VOGONS


First post, by Flakchak

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I'm constantly perusing my local craigslist for those diamonds in the rough. You never know what you'll come across but I've been looking for a CRT monitor for the longest time. Yes, there are really expensive options online to get a great, or maybe decent CRT monitor. However, I managed to find a NEC Fe770+ for only $10. I told the seller I'd take it. Didn't even ask if it worked. For $10 I didn't care. So I pick it up, he shows me it works, and home I return. Once the kids are in bed, I give it a once over with some vinegar and magic eraser. Power it on, only to see scratches on the screen. My dining room was dark and I didn't notice them before.

So yes, as my kiddos would say, I'm sad sad. Now, I'm not sad over the loss of $10. I am sad that I don't think I'm going to find a decent CRT that has both a nice screen, and has the colors and brightness of a new, or I guess I should say newer monitor. Could I purchase a monitor on tamayatech for a couple hundred, sure. But what condition of CRT am I going to eventually get and am I going to have to take advantage of whatever warranty they provide because the monitor just isn't bright enough?

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Searching for a Packard Bell 15" CRT Monitor - 1511SL or 1512SL

Reply 1 of 7, by kixs

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This looks like the screens anti-reflective coating was scratched. Some say just remove it all and the screen will be just fine. I have two monitors with the same issue - both Trinitrons. But since I have a lot of CRTs I don't use these and haven't decided to remove the coating yet.

More here:
https://forum.arcadeotaku.com/viewtopic.php?f … &p=13762#p13762

Requests are also possible... /msg kixs

Reply 2 of 7, by Ozzuneoj

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Looks fixable to me. Even if some of the scratches go through the antiglare coating to the glass, that glass is ridiculously thick... I doubt it would harm anything to try some methods for repairing glass scratches before calling it a loss.

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 4 of 7, by 133MHz

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kixs wrote:

This looks like the screens anti-reflective coating was scratched. Some say just remove it all and the screen will be just fine.

This indeed. Remove the coating in its entirety and you'll be quite happy with the result.

http://133FSB.wordpress.com

Reply 5 of 7, by keenmaster486

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Don't be sad, FlakChak. We're all here for you. You'll get through this somehow.

In all seriousness, somewhere out there is a giant warehouse full of government surplus cheese and CRT monitors.....

World's foremost 486 enjoyer.

Reply 6 of 7, by Flakchak

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keenmaster486 wrote:

Don't be sad, FlakChak. We're all here for you. You'll get through this somehow.

In all seriousness, somewhere out there is a giant warehouse full of government surplus cheese and CRT monitors.....

I've seen this warehouse somewhere...

anigif_enhanced-26069-1392846950-12.gif?crop=450:223;35,0&downsize=715:*&output-format=auto&output-quality=auto

Searching for a Packard Bell 15" CRT Monitor - 1511SL or 1512SL

Reply 7 of 7, by duga3

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Its possible that the CRT you got is normally bright, CRTs are not really that bright compared to modern flat panels. If this is your first CRT after many years then its likely the case. Actually, if you were to use CRT for text display and not games you would need to make it dimmer on purpose so the text stays sharp. The more light is emitted the more blurry everything becomes.

As a quick test change RGB values on your monitor to max for extra brightness. On the other hand if you lower them it will become sharper. And if you set them just right you will get more natural/correct colors without incorrect contrast but neither sharp or bright.

Higher resolutions, lower refresh rates and smaller beamed image size also increase brightness and sometimes sharpness. 2560x1920@57Hz for example has much more "pop" than 1024x768@160Hz.

Lower resolutions have gaps between lines, decreasing perceived vibrancy. This is fine on older CRTs where the image bleeds into the gaps nicely, but on modern CRTs its not a nice effect.

If you watch/play widescreen content (movie) then make a custom resolution for it because it will be brighter compared to lighting up the whole 4:3 real estate where you are wasting the guns on drawing black letterbox pixels.

In a dark room, display black image fullscreen and lower the brightness setting to minimum, if the screen appears turned off then its great, if not there might be some issue that you could look into.

I think CRTs look best in a dark room with small ambient light turned on somewhere. This makes the CRT lack of brightness not that noticeable. In a completely dark room you will probably see a lot of ghosting in darker games.

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