So who's selling high end CRTs these days?

[v8envy]

So this weekend my monitor started to show signs of age. Picture width changing and some other weirdness. I'm thinking my beloved Nokia is not long for this world -- it was made right around the time fake electrolytic formula capacitors were the rage.

I'm hoping one (or more) of you have gone CRT shopping in the relatively recent past and can point me to a reliable source of CRTs. Denver area would be a bonus since I know how much those babies cost to ship. I know it won't be new, but if you have personal experience with a refurb retailer I'd love to know about it.

 

[JACKDRUID]

not to put you down but your best bet is probably local donation centers...

 

[v8envy]

Hmmm. Interesting thought, but wouldn't those monitors be as old and likely to blow up as mine? I'm hoping for refurbs or unsold stock so I can get a few years out of it, hopefully enough time for LCD tech to improve further.

It's still too cold to go garage saling, so a retailer is my only hope.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

If you love your eyes you'll forget the words Cathode Ray Tube and get an LCD.

After the last 10 years of working on PC's I wish I'da made the change sooner as my eyesight has already begun to decline noticeably.

Course you can continue to stare at a strobe light if you wish, it is after all your eyesight and you can do what you want with it.

 

[gstaat]

Just bite the bullet and go for a LCD. They're great and the cost has really come down on them in the last year or so. They are easier on the eye's, take less power to run, and don't take up as much space on the desktop as those big old crt's do. I just bought my 4th lcd a couple weeks back and it is sweet!! They keep getting better every year. I bought this LG from Best Buy and it's currently on sale for $50 less than what I paid for it, although I went back and got a price adjustment for the one I bought. LG Lcd

Depending on how big you want to go, they also have a 19" for $200. But, hey, there are all sorts of great lcd's out there to fit just about any budget. Get one, you won't regret it.

GS

 

[CP5670]

Originally posted by: v8envy
Hmmm. Interesting thought, but wouldn't those monitors be as old and likely to blow up as mine? I'm hoping for refurbs or unsold stock so I can get a few years out of it, hopefully enough time for LCD tech to improve further.

It's still too cold to go garage saling, so a retailer is my only hope.

Try ebay or craigslist. You may happen to find someone near you. You definitely want to find a local seller, not just to save on shipping but to reduce the (considerable) chances of getting a defective one.

At this point, what you're really waiting for is OLED displays. LCDs aren't really going to improve any further. However, getting a CRT without a local pickup is a huge hassle and not something I would recommend.

After the last 10 years of working on PC's I wish I'da made the change sooner as my eyesight has already begun to decline noticeably.

Course you can continue to stare at a strobe light if you wish, it is after all your eyesight and you can do what you want with it.

You were running at too low a refresh rate. In any case, although low refresh rates are uncomfortable to look at, I doubt that had anything to do with long-term problems in your eyesight.

 

[Earfoam]

http://www.overstock.com/Elect...ct.html?cid=80208&fp=F

There are probably other places out there. I have a few TFT's and Mitsubishi 2070 SB 22" CRT and without a question, the CRT destroys the LCD's when it comes to gaming for me. Motion blur is imperceptible on the CRT. However, TFT for everything else....much easier on the eyes.

 

[v8envy]

20/20 eyesight here, even in my old age. I don't consider my higher end Trinitron monitor a strobe light -- at 1600x1200 120 hz refresh I can't sense any flickering even out of the corner of my eyes, and I'm very sensitive to flicker. I've been lucky to have higher end workstation monitors at work (HP, Sun and IBM) and ~$1000 consumer monitors at home (15, 17, 19 and 21" trinitrons with decent electronics), so thankfully my eyeballs were spared the cheap CRT torture so many were subjected to.

Cost is not the primary issue. Yes, I know 22-24" TN LCDs are dirt cheap. While I'd love to spend half as much as I'm used to on a monitor (24" for $400-600? Yes please!) I just don't like LCDs yet...

I've been using LCDs on my notebooks since 1998. Because of small-ish screens (under 17") and bright office environments I can tolerate using them. I have far higher expectations of my desktop. Got an at the time recommended Viewsonic 22" model for my parents last year and I can't see myself using it. Backlight bleeding and uneven backlight, dark greys and dark browns which look like utter poo, color that changes if I slouch a bit. It's worlds better than any laptop screen but still a billion miles from a high end CRT.

