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

If you've calibrated your tube for inky blacks, I'm assuming you're using a LUT adjustment to compensate for the crushing associated with using a low G2. If so, make sure "disable gpu gamma ramps" is unchecked in madvr. And you definitely want 0-255 not 16-255.
I’m not using any LUT. Anything outside of movies work fine. Games, desktop, YouTube etc.

I’ll try the disable gou gamma ramps.

0-255 seems to be advised against from what I’ve read. Blacks are crushed when I’m in 0-255.
 
For the gray scale to be prefectly even (i.e. no black crush) you definitively need a colorimeter, and to set a color profile. Displaycal is an excellent, and free software for this.
 
Quick question. After my fw-900 died on me (and it'll be over $500 for repairs) I had been using a Sony Multiscan e540. Here's the dig tho, after about a year of regular use for competetive gaming, it started having a power on issue where I would have to power it on and off a few times until it would stay on. After awhile, the amount of attempts slowly increased until it was taking 10+ minutes of clicking the switch on and off until it would stay on. Eventually it was talking so long I couldn't get it to really stay on consistently anymore. This a red flag for anything specific? Would love to have it as a backup for my 144hz freesync as it's just not quite the same.
 
That kind of issue could come from a bad solder. Moving the monitor, or knocking the casing may improve that and confirm this is the issue. But given your description it is likely there has been some arcing during the on/off process, and limited reflow or dilatation allowing a temporary contact. It's probably not just a bad solder anymore, all the solder must be gone by now.
 
I’m not using any LUT. Anything outside of movies work fine. Games, desktop, YouTube etc.

I’ll try the disable gou gamma ramps.

0-255 seems to be advised against from what I’ve read. Blacks are crushed when I’m in 0-255.

You're on a PC, so you should be using 0-255.

If you calibrated your tube for deep inky blacks, you will automatically have crushed blacks. That's what the LUT adjustment step in my guide is for. If you're not seeing crushed blacks outside of your video player, here are some possibilities:

1) You didn't actually use deep enough blacks to crush them, and you're either watching poorly mastered material (too dark) on your video player, or you're botching the image somehow in your video player.
2) You did crush the image, and the stuff on desktop/youtube/games is poorly mastered in the opposite direction (i.e. it's too bright).

Have you tried another video player? Try media player classic and seeing if the image looks any different.
 
Checked up all the posts from 2019. Seems like there’s much renewed interest in CRTs as of late. Amazing!

I think Vito has retired since 2018. We exchanged a few messages last year. He’s trying to get into some new business. When I’m less busy, I’ll try to entice him on one last attempt to find me the most exquisite FW900 in triple A+ condition to add to my collection of 4 FW900s! He has sources, I’m sure!

Question 1:

So I’m still playing with the Sunix DPU3000 adapter since I got it over a year ago. No major issues. But occasionally it will do its blinking, jittering thing when I use 2304 x 1440 @ 80hz. Doesn’t happen in prime mode (1920 x 1200 @ 84hz — yes 84hz or any even number refresh rate seems to resolve all artifacts). Is there now a better adapter with less problems than the Sunix? Or are we still confirming?

Question 2:

I want to add an AR film to two FW900s without the original AG films. Any recommendations? I talked to Strat84 in the past but he doesn’t think there’s a perfect solution.

I’m not looking for any perfect solution. Just something that can make blacks darker. I’ve found AG-less FW900s to be always more gray even when properly calibrated.

I don’t care about running the tubes a harder or static dust. I’ve read posts on polarizers and car films, etc. Can anyone with experience recommend something I can buy online? Price is not an issue. Just as long as I can cut it size or it comes in custom sizing and gives better blacks without screwing up the image.



NO! I am still around... and I finally decided to let go my personal units... I have two (2) that I will be selling, but will not post them on eBay... Anyone seriously interested, please shoot me PM message... Miss all of you!

