Silent Loon wrote:

I use the Samsung 203B for over one year now, and I'm still very content with it. So far there was not a single game that I had problems with - from Star Control to Stalker everthing runs fine.

Yah, that's basically because it's a 4:3 resolution. I did some research and short of the expensive 1600x1200 screens, you pretty much bought the perfect monitor. 1400x1050 is 4:3, as rare as it is. The more common 1280x1204 LCD rez is not, so non-native resolutions would be a wrong aspect. The classic 1024x768 is common in older LCD's, but unfortunately their response time would be slow that they aren't worth seeking out.

My decision now is a refurb 203b or getting another CRT off eBay. Heck, maybe I'll do both, because that opportunity will dwindle as time goes on.

I use BENQ FP767, not because its good, not because it works with DOS, but because it was the cheapest non-wide TFT with a standard VGA connector I could find on Ebay. And its not even that bad either. Colors are pretty good and DOS performance is satisfactory (though nothing like my good old CTX Multiscan 14"). I think that only on 14" you can really enjoy playing older games, where pixels arent that big at 320x240 😀

I use a samsung syncmaster 2032MW for my retro needs. Im a student and really strapped for space. I currently have my main pc hooked up through dvi. My xbox360 through component (old model without hdmi), my msx2 through RGB scart, and my "retro" pc through the VGA port. My oldschool stuff is not streched to widescreen but retains the 4:3 aspect ratio which means black bars on the sides. I retain the image size of a 4:5 17" model. Too bad the PIP function only works with the tuner. My other pc (emulation box) is hooked up to my 32" panasonic quintrix CRT Tv through a vga -> RGB scart cable. Soft15khz provides me with the right output for acceptable play of dosgames through dosbox (most EGA/VGA modes are directly supported), as well as pixel perfect output for nes, snes, arcade, megadrive, etc.

i have small HP pavillion crt that works great at 1024x768 but, it's an xp machine but starcraft and fallout look good on it shame i don't really use it as a retro rig. it's pretty flat some crummy crts distort the picture becasue of the gosh dang huge dome shape.

valnar wrote:

My decision now is a refurb 203b or getting another CRT off eBay. Heck, maybe I'll do both, because that opportunity will dwindle as time goes on.

Yep, I decided to get both. I just won a Hitachi SuperScan Elite CM753 monitor off eBay, which I regard as the best CRT ever made. It'll replace my bad CM751 that died (almost the same). I also bought a used Samsung 203B LCD for a backup while I had the chance, since those are also discontinued.

I've got some 4:3 goodness to last me awhile now... 😎

@ valnar:
Seems like you went for the 2209WA instead ? 😁

Which I for some reason also happened to order a few days ago, and just now noticing your 'mini-review'....
(this thing called 'internet' is smaller than I thought, heh...)

This would be my very first LCD (ever!), so I'm pretty clueless to any of this technology etc. Been reading about calibration and whatnot, sounds like a lot of work - and me not having any such expensive hardware.
But hopefully one can get a good picture regardless, 'manually' ?

How bad is that buzzing btw, still as annoying, or....?
Hmm, brightness issues... not good.

Anyway, still not arrived, so I have no idea how mine will be like.

For an LCD, the 2209WA is about the best you can get. I still have that Samsung 203B and Hitachi CM753 CRT, but I can't put them all on my desk. It would be nice to keep using the CRT, but alas, I'll just store it in the basement as a "spare".

The Dell is very good for an LCD. It has a 4:3 mode which vertically sets any resolution while putting the appropriate black bars on the side. So I can run my secondary retro PC at 1024x768 if I choose, and the AR is correct. Now of course, it will be a bit interpreted since the pixels aren't perfect, but it does a decent job. The second nice feature since I assume you read the [H] review is the VGA and DVI inputs can keep different settings. So VGA for retro (4:3) and DVI for my XP Box (16:9). Just a press of the button to change inputs. I can't tell you how relieved I was that I didn't have to go into the menu each time for that change. 😮

It's still no CRT, but it's pretty good. For a dark room, I recommend brightness of about 3 and contrast at 63-66. For a brighter room, you can go up to the recommended contrast of 74.

It does have a slight buzz, in a quiet room, with nothing else on. Any fans in your PC will most likely mask it. I'd say it was the most annoying "feature" so far, but unfortunately, its still the best LCD out there. I have no bad pixels or color uniformity issues I can detect. It's certainly noticeably better than a TN panel. And IMO, the bigger you get, the more important it is that you get an IPS panel.

