Ancient Trash or Gamer's Dream Display? Let's talk CRTs
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 27. 12. 2018
- Today, CRT Monitors and TVs might seem like ancient artifacts of another millennia, but some people (myself included) still cling to them. Why would someone want to use such boxy, heavy beasts as computer monitors? What benefits do they have to offer?
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I was quoted in a VICE article on the subject! www.vice.com/en_us/article/kz...
Some have expressed unhappiness with the current offerings of CRT communities in my video, and I get why. I've made a channel for it in my discord server! I'm as welcoming as I can be! (which might not say much) eposvox.com/discord
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I was quoted in a VICE article on the subject! www.vice.com/en_us/article/kz4gqm/why-this-20-year-old-crt-monitor-is-better-than-a-4k-lcd?
Some have expressed unhappiness with the current offerings of CRT communities in my video, and I get why. I've made a channel for it in my discord server! I'm as welcoming as I can be! (which might not say much) eposvox.com/discord
I live in a small apartment with an extra room which my wife suggested be dedicated to my collection. I'm nothing close to rich. But hey, congrats on handling your own insecurities by being negative and toxic about other people's passions! That'll get you far in life!
EposVox
A quick question, aside from response time and input lag, how does a CRT monitor compare to a VA LCD monitor?
A CRT is an electron accelerator, they don't actually have pixels, they are extremely inefficient, they are blurry. You're making the same sort of argument that "audiophiles" make with the supposed superiority of vinyl records over CDs.
I used to work for RCA. Audiophiles don't know what they are talking about when they discuss audio quality, and you don't know what you're talking about when you are claiming a CRT is underappreciated compared to it's completely digital counterparts.
yeAH i DO NOT REMEMBER THE BRAND OR NAME OF THE MONITOR i HAD BUT IT WAS HUGE, FLAT SCREEN, CRYSTAL CLEAR, GREAT COLOURS AND VERY HIGH REFRESH RATE... oops capslock, Anyway I still miss that monitor to this day and its a shame it blew with a big time BANG!, I am currently Running a 1440P IPS widescreen display "Asus VX24A" , sharpest flat panel I have ever had and I would dare say would give a lot of the high end CRT monitors a run for there money when it comes to colour reproduction... the damn thing best do since its full sRGB compliant.
Tech was shittier but more interesting in the 90s. If you go to a tech show now it's mostly smartphone cases and phone gadgets. In the 90s there were robots, lasers, cyborgs, airships, hoverboards, holograms, x-ray vision, AI, CRT, and VR except none of it worked well or at all sometimes but it was exciting!
My grandma said it was insane to hold onto my old Dell P990 19" CRT capable of 180hz at 640x480 but who's crazy now grandma? Oh it's me...
Pandaren Warrior 180hz!?!? Thatâs fucking awesome!!
A lot of radiation in your eyes? fking awesome!!
Valentin Rivas They donât have that high radiation
@@ManOfAttitudeLP1998 then why did they have anti-radiaton filters ?
Valentin Rivas not as much as your phone
I miss the static electricity that would make my arm hair stick to the screen and make that fun Pop Rocks sound.
I flashed back for a few seconds to my old Win 95 PC when I was four...
You might mix up CRT TVs with Monitors. No static with my Monitor and I don't remember my old CRT Monitors (at least the one I was using from 2001 to 2009) being staticy.
Don't forget about the little high pitch rig.
@@moomah5929 I think newer ones did not build so much static electricity as older ones. I remember having CRT monitor from around 1996 and it built a bit of static electricity, enough to have some fun with it. Newer ones I had did not do that though.
@@dmcemmet You could be right, it's been a long time since that time and can't really remember the feel of my old old monitors. This Philips 107E seems to be from around 2000, at least it's the earliest information I could find about it. We also had a Monitor for the C64 (a Commodore 1084 I believe) in the early 90's, where I can't remember it being staticy but then again it had a removable glass panel (tinted/filter?) in front of the actual screen, if I remember correctly.
man this is just depressing to see this tech die. Its so impressive.
Chicken!
?@@DavidZappi
It's a shame that you can't find any repair store that will deal with CRTs. I live in Chile and I'm literally the last person left in my city that works on and repairs CRTs if the person's willing to pay for the spare parts to get it back up and running. I even solder back the VGA cables, it's not that hard really.
i salute you for keeping up with your job
Come to my country i need you
QuĂ© ciudad? Da tus datos, todavĂa uso CRT, en una de esas necesito tu taller algun dĂa.
Very SteinsGate of you
@@alexiv5249 Vivo en CuricĂł. Si necesitas contactarme por cualquier motivo, puedes enviarme un mensaje privado.
Finally, someone that actually "gets it" when it comes to monitors. The ONLY reason I switched from CRT to LCD was because of widescreen support... If they made a widescreen CRT today, I couldn't give them my money fast enough!
they did make widescreen CRT monitors, infact i think SGI made a 1080p 16:9 CRT monitor
My liver take it or leave it
I have one, not a monitor but a Panasonic CRT TV. If you can call it widescreen but it's close.
widescreen crt's exist. also widescreen isnt that big of a deal
Something is different in the way a CRT displays the picture, the pixels are drawn one at a time, it keeps the brain busy with new information instead of "downloading" a picture 60 or 120 times per second. You can't see the picture being displayed but the brain knows... OLED won't give you that feeling.
90s anime on a CRT monitor = peak comfy
This person gets it.
I just miss the scaling. You could switch to any resolution you liked, provided it was supported, and the CRT was like, "Yeah, not a problem. I can do that." I love my giant LCD display, but I do wish it could scale down from native without looking like someone's smeared Vaseline all over the screen. I still play a bunch of older games on a CRT, because it just looks better.
I actually asked my school's principal if I could have 5 of the supposedly junked CRTs, 2 fully functional IBM keyboards, and 2 IBM PC cases. (which I did get)
GTX 980 Ti with a CRT.
