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

[AlucardX]

not really worth it.. a high quality VGA cable will be just as good.

 

[remagavon]

Originally posted by: Cheesetogo
Do most of these monitors seem to be in excellent condition as far as the image quality and sharpness goes? I'm thinking about getting one of these.

Mine has a spot in the middle of the monitor, more like a bar, that is slightly discolored. Strangely, it is only viewable when I read text and my eyes sweep across the monitor, and it isn't viewable at all during 3d games. IF you're buying it primarily for gaming, even my slightly flawed monitor is fantastic. Otherwise, I would stay away. Ideally a good LCD for text and general usage along with one of these for Gaming and movies would be the best case scenario. Text isn't *bad* on the monitor, but it's not fantastic either. I did, however immediately notice the gaming difference, coming from a 16ms 2001fp which ghosted only slightly.

 

[JRW]

Originally posted by: fern420
does anyone have sonme insight on the BNC cable inputs? would i be better buying a VGA to BNC adaptor like i saw n JRW's picture gallery? i found some on ebay, just not sure its even worth while, any better over the regular vga input?

http://cgi.ebay.com/25-FT-Shielded-PYTH...1QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The only reason I bought BNC cables was to free up the VGA port on the monitor for Xbox 360, I noticed no differance in quality when moving the PC over to BNC and have the same resolution / refresh rates available so it worked out well. A lot of people had to install the fw900 monitor driver when using BNC but I didnt have to. You can get the driver on this page.

The ebay seller I bought my monitor from appears to of finaly ran out of stock after 4 months, he hasnt had any new auctions up in the last few days.

 

[ITPaladin]

Do you think it is worth paying the $28.99 to SquareTrade for the 2 year warranty?

 

[SirFelixCat]

Well, I got mine yesterday. Wouldn't you know that the picture is perfect. Just gorgeous. But, mine has a significant crack in the upper left corner where "Trinitron" is written and it runs down the side of the monitor about 4"-5". It purely aesthetic, or so it seems. The screen itself if fine, but dammit...why can't this just go well and be simple?

And if he HAS run out of inventory, I guess I'm SOL? I understand the guy seems to have shipped quality monitors to many of us on here, but I get the ugly duckling. Recourse?

 

[fern420]

Originally posted by: ITPaladin
Do you think it is worth paying the $28.99 to SquareTrade for the 2 year warranty?

absolutly, get it, it is a used monitor, you never know.

 

[ITPaladin]

Originally posted by: SirFelixCat
Well, I got mine yesterday. Wouldn't you know that the picture is perfect. Just gorgeous. But, mine has a significant crack in the upper left corner where "Trinitron" is written and it runs down the side of the monitor about 4"-5". It purely aesthetic, or so it seems. The screen itself if fine, but dammit...why can't this just go well and be simple?

And if he HAS run out of inventory, I guess I'm SOL? I understand the guy seems to have shipped quality monitors to many of us on here, but I get the ugly duckling. Recourse?

Like the auction says, there could be minor cosmetic defects from normal use.

 

[SirFelixCat]

Originally posted by: ITPaladin

Originally posted by: SirFelixCat
Well, I got mine yesterday. Wouldn't you know that the picture is perfect. Just gorgeous. But, mine has a significant crack in the upper left corner where "Trinitron" is written and it runs down the side of the monitor about 4"-5". It purely aesthetic, or so it seems. The screen itself if fine, but dammit...why can't this just go well and be simple?

And if he HAS run out of inventory, I guess I'm SOL? I understand the guy seems to have shipped quality monitors to many of us on here, but I get the ugly duckling. Recourse?

Like the auction says, there could be minor cosmetic defects from normal use.

I do not call a spot where it looks as though the case had been punctured by a hammer and left a 4-5" piece nearly coming off the monitor a "minor cosmetic defect from normal use". Or it could just be me :/

 

[CP5670]

It might be some particularly heavy shipping damage.

 

[ITPaladin]

go ahead and ask them if they sent it that way. You might have to pay shipping to them but maybe they would waive shipping for a replacement.

 

[rchiu]

Scored an HP OEM version locally on ebay for $140. Almost broke my back picking this monster up. But after firing up Guildwar at 1920x1200, all the musle pain and sore goes away.

 

[JRW]

Originally posted by: SirFelixCat
Well, I got mine yesterday. Wouldn't you know that the picture is perfect. Just gorgeous. But, mine has a significant crack in the upper left corner where "Trinitron" is written and it runs down the side of the monitor about 4"-5". It purely aesthetic, or so it seems. The screen itself if fine, but dammit...why can't this just go well and be simple?

