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

You know what I'm reading through all of this? "STFU and enjoy your monitor and stop worrying." Okay! Done! :D
 
Ok, i need your help again guys.

After reinstalling xp on an old laptop i got windas (patched with all the necessary .dlls)
and a ttl-usb adapter
I have it set up like this:
N1u5Y0th.jpg


From top to bottom:
5v
TXD
RXD
GND

At the service port i changed the RXD and TXD pins

siYMV3Ch.jpg


In the device manager it shows up as a com port (installed the driver for the CP2102 chip and selected com4 port in windas

xCY3GfVh.jpg


But when i try to save data to file after selecting the fw900 windas crashes

No idea what i should do right now :(
 
jbltecnicspro said:
Needs to be (from top to bottom)
GND
+5v
RX
TX
Click to expand...

i was referring to the ttl adapter, sorry wasn't clear enough.
At the monitor i have it
gnd
5v
txd
rxd


also changed txd and rxd again and tried it but still crashes

edit: i managed to shut of the monitor with windas via the maintenance menu so seems that the connection works, maybe its related to windas, i just wanted to save my default settings first before i do anything else

edit2: YES. now it works, no idea why but i can save the file now.
 
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You're using Windows XP right? Have you tried to run it in compatibility mode for Windows 95 or 98? I had to do this to get it to not crash.

EDIT: Didn't read your other edit. Good! Now back up settings before messing with it! :D
 
With regard to the posts about optimal resolution and refresh rate a few posts back, Dan's posting here is as good of a comment as I have ever seen: http://www.dansdata.com/danletters088.htm

Though CRTs do not have a fixed resolution such as LCDs do, they certainly still have limits. If your horizontal resolution exceeds the physical stripe pitch it will get fuzzy. Even if you do not exceed it, but do not allow enough margin for error, it will get fuzzy. And you may find that a level of clarity that was admirable against other CRTs in 2000 at Sony's recommended resolution of 1920 across is no longer so in today's world of LCDs.

As such, I always used 1600 by 1024 at 100 Hz for desktop/text, which to my eyes locked it in on the FW900. (It also cleaned up the aspect ratio.)

You of course need to find what does so for you.
 
I have a FW900 that I am looking to sell. I am curious what is the going rate for these in good condition.
I had mine for 7+ years with 1-2 hr a night use. Nothing wrong with it, but could use some calibration.

btw, I am in north of Boston MA area.

Looking for suggestions what is a fair asking price for it.
thanks
 
^^^
I think this post would fall under the "NO PRICE CHECKS" rule of the forum, just FYI. Best advice is to post it on FS/FT and see what happens.

EDIT: But I know that AccurateIT sells their "used" FW900's for $400 including shipping. Shipping these things is no cakewalk. Mine arrived at my house in a 120lb wooden-framed box.
 
Hmm...retried link and seems ok...alternative would be to go to dansdata homepage and search for "FW900".
 
Doesn't work for me either, starting page too. Only via Opera Mini which acts like a proxy/vpn.
 
OK, Upgrade time!

(Graphics card, not monitor!)

What is the bottom line on who's cards support the FW900 best?

I don't run crazy res/hz just 1920x1200 @ 85hz and I just want the best software/driver support for this CRT I can get.
 
ZeosPantera said:
OK, Upgrade time!

(Graphics card, not monitor!)

What is the bottom line on who's cards support the FW900 best?

I don't run crazy res/hz just 1920x1200 @ 85hz and I just want the best software/driver support for this CRT I can get.
Click to expand...

So far I'm not crazy about my GTX-560's handling on the FW900. By default, it sees the FW900's 2304x1440 as its "native" resolution and attempts to scale any resolution up to that 2304x1440. Even when I disable scaling, it still treats it like an LCD. For example, on my GeForce 6600, I can set the res to 1600x1024 for some super sharp text rendering. It fills the screen. On GeForce GTX-560, it doesn't do that. Instead, it renders it small on the screen, and no matter how much I zoom the monitor, I can't really get it to fill the screen. I haven't tried it yet, but I'll give my BNC cable a go. For whatever reason, whenever I connect the BNC, it doesn't "know" what kind of monitor I have in it.

So yeah - not impressed by Nvidia's handling of the FW900 so far.
 
No matter if AMD or Nvidia both do their jobs well.