Once you truly see 240 fps there is no going back. *Edit:* (120hz x 2 interlaced, from Stereo CRT monitors for old shutter glasses.)
I also enjoy the extra radiation while playing Fallout.
What monitor?
That would be so awesome! Unfortunately, I got banned from Fallout 76 for fixing the fps bug where you move like fucking Flash Gordon over 60fps. Let me take a sip of this shitty rum while I tell you all about it...
I'm blind! Rock gut no name booze in a plastic un-pourable shrourd of disappointment...
I digress radiation sucks and is no laughing matter. Did you know that my last MRI gave me googly eyes? screw Bethesda! I only had that stroke after they ruined the good name of the last good game franchise. Dark humour about the end of the world and an immoral "all American" corporation. How do you fuck that up. Like really? :-/
Uh... you imply you have a 240Hz CRT?
I'm not aware that those existed or exist. If you just mean 240FPS on a CRT of lower refresh rate then I don't know what your point could possibly be.
I get the sarcasm about Fallout though.
I've never heard of a CRT monitor capable of 240hz, what brand is this mythical beast...more to the point what game are you playing that can give you 240fps on a 980ti,,,Quake 3?
You must get sick and tired of swapping out fusion cells on that monitor...
@@jaxativejax662 _"You must get sick and tired of swapping out fusion cells on that monitor..."_ He's a regular over at Tosche Station.
Don't put a sign that says "Free" on it, no one will take it. You have to put like "$10" if you want someone to take it because they'll just steal it. If you say "free", no one will want it.
Trust me, I've gotten rid of enough stuff to know lol.
lol good tip! but... kinda sad too. :/
@@Choom2077 Yeah it's unfortunate but that's how it works lol, and I live in a pretty nice neighborhood too haha.
You sir, are brilliant,
I'd never thought of this if you hadn't mentioned it... Cheers!
I picked up some free stuff because it was labeled as such.
I am pretty awkward when it comes to social contact in real life.
This way I can pick up stuff without feeling too bad about it while also avoiding personal blunders :)
Ahahahaha, would never work in sweden, but I get it should work in amurica XD
I came into this video as a skeptic, and you converted me to CRT fan. I was quite surprised to learn how advanced this old technology was in the early 2000s. What a great, informative video!
Digital Foundry recently covered CRTs with modern games. And they have that holy grail you talked about!
I KNOW I'M SO JEALOUS
@@EposVox They hinted about making another video about CRTs. I'm really intrigued!
Honestly they are so good they make modern monitors look like scams. I wish crt TVs had the same thing too!
miss the crt days until I remember I held my 27" 4K monitor in one hand while I screwed in the vesa mounting screws with the other to the dual adjustable monitor arms :p
Here too, I love my 15 year old birthday present CRT TV, 21" with component input. I love it - as long as it keeps there and I don't need to move it from the stand. And that's still just 21 inches (true tho that it's a wall mount so it's a horrible hassle, less the weight and more the position you need to take to move it).
Also when we gave away our 29" Panasonic CRT TV, that monster wasn't more than 32 kilos (sorry, ain't converting to pounds) but it was still a hassle to move.
What I most miss from CRT TVs tho, was the built-in sound. No LCD I've seen, ever, came close to that 29" Panasonic one that could actually do bass down to the 60Hz or so.
PC LCD monitors with speakers are also just there to say they're there. My old LCD monitor had speakers and I never dared even testing them. I bet my laptop would be better, not exaggerating.
why do i have to use adblocker and instantly click forward 1:30 in every single video to actually watch a video.
I remember when I have a gaming PC in 2005 with the CRT monitor and it was a memory
switched years ago from a 40 kilo monster. i can tell ya, no lan party was held without a shopping cart to move that thing away from my place to my buddies
what I miss most is degaussing my screenđ
People forget the best thing about owning a CRT monitor, pressing the degauss button.
Wave of nostalgia
but if you pressed it too much, you'd get brain damage
Someone make small program that will mimic the degauss please!
@@lysol7204 wtf dude I was literally thinking of this 5 min ago!
The *best* part of owning a CRT was the absolute certainty that the wind will never slam a door shut that has a CRT stopping it, they're also great at making sure that your ocean liner won't float away.
Someone in my neightbourhood left their old CRT by the side of the road. I am now using it to watch this video.
I witnessed a CRT implosion in the office one day...as a prank, someone dumped metal shavings through the air holes of a monster CRT monitor. The person turned on their monitor, and PLUNK!
I no longer have any of my old CRT monitors, but definitely have plenty of experience with them. Worked at Best Buy before flat screens even came out, so I have a LOT of experience hoisting them heavy bastards up a ladder too lol
hahah yeah exatly
its just like tube amps opposed to solid state....except tube amps really do kick but i will haul those all day
They are great vs. LCDs until recently with better technologies (OLEDs are unquestionable and the extinct Plasma based TVs)
My first LCD in 2007 with CCFL has decent color vs CRT but poor contrast. It still works and using it for the kids, only with some water like stains on the screen on some angles.
Single LED color (blue) based LCD's appeared and they are highly convenient, low power, low heat, lighter, and slimmer but image quality is almost trash. I know as I have a cheap laptop with that display.
These days though, I don't think CRT still has a place except for the nostalgia and getting it for free. Most new LCDs today now have decent contrast (IPS, AHVA, HDR, etc) and color (quantum, nanocell), higher refresh.
Been friends with Adam for a good long while. Did a collab or two with him on the Tech channel too. :)
Damn up a ladder, and i thought i had it bad moving them from a truck to the store
The best part about CRTs isn't very low input lag but no image ghosting at all. If you'll play a game with high contrast fast moving objects most LCDs will give you blurry edges of those objects or some color "shadows" will be there. Which isn't the case for CRTs. No fixed resolution is the second best thing. 320x200 to 2048x1536 with image staying sharp - impossible for LCDs but any decent 21" CRT can do that.
