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

I bought one yesterday from Craigslist and it's great. I paid $175 and it's been worth every penny. Would have liked to have paid $85 like the ones on eBay, but the one I got is in mint condition: no scratches or blemishes to be seen. My old Viewsonic P225FB stopped working one day, and I'm pretty fed up with my 22" Acer TN panel (granted, it was free).

0505090751b.jpg
 
zandor said:
Have you tried image restore? It's in the color menu. You'll have to let the monitor warm all the way up before you can run it.
Click to expand...

Yes I have, it did help, and after more adjustments it has gotten better. I don't think anything is wrong with the monitor and it is a very nice monitor especially for $85. I guess I never realized just how good the BenQ fp241w really is. Buy the way the guy I bought the monitor from had at least 30 more he hadn't tested yet. I drove 100 miles round trip to pick up one and would do it again in a heart beat:cool:
 
kubakuba said:
Black level is actually unacceptable (was used to my LCD but can clearly see the brightness behind black) so ill be doing windas.

I followed the instructions on gregua/windas/ website but can't seem to get TransDll.dll RegDll.dll and LimitDll.dll files. Could someone send these to me, my e-mail is [email protected].
Click to expand...


I'm having the same problem could someone please help [email protected]
 
kubakuba said:
I followed the instructions on gregua/windas/ website but can't seem to get TransDll.dll RegDll.dll and LimitDll.dll files. Could someone send these to me, my e-mail is [email protected].
Click to expand...

You find the .dll files on your hard disk once you've installed astro.exe etc. just follow the instructions of greguas install website closely. The Installier files are on this fileserver http://www.ablserv.com/files/windas/
The files alone maybe won't help so just stick with the tutorial.
 
Black should be black, but unfortunately you either lose brightness/contrast or black level over the time, don't know if windas can fix this but the newer models seem better than the very first years. Or at least that's what has happened to those I have owned. I luckily still have one mint and pretty much unused waiting. Got a few for too cheap to resist....

FierceDeityLink1 said:
http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk177/fiercedeitylink1/0505090751b.jpg
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That lcd looks painfully bright! One of the best things in CRTs is their unbelievable contrast compared to others, I have had three fw900s on my table at once and if all had black screen saver room was completely dark and it was impossible to tell if any of them was on at all.
 
Thanks for the responce. I have been trying to follow the how to but I've run into some snags. after I have downloaded and run the astro exe file all I see in the box is this disk1/INST32I.EX when I try to extract this file I get a error that says file could not get extracted:confused:
 
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novemberrain said:
Black should be black, but unfortunately you either lose brightness/contrast or black level over the time, don't know if windas can fix this but the newer models seem better than the very first years. Or at least that's what has happened to those I have owned. I luckily still have one mint and pretty much unused waiting. Got a few for too cheap to resist....

That lcd looks painfully bright! One of the best things in CRTs is their unbelievable contrast compared to others, I have had three fw900s on my table at once and if all had black screen saver room was completely dark and it was impossible to tell if any of them was on at all.
Click to expand...

I'm hoping windas can fix my problem, if not I'll buy another one and hope for the best, $85 I think i can afford to try again:D
 
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menace2society said:
Thanks for the responce. I have been trying to follow the how to but I've run into some snags. after I have downloaded and run the astro exe file all I see in the box is this disk1/INST32I.EX when I try to extract this file I get a error that says file could not get extracted:confused:
Click to expand...

Is anyone able to help?
 
Yea, the astro setup won't run on win7x64, at least it didn't for me. I just used my dads laptop (XP) and it worked just fine, emailed the files to my inbox. If you want I can forward the e-mail w/ attachments..

I just ordered a windas cable and am wondering whats a good hardware colorimeter? I'm not looking to spend more than $100-140, are there any great deals out there?
 
wow for a second i thought this thread was new but its 4 years old. who buys those big bulky power hungry Crt's anymore.
 
kubakuba said:
Yea, the astro setup won't run on win7x64, at least it didn't for me. I just used my dads laptop (XP) and it worked just fine, emailed the files to my inbox. If you want I can forward the e-mail w/ attachments..

