-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
DF Direct! Modern Games Look Amazing On CRT Monitors... Yes, Better than LCD!
- Thread starter Fuzzy
- Start date
It is really hard to find a decent CRT TV or monitor these days. I know it will never happen, but with all the Retro stuff people seem more interested in old consoles and old PC's that it would be great if a company would release new CRT's. I know it would be super niche if it happened but I would definitely buy one if it was of a good quality.
FWIW, I think production video monitors offer TERRIBLE value for the money. I mean, go ahead if you have the cash, but you are most probably going to pay through the nose for a set with an ungodly amount of hours. And you may have to drive for a while to pick it up, since they are not exactly ubiquitous these days.
A good Trinitron TV in good shape (of which are plenty) with RGB inputs offer great display quality for console and low res gaming. Even a cheapy 26" Samsung CRT with a SCART connector will do just fine. Computer monitors are even easier to score. Both are excellent alternatives for their respective uses.
The thing about PVMs, BVMs and their NEC counterparts is that they became obsolete overnight with the advent of the HD era, unlike computer monitors. So companies replaced them in masse and there are barely any available units that are not beaten down to an inch of their deaths or in the hands of fans who will demand some real coin for them. I still want one, but I'm not ready to fork out €300-€500 for a display that may crap out on me at any given moment.
A good Trinitron TV in good shape (of which are plenty) with RGB inputs offer great display quality for console and low res gaming. Even a cheapy 26" Samsung CRT with a SCART connector will do just fine. Computer monitors are even easier to score. Both are excellent alternatives for their respective uses.
The thing about PVMs, BVMs and their NEC counterparts is that they became obsolete overnight with the advent of the HD era, unlike computer monitors. So companies replaced them in masse and there are barely any available units that are not beaten down to an inch of their deaths or in the hands of fans who will demand some real coin for them. I still want one, but I'm not ready to fork out €300-€500 for a display that may crap out on me at any given moment.
Welp, there goes my last hope of ever getting an FW900 for a reasonable price :/
I honestly would have preferred if they didn't mention the model. It's like people checking out r/crtgaming for the first time and immediately only wanting a D24 or 20L5, driving the already ridiculous prices way up.
I honestly would have preferred if they didn't mention the model. It's like people checking out r/crtgaming for the first time and immediately only wanting a D24 or 20L5, driving the already ridiculous prices way up.
Go for a cheaper LaCie or a Diamondtron Dell and laugh in the face of the dorks paying American healthcare-money for a banged up CRT display with a tube burned to cinders.
I already have a LaCie Blue IV, and did own a D24 that I since sold. Now I'm mostly using a 20F1E and got myself a 65" LG OLED C8 off the D24 money, lol.
Great video!
I'm still a bit sad that we've moved on from CRTs.
Every year around winter time I pop my FW900 back on my desk to do one or two playthroughs of Diablo 2 soley because it looks terrible on a modern screen.
I'm still a bit sad that we've moved on from CRTs.
Every year around winter time I pop my FW900 back on my desk to do one or two playthroughs of Diablo 2 soley because it looks terrible on a modern screen.
Just got a new LG 32GK650F 32" 144hz 1440p freesync Monitor.
This is as close to a crt (motion wise) as I've seen on a lcd monitor, and I have several for retro stuff.
If you're still on a 60hz monitor, definitely upgrade to 144hz as soon as financially possible.
And before you go out looking for for a crt monitor know what you are getting into, they can be a big pain in the ass, and if you want to get rid of it you usually have to pay someone to take it or recycle it.
I have a 17" Sony Multiscan 200sx that I use for Dreamcast and an old Voodoo3 system I refurbished. It's neat and all, but hooking up a modern system to it would just be kind of silly. Makes an interesting video nonetheless.
This is as close to a crt (motion wise) as I've seen on a lcd monitor, and I have several for retro stuff.
If you're still on a 60hz monitor, definitely upgrade to 144hz as soon as financially possible.
And before you go out looking for for a crt monitor know what you are getting into, they can be a big pain in the ass, and if you want to get rid of it you usually have to pay someone to take it or recycle it.
I have a 17" Sony Multiscan 200sx that I use for Dreamcast and an old Voodoo3 system I refurbished. It's neat and all, but hooking up a modern system to it would just be kind of silly. Makes an interesting video nonetheless.
While we're on the topic at hand, does anyone remember this?
I can't even imagine how that would look in 1995.
