LCD Widescreen or CRT

[JPB]

Ok, im in the market for a monitor, but cannot choose between a 19 in Widescreen and a CRT of the same size. I know widescreen has better ( FOV ) I think. But not sure. Willing to spend around $250-$300 but absolutely no more than the latter. I have a long list of games I own, but does any of them run in widescreen ? Here are the games I play...

Chronicles Of Riddick
Call Of Duty 2
Doom 3 + exp
Half Life 2
Prey
Age Of Empires III
Unreal 2004
Far Cry
Quake 4
Brothers In Arms Earned In Blood
Rainbow Six Lockdown
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
Area 51
Rome Total War
Need For Speed Underground
Need For Speed Underground 2
Need For Speed Most Wanted

Now I have alot more games than that. But these are the ones I play mostly. I know some downfalls of LCD's like ghosting, dead pixel's etc: but which has better color etc: Really don't want anything bigger than a 19" monitor. But I want a resolution higher than 1280-1024. Can you guy's recommend anything ?

Please ONLY vote on your personnal experience.


John

 

[BernardP]

I currently have a Viewsonic PF775 17-inch Perfect Flat CRT and it is great. But I am looking forward to the day where I will replace it with a widescreen LCD.

The 19-inch CRT has a true size of 18 inches. Its total viewing area is 155 square inches. A 19-inch widescreen LCD is 162 square inches. You can compare various screen sizes at:

http://www.tvcalculator.com/

For the upper range of your budget, you can find a good 20-inch widescreen which is a better value than 19-inche models, has a higher 1680x1050 resolution and 180 square inches viewing area.

Personnally, I would never spend money on a new CRT in 2006. Regardless of their qualities, CRT's are a dying breed. The market is clearly moving towards widescreen and, with a good quality LCD, ghosting and dead pixels can be very minor issues at worst.

 

[brikis98]

Maybe I'm old fashioned, by I would take a quality CRT over an LCD for gaming any day. For anything other than gaming (and possibly movie viewing) I'd go with an LCD, but when gaming adds lots of requirements that many LCD's can have trouble handling.

LCD's can't switch resolutions well (they look like crap when not in their native resolution), so if your video card or the game you're playing can't handle the wide screen resolution, you're out of luck. For the price, I'd also wager that a CRT can offer a better combination of contrast, ghosting (none), viewing angle (any) and possibly color (but not always).

Of course, the disadvantage of CRT's is that they are HUGE (you better have a big desk), eat up more power, and radiate more (possibly worse for your eyes?). You'll pay more for shipping, although CRT's are much cheaper in general today.

For $250-$300 you can probably find a decent 21" CRT which can rival a 19" LCD in resolution and screen space and offer all the benefits above.

 

[hennethannun]

CRTs still produce the highest possible image quality in terms of response time, contrast levels, etc etc, and they support multiple resolutions much more easily than LCDs,

But, it is awfully hard to go out and justify buying a new CRT these days.

high quality LCDs now have response times fast enough for all but the MOST sensitive gamers, and colour reproduction capabilities that are more than sufficient for modern gaming.
Native resolution can still be a bit of a problem, but good LCD displays allow 1:1 scaling which definitely helps in this department, and interpolating non-native signals is far more effective for gaming than it is for textual material.

LCDs are definitely the technology of the future (if only because they are so much more convenient), and I don?t think there is any reason to buy a new CRT right now.

For around $300, you can get a very nice 20? widescreen display (native 1680*1050) that should be excellent for gaming, video playback and general desktop use.

 

[videopho]

Originally posted by: hennethannun

But, it is awfully hard to go out and justify buying a new CRT these days.

No kidding there and good luck finding a good one.

 

[JPB]

Ok, thanks for the input guy's. I think I may go with the LCD then. Can anyone recommend a good one ? Since I don't know much about monitor's. Im more a internal hardware man myself 8)....oh, and the games I listed does those run in widescreen ? Or will there be some editing of files or something required ? As of now, In the menu's inside those games, I see no option for widescreen..unless it is enabled when monitor is detected.


John

 

[videopho]

Don't personally own one myself but it is on sale and gets good review
Samsung 205BW

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: videopho

Originally posted by: hennethannun

But, it is awfully hard to go out and justify buying a new CRT these days.

No kidding there and good luck finding a good one.

actually, lots of people are giving away or selling their CRT's here and on craigslist. at those prices, it's a steal for a high quality screen.

of course, the perfect solution is a dual display setup with both a big ass CRT (for games & movies) and an LCD (for normal apps, picture editing, etc).

 

[shabby]

FW900 ftw!
Lcd's and gaming doesnt mix.

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: shabby
FW900 ftw!
Lcd's and gaming doesnt mix.

I don't have any ghosting on my FPW2405. Everyone is amazed at how sharp it looks when things are moving at high speed.

 

[ojingoh]

big ups to the mighty fw900:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Sony-24-Trinitron-H...0QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

for the money, it's the best gaming widescreen monitor. i run mine at 1920x1200x85. it's a little finicky, you have to make sure it's warmed up for the truest color, but besides that you cant go wrong. keep in mind that in order to reduce flicker you have to run the resolution over 75hz, but you can vary your screen resolution to compensate. this is good for newer games and older video cards. this monitor has seen 3 video cards.

tbh text is not as tight or sharp on it as my laptop with an lcd but for movies/photos/games i haven't seen any lcd under $800 that touches it.