Take care and LONG LIVE THE GDM-FW900 and all the magnificent Sony CRTs!!!
 
I haven't seen Eizo & Iiyama, but FW900 doesn't have the best quality amongst trinitrons to be honest. I like F520 better. FW900 has this weird phosphor / coating compared to other models. F520 and even G500 have better percieved contrast and color saturation in my opinion, while handling reflections better.

Both the GDM-F520 and the F500R have the same picture tube (.22 aperture grill). I don't think the G500 has a .22 AG tube. Once, Sony flirted with a .19 aperture grill tube unit and I had the chance to see the prototype. It never went into production...

The GDM-FW900 has a range between 0.24-0.27. with the best AG in the center and the worst on the edges. Still, for a large 24" (22" viewable) tube, it had incredible colors, excellent black and grays, and decent graphics and text rendition. Again, that is my personal opinion, being an user and a CRT professional... But like I said many times, "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder..."

Hope this helps...

Sincerely,

Unkle Vito!
 
Wow it sure is amazing that people are still into CRTs, Ive kept all mine over the years. People called me crazy, but I like using them still. Ive been fortunate to still have both the Sony FW-900 and the HP version of it. I also have a few other ones, mostly trinitrons.
 
Both the GDM-F520 and the F500R have the same picture tube (.22 aperture grill). I don't think the G500 has a .22 AG tube. Once, Sony flirted with a .19 aperture grill tube unit and I had the chance to see the prototype. It never went into production...

The GDM-FW900 has a range between 0.24-0.27. with the best AG in the center and the worst on the edges. Still, for a large 24" (22" viewable) tube, it had incredible colors, excellent black and grays, and decent graphics and text rendition. Again, that is my personal opinion, being an user and a CRT professional... But like I said many times, "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder..."

Hope this helps...

Sincerely,

Unkle Vito!

That would be 0.23 to 0.27 Sir. :)

Still loving your product!

Thanks for the sign of life Unkle V!
 
Wow it sure is amazing that people are still into CRTs, Ive kept all mine over the years. People called me crazy, but I like using them still. Ive been fortunate to still have both the Sony FW-900 and the HP version of it. I also have a few other ones, mostly trinitrons.

Not crazy! Could never myself get used to the idea of a black that lit up my room at night...
 
That would be 0.23 to 0.27 Sir. :)

Still loving your product!

Thanks for the sign of life Unkle V!

You can thank me for that, as I thought that he still has some unit(s) in box. :}

Unkle, I just found one HP rebadge (condition seems perfect) near Dresden and snapped it just in case. My unit is showing signs of death.
 
Hi Folks,

Im new here and have just purchased one of these machines, got it home and running into issues with the monitor not displaying the desktop when connected. I know the monitor itself works as i get a 'No signal' image flash up when I turn the monitor on before it goes to power saving mode. Currently i've connected it to my Windforce GTX 1080 GPU with a Startech VGA to Display port adaptor that the seller kindly included for me however the Sony doesn't appear to see the signal. My operating system is windows 7 and I have been able to see the Sony appear as a second monitor under the Screen Resolution tab however I cannot change any of the options such Resolution or Orientation and Advanced Settings is greyed out too.

I thought id ask the experts before I go ahead and buy a bunch of alternative adaptors or something else. I have display ports, hdmi and also a DVI on the back of my gpu but I feel i'm missing something incredibly simple and have been left scratching my head on how to proceed.

Thanks very much!
 
Hi Folks,

Im new here and have just purchased one of these machines, got it home and running into issues with the monitor not displaying the desktop when connected. I know the monitor itself works as i get a 'No signal' image flash up when I turn the monitor on before it goes to power saving mode. Currently i've connected it to my Windforce GTX 1080 GPU with a Startech VGA to Display port adaptor that the seller kindly included for me however the Sony doesn't appear to see the signal. My operating system is windows 7 and I have been able to see the Sony appear as a second monitor under the Screen Resolution tab however I cannot change any of the options such Resolution or Orientation and Advanced Settings is greyed out too.

