Widescreen Gaming Forum

LOL, we need to have an FW900 owner jump in here and write a poem about how CRT doesn't necessarily mean 4:3. There would be just as many points made about it's CRT superiority over LCD. For many, the FW900 is still the best of both world's with few and acceptable trade offs.

I'd say that my visceral hate is far more oriented towards LCD being pushed around by the industry as a computer monitor technology than ratios. Heck, there are 4:3 LCDs too and I hate them just the same.

We're talking about a display device that's being marketed for computing and doesn't allow you to perform one or maybe THE most vital, yet simple task a computer display should: run each application and game at its own, user-chosen, optimum resolution.

I mean, here we are, happily living with our CRTs while we wait for the next REAL computer display technology, when all of a sudden the world goes crazy, and what do those of us in need of buying a monitor get stuck with ? Some unrelated and inadequate technology devised in the 1960's specifically for pocket calculators.
:doh

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna gets myself some white sheets and mah double barreled shotgun cuz we gots some hell-cee-dee tee-ef-tee trash to hang. Folks of all races and creeds are welcome to join up as long as they ain't no hell-cee-dee lovers!

Also, Johnny, what never gets mentioned anymore is all the hype that led everyone to believe they would not only benefit from an LCD, but NEED one to avoid flicker eyestrain, headaches, and hell, even EPILEPSY! Oh my friggin God, I'll be blind AND having seizures if I don't switch soon. LOL

Meanwhile, big corporations like MS were likely making lots of backdoor deals with LCD panel manufactures, getting libraries to jump on the hype band wagon replacing all their CRTs for kickbacks just to feed the public more tangible proof that LCD was the way to go. If the library uses them they must be good right?

I'm sure there are many whom have profited over the switch, but not the consumer. Until they come out with displays that have the same lifespan, refresh rate, black levels and viewing angles of CRTs, all at the same affordable price range, no, it is in fact the consumer that is losing. But hey, you paid maybe $20 less in shipping and have a bit more space on your desk, so it's not ALL bad.

LCD technology is almost exclusively for the benefit of the manufacturer. Cheaper to build, lighter to ship across the world or country and flat [ish] which means easier to pack into containers on cargo ships.

What does the consumer get? Well a monitor that is smaller for a bigger price, 'scales' [ ie ruins ] applications/games, has a 'native' [ ie fixed ] resolution, and gives us that priceless behind monitor space. What would we have done without it?

I've seen people swap a good 17" monitor for shiny new 15" flat one, and that kind of logic seems to be the norm. Swapping old and better for new and worse.

There is an upside though, at least for the forseeable future. I use a th2go with 3 21" Trinitron monitors which I got second hand for £35 in total. Not each. I'm not afraid to knock against them in case I ruin the screen, don't have to worry about 'dead' pixels, and can play even the oldest games at the resolution they were intended for. Which is great, especially since crts allow me to use 3d shutterglasses in triplehead. Sometimes I use fresnel lenses to take out the bezels, although of course crts have 'built-in' bezel management since you can just move the image left/right.

If one dies, I buy another for a few pounds and if that goes another... It would be years before I got up to the price of an average 21/22 lcd. People are happy now if you take them away, let alone buy them.

The price of an lcd, along with all the worries about fragility, dead pixels, proper black and just the quality of the picture means I won't be getting one [ or 3 ] until they are affordable.

The only disadvantage to my crts is that they weigh about 60lbs each, which means I have the occasional nightmare of falling through the first floor one night :shock:

I'd say that my visceral hate is far more oriented towards LCD being pushed around by the industry as a computer monitor technology than ratios. Heck, there are 4:3 LCDs too and I hate them just the same.

Then you really should stop hating on the new fangled widescreen imo. Get the best of both worlds with the FW900. :D


I must say though I do enjoy the fact that with an LCD you do not have to worry about the picture warping along the edges or trying to move and fit the picture just right.

The sleakness of an LCD is nice aswell.


You know what the world needs? A company aiming to provide very high end CRT monitors in the 20-28", widescreen range.

If you could buy a new 24"(glass) widescreen CRT with up to 1920x1200 'native' resolution@120Hz new for within $100 of a quality LCD (so $400-600ish)... hot damn I think I just gave my self an erection.

I did buy a 24" widescreen LCD not long ago (2ms response time, big contrast and angles, bells and whistles galore), which I had promptly returned for a refund under threats of legal charges against the shop.

Cygnus, where did you get those 21" from ? I'm not in the UK but I'll see if they can send me one... with that kind of price range I'd happily shell some extra £££ for shipping, and it seems a good purchase alternative to me.

That FW900 thing looks beautiful, but well beyond my current intended budget I'm afraid. I'd definitely get one over any LCD crap of equivalent price, if aiming for that range of screen.

You know what the world needs? A company aiming to provide very high end CRT monitors in the 20-28", widescreen range.

Better yet an Ultra Slim DLP or PLED that size. After everyone's been spoiled by the slim, light panel displays, I doubt many are going to want to go back to CRT.

[quote]You know what the world needs? A company aiming to provide very high end CRT monitors in the 20-28", widescreen range.

Better yet an Ultra Slim DLP or PLED that size. After everyone's been spoiled by the slim, light panel displays, I doubt many are going to want to go back to CRT.

True enough, Wheres my FED/SED? :(

Will OLED/FED/SED monitors allow us to switch between different resolutions normally, without the horrible quality degradation of LCD ?

If they don't, might as well spare everyone the trouble and consider them obsolete and non-viable as PC monitors as of now, exactly the same as with LCD.

Hard to say how well any of those technologies will scale with such little info on them.