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

Hey guys. I found one of these about 70 miles from me on Cragislist. Are there any questions I should be asking the seller? I've tried searching for a similar post like this, but haven't found anything. Thanks for the help!
 
In the last few weeks I spent quite a time with tweaking the monitor and I want to tell you about the results.
First on my BNC-cable, which was pretty good quality the red channel got broken. A spare BNC cable worked but it was a really cheap one and caused terrible streaks. I was looking for quality BNC cables and found some for 50-100€+ which somehow felt too much. Since RGBHV are pretty much outdated expect in a professional niche I tried my luck on used ones on ebay. The cable diameter is a pretty good indicator! The cheap one was relativly thin, the quality one before and the one on ebay were larger. And it worked, the streaks were gone.
But: Instead of streaks there was ghosting. What's the difference? I'd love to show you screenshots but I'm afraid I have none. Ghosting means everything is duplicated a few millimetres to the right, for example. My research on the matter is as follows:
- Streaking is a matter of cable quality
- Ghosting is a matter of cable length and quality of connectors and signal generator/receptor!

So what I did was to use the other DVI on the video card and another DVI-VGA Adapter. And the ghosting was gone. Hell, and I was just about to buy one of these 50€ cables ;)


Ok next point: WinDAS. The monitor had some convergence issues especially in the corners. And I used the opportunity to lower the G2 because on brightness 0 it was too bright for my taste. Tutorials see here:
http://www.geocities.com/gregua/windas/
http://dor-lomin.com/images/forums/hardocp/windas-conv/
Convergence was really fun to adjust!

The famous WinDAS cable is nothing but a RS232 to TTL Adapter and there is no problem to find it for a good price on ebay.
I bought this one. They ship worldwide.
http://cgi.ebay.com/RS232-auf-Seriell-Com-Port-TTL-Converter-Adapter-NEU_W0QQitemZ140279942075QQ

If you have no RS232 this should work too: (USB)
http://cgi.ebay.de/USB-RS232-Konverter-TTL-Pegel-f-virtuelles-COM-Port_W0QQitemZ140279942061QQih

For the connection to the monitor I used a cable that came with a soundcard (or DVD-drive)
It was too short so I used a USB hub.

That's it. Next thing that I'll try to improve the quality is to cover the wall opposite of the monitor screen with black cloth for less reflections and better black level :)
 
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minnesotaiscold said:
Hey guys. I found one of these about 70 miles from me on Cragislist. Are there any questions I should be asking the seller? I've tried searching for a similar post like this, but haven't found anything. Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

The only real way to know if it works properly is to turn it on and use it for 15 to 20 min.. Take a laptop with vga out if the seller does not have a pc to show it off to you on.

Ask the date of manufacture(on the back), how it was used, and where, and ask if there are any problems with the display or any damage to it's case/bezel, or rear connectors. Ask if they have a vga cable to go with or if you will need to buy one.(please buy a vga cable that costs less than $25 or so. But you may wish to avoid the $5 ones you come across. With dvi it does not really matter, but with vga at high res and refresh rates, the ultra cheap ones can sometimes give you a hassle, and the over $25 ones are usually just a rip off.)
 
minnesotaiscold said:
Thanks for the reply GORANKAR. One last thing: Would I be better off using a VGA or a DVI cable?
Click to expand...


It does not have a dvi port on the back. Something like this:
http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat_id=280ku=27590 or a VGA cable and the adapter that came with your card should be fine. Some people prefer to use the RGB connections on the back and claim it produces a better image. It may, but I personally never could tell the difference between the two.
 
Casually has removed dat files in WinDas...
Please, help, send me dat files on my letter box: [email protected]
Excuse for mine English, I write through the machine interpreter.
Beforehand I thank.
 
I have a Sony-branded FW900 in flawless condition for sale. I am in the Sacramento, CA area and would strongly prefer local pickup. If you live in Northern CA outside of the Sacramento area, we can discuss delivery or some sort of halfway-point meeting location.

