24" Sony CRT or Dell 24" LCD

[damarble]

I myself can't bear to look at LCD's anymore after using my 22" CRT. So I say get the Sony!

A new twist has been added to the CRT vs LCD discussion, so I decided to revive this thread.

Interesting, thanks.

I'm beginning to think that I am the only one who notices ghosting on the 2005FPW.

You're not the only one. I had a 2005FPW for about 2 weeks before I couldnt stand to look at it. Sure, it was pretty looking at a bright, still desktop, but fire up a dark game like Doom 3 and things got ugly. Blacks looked purple, and the ghosting was terrible. It was impossible to play Farcry on it because I couldn't see where my gun was pointing.

 

[SuperFarStucker]

The reason you find these for so cheap is becaue they are total pieces of ****. Burned tubes, seriousl geometry and convergence problems, heavily magnetized grilles, been sitting in a warehouse for about 3 years. You name it.

If you go look at one yourself and it is in good shape for 400.00 USD by all means jump on it. I'm just skeptical that you'll have any luck finding one. I looked at 3 in the local area and they were all total ****. I would rather use a photocopier as a monitor.

I've bought CRTs off eBay in the past and I'll tell you the 'you get what you pay for' addage really applies here. I recently picked up a CRT off one of those warehouse wholesalers (accureit.com) for my girlfriend's brother as he is on a tight budget and the first one was DOA and the replacement had convergence and geometry issues.

Many people are still hunting down good tube monitors, it is difficult to find one that is in good shape because of their age. People who know what they have will want 1000+ for one.

Finding a good crt for a decent price is akin to finding an old muscle car that isn't rusted out and the guy not knowing what he has (an old man). It's possible, just not likely.


I've never really liked LCD panels but the truth is a good crt can easily cost more than an average LCD panel and they are much more difficult to find. If you think 30 ms latency is going to affect your 'game' that bad you're delusional. Pixel latency is visible but I'd rather that than a seriously ****ed up tube. If SED is half as good as it is supposed to be and can be obtained for a reasonable price I don't think there will be any other display technologies left to compete.

 

[adriana]

your room looks nice

 

[MoreGooder]

Huh?
****** Edit ****** adriana, I see now the reason for your post. My apologies

Anyway......back on topic,
Over at widescreengamers formums, there are numerous people reporting great CRT quality on this old tubes, and one dude that has geometry problems.

Out of all of the old CRT's at work, all varying in manufacturer, screen size and vintage, only ONE of them has a problem. It can only display a green image. I think as time went on, CRT's got better and better. Once they finally had all of the kinks out, well, along came the LCD.

I believe I"m going to risk this and buy one. If I don't like it for gaming, I'll take it to the office for CAD work.

 

[larva]

It took a 2005fpw over the sony. I just can't rationalize spending 3-400 dollars on a used monitor without a warranty that could die tomorrow. If I'm spending that kind of money, I'm getting a warranty. The only reason I bought the 2005 was that my Nokia 21" CRT died, and the sony could well do the same. I love the 2005 and the 2405 is that much sweeter. And while the CRTs may do better on blacks, the LCDs do better on the other colors while offering text crispness that no CRT can match. At 125fps in games the 2005 is fine.

 

[jivetrky]

Yeah...I'm gonna have to say that if you blame your crappy gaming on 3 FPS because there is a signal lag on your DVI connector, you should re-evaluate your gaming strategy.

BTW I have yet to find a game that doesn't look awesome on this 2405. And my gaming hasn't gotten any better or worse because of a new display, only prettier.

 

[tom10167]

I want a 2405 so bad, but I don't want one with crappy backlight bleed issues.

 

[jivetrky]

I guess I got lucky with that one...but I specifically asked before buying (direct from Dell) and the lady said that if I ever had problems like that, it would be covered by the 5 year warranty I got

 

[MoreGooder]

Yeah...I'm gonna have to say that if you blame your crappy gaming on 3 FPS because there is a signal lag on your DVI connector, you should re-evaluate your gaming strategy.

