Tube TVs (CRT) and refresh rates

[chubbyfatazn]

Today one of my friends told me that tube TVs are bad for your eyes due to their low refresh rate. He told me that that would cause considerable strain on the eyes.

Is there any merit to this? I'm not very knowledgeable in this subject, and only know that a higher refresh rate decreases flickering. I have no idea if there's a difference between CRT and rear-projection TVs, if any. But we were talking about less-than 36" TVs if that matters. Noob question, but better now than never.

Thanks!

 

[SonicIce]

what did u watch growing up

 

[Knavish]

AFAIK all United States tube TV's that display non-HD content are interlaced. They draw 1/2 the lines on the screen in 1/60th of a second, and the other half in the next 1/60th of a second. The phosphor that emits the R,G,B colors on the screen has enough persistence to continue emitting light until it is redrawn, which happens every 1/30th of a second. I've never heard of anyone complaining of flicker on a tube TV.

Back in CRT computer monitor days, I could see obvious flicker when the non-interlaced refresh rate was set below 70 Hz. I have never seen a tube TV flicker. I believe that computer CRT phosphors had much lower persistence than television phosphors since the computer CRTs needed to support much faster, non-interlaced screen refreshes.

In summary, your friend is wrong. You're much more likely to induce eye strain in front of any CRT, LCD, etc. monitor by staring (forgetting to blink) and by using 3D glasses.

 

[0roo0roo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRidfW_l4vs
slow mo of crt refresh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwbRhfhWHLU

it can cause eye strain.
flat panel refresh is not comparable, 1hz would never change, it simply would not change the screen more than once a second, flat panels draw the entire display at once.

the backlight might have a separate refresh, like like modern ccfl it is way too high to be of concern, tens of thousands of hz..

rear projection is too general, they used to have crt based ones, any reasonably modern ones have not been for a long long time though.

 

[paul878]

From my personal experiences, CRT will hurt the eyes even when the refresh rate was set at 100hz. Of course the higher the refresh rate on CRT the more blurry the text.
Once you have used a LCD, there is no going back to CRT.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

From my personal experiences, CRT will hurt the eyes even when the refresh rate was set at 100hz. Of course the higher the refresh rate on CRT the more blurry the text.
Once you have used a LCD, there is no going back to CRT.

For text work, LCD wins hands down.

Weight? LCD

Twitch gaming? Nothing truly compares in the department of input lag, CRT win.

Black levels? CRT

I have a great CRT (Sony FW900), an IPS 16:10 LCD, and a TN 16:9 LCD. Gaming and movies on the CRT, productivity on the LCDs. I "went back" to the CRT for gaming.