The biggest advantage of this IPS panel compared to a run of the mill TN panel is scrolling. It has CRT response in scrolling web pages. That's probably the #1 thing I hate about most LCD's. There is no ghosting or lag while you run your mouse up & down on a web page to scroll it. Like I said in my other review, it's the most "CRT like" display out there short of a plasma TV or tiny OLED device, but no, it's not quite as good.

I don't even bother using LCD screens for my old retro systems.... They don't lookk right with an old base unit and the lower resolutions are plain ugly compared to a nice retro 15" crt 😀

On my Pentium 75mhz system i am using a 15" NEC VR15 CRT.

On my PIII system i am using a 17" HP 7550 CRT.

Both of these monitors provide excellent colour and picture clarity with all the low/high resolutions i have tried in Dos and Windows 😎

It's me 9-yr old Samsung Syncmaster 950P 19" CRT!!! Still rockin' the oldies, eh.

I progressed thru Tandy CM-11(14"?) ->14 (VGA) ->17 ->19" CRTs.

The transporter just sms'ed me that it's going in the delivery van.... 😲

So it'll be here today, probably...

One of the reasons I bought this one, was to let my main CRT 'rest' for a while, so I can store it safely and have it still working in say... 10-20 years time?

I DO have other crt's(older Dells, funnily enough), which I can 'spend' while that one is in storage, as that particular one is 'new-ish'.
It's a 21'' Viewsonic, which I bought brand new 2 years ago - costing me 60% more than this LCD... ack 😵
And as it happens it was the last available(as in 'the last one'!) new 21'' crt monitor for sale in my country.
(at least I couldn't see any new ones for sale anywhere after I bought it)

edit: Schenker just rang my door - monitor is here! 😁

bestemor wrote:

edit: Schenker just rang my door - monitor is here! 😁

Keep us posted! I'm eager to hear the next chapter in this story, alongside the delivery status of Amigaz's Gameblaster!! 😁

Well, as I'm probably expanding this topic to more than intended, I'll try to be 'brief'.

But for those interested, here are my first and totally unstructured impressions, as in whatever popped into my head:
(mind you, I was an LCD virgin(!) until today, so I may have some odd comments)

- when they say the pic gets reflected in the deep bezel, they weren't kidding... annoyed me at first.
My equally deep crt at least doesn't have such a shiny frame.

- it doesn't feel much bigger than my crt, though it is 7cm wider...

- the DVI cable doesn't seem to work with my Nvidia FX5200, keeps nagging about VGA cable missing, all the while my DVI cable is plugged in(at both ends!)
Works fine on my XP machine though, ATI X800GTO.

- on the win98 box, it complained(black screen) about my 100hz refresh, as would be expected.
But 2 minutes later I'd already totally forgotten (beeing used to plug'n'play, CRT style) when connecting my XP one. And amidst testing the picture, I suddenly discovered it was running on 75hz.... weird, I thought, as the correct refresh should be 100hz... THEN it dawned on me, heh 😜
(and, why some people have problems getting 75hz, would then seem a mystery to me)

- only game tried so far was SystemShock2, and didn't notice anything in particular, other than it was darker than on my CRT for some reason.
(the in-game gamma is cranked up)

- the lack of 1:1 pixcel setting, hmm... would be nice to test, but then again, the only resolutions I see myself using would be the 1280x1074 and 1280x960. Any lower and I imagine it would resemble a 15incher (?)

If anyone have a monitor capable of that(1:1), please enlighten me.
(640x480, 1024x768, 800x600, not interpolated, how do that play?)

- I got a 'silent' one, yay ! 😎
Made in China in June, shipped from Germany.
(no apparent humming, only when ear close to back)

- as for colors, uniformity, dead pixcels, brightness and whatnot, don't ask... me clueless atm.
check this tiny thread below for more info:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?s=5a8 … 48a18&t=1387587
(which I discovered AFTER I had ordered it...)

here is the one I read pre-buy:
http://www.prad.de/en/monitore/review/2009/re … ell-2209wa.html

and with TN panels costing almost the same, I thought why not give it a go, so... 😊
at least it can be no worse than those shitty 19inchers we have at work.

My every day monitor is also the one that will be used on any retro rig. Its an Iiama Vision Master Pro 410 17" CRT that I've had for many years and it still working. At some resolutions I've not got some distortion on the left edge (squeezed together) where an internal component must have failed, but I can live with that. The reasin I'll be sticking with this is simple. It gives clear images at any resolution from CGA right up to 1920x1440, which simply cannot be achieved by any 17" LCD currently available. This means it is ideal for playing older lower res games or for fine detail work should I need it, although I usually run at 1280x1024 most of the time. I have found that LCDs only work properly at their maximum design resolution. Any attempt to downscale results in distortion. I also find that CRTs don't suffer ghosting or other problems caused by the slow reaction time of the LCD elements. If this monitor should ever fail I'll almost definitely replace it with another CRT.