Well there is something to look forward to oled, recently joled showed of some gaming monitors and sony and panasonic are working together on some oled displays they are probably going to be expensive though.
@@nestaash Main question about OLED monitors is how long will they last. I don't feel like spending 3k on something that will last for 3-4 years. Also i'm not sure if they are better at handling multiple resolutions.
@@shadowflash705 well you are right about a lot of things they will probably be over $2000 when they release but they will get cheaper as time goes on, oleds are known to burn in but if they are making gaming monitors they will try to implement some functions to help with the problem and the user will have to vary the content they watch and nothing can handle resolutions that are non-native like a CRT can.The reason why i look forward to them is the infinite contrast ratio they have and most of all how well they handle motion i can tell you 60hz gaming on a oled although not as smooth as gaming on a 165hz LCD IPS monitor has less blur. oleds monitors will most likely produce the best overall image quality, who knows they can suck at release or be the best thing since CRT we will just have to wait and see.
It's not just ghosting where CRTs are superior. They have superior motion clarity as well. LCDs use sample-and-hold technology. CRTs are completely different, and because of this they have WAY LESS motion blur. A 60hz LCD will keep a pixel displayed for a full 16.6 milliseconds. A CRT will display a pixel for about 1 milliseconds, thus substantially reducing motion blur. This is referred to as pixel persistence or just persistence; you will sometimes see monitors marketed with 1ms persistence (they use a gimmick to achieve this, it's not good like CRTs). Checkout a site called BlurBusters to read up on this phenomenon and why it happens.
The worst thing though is screen tearing if you have vsync disabled and I hate vsync latency. Nothing like g-sync/freesync
Great video, I just recently picked up a nice Viewsonic CRT and I gotta say I've fallen in love with it and I'm starting to get a little obsessed. It's sad how rare even mediocre pc crt monitors are getting. It's like everyone has gotten rid of them and most of them are probably sitting in recycling centers just gathering dust. To bad they don't make them anymore I'm fearing the day mine breaks down and can't be repaired, speaking of which I guess I should start learning how to fix these things so I can keep one as long as possible.
I picked up a nice ViewSonic Optiquest Q71 recently
I had an old 22" monster until the mid 2000's, but it ate too much electricity, and no-one was prepared to repair it if it went wrong. Then I ended up with a video card installed without any VGA ports, so I had to update and get rid of the old monitor to recycling. I really miss 4:3 aspect ratio and the monster sized screen.
Ah, the good ol' days.
i still have 4:3 sony lcd monitor
My problem with CRTs is that they emit an extremely obnoxious high-pitched noise that makes it impossible for me to use them. It just gets too annoying and I can hear it so well that I can sometimes hear them from >30 metres away (eg when used in a museum).
I always go like 'Oh, there is a CRT around' and everyone is like 'how did you know that?'.
The horizontal scan rate of NTSC CRT TVs is about 15khz. This is what makes the sound. Meanwhile, all PC CRTs are 65-141khz, well above human hearing range.
Oh yeah I remember that whine, both from CRT TVs and Monitors, most obnoxious things ever.
Not every CRT emit that noise, anyway for me was real when they were running at 60hz. Not only the screen was too bright, but they would usually make that insane noise. Increasing the refreshrate to 75 or 85 was the "fix" to stop that noise instantly.
It's the high voltage transformer driven at line frequency emitting that noise. Usually TV's are run at ~15-16kHz and some are very loud.
@@BadAndUgly I had a 2005 iMac that often made *the* most annoying high pitched noise. I read that they had bad flyback transformers. I don't miss that.
Any recommendations besides the HDfury for using a crt with modern gpu? I have an rtx 2080 so I do have the newest (assuming newest) hdmi and displayport connectors. Right now I have an hdmi to vga like you show in the video but I am having an issue displaying ANY interlaced refresh rate (even at something bizarre like 800 x 600 @ 60Hz) and I'm assuming this is why.
Hi! I have some problems using a CRT monitor with my computer. For example , after put the resolution in 1280x720 120hz in a short time , ramdom, mostly early when i start play games the monitor shows the OSD that is not video imput, the computer freez , after restart everything start working fine again and after short time the error pop up again. I notice this erros with 2 monitors , and is more evident when i put the resolution to 1600x900 100hz , my doubt is. I have a HDMI to VGA adapter, the comon ones that you show in your video , can this adapter are my problem? Something can't support the bandwidht , or refresh rate , etc ? Maybe using a DVI-D to VGA adapter will work better? or using some active converter insted a pasive one?
I love those Sony GDM FW900 monitors. I found 3 when i visited a CAD company a couple of years ago that they was going to throw away but they hadn't bothered carrying them out of the door. I took all 3 and my back was hurting for a week after. Still worth it :)
WOW
Man i miss my FW9010 so much. Kinda regret throwing it out when the flyback went kaput and wouldn't turn on. But moving it cross country was just too much hassle :/
@@AFluffyMobius are you sure it was even the flyback?
@@wormbagged I can only assume at this point. Before complete failure, it would sometimes "blink" like crazy with the picture going in and out.
I need some peanut butter with my jelly
Nope, don't miss my massive radiating desk weight. Was an early adopter of lcds.
me too...I got an LCD with my first computer in 2006.
They don't actually radiate... The thick layer of lead infused class blocks all radiation.
Radiation only was a problem with the first series of color TV's when they got into a fault condition.
Didn't realize they radiated stupidity.