Shit happens all the time. Depends of the rest of your components. Normally every card should handle the FW900 well. Depends on what do you want to do with it.

Ive used the GTX 480 and now the GTX Titan with it. No problems related from drivers or the cards so far.

@jbltecnicspro
RGBHV/BNC does not transfer EDID information from the EEPROM of the Monitor. Thats why the OS doesn't know any information about the Monitor.
 
Myramond said:
No matter if AMD or Nvidia both do their jobs well.

Shit happens all the time. Depends of the rest of your components. Normally every card should handle the FW900 well. Depends on what do you want to do with it.

Ive used the GTX 480 and now the GTX Titan with it. No problems related from drivers or the cards so far.

@jbltecnicspro
RGBHV/BNC does not transfer EDID information from the EEPROM of the Monitor. Thats why the OS doesn't know any information about the Monitor.
Click to expand...

Right about the BNC, which is why I'd argue that it's functionally the best connection option out there. Because the computer doesn't see the EDID, the GTX-560 won't try to assume anything about it, and I can set to any resolution that I like without the darn thing trying to scale on me.
 
Hey guys do you think an A- rated FW900 from accurateit for almost $900 is worth it? Comes with a 6 month warrant vs their 90 days warranty on the $400 models. I would not mind paying this premium if it means years of trouble free use and not having to play the "lottery".

I currently have a lightboost monitor, but am unsatisfied due to poor colors and black levels.
 
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for that amount you may aswell buy one from Uncle Vito trough ebay. Price is same, and i'd trust him far more then accurateit, and his monitors are top notch. Or give him a PM here, his name on forum here is lagrunauer

You could look for a second hand one that is lower in price too..
 
What he said ^^.

Don't drop $900 on a "A-" monitor. Spend the extra $100 and get an A+ Unkle Vito one. Or do what I did and start a WTB thread on FS/FT when you have the right post count.
 
So my question is would it be a good buy, good value for the A+ monitor from Uncle Vito? I don't mind paying the premium if the monitor will last me a few worry free years, or will I still have to maintain the monitor every six months? Anyone have experience with one of these A+ monitors?
 
I believe that the "six month" rule is for users who are heavy users. I think Vito said that once a year was acceptable too. Keep in mind that you don't HAVE to recalibrate your monitor, but if you want it to be in tip-top shape, you should. Frankly, I think that depending on where you live, this may be impossible unless you're willing to spend the time, money and hassle shipping it to him to have your screen recalibrated. As for whether or not it'll last longer. I would assume his monitors would last a long time. Whenever he does any calibration, he checks to make sure the electronics still have integrity. He doesn't just adjust the screen and ship it off. From what he's posted before, his calibration procedures take around 6 hours to complete.

So in summary - I think your Vito monitor should last a while, unless something happened to it during transit. But transit problems are usually easy to detect.

EDIT: There are indeed quite a few people here who have owned Vito's monitors. Vega is a user that sticks out in my mind. He ended up selling some Vito's to people and kept some for himself. Ask him what he thinks about it. Personally, if I had the money saved up, I would definitely get one of his monitors. I might actually save up the money to order it from him. Either an FW900 or one of his F520's (I believe the 520's are actually better than the 900's sans the widescreen).
 
If you're thinking of owning a high end display (monitor OR tv), it's certainly worth investing in a colorimeter and/or spectrophotometer. You can do a lot with the OSD (on screen display) without having to worry about using WinDAS to calibrate the grey scale balance and gamma (although WinDAS is great for adjusting G2 voltage and dynamic convergence)

The AVS forums has some very good info on calibration.

Here's an excellent guide:

http://www.curtpalme.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10457
 
Alright, so this might be a bit off-topic, but I figured you CRT folks would enjoy this. So the other day I was going to work and I noticed that someone had dropped a Dell CRT monitor off at the dumpster. It was sitting next to it outside of the trash (so no - I didn't dive in to get it :D), with its VGA cable still attached and a power cord. So I did what any of us would do - I put it in my car and went to work. I figure that it was probably thrown out because the owner had upgraded to an LCD or that it had something wrong with it. Either way - I could still have a free 3-prong power cord! :D

So I bring it back home and fire it up... Awful. Monitor was WAY too bright and had retrace lines. The convergence was terrible too. I looked up the model - P991, which is a Trinitron screen, and read that G2 voltage problems are common among that monitor (I figured the G2 was up too high due to the excessive brightness). I found the tab that covers the four-pin connector on the screen and performed WinDAS adjustment on it. I lowered the G2 to about 75 (it was set to 99, which is a lot lower than my FW900). Now it actually displays blacks!

