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

Best method for using multiple inputs with the FW900? I want to be able to easily switch between my PC and PS3. Are BNC->VGA cables reliable, or would I be better off using an external switch from the VGA input?
 
I find the BNC cable much better than the standard VGA.. I would just use that for PC and the PS3 to VGA and switch with the monitor.
 
Has anyone tried out those lightboost monitors? Is it legit or still bit of lag compared to CRT?

Found this earlier in the thread:

They give a massive edge in FPS games. This was considered the pure *NORM* until around 2004, when LCDs started flooding the market and CRTs started disappearing.

Gamers never lug any CRTs around.

Gamers are now lugging much lighter Lightboost monitors around with them, which give all the old motion clarity of CRT's back (when used in strobe/lightboost mode), without breaking your back (or your car seat), at the expense of bad viewing angles, some trailing RTA artifacts (mostly noticable in windows desktop around the top and bottom edges of the screen, and MUCH lower with lower contrast; not noticable in games) poor black depth, and inaccurate color reproduction, especially in 3d lightboost mode, where the blue temperature is very pronounced (although it can be calibrated out with some effort).

Thanks for the info.
 
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Has anyone tried out those lightboost monitors? Is it legit or still bit of lag compared to CRT?

I have and I am too old to tell at this point. :) I use my FW900 for any game that I am not playing in 3D and I use my light boost monitor for the intended 3D use.
 
Hi guys. Its been a while now since i last posted about my FW900. I fixed the brightness issue and everything was fine up until just recently. The picture on my screen becomes unstable changing size horizontally erratically. Then eventually the screen turns off and the power light blinks orange. If i turn it off and back on, it is fine for a few moments. If i hit the side of the monitor with my hand that seems to have an effect! Im hoping for a simple fix!
 
Damn, this thread is making me want to ditch my LP2475w in a New York minute. This thread is epic :D
 
Damn, this thread is making me want to ditch my LP2475w in a New York minute. This thread is epic :D

Look at my buttery pixel density..

iblRmAYg1gDxuO.JPG
 
Gentleman, after all the bad news recently it's now time for something completely different!

About 10 months ago i started looking for a new monitor (my old samsung bw223 is a bad tn panel, there are 2 stuck pixels, i had to replace the capacitors and it makes a buzzing noise under 90% brightness which burns my eyes in the evening/night) so i started searching.
First i was settled on the dell ultrasharp u2411m (fuck glossy and 16:9!), but the search of a new lcd got me interested in display technology in general and the more i read the more frustrated i became.
Ditching CRT and with that every advantage it had in terms of image quality for LCD because they were smaller and not so heavy sucked. For the love of god there were alternatives like SED/FED but NO, short term profitability
and consumers not giving a fuck killed that promising crt successor and a decade later we are still (for the most part) stuck at 60hz w/ motion blur.

I managed to get a sony fw900 for 85€/110$, flawless screen, no scratch, bezel doesn't have any cracks or scratches and its from august 2003. It was used in a company for around 4 years i think and the guy i bought it from used it as a second monitor for his notebook.

I really didn't know what to expect (the last time i used a CRT was in i think 2001 and i had no idea about anything tech related back then), but i tried the pixperan readability test and just for the lols i set the scrolling speed to the max level (30) and WOW,
you could STILL read every single letter, it was just so fast that it took me about 25 seconds to get the first 5 characters right, on my lcd i could manage lvl 8 at max.
In general motion tracking is so much nicer with the crt. It is something you don't miss unless you've seen how it can be, same with mouse smoothness.
Never could complain about my 60hz but the crt feels like someone put vaseline on my mouse :D

Oh yea refresh rates, 120hz @1280x800 mhhhhhhhh great which brings me to another great aspect. No fixed native resolution. Running @ 1280x800 looks so sharp it's incredible. My LCD would turn into a blurry mess and i can even go up to 2560x1600 and still can read everything clearly
besides everything getting really small.

And coming from a TN panel, i can sit 2 meters to the right on my floor and watch a movie without any color/contrast distortion. SWEET

But now i have to properly set everything up, so a few questions for you:

#1: I have a (i think) decent vga cable with ferit cores and very thick but i'd like to get a BNC-DVI cable so i don't have to use an additional adapter. Is it worth investing into a cable and if so can you recommend me a good one?