I have excellent seller feedback on Atariage.com and Digitpress.com (same username as here) and on eBay (c.alaimo).

E-mail is cpalaimo at gmail... Or you can just send me a PM here.

Thanks,

Chris
 
I just got done moving my HP branded one, haven't hooked it up yet since the move but I'm sure it is still fine. Man the thing weighs a ton. I swear it is more heavy then your typical 27" home CRT. I don't blame anyone for not wanting to move it.
 
Sta!nless said:
I just got done moving my HP branded one, haven't hooked it up yet since the move but I'm sure it is still fine. Man the thing weighs a ton. I swear it is more heavy then your typical 27" home CRT. I don't blame anyone for not wanting to move it.
Click to expand...

i use mine for lan parties! :D
 
2 FW900s of mine turned 8 years old last month, the HP turned 6 today. :)

Still going strong, I tweaked the G2 when I got them initially last year, and have them all running around 20 brightness/45 contrast. If they can just last to the end of the decade now...then I can museum them up :)

Though...I am getting some whacky trails sometimes (white cursor + black background + going epileptic on the mouse gives trails...yes, cursor trails are off), 100 Hz refresh. At least the colors make it worth it...
 
movax said:
2 FW900s of mine turned 8 years old last month, the HP turned 6 today. :)

Still going strong, I tweaked the G2 when I got them initially last year, and have them all running around 20 brightness/45 contrast. If they can just last to the end of the decade now...then I can museum them up :)

Though...I am getting some whacky trails sometimes (white cursor + black background + going epileptic on the mouse gives trails...yes, cursor trails are off), 100 Hz refresh. At least the colors make it worth it...
Click to expand...



I also have that same problem with moving whites on a black background.
 
Please, send somebody me on mail a file "dat" for the monitor Sony GDM-FW900!!!
Help to recover the old friend!!!
Hear my request!!!
I casually have removed the file by the program WinDas...
Help please!!!
I from Ukraine, at me was not present other opportunity to receive this file...
It(he) such small, it will not cost anything to send it(him) to me on mail...
Excuse for mine English
My mail box: [email protected]
Nikolai
 
geminox said:
my back hurts looking at that picture :(
Click to expand...
You get used to it. I took my FW900 and 100lb tower to QuakeCon with me. Sad thing is that those two combined weigh considerably more than I do (I weighed both the monitor and tower just to see).
 
Anyone notice the very vast amounts of GDM-FW900's on Ebay recently? One of the sellers has around 50 of those things.
I just got a Sun branded FW900, and I'm noticing some really bad ghosting hopefully just due to the cable or the VGA-DVI adapter (if its possible for that to cause any lag). I don't have the option for BNC with this one, so would the DVI to VGA cable from http://bluejeanscable.com/store/dvi-cables/index.htm be good enough?
Click to expand...

I too have the Sun branded FW900 (or, GDM-FW9010 as Sun Microsystems call it). I do not notice anything wrong with the cable i had used before this, which was actually quite thick and sturdy. A cable from a good, well known company like Blue Jeans should do just fine, as long as the cable has the pins for analog signals of course. ;)

As a side note, i bought this product called the "VGA 2000" off of DealExtreme(dot)com. It allows you to hook up a component device into it (such as a PS3 in HD (Blu-ray a no go cuz of Copy protection probably), and changes it so that a VGA cable would send it to the monitor. Anyway the "bonus" VGA cable that came with it was really thin and flimsy. And of course when i hooked it up everything is blurry and/or streaky as ever. Im waiting for our local circuit city to do a close out sale (this month i think), then ill try to find a VGA cable there.

i use mine for lan parties!
Click to expand...
You get used to it. I took my FW900 and 100lb tower to QuakeCon with me . . .
Click to expand...

:eek: What kind of reactions do you get when you take it into a LAN party! Must be pretty funny to watch others staring or double taking.