I just ordered a windas cable and am wondering whats a good hardware colorimeter? I'm not looking to spend more than $100-140, are there any great deals out there?
Click to expand...

Thank you for your response. It would be most helpful if you could send me those files, send to [email protected] and thanks again. I have another question I hope you don't mind answering, how did you get around the serial port problem :confused:

TIA Menace
 
wow for a second i thought this thread was new but its 4 years old. who buys those big bulky power hungry Crt's anymore.
Click to expand...

Those of us who have been fortunate enough to obtain the FW900 and one in good condition, know that these monitors are gems and as such are extremely hard to come by.

If ignorance is bliss then I suggest you stay away from the FW900 altogether... for you see, once your eyes have actually seen one in action you will cry at the idea of ever using an inferior LCD again...

Every day I turn my FW900 on I hope and pray that it will continue on being the greatest monitor I have ever owned and will continue working for me for atleast another 3+ years... cause honestly it is just purely and simply the most amazing monitor ever made!!!

I really wish I could place an online order for a brand new one... I would save my hard earned money and drop $1500 on a brand new one without hesitation... so long as it was brand new...

At any rate, if you are a die hard PC gamer, you owe it to yourself to try and get one of these monitors... greatest piece of PC hardware ever made!
 
I keep thinking of buying one to run as the center monitor with my HP P1230's, but locally they are asking too much in my opinion ($250 used...)

That, and a Dell 3007 just came up for $400 locally. May have to get that - thoughts anyone?
 
Mine only has true blacks when I set the brightness to almost 0. Which would be OK, but having the value this low means the majority of the blacks on this page http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/black.php are indistinguishable, even with the contrast set to 100. :(

Having the brightness this low also seems to make it much harder to get the gamma correct.

Will WinDAS be able to help with this?

Can anyone give any advice on how to adjust the settings to make it better? Or am I stuck?
 
I believe it will, I got a cable on the way and that is what I'm hoping for.

Currently I have my brightness at ~10-20 to get a good black level. I have yet to calibrate the display w/ a hardware calibrator but doing my best eye calibration with the OSD and PowerStrip for color management I couldn't get respectable shades of black.

If I were you however I wouldn't hesitate spending $10-30 for a windas cable (either a kit or a completed adapter) to potentially get a much better picture on the holy grail of consumer displays :)

I bought this cable: http://techref.massmind.org/techref/io/serial/rlc2.htm
I also purchased a DVI-to-5BNC cable from Blue Jeans Cable
And researching hardware calibrators I'm leaning towards the Lacie Blue Eye 2
 
Thanks, I'll order them first thing tomorrow. :)

Damn, that Lacie Blue Eye 2 is expensive! I don't think I could justify the cost.
 
anywhere to get a cheap usb--> serial converter? i'd love to order this cable but i dont have a serial port on my motherboard. any idea when the usb version is going to be available?
 
Haste266 said:
anywhere to get a cheap usb--> serial converter? i'd love to order this cable but i dont have a serial port on my motherboard. any idea when the usb version is going to be available?
Click to expand...
Newegg? You're looking at about $10. You'll also probably never see a USB version.
 
FW900 is still going strong for me. Does anybody know how to make crossfire work at more than 60 hertz? I am using a 4850x2 with the resolution at 2304x1440. When crossfire is disabled I can run 80 hertz. When I enable crossfire I am limited to 60 hertz. I have a couple of Nvidia gtx 260s as well and they will run 2304x1440 @ 80 hertz no problem in sli. I have tried Powerstrip and nothing seems to make it work with Ati. I will buy only Nvidia from now on if this is on their end.
 
I have a brand new GDM-FW900 in the wrapper that has never been turned on. If you are interested, please send me an email and I will send you pictures. Also, I am featured powerseller on eBay and very well known in the Internet for selling and supporting the Sony GDM-FW900 and the Sony Artisan, as well as other Sony monitors of the GDM, SDM and CPD series.