I then ran the dynamic convergence on it too and straightened it out. But... I need to go over it again. Foolishly, I did it at the resolution that WinDAS recommended - 1024x768. 19-inch Trinitron's can physically resolve 1280x960, which is what I'm going to do on the next round. But man - it looks awesome now. I really wish I could find the person who threw it out because I'm 100% positive they'd be floored at the difference in image quality.

So all in all - I got a free LAN party monitor that can do 1600x1200 at 85hz, and the picture is still very clear and good. Woot!

And on another note... Thank God Sony decided to make WinDAS.
 
Well boys.. Just put my Brightness on this FW900 down to "0".. Guess it is time for windas. Just have no idea what PC I can run it from.

Would a win2000 machine do it?
 
ZeosPantera said:
Well boys.. Just put my Brightness on this FW900 down to "0".. Guess it is time for windas. Just have no idea what PC I can run it from.

Would a win2000 machine do it?
Click to expand...

It should. Windows XP with 98 compatibility mode does the trick.

EDIT: I personally use Windows 7's XP Mode to adjust mine, and I hook up an older Windows XP computer to the screen for signal generation (nokia monitor test is my weapon of choice). But since you're only adjusting G2 - you shouldn't need another PC to generate the signal. Just get a hex editor like VI for Windows. If you need help on getting started, just let us know. :)

And for every one else - thanks! Yes, it's great to have another Trinitron in the arsenal. :D The only thing I don't like about it is that you can't adjust the RGB gain/bias separately. The only option for color adjustment on the OSD is the color temperature. So if I really wanted to calibrate the color profile, WinDAS it is - or I would have to adjust it at the PC level, which I don't want to do (as a LAN party monitor, it would probably bounce from PC-to-PC depending on setup).
 
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Thanks JBL that makes me feel MUCH better since I have a Win7 netbook I can use. Is there a particular cable you like using? I have seen a few on here but god knows where they are now.
 
ZeosPantera said:
Thanks JBL that makes me feel MUCH better since I have a Win7 netbook I can use. Is there a particular cable you like using? I have seen a few on here but god knows where they are now.
Click to expand...

I'm uh... Actually at church right now not paying attention. I'll be happy to link you to the cable I bought a month ago. :)
 
jbltecnicspro said:
I believe that the "six month" rule is for users who are heavy users. I think Vito said that once a year was acceptable too. Keep in mind that you don't HAVE to recalibrate your monitor, but if you want it to be in tip-top shape, you should. Frankly, I think that depending on where you live, this may be impossible unless you're willing to spend the time, money and hassle shipping it to him to have your screen recalibrated. As for whether or not it'll last longer. I would assume his monitors would last a long time. Whenever he does any calibration, he checks to make sure the electronics still have integrity. He doesn't just adjust the screen and ship it off. From what he's posted before, his calibration procedures take around 6 hours to complete.

So in summary - I think your Vito monitor should last a while, unless something happened to it during transit. But transit problems are usually easy to detect.

EDIT: There are indeed quite a few people here who have owned Vito's monitors. Vega is a user that sticks out in my mind. He ended up selling some Vito's to people and kept some for himself. Ask him what he thinks about it. Personally, if I had the money saved up, I would definitely get one of his monitors. I might actually save up the money to order it from him. Either an FW900 or one of his F520's (I believe the 520's are actually better than the 900's sans the widescreen).
Click to expand...


First of all, I want to extend my sincere "THANK YOU" and appreciation to all my customers and friends on this forum who have bought monitors in the past and are still very happy and satisfied with their units.

I myself own eight (8) GDM-FW900s which I un-boxed in December of 2000. They came in two (2) pallets (four in each pallet), and still as bright and as new from the day I got them. The secret is simple... Have a very good electrical setup on your studios, hook up the monitors to a clean and grounded power source that is surge-peak voltage protected (not the power source cheap rulers), and follow closely the guidelines I sent out with each monitor I sell, and the units should last you a very long time.

