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

Yes it does. Even if it wasn't compatible with WinDAS, you can create your own custom modes, name them, and program your own custom patterns. This makes it very valuable for calibration. If I didn't have a serial connection, I could simply dial-in the correct mode specified by WinDAS. I could even name them accordingly. :)

That's correct!!!
 
Because the Quantum Data is VGA/RGB only. It does not handle Component video nor digital HDTV signals. You could finagle it probably, but it has no formal television output. The Sencore can handle the television inputs.

That's correct!!!

Unless a fortune is spent on the newer digital signal generators, and the user makes a living calibrating home theaters for the rich and famous and/or high end projectors for the corporate world (both very competitive and cut-throat markets), the investment is a truly waste of $ and all you will be getting is a very expensive toy.

UV!
 
Yep! Actually, you got me thinking. I'm going to check my manual to see if there's a way I can turn the RGB output into component video output. I see already on the machine that in the RGBHV output, H can be HS or CS. I'm guessing this means Horizontal or Composite Sync. There's also a Sync Gate on the machine, so I'll do some digging. Perhaps I don't need to get another generator after all! :)

There was another 801 produced that DOES have TV output. But I believe it's just Composite and S-Video.

Different models of the Quantum Data 801 and 802 series come with different outputs and connectors, plus difference signal bandwidths...

UV!
 
I own a gdm-fw900 since 2007.

Can anyone direct me to an old good CRT software program that includes geometry patterns and contrast images and colour images to calibrate the image with the OSD? It becomes really hard to find a download on the web that doesn't include installing shady download programs, spyware and whatnot.

Just a name of good CRT calibrate software proggie will do also.

I know Windas is better, but still... I want to try the software first, see if theres a problem or not.

I don't THINK there is a problem, it's just well.. I want to give some lovin to my monster :)
 
I approve, Nokia Monitor Test is a good piece of software for that, you can get it here.

But you have to know that it won't work on any 64-bits OS, if you're running Windows 7 x64 or higher. The best is to run it on Windows XP, or on a full screen Windows XP virtual machine inside any OS.
 
After attempting to adjust geometry in windas, my brain couldn't take all the warping so I gave up and reloaded a default EEPROM dump. There has to be a method to this instead of 'what looks good' because I dont trust my eyes. Take a look at what I mean viewing the image below.

An inch from the bottom left corner of the screen is 'bent' upwards and the start button on the taskbar makes the geometrical error really evident. It is bad enough to be distracting. Maybe taping stripes of computer paper in strategic places will help 'square' everything up as a guide? If only I knew what I was trying to accomplish with all the geometry 'modes' because they all affect one another and it throws me off. On rotation, am I making the bottom parallel with the bezel or the top, or both? I could go on and on. Then there is pincushion that makes the monitor look like a pillow and it makes me tired. I failed geometry in HS but I don't remember a shape called 'pincushion.' There is a joke in there somewhere. :)

I have to admit, I had to adjust my geometry not that long ago, and it was exhausting.
Seriously, it's quite hard, and basically, you just won't be able to have a perfect geometry in the end.
But you can achieve something really good, near perfect. You just need some time to get used to every single setting available.

I drew this, I hope it will help you sort things out with all the options WinDAS have.
(Please someone around here confirm I made no mistake.)



So basically, the settings in blue are the basic ones you can also find in the OSD menu everyday, and the ones in orange are the advanced settings only available in WinDAS geometry adjustment procedures.
The thing is, you have to balance each of those settings together to get rid of every single geometry issue you might encounter.
 
Rah, my convergence is off again, since my issue with the flyback.

Red and blue are slightly misaligned horizontally, and I can see a bit of red bleed everywhere, specially on white vertical lines, and the left border of the picture.

Btw, I'm asking myself if fiddling with the focus trimpots on the flyback after so many years didn't weaken something, and that may the root of the issue?
 
After messing around with windas yesterday, when I try to use the OSD buttons on the monitor a green key keeps popping up as if its locked. Does this happen when windas isnt closed down properly? I never locked the OSD.
 
After messing around with windas yesterday, when I try to use the OSD buttons on the monitor a green key keeps popping up as if its locked. Does this happen when windas isnt closed down properly? I never locked the OSD.

Yes you're right. Just connect your monitor back to the computer, start WinDAS, open the Procedures list for example, and close it. Now your OSD should be unlocked.

Just try to avoid doing this in the future, it's not good practice, and your monitor firmware will be left in an inconsistent state.
 
The FW900 was an awesome piece of hardware, but I still cannot believe this thread is still going!

