Dang it...my CRT is crapping out

[BoomerD]

Looks like I'm in the market for a flat-panel monitor before I had planned. MY almost 15 year old Sony Trinitron 19" monitor has started "popping" and the picture is resetting. That's NOT good.

So...I need a decent replacement. Usage is the usual...internet, Office applications, gaming.
Unfortunately, I have less than $200 to spend on this at this time. I'd like to either buy from one of the usual on-line places, (newegg, amazon, buy.com, etc.) or one of the few B&M places in the area.
I can (and probably will) wait for the Black Friday ads to come out before buying.

In consideration:

Dell ST2420L $179.99 (or $199.99 at Costco with 2 year warranty)
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...ynote_irrank=0

SAMSUNG S24A350H $199.99 (price expires 11/21)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824001482

Samsung B2230 $149.99
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-B2230-...1829101&sr=1-3

ViewSonic VA2431wm $169.99 at Amazon and Newegg and Costco.
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product...nCategory&cm_v

I haven't paid attention to monitors in several years, so I don't know who's good and what's good.

I'd love to be able to drop the money on one of the larger Dell Ultrasharp monitors...but it's NOT in the budget now. (and may never be)
Thanks.

 

[Throckmorton]

A 15 year old CRT? Really? It must have been dark and fuzzy for at least the last 10 years.

 

[Zorander]

You bought a 19in Trinitron in 1996-97? Must have cost a fortune back then.

p.s. I still have my 19in G420, which I bought in 2003. Still looking good, if comparatively low-res now.

 

[shortylickens]

Lemme know what you buy. I been looking to replace the 23 inch CRT on my gaming system. Most games dont run at 2048x1536 anyway, except Baldurs Gate 2, and everything is too tiny.

It hasnt lasted long but I got it used. My CRT before that was a Philips 109b which was about as perfect a display as one could buy. Kinda sorry I tossed it. Still havent found an LCD with the same image quality.

 

[BoomerD]

A 15 year old CRT? Really? It must have been dark and fuzzy for at least the last 10 years.

Nope...excellent picture and brightness.

You bought a 19in Trinitron in 1996-97? Must have cost a fortune back then.

p.s. I still have my 19in G420, which I bought in 2003. Still looking good, if comparatively low-res now.

That's what this is...GS420 Multiscan. GREAT monitor. I'm sad to see it go. IIRC, it was originally either $699 or $899. When "The Good Guys" got out of the computer biz in 98, I grabbed it for $399. At the time, it was a steal.

The upcoming flat screen will be the first non-Trinitron monitor I've ever bought, with the exception of a used Gateway that I got for free when I bought a tower from someone I worked with back about 1999.
I STILL have a Sony 15" Trinitron multimedia monitor that I bought in 96 or 97...has decent sounding built-in speakers...with a max resolution of 1280 x 1024.
It's going to my grandkids along with my wife's old Dell P4 rig. It'll be fine for them to do homework on and play some older games that I'm sending with it.

Lemme know what you buy. I been looking to replace the 23 inch CRT on my gaming system. Most games dont run at 2048x1536 anyway, except Baldurs Gate 2, and everything is too tiny.

It hasnt lasted long but I got it used. My CRT before that was a Philips 109b which was about as perfect a display as one could buy. Kinda sorry I tossed it. Still havent found an LCD with the same image quality.

Shorty, I'm looking pretty hard at the Samsung at newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...a-_-na&AID=10440897&PID=3332167&SID=u00000687

I know Black Friday is coming...but I'm not sure I can beat this deal.

 

[Zorander]

I would personally go with the Dell e-IPS screens (U2212 or U2312HM) if I were in your shoes. I've never seen them with my own eyes but reviews on them so far have been good and they are likely better-looking than your average TN panels.

 

[BoomerD]

I would personally go with the Dell e-IPS screens (U2212 or U2312HM) if I were in your shoes. I've never seen them with my own eyes but reviews on them so far have been good and they are likely better-looking than your average TN panels.

I'd love to buy an IPS monitor...but my budget won't allow that.

 

[repoman0]

You'd be surprised, I grabbed a Dell 2209WA off the forums a year and a half ago for $200. I had a pretty small budget too but wanted a solid panel in terms of color accuracy for photo work. It's 'only' 1680x1050 but I get more real estate by putting the taskbar to the left and auto-hiding - so much wasted space leaving it at the bottom with limited vertical resolution.

