So, are CRT's still the king of gaming?

[Patrick Wolf]

Those thin CRT's won't be out for awhile it seems, and I need a new monitor immedately. So I could sell the new monitor I get, probably on ebay, and than get a new thin CRT.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: wolfman579
Those thin CRT's won't be out for awhile it seems, and I need a new monitor immedately. So I could sell the new monitor I get, probably on ebay, and than get a new thin CRT.

I agree. Sounds good to me.

 

[amol]

i guess if youre a HARDCORE gamer, CRT is the way to go . . .

but I :heart: my LCD

it even plays PS2 off of SVIDEO!

 

[slash196]

For me, it's all about price. Gaming CRTs are cheap, so that's where I go. Find me a 17" gaming LCD for 250 bucks, and I'll switch in a heartbeat.

 

[Avalon]

It's all about cost and personal preference.

For me, I chose a CRT for my latest monitor upgrade. I bought a Samsung syncmaster 19" 997DF for $200 shipped. Why?

Pros:
High resolutions (LCDs do this)
High refresh rates (LCDs don't need to do this)
Sexy (I think lots of LCDs look sexy too, so this is irrelevent)
$200 (I could only find cheap, analog 17" LCDs for this price)
18" viewable (To get 19" viewable LCD, I'd have to spend $400)
Excellent IQ (Can't imagine $200 LCDs looking this good)

Cons:
Heavy (Doesn't bother me though)
Consumes more power (Again, not too big a deal to me)
Takes up mucho desk space (" " "...)

As you can see, when you look at my pros and cons, you'll note that they ALL fall under personal preferences of mine, or under price constraints. You'll also note that my cons were not very important to me, while for others, they may be huge issues. My biggest concern was cost. It seems as price goes up, LCD quality goes up drastically. Unfortunately for me, LCDs in my price range weren't that great, hence my decision.

To directly answer your question...
if you're buying a $700 LCD, then CRTs are not the king of gaming. The LCD would be pretty much equal, with the only difference being personal preference (do I want that extra 1" viewable space, or the light weight and smaller size?). That's basically it. Find what makes you happy.

 

[alexandernevsky]

The biggest "Con" of the CRT (and i'm just about to get one myself) has to be not the weight or size - but rather the effect it has on your eyes in the longrun. Iv'e never suffered from headaches as some people do but many times after working for many hours I find myself slowly looking at the screen more and more from the side to get some relief - this happens without me even noticing. And I can definitely say that during periods of working heavily on projects (3d) I notice a slight increase in effort that it takes me to focus my vision on things even when not in front of a computer. I'm still young (27) and this effect fades a week later and I go back to perfect vision but I worry as to what this might cause a few more years down the line - as it seems I shall always be staring at a monitor for at least the normal 9 - 5.

Can't wait until there is a technology that gives perfect IQ without the eye strain.


The biggest "con" of getting an LCD at this point - in my mind - is the fact that they are still in development stage. They are still getting better and cheaper all the time - the first being the more important. Whereas CRT's as we know them (not the thin ones i guess) are at a very mature price - quality point right now.

 

[Insomniak]

For me, the big reason for the switch was eyestrain.

CRTs would make my eyes sore something aweful, and usually in under 30 minutes too. It was a living hell, given how much time I spend on the PC.

Now that I have my LCD, I can actually use the machine in comfort. My eyes don't feel like they're trying to drill out through the back of my skull any more.

 

[amol]

well i have a small room and a small desk

not only that, but i will be going to college soon

CRTs are REAL space hoggers in dorms . . .

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Maybe I should conside myself lucky. I can stare at a CRT all day without my eyes getting sore or hurt in any way. Than again I'm legally blind (I was born with bad vision) and have my face about 2-3 inches from the screen, if that makes a difference. Oh, and I'm 17 years old.

I have my face 5-7 inches away from the screen when gaming.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Originally posted by: Amol
well i have a small room and a small desk

not only that, but i will be going to college soon

CRTs are REAL space hoggers in dorms . . .

When those new thin CRT's come out, that shouldn't be much of a problem.

 

[alexandernevsky]

Originally posted by: wolfman579
I can stare at a CRT all day without my eyes getting sore or hurt in any way. and have my face about 2-3 inches from the screen, if that makes a difference. Oh, and I'm 17 years old.

I have my face 5-7 inches away from the screen when gaming.

Seeya in about 10 years buddy.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Originally posted by: alexandernevsky

Originally posted by: wolfman579
I can stare at a CRT all day without my eyes getting sore or hurt in any way. and have my face about 2-3 inches from the screen, if that makes a difference. Oh, and I'm 17 years old.

