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

dioxholster said:
what the hell. whats so cool about this CRT monitor from circa 2005?
Click to expand...

You would need to see one to understand...

Now I have been killing myself trying to get the convergence right but my tube is off vertically top and bottom so with the stock osd I cant get it right. Can the windas do vertical convergence top and bottom?
 
I run many games at 2304x1440 resolution on my 2x 4890 Crossfire setup. Mostly UE3 games that don't support AA. You'd think that newer cards would be able to hit that resolution, too.
 
ZeosPantera said:
Can the windas do vertical convergence top and bottom?
Click to expand...
In a word, yes.

You get like 200 "points" across the screen where you can adjust h and v convergence. It's a pain in the butt, but it should fix you up assuming your convergence issues are completely freaky.

I wrote a guide for doing dynamic convergence via windas on the fw900. Grab yourself a cable and have at it. =P
 
Hurin said:
In a word, yes.

You get like 200 "points" across the screen where you can adjust h and v convergence. It's a pain in the butt, but it should fix you up assuming your convergence issues are completely freaky.

I wrote a guide for doing dynamic convergence via windas on the fw900. Grab yourself a cable and have at it. =P
Click to expand...

I hate anything with a "I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YO SH!T GETS F|_|CKED UP" message on the top.

Good tutorial btw. May have to pick the cable up now. Oh will this work http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-serial-adap...016?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a09d1a678

It was used in this thread http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1035951906&postcount=6175 and would make my life much easier since nothing I have has a serial port and the adapters can be flaky.
 
Last edited:
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Happy Hopping said:
How a CRT thread last 313 pages?
Click to expand...

Flybye said:
There's no skool like old skool. :D
Click to expand...

And I am the Fu*king Head-master!

Quality over convenience my friend. And well actually its quantity and quality. Find me an lcd monitor that weights 97 lbs!

Ask yourself 1 question.

Do you care how thin your TV is?

If you do just leave this thread. Right now. How thin your TV is may be the stupidest bragging right I have ever heard. What you should brag about is levels of greyscale and pixel pitch. Color accuracy and black levels. Viewing angles and refresh rates.

Those are the things everyone SHOULD be talking about. But consumers are all women or frankly, retarded. So nowadays everyone must have the thinnest tv's in the world because apparently everyone lives in a closet in Tokyo.

Now. Computer monitors are the same thing. Everyone complains about how heavy these fw900's are. Why? Either you have a weak desk or carry your monitor down to the breakfast table every morning. What does weight have to do with it?
 
The only time I ever complained about how heavy my FW900 is was when I had to help the FEDEX guy carry it into my house. :p

Just out of curiosity, has anyone found a way to supercharge the USB hub in the base to work off of 2.0?
 
I have been looking for one casually but the drawbacks keep me from going all out looking. Quite simply the heat generated by one of those things is massive plus I have to sit my desk back about 2 feet from the wall.
 
Anybody in the DFW area who might be looking for an FW900 might want to hit up craigslist. (The pictures aren't that great, but going off the base it does appear to be an FW900.)

<looks at the Apple 30" monitor on his desk> ...Noooo, that thing would utterly destroy my Fredrik...
 
JayteeBates said:
I have been looking for one casually but the drawbacks keep me from going all out looking. Quite simply the heat generated by one of those things is massive plus I have to sit my desk back about 2 feet from the wall.
Click to expand...
The 30" LG IPS display I tried put out way more heat than my FW900. I could actually feel it on my face.

There's no monitor like the FW900. Nor will there be for a long, long time. :(
 
Post pictures people! I want to see them in action like in the OP and how you have them set up.
 
Just curious if there is any more in-depth information on windas tweaks.. I just finally noticed that my CONTRAST was set to 255 instead of 220 (original settings) and that was what caused my fw900 to really "bloom" whites and crush blacks, and it also made convergence errors much more noticeable. Having gone back to 220 contrast the picture is much more "clean" but I still seem to have a black level that is more a slight gray/green. What exactly does the BRIGHTNESS setting affect on my monitor, I've tried changing it from 81 to 66 but didn't really find much of a difference, no where as much as changing G2 does.. Also, my G2 is now at 100, if I decide to drop it how would I change the hex values, would it be like 095 or would I delete the first bit and just have 95? I've also had some problems with geometry that I've failed to fix with Windas procedures, is there any method or guide to fix geometry; should certain settings be changed before others (such as bow, pin, etc.)?

Also, for anyone using HDFury2 to hook up there PS3 (mine connects via VGA) do you have your PS3's Full Dynamic Range on or Limited? I read the HDFury2 already sends a full 0-255 range, even modulating a Limited 16-233 or whatever color range to 0-255... Have you found that a Full DR on Ps3 requires an even lower brightness setting for absolute black?
 