BTW I have yet to find a game that doesn't look awesome on this 2405. And my gaming hasn't gotten any better or worse because of a new display, only prettier.

Well, I wouldn't say my gaming is "crappy". However, I don't see the reason to search for low ping servers when gaming if its going to be the equivalent to a mid to horrible ping server due to LCD image display lag. THAT is the point of bring this whole issue to light. For most of the servers I play on, this 50ms delay essentially doubles the overall lag that I have to compensate for, and when flying a jet or Helo, yes, it makes a difference. I've seen the impact of lag. It's hard to compensate for it because it requires that you guess where your opponent will be then fire in that direction. The more lag, the more of a guess it becomes. For competitive gaming, every edge is required to win. These people are so good at it that they invest in high end hardware so that the only major lag is the ping to the server. Well, now you can add more lag that is uncontrollable to that.

/rant on

What upsets me more about this is that ALL of the LCD manufacturers have hidden this trait from us. It's like buying a brand new sports car sight unseen only to find that it has a Chevette engine in it. People pay BIG dollars for these screens right? We should get top notch performance, with all of the characteristics clearly spelled out.

Here's the typical mindset for (fill in your LCD manufacturer here):

Lets claim an 8ms pixel response! on black to white transitions that you will typically never encounter when watching a movie or paying a game. It's really 35 ms response for color transitions, but we won't tell them that until multiple review sites start doing independent testing at considerable cost and labor. Oh, and lets just randomly change the panel we put in LCD model XYZ123 without telling the customer. The silly customers don't have any way of testing them for themselves, so we don't need to tell them (Yeah, I'm speaking to you, Viewsonics). Plus, it's such a hassle to return an LCD to an e-tailer, so once we have the LCD in their homes, we are nearly completely absolved of any issues they might have. Let's make sure that only the really crappy LCD's are available at all of the brick-and-mortar stores just so this hassle factor is maintained. Let's keep them dependent on anecdotal information about LCD's performance rather than letting them see one in person! Only marketing is required, and we can cheat on specs/hide traits all we want to! Yay!

/rant off

 

[Haste266]

"Factory certified refurbished FW900s"
$479 w/free ship 6 month replacement warranty.

i bought one from here and it cant get any better. \
my brother has a 20" apple cinema display and the ghosting bothered me when using it. one of the reasons i went with a crt

 

[SuperFarStucker]

Hell for that price I'll take one if they are actually a truly reconditioned unit. Could you post some pictures? make sure your stop speed is slower than the fresh rate otherwise the scanline will be noticeable. 1/30 is probably fine, just experiment with it a bit, you may need a tripod or some makeshift surface to keep the image from blurring too. No big deal if you can't do it. Does anything look wrong with the tube (any dark/light areas, wonky colours, geometry problems, focus, etc?).

They say it is 'grade a' but I've seen the monitor sell for upwards of a 1000 for ones that are actually reconditioned so I think their idea of this is probably taking the case off and blowing the dust out.

 

[Haste266]

i tried taking some pictures but they just didnt come out right. i'll try again at some point and fool around with my camera settings a bit.

you can't go wrong with the monitor from azatek. you might want to call them though and see exactly how the return policy works. it says free exchange but i'm not sure if they pay to have it shipped back to them or not.
my screen was perfect as in no scratches/smooth anti-glare coating. after a little tweaking my convergence is spot on from corner to corner and the color reproduction is top notch. i have no complaints about this monitor cept for its weight and warm-up time(30 min.) but of course thats a given for a CRT of this size.

 

[Richard]

Post #33 by Adrayic is exactly the experience a lot of FPS gamers.

For people that fight for every nanosecond; a lot of you seem willing to compromise where it shows the most. If you have the means, a multi-monitor setup is the best solution. (LCD and CRT) If you must decide between the two. Then, it depends on what you're buying all this gear for. If it's to have the lowest latency display where smoothness matters, there is no alternative to CRT.