You could probably find this same model for $160 these days, especially if you're willing to expand your retailer list to forums.

edit: looks like this one is old and pretty hard to find now, but hopefully this still applies to newer Dell e-IPS monitors. They've brought the price down a lot recently.

 

[Zorander]

It seems the e-IPS screens are roughly $80 over OP's budget. If he's going to keep the screen for as long as he did with the Trinitron though, I honestly think he should stretch it.

 

[BoomerD]

You'd be surprised, I grabbed a Dell 2209WA off the forums a year and a half ago for $200. I had a pretty small budget too but wanted a solid panel in terms of color accuracy for photo work. It's 'only' 1680x1050 but I get more real estate by putting the taskbar to the left and auto-hiding - so much wasted space leaving it at the bottom with limited vertical resolution.

You could probably find this same model for $160 these days, especially if you're willing to expand your retailer list to forums.

edit: looks like this one is old and pretty hard to find now, but hopefully this still applies to newer Dell e-IPS monitors. They've brought the price down a lot recently.

Yeah, I've perused the "For Sale" threads. Nothing of any interest in my price range. Now if AdairUSMC suffered brain damage and wanted to part with his 30" Samsung for $200....

It seems the e-IPS screens are roughly $80 over OP's budget. If he's going to keep the screen for as long as he did with the Trinitron though, I honestly think he should stretch it.

Unfortunately, the budget is stretched farther than it should be for this. Hell, I keep perusing Craigslist for a decent used monitor...but so far, nothing worth a crap.

 

[exdeath]

That sucks. Though I went to flat panel long ago when they were "good enough" to replace CRTs, I still have my trusty Sony F500R 21" FD Trinitron laying around. I'm going to be sad the day it ever dies.

I'm about to pick up a Dreamcast VGA cable and throw the F500R next to the PVM-20M4U RGB monitor for my retro gaming room since it's one of the few consoles to support native 31khz RGBHV over 15khz RGBS Everything else is either 15khz RGB or new enough for component/HDMI on a modern screen.

 

[BoomerD]

Heh-heh...Someone on Craigslist is selling a 21" version of my CRT. Sony GS520...$30!

I'm actually considering that.

It WOULD be nice to drop the electrical consumption though...135-140 watts compared to <30 watts.

Unfortunately, the seller is on the other side of Fresno...about a 120 mile drive just to check it out.

 

[ViviTheMage]

We had to pay to get rid of all our CRT's ... didn't think anyone would actually purchase one.

Why not just snag a IPS panel LCD? old/new, whatever fits your budget?

 

[sandorski]

Another one bites the dust.

A year ago I retired my Mitsubishi 19" Diamondtron. It had developed issues Cold Starting, even from Power Saving mode it was a chore to get it to turn On. For a good 6 months I couldn't turn it Off or I would spend 10-20 minutes hitting the On/Off button until it fired up. The last couple years I also couldn't use Fine Picture Mode as it was way too dark to see anything, but without it, it still looked great otherwise.

So, with a similar $200ish budget I bought the TN Panel in my sig. I have been ok with this purchase and I like this monitor overall, but from the moment I fired it up I could see the short comings of it. It is far brighter than my Mitsu was at the end of its' life, but immediately(using a stylized background image of a Porsche) I could see a difference in both Colour and Geometry detail in the image compared to the Mitsu. Switching through the various display modes changed the Colours/Geometry as well, despite that the image still looked good and at least I didn't notice the very craptacular properties of earlier LCD monitors where any kind of angled viewing produced a weird Black Foil kind of effect, so bad you couldn't even tell what was being Displayed. On this monitor it's more of a Milky effect and even at extreme angles you can still see what is being displayed.

It didn't take long for me to get used to this Monitor. Colour Accuracy is good enough for my uses(mainly Surfing the Net and Gaming), there are no issues with Ghosting/Smearing, and Black levels seem to be as good as Cheap SM CRT's(that likely were never properly calibrated)that most people were perfectly fine with in the past. So overall I conclude that TN panels are not as bad as many make them out to be, but I always looked down on the poor SM Users and their poor Black levels and their bubble glassed Monitors.

For $200ish TN is your only real choice, barring a Sale. There are some IPS in that range these days, but they generally are not as good overall as a good TN panel. Good luck in your search.

 

[BoomerD]

We had to pay to get rid of all our CRT's ... didn't think anyone would actually purchase one.

Why not just snag a IPS panel LCD? old/new, whatever fits your budget?