Pretty crazy to see it still live after all this time. We need a matching IBM Model M thread ;)
 
I wonder if anyone ever tried anti-glare coating like this:

http://www.amazon.com/3M-Anti-Glare-23-0-Inch-Widescreen-Monitor/dp/B00IQCRO12
http://www.amazon.com/Kuzy-Anti-Glare-Protector-Thunderbolt-ANTI-GLARE/dp/B00NBB3M2S

Of course properly sized. Day is getting longer and longer at northern hemisphere and this is my first summer without AG-Coating. I'm getting tired of sitting in dark room :D Any chance they will work with FW900?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-JcyOKAsNY

Would foil like this affect CRT same way as LCD panel?

Oh and would such anti-reflective affect calibration process?
 
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Oh and would such anti-reflective affect calibration process?

not really. Means you will probably have to run the tube slightly higher to achieve same luminance. And if the film introduces any tint, you should still be able to hit your chromaticity targets.
 
I approve, Nokia Monitor Test is a good piece of software for that, you can get it here.

But you have to know that it won't work on any 64-bits OS, if you're running Windows 7 x64 or higher. The best is to run it on Windows XP, or on a full screen Windows XP virtual machine inside any OS.

I'm going to go against the grain here and suggest NEC Patterngen. It's like Nokia Monitor Test, but will run on 64 bit machines with no problem. Also, its crosshatch patterns are very close to what my QD generates. It also does white balance and steps through lower-valued IRE's as well. (Right-clicking in the White Balance screen takes you through 30 IRE, 70 IRE and 100 IRE I believe - someone needs to verify though). It also does Pure Red, Pure Blue, and Pure Green. If you need a pattern generator on the fly, NEC Patterngen rocks.
 
I wonder if anyone ever tried anti-glare coating like this:

http://www.amazon.com/3M-Anti-Glare-23-0-Inch-Widescreen-Monitor/dp/B00IQCRO12
http://www.amazon.com/Kuzy-Anti-Glare-Protector-Thunderbolt-ANTI-GLARE/dp/B00NBB3M2S

Of course properly sized. Day is getting longer and longer at northern hemisphere and this is my first summer without AG-Coating. I'm getting tired of sitting in dark room :D Any chance they will work with FW900?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-JcyOKAsNY

Would foil like this affect CRT same way as LCD panel?

Oh and would such anti-reflective affect calibration process?
those are matte surfaces and will look absolutely terrible on a crt (because the phosphors are ~1cm underneath the glass)

like this but worse
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3H16K65RAML1J/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00IQCRO12
 
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I'm going to go against the grain here and suggest NEC Patterngen. It's like Nokia Monitor Test, but will run on 64 bit machines with no problem. Also, its crosshatch patterns are very close to what my QD generates. It also does white balance and steps through lower-valued IRE's as well. (Right-clicking in the White Balance screen takes you through 30 IRE, 70 IRE and 100 IRE I believe - someone needs to verify though). It also does Pure Red, Pure Blue, and Pure Green. If you need a pattern generator on the fly, NEC Patterngen rocks.

Oh that seems to be a good catch! I didn't know that one.
 
Unkle Vito(or anyone else), can you please answer if the GDM-F520 has removeable anti-glare or not? If yes, is it the same procedure as in FW900 or...?
 
If you pay close attention to the image quality, all LCD's without exception suffer from the same issue... Backlight bleeding... Some worst than others, but all do have this issue.

When LCDs are being calibrated, and the background is black, it's supposed to be pitch black, but it is not... This issue does affect calibration...

UV!


FG2421 does NOT have ANY backlight bleeding what-so-ever. I have already stated that it was the gamma shift that is very severe as it reaches edges of the left and right screen, more so on the right. It is visible, however, only on certain grayscale patterns and only when spread across the entire screen. It is barely, if at all, notice-able in games. Its like to be worse in films because films tend to use those grayscale levels. I, however, barely see in films. I think some units are worse than others. I got lucky, but my units shuts off and restarts once in a blue moon.
 
THE SONY GDM-FW900 IS NOT A TEXT MONITOR!!!! IT IS A GRAPHIC's MONITOR!!!

Once you fully understand the GDM-FW900's design and performance, then you will answer your own questions...

And one more thing... "LCD's CANNOT AND WILL NOT BEAT THE GLASS..."


UV!

I never said they could. I am just wondering HOW sharp text can be on properly calibrated CRT like FW900. I mean it needs to be read-able at least. Sharpness is surely an aspect of display quality, but it not one truly important for gaming purposes. Are there any photo's of how sharp text looks like on FW900 @ the highest resolution?