I have my face 5-7 inches away from the screen when gaming.

Seeya in about 10 years buddy.

What do you mean?

 

[amol]

Originally posted by: wolfman579

Originally posted by: Amol
well i have a small room and a small desk

not only that, but i will be going to college soon

CRTs are REAL space hoggers in dorms . . .

When those new thin CRT's come out, that shouldn't be much of a problem.

yeah, but i got the 2005FPw NOW, not in 2 years

plus i got it cheap . . . i think dell LOST money by selling it to me

 

[alexandernevsky]

I mean, 1. youre very young and I don't remember suffering eye strain from monitors at 17 either. Ten
years on I can definitely tell its harmful.
2. you definitely have your eyes way to near to the monitor and I just hope youre not causing
long term damage. I advise to go and read some medical papers on the subject ASAP and
maybe find a way to be further away from the screen. I know there are special tools for sight impaired (sure i spelled that wrong) folks to feel as though they have their face pressed up against the screen without actually doing so.

 

[Avalon]

My CRT is comfortable with a high refresh rate. I run my desktop at 1024x768 @ 100hz, and have no straining problems. I do take frequent breaks to get up and walk around, and typically keep my face two feet from the screen, unless I'm concentrating heavily on something being displayed on it. I'm not completely experience-less with LCDs, however. My friend has a 19" Dell, and all the LCDs in some of my campus' computer labs are 17" Dells. I actually got a headache using one of those 17" ones the first time around, but subsequent visits have been just fine. Like I said, I can't get anything decent LCD wise for $200, so my purchase worked for me. My next display purchase will surely be an LCD.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Originally posted by: alexandernevsky
I mean, 1. youre very young and I don't remember suffering eye strain from monitors at 17 either. Ten
years on I can definitely tell its harmful.
2. you definitely have your eyes way to near to the monitor and I just hope youre not causing
long term damage. I advise to go and read some medical papers on the subject ASAP and
maybe find a way to be further away from the screen. I know there are special tools for sight impaired (sure i spelled that wrong) folks to feel as though they have their face pressed up against the screen without actually doing so.

Well, within 10 years, LCD's will probably be perfected, and I'll have one, so I don't have to worry about my already poor vision.

Interesting read about eye damage.

Another One.

 

[MrMiyagi]

I just got my 200fpw and its the first LCD I've ever owned. Man its sweet, but anyone who says they don't see any ghosting/blurring on games is lying to themself. I was used to my Samsung 900nf (a 19" mitsu diamondtron screen) and it was better for games. The 2005fpw has much more wow however, and I'll be keeping it while the CRT collects dust .

 

[alexandernevsky]

Originally posted by: h2
I asked my eye doctor this, he's a very good one, does research, publishes, very smart guy, he said, yes, absolutey, crt monitors mess your eyes up. I wish I could do his explanation justice, basically the radiation/elecro whatever the monitor spits out dries out certain key components of your eyeballs, and this denies your eyeballs the nourishment they need. He did a test study with 500 people on this affect, and it was conclusive, he's about to start makinig glasses that protect against this radiation for hard core computer crt users. This is not an issue with LCD monitors.

Also, another study just came out, from Japan, positively linking II think it was glaucoma with heavy computer use. Unfortunately this study did not control for crt versus lcd so it only tells you so much, but anyone who works with this stuff all the time should be able to tell you about burning eyes etc, that's not natural or healthy, it's a bad sign, that's why I switched to lcd monitors.

By the way, you want to read opthamologist sites, not optomitrist sites. Optomitrists are the guys down in your local shopping mall. And I don't know how much of this is published yet, heavy computer use like we have today is really a very new thing. The affects are longterm, not overnight. But the japanese study showed a very clear corollation. Ignore this stuff at your eye's health. Or pretend you'll never lose your vision because you're too cool. I've seen it many times, serious eyesight degradation in programmers etc.

 

[housecat]

I can vouch for this. My eyes were getting really dry/strained after about 30minutes with my old CRT.
It wasnt my final deciding factor.. but easily, the #1 reason to use an LCD..


and I mean, practical reason.. not the gaming reasons I like it for. Like widescreen ect.


Your health has no cost. Even if it means slightly little worse Doom3 (oh f'n my).



To to OP, seriously man.. sit back further, or use a different screen. And please use an LCD.. I know you did that big comparison.. but you already have bad eyes..

just "let go" of having a perfect image in your games. The are JUST games.

I'm not bullshitting, do it man.. as a human being I think its too important to your health in particular.

Get a LCD, even if it takes a 30inch Apple Cinema to satisfy you, and sit back.