Same here. I had experience on CRT's before i got my first computer in 2005 but all my monitors have been LCD since. I totally agreee tho that early LCD-s were pretty poor in terms of image. The main appeal was low power and low size. As time progressed however LCD's advanced. Today i see no reason to get CRT. Yeah it's true LCD has not gotten rid of the signal processing delay and non native resolution issues but in terms of refreshrate, color, contrast and resolution new LCD's are now superior to CRT's. Plus adaptive sync that get's rid of tearing in games is a godsend.
This is my list of LCD's i've owned since 2005:
1280x1024 60Hz TN
1680x1050 60Hz TN
1920x1080 60Hz IPS
2560x1440 165Hz IPS with G-Sync.
@@shabazz18 He's stupid because he was turned off by one of the major problems of CRTs. Okay then, Einstein.
If you want a good adapter for DP to VGA I suggest the Delock 62967.
It only costs 25⏠compared to the hdfury and has enough bandwith for 96khz and 110khz monitors.
I just wanted to suggest since 250⏠is stupid expensive for an adapter, might aswell pickup a 980 at that point
I do miss the old days of having a monitor that could do any resolution and refresh I wanted to throw at it. 75Hz was considered the bare mininum normal and now the basic normal is only 60Hz. I don't miss the weight and the square screen but so much else about the CRT was actually better. I absolutely noticed blur and lag when I switched to LCD all those years ago. No matter what kind of fancy flat screen I use now nothing ever seems to be as smooth as the CRT was. Its like we've spent years and years trying to engineer our way back to what CRTs could do and we're still not really there. Modern flat screens bring many benefits but still...
Also, I didn't have to run my heater in the winter in my apartment. The Viewsonic kept the whole place nice and roasty.
Back then we had high framerate CRTs but not the PCs to run high frame rates and now we have PCs to run high framerates but not the right monitor.
I've got a 144hz 1440p LCD monitor but I've never in 30 years of computing seen a CRT that can push either of those specs, the bandwidth of VGA just didn't allow for it even if the tubes themselves could drive it, the VGA cable standard maxes out at 2048Ă1536px (QXGA) @85 Hz amd even thatrequires a really short, high quality cable.
Funnily enough, when I bought my 144hz 1440p screen it only came with a VGA cable!
@@jaxativejax662 Hahahhahah rip
@@jaxativejax662 Crazy! my asus came with a cable for every single connector it had available
We do, the question is, are you willing to pay for them? A lot of these CRTs are only "affordable" nowadays, and cost four figures new. The same with a good flat panel--if you want massive refresh rates, ultra-low latency, or OLED, that costs money. A lot of money.
Back then we didn't really give a shit, and for those who did - it still cost them a lot of money. Nowadays it's actually easier and cheaper, there are plenty of affordable 1080p monitors with 100+ mhz refresh rates. To think of it, considering the cash this bloke blows on his CRT monitors that let's face it, look ugly as all hell and usually have 4:3 aspect ratio, i don't really see any reason whatsoever to even consider using one, other than for some weird purist reasons.
I miss that satisfying click and sound of the Degauss function.
Ha.. me too. I use to press it just to hear that and see the screen go squiggly even when it didn't need to degauss.
I'm surprised my monitor never exploded doing that so much.
These monitors were tougher than people gave them credit for.
Me to, someone could make a fortune selling a degauss app which imitated the function.
Maybe i should open up a CRT repair shop... hrmm
Wish I had one near me -- would pay for your services if they were good. Shipping costs, of course, make it impossible to do this beyond local business.
yES
I would come buy if CRTs were still a thing I would have learned the job of a crt technician
Rinoa's Auspicious Travails please
yeah, if you can come up with some really good way to transport crts (maybe some kind of custom built reusable crate) then you might be able to buy, repair, then sell high end monitors, but finding tubes that run well enough to repair is hard.
maybe if you get good enough you could salvage and jerry-rig components to make good custom monitors, there might even be some new technologies that make homemade CRTs possible, possibly without the intensive tube manufacturing
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What a quirky interesting video.
Watching this video on CRT Samsung SyncMaster 795mb. It's good that it's black and silver so it didn't get yellow with time. Soldering a new cable is a bit tedious, but there is nothing extraordinary difficult about it - you just solder wires one by one and isolating them with sticky tape and shrink tubes. I repaired my monitor in 2014 after the cable worned out
The difficult part is figuring out which cable stub goes to which pin on the new connector... not the soldering itself.
I just cut opened both original and new cables and compared their
pinouts using multimeter. Here is what it looks like with some quick
gibberish notes of mine: yadi.sk/d/1ZKsLPfVBi4afw
Soldering was way more difficult than figuring out what goes where. That's a whole different story if you don't have original cable in place though.
I'm old enough to have grown up with CRTs.
Yes, they had good refresh rates, response time, and resolutions. But they somehow still didn't manage to look as good to my eyes, I think it had something to do with looking through a thick layer of glass that also had a higher tendency to have a slight frosty glare, you could just tell the glass was there, hard to explain. With an LCD the text on a screen almost appears like there is no layer in front of it, almost like you could touch it, we're all used to it now but look at a CRT sometime and you might notice that layer of glass in front of everything. All I know is that as soon as I had my first LCD at 18 years old (19" 4:3 60hz 1280x960) I never looked back. Also, at the time I didn't even notice the refresh rate cap at all, it wasn't until I had it for a little while I learned that just because the fps might say 90 fps, I wasn't really seeing 90 fps. Another downside of CRTs is eye strain, I remember getting hooked on Diablo 2 back in the day, and back then playing for three or four hours straight without stopping was considered a lot, and in that amount of time your eyes would be in quite a lot of pain, this has never happened to me on an LCD. Then there is the desk space issue of course, many people were forced to sit them diagonally on their desks so they wouldn't be sitting too close to their screen, of course this can be fixed with a larger desk, but let's be realistic not everyone was able to for one reason or another, or just never got around to it.