I also wish someone would answer my questions regarding CRT's and their motion.

Blur Busters say that to achieve complete smoothness on LightBoost/ULMB/Turbo240 screen @ 120hz, videocard needs to push 120fps at all times. Does the same apply to CRT's? Or does the motion stay cleaner and clearer @ let's say 50fps @ refresh rate of 85Hz on FW900 (and other CRT's) than it does @ the same 50fps @ 120Hz on LCD with LightBoost?
 
I never said they could. I am just wondering HOW sharp text can be on properly calibrated CRT like FW900. I mean it needs to be read-able at least. Sharpness is surely an aspect of display quality, but it not one truly important for gaming purposes. Are there any photo's of how sharp text looks like on FW900 @ the highest resolution?

I also wish someone would answer my questions regarding CRT's and their motion.

Blur Busters say that to achieve complete smoothness on LightBoost/ULMB/Turbo240 screen @ 120hz, videocard needs to push 120fps at all times. Does the same apply to CRT's? Or does the motion stay cleaner and clearer @ let's say 50fps @ refresh rate of 85Hz on FW900 (and other CRT's) than it does @ the same 50fps @ 120Hz on LCD with LightBoost?

If I had a Foris I'd tell you. I do believe though, that strobing backlight would look a little different than scanning. I can't speak for strobing LCD's but I can tell you that a CRT has great motion clarity no matter what refresh you use. And you have the benefit of EVERY mode being scanned. Whereas with strobing LCD's you can only do it for a handful of refresh rates (no idea why though, since technically it shouldn't be a problem).
 
Unkle Vito(or anyone else), can you please answer if the GDM-F520 has removeable anti-glare or not? If yes, is it the same procedure as in FW900 or...?

The best way to find out is to remove the bezel and take a look if there is a film attached to the tube. The reason why I said that is that Sony produced early tubes with the "F" notation and it is in a small sticker on the body of the tube and that denotes "FILM" which is the A/G attached to the tube.

Most of the tubes will have the "B" notation which denotes the blended material coating on the large amount of glass in the front part of the tube.

Hope this helps...

UV!
 
The best way to find out is to remove the bezel and take a look if there is a film attached to the tube. The reason why I said that is that Sony produced early tubes with the "F" notation and it is in a small sticker on the body of the tube and that denotes "FILM" which is the A/G attached to the tube.

Most of the tubes will have the "B" notation which denotes the blended material coating on the large amount of glass in the front part of the tube.

Hope this helps...

UV!

Interesting. In the case of my F520, it has no film. It's B - for baked. :D
 
I never said they could. I am just wondering HOW sharp text can be on properly calibrated CRT like FW900. I mean it needs to be read-able at least. Sharpness is surely an aspect of display quality, but it not one truly important for gaming purposes. Are there any photo's of how sharp text looks like on FW900 @ the highest resolution?

I also wish someone would answer my questions regarding CRT's and their motion.

Blur Busters say that to achieve complete smoothness on LightBoost/ULMB/Turbo240 screen @ 120hz, videocard needs to push 120fps at all times. Does the same apply to CRT's? Or does the motion stay cleaner and clearer @ let's say 50fps @ refresh rate of 85Hz on FW900 (and other CRT's) than it does @ the same 50fps @ 120Hz on LCD with LightBoost?

About the sharpness of the FW900, here is a picture I took of mine, with a fullscreen text pattern, in 1920x1200.
(Click on it for full resolution)



Here you can see a closer look at the text.

DSC02557.JPG


But let me tell you that, my camera doesn't really do it justice though. When you look at the text, it looks less blurry on the monitor than it appears on those shots.

So if someone with better photo skills can use that pattern to take a clearer shot, it will be more realistic than mine.

I can tell you that, of course the text on the FW900 will be a bit less sharp than on an LCD, but still, it stays perfectly readable even with really small fonts at high resolution. It will feel slightly blurry, but this does not affect readability at all.
 
Yesterday, I opened up the monitor again while it was still cold, removed the hood and the top metal cover.
I took a hammer, and... oh sorry, my mistake :D I took the ceramic screwdriver, I tapped very gently on the flyback at different spots, then I powered up my monitor. Since then, I got no focus issues again... Let's see how long it will last.

