CRT Snobs: What LCD did you finally buy??

[toyota]

I still have my old crt but screw 4:3 when I can game in 16:9.

my 23 inch Acer H233H is nice for the 180 bucks I paid.

 

[QueBert]

You just need to make the switch and not have the CRT around for a few days. Then you won't ever look back.

ow heavy is your monitor? 40 Kg? That's just nuts

doesn't work like that. 3 or so years ago I replaced my 22" Sony CRT with a $650 wiz bang 24" Gateway LCD, was rated one of the best LCD's you could buy at the time. After 2 months with it, I ended up selling it and going back to my CRT. And I couldn't have been happier to do so. I did like the widescreen factor, but everything else my CRT was better. Since then I've had 3 other different LCD's and I always end up going back to CRT because IQ is king and LCD's can't measure up. I have an LCD right now but I'm on CL every single day in hopes someone is selling a Sony 24" Widescreen CRT. That is the holy grail in my eyes. Until then I'll stick with my LCD, but only because it's widescreen and the 5 CRT's I have in my garage are not.

 

[Tbirdkid]

I still have my old viewsonic crt, and use it for another room. That p90f was a great one. However, the company I used to work for gave me a 24 inch hp flat panel, and i put it on my main box. After a few days, I got used to it, and i cant see myself wanting to go back...

 

[StrangerGuy]

I used a 17" Samsung CRT before finally switched to my current LG L227WTG. I'm a gamer and this was the only widescreen LCD with zero input lag back then at the local stores. Yes I know it's TN but I don't really mind.

 

[faxon]

LG W2252TQ 22" was my first LCD. i owned a 21" and 17" Sony trinitron prior, and i now also have a Hanns-G 27.5" 1920x1200 LCD. despite sacrificing a bit on color quality, the monitors are more than satisfactory for what i use them for. i would like to eventually get another 27.5" or similar panel that is an IPS as i originally planned (but could not afford), but picking a high quality panel is much harder due to the high price and the seemingly expected use of calibration tools to get proper color uniformity on said panels (tools i have access to fortunately).

 

[Martimus]

I haven't yet. I am still somewhat dreading the change, since the CRT looks so much nicer than the lap-top monitor I dual box Eve with. I have to continually adjust it so I can see the picture correctly, where I never have to worry about it with the CRT. But I will buy a LCD with my new computer, and I hope I get a quality one. (I also hope it lasts as long as my CRT which is going on 12 years now.)

 

[eBauer]

I'll be a CRT Snob for life - still rocking a Dell P1230 and P1130 (22"/21" Trinitrons)

I still haul those 80 pound monsters to and from area LAN parties, and get a lot of compliments from LCD users as to how sharp and smooth they look. You see, 9/10 people grew up using low quality, low refresh rate shadow mask CRTs that looked blurry as hell, and never had a chance to experience a 'real' CRT.

 

[Phil1977]

Do they even make good (new) CRTs anymore?

Or are you guys all using older models because they are the best ones you can buy...

 

[Winterpool]

As far as I'm aware, it's not possible to purchase qualite CRTs outside some specialist markets perhaps (video professionals?). When my Sony G400 Trinitron began to waver (literally -- the characters on the screen began to oscillate slightly) several years ago, I was forced to look at LCDs, as the few remaining Diamondtron / Trinitron CRTs were unaffordable 21-inchers. I got a Dell 1905FP owing to its respectable Samsung PVA panel but never got used to watching video on the thing. I kept my Sony CRT as a secondary monitor and watched almost all my video on it.

Eventually got the Dell 2209WA and agree that IPS panels make far more satisfactory CRT replacements, though they're still not perfect, and I still prefer to watch video on the Sony CRT or my Pioneer KURO plasma, heh. (Sometimes I wish I had been extravagant enough to splurge on the NEC LCD2490WUXi.) The IPS panel on my iMac is almost good enough to make me think I won't miss my Sony too much when it fails altogether...

 

[Wag]

I purchased the first Soyo Topaz Z IPS 24" widescreen for $400 sometime back, before they went TN.

 

[Lonbjerg]

None, are still on 2x21" CRT's...won't sacrifice I.Q. for less space.

 

[xboxist]

I had a 20" diamondtron and it definitely was a badass monitor. But the benefits of a good widescreen LCD crush any reason to hold on to a CRT, sans cost.

 

[MrK6]

I had a 20" diamondtron and it definitely was a badass monitor. But the benefits of a good widescreen LCD crush any reason to hold on to a CRT, sans cost.

Agreed. I understood the "I'll stick with a CRT" argument five years ago, but LCD technology has improved so much I can't really see a reason to stay.

 

[crisium]

My reason to stay is money. My CRT works great at 1920x1080, 1680x1050, 1600x1200. TN panels are unacceptable and IPS is still too expensive. Good quality IPS is very, very nice but it's not free. Free is a very good reason to stick with your 21-inch Trinitron.