I guess i forgot to "update" on my damaged monitor, but the seller gave me a $100 refund from the damage. Yup, id say im pretty satisfied. :)
 
DragonDude said:
Anyone notice the very vast amounts of GDM-FW900's on Ebay recently? One of the sellers has around 50 of those things.


I too have the Sun branded FW900 (or, GDM-FW9010 as Sun Microsystems call it). I do not notice anything wrong with the cable i had used before this, which was actually quite thick and sturdy. A cable from a good, well known company like Blue Jeans should do just fine, as long as the cable has the pins for analog signals of course. ;)

As a side note, i bought this product called the "VGA 2000" off of DealExtreme(dot)com. It allows you to hook up a component device into it (such as a PS3 in HD (Blu-ray a no go cuz of Copy protection probably), and changes it so that a VGA cable would send it to the monitor. Anyway the "bonus" VGA cable that came with it was really thin and flimsy. And of course when i hooked it up everything is blurry and/or streaky as ever. Im waiting for our local circuit city to do a close out sale (this month i think), then ill try to find a VGA cable there.




:eek: What kind of reactions do you get when you take it into a LAN party! Must be pretty funny to watch others staring or double taking.


I guess i forgot to "update" on my damaged monitor, but the seller gave me a $100 refund from the damage. Yup, id say im pretty satisfied. :)
Click to expand...


hehe. i weigh around 170lbs. :)
i mostly go to local lan parties with it so everyone knows and me always says, u need to get an LCD! that thing is a beast! :D

it got stared at quite a bit the first few times i went, but now no one cares too much.
 
Polevka said:
Please, send somebody me on mail a file "dat" for the monitor Sony GDM-FW900!!!
Help to recover the old friend!!!
Hear my request!!!
I casually have removed the file by the program WinDas...
Help please!!!
I from Ukraine, at me was not present other opportunity to receive this file...
It(he) such small, it will not cost anything to send it(him) to me on mail...
Excuse for mine English
My mail box: [email protected]
Nikolai
Click to expand...
I have uploaded my original DAT file here.

I believe that file was made before I ever did any tweaks.

Be aware, however, that each monitor's default settings are different. So your colors, grayscale, convergence, and other settings may be very messed up if you upload someone else's DAT file to your monitor.

Good luck!
 
I think I might pick one of these up. A seller on ebay as a bunch of Sony's and HP's for $85/$75 and it's about an hour away to pick it up.
 
Regarding the large quantities of FW900s and equivalent HPs that are on ebay:

I purchased 3 of these, and went to pick them up today. His description of "The monitors are in good shape, but there may be some small scratches in the case just from moving them" is complete hogwash. There were 18 of them out for people to pick over. I found 5 of them that did not have scratches on the screen. Actually, GOUGES half-inch wide and over two inches long would be more accurate. All of the cases are scratched, most of them severely. Most of the swivel bases are cracked and some are broken off entirely.

The manufacture dates range from 2000 to 2004. Most of them being November 2003.

On the other hand, I did have my laptop with me and ran the nokia monitor test app on about 8 of them. Very surprisingly, none of them had major display problems; one had a convergence problem in less than a square inch area in the bottom right hand corner, but that was the only issue worth note. Others probably have a better eye than I, however. In any case, their lifespan is surely greatly reduced by the abuse they have taken.

This is a small computer recycling company. The owner was not present, but I chatted with the guy unloading another delivery for a while. He says that these were trucked to them and arrived on totally haphazard pallets, and that he re-palletized them because of how badly they were arranged and in order to separate the HPs from the Sonys. His word is that they acquired them in that condition (they all have stickers on them that say "General Motors University; Engineering College", so I assume that they came from Detroit). He also said that most of what they get goes on to China to have the copper, etc extracted -- it is a scrap operation. And from the condition of their warehouse and how he handled the equipment in the truck he was unloading, all the equipment is just sold for scrap metal and it is treated like trash.