I thought id ask the experts before I go ahead and buy a bunch of alternative adaptors or something else. I have display ports, hdmi and also a DVI on the back of my gpu but I feel i'm missing something incredibly simple and have been left scratching my head on how to proceed.

Thanks very much!

It's weird you have all that stuff greyed out, make sure "extend these displays" is enabled, instead of just showing on monitor 1 or whatever.

You should also go back through the pages for the past couple years, because we've found a few good adapters that work better than your average "1080p60hz" adapters.
 
It's weird you have all that stuff greyed out, make sure "extend these displays" is enabled, instead of just showing on monitor 1 or whatever.

You should also go back through the pages for the past couple years, because we've found a few good adapters that work better than your average "1080p60hz" adapters.

Thanks for the reply!

I've ordered one of the Vga to DVI adaptors mentioned in a previous post which should hopefully solve my issue.

I've had a bit of progress however. If i disconnect my other monitor and run only the Sony with the VGA adaptor through the primary Display Port I manage to get the bios screen and also the loading windows screen, but as soon as it attempts to load into windows itself the no signal screen pops up and the monitor goes back to sleep.

I feel its either the adaptor itself or perhaps even my gpu but if anyone has experienced anything like this I would appreciate the help!
 
Desire for a head-to-head XG270 vs FW900:
Somebody submitted an Amazon review of the VIewSonic XG270 being preferred over FW900. (With the XG270 running 120Hz PureXP+, strobing with 99% sRGB with no strobe crosstalk thanks to intentional Hz headroom below 240Hz being commandeered to improve 120Hz strobe quality) -- I'm now looking to publish a head-to-head of FW900 versus XG270. I expect some things FW900 better, with some things XG270 better -- this needs to be borne out.

Looking for FW900 for keeps:
I already have ability to borrow from spacediver, siince I know him and he is near where I live. However, I am looking for a keeper to use as a reference. If anyone else in Toronto or Buffalo area has a spare FW900 CRT -- please send me a DM or email mark [at] blurbusters.com -- Blur Busters is looking for a relatively local FW900 CRT (or a different high-scanrate CRTs like 445pro -- but would settle for a Dell P1130) to own for reference purposes, instead of borrow. Offers have come from afar, but shipping is too risky / crazy priced.
 
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Thanks for the reply!

I've ordered one of the Vga to DVI adaptors mentioned in a previous post which should hopefully solve my issue.

I've had a bit of progress however. If i disconnect my other monitor and run only the Sony with the VGA adaptor through the primary Display Port I manage to get the bios screen and also the loading windows screen, but as soon as it attempts to load into windows itself the no signal screen pops up and the monitor goes back to sleep.

I feel its either the adaptor itself or perhaps even my gpu but if anyone has experienced anything like this I would appreciate the help!

Ok so my VGA-DVI cable worked! Everything looks great except i can only run it up to 1280x800 (I can select up to 2048x1280 through windows) however running it from 1360x768 and above results in a green tinge in the greys and blacks. Ive tried to do the Image Restore option within the monitors options multiple times however nothing appears different. Don't get me wrong, everything looks great but if i change the resolution from 1360x768, it results in an awful picture. I also swaped out with an Hdmi adapter instead of the DVI but it results in the same threshold.

Do i need to buy a new GPU with one of those USB C connections?

Thanks again folks
 
Ok so my VGA-DVI cable worked! Everything looks great except i can only run it up to 1280x800 (I can select up to 2048x1280 through windows) however running it from 1360x768 and above results in a green tinge in the greys and blacks. Ive tried to do the Image Restore option within the monitors options multiple times however nothing appears different. Don't get me wrong, everything looks great but if i change the resolution from 1360x768, it results in an awful picture. I also swaped out with an Hdmi adapter instead of the DVI but it results in the same threshold.