Last edited:
I recently got a FW900 monitor after taking interest in this thread. Was lucky enough to find a seller on CraigsList, so I jumped at the chance. $200 was a steal, and the guy clearly cared about his electronics.

Just built me a new desktop too, equipped with a GTX 460, which has 2 DVI and a miniHDMI output. I'm wondering how much of a difference it'll make if I used one output port vs the other, I figured I might as well use the HDMI one, but I need to do more reading up.

This thread is incredibly long, and I plan on reading through the entire thing over the course of the next few days/weeks to help me calibrate my monitor's image quality to be the finest it can possibly be (within my technical know-how limits). It will be a rough job. I see that a majority of the thread is summed up in the first post, but I'm intent on learning everything I possibly can about this monitor.

If anyone here were to give out some quick tips for a brand new owner of a FW900, what would they be?

Thanks.
 
Congrats!

My first tip would be: Do NOT get scared if you power up the monitor and you see the color off at the corners. There is a setting called "Landing" that you can adjust that will quickly fix that. I thought I had a dud monitor when I first powered mine up and saw the corner.

Second tip is let the tube warm up for 30 minutes or so before you judge monitor quality.
 
Degauss it first before messing with the landing setting. I find my corners get messed up after moving the monitor around (decorating room, not for fun :)). Probably something magnetic nearby, but so much junk I can't tell.
 
Flybye said:
Well, lets see:

1) If we were to try to compare it to an LCD response time, it would be about .5ms, and that is in every color. Not just gtg.
2) It is a 16:10 CRT.
3) If someone breaks into your home, it will be the last thing they take because it weighs almost 100lbs.
4) Colors look natural on it
5) When you change resolutions, things don't look retarded.
Click to expand...
6) no sample-and-hold smearing
7) high-dpi 1440p makes text look really good in windows 7 (120% text size)
8) match HZ with gameupdate rate (i dont know if 120hz 3d ready lcd monitors skip frames or have input lag in other than 120hz)
9) no RTC artifacts, no RTC needed
 
Response Time Compensation.


1) My FW900 needs cleaning, what do I clean it with if I want to keep the coating on?
20% isopryl?

Also, I'm running 39 brightness/100 contrast (What SRGB suggested) at 6600K

2) What settings should I use to retain true blacks, but improve my contrast?

3) I've had great issues with custom resolutions and HD 5850. Powerstrip doesn't work. But what I did was use my powerstrip settings I've had with an earlier video card
Code: 
"1920x1200" 316.000 1920 2064 2272 2624 1200 1203 1209 1262 -hsync +vsync
with moninfo and create a custom driver that override the edid so I can run my monitor at 1920x1200@95 Details found here.


Unfortunately this limits me to one custom resolution at a time (I have to reinstall monitor driver with new inf every time I want to set it to a different custom resolution, so no 1920x1200@95 desktop, 1680x1050@120 ingame for me)


Has anyone encountered a more elegant solution for this issue? Does this issue even exist with nvidia's 4xx series?
 
I use an eyeglass cleaner and an eyeglass cloth.

(It must not contain an anti-static formulation or be applied with a paper based product, both of which will scratch.)

Suggest looking for something made for coated optics...
 
Hulk said:
where can I buy this monitor?
Click to expand...

New, nowhere, they only made them for a few years ending in 2005 I believe.
Used, you have to look around, check out the local pawn shops, check out ebay and craigs list. Sometimes a local print shop will have a couple in the back room gathering dust, sometimes they are still using them.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
kohan69 said:
3) I've had great issues with custom resolutions and HD 5850. Powerstrip doesn't work. But what I did was use my powerstrip settings I've had with an earlier video card
Code: 
"1920x1200" 316.000 1920 2064 2272 2624 1200 1203 1209 1262 -hsync +vsync
with moninfo and create a custom driver that override the edid so I can run my monitor at 1920x1200@95 Details found here.


Unfortunately this limits me to one custom resolution at a time (I have to reinstall monitor driver with new inf every time I want to set it to a different custom resolution, so no 1920x1200@95 desktop, 1680x1050@120 ingame for me)


Has anyone encountered a more elegant solution for this issue? Does this issue even exist with nvidia's 4xx series?
Click to expand...

Have you tried editing the registry using the method myself and a few others suggest in this thread? It's no different to creating a custom driver, but means you only need to reboot the PC rather than reinstall. It's very simple to add new resolutions/refresh rates, but will need doing on each ATI driver update. I've posted a few times but here it is again:

ati_regedit_custom_refresh.jpg


My current settings:
DALnonstandard_fw900.png


Works fine on an X800XTPE and my current HD4700.
 
kohan69 said:
Response Time Compensation.