If you find one without a scratched screen and doesn't look too banged up, is it worth $85? I took a gamble, and it was not at all what I expected. I'll still get some use out of them.
 
So, I messed up.

When I moved I stupidly set up my sub too close to my FW900, and after figuring this out and moving it away it has a blue tint to everything that I cant get rid of.:(

Is there any hope in hell this can be fixed?
 
DragonDude said:
:eek: What kind of reactions do you get when you take it into a LAN party! Must be pretty funny to watch others staring or double taking.
Click to expand...
Mostly awe and staring. Due to the fact that at QuakeCon, you literally have to move the monitor a mile throughout the line, I usually dumped it in a easily visible spot and kept an eye on it (though I would commend anyone on successfully stealing it). Lots of "you should get an LCD comments" too. I'll go LCD when this thing dies.
 
Cabages said:
So, I messed up.

When I moved I stupidly set up my sub too close to my FW900, and after figuring this out and moving it away it has a blue tint to everything that I cant get rid of.:(

Is there any hope in hell this can be fixed?
Click to expand...

With a bit of luck manually degaussing the screen will fix the problem. See page 15 in the operating instructions, especially the note about allowing 20 minutes before trying again ...
http://esupport.sony.com/perl/model-documents.pl?mdl=GDMFW900
 
ecat said:
With a bit of luck manually degaussing the screen will fix the problem. See page 15 in the operating instructions, especially the note about allowing 20 minutes before trying again ...
http://esupport.sony.com/perl/model-documents.pl?mdl=GDMFW900
Click to expand...

Thanks a bunch for the reply. I pulled it out of the closet, hooked it up and it was fine. IDK what the hell was up with it last time, but its fine now.

My sub is now FAR away from this thing.
 
You're welcome, glad I could help.

CRT's are very sensitive to magnetic fields, even variations in the Earths magnetic field can cause them problems. Manual degaussing is not usually necessary as most CRT's perform an automatic degauss at power on but in the good old days before whatever compensation they use now, an engineer would turn up with your colour TV and tune it in to whichever corner of the room it was destined for.
 
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A very dark day for me.

My beloved bright and lovely FW900 started not booting up a few months back. After some time I brought to the local Sony Service center here in Canada and today the verdict is that the actual tube itself has shorted. They told me to get it fixed it would need a tube replacement which runs at around $3000.00...

Looks like I have to find another FW900. There's one on ebay right now going for $100 from LA. The guy says it's Grade A+ and been fully recalibrated by Sony. I might have to pony up the big bucks as a quality LCD would run me around 600 to 700 anyhow. And I'm not fully ready to "settle" for TFTs just yet.

Long live these remaining FW900s. I would imagine the head of large studios would be able to get these units through their private sources very easily instead of having to hunt them down via Ebay and local channels.
 
Just a pondering moment here...

Can you imagine if something better than LCDs/TFTs caught on instead of TFTs? Thinner CRT-Like technology that offered more mobility while retaining CRT properties? I feel like us die-hards have NOWHERE to turn to should we want to buy a good PC monitor in this day and age. We're forced to "settle" for large crappy dim displays with washed out colors. It's a shame, that virtually everything computer wise has grown massively but in the display department we've went backwards instead of forward.
 
Is that a joke about SED/FED? Hopefully we'll see something in 2009.

As much as I love my FW900, I've been increasingly impressed by some high-end LCDs. It might be time to take another look at the current state of the best TFT technology, for larger screen size, perfect geometry and sharpness, lower heat output and power consumption, no radiation, greater brightness for high ambient lighting, and of course, the thin/light form factor.
 