I have a Sony GDM-5410 thats a 21" Trinitron with 121 kHz and 1920x1440 max. senseful resolution. Usual max. mode is 1600x1200 at 85 Hz.

Then much older a Belinea 105520/II this is a classic 17" monitor with 0.26 mm dot pitch and 64 kHz. This model is rather old, nethertheless it still works fine and sharp which is not so common for non-high end monitors of this time. It is sufficient for most of the older systems.
As a side note, this one also runs fine at 50 Hz, for C64 progressive video output f.e.

Then I got another 17 inch for backup reasons, a HANSOL 710p. It has 96 kHz, max. resolution of 1600x1200. senseful max. resolution is 1280x1024.

All of these do also 1024x768x43 Hz interlaced fine, where every TFT I tested failed. My IBM PC uses this mode (it is not as flickering as it sounds from the values).

markoldgamer wrote:

My every day monitor is also the one that will be used on any retro rig. Its an Iiama Vision Master Pro 410 17" CRT that I've had for many years and it still working.

Right on! That's nearly identical to my retro rig monitor... An Iiyama Vision Master Pro 17" (MT-9017E).

That diamondtron tube looks great at almost any resolution... from DOS oldies in 320x200 to recent XP games in 1280x1024 and higher. It's on a KVM, so I use it with all of my old PC's except for my IBM XT which uses it's own dedicated EGA (TTL 9pin connector) monitor.

swaaye wrote:

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/theguide/value_game_pc/950p.jpg It's me 9-yr old Samsung Syncmaster 950P 19" CRT!!! Still rockin' t […]
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It's me 9-yr old Samsung Syncmaster 950P 19" CRT!!! Still rockin' the oldies, eh.

I progressed thru Tandy CM-11(14"?) ->14 (VGA) ->17 ->19" CRTs.

I have 955P 19" Samsung, but it went so blurry I had to give it up. Well, I mean it's sitting in the garage.

Most of the time I am using a Dell Ultrasharp U2410 24" LCD, and it's beautiful. Does scaling very well and sRGB color setting is so very close to a CRT.

Sometimes I drag out my 21" NEC FE2111sb CRT, like this weekend I was messing around with some stereo 3D shutter glasses and also playing some Unreal Tournament 2004 (can't beat a CRT for pure speed).

I have a Dell 2405FPW and a 2005FPW. Bought them way back in '05. I can't see the difference between the GPU doing scaling and the LCDs so I guess they're as good as it's gonna get. Great screens.

A friend of mine bought a super cheapo 22" LCD that only does pixel stretch!! You get what you pay for sometimes. I suppose it doesn't matter whatsoever if you just stick to native res tho.

In reference to my post above, I decided to sell my Hitachi SuperScan Elite CM753 19" CRT. It's the best shadow mask monitor made (IMO) so if somebody wants an analog CRT for DOS/Windows goodness, and you don't like the 2 lines in a Trinitron, please PM me.

I decided I don't have the room for it anymore.

Pretty satisfied with my Sony Trinitron 15" or something.
It just works and gives good image quality for my standards. It doesn't have that resize bullshit that some monitors tend to have. So I don't have to set it up every time I run a game!

swaaye wrote:

I have a Dell 2405FPW and a 2005FPW. Bought them way back in '05. I can't see the difference between the GPU doing scaling and the LCDs so I guess they're as good as it's gonna get. Great screens.

A friend of mine bought a super cheapo 22" LCD that only does pixel stretch!! You get what you pay for sometimes. I suppose it doesn't matter whatsoever if you just stick to native res tho.

A 24" widescreen that is 1920x1200 will give you a nice 1600x1200 4:3 that scales the other 4:3 resolutions well. It's the 1080p and 16:10 monitors (like that 22") that scale 4:3 like grabage because they have to interpolate the pixels with their neighbors and get some rounded approximation off a mess.

I like built in scaling, It's so much easier with 90's hardware and games. I did have some Nvidia GPU scaling issues with an Asus 22" lcd a couple years ago, but that might have been relieved now. Just would not do the ever popular 640x480, and neither would the Asus's built in scaling. 640x480 was just a stretched out blurry mess. It was a deal buster for me, I went and bought a used CRT to replace my Samsung.