Do i need to buy a new GPU with one of those USB C connections?

Thanks again folks
You need to run WPB using WinDAS and a color meter.
 
The problem is that a color problem shouldn't be resolution related. When the G2 and/or color balance are off that's regardless of the resolution displayed. His issue may be different.

Thanks folks, I should clarify everything looks amazing - deep inky blacks, movies and games look incredible but as soon as i want to increase the resolution everything transforms into a green tinted, grey and ugly mess.

I do intend of going through the Windas calibration after i've sorted everything else, but this has completely stumped me. Ive a GTX 1080 and can run my lcd monitor on its full rez of 3440x1440 no problem, so im guessing its how ive connected the Sony is whats causing the issue.

If this helps any, when swapping over from VGA to HDMI back to VGA to DVI, windows insists its still connected to the HDMI and changes the resolution up to 1920x1080 but as soon as I power the PC completely off and on again and it catches up with the physical cable change the same problem comes back. I should also point out than when the HDMI cable is ACTUALLY connected the same issue with 1360x768 and above is tinted green and grey.

Sorry if this is confusing but its so bizarre!

edit

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07D3XZ9SD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is the cable im using. Actually it says its limits are 1920x1200 at 60HZ. The Sony is currently set at 75HZ at 1280x800. Is this higher refresh enough to hit the threshold? The user DooLocsta mentioned the cable in the first place and said it was able to achieve up to 1800x1440@75Hz - hence why i bought that one in particular.

So confused.
 
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Desire for a head-to-head XG270 vs FW900:
Somebody submitted an Amazon review of the VIewSonic XG270 being preferred over FW900. (With the XG270 running 120Hz PureXP+, strobing with 99% sRGB with no strobe crosstalk thanks to intentional Hz headroom below 240Hz being commandeered to improve 120Hz strobe quality) -- I'm now looking to publish a head-to-head of FW900 versus XG270. I expect some things FW900 better, with some things XG270 better -- this needs to be borne out.

Looking for FW900 for keeps:
I already have ability to borrow from spacediver, siince I know him and he is near where I live. However, I am looking for a keeper to use as a reference. If anyone else in Toronto or Buffalo area has a spare FW900 CRT -- please send me a DM or email mark [at] blurbusters.com -- Blur Busters is looking for a relatively local FW900 CRT (or a different high-scanrate CRTs like 445pro -- but would settle for a Dell P1130) to own for reference purposes, instead of borrow. Offers have come from afar, but shipping is too risky / crazy priced.

hmmm......not pretending to start a CRT vs IPS war but......


you are not mentioning important XG270 flaws that amazon user mentioned in his testimonial: "And yep I can say, while not exactly as bright as the FW900 in blur reduction mode (there will be more brightness in the next firmware version I am told), nor having those inky blacks (there is that IPS glow)"
so, if it have been not able to achieve good or at least equal brightness levels as the FW900 when strobing without sacrificing motion clarity after all the tuning already done, it seems hard to believe some significant improvment without sacrificing motion clarity would be made in the next firmware, have to see to believe.

also blacks is one of the strong points of the FW900 and one of the weakest points of the XG270 specially being a IPS which are known to have one of the worst lighting artifact such light bleed, glow, ruining the true escence of blacks specially for dark atmosphere games.

also even if not all people care about low refresh rates, the FW900 even manages lower refreshes such 60hz simply beautifully, with no agressive flickering, no brightness loss, excelent motion clarity, etc and the XG270 also fails in this only strobing at 75hz minimum and this without forgeting the way the XG270 strobes (off backlight at once periods vs the FW900 rolling scan if i am not wrong) which surely would result in more agressive flicker perception than the FW900 at lower refreshes.

