red and dirty.

My monitor settings are as close to real-life visuals as I think it is. The darker greys are as neutral as possible (see Nokia Monitor Test, google it!) and the white is as white as possible (boosted as you increase the contrast). It's important to have the blackest blacks and the whitest whites while trying to maintain the fullest scale of color. Of course, there will be ghosting and severe BLOOMING with this CRT technology, but heck, most of our eyes already have blooiming inside our retinas especially if some of us have mild cataracts anyways. HECK, many of those newer games use blooming and all of those HDR-enabled newer games have too much of those overbright effects. With this montior at maxed-out brightness setting, that blooming / over-bright effect is completely unnecessary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your GDM-FW900 might vary a bit from mine (and thus require a slightly different setting) as it has aged. Some might be more green than others, some might be more brown, etc.. Enjoy this BEST-of-the-BEST CRT monitor ever made, and ever to come for the upcoming years ahead! Until a LCD montior features 120Hz refresh rate with less than 5ms maximum response time, this Sony GDM-FW900 rulez!!!!!

(Edit: If you turn up contrast all the way, it could make things a bit blurry or fuzzy, especially if boosted with WinDAS. it might be fine for most games but it's not comfortable to have it with too much contrast, being too glaringly bright browsing the internet or working on white pages. If you have more questions, please feel free to ask and I'll try my best to help you calibrate yours.)
 
By the way, the problem below seems fixed in the newest 8800gtx drivers released today (158.22).

Since so few people have displays like us capable of these refresh rates, I thought I'd post this here to see if anyone else notices this with the new nvidia drivers. . .

------------------------------------------

Here's something odd with the XP (32-bit) 158.19 drivers.

I have a widescreen CRT. So, I can run resolutions at higher than 60/70Hz. I normally add the following through the old-style nvidia control panel (via SedonaDisable registry trick):

1920 x 1200 - 95
1840 x 1150 - 95
1760 x 1100 - 100
1680 x 1050 - 105
1600 x 1000 - 110
1520 x 950 - 115
1440 x 900 - 120
1360 x 850 - 125

What's strange is that whether I add these with the old style control panel or the new one (which actually doesn't work as well and leads to "virtual desktop panning" for several of them). . . I get the following buggy behavior:

If I'm at 1680x1050 @ 105Hz or 1920x1200 @ 95Hz (etc.) and I open up Display Properties and click "Desktop". . . all of a sudden everything gets "wavy" like the refresh rate is freaking out a bit. You can still see everything, but it just gets "wiggly." Clicking on just about anything else makes this go away. But it sure is unnerving!

UPDATE: It doesn't always manifest itself when I click "Desktop" tab. But, it will happen at those refresh rates/resolutions if I start copying something over the network that shows a lot of file names rapidly changing as the bar fills up. The edges of windows begin to shimmer and freak out.

I have also confirmed that this does not happen with driver 97.94. So, it's definitely a driver issue.
 
By the way, the problem below seems fixed in the newest 8800gtx drivers released today (158.22).

Wow, that's interesting.. at 1920x1200, i have to turn down the refresh rate from 95Hz to 90Hz in order to avoid this wavy/shimmering/wiggly problem. Maybe Nvidia's drivers were not perfectly tuned with this monitor's internal display settings (synchronization) and caused it to flicker a bit. I thought it was just my video card outputting too much noise at such a high RAMDAC clock of around 350 MHz--it should always be at least 25% less than the monitor's maximum clock which is 400 MHz in this case for the clearest, sharpest output with minimum noise and flicker. By the way, I'm using dual 7900GTX's in SLI with modded XTreme-G 93.71 drivers. (Also works great with beta 93.71 3D stereo drivers for stereostopic shutter glasses, never had any games crash on me so far in 3dStereo, by the way!)

I think this problem has to do with the monitor's maximum of 121 KHz horizontal refresh-- whenever it's over 120 KHz, I think I get this problem like with 2048x1280 @ 90Hz, 121 KHz but at 85 Hz, it's fine. 1920x1200 at 95 Hz also uses like 120-121 KHz.
 
Yo, here's a way to max-out your monitor's brightness...
Whoa.

Well, the settings that I have for my GDMFW900 might not be close to the sRGB specifications but heck, sRGB is nowhere close to real-life image!
Okay.

The brighter whites and radiant colors of 9300K are nice, and a few people might want to pump their gain all the way up, but that's not the most natural image and shouldn't be sold as such. sRGB isn't the be all end all setting, but I would recommend 6500K adjusted to taste over 9300K to anyone.