In the meantime, this morning I put a microphone as close as I could to the inside of the monitor, and I recorded the noises it makes when powering on, and switching resolutions during the computer boot.

https://youtu.be/vIIWTMOvisw

Can you guys please tell me if everything sounds allright? I mean for example, each time I switch resolutions, it makes a small "tic... tic..." noise. You can hear it on my video, just put the volume high enough to hear everything.
 
I just installed a 1920x1080@96hz resolution with CRU.

The idea is to make a resolution that has a hertz of x times 24hz, for movie watching.

Is it even possible to watch movies at 96hz on a gdm-fw900?

I vagiely remember reading something about it being possible, but that the values needed aren't flat 96hz.

Anyone got any experience with this?

Or knows the exact values to watch 1080 res movies without the image going blurry at fast scenes like car chases and whatnot?

P.s: I switched desktop resolution to 1920x1080@96hz, and text looks WAY more clear now on this CRT. Is that normal? or was my last configuration bad :)
 
I've been playing GTA V a lot recently. When it gets dark in the game and the street lights come on, there is this strange phenomenon that is occurring. It seems every time a street lamp will illuminate a patch in the road and I drive past it, the light emitting from the city in the distance will get dimmer for about a second. This distant dimming happens after every street lamp I drive past and gets worse the faster the car is going. I can't recall this happening on my LCD monitor as it is very noticeable.
 
Or knows the exact values to watch 1080 res movies without the image going blurry at fast scenes like car chases and whatnot?

given that virtually all HD video is 24 fps, the image will be blurry during fast movement no matter what.
 
here's a macro shot of mine
enk8zo5.jpg

yea it looks a bit sharper than this

but my monitor is sharp enough that if you're coming from a ~100ppi lcd you will not find it blurry in any way
 
Yesterday, I opened up the monitor again while it was still cold, removed the hood and the top metal cover.
I took a hammer, and... oh sorry, my mistake :D I took the ceramic screwdriver, I tapped very gently on the flyback at different spots, then I powered up my monitor. Since then, I got no focus issues again... Let's see how long it will last.

interesting idea. Glad it seems to have worked.

In the meantime, this morning I put a microphone as close as I could to the inside of the monitor, and I recorded the noises it makes when powering on, and switching resolutions during the computer boot.

https://youtu.be/vIIWTMOvisw

Can you guys please tell me if everything sounds allright? I mean for example, each time I switch resolutions, it makes a small "tic... tic..." noise. You can hear it on my video, just put the volume high enough to hear everything.

Soudns perfectly normal to me. The initial harsh buzz when you first turn monitor on, and the clicking when you switch resolutions match the sounds from all my FW900's.
 
how is it that my g520p (i think f520 as well) is able to change resolution silently?
 
how is it that my g520p (i think f520 as well) is able to change resolution silently?

This is a characteristic of these monitors. Not sure, but my Artisan also changes resolutions silently. All of my other monitors, FW900 included, "CLICK!"s when you change resolutions.
 
these 520 monitors were all released after the fw900 right?
maybe it's just some secret sauce sony developed after the fw900 was out
 
My understanding is that the 520's were released afterward. I could be wrong, but that has always been my understanding. FW-900 can even be selected in DAS. I don't think the 520s are selectable.
 
interesting, seems that the FW900 might be relatively old school then :)

(I knew that the GDM F520 came after the FW900, but didn't realize the CPD G520 did)
 
interesting, seems that the FW900 might be relatively old school then :)

(I knew that the GDM F520 came after the FW900, but didn't realize the CPD G520 did)

Yeah, the FW-900 was made in 1999 or 2000 I believe. I also believe that Vito stated that tube production didn't last all that long (it ended well before the last FW-900's were sold).
 
I think the CPD G520P was released before the FW900 (tho I might be wrong)

NO!

The CPD-520P was released in 2002. I have a prototype released in 2001. The Sony GDM-C520 Artisan was also released in 2002 and I have prototype of this monitor also, which originally had a USB hub. The hub was not included in the production model.

The GDM-FW900 was released in 2000 and it was totally redesigned as it replaced the GDM-W900 and its bubbly screen. The Sony GDM-F520 was also released in 2000 and it replaced the GDM-F500R, which had a flat tube. Basically, it had the same tube (.22 aperture grille) but different chassis. The GDM-F500R was an small version of the GDM-FW900 chassis.

Sony used all the CRTs on all the production monitors until they ran out (some were kept for warranty replacements). The GDM-FW900's last production was January 2004. The GDM-F520's last production was December 2003, and the Sony GDM-C520's last production was September 2004 (very very few made), as most of them were released in July and August of 2004.

Hope this helps...

UV!
 
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