 

[JRW]

Originally posted by: ojingoh
big ups to the mighty fw900:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Sony-24-Trinitron-H...0QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

for the money, it's the best gaming widescreen monitor. i run mine at 1920x1200x85. it's a little finicky, you have to make sure it's warmed up for the truest color, but besides that you cant go wrong. keep in mind that in order to reduce flicker you have to run the resolution over 75hz, but you can vary your screen resolution to compensate. this is good for newer games and older video cards. this monitor has seen 3 video cards.

tbh text is not as tight or sharp on it as my laptop with an lcd but for movies/photos/games i haven't seen any lcd under $800 that touches it.

Agreed, My FW900 CRT is 4.5 years old and still has an awesome picture , watching HD material on it is a real treat and of course gaming is as good as it gets.

 

[iamfalcon]

I used to say the same thing, until I got myself a 19" widescreen LCD. I play tons of FPS titles, and they all look absolutely amazing on my display. This coming from a guy who had never used anything other than a CRT prior to this. To each his own, but I think you can't justify not getting an LCD these days, even for gaming

 

[shabby]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42

Originally posted by: shabby
FW900 ftw!
Lcd's and gaming doesnt mix.

I don't have any ghosting on my FPW2405. Everyone is amazed at how sharp it looks when things are moving at high speed.

No ghosting during gaming? You sure?

Heres a review of the 2405...

But for Unreal or other FPS it is another story. If the character is static, we can only admire the contrast, color quality, precision of the shapes (at least with the standard resolution). If you move your mouse, it ruins everything.

Before i found my fw900 i've look at plenty of lcd's since my older crt was kicking the bucket, but i just couldnt justify spending so much money for an lcd that ghosts during gaming. Every one of them has ghosting problems, might not be evident in some slow paced games, but in fast paced ones its terrible, that and lag.

 

[tuteja1986]

Get a Chimie 22" LCD :! they should sell arround for $320USD and they are freaken awesome for its price :!

 

[aldamon]

Originally posted by: shabbyNo ghosting during gaming? You sure?

After spending money, people see what they want to see. I love my $95 Dell P1130.

 

[JPB]

I like the one in the auction that was posted. But they don't ship, and I cant drive to Michigan. Hmmm...anywhere else have that monitor ? Or a comparable LCD ?

 

[shabby]

Theres plenty more on ebay, just do a search for fw900.

Originally posted by: aldamon
After spending money, people see what they want to see. I love my $95 Dell P1130.

Heh true.

 

[JPB]

Yea, I found some more on there. But they want $323.00 for shipping. I used the Postal Rate Calculator. Talk about over charging. And the ones that is less in shipping, is $300.00 and over for the monitor.

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: shabby

Originally posted by: Chaotic42

Originally posted by: shabby
FW900 ftw!
Lcd's and gaming doesnt mix.

I don't have any ghosting on my FPW2405. Everyone is amazed at how sharp it looks when things are moving at high speed.

No ghosting during gaming? You sure?

Heres a review of the 2405...

But for Unreal or other FPS it is another story. If the character is static, we can only admire the contrast, color quality, precision of the shapes (at least with the standard resolution). If you move your mouse, it ruins everything.

Before i found my fw900 i've look at plenty of lcd's since my older crt was kicking the bucket, but i just couldnt justify spending so much money for an lcd that ghosts during gaming. Every one of them has ghosting problems, might not be evident in some slow paced games, but in fast paced ones its terrible, that and lag.

All I can say is that I play Battlefield 2, World of Warcraft, City of Heroes, Far Cry, and plenty of other games and I don't see any ghosting, and I used to be a CRT fanatic for that same reason. My roomate asked what kind of psychotropic drug these guys were on when I read that quote to him.

My 2405 is really new, maybe there's been some improvement? I don't know.

 

[kmmatney]

I'm happy with the 20" LCD in my sig. I also own a BenQ 20" widescreen, and a ViewSonic 19" widescreen. The 20" Viewsonic that I primarily use is a 4:3 display, so you don't get as wide of a FOV as with the widescreen, but you also don't feel like your peering into the game through a slit. The screen is larger overall (compared to my 20" BenQ), and I find games more immersive. And best of all, its $199 after rebate at NewEgg. Not the greatest LCD, but amazing for the price. The resolution is 4:3 - 1400 x 1050.

I do like widescreen, but I also like the screen to be tall enough to fill up my FOV. I think a 24" widescreen would be perfect, but those are still costly.

From my personal experience, I wouldn't recommend a 19" widescreen for heavy gaming. Its not bad, but a 20" screen (widescreen or not) is better.

 

[TheRyuu]

20.1 LCD is the sweet spot.

In that sweet spot is the Viewsonic VX2025wm. On newegg (last I looked) it was $329 with free 3day shipping.

Very nice monitor. Widescreen is much better then 4:3

 

[JPB]

Ok, you made me decide that widescreen is better. But more importantly, will my games run in widescreen ? And if not, how do I make them ?

 

[nitromullet]

More info that anyone else can give you on that topic:

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

 

[JPB]

WOW...nitro...thanks for that link...that means all those games run in widescreen ? IF so...ill be sure to go widescreen lcd....

Edit : I see now how the charting works....Ill still go with the LCD. Those hacks and whatnot seem pretty simple...thanks everyone