I can't even imagine how that would look in 1995.
Even better view:While we're on the topic at hand, does anyone remember this?
I can't even imagine how that would look in 1995.
That poor desk.
Lol I bought a super bright and crisp Viewsonic a90f in immaculate condition for $5 recently, it's insanely easy by watching Craigslist, Offerup, Letgo. It's not top end but it is way, way past decent. Also if you are willing to tolerate the heavy weight factor 27" - 36" Vega TVs with component and svid are free if you put even minimal effort in.
Even better view:
That poor desk.
I would lie if I said I wouldn't want one of these even today.
I have a mid-low range 21" Trinitron (I used to play on a bottom range 14" as a kid) that I got from my parents and I only keep it for Sega Saturn's Virtua Cop 2. Being PAL and a model not capable of accepting 60 Hz signals (I think Dreamcast's 60Hz mode didn't work on it) can this realistically be used to connect a modern console or is this limited to playing PC games (which I hardly ever do)? It has SCART but I ignore if it even matters.
I think the PS3 could be hooked through SCART using a special cable. Maybe the Xbox 360, too. No idea about more modern systems.
CRT TVs are not good for PC gaming unless we are talking about old school arcade emulation, which requires some extra work.
CRT TVs are not good for PC gaming unless we are talking about old school arcade emulation, which requires some extra work.
I loved my old Plasmas tbh the quality of the picture and colours on my Panasonic Plasma was stunning (I wished I never sold it) . I don't really agree with DF on this matter. I still have my old Philips Matchline 32 inch TV but just don't use it, not even for my classic consoles. I happier these days, with my 65 LG Oled with its HDR and lovely big screen and none of the issues of weight or size of the back of the unit. Like one got/gets with CRT.
HDMI to VGA adapters.
Make sure to get a decent quality one and not something that's like 2$ on Amazon.
Bruh, I feel even worse for missing out now :'( It was immaculate !
Does this introduce any noticeable lag? What is the price range of a "decent" one?
The DF video is about PC monitors though, and specifically about the high refresh rates and motion clarity you can get from them.
Doesn't need to rescale image for different resolutions, CRT's do not have a "native resolution", contrast levels are way better, blacks are fantastic, colour depth is great with 24-bit per pixel resolution, and likewise greyscale is superb, also doesn't need gamma correction. Response times are practically nonexistent, no motion artifacts/blur. Same with display lag.
Reading up on Microled, it should do waaaaay better on a lot of these (response time, display lag, blacks).
Weren't CRT marked as bad for eye health, compared to modern LCDs and OLEDs?
Because the coating on the CRT screens sometimes do not absorb all the radiations outside the visible spectrum, showering anyone in front with extremely minor doses repeatedly over a long period of time.
Because the coating on the CRT screens sometimes do not absorb all the radiations outside the visible spectrum, showering anyone in front with extremely minor doses repeatedly over a long period of time.
I don't think that it does but it really deppends on the adatper itself. It would be smaller then what you'd get on a console + TV anyway.
I've actually never hooked a console up to CRT myself so I'm not entirety sure if there are any other options.
The thing I never liked about CRTs is that you really needed to find the perfect refresh rate to res ratio (or viceversa) in order to obtain the best possible image and avoid any fuzz.
So your monitor could be capable of outputting at 120 Hz at max res, but it probably looked a heck of a ton better at 1280 x 1024 @ 85 Hz. It's another quirk of the technology. Some high res monitors looked their best at lower resolutions.
So your monitor could be capable of outputting at 120 Hz at max res, but it probably looked a heck of a ton better at 1280 x 1024 @ 85 Hz. It's another quirk of the technology. Some high res monitors looked their best at lower resolutions.
Last edited:
Sony FW900... I've looked for one in junk shops, junk sales, pawn shops, thrift stores, etc. for... I don't even know how many years. As many 'amazing' and rare items I've found, they wouldn't hold a match against finding one.
Doubt I'll ever have the privilege of owning one. *sighs*
Doubt I'll ever have the privilege of owning one. *sighs*
Let me tell you about the NEC XM29.
I know somebody who got two mint units from the storage room of some video production house. One of them still wrapped. And for cheap, apparently.
That's mortgage payment money on resale.
I know somebody who got two mint units from the storage room of some video production house. One of them still wrapped. And for cheap, apparently.
That's mortgage payment money on resale.
I imagine the chances of winning the lottery are greater than finding one mint unit, let alone TWO—especially with one still wrapped.