#2: I have issues with convergence on the right side (top has a red-ish stripe, bottom a blue-ish, can't get it fixed with the monitors OSD. I guess winDAS can help? And does it work under 7 x64 or should i use XP?

#3: The glass is flat but the tube still curved so if i stretch the image out to every side it will be slightly curved and
there's no way to fix that right?

#4: I'm not sure how the crt/windows/games handle the different resolutions and refresh rates. For example if i run the desktop @ 1920x1200@85hz and want to play at 1280x800@120hz it still shows the desktop resolution and refresh rate in the OSD.
Can i force games to run natively in the resolution/refresh rate i.e. i hear the "pop" if i start the game?

#5: What is the best way to calibrate the crt without special equipment for 6500k? And does windows/amd drivers/monitor interfere with each other? I also think that i have the g2 issue, if i turn down the brightness it crushes all detail in blacks.

Thats all what i can think of for now, sorry for the exhaustingly extensive wall of text :p

Yup, it is preeetty big
7ZcVJ44.jpg


Sorry for crappy quality, 10year old camera
05Mugd3.jpg
 
Gentleman, after all the bad news recently it's now time for something completely different!

About 10 months ago i started looking for a new monitor (my old samsung bw223 is a bad tn panel, there are 2 stuck pixels, i had to replace the capacitors and it makes a buzzing noise under 90% brightness which burns my eyes in the evening/night) so i started searching.
First i was settled on the dell ultrasharp u2411m (fuck glossy and 16:9!), but the search of a new lcd got me interested in display technology in general and the more i read the more frustrated i became.
Ditching CRT and with that every advantage it had in terms of image quality for LCD because they were smaller and not so heavy sucked. For the love of god there were alternatives like SED/FED but NO, short term profitability
and consumers not giving a fuck killed that promising crt successor and a decade later we are still (for the most part) stuck at 60hz w/ motion blur.

I managed to get a sony fw900 for 85€/110$, flawless screen, no scratch, bezel doesn't have any cracks or scratches and its from august 2003. It was used in a company for around 4 years i think and the guy i bought it from used it as a second monitor for his notebook.

I really didn't know what to expect (the last time i used a CRT was in i think 2001 and i had no idea about anything tech related back then), but i tried the pixperan readability test and just for the lols i set the scrolling speed to the max level (30) and WOW,
you could STILL read every single letter, it was just so fast that it took me about 25 seconds to get the first 5 characters right, on my lcd i could manage lvl 8 at max.
In general motion tracking is so much nicer with the crt. It is something you don't miss unless you've seen how it can be, same with mouse smoothness.
Never could complain about my 60hz but the crt feels like someone put vaseline on my mouse :D

Oh yea refresh rates, 120hz @1280x800 mhhhhhhhh great which brings me to another great aspect. No fixed native resolution. Running @ 1280x800 looks so sharp it's incredible. My LCD would turn into a blurry mess and i can even go up to 2560x1600 and still can read everything clearly
besides everything getting really small.

And coming from a TN panel, i can sit 2 meters to the right on my floor and watch a movie without any color/contrast distortion. SWEET

But now i have to properly set everything up, so a few questions for you:

#1: I have a (i think) decent vga cable with ferit cores and very thick but i'd like to get a BNC-DVI cable so i don't have to use an additional adapter. Is it worth investing into a cable and if so can you recommend me a good one?

#2: I have issues with convergence on the right side (top has a red-ish stripe, bottom a blue-ish, can't get it fixed with the monitors OSD. I guess winDAS can help? And does it work under 7 x64 or should i use XP?

#3: The glass is flat but the tube still curved so if i stretch the image out to every side it will be slightly curved and
there's no way to fix that right?

#4: I'm not sure how the crt/windows/games handle the different resolutions and refresh rates. For example if i run the desktop @ 1920x1200@85hz and want to play at 1280x800@120hz it still shows the desktop resolution and refresh rate in the OSD.
Can i force games to run natively in the resolution/refresh rate i.e. i hear the "pop" if i start the game?

#5: What is the best way to calibrate the crt without special equipment for 6500k? And does windows/amd drivers/monitor interfere with each other? I also think that i have the g2 issue, if i turn down the brightness it crushes all detail in blacks.