It's all subject to debate, but designers generally agree on 6500K for color accuracy and maximum detail, things that games and general usage benefit from just the same. They aren't doing it for no reason. One practical way to witness the negative effects of 9300K is to take a high quality image of a beach or desert, something with sand and grain, and watch as the grains become diluted, some even disappearing from the image. You can either take that as a few grains lost or as a factor affecting the overall image fidelity. In my opinion, 9300K is a surfeit of color and gamma. Of course, that's why people enjoy it. The white levels are nice, if not bluish. 6500K is warmer and more natural however. Balanced properly, the perception of tanned greys will be temporary. Blacks will be a little darker, but so will whites. You can compensate to get the red out of the whites. This is what I consider neutral color temperature.

Regardless of what profiles you prefer, I think maxing out your bias or gain is a bad idea. I would rather try to keep bias around 50 and increase gains for balancing purposes only.

Of course, there will be ghosting and severe BLOOMING with this CRT technology, but heck, most of our eyes already have blooiming inside our retinas especially if some of us have mild cataracts anyways. HECK, many of those newer games use blooming and all of those HDR-enabled newer games have too much of those overbright effects. With this montior at maxed-out brightness setting, that blooming / over-bright effect is completely unnecessary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ghosting? I don't think so Bo. Not on a healthy FW900. Severe blooming? Maybe after years of 100% contrast. I'd call it mild at best. It might be worsened with your settings.

Until a LCD montior features 120Hz refresh rate...
You can't compare LCD refresh rates directly to CRT's.

My monitor settings are as close to real-life visuals as I think it is.
All that really matters.

All of this is just my opinion.
 
yup, can't compare LCD "refresh rate" to a crt's refresh rate. The LCD updates each pixel individually. while a crt updates the whole screen at once. LCD response time is what should be compared to CRT refresh rate.
 
Wow, that's interesting.. at 1920x1200, i have to turn down the refresh rate from 95Hz to 90Hz in order to avoid this wavy/shimmering/wiggly problem. Maybe Nvidia's drivers were not perfectly tuned with this monitor's internal display settings (synchronization) and caused it to flicker a bit. I thought it was just my video card outputting too much noise at such a high RAMDAC clock of around 350 MHz--it should always be at least 25% less than the monitor's maximum clock which is 400 MHz in this case for the clearest, sharpest output with minimum noise and flicker. By the way, I'm using dual 7900GTX's in SLI with modded XTreme-G 93.71 drivers. (Also works great with beta 93.71 3D stereo drivers for stereostopic shutter glasses, never had any games crash on me so far in 3dStereo, by the way!)

I think this problem has to do with the monitor's maximum of 121 KHz horizontal refresh-- whenever it's over 120 KHz, I think I get this problem like with 2048x1280 @ 90Hz, 121 KHz but at 85 Hz, it's fine. 1920x1200 at 95 Hz also uses like 120-121 KHz.

1900 x 1200 @ 95 Hz is out of spec for the monitor. It should do 94, but personally I don't like driving a monitor that hard. When you run so close to the limit that a decrease in sharpness is clearly seen, it is probably going to affect the life of the monitor.
 
I and others have found the corners to be "flickery" at 1920x1200@85. Hence my running it at 95Hz. If it dies, I have a spare. But I've yet to burn out a CRT via high refresh rates yet.
 
I've been running mine @1920x1200 @96 Hz for almost 2 years with no problems or image loss.... Interestingly enough, I just tried 94Hz in the Nvidia control panel, and after changing, the monitor still displayed 96Hz when pressing the menu button
 
EDIT: I actually read the thread :rolleyes: , this sucks:p

I've had an odd problem that comes and goes with this monitor, maybe someone can help.

When I first turn it on after leaving it off for a while sometimes it clicks and becomes very blurry. The only thing that seems to fix it is unplugging it for 10-20 seconds and turning it back on. Any ideas?
 
There's been posts about this throughout the thread. But especially in the last month. So, you may want to look back through the last 30-60 days.

But, in a nutshell, three for four people have noticed this as well. None of our monitors have died. . . and most of us have just decided to leave the monitor on 24/7, disable power savings in the OS, and use a blank or largely black screensaver (such as the Windows XP logo one).

The only downside to leaving it on all the time is that it may accelerate aging of the monitor and/or cause the "brighness blug" to show itself more quickly.

Recently, after leaving mine on 24/7 for about eight months, I've found that I can start turning mine off again. I haven't had the focus popping problem return.
 
Considering upgrading to this from a 2005fpw. Anyone have any comments? Especially interested in it for the ability to play Xbox360 and PS3 without any distortion.
 