Pay someone to take them? Hell, the local recycler pays me for them...I hauled in my dead Sony 27" television and the old Gateway monitor I mentioned above...and got $15...

 

[BoomerD]

Well, before the price at Newegg went away, I dropped the hammer on the SAMSUNG S24A350H for $199 with free 2 day shipping.

It's obviously not the best monitor around...but it's VERY good for the price.
HOPEFULLY, it'll be here before the weekend.

 

[thelastjuju]

We had to pay to get rid of all our CRT's ... didn't think anyone would actually purchase one.

Why not just snag a IPS panel LCD? old/new, whatever fits your budget?

They were probably those average ass CRT's though.. with the curvy screen that bubbled.

I had an old flat screened Sony 19" Trinitron that died on me years ago and I still miss the hell out of it. It was the best looking monitor I owned.

The nicer and higher end tube CRT's are some of the finest displays known to man. Anyone who had the opportunity to get a 34" Sony Trinitron with 1080p were the luckiest people on this planet.. because it was only produced for a very brief period of time. I've never seen a better display in my life. Absolutely jaw dropping picture. Weighs 250 pounds though.

LCD's mainly pushed out CRT's because they were cheaper to manufacture and ship, not because they are superior technology.

 

[BoomerD]

They were probably those average ass CRT's though.. with the curvy screen that bubbled.

I had an old flat screened Sony 19" Trinitron that died on me years ago and I still miss the hell out of it. It was the best looking monitor I owned.

The nicer and higher end tube CRT's are some of the finest displays known to man. Anyone who had the opportunity to get a 34" Sony Trinitron with 1080p were the luckiest people on this planet.. because it was only produced for a very brief period of time. I've never seen a better display in my life. Absolutely jaw dropping picture. Weighs 250 pounds though.

LCD's mainly pushed out CRT's because they were cheaper to manufacture and ship, not because they are superior technology.

Gawd, I agree with that. I HATE giving up my Trinitron CRT.

 

[wirednuts]

if you really liked your crt's picture quality, then u better get an lcd that is not a basic TN panel. it will likely annoy you to death with the shitty viewing angles.

stretch your budget and get an IPS or just something better then standard TN. i mean dont get me wrong, TN isnt horrible by any means, there is just a lot better solutions out there and if you plan on keeping the thing around for years and years, why not get a real screen.

btw, LED backlight will be a must too! however i think most screens are now.

 

[thelastjuju]

For me at least, the viewing angle has nothing to do with why I prefer CRT's over LCD's.

I'm no expert.. and can't quite put my finger on it.. but the picture just seems more vivid, razor sharp, and overall more accurate color levels. Its almost as if there is no real black on an LCD after you get used to the rich black levels of a CRT.. its more of a really, really, really dark gray.

CRT's also handle low resolution material better. They "blow up" lower resolution material and it does not have the blurriness or distortion that LCD's do. With an LCD, you basically have to feed it an exact resolution, or it gets pissed off. This makes playing classic PC games in low resolution far more tolerable.

Also, do not confuse the quality CRT's that were doing resolutions higher than "HD" before HD was even a thing with those old stained white/yellow, lower res, bubble tube CRT's..

 

[BoomerD]

IMO, the overall picture quality on a GOOD CRT is better than any LCD screen I've ever seen. Of course, if you compare a low-end CRT with a LCD, then the LCD may win...Back in the day, Trinitron monitors (and televisions) were considered to be the best available. I'm going to miss this one...but I'm NOT gonna haul it to the recycler until it dies completely.


Anyway...how damned good is Newegg? I placed the order today at 12:45, at 14:49, I get an email telling me the monitor has shipped along with the tracking number. (hopefully, nothing goes wrong along the way) <crosses fingers>

 

[wirednuts]

if youre going to say you can only compare to the best crt's that were available, then you have to compare them to the best lcd's out right now and thats going to be a competition.

 

[janas19]

Just curious, does the Triniton have the same resolution as an LCD? Worse? Better?

 

[BoomerD]

Just curious, does the Triniton have the same resolution as an LCD? Worse? Better?

My 19" Trinitron has a maximum resolution of 1600 x 1200 @ 75Hz.

The 21" Trinitron I mentioned above has a maximum resolution of 2048x1536 @ 80 Hz, and a recommended resolution of 1880 x 1440 @ 85 Hz

 

[Throckmorton]

I had a 19" Sony G420 or something that I got in 2003, and at 1600x1200 75hz it was fuzzy. I ran it at 1280x960. LCDs blow CRTs away for sharpness.