Sincerely,

Luis G.
Unkle Vito!
 
raphash said:
Those of us who have been fortunate enough to obtain the FW900 and one in good condition, know that these monitors are gems and as such are extremely hard to come by.

If ignorance is bliss then I suggest you stay away from the FW900 altogether... for you see, once your eyes have actually seen one in action you will cry at the idea of ever using an inferior LCD again...

Every day I turn my FW900 on I hope and pray that it will continue on being the greatest monitor I have ever owned and will continue working for me for atleast another 3+ years... cause honestly it is just purely and simply the most amazing monitor ever made!!!

I really wish I could place an online order for a brand new one... I would save my hard earned money and drop $1500 on a brand new one without hesitation... so long as it was brand new...

At any rate, if you are a die hard PC gamer, you owe it to yourself to try and get one of these monitors... greatest piece of PC hardware ever made!
Click to expand...

I have a brand new GDM-FW900 in the wrapper that has never been turned on. If you are interested, please send me an email and I will send you pictures. Also, I am featured powerseller on eBay and very well known in the Internet for selling and supporting the Sony GDM-FW900 and the Sony Artisan, as well as other Sony monitors of the GDM, SDM and CPD series.

Sincerely,

Luis G.
Unkle Vito!
 
kubakuba said:
I believe it will, I got a cable on the way and that is what I'm hoping for.

Currently I have my brightness at ~10-20 to get a good black level. I have yet to calibrate the display w/ a hardware calibrator but doing my best eye calibration with the OSD and PowerStrip for color management I couldn't get respectable shades of black.

If I were you however I wouldn't hesitate spending $10-30 for a windas cable (either a kit or a completed adapter) to potentially get a much better picture on the holy grail of consumer displays :)

I bought this cable: http://techref.massmind.org/techref/io/serial/rlc2.htm
I also purchased a DVI-to-5BNC cable from Blue Jeans Cable
And researching hardware calibrators I'm leaning towards the Lacie Blue Eye 2
Click to expand...

Performing a hardware calibration white point balance adjustment in WinDAS is not a walk in the park, and you must have the proper instrumentation and the proper software to do that.

If you want to do it right, besides having a decent laboratoty grade colorimeter probe, you must have a video signal generator capable of displaying the correct patters at the right dot clock, bandwith and frecuency. We use the Sencore CP5000 and program to calibrate CRTs and LCDs, Sencore CR7000 for CRT emission and gun integrity tests; Sencore VP403 and Quantum Data GX Series Video Signal Generators for generating patterns.

In all the years I've been working as en electronic engineer, specializing in CRT and LCD technology, I have calibrated and adjusted thousands of monitors, and based on my experience, provided that the CRT on the GDM-FW900 does not have a faulty gun(s) and/or low emission, it will be white point balanced perfectly and it will be able to reproduce stunning color purity, black and gray levels.

Software calibration systems such as ColorVision, Gretah-MacBeth, Monaco Optix, and others will not properly profile a monitor if the CRT has faulty gun(s) and/or low emission. They will properly profile a CRT if and only if the factory default white point balance of the three reference points D93, D65 and D50 are within the factory specs. If not, then you'll produce erronous *.ICC profiles and the colors, black and gray levels will be off.

Hope this helps...

Sincerely,

Luis G.
Unkle Vito!
 
innocenceisdeath said:
Mine only has true blacks when I set the brightness to almost 0. Which would be OK, but having the value this low means the majority of the blacks on this page http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/black.php are indistinguishable, even with the contrast set to 100. :(

Having the brightness this low also seems to make it much harder to get the gamma correct.

Will WinDAS be able to help with this?

Can anyone give any advice on how to adjust the settings to make it better? Or am I stuck?
Click to expand...