so is not hard to assume currently to not lose brightness and preserve FW900 life like motion clarity quality you will need to disable strobing in the XG270 and use a ridiculous high refresh rate and high fps such the max 240hz and 240fps, but even at that refresh blur will be still present you know, the FW900 at his "modest" max 96hz at its prime res 1920x1200 (up to 160hz at reduced resolutions) surely does better than the XG270 at even its 120Hz PureXP+ with no brightness loss / motion clarity tradeoff and with much less GPU horsepower needed.


please excuse me if i sounded rude, i am just tired of those manufacturers selling out users hiding flaws information with mediocre image motion clarity quality tradeoffs in order to sell their products.



i see in the CRT collective forum group people getting FW900s recently, but in the USA apparently by searching in the group "Fw900" and sort the results as "most recent"
 
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Try changing your colorspace to YPbPr. I have a Benefei HDMI adapter that goes funky if it's not in YPbPr.

It works! Thank you so much! I got it running, no weirdness in the colours, and up to 2048x1280! Next thing is getting RGB back but thats another battle!

I am using Delock 62967 with good results.
Might get one of those new fancy USB C adapter some day but so far I do not feel the need to.

I ended up buying this but im back to my old problem with Display Port where windows is detecting "something" but not enough for the monitor to power on and there's no options i can see that would allow it be recognised as an active in use port. So my guess is its something to do with my gpu or perhaps an option in windows i need to activate?

Theres no need to install any drivers for this thing no? Windows insists its all up to date on that front.

Thanks very much!
 
It works! Thank you so much! I got it running, no weirdness in the colours, and up to 2048x1280! Next thing is getting RGB back but thats another battle!

You don't need RGB. YPbPr is just as good, as long as its being converted in a lossless fashion. You can check for that by looking at this greyscale gradient and other patterns on the website:

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/gradient.php
 
Hi there all,

So I managed to buy a completely new FW900. Unfortunately something failed after the first 10 minutes of run and I have no idea whether it is a capacitor-problem or something else. This had been sitting 19 years and 6 months in the box. In case someone nearby is willing to fix this, just write me. I am located in Magdeburg, Germany, but the next couple of days in Köln with the unit.

best,
 
Or maybe you were just sold a defective unit pretending it is new. There's no way to tell the actual use of a FW900, it's easy to clean it and put it back in a box ...
 
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Hi there all,

So I managed to buy a completely new FW900. Unfortunately something failed after the first 10 minutes of run and I have no idea whether it is a capacitor-problem or something else. This had been sitting 19 years and 6 months in the box. In case someone nearby is willing to fix this, just write me. I am located in Magdeburg, Germany, but the next couple of days in Köln with the unit.

best,

See this about capacitor expiration: https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/capacitor-degradation.42234/

20 years is a long time and the quality of the Japanese caps used in the FW900 notwithstanding some are probably gone if they have been sitting completely unused for a couple of decades. The good news is that the tube is as good as new, unless there is some unknown physical or chemical phenomena that hasn't been discovered yet at work here.
 
Or maybe you were just sold a defective unit pretending it is new. There's no way to tell the actual use of a FW900, it's easy to clean it and put it back in a box ...
Or maybe you were just sold a defective unit pretending it is new. There's no way to tell the actual use of a FW900, it's easy to clean it and put it back in a box ...

I have the original receipt from September 2000 with the name of the seller, he said it is new and everything looked untouched, including the cable box...
 
See this about capacitor expiration: https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/capacitor-degradation.42234/

20 years is a long time and the quality of the Japanese caps used in the FW900 notwithstanding some are probably gone if they have been sitting completely unused for a couple of decades. The good news is that the tube is as good as new, unless there is some unknown physical or chemical phenomena that hasn't been discovered yet at work here.

This certainly sounds familiar to what I just experienced. I think it might actually been just some 3-6 minutes it was turned on. When I changed the resolution the first time this happened.
 
