LCD vs. CRT?

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HoppyChris

Limp Gawd
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Jan 23, 2008
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So I'm looking to get a new monitor and was wondering what monitor I should get. The thing I am stuck on is if I should go LCD or CRT, and I am not sure why most people go with the LCDs, there just seem to be so many issues that are not present in CRTs:

stuck/dead pixels :(
anything but native resolution looks sloppy at best :mad:
ghosting :(
general panel-lottery issues that may or may not be covered under a warranty :(

So what are the reasons to go with an LCD besides the general small size of them?

The Viewsonic P225fB looks like a very nice monitor.

What am I missing? Why did companies stop making good CRTs? :confused:
 
You can get a 20" viewable widescreen LCD without it being 60 pounds and taking up your whole desk.

A 21" widescreen CRT would be a hell of a lot bigger, more expensive, heavier, and power hungry than an LCD.

As you've noticed. Your 20" viewable CRT is almost 80 pounds and 20" deep... not to mention over $600. A decent 20" viewable LCD is more like $200.
 
It all depends on what your doing. CRTs are best for Photo, video, and graphics work that requires process color. LCDs are best for programming, documentation, and web-browsing, because text is much easier to read. It is very sharp or crisp as compaired to somewhat blurry on a CRT. CRTs would be the best for gaming, except for the size limitation. A good 32" to 40" LCD TV is best for gaming, because it is more emersive, but you have pay atterntion to the response time. Some are better than others.

A good S-IPS 24" LCD is probubly a happy medium if you have to get along with one display. I have a Sony GDM-F520 and a Dell 2407WFP. I use the Dell the most, but I keep the Sony arround for when I want to see what a picture really looks like.

Sorry but you really do have to compromise on some aspects of any display

Dave
 
I don't think that there is even a comparison between the two. Originally, video was not intended to be displayed on LCDs after all, video was meant to be displayed on CRTs. I guess LCDs do a really good job.
Buy a good CRT and shut up!
 
An LCD properly set up does display sharper text. But a CRT should be sharp as well, unless there is some issue. (You might have to lower the CRT's resolution though to below what the manufacturer originally suggested as LCDs have since raised the bar on text clarity...)

If you get an LCD, I'd suggest getting a big one. The much bigger screen sizes is at least a bright spot...
 
After coming from CRT's to my first LCD, I can safely say the difference is pretty amazing. I didn't really notice the color difference too much. However, CRT's have much better color saturation.
 
kumquat said:
You can get a 20" viewable widescreen LCD without it being 60 pounds and taking up your whole desk.

A 21" widescreen CRT would be a hell of a lot bigger, more expensive, heavier, and power hungry than an LCD.

As you've noticed. Your 20" viewable CRT is almost 80 pounds and 20" deep... not to mention over $600. A decent 20" viewable LCD is more like $200.
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I fail to see how weight would be a factor in a decision. My Dell P1130 (Sony G520) is 65 pounds, but it's easy to carry because I can grip it. Three flights of stairs without rest is no problem, and I'm a skinny 18 year old.

More expensive - yeah right, the Dell p1130's which are among the nicest CRT monitors ever made go for $100-$200. Sony FW900 which arguably are the best CRT monitors (and therefore the best monitors) ever made go for ~$350-$450.

Also since when did people care about power consumption? LCD's take like 60 watts and CRT's like 150w, so what? Turn off a light bulb or two while the monitor is on if you really care that much.

The only legitimate argument is size - yeah, CRT's are big. Whether or not the trade-off in space is worth it is up to you. I have next to no room on my desk right now, and I'm fine with it. When I go to college in the fall I'll get a 20" or 24" wide LCD though so I have some room to work, or maybe not depending on what the dorms look like.
 
repoman0 said:
I fail to see how weight would be a factor in a decision. My Dell P1130 (Sony G520) is 65 pounds, but it's easy to carry because I can grip it. Three flights of stairs without rest is no problem, and I'm a skinny 18 year old.
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Well, an 80 lb monitor on a typical particle board desk will cause it to sag sooner rather than later. Trust me on this.

Also, it *sucks* carrying an 80 lb monitor to a LAN party. Sure, I can do it, but it still sucks.

repoman0 said:
More expensive - yeah right, the Dell p1130's which are among the nicest CRT monitors ever made go for $100-$200. Sony FW900 which arguably are the best CRT monitors (and therefore the best monitors) ever made go for ~$350-$450.
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Sure. Used. That 22" viewable Sony had an MSRP of, IIRC, almost $2000? And weighed just a hair under 100 lbs?
 
kumquat said:
Well, an 80 lb monitor on a typical particle board desk will cause it to sag sooner rather than later. Trust me on this.

