Shadow Mask Vs. Aperture Grill

[hrm2701]

Hi all,
About to spend $500 to $700 dollars on a new 21 or 22 inch crt monitor and want some opinions on the subject of shadow mask Vs. aperture grill.

Thanks
Bob

 

[Viper96720]

What are you going to be using the monitor for? Someone may offer an opinion based on the use.
Here's the monitor I would go for it's an aperture grille.
Lacie electron22blue IV

 

[sugarkang]

definitely aperture grill.
the minus is that you've got two lines horizontal, but overall better pitch and contrast.

 

[PlasticJesus]

the minus is that you've got two lines horizontal, but overall better pitch and contrast.

The plus is that you very quickly stop seeing those two lines horizontal. Never see mine until someone mentions them.

 

[TourGuide]

It's a trade off. Shadow mask provides longer life, but aperture grill provides better pitch and contrast. I've always prefered aperture grill myself and have had AG monitors for all our home PCs for years. Then I switched to LCD.

 

[PliotronX]

Originally posted by: PlasticJesus

the minus is that you've got two lines horizontal, but overall better pitch and contrast.

The plus is that you very quickly stop seeing those two lines horizontal. Never see mine until someone mentions them.

Same here, those things look like they aren't even half a pixel tall. I can understand that it drives some folks up the wall though. After using AG monitors I could never go back to SM.

 

[EXman]

I love my Trinitron! AG all the way!

what 2 lines

 

[sandorski]

I love AG! Most people that see my Mitsubishi Diamdtron are taken aback by its' clarity, colour saturation, and overall awesome picture.

 

[yhelothar]

AG has better contrast and more vibrant colors. Shadowmask is supposed to deliver sharper text and truer colors, which is usually preferred for graphics design.
i'd go with AG anyday though... love its vibrant colors!

 

[VIAN]

The main advantage to the AG over the SM is that AG allows more light to pass through to produce a brighter picture. It is used for multimedia because of this. I recommend that you definitely get an AG Flat Screen. Cleaner picture and brighter. The Trinitron brand uses a tinted glass that allows for better contrast and special high quality guns for better picture. I don't know if other brands do this though.

 

[clicknext]

I see everyone here saying that AG has better contrast and brighter picture, but I can't see it when I compare my SM SyncMaster 955DF to my dad's Trinitron. Perhaps my eyes are oversensitive or something, but during normal use, my SM monitor is too bright at full contrast especially looking at a white background.

 

[Blastman]

Well I?m going to have to agree with Clicknext.

When I bought my Viewsonic 17? SM it was sitting on the shelf next to a Sony AG. I thought the SM looked better all around and had better color saturation. There could be other factors like the graphic card and monitor adjustment here, but I also did a lot of comparing at several other places that sold the Viewsonic SM and came to the same conclusion.

I?ve read that newer SM technology in recent years has perhaps closed the gap to AG?s in the brightness areas. And this seems to be old news ?

...
Note: Due to advances in shadow mask CRT design, some shadow mask CRTs rival aperture grille CRTs in brightness.
... (1998)
According to the company, (Viewsonic) SuperClear combines ?an enhanced phosphor treatment and optimized glass? to deliver images that are up to 30 percent brighter and with an improvement of up to 10 percent in color fidelity compared with images on conventional CRT monitors. Princeton Graphics Systems of Santa Ana, Calif., has antireflection technology that combines filtering and CRT surface coating techniques, minimizing reflective light while maintaining image brightness and color accuracy.

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: PlasticJesus

the minus is that you've got two lines horizontal, but overall better pitch and contrast.

The plus is that you very quickly stop seeing those two lines horizontal. Never see mine until someone mentions them.

Ditto that. I've got a Compaq P1220 (Diamondtron tube) and love it.

 

[VIAN]

There are a lot of tricks that attempt to fix the lack of brightness in SM types. It may have even come to a point where it exceeds the AG, but that is not certain.

One thing is certain: always get flat screen.

There are manufacturing defects, you could call it, to both. The AG has the two thing wires across the screen. The SM has this annoying thing where you can sort of see the holes zig-zag up on the screen. The more annoying is the SM IMO. You'll just have to check it out. The SM since the mask covers most of the screen and therefore gets most of the light from the Cathode Ray, it becomes hot and sometimes causes the picture to warp.

Anther difference was that the SM is supposed to have more color accuracy or cleaner picture or dot pitch because of the accuracy of the SM.


Bottom Line: Take a look for yourself.

Good Info
In Depth

 

[BFG10K]

In my experience AG monitors are brighter, have better colours and have sharper text than SM monitors do.

 

[blodhi74]

aperture grill all the way

 

[dejacky]

If you want the 19in crt, try the Cornerstone p1460. amazing. If you want lcd, the new dell 2001fp 20in looks promising. The only reason I want the lcd is to save desk space and it makes it easier to carry to places.

-dejacky

 

[Doh!]

AG. At home, I use SM 'cause my wife can't stand using SM & took my Samsung 909NF which uses Diamontron NF.