The one downside I immediately noticed on my first LCD was how it looked like garbage in non native resolutions. I was always used to adjusting my resolution on my CRT to get a good framerate on a game, it was the most important graphics option at the time, once I had an LCD I was forced to leave this option alone. That was the only real downside I remember being a big enough downside to notice.
Same here. I have no idea why but i remember playing miniclip on my friends monitor, it was a shitty monitor compared to mine
i never felt at any point in time that any CRTs were better than any LCDs that I had tried for any purpose
Lost beetle to me it sounds as if you're talking about a scenario with a non-flat screen, and/or a bad light source causing glare.
Also I've never had eye strain on a CRT, even when sometimes playing at 60 Hz (2048x 1536. Lower resolutions like 1600x1200 could go higher res), which is not a good refresh rate when the screen is low persistence (60 Hz on an LCD is fine because the pixels stay on and persist, it's not like they're flashing 60 times per second like a CRT is), but I suppose some people might be sensitive
You become sensitive to anything if you spend 8+ hours a day every day for 15+ years. Not to mention that you don't fix youself as fast when you're older.
i Just looked back and feel like playing some snes on an old TV. Lol
Hello, i have a nintendo switch, planning to buy a crt monito and hdmi to vga converter.. would there be input lag if i use a crt monitor using my nintendo switch? I hope you answer this. Thank you
Fr like back in the days, humans built gigantic heavy blocks of technology, just to get a small, low resolution, glimmering display, then they built some thick slices of power guzzlers to get an absolutely beautiful looking display, and now we made energy efficient, super thin high resolution TVs and notice, that our previous techniques had so many advantages! I'm glad that we have some CRTs and a plasma tv!
ray...tubes, ray tracing?
^^^^^
no beam racing as in many 80/90's games were racing the beam
Oof
I still use CRT Tvs for retro gaming. I have a 34" Sony Trinitron Wega XBR955 HD w/HDMI & widescreen for more modern games and an old Curtis Mathes 27" for older games. I also have an NEC multisync monitor and a Viewsonic like the one in your video. However the viewsonic no longer works as one of the VGA pins broke out somehow when I moved last. I also have an older trinitron monitor that has a brightness issue. When it and the viewsonic were working properly, they both had amazing picture quality, better than any of my other CRT monitors. Great video btw!
What about a CRT HDTV for retro PC gaming? They have HDMI inputs, so would they also be able to display a VGA signal with an adapter?
I was using a Samsung CRT till this year, decided to buy an IPS. It is better in only one regard - colors are brighter. CRT indeed had tons of resolutions (I used 1600x1200 85Hz), had MUCH deeper blacks, greys were seamlessly blending into one another (instead of a "ladder" of different shades), and it was sharper and had no visible "cubes"\pixels. Also I loved how when you turn the brightness lower CRT made the blacks and greys much darker, but left whites and bright spots as they were. IPS just tones down everything, and thus I can't get as realistic a picture as on CRT.
I'm still playing my 360 on a VGA monitor using that cable.
had a old dell it was a amazing 1280X1024 120hz
ofered free by a school.
but sadly i had to stop using it it whitened and blured with age.
i replaced it but always felt new monitors flat was so bad.
took a decade to have a flat monitor as good as it was.
but input lag still is a issue.
The issues you're describing are usually fixable by opening the case and adjusting the pots on the flyback transformer
@@n1ghtblur as i said it was more than a decade ago and it is way too late.
excuse me guys, if i get let's say, a retrothink2x and a hdmi mini to vga adapter, will i get a better quality picture for component on a vga crt monitor than component on a crt tv? i mean...is the quality better on a consumer crt vga monitor than in a consumer crt tv?
Sorry if this is a dumb question, whats the best way to connect a pc to hdcrt with least lag? (wanna try modern fighting games on it) do i just use a converter from vga/dvi-i to component cable?
This really is an excellent review and introduction to the late, great CRT. I hung on to CRT tech for both my PC monitor and HDTV until just recently. I had both the Sony FW900 and the Viewsonic P225F 21 inch. But like EposVox says, once they give up the ghost there is no one to fix them. They are old displays with tons of hours on them. I recycled my PC monitors when they quit working, but still have my CRT HDTV, the Sony XBR910.
You've convinced me. Ok. I've worked in front of CRt monitors for some years when I was a kid but never knew a thing about refresh rates.
I have iiyama 514 which is capable of 200hz at 800x600 resolution. How do i connect it to 1080ti so i can have 200hz refresh rate?Or should i be looking for 980ti?
I am planning to run a CRT monitor on my Windows 10 PC which has no VGA port, what kind of adapter should I use, should I go HDMI to VGA or DVI to VGA?
A big drive towards LCD was power usage and space. Companies wanted lower electricity bills and more room on desks.
If only CRTs were redesigned to minimize those issues.
This is great, I remember how a buddy snatched up a 30 inch CRT they phased out at his workplace with some unheard of resolution back then, that freaking behemoth needed its own table but boy was it awe-inspiring, most monitors CRT or early flat panel back then were 15 inches.
He sure enjoyed the heck out of Diablo 2 on that thing.
What do you suggest for connecting the Nintendo mini to crt monitor. Output is 720p hdmi ? Oh and how would you get sound Thanks
So I have a gtx 1080 and a VGA display which goes up to 1600 by 1200 at 75hz. I am not putting down 300 bucks for a converter until I think it is worth it, anybody recommendations what I should get for active adapter and for which port (hdmi, dp, DVI).
Wow I'm watching a video from the future. The internet is truly powerful
I feel so bad. Last year I had to throw away a 200hz flatscreen CRT (I think) probably even was Sony. Just that I didn't know who would buy it and they so heavy to ship. Now I want it back. Any idea how much it would have been worth now?
Probably $300 if in good condition.
I have found a sold eBay listing of a 17" Sony CPD-200SX monitor that went for $312 USD, no box or manuals.