High brightness, even when the OSD is set to "zero", and retrace lines on the display are common problems of the GDM-FW900 and other Sony Trinitron CRTs, and they are due to corruption of the EEPROM. The culprit: high G2 voltage setting out of the factory specs. In WinDAS, you will be able to lower the G2 level as part of the white point balance adjustment. Once the procedure is completed, it will enable you to set the brightness of the monitor to 50 achieving decent levels of black. However, the program is not user friendly, and you must save the original file from your EEPROM BEFORE you attempt to perform any types of adjustments to your monitor. If you do not perform this simple step, and the adjustments go wrong, then you'll end up further corrupting the EEPROM and you unit will malfunction.

Hope this helps...

Sincerely,

Luis G.
Unkle Vito!
 
UnclePauly09 said:
My god man, have you ever seen one of these things working properly?
Click to expand...

YES!!! We have a few Grade A+ units, with flawless screens, bezels and bodies, fully calibrated and adjusted to Sony factory specs that are "jaw dropping " when you see them perform, and they look like they just came out of the Sony factory!
 
Thanks for the info Vito. If I lived in Cali, I would have been a customer of yours a long time ago.
 
LAGRUNAUER said:
Performing a hardware calibration white point balance adjustment in WinDAS is not a walk in the park, and you must have the proper instrumentation and the proper software to do that.

If you want to do it right, besides having a decent laboratoty grade colorimeter probe, you must have a video signal generator capable of displaying the correct patters at the right dot clock, bandwith and frecuency. We use the Sencore CP5000 and program to calibrate CRTs and LCDs, Sencore CR7000 for CRT emission and gun integrity tests; Sencore VP403 and Quantum Data GX Series Video Signal Generators for generating patterns.

In all the years I've been working as en electronic engineer, specializing in CRT and LCD technology, I have calibrated and adjusted thousands of monitors, and based on my experience, provided that the CRT on the GDM-FW900 does not have a faulty gun(s) and/or low emission, it will be white point balanced perfectly and it will be able to reproduce stunning color purity, black and gray levels.

Software calibration systems such as ColorVision, Gretah-MacBeth, Monaco Optix, and others will not properly profile a monitor if the CRT has faulty gun(s) and/or low emission. They will properly profile a CRT if and only if the factory default white point balance of the three reference points D93, D65 and D50 are within the factory specs. If not, then you'll produce erronous *.ICC profiles and the colors, black and gray levels will be off.

Hope this helps...

Sincerely,

Luis G.
Unkle Vito!
Click to expand...

Thanks Vito. I shall make sure to save the EEPROM first. :)

With respect to the Sencore calibration devices, I think they are way out of the price range for most people here - they certainly are for me :p. Very interesting information though. Thank you again!
 
If anybody has a good Fw900 for sell and works or knows somebody that works for ups, fedex with employee shipping discount let me know im interested in buying one. I have to pay $210 via FedEx Ground(and thats the cheapest) so its tough getting one thats worth it I'm trying to get the guy thats selling them for $85 to ship to me but no answer. Any help or sugestions would be nice
 
ki_cz said:
Does anybody know anything about the 24" Elsa Ecomo 24H96 (SONY)? I have the FW900 but can't find a second one, and I'd like to get another 24" CRT. I can't find any good info on this anywhere, does anybody know anything about it? Here's some specs:

http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/crt-monitor/elsa-ecomo-24h96/details/

thanks
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It seems to be an OEM version of the GDM-W900 (not the FW900) which means it isn't flat and is considerably limited in refresh rate at high resolution. If you bought one, the highest resolution it can achieve with a decent refresh rate is 1680x1050 @86Hz.
 
Yup, i guess im gonna have to stick with 22" crt's.. (my 22"mitsu 2070SB is still in good conditions) i have no rush for one of those. The funny thing is i can get 22" 68Lbs crts for just $65 shipping but for the fw900 it triples to $200, probably because im forced to use FedEx or UPS and not the cheap USPS because of their gd 70Lbs limit.

Im still willing to pay around $380 shipped for a good one. i would of bought it already from accurateitservices but they only ship lower 48. Let me know if you see anything.
 
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