This certainly sounds familiar to what I just experienced. I think it might actually been just some 3-6 minutes it was turned on. When I changed the resolution the first time this happened.
Well, it is true that an electrolytic capacitor that was not exposed to electric current for 20 years will sustain a chemical reaction to reform the oxyde layer, and if such operation happens without special care, a short may happen in the capacitor and kill it (plus maybe some other components in the vicinity). But I've heard of "new old stock" devices staying in their box for longer than that, with capacitors of about the same quality or lower than the ones found in the Sony monitors, and still the device worked perfectly.

Personally I'm rather dubtful about finding a genuine brand new screen of that kind in 2020.
 
Well, it is true that an electrolytic capacitor that was not exposed to electric current for 20 years will sustain a chemical reaction to reform the oxyde layer, and if such operation happens without special care, a short may happen in the capacitor and kill it (plus maybe some other components in the vicinity). But I've heard of "new old stock" devices staying in their box for longer than that, with capacitors of about the same quality or lower than the ones found in the Sony monitors, and still the device worked perfectly.

Personally I'm rather dubtful about finding a genuine brand new screen of that kind in 2020.

Me too, but I sincerely believe this is unused, first of all the seller seemed to me extremely truthful person, has a original receipt, and everything looked like new.
 
Me too, but I sincerely believe this is unused, first of all the seller seemed to me extremely truthful person, has a original receipt, and everything looked like new.

What I just experienced after a while is most certainly something to do with the fact that it had been sitting down for so long. The first moments it looked extremely good, just like my other new unit what I bought in 2018 (hp p1230 made in 2004, rebadged Mitsubishi. It still does give a newlike image.) After I changed the resolution and the refresh rate the first time, it failed.
 
I found an adapter that can potentially have the same performance of DPU3000.
The chipset is the Lontium LT8711X-B which has the same specs as the Synaptics VMM2322.
I asked Lontium about the DAC precision and seems to be 10 bit,but it's a thing that must be tested.
The adapter is the Vention USB-C to VGA (model code CGMHA)
Vention seems to be a company that focuses on quality and effectively the adapter looks well built.
With a card like Sunix UPD2018 it can be connected to any video card with displayport output.

If someone has a Nvidia RTX card or a laptop with the USB-C video output and wants to try,look here:

https://www.amazon.com/Vention-Adapter-Support-Compatible-Pixelbook/dp/B07C4TP4BJ



Derupter, when i click that link, it shows a vention USB C to HDMI adapter instead to VGA, do you know if they still sell the adapter with the specs you mentioned?
 
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Derupter, when i click that link, it shows a vention USB C to HDMI adapter instead to VGA, do you know if they still sell the adapter with the specs you mentioned?

Try to contact the seller (Vention Technology) and ask why the CGMHA is unavaible.
Also ask if they can sell the CMFHB which is the new HDMI 2.0+VGA model with the new Lontium chipset.
Eventually try to search for CGMHA or LT8711X-B, you will probably find adapters with a different name (Festnight,Docooler,ecc..) but it's the same adapter from Vention.
 
looks like the SUNIX adapters on amazon are out of stock
yes, loooong time ago indeed, seems proper adapters are getting harder to get

Try to contact the seller (Vention Technology) and ask why the CGMHA is unavaible.
Also ask if they can sell the CMFHB which is the new HDMI 2.0+VGA model with the new Lontium chipset.
Eventually try to search for CGMHA or LT8711X-B, you will probably find adapters with a different name (Festnight,Docooler,ecc..) but it's the same adapter from Vention.


Vention replied, as for about CGMHA availability, they answer was that "they dont have stock now" nothing more
as for if they can sell the CMFHB which is the new HDMI 2.0+VGA model with the new Lontium chipsetm their answer is: "Sorry for replying late.The chip of this hub is LT8712X.And the HDMI port support 2.0.But we have no stock of it now".
also they left a link to their store in aliexpress https://vention.aliexpress.com/store/536610?spm=a2g0o.detail.1000061.1.5cf87760d7dWZi
 
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