1) My FW900 needs cleaning, what do I clean it with if I want to keep the coating on?
20% isopryl?....
Click to expand...

The coating is just a thick piece of plastic. VERY scratch able if the right material and chemical is not used. I accidentally scratched mine with my finger nail while wiping it down. I would treat it as any other plastic. Make sure you use something that will not cause discoloring. If you do decide to remove it, it is an extremely easy fix. Just a few screws for removing the rear case and then the front bezel and you have access to it.

DSC05395-2.JPG
 
GORANKAR said:
New, nowhere, they only made them for a few years ending in 2005 I believe.
Used, you have to look around, check out the local pawn shops, check out ebay and craigs list. Sometimes a local print shop will have a couple in the back room gathering dust, sometimes they are still using them.
Click to expand...
I got real lucky. I bought mine as new-old stock for around $450 in 2006. I got it with the instruction booklet and even got to peel the protective coating off the front glass. :D
 
Guys, I have a real curious question. I have never experienced this before because of all the highly lit games I usually play, but while playing BioShock2 last night, I noticed ghosting/trailing!

If the screen is completely black with an in-game light in the middle of the screen, if I moved in any direction, I see the light trailing behind the image. I usually play at 1920x1200@90hz or 1600x900.

I'm using a soso quality BNC cable. I switched over to the Sony VGA cable and I get the same effect. I've read everywhere that this could be either a failing monitor to bad settings. What type of settings should I be having in order to prevent this ghosting? I know it is not the convergence type of ghosting where the b/g/b colors are separated. This is ghosting between a very bright single point of color on a very dark background.
 
Flybye said:
If the screen is completely black with an in-game light in the middle of the screen, if I moved in any direction, I see the light trailing behind the image.
Click to expand...

This is one of the few inherent faults of CRT. It's just a matter of the phosphor decay being more apparent and it will only, but always, happen in the light on black scenario.
 
kohan69 said:
Response Time Compensation.


1) My FW900 needs cleaning, what do I clean it with if I want to keep the coating on?
20% isopryl?

Also, I'm running 39 brightness/100 contrast (What SRGB suggested) at 6600K

2) What settings should I use to retain true blacks, but improve my contrast?

3) I've had great issues with custom resolutions and HD 5850. Powerstrip doesn't work. But what I did was use my powerstrip settings I've had with an earlier video card
Code: 
"1920x1200" 316.000 1920 2064 2272 2624 1200 1203 1209 1262 -hsync +vsync
with moninfo and create a custom driver that override the edid so I can run my monitor at 1920x1200@95 Details found here.


Unfortunately this limits me to one custom resolution at a time (I have to reinstall monitor driver with new inf every time I want to set it to a different custom resolution, so no 1920x1200@95 desktop, 1680x1050@120 ingame for me)


Has anyone encountered a more elegant solution for this issue? Does this issue even exist with nvidia's 4xx series?
Click to expand...

I have covered all of this on my earlier posts. Welcome to the ATI 5850. The best way to fix this is to take some needle noes pliers to your DVI cable and pull out the EDID pins that cause Windows 7 to identify what your monitor can display. Once you pull these pins you can put in any resolution you want in the drivers or just use the standard ones with the 5850 drivers. Either way you will be able to get all of those refresh rates back that ATI has decided to remove.

Just look at my old posts, all the information is there. Here is the post that shows which 2 pins to pull http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1035764538#post1035764538
 
Last edited:
This isn't ghosting, it's called phosphor trails.

It's almost impossible to get rid off; but unlike LCD ghosting it doesn't interfere with my opinion of good picture quality.

I've noticed it a lot when playing Thief.

US FW900 fanboys can even call it "free HDR" :-P

Now, where did you find a BNC cable?
 
Sinizar said:
I have covered all of this on my earlier posts. Welcome to the ATI 5850. The best way to fix this is to take some needle noes pliers to your DVI cable and pull out the EDID pins that cause Windows 7 to identify what your monitor can display. Once you pull these pins you can put in any resolution you want in the drivers or just use the standard ones with the 5850 drivers. Either way you will be able to get all of those refresh rates back that ATI has decided to remove.

Just look at my old posts, all the information is there. Here is the post that shows which 2 pins to pull http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1035764538#post1035764538
Click to expand...

Sorry, this thread is a bit disorganized, I wish there was a FW900 wiki or something.

GORANKAR said:
Got mine at http://www.cablestogo.com VGA to BNC 5 start in the $30 range and go up to the just short of Monster range.
Click to expand...

What about something liek http://cgi.ebay.com/1-5M-VGA-HD15-M...145?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cb0acbc31

is that even better than standard vga?
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top