Thats all what i can think of for now, sorry for the exhaustingly extensive wall of text :p

First of all hi and welcome to the world of real quality and colors of course.

#1 Most people cant see the difference between an good VGA and an good BNC cable. If you want one, then one of the best cables can be found here = http://www.bluejeanscable.com/index.htm
Im using the DVI to RGBHV cable and i think its better than VGA.

#2 Easy fix with the DCNV (Dynamic Convergence) feature from WinDAS. Im not sure if its running in Win 7. I think it could get up and running on it. It should work on Windows XP i think. It will work with Win 2000/98/95. Im using it with 2000 so better someone other here can provide you the answer about Windows 7.

#3 You mean that the edges are rounded?

#4 Normally you can have different resolutions on the Desktop and in the game. Just normal. If you are using the same resolution and refreshrate than nothing will pop. If you change the resolution/refreshrate in the game it should pop and change res/ref to the one you changed it to. If you go back to desktop it should switch back to your desktop res/ref.

#5 G2 Voltage is also an easy fix with WinDAS and Notepad++.
 
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I too have finally joined the club of FW900 owners. Bought it from a user here for a little bit more than the other guy paid for it. But its total shipping weight was 120 lbs, so I can't imagine how much it cost to get it over to me (!!).

The image actually looks pretty good, considering it's an older tube. There is a tiny bit of blur at the bottom left of the screen - would WINDAS fix this as well? I was considering tracking one of these guys down and running the software. Other than that - I'm impressed. FW900 lives up to the hype. :D
 
I love that this thread is still going. My FW900 was fantastic until it died a few years ago.

My cats miss it more than me, they cannot sleep on top of my LCD (they attempt to try sometimes and scare the hell out of me).
 
There is a tiny bit of blur at the bottom left of the screen - would WINDAS fix this as well? I was considering tracking one of these guys down and running the software.:D

An easy fix with WinDAS. You only need an COM to TTL cable for serviceport connection and then you can fix it with DCNV (Dynamic Convergence). You can set the convergence (sharpness) for every spot on the screen.
 
Aw geeze my Viewsonic P225f died. I have a green LED light but no power in the tube. It sits there like it is powered off. I am not having any luck with these CRTs at all. My FW900 just died a couple of weeks ago.

Do these Viewsonic CRTs have a power supply unit in them that could go bad? Seems like that might be what happened to the P225f because the tube was displaying flawlessly the night before. Boot the PC up the next day and the monitor is dead.

Now I am using my last back up monitor a 19in Hitachi CRT that doesn't compare at all to either the FW900 or the P225f. But at least it works :)
 
Aw geeze my Viewsonic P225f died. I have a green LED light but no power in the tube. It sits there like it is powered off. I am not having any luck with these CRTs at all. My FW900 just died a couple of weeks ago.

Do these Viewsonic CRTs have a power supply unit in them that could go bad? Seems like that might be what happened to the P225f because the tube was displaying flawlessly the night before. Boot the PC up the next day and the monitor is dead.

Now I am using my last back up monitor a 19in Hitachi CRT that doesn't compare at all to either the FW900 or the P225f. But at least it works :)

sorry to hear that. You could try the lightboost monitors but besides beeing fast and having the strobing backlight they fall short in every other department.

Can someone recommend a ttl cable? I saw a few with ttl to usb but it looks like not all of them work equally well, can anyone confirm which do work with the fw 900?
 
Hi guys. Its been a while now since i last posted about my FW900. I fixed the brightness issue and everything was fine up until just recently. The picture on my screen becomes unstable changing size horizontally erratically. Then eventually the screen turns off and the power light blinks orange. If i turn it off and back on, it is fine for a few moments. If i hit the side of the monitor with my hand that seems to have an effect! Im hoping for a simple fix!

After opening it up, i narrowed down the source of this problem to be with the 'G' board (Power supply). A wiring loom separates into several connections across the top. The problem can be recreated by applying a soft downward force onto the wiring. Seems like there could be a dry joint on one of the board connectors.
 