As to the WinDAS/WinCAT professional hardware calibration of the monitor and the power users who use the monitors more than 4 hours a day/5 days a week at a minimum... The main center piece of a monitor is the CRT, just as is the engine on a car. Proper maintenance is absolutely necessary to prolong the life of an engine, and the same way goes for the CRT. Here is a metaphor ... My old man used to say... change the oil every other month no matter how much you drive, and the engine should last you a very long time... Perform a WinDAS/WinCAT calibration every six (6) months (or once a year at the very minimum) on your monitor, and the CRT will last you a very long time... I am a living proof of that! This is the only way to bring all the monitor critical parameters to Sony factory specs (white point balance, brightness/contrast, convergence, geometry, landing, etc..), and the only way to adjust the G2 voltage to Sony factory specs. All of mine are 13 years old and they are as bright, crisp and color rich as the day I got them out of the boxes... By the way, WinDAS calibration and adjustment is included in the guidelines...

Many of you have mastered WinDAS and have been able to calibrate and adjust the parameters of the GDM-FW900 and other GDM monitors, and I congratulate all of you for that accomplishment. But as you know, WinDAS is not a "user friendly" application and if the correct equipment and instrumentation is not used in conjunction with WinDAS, it can render the monitor unusable. This is a fact and I have seen it many times before when users have brought their units in for service after failed WinDAS calibration attempts. My advice to all, first become thoroughly familiar with WinDAS, have the proper equipment and instrumentation, and SAVE THE ORIGINAL MONITOR FILE BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT TO PERFORM ANY ADJUSTMENTS!!!. The rest is pretty much trial and error... Is not impossible to master this application...

As to our GDM-FW900s, GDM-C520K Artisans (I have two brand new zero hours), and GDM-F520s, they are still going strong and being shipped all over the world, and again, thank you to all of my customers for their positive feedback, nice comments and 100% satisfaction with their units.

"Long Live the Sony GDM Line of Monitors...."

Sincerely,

Unkle Vito!
 
Lagrunauer,

Good to see you back! Got a question about your post, and it's something I've been pondering for a while.

My understanding is that if the electronic components do not fail (transistors, capacitors, etc.), the ultimate limit on the lifespan of a CRT is the supply of electrons from the cathode (and perhaps the lifetime of the phosphor). Sure, you can recondition the cathode with a Sencore CR-7000 and maybe give it a year or 2 extra life, but once you run out of electrons, that's it.

If this is true, then it would seem that the way to ensure maximum lifespan (while maintaining excellent image quality) is to ensure that the electron guns are not being over used in general, and that they are not being used in an unbalanced manner (which would lead to differential "wear and tear" on the guns).

I assume that the way that this is done is to keep the contrast within good spec (i.e. maintain good black level and not too high of a white level), to keep the gamma at the correct level, and to keep excellent greyscale balance across the entire range of luminance (which includes whitepoint balance).

My question is this:

Assuming the above is correct, and assuming you are able to adjust the G2 voltage through WinDAS, why can't you use the OSD to calibrate the luminance, contrast, gamma, and greyscale (assuming you have a decent spectrophotometer/colorimeter)? Why would that be inferior to doing it through WinCAT? Assuming you have good test patterns, and a good video card to display them (and you keep the video card settings on default), wouldn't the end result be the same as if you had done this through WinCAT?
 
If I were to wager a guess, adjusting it in WinDAS would bring certain levels to where they need to be, so that proper output would correspond to their OSD adjustments. A few posts back, Vito said something to the effect of: when properly calibrated, the FW900 should produce an inky black when the brightness is set to 50. White level should be on point at Contrast = 90. When your brightness is too high or low for 50 = black, then a G2 adjustment is needed (something that the OSD can't do). I'm assuming the same can be said for geometry, landing, focus, etc. It would be really helpful to get factory specs as to what should be what when adjusting everything in WinDAS.

Obviously, he's the expert and not I - so just take my guess as what it is - a guess. :)

Vito - good to see you still here. Reading your post, is it safe to assume that you don't give out WinDAS adjustment information for free? I would really love to get more insights as to how to properly work with and calibrate my monitor, as I can't afford to ship my screen out anytime. I've already gotten a decent handle (I think) as to how the software works, but I would love to get more calibration specs and information. Eventually, I'll be saving enough money to purchase one of your 520's or 900's (or possibly - if you still have them - a zero hours 520). Thanks for helping all of us GDM owners out. :D
 
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