That is definitely not a great example. Most people are not buying a low end monitor for that much.
@@wormbagged well someone did purchase that monitor for 312 dollars. Make of that what you will.
@@eggyrepublic 300 is unbelievably delusional. 150 at best (nearly perfect condition)
Thanks for good introduction to the world of CRT.
What do you think about PC Monitors from mid 90s. I'm soon picking up a Goldstar-monitor which came with a PC 486 from around 1994. I was hoping to connect my laptop to it (it has VGA connector) to play some dos games through Dosbox, but I'm a bit unsure if the transfer will work out. Are there any risks in connecting modern computers to old monitors? And how do early 2000 differ from mid to late 90s monitors?
at my house I've got a CRT with 2048x1536 with a flat display surface
unfortunately the colour seems a bit off, any idea how I could fix that?
it is fairly old of course, and really heavy, but I really don't wanna throw it out, especially as thgere is nearly no chance to get an other one in that condition
besides a mild burn in from the graphics software that was used on it before my brother got it who eventually handed it down to me it's in great shape, and the slightly off colour
can I use one of these colour calibrating tools for this?
It's probably just due to age. Are the colors still bright?
CRT monitors had the best colors and the deepest black you can imagine.
Was very true but only until OLED came along.
@@listerdave1240 Unfortunately we don't have OLED monitors for PC users yet. When we do, i agree.
@@dreamreaver1218 Actually we do, there is at least one I know of by Dell. Besides, a 4K OLED TV does exactly what a monitor would. There no longer seems to be any difference between monitors and TVs nowadays except that TVs have tuners and a remote control while PC monitors don't.
I am using a 4K Panasonic TV as my primary monitor for my PC.
@@listerdave1240 oled s are unreliable expensive peace of shites
Best colors and deepest black? They did not. You are looking through nostalgia glasses when you should look at specs.
They only advantage they have is input latency.
Actually i do have that Widescreen sony CRT you are talking about at the 11:50 mark. Im using right now actually. And let me tell you watching this vid made me feel good. The story of how i got that monitor basically getting it for free, long story short, was doing a AC job for this old guy who makes wedding movies for a living. He figured that since i cared about this stuff (I was getting into the AV field at the time) he gave it to me for free. Sadly this one has some yellow tin on the bottom right, and the antistaic wrapping is coming apart. Need to get it repaird, but good luck finding someone who can do that in Hawaii. or the price to ship it.... oh gawd.
But im just glad i found this video, cause really. Someone is defending these monitors, and to relish in these old dying tech.
But yes, it is a god tier CRT, like i got 1440p with 90htz like dude. yeah once you have one, all other consumer ones seem shallow in comparision.
better to quickly fire it into the garbage and rejoin 2018.
Question is, if I use a CRT TV that has a component input (Get HDMI to Component)
will everything apply to the tv outside of refresh rate?
Anyone know good sites to get CRTâs for cheap? Iâm trying to play Melee competitively. I also want it to be at least 720p, any help?
If someone made an affordable 16:9 CRT, I'd buy it.
are you also good for a small loan of 100 mil to setup a factory of dubious quality in cheap enough country and an R&D lab to re-engineer the various proprietary processes to achieve relatively sharp picture? :) they were really hard to produce, lots of manual labor
I would too, the brightness of a new CRT still can't be matched with flat panel technology.
Altho the image is nice I prefer the high refresh rate for proper gaming.
Maybe for more scenic games it would be nice tho...
good luck with that.
and good luck to your back after having to drag something that massive across the house.
;-)
Shut up and take my money!
What I miss about CRT monitors were how they managed to soften every pixel and make them glow almost. If anyone has played any old DOS or SNES games on LCDs they'd know that everything looks super blocky. I've tried pixel shaders that attempt to mimick the nice glow from CRTs onto LCD but they just look pretty bad.
This is one of the reasons I have trouble letting CRT's go. Pixels just look "dead" on an LCD...
I still have a CTR monitor in my basement but a rat sprayed blood over it... Yeaaah. luckily it didn't pour inside though.
Tbh I don't even want to know what the rats were doing in my basement on my CTR monitor.
I still use the same CRT monitor from my first (decent) computer from 2002.
I liked it so much that when it got wrecked from a power failure (or whatever causes a horizontal "wrinkle" to form), I went out of my way to find another on eBay in 2010. Needless to say, I paid precious cos if its weight and size which made the shipping more expensive than the monitor itself. But so worth it. Still running it today.
Same here. Still using my CRT monitor.
My older one got damaged, so a friend offered me this one, since he didn't use it and takes a lot of space to store it. Best decision ever :D
Got a little brightness problem (can't go up a certain value) and crops a little of the upper right corner... But totally worth it :)
You say they're very sharp but I see a little blurriness on text and icons on the Dell E773 monitor I just found. Was wondering if there's something in the settings to fix it but could just be the anti-glare/anti-static coating. It also goes up to 1280 x 1024 at 60 Hz.
Okay well that's not a universal rule and there could be any combination of specs or settings set wrong/weirdly to cause that :P
To this day I still use a CRT on my main computer. Been through TWO holy grail Sony 24" monitors since about 2005, but each died a very similar death and each only lasted me about 5 years. I'm now on a 21" Philips 202P flat screen model. Vertically it is virtually identical in height to the Sony, it is just not as wide. I run mine at 1152x864 @ 100 hz. Picture on this is at least as good as either of the Sony's I had and in the 4 years I've had it I haven't noticed any degradation whatsoever of the image quality. Also like the Sony, this has dual inputs including a RGBHV BNC connector which I have connected to a Micomsoft XRGB-3 (which has native VGA output via line-doubling mode) for my Sega Genesis (over JP-21) and my RGB-modded NES (also over JP-21). Picture quality is amazing on this setup for both of my game consoles.