Hey look what I found! A lecture on CRT monitor repair. Listening to this guy ( who is a very good communicator ) has open my eyes and given me confidence on actually repairing a CRT monitor. I suspect my P225f may be as simple to fix as replacing the fuse in the power supply. I thought I would link this guys class because these FW900s and all CRTs have a lot of hours on them, and are beginning to break down. I for one know nothing about taking one apart and fixing it, which is going to be invaluable knowledge as time goes on. This guys class is an excellent introduction on CRT monitors, how they work, and how to fix them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsZ5PJB-w2s
 
Aw geeze my Viewsonic P225f died. I have a green LED light but no power in the tube. It sits there like it is powered off. I am not having any luck with these CRTs at all. My FW900 just died a couple of weeks ago.

If you live in an area with unstable power you may consider a power conditioner/UPS next time. Having spikes and luls (like your house dim's when an A/C comes on) can have big effects on high draw components.
 
Hey look what I found! A lecture on CRT monitor repair. Listening to this guy ( who is a very good communicator ) has open my eyes and given me confidence on actually repairing a CRT monitor. I suspect my P225f may be as simple to fix as replacing the fuse in the power supply. I thought I would link this guys class because these FW900s and all CRTs have a lot of hours on them, and are beginning to break down. I for one know nothing about taking one apart and fixing it, which is going to be invaluable knowledge as time goes on. This guys class is an excellent introduction on CRT monitors, how they work, and how to fix them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsZ5PJB-w2s

nice find. Finding people who can repair CRT, let alone give a lecture on it, is really hard.

The guy actually laughs in the comments when someone says the whole course is relaxing to watch, since it "should" be stoic. Think i'll watch this fully on a blue moon.

P.s: i'll add this link to my crt "guide" on page 438.
 
Has anyone tried out those lightboost monitors? Is it legit or still bit of lag compared to CRT?
It's legit. There's a hugely popular HardForum thread with over 100,000 views:
ASUS/BENQ LightBoost Owners! Zero Motion Blur Setting!
It's also covered in media coverage (AnandTech, ArsTechnica, TFTCentral) with large numbers of rave testimonials from users.

That said, CRT still reign supreme in a lot of departments, but if you want a flat panel with the motion resolution of a Sony FW900 CRT, then LightBoost is the first LCD to have clearer motion than FW900 CRT's (at LB=10% setting). The new easy way to turn on/off LightBoost is the easy ToastyX Strobelight, which allows you to press a keypress to turn on/off LightBoost. (Much easier than the old LightBoost hack). Fast panning motion such as www.testufo.com/#test=photo (in Chrome browser) looks exactly as clear as on a CRT. Colors and blacks won't be as good as a well-maintained FW900 though. But the LCD motion blur dragon has finally been successfully slayed.

______

(NOTE: I run the Blur Busters Blog (Toronto) and am looking for a discarded CRT monitor from somebody in Toronto, not necessarily a FW900 but at least something capable of 120Hz -- as an input lag reference testing device, as I have developed a new lag tester. If you are throwing away a CRT in Toronto, then let me know. Send me a PM)
 
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If you live in an area with unstable power you may consider a power conditioner/UPS next time. Having spikes and luls (like your house dim's when an A/C comes on) can have big effects on high draw components.

Son of a gun The P225f is working! Sweet!! I don't know why it's working now, or what killed it. It has been off the computer desk unplugged and on the floor for 2 days. I took it apart down to exposing the tube and guts and everything look OK. I didn't repair anything or replace any parts. I was going to replace the fuse but it was not like I imagined. I mean it was soldered to the board and not like replacing a fuse in your car or something. Maybe there was a power surge and the monitor went into some kind of shock mode, or safety mode. There has been electrical storms around here the past 2 days, but nothing severe at all.

So anyway I put it all back together and thought, "I'll try powering it up one more time before loading it into the truck for recycle, just to be sure this thing is really busted. Bam it degaussed and up comes the picture! Displaying like nothing ever went wrong with it. Go figure :cool:
 
Hey look what I found! A lecture on CRT monitor repair. Listening to this guy ( who is a very good communicator ) has open my eyes and given me confidence on actually repairing a CRT monitor. I suspect my P225f may be as simple to fix as replacing the fuse in the power supply. I thought I would link this guys class because these FW900s and all CRTs have a lot of hours on them, and are beginning to break down. I for one know nothing about taking one apart and fixing it, which is going to be invaluable knowledge as time goes on. This guys class is an excellent introduction on CRT monitors, how they work, and how to fix them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsZ5PJB-w2s


fanTAStic!
 