Lots of praise for this thing, still.

I have to question how discerning, keen, and aware many of these people are. I have a strong feeling most of these people don't even realize their CRTs are withering with age.

My HP version from an online retailer has never had perfect focus and has drifted over the 6 months I've had it.

Now, even with convergence and focus-pot tweaking, there are still parts of the monitor that blur and make text a genuine pain on the eyes to read. There is no sweet spot, not fix, no EEPROM flashing that can be done to remedy this.

I will be selling this thing for less than 1/2 of what I paid for it, if I'm lucky. Quite honestly, unless you can see it before you buy it, you should beware not to buy one of these things. I couldn't be more disappointed unless the thing went dead, and I would prefer that so I could cash in on the limited warranty.
 
So I finally got my FW900 and I have been testing it for the last couple of days. Was able to fix most of the geometry problems and some convergence issues as well. Small scratch in the middle of the screen but I am slowly learning to live with it for the price I paid. All in all quite happy with the size of the monitor ( coming from a 17 inch crt). The thing that didn’t impress me was the colors of the monitor , there is nothing wrong with them but it just didn’t blow me away at all. It was very similar to my Samsung 765MB in terms of that, text is even blurrier but that’s expected with a bigger pitch.

I am not saying its bad or anything , but just trying to give a fair idea of what to expect if you get one of theses monitors , I am still very happy with it and don’t regret purchasing it.

Now I am considering getting an xbox 360 and hooking it up via BNC through the use of a VGA to BNC cable ( Anyone tried this?). Probably going to get that cable from monoprice plus a high quality VGA cable. Unfortunately since I am currently driving this with intel integrated graphics I am not able to game on this beauty but soon when I fix my old rig or build a new one.

Thanks to everyone on this thread for their thoughtful insights
 
So I finally got my FW900 and I have been testing it for the last couple of days. Was able to fix most of the geometry problems and some convergence issues as well. Small scratch in the middle of the screen but I am slowly learning to live with it for the price I paid. All in all quite happy with the size of the monitor ( coming from a 17 inch crt). The thing that didn’t impress me was the colors of the monitor , there is nothing wrong with them but it just didn’t blow me away at all. It was very similar to my Samsung 765MB in terms of that, text is even blurrier but that’s expected with a bigger pitch.

Unfortunately some of the monitors brightness & color vibrancy is reduced because of the fact its a widescreen crt ,the crt gun has to cover a wider area thus causing a loss in both areas, you can see what I mean by changing the resolution to something 4:3 aspect, such as 1280x960 (should have black bars on the sides) .It should be brighter & more colorful. Guess its a small trade off but Ive gotten used to it. Sony started using higher output guns in there CRT HDTV's to combat this issue, My XBR960 HDTV is at least 2 times the brightness of my FW900, however I can still see the same boost in brightness effect when watching 4:3 sources on the HDTV.

If you search this thread theres ways to increase the contrast & color output of the FW900 by changing certain values in the firmware via Windas, I havent tried this myself.
 
Thanks mathesar,

I do remember now that there was a setting called max drive strength or something on windas that could help with that , I guess the windas cable is next in my list of stuff I need. What do you think about hooking the xbox 360 via BNC cables though? A mod on xbox scene seems to have done it , I tried pm'ing him but he hasn't been online for a while. I was under the impression that it shouldn't be possible since 2 of the 5 BNC wires are for horizontal and vertical refresh , and i remember reading in the thread that you need to change res and refresh rates manually through a file if your using BNC for your pc.

I would love for that to work though , considering picking up a 360 in the next 2 weeks or so.
 
Thanks mathesar,

I do remember now that there was a setting called max drive strength or something on windas that could help with that , I guess the windas cable is next in my list of stuff I need. What do you think about hooking the xbox 360 via BNC cables though? A mod on xbox scene seems to have done it , I tried pm'ing him but he hasn't been online for a while. I was under the impression that it shouldn't be possible since 2 of the 5 BNC wires are for horizontal and vertical refresh , and i remember reading in the thread that you need to change res and refresh rates manually through a file if your using BNC for your pc.

I would love for that to work though , considering picking up a 360 in the next 2 weeks or so.

Why not just use VGA?
 
Why not just use VGA?

For the ability to easily change resolutions and refresh rates on the fly for pc, as I am currently on integrated graphics and have to scale down different games to different resolutions vs the 360 which well stay at either 720p or 1080p depending on how well it works. Might as well use the nice 2 input capability the monitor has.
 
Back
Top