Also, it *sucks* carrying an 80 lb monitor to a LAN party. Sure, I can do it, but it still sucks.
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I've had the P1130 on a cheap plywood / particle board desk for over two years. Yeah, it's dipped about a centimeter or two in that time frame, but I think it's pretty safe.

No worries about the monitor breaking either, I've dropped it off my couch (or rather set it on my couch and then it fell off) onto a coffee table then onto a concrete floor and it still works and looks great, save for some scuffs on the casing. Good luck having an LCD survive that kind of drop ;)

Sure. Used. That Sony had an MSRP of, IIRC, almost $2000? And weight just a hair under 100 lbs?
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Yeah, any CRT you find will be used these days, so it's always a gamble. Both P1130's I've bought from ebay have arrived in great condition and with a nice screen. One cost me $150 and one $100, including shipping.

AccurateIT ships refurb graded monitors - any A grade from there is for all intents and purposes as "brand new" as it's gonna get. You can find A grade FW900's for $600-$700 and P1130/G520 for $300.

Better to gamble on ebay or check out Craigslist IMO. Definitely easier to get an LCD these days, but it seems like every 24" has problems and all 20-22" are all TN. I'd be thrilled with the Gateway or new Dell 30" LCD's though.
 
repoman0 said:
Yeah, any CRT you find will be used these days, so it's always a gamble. Both P1130's I've bought from ebay have arrived in great condition and with a nice screen. One cost me $150 and one $100, including shipping.

AccurateIT ships refurb graded monitors - any A grade from there is for all intents and purposes as "brand new" as it's gonna get. You can find A grade FW900's for $600-$700 and P1130/G520 for $300.

Better to gamble on ebay or check out Craigslist IMO. Definitely easier to get an LCD these days, but it seems like every 24" has problems and all 20-22" are all TN. I'd be thrilled with the Gateway or new Dell 30" LCD's though.
Click to expand...

The point is that it's not fair to compare the used price of a discontinued Sony 22" CRT with the new price of a current-production 22" LCD. The Sony retailed for a price closer to current 30" LCDs.
 
KamikazeCow said:
2 words: Eye strain
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Are you referring to CRT or LCD? I've only ever experienced eye strain due to excessive brightness of LCD backlights, even when turned down. CRT at 85hz = no flicker with reasonable brightness levels and therefore no eye strain.

If you are referring to CRT, then welcome to the age of high refresh rates (five years ago), you'll be amazed what a difference it makes over the 60hz of over 60 years ago.
 
I was talking about CRTs. Although i have never tried 85hz, 75 still gives me headaches :( Ive never had trouble with LCDs and brightness though... To each his own i guess
 
KamikazeCow said:
I was talking about CRTs. Although i have never tried 85hz, 75 still gives me headaches :( Ive never had trouble with LCDs and brightness though... To each his own i guess
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Yeah, 75 still sucks pretty bad.. 85hz cleans it right up for me, though after using 100hz for a few weeks I notice very slight flicker on light backgrounds at 85. Not even close to enough to hurt my eyes or give me a headache.

And yes, to each their own is right - flicker will bother some people while brightness will bother others. Everybody is different ;)
 
thanks, everyone! It's nice to know I'm not crazy for still thinking high quality CRTs are a good option.
 
I like my 226BW a lot, but which 19" LCD would give the same contrast ratio and response time (2ms) that's NOT widescreen? I want to be able to game like I used to with ultra low resolution and giant crosshair. Would getting a 2008WFP and blackening out the sides be better?
 
repoman0 said:
Yeah, 75 still sucks pretty bad.. 85hz cleans it right up for me, though after using 100hz for a few weeks I notice very slight flicker on light backgrounds at 85. Not even close to enough to hurt my eyes or give me a headache.

And yes, to each their own is right - flicker will bother some people while brightness will bother others. Everybody is different ;)
Click to expand...

For the corporate world, LCD's have been a relief for folks. For whatever reason, CRTs were seemingly universally left at 60Hz. Not the CRT's fault though. So many people suffered needlessly when they were just a few clicks away from an ergonomic 85Hz.

Also agree on the brightness issue. When some of the better reviews discuss how dark a display can go I find that a lot more useful than how bright, which is always way too high...
 
repoman0 said:
Yeah, any CRT you find will be used these days, so it's always a gamble. Both P1130's I've bought from ebay have arrived in great condition and with a nice screen. One cost me $150 and one $100, including shipping.
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I picked up a pair of great condition P1130's this past weekend for only $60 from someone off craigslist. One of them was etremely overbright, so much that the retrace lines were visible. But I knew all that was needed to fix that was a quick G2 adjustment in Windas so i went ahead and bought them. Turns out i was correct and the brightness is looking brand new again. :cool: :cool:

If you don't have a Windas interface cable yet you really should get one and install Windas, it can extend the life of your monitors and dramatically improve their PQ. I even figured out how to unlock the picture effect modes, which is supposed to be a Sony only feature that was disabled on the P1130, I thought that was pretty cool.