I remember going to LAN partys with my 21" CRT in 2000 ^^ HEAVY!
I still enjoy my 2 CRTs that I got recently.
people actually had to drag those things around?
great video, was wondering if you could give me some advise. I have a Playstation monitor and it is rated at 240hz, have it hooked up to a custom built pc with a MSI RX560 OC LP. not sure what hdmi i have but with the small research i have done most HDMI's we all have are only rated to say 120hz and older ones at 60hz. Do you think investing in a high end HDMi cord ($50-$100) is something that can really push higher FPS/HZ? I at the moment sometimes get that wave across the screen and want to fix that. Any have an idea ?
So with this I should get a component to hdmi converter, then and hdmi to vga adapter to output my gamecube games to my vga monitor?
I used a 21" Trinitron until it died a couple years ago. What a beautiful picture! I'd love to find another one. Worth the power bill.
@Uranium 235 But TV ts suck Pc Monitors and PVM/BVM are the best among crts
Nice video!đ
i still miss my old sony trinitron...
1600x1200@85Hz, shooters were fun back then...
Same here... I gave in and got a my first LCD when it died.. :(
What is the minimum required supported resolution on a CRT monitor to run 480p 2x mode on the OSSC?
If you have both a VGA input and BNC inputs, which one would it be best to use?
Remember that you can use your older GPU that has an analog output just as a display out. It works the same as in your laptop with 2 GPUs, you just set a "High performance GPU".
Also this is how you can use Freesync with your Nvidia GPU, just output it through and AMD card or APU. Or soon maybe through Intel iGPU, they should bring the support.
I believe it's APU only, not via an AMD card.
@@photonboy999 Nope, it also works with an external card
I haven't tried it, but you shouldn't have to buy a $250 digital to analog converter. Just throw in a old video card with a vga connector and enable pass-through from your fast card to the vga card.
wait those exist?
I personally have an HDMI to VGA and DisplayPort to VGA inline DACs. The HDMI one...isn't very good - tops out at 1600x1200@60hz. The DisplayPort adapter is another story - it seems more than capable of pushing up to 4k to the monitor, though interlacing seems to confuse it so I end up with 4k@40hzđ
Some people want more performance and OS and system compatibility than using an ancient AGP POS that would at best restrict you to Windows XP.
A last gen card like a GTX 980 has a DVI port with the analog connectors so you only need a $5 adapter for that or you could use a an Intel CPU with đđđđđ đđđđđđđ đđđđđđđđ and a motherboard with a VGA port as long as you don't plan on playing any decent games from the last 10 years.
@@jaxativejax662 you don't get it do you? By passing through to an older card with vga connector you keep the performance of the fast card.
But yes a AGP card would probably be incompatible.
How do you do that? Is this a Windows 10 feature?
I was wanting to use my a300w asrock PC as a retro emulation machine but I'm really star struck on using it with my rgb CRT TV. I'm just lost on how to make it work to look as original as possible. Any ideas?
I appreciate the amazing rundown! I just picked up a Dell E772p for use with my original Xbox. However, the HD Fury Nano GX is no longer available. Do you have a recommendation for a suitable replacement?
my trinitron flatscreen crt was the bomb. i got it for my 15th birthday and i used it for cs 1.6 and later source. it had virtually no lag and the fastest tfts were around 8ms so i gladly stuck with it till around 2010!
I had a high res Sony CAD monitor. Wow that thing was amazing. Weighed more than my car though. The accuracy on color is still tough to beat. Contrast and luminance drive and Black drive level for me make CRT so attractive. There is no way I will never make CRT part of my workflow. Space the final frontier. As in none. The CRT is so deep due to the CRT gun and construct for focus all that happy other horse.....! My Sony was yeah the BNC 5 connection. If I get a gargantuan desk again? Maybe, but not likely CRT will come back in my life. Fun video though. I am a tech feign too, but perhaps a bit more practical. The move to CRT is not practical and not worth the hassle for me. Though a separate Linux station with a CRT from an old Sony or NEC sync pro Monitor. But that is a huge maybe, but not likely.
Vincent Chen it weighted over 2,000 pounds.??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
that's fucking heavy ass hell dude!!!!
what did you do??
use a car jack just to lift an inch of it off the ground????
huh?????
Vincent Chen what was model no mate
you mentioned at 12:21 about 720 240 Hz CRTs. do you know where i could get one?
I had that exact ViewSonic CRT back in the 90s at my parents. Used it for years and years until Christmas 2005, I got a Dell D2405FPW which I used until a few months ago, and the old Dell is STILL working JUST fine.
My dad still has a CRT in the living room (some Loewe design tv) and is still being used on a daily basis since there is still analog TV (from which they said should have stopped October last year) and he wants good screen and since 98% of the channels I watch on my own LCD TV (1080P)it looks horrible in 576i. Only three out of 75 channels are in 1080p.....
Upscaled PAL looks pretty shit yeah.
You can often get set top boxes to convert digital to analog for free from your TV provider, if they force you to switch over.
I remember when I finally moved from a CRT to an LCD back in mid-2014...
The colours were nice, but goddamn, every single bit of motion was irritatingly blurry...
I went from being able to read signs in FPS games as I ran past them, to it just becoming a giant smear unless I slowed down.
And to make it worse, so many games include insane levels of motion blur on top that didn't bother me on a CRT!
@ EposVox, I just recently acquired an apple studio G3 crt monitor. I use it to play wii games mostly and it looks fantastic. I use a vga to component cable, on this cable there is an input for my playstation 2, but it doesn't work? How can I enjoy this monitor with my PS2? What do I need to do?
You probably just didn't set up your PS2 correctly or something.
are the AOC Onyx MM-201 worth anything ? found a couple of them for sell for dirt cheap, seller claims some are new even inside the packaging.