So I have been corresponding with the gentleman selling the A+ conditioned FW-900 listed on EBay. He seems pretty honest and knowledgeable on the subject of these monitors. Anyhow, my last question to him was in regards to what type of environment these monitors came out of and such... this was his reply

"These units (we have four in stock) were backup units used in an
engineering firm that went out of business. I've tested and
calibrated all these units, then inspected the inside, and they
have very litle use. The luminance (how much emission or "juice"
is left in the tube) tested at 81 (zero being brand new to 255
being washed out) which is an indication that the tube has
probably less than 1,000 hours of use, if that. The best one
tested at 50.

Please note that all of our monitors are Grade A+ with FLAWLESS
screens, fully Sony factory calibrated and adjusted; and
absolutely free of functional issues. Also, we do not and will not
sell ever any refurbished and/or reconditioned monitors. Please
look at my feedback and purchase with confidence. "

My question is does this sound legit? Can the measure of luminance really let you know the usage of a CRT? Like I said, he has been very upfront and nice to me and I have seen him sell CRT's before on EBay with great satisfaction from his customers so I am 99% sure this guy is legit...

What do you guys think? I have personally been using a FW-900 since March of this year... I have tried multiple IPS LCD's with ZERO satisfaction compared to FW-900's! And now, with LCD's using this absurd Wide Gamut BS, they are just UGLY as all get out when it comes to colors in applications that don't support them... namely GAMES!

I just recently purchased the new DoubleSight 265W LCD. For Windows and surfing it is great... for gaming it is HORRENDOUS!!! The input lag is EXTREMELY noticeable compared to my FW-900 and the colors are so FUGLY I can't stand it!!!

Anyhow, I want an A+ FW-900 CRT!!! My current FW-900 has been extremely good to me especially considering I salvaged it from a recycle place... however, I really want to have a second one around in the event that mine ever dies on me...

FW-900 is still the best choice for gaming... no LCD can touch it!
 
raphash, if you are talking about the ones from Accurate IT, then so far they have proven to be an honest seller. If you were to read the entire book that this particular thread has become, you would find a few that have bought them there in the past. Seemingly with out issue.

I don't blame you for not reading through all 4300+ posts. This thread is a monster. :)
 
Talk to Andrew at Accurate IT and he'll hook you up with all the info you need about different makes and models they sell
They got a wharehouse filled with monitors
Plenty there and plenty to choose from with a warrantee
Thats where I'm going, remember you get what you pay for, its an investment
You take your chances with Ebay and if you get stuck you get stuck... no real solution
Then good luck getting it serviced you'll be back at Accurate IT
I looked at all the options to get one and that's the safest
 
Anyone using the HDFury with their FW900? I'm looking into purchasing one of these and using an HDFury to connect my 360 and PS3 but I've heard they exhibit issues like stretching the image. Something about sync information. If your using an HDFury I'm curious to know how well it's working for you and if there are any issues.

Edit: Just thought of another question: Can either of this monitor's inputs accept a component signal? I ask because I have one device I need to connect to it where my only option is component. So I wondered if I connected said device's component cable to a VGA adapter or 5BNC adapter if the monitor would recognize the signal. I'd really prefer not to dole out $60 for a Component to VGA transcoder since I'm already paying $60 for an HDFury so I can connect my HDMI devices.
 
Haven't taken part in this thread in a while. . . but feeling a bit paranoid because I was experimenting with "Image Restoration" today to see how it is affected by increased Contrast and Brightness at the time that it is activated (some have reported that using it with brightness set higher than usual can cure green tinge, etc.).

Then, after using "Image Restoration" for perhaps the sixth time, I suddenly had this vague recollection of someone warning us that "Image Restoration" can damage the monitor if used too often. . . or that it wears it out. . . or that the monitor only has a finite number of "Image Restoration" uses. . . something like that.

Searched this thread. But it's too long and I'm not sure if I missed the reference. I'm probably just being paranoid. But this monitor is pretty darn precious to me and I'd hate for it to die prematurely. Anyone have any recollection of anything like this?
 
I saw one of these on ebay not long ago going for pretty cheap. I wish i would have went for it
 
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