Is there any comprehensive WinDAS tutorial out there that shows you how to adjust every facet of the monitor? So far, all I've really seen is the G2 voltage adjustments and the Dynamic Convergence editor.
 
Is there any comprehensive WinDAS tutorial out there that shows you how to adjust every facet of the monitor? So far, all I've really seen is the G2 voltage adjustments and the Dynamic Convergence editor.

Could you link the g2 guide? so far i've only found the
Dynamic convergence tutorial (which is great btw).

and i still need help on finding a high quality bnc to dvi-a
And a working TTL to USB cable
 
Check the reference on this page (not to be rude or lazy but I'm on my phone). Essentially, lowering the G2 voltage will get rid of any over brightness. If your monitor isn't too bright, don't fret over it. :)
 
Here's a video on it, though not for the fw900.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpbveKhYfn4

In the video he says that if you're lowering the g2 to a value less than 100, you shouldn't put a 0, and should instead use a space. so [space]99 rather than 099. However, I seem to remember the opposite advice being given here earlier for the fw900. Can't remember - anyway, it's a detail that you might want to figure out, and it might depend on whether you use wordpad or something else to edit the values.
 
High Quality DVI to BNC cables here = http://www.bluejeanscable.com/

You should not use the normal editor (from windows) to edit values in the files. Because of Unicode or something like that, im not sure, someone described it once on this thread.

Better you use Notepad++.
 
Am i doing something wrong or do they really want 67$ for a 3 ft bnc cable + i have to pay shipping to germany :eek:
 
If you selected "DVI to 5 Male BNC Cable, 10 foot" for 34,95$. Then yes that is the right cable.

I paid 73,08$ for it. Sending to Austria was 25,95$.

But the cable is worth the price. This is high quality. Better you pay for this as you are buying cables from ebay or something else where you dont know if they are working good or not.

My experience is that you should not buy and DVI-BNC cable from Inline. That was the first cable ive tried and it creates visible ghosting and mirroring.
 
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Also, if I may ask - what's a reasonable warm-up time for the picture to "settle?" It takes my monitor around 20 minutes of being on to look its best. Is this normal? What's a sign of a poor, aged, or "about-to-die" monitor? And what's a good monitor test to see if my screen's alright? Thanks!
 
20 min to 30 min sounds very reasonable. It takes time for the cathode to heat up so that enough electrons are available for "processing". Mine takes about 25 min before I can do an image restore (and image restore requires monitor to be warmed up, though I'm not sure how the monitor detects when it's warmed up).

Uncle Vito likes to warm his monitors up for 1.5-2 hours before working on them.
 
Also, I noticed that when going from really bright to really light, the monitor "jumps" ever-so-slightly... I'm talking very slightly. Is this also not good?

EDIT: Actually - all four of my CRT's (various brands) do this. I guess it may be normal...
 
a european seller for the bnc cable here:

http://be.farnell.com/vdc/104910912/cable-dvi-a-to-5x-bnc-m-2m/dp/1956287

there is a shop for Germany too, switch to Germany on the site but i couldn't find the cable there, my german isn't so good :)

but anyways, maybe its worth it to go for the best from the best and import from blue jeans.. After all, why not go for the best if yer goal is better image quality then by using dvi/vga convertors normal vga cables.

If yer goal is to have yer desktop on bnc and playstation or so on vga input, then you can buy any bnc cable i guess.
 
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Also, I noticed that when going from really bright to really light, the monitor "jumps" ever-so-slightly... I'm talking very slightly. Is this also not good?

EDIT: Actually - all four of my CRT's (various brands) do this. I guess it may be normal...

no idea what you mean by "really bright to really light"
 
BNC's working OK for me, but it seems to have a totally different color shift from the VGA. I guess maybe the input is to blame, but I'll just have to make a new color profile from the OSD. Very heavy green tint.
 
that doesn't sound right. Try fiddling with the RGB connections where the cable interfaces with the monitor. See if the screen becomes normal at any point during this fiddling (helps to have long arms)
 
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