Next I will be running through the dynamic convergence procedure, when I'm done the convergence should be near perfect and text sharpness should rival that of an LCD. :)
 
I got my FW900 (HP clone) for $200 about 1.5 hours south of here, coincided with a trip, and drove it home. There's a reason the FW900 thread is so long - they are fantastic monitors.

My wife has a 19" LCD which used to be on her PC and is now used for her laptop sometimes. That's fine for her. Me, I'm not giving up my FW900.
 
Toompra said:
I picked up a pair of great condition P1130's this past weekend for only $60 from someone off craigslist. One of them was etremely overbright, so much that the retrace lines were visible. But I knew all that was needed to fix that was a quick G2 adjustment in Windas so i went ahead and bought them. Turns out i was correct and the brightness is looking brand new again. :cool: :cool:

If you don't have a Windas interface cable yet you really should get one and install Windas, it can extend the life of your monitors and dramatically improve their PQ. I even figured out how to unlock the picture effect modes, which is supposed to be a Sony only feature that was disabled on the P1130, I thought that was pretty cool.

Next I will be running through the dynamic convergence procedure, when I'm done the convergence should be near perfect and text sharpness should rival that of an LCD. :)
Click to expand...

Mine had the overbright problem too but I clicked "color return" in the OSD and it went away.
 
Yeah color return can work when its a bit overbright but when retrace lines are visible the brightness has drifted too much for it to do any good.
 
I had a couple of 21" CRT's up until a couple of months ago.... they were my ulitmate theft deterrent! No one in their right mind would try and steal them, without breaking their backs after 50 yards.

Anyways switched to a large wide screen LCD and I'd never go back... that said the pixel size on the LCD I have is pretty small, so for productive work I tend to run it at 1/4 rez. So make sure your comfortable with the default text size at the resolution you plan to run it at before purchase.
 
Toompra said:
Yeah color return can work when its a bit overbright but when retrace lines are visible the brightness has drifted too much for it to do any good.
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This can sometimes be fixed with the "SCREEN" control on the flyback transformer. Careful.

I still like my CRT's for games, but note that I play old ones.
 
I think I just made myself look ignorant. In my defense, my "good" CRT is still under Sony's warranty; I haven't had its bucket off.
 
Thanks again, everyone! I went ahead and found a nice Nokia Multigraph 445Xpro and it is looking nice, even on my current, soon-to-be-replaced computer. Soon I hope it will be running at 1800x1440@80hz. Nice.
 
HoppyChris said:
Thanks again, everyone! I went ahead and found a nice Nokia Multigraph 445Xpro and it is looking nice, even on my current, soon-to-be-replaced computer. Soon I hope it will be running at 1800x1440@80hz. Nice.
Click to expand...

Unless it's a 5:4 aspect ratio monitor, you'll want 1920x1440 ;)
 
HoppyChris said:
What am I missing? Why did companies stop making good CRTs? :confused:
Click to expand...

i was just 1 day ago thinking the same thing. what if crts were still been developed, what would the specs be today?

and go with lcd if you like lcds, and go with crts if you like crts, imo. up to u.

i kind of think sometimes what if i went and bought that sony 24in crt people talk so much about? and i think... resolution on crts are not the same as in lcds. you need a very big crt screen area to make resolution work. lcds win on that, and today, lcds reproduce colors sometimes even better than crts, but those cost $1000 up, with led tech. and etc..
 
JVC said:
i kind of think sometimes what if i went and bought that sony 24in crt people talk so much about? and i think... resolution on crts are not the same as in lcds. you need a very big crt screen area to make resolution work. lcds win on that, and today, lcds reproduce colors sometimes even better than crts, but those cost $1000 up, with led tech. and etc..
Click to expand...

The 24" Sony has a much higher resolution than any 24" LCD out there. It's actually a 22.5in viewable screen that can do 2304x1440 vs 1920x1200 on an LCD. 147456pixels/diagonal inches vs 96000pixels / diagonal inches. Also I'd go so far as to say that no LCD reproduces color like a properly calibrated, good condition FW900, though anyone can feel free to prove me wrong.
 
My old 19" CRT is starting to die and I still have a lot of old games in my backlog. This P1130 stuff is really tempting me to buy a that and a widescreen monitor (and a new desk!)

Or maybe buy a ~$300 20" widescreen LCD now, play the games that support widescreen, and later I could try to pick up a used CRT for old stuff. So many choices.

I wonder if my girlfriend (err, wife in 2 months :eek:) would kill me if I tried to buy another CRT?
 
Uh oh, there's a Dell 19" Trinitron in my work classifieds for 30 bucks. I think I may have to procrastinate on the LCD yet again!
 
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