CRT monitors with a small dot pitch

xykreilon

xykreilon

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Unfortunately, the spec listings of many CRTs inflate their max resolution past what their aperture grille or shadow mask is actually capable of resolving.

To my knowledge, the ViewSonic G220f is the highest resolution CRT, when dot pitch is considered. With a dot pitch of .21mm at 20" viewable diagonal, it can actually faithfully display 1920x1440 sharply.

Though, I'm rather new to the hobby, so I'm curious if any of you know anything else that competes with those specs.
The only model I'm aware of that does is the G220f's little brother- the G90f. I have one- with the help of pxcalc, I've found that 1736x1302 is the max resolution my G90f remains sharp at.
I sometimes mess with pxcalc and specifications of other CRTs, and the only competitive dpi+screen-size specs I've found are that of the Interview Intergraph (which I guess should make me feel like a lucky, happy camper :] ).
 
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Isn't the Intergraph only 1080p at 28"? I can't find any specs on it, though I haven't really looked beyond the first page of Google. If it did any better than that in 1994 or 1995 I think people would've said so already. Anyway I can't add much more to your knowledge on pixel pitch. To be honest I don't know the difference between horizontal and diagonal. At that level there's a lot of stuff that you'd be better off not seeing at a more appropriate viewing distance. If you gave me a free ticket to the CRT of my choice I'd have to go for the Qualia 015, which apparently had the most advanced screen filter Sony ever developed for CRTs. Fitting, considering it was their last. I wish I'd archived their Qualia site which had some press releases and ad copy about it. It was still accessible about a year ago so I'd kind of assumed it would just be up forever. Oh well.

Edit: Actually here's some stuff in Japanese, maybe it was what I was thinking of: https://av.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20030610/sony5.htm
And here ya go: https://www.sony.jp/CorporateCruise/Press/200306/03-0610D/

From the side and top it still looks a bit reflective
EdhyKUrUcAMRCIa.jpg
 
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aeliusg said:
Isn't the Intergraph only 1080p at 28"? I can't find any specs on it, though I haven't really looked beyond the first page of Google.
Click to expand...
Yes, but it's 16:9, which makes it the only monitor besides the G220f I'm aware of that can display 1920 pixels horizontally sharply (to the mask/grill's dot pitch).
Specs are indeed not easily found.
There's this reddit post: https://old.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/...dary_intergraph_interview_28hd96_all_we_know/
But, it doesn't list the dot pitch. I read somewhere that it's .32mm, which is right on the money for 1920x1080 at 28".
aeliusg said:
Anyway I can't add much more to your knowledge on pixel pitch. To be honest I don't know the difference between horizontal and diagonal. At that level there's a lot of stuff that you'd be better off not seeing at a more appropriate viewing distance. If you gave me a free ticket to the CRT of my choice I'd have to go for the Qualia 015, which apparently had the most advanced screen filter Sony ever developed for CRTs. Fitting, considering it was their last. I wish I'd archived their Qualia site which had some press releases and ad copy about it. It was still accessible about a year ago so I'd kind of assumed it would just be up forever. Oh well.

Edit: Actually here's some stuff in Japanese, maybe it was what I was thinking of: https://av.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20030610/sony5.htm
And here ya go: https://www.sony.jp/CorporateCruise/Press/200306/03-0610D/

From the side and top it still looks a bit reflective
View attachment 273786
Click to expand...
Dang, that is one gorgeous CRT- and with so much screen real estate! I have no idea what the specs are beyond screen size and its fancy filter you speak of, but I too would probably spend my free ticket on it for how beautiful it is alone.

Even the OSD control buttons are like a work of art. Really timeless stuff.
 
xykreilon said:
Yes, but it's 16:9, which makes it the only monitor besides the G220f I'm aware of that can display 1920 pixels horizontally sharply (to the mask/grill's dot pitch).
Specs are indeed not easily found.
There's this reddit post: https://old.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/...dary_intergraph_interview_28hd96_all_we_know/
But, it doesn't list the dot pitch. I read somewhere that it's .32mm, which is right on the money for 1920x1080 at 28".

Dang, that is one gorgeous CRT- and with so much screen real estate! I have no idea what the specs are beyond screen size and its fancy filter you speak of, but I too would probably spend my free ticket on it for how beautiful it is alone.

Even the OSD control buttons are like a work of art. Really timeless stuff.
Click to expand...

Yeah the whole thing is apparently anodized aluminum. Was "only" around $11,000 back in the day. I wonder if there are any in the US hidden in some old rich person's estate. Theoretically if you were really lucky you could get away with one of these.

Now the ultra-high end stuff is way beyond the reach of normal people. You'd have to have a team of guys to split an installation like this with even after it is entirely deprecated.

Sony_Crystal_LED_CEDIA_2018-thumb-800xauto-20271.jpg
 
aeliusg said:
Yeah the whole thing is apparently anodized aluminum. Was "only" around $11,000 back in the day. I wonder if there are any in the US hidden in some old rich person's estate. Theoretically if you were really lucky you could get away with one of these.

Now the ultra-high end stuff is way beyond the reach of normal people. You'd have to have a team of guys to split an installation like this with even after it is entirely deprecated.

View attachment 273790
Click to expand...
Dang.
mpv-shot0311.jpg

I hadn't even seen a side shot yet- that's some gorgeous metal work
 
SH1 said:
GDM-F520 with its fine pitch. GDM-FW900 and maybe the Intergraph due to their size. I found this link informative long ago as so much is these days, alas, with CRTs. http://www.dansdata.com/danletters088.htm
Click to expand...
Nice link. I haven't seen much talk of CRT resolution within the confines of their pitch.

But yeah, the max pitch-respecting resolutions of those monitors are definitely comparable.

F520:
Screenshot_20200828_002034.png


FW900:
Screenshot_20200828_001956.png
 
The Qualia is certainly a curiosity. The tube being 36", does that mean a 34" viewable? And if so, I wonder if it shared a super fine pitch tube with other offerings.
 
I owned a Q015 for a couple of years, purchasing it maybe ~2012 and selling it ~2014. I recall it cost roughly $1,000 at the time - the few owners of these sets were more than happy to get rid of them by that point. Lovely picture and a work of art, but so large and a 2-3 person crew to move it anywhere. I played a fair amount of WoW on it, using a desktop PC connected to component in through a converter box, but it was wearing for raids. Unfortunately at that time in my life it competed with 1080p front projectors for movies & gaming and, well, it's not much of a competition. I think this is why the very few original owners of the set didn't stick with it for long.

I'm a big fan of the Qualia brand and have the camera set in storage somewhere. The over-the-ear headphones are still a hot commodity.
 
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