They struck gold with that find.
some CRT HDTVs had HDMI support, I remember some CRT models from LG and Samsung around 2004 supported 720P/1080i and HDMI/component/vga
My family owned a B&O CRT up to 2009, and I remember my brother playing Uncharted 1 on it after I had completed it on a 60" Pioneer plasma, I was completely blown away how good it looked.
Thanks!
I bought a super nice OLED not too long ago and I love it but I'm aware of input lag at least. And I'm always terrified of burn in. Sometimes it ghosts so easily. D:
Lost it when Richard described it as "... What is quickly becoming a fetish". This is the content I love DF for. Really looking forward to future features on CRTs.
The manufacturing plants were decommissioned and the equipment scrapped. I'm sure the engineers that really knew how to make a great CRT have also probably retired by now too. The used screens that are still out there are the only ones you'll ever get.
CRT displays are still being produced in limited quantities for mission critical applications and legacy systems of the kind you really don't want to fuck with.
Kind of like America's nuclear arsenal is still dependent on ancient computers that require a constant supply of floppy disks and drives.
Nah don't be too worried about burn in. Just use it. 2018+ are good for keeping burn in away.
I still don't use it for too much gaming though.
Too bad you don't get any 16:9/16:10 CRT monitor with VGA support anymore here in Germany. eBay and even it's newegg pendent is dead in regard. Only some no name 15-17inch CRT or old TV tubes with SCART only.
I still have my Voodoo 3 Pentium 2 PC in the garage with Packerbell CRT (I do love to play Kingpin and Blood 2 on it every year or so) but I really wouldn't go back to that style of a setup. While the PC monitor is 14 inches, it weighs a ton and takes up a lot of room, really is a pain to move around.
I grew up in the era of CRT, but much rather the bigger pannels of today along with HDR support and so on
Just to remind you, Radeons still don't support fressync over HDMI [yet].
RTX20xx and GTX16xx just got the support for HDMI VRR [again branded as Gsync Compatible].
Last edited:
So i was reading up on that and it seems crt monitors are better technically than tv, but not specially great if you go for old cosoles accuracy cause they don't really look the same, with way more noticeable pixels and especially scanlines. I know lots of people are turned on by scanlines but it makes things darker and tv crt didn't have huge visible scanlines like those retroarch filters i think.
Now a small question. I'm a little confused by all those video output formats.
So it seems my integrated gpu (HD630) has a vga out. But i guess it's not that easy right ? I don't just need a cable adaptator to output an analog signal to a tv right ? Seems too easy.
Now a small question. I'm a little confused by all those video output formats.
So it seems my integrated gpu (HD630) has a vga out. But i guess it's not that easy right ? I don't just need a cable adaptator to output an analog signal to a tv right ? Seems too easy.
Wait, Plasma TV's are quicker than LED TV's ? Is that why whenever I see my friends shiny new 4K TV's I cant help but notice how much extra "smear" there is compared to my old arse 50" Plasma I still use ?
I loved my old CRT monitors. I still remember during the 2000-2005 era how LCDs were taking over, and trying them and seeing just how god awful they were in comparison to my CRT. For games like Quake 3 or any other shooter on PC it was a no brainer to stick with CRTs. I think if you ask many competitive online players from that era you'll hear the same, it was a known no-no to use an LCD compared to the fluidity and quality you'd get off a CRT.
That changed due to high refresh rate monitors and just the general switchover to 16:9, but it took years. I still have my old monitors and I'd like to get them working again, maybe for some older consoles or just to plug my pc into once in a while. I'd have to find a good DP-mini to DVI converter though.
That changed due to high refresh rate monitors and just the general switchover to 16:9, but it took years. I still have my old monitors and I'd like to get them working again, maybe for some older consoles or just to plug my pc into once in a while. I'd have to find a good DP-mini to DVI converter though.
this DAC is coming next year from Analogue,
Older LCD was such a struggle.
I cringe whenever I see some poor soul fitting some ancient 4:3 display on a bartop to play classic arcade games.
No. Just no.
I cringe whenever I see some poor soul fitting some ancient 4:3 display on a bartop to play classic arcade games.
No. Just no.
Probably priced way out of the consumer market though if that's the case.
Investing in one back then was just... why? Like, I understand they took up less space, but aside for that, they were abysmal to work on.
Would honestly rather use the horrible blurry mess that were the early days of internet TV. 🤢
Hyperbole.