Anyone else notice how he was talking about more frames while playing war frame at 0:19. Wonder if that's intentional ;)
all the things in your room.. the nostalgic old games... old school runescape. Truly a man of culture. Subbed
Haha thanks! :D
I have a Fujitsu Siemens MCM 173V laying around, is it any good?
What adapter is needed for a CRT monitor to work on RTX 2080Ti?
Had an NEC diamondtron and a Sony Trinitron back in the day, the buttery smooth performance will never be matched, along with excellent srgb implementation and the degauss button.
I do not however miss the eye fatigue and the size of 21" crts.
I can't believe we used to lug those things around for the LANS
Sheesh
About 18 years ago. there was this kid who would bring his 21' monitor to the lans. he had the biggest of them all and it weight over 85lbs. The rest of us had 15' and 17' monitors at the time. Now that he is in his 40's. He's suffering from major lower back issues now.
eye fatigue could be solved by an addon you can buy that goes over the screen, but yeah i last used a crt in 2008 and i blame my high computer usage with the crt for my really bad eyesight
Eye fatigue at 120-160hz???
If you playing at a LAN below 120hz, you were doing it wrong.
"Avoid Ebay"
I do agree with you, absolutely. Though I did get my 14" PVM from there lol It's great, but I'm actually getting myself a computer monitor since the screen is bigger, plus all the resolution benefits. It's kind of annoying since I can't go higher than 480i on my PVM. Also, if you like scanlines, you can use the RetroTink Ultimate to output a Raspberry Pi at 320p 120hz, which will allow 31khz and will make natural scanlines (Though the provided version of Lakka can be configured to output 480p/720p/1080p through VGA and Component. I use a Raspberry Pi to play GB and GBA games on my PVM over component so that would be a great setup! The only thing I wish were possible to do is to take an old console signal and convert it to a 120hz output to get the same result. I plan to just use the RetroTink 2X as you did.
I would try this but i can hear crts TVs from another room and it is not a pleasant sound so im scared it might be same with monitors :/
Thank you for making this video! We made sure to share it in our Facebook Group!
We are glad to have people discuss these topics and help represent the things our community stands for.
It is very true that "Retro Gaming" is often just seen as Retro Consoles and that us Retro PC Gamers are often not included, ignored, are a smaller community, and get very little publicity or attention.
I never thought that my Sony GDM-FW900 would be worth anything 17 years later I barely use it. When I purchased it, it was expensive and took a few week to arrive, but worth it and still love it. One interesting thing about it was when I did get it was that the manufacturing date on it was after I placed the order, I have always wondered if Sony once receiving an order assembled one then shipped it, I doubt it, but who knows. I hope you find one I will be keeping mine for a while.
When yours breaks ill buy it from you.
@@wormbagged It may be awhile before it breaks, like i said, I have used it very little, it currently is not at my main residence. When I do get a chance to use it, it's only about a month out of the year and I have it hooked up to a double conversion ups, I want it to last as long as possible. It's really hard to explain to people why I baby it and keep it, but when I turn it on and hook it up it's easy to see that a new flat panel just can't produce that picture the "outdated" CRT can, people are just used to the unnatural colors that are on there phones.
@@Will_RM lol no
CRT still the best display. My eyes get tired very fast when looking at LED display. Only CRT I can use long hours.
Usually the opposite
@@BavarianM Not at high refresh rate
Those things kill my eyes and ears. How can you stand crt
@@TheTca211 CRT Monitors don't cause Eye Strain cause of High Refresh Rate and either don't make these weird sounds cause of 31khz or higher
@@dominikf.5100 hhmmmmmmmmmmmm
i got a CRT TV recently for the novelty. i wanted a bubbled out screen specifically. idk if my hdmi adapter has any of the same benefits here though.
Is that a Gateway VX1120? I had one of those back in 2000! I used it daily until around 2009 when it started going out. What is the problem with yours? Mine would still power up and work for awhile but eventually it would start scrolling the screen vertically. I still have it though, even though it was going out I couldn't throw away such an expensive monitor! Gaming on it was amazing. I can remember the resolution but I'm pretty sure it was higher than 1080p.
I know you're trying to find an FW900.
My tips would be messaging senior photo editors and graphic designers. They used FW900 back in the days and might have them laying around (unlikely but hey, worth a shot)
Try to find an old forum post where they discuss about it and message the ones who are still active and posting.
Happy hunting đ€
The GDM-FW900 was/is a beast. I retired mine after 10+ years due to the brightness going down and the focus starting to pulse from time to time. But I can't bring myself to abandon it. :)
The dimmed tube can actually be revived, although the process can either kill it or restore it to it's previous glory. It involves electrocuting the cathode with a capacitor, look it up, there should be some info in english about that.
probably you need a recap, just change every electrolitic capacitor
I have one. Will it work with a dreamcast and lkight gun with vga?
I have to use crt monitors, lcds burn my eyes, tear retinas (literally), give me severe eye pain (pulling on the retina feeling) also a lightshow when I close my eyes lasting hours. I've tried all kinds of lcds to rid this problem IPS,TFT, Flicker free, even the 120hz strobe mode (some trick that makes lcds refresh like crts or something which was nice I didn't see motion blur but didn't help with eye problems) obviously setting the brightness low as well didn't help.
At home all my tv's are 720p PLASMAS (no issues can watch em all day) and monitor is of course a crt.. Any ideas on what in the lcd technology is causing this?
Probably the Blue Light from the Led Backlight. The best TV today would be an Oled TV since it doesn't have a Backlight it would not cause you eyestrain.
@@sonyx4500 Yeah I've been waiting for a chance to try oled, also I don't think its the blue light because I used those yellow tinted computer glasses for a trial period and it still occured.
@@tierup It could still be the Backlight because LCD cannot block the light completely. Which is the Reason of poor black levels. I have a Fald Led which is much more nice to my eyes.