And if he HAS run out of inventory, I guess I'm SOL? I understand the guy seems to have shipped quality monitors to many of us on here, but I get the ugly duckling. Recourse?

Damn that sucks but I doubt he shipped it that way.. If the picture quality is good on your current unit then it might be worth just keeping it as is, while most people have recieved good quality monitors its still sort of a gamble on what the overall picture quality will be like,Theres also this lengthy thread I started with more info / pics etc.

The seller is currently out of stock on the Sony versions and im alittle worried that the HP versions arent as good of quality, seem to get the most complaints with that model even tho the specs are identical.

 

[davet11]

Would anybody happen to have a comparison pic of this next to a 19" CRT?

 

[JRW]

Originally posted by: davet11
Would anybody happen to have a comparison pic of this next to a 19" CRT?

Dont have a 19" pic but heres what it looks like sitting next to a 22" Mitsubishi (link)

 

[Sonikku]

Well, if it makes you feel better SirFelixCat, my 900 isn't exactly perfect either. It has all of it's cosmetic damage in the front of course. But what bugs me most is that the picture quality doesn't impress me very much. It seems impossible to get the colors just the way I like it, even with callibrating programs. And the geometry... Ugh... The geometry is just plain terrible. By messing with it for months I've improved it to "mediocre". But damn... The PQ in games does not hold a candle to the photo JRW posted of his FW900. Oh well...

 

[SonicIce]

JRW, you are like famous from your pics

 

[davet11]

Originally posted by: JRW

Originally posted by: davet11
Would anybody happen to have a comparison pic of this next to a 19" CRT?

Dont have a 19" pic but heres what it looks like sitting next to a 22" Mitsubishi (link)

So sexy, I'm officially convinced to find one.

 

[NKSRoadKill]

I picked a hp a7217a up here local yesterday for $190 +tax.
all i can say is wow.
playing ut2004 last night at 2304 x 1440 was the bomb.
tonight i'll see how dvd's look and then play some more ut LOL.

 

[Creig]

Homeworld/Homeworld 2 were two of my all-time favorite games back when I played them on my old 19" Samsung SyncMaster 955DF. But at 1680x1050 on an A7217A...


Absolutely GORGEOUS.

 

[sparka]

Could you still game at 1024x768?
My video card isn't all that great and probably can't handle resolutions like those

What do you think?


Thanks!!!

 

[Creig]

You have an unlocked X800GTO? If so, then I don't see why you couldn't run 1680x1050 as well, as your system seems fairly close to mine (144@2.7, X800XTPE, 1 Gig Mushkin LVLII). Although what resolution you to choose to run depends greatly on the game/graphics settings you're using. And that's the beauty of CRT over LCD.

You probably wouldn't be using 1024x768 as that's a standard 4:3 ratio and the FW900/A7217A is 16:10. So for wide-screen gaming you'd be using one of the following resolutions as long as the game supports it.

1280x800
1600x1000
1680x1050
1760x1100
1840x1150
1920x1200

A good thread on the FW900/A7217A can be found here.

 

[sparka]

Thanks, that clears up a few things but theres still a couple of things at the back of my head

I currently have a 17" CRT and game at resolutions of 1024x768. Since this is a 24" widescreen monitor, will I have to up the resolution to get the same effect that I had on my 17" monitor?, or will it look just like it did on my 17"?

Thanks!!

 

[caboob]

WOOHOO! I just closed a deal on one yesterday. I decided to wait till LCD tech gets better as far as size and response time goes. My 2005FPW is OK but does not hold a candle to my 21" CRT. And for the price, it was worth the gamble. I'll be ecstatic if I can get 3 years of use out of it. I only game for about 2 hours a day so it seems doable.

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

Originally posted by: caboob
WOOHOO! I just closed a deal on one yesterday. I decided to wait till LCD tech gets better as far as size and response time goes. My 2005FPW is OK but does not hold a candle to my 21" CRT. And for the price, it was worth the gamble. I'll be ecstatic if I can get 3 years of use out of it. I only game for about 2 hours a day so it seems doable.

Forget about LCDs. By the time you need a new monitor, SEDs will be out in quantity.

 

[Creig]

Originally posted by: sparka
Thanks, that clears up a few things but theres still a couple of things at the back of my head

I currently have a 17" CRT and game at resolutions of 1024x768. Since this is a 24" widescreen monitor, will I have to up the resolution to get the same effect that I had on my 17" monitor?, or will it look just like it did on my 17"?

Thanks!!

I'm not really sure I understand what you're referring to when you say "the same effect". By running a higher resolution you'll not only see improved graphics but will have much more desktop space available. Since the FW900 is so much larger than your current 17", you'd almost HAVE to increase the resolution as your text size will increase considerably if you stayed at 10x7.