I'm not a video snob by any stretch, but LCDs have a large bucket of issues. Possibility of dead/live pixels, backlight bleeding, input lag, 60hz refresh limitation and so on and so forth. While they are unbelievably cheap for the screen real estate they're not to the point where I'd want one yet.

OLEDs sound great, and there were some indications they'd be out for consumers by the 2010 timeframe. So all I need is 3 more years of current tech...

Craigslist sounds like a wonderful idea. I'll post a WTB right now.

 

[gstaat]

One other place you may want to look at is the local mom and pop computer shops. I've noticed at the ones around here that they usually have some CRT's on their shelves, most likely used ones, but some may still be new. Also, I just looked at Newegg's site and they still have 4 CRT's listed there with the most expensive one being $300 plus another $50 for shipping.

GS

 

[CP5670]

Pretty much all of the new CRTs still being sold at retail are crappy, low end models with a wide range of defects. The best option is to get a lightly used one being sold locally, so that you can check out in person before buying. Brand new units are no less prone to problems due to bad quality control, including even the old top end models (although you can't get those new now anyway).

Originally posted by: Earfoam
http://www.overstock.com/Elect...ct.html?cid=80208&fp=F

There are probably other places out there. I have a few TFT's and Mitsubishi 2070 SB 22" CRT and without a question, the CRT destroys the LCD's when it comes to gaming for me. Motion blur is imperceptible on the CRT. However, TFT for everything else....much easier on the eyes.

That particlar one (the AS120) is not very good, especially at that price. I have one of those on an old system and it doesn't really compare to the better CRTs. I think it's only marked up because it is still new.

 

[v8envy]

Unfortunately it's the same NEC shadow mask CRT that tops out at 1600x1200x76hz. Very inexpensive lower end/consumer grade monitor.

There are still a few trinitrons capable of at least 100hz at 1600x1200 available refurbished on the web, was just wondering if anyone had any personal experience with any of those etailers.

 

[CP5670]

I think AccurateIT is supposed to be decent. Some people here have bought from them in the past and they have some good deals like this one.

As I mentioned earlier though, you always take some risk when buying CRTs online without a local pickup. Make sure you read their warranty terms if you're planning to buy from there, especially how they handle the shipping costs if something goes wrong.

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: Dazed and Confused
If you love your eyes you'll forget the words Cathode Ray Tube and get an LCD.

After the last 10 years of working on PC's I wish I'da made the change sooner as my eyesight has already begun to decline noticeably.

Course you can continue to stare at a strobe light if you wish, it is after all your eyesight and you can do what you want with it.

Originally posted by: gstaat
Just bite the bullet and go for a LCD. They're great and the cost has really come down on them in the last year or so. They are easier on the eye's, take less power to run, and don't take up as much space on the desktop as those big old crt's do. I just bought my 4th lcd a couple weeks back and it is sweet!! They keep getting better every year. I bought this LG from Best Buy and it's currently on sale for $50 less than what I paid for it, although I went back and got a price adjustment for the one I bought. LG Lcd

Depending on how big you want to go, they also have a 19" for $200. But, hey, there are all sorts of great lcd's out there to fit just about any budget. Get one, you won't regret it.

GS

I feel exactly the opposite. Staring at my 17" Viewsonic LCD at work gives me a headache after any period of time (plus the text starts getting blurry if I stare at it for any period of time), but my 19" Mag CRT at home is much softer on the eyes and easier to read. I agree that the cheap CRT's were bad for your eyes, but the ones that push high refresh rates seem much better than the LCD's, because most LCD's are very bright to make up for poor color contrast.

 

[themisfit610]

I agree that the cheap CRT's were bad for your eyes, but the ones that push high refresh rates seem much better than the LCD's, because most LCD's are very bright to make up for poor color contrast.

QFT.

A good CRT is an amazing thing. Have we all forgotten resolution flexibility??? I miss that so much. Also refresh rate flexibility. It makes a surprising bit of difference to sync your display's refresh rate with the frame rate of the video you're watching. Not 1:1, as 24Hz would be insanely bad on the eyes, but 96Hz is a good number. 120Hz for true video sources.

There's so many advantages to LCDs these days, but you still sacrifice resolution and refresh rate flexibility and top end image quality. Professional CRTs are still unmatched in color gamut, last I checked.

But, who wants a massive 100lb 24" CRT on their desk sucking up power when you can have a 30" LCD?

*Shakes head* I do wish some companies still made professional color correction CRTs...

~MiSfit