If you were my brother/son, I'd buy you a 2005fpw or apple cinema and make you use it.
Alas, this measly post is all I can do to help you, but you need to help yourself and forget about having the best image quality in your games dude.

 

[alexandernevsky]

Sitting 6 inches away from a 20 inch monitor. Talk about immersive gameplay.

I can see why he doesn't want a widescreen monitor. He'd have to swing right and left all the time to catch it all.

 

[housecat]

Originally posted by: alexandernevsky
Sitting 6 inches away from a 20 inch monitor. Talk about immersive gameplay.

I can see why he doesn't want a widescreen monitor. He'd have to swing right and left all the time to catch it all.

lol

 

[yhelothar]

Originally posted by: alexandernevsky

Originally posted by: h2
I asked my eye doctor this, he's a very good one, does research, publishes, very smart guy, he said, yes, absolutey, crt monitors mess your eyes up. I wish I could do his explanation justice, basically the radiation/elecro whatever the monitor spits out dries out certain key components of your eyeballs, and this denies your eyeballs the nourishment they need. He did a test study with 500 people on this affect, and it was conclusive, he's about to start makinig glasses that protect against this radiation for hard core computer crt users. This is not an issue with LCD monitors.

Also, another study just came out, from Japan, positively linking II think it was glaucoma with heavy computer use. Unfortunately this study did not control for crt versus lcd so it only tells you so much, but anyone who works with this stuff all the time should be able to tell you about burning eyes etc, that's not natural or healthy, it's a bad sign, that's why I switched to lcd monitors.

By the way, you want to read opthamologist sites, not optomitrist sites. Optomitrists are the guys down in your local shopping mall. And I don't know how much of this is published yet, heavy computer use like we have today is really a very new thing. The affects are longterm, not overnight. But the japanese study showed a very clear corollation. Ignore this stuff at your eye's health. Or pretend you'll never lose your vision because you're too cool. I've seen it many times, serious eyesight degradation in programmers etc.

That's the biggest load of BS I've ever heard. It's been proven time and time again that CDTs have perfectly safe radiation levels. Current CRTs with TCO'99 certification have over 1000 times lower radiation than the government CRT "radiation safety" regulation. Only CRTs with harmfum radiation are the pre 1990s one when regulations where loose. Only radiation you're getting from your CRT is visible light. :roll:

 

[otispunkmeyer]

yes they are, i have a TFT now, and iiyama prolite, and for sitting and reading/typing theres nothing easier on the eyes than a tft, but for gaming, and even movie's id prefer to have a CRT. but at uni, i havent got alot of room, and i havent got alot of transport space, so tft it was

 

[Regs]

The only problem with LCD's compared to CRT's is that there is no cheap gaming solutions with the LCD route. Not many people can get a 2005FPW for less than 600. The 19'in model LCD's with good displays range from 400-500 dollars, like the NuTech L921G or BenQ's. However, the 19'in CRTs cost half the price for the same if not better image quality in games. This makes up for its 1'in viewable display handicap easily. If you want to argue one inch on a LCD screen is worth twice as much the price of a CRT, then you are obviously not in the right state of mind.

You also have to take into account that LCD's don't scale in resolutions. This single fact alone makes you think that LCD's where never made for games.

You do not want to buy a cheap LCD for gaming. 400 dollars is the minimum you must invest in a LCD good enough for gaming. Which doesn't sound all that astronomical when there are video cards being bought with 500 and over price tags.

 

[TekDemon]

yet another 2005FPW owner =)

Paid $450 for it after buying a coupon from someone for like $40 (got a good deal on the coupon-$450 includes the coupon price in it).

Some slight backlighting leaks but no biggie...this thing is gorgeous.

What people forget is just how bad text really looks on most CRTs! Well, Aperture Grille ones anyway. As long as LCDs are running at native rez...you really can't beat their clarity since there's no focus issues, no convergence issues, nothing.

Running a clean DVI signal into my 2005FPW =)

And I agree on the widescreen! I first enjoyed widescreen on my compaq X1000 (actually at the same resolution as the 2005FPW, just smaller) and more and more games are supporting it!

World of Warcraft looks gorgeous on the 2005FPW...the freakin' game just fills up around you =)

So while CRT might still be "king" in raw refreshes...well, you'll never get me to go back. Ever. CRT is dead and there's a new king in town! And at 12ms it can refresh fast enough to equal about 80Hz, which is more than fine for me. If you're one of those people who are convinced that you can see the difference between 80FPS and 100FPS I guess you'll have to stick with CRT, but if you're not insane and can afford it, it's time to step up to 12ms LCD!

The king is dead, long live the king!