 

[eBauer]

Agreed. I understood the "I'll stick with a CRT" argument five years ago, but LCD technology has improved so much I can't really see a reason to stay.

They have definitely improved a lot, but if you are a hardcore gamer LCD's still pale in comparison, especially in fast paced games. There is simply no comparison between 2-5ms (LCD's) and Nanoseconds (CRTs)

 

[Harvey]

Agreed. I understood the "I'll stick with a CRT" argument five years ago, but LCD technology has improved so much I can't really see a reason to stay.

Didn't your mother ever warn you, "If you didn't stop it, you'd go blind?"

LCD's are not practical for applications where you need a wide screen, and they have the physical advantage of reduced depth. Beyond that, a good CRT delivers a far better pic than any LCD I've seen for both resolution (especially at any setting other than "native" resolution) and for color spectrum and dynamic range, and they don't have the limited viewing angle of an LCD.

LED backlighting has vastly improved the color spectrum of the white light source. I think the real leap will be when OLED technology is sufficiently mature, durable and cost effective. That could eliminate the viewing angle and "native" resolution problems with LCD.

 

[CP5670]

They have definitely improved a lot, but if you are a hardcore gamer LCD's still pale in comparison, especially in fast paced games. There is simply no comparison between 2-5ms (LCD's) and Nanoseconds (CRTs)

Not to mention the 60hz refresh rate. I regularly play older games that can sustain 100+ fps, and there is a big difference in smoothness between that and 60fps. It's good that we are now seeing a few LCDs that do 120hz, but the problem is those LCDs are otherwise mediocre. The DLP TVs I mentioned earlier look more attractive.

 

[Phil1977]

Just wondering, are CRTs still being made?

Or do you guys buy them 2nd hand or just hang on to what you got?

Don't CRTs degrade over time?

 

[CP5670]

Just wondering, are CRTs still being made?

Or do you guys buy them 2nd hand or just hang on to what you got?

Don't CRTs degrade over time?

Maybe, but not anything worth buying. The last good CRTs were made in 2003-04. I got mine new 5 years ago, but wouldn't get one today given that you have to buy used and with no or minimal warranty.

Almost any type of display degrades over time in theory, but it could take many years for that to actually happen. Mine still looks great and has had no noticeable change over time.

 

[evolucion8]

I used to be a CRT snob and I couldn't bear the TN panel issues like horrible color reproduction and terrible angles until I bought my current monitor which uses a P-MVA. Only in rare cases some banding can be seen with some dark tones like dark grey or green, but is very hard to spot, and it has the richest black that no other type of panel can offer currently. Is hard to go back to CRT once you see such stuff and text clarity.

 

[shangshang]

For the CRT affecionados, have you considered getting it repaired? It should only cost you about $400-$500 to get a good state of the art Trinitron aperture grille screen fixed. All they need to do is to replace the electron gun. If you truely love a quality CRT, this is still the way to get a "new" monitor. Don't buy LCDs. Leave that for the mortals, like me.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

AFAIK there are only 3 true 120Hz LCDs out there. I have the Viewsoinic

 

[NINaudio]

What are the other 120 hz panels? Are they all 1650 x 1080? I'm looking for a new monitor, coming from a nice 19" CRT, and would prefer something that is 1920 x 1200 as I'd rather not give up that vertical space.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

What are the other 120 hz panels? Are they all 1650 x 1080? I'm looking for a new monitor, coming from a nice 19" CRT, and would prefer something that is 1920 x 1200 as I'd rather not give up that vertical space.

The only one that is larger than 1680x1050 is the Acer at 1920x1080. The other is a Samsung 2233RZ 1680x1050. There are more true 120Hz monitors coming out this year. The next is the 1080p Viewsonic that uses the same panel as the Acer IIRC

 

[pm]

So yes, if my pocket book could afford $1100 for a monitor, I wouldn't have any issues buying it. That assumes it is actually WORTH $1100 of course.

Isn't this what that EB was for?

I bought an Soyo S 24" P-MVA panel that I bought to replace my NEC 22" trinitron CRT about 2 years ago. Mostly I got it because my CRT's didn't have a DVI connector and VGA starts to look not great at 1600x1200 even with a nice connector cable and I was having some darkening effect where even with brightness maxed, the screen was steadily getting darker over time.

I will admit that I've never been super thrilled with my Soyo P-MVA LCD screen. About the only thing that I love about it is that it's reasonably lightweight and it seems to use less power than my old CRT. Beyond that the CRT has a much better picture, and I had less general eye fatigue from using it.

I've been thinking about upgrading to some new screen, but my Soyo is 24" 1920x1200 and I'm not keen to go smaller than 24".

Snooper, let me know what you decide on.