Hi. I've moved your thread over to the Video subforum.

This is my personal experience, so I may say things that are wrong.

My sharpest monitors are the newest ones. I've got 4 of them (and a 5th that I've never tested because I don't have room to use it). One of them is an HP from the early 90's (or maybe even late 80's) and it's really blurry (and can't go over 640*480), I've got another one made by highscreen from 1996 which doesn't look that good either (colors are looking cold). Next I've got a noname one from 1998 which is actually okay, and then an Acer from 2002/2003 which looks really sharp, especially with lower res. Plus it supports high framerates (at least up to 85Hz)

Sure some monitors are better than other, but it seems that newer monitors are actually better (which isn't that surprizing since the technology is evolving). Often, when you use a lower resolution than what the monitor can display at best, it looks sharp. Let's say that you have two monitors. One can display up to 640*480 (like my HP) and the other can display up to 800*600, well it seems like the 800*600 will look sharper at 640*480 resolution. And also like I said, newer ones can sometimes display higher framerates which is actually a VERY good thing. I see the flicker at 60Hz (even though it doesn't bother me), but at 85Hz I don't, and it's more comfortable. I think that people that can't stand the CRT flicker should look for higher framerates and see if it doesn't help them.

I personally love the flat tube CRTs. Trinitron and others. I have a Samsung 17in CRT that is fantastic which is really my only remaining. It's not hooked up right now or I'd take some pictures of it. You might also consider some of the last 4:3 Aspect Ratio LCD monitors. Samsung's also are particularly nice.

I'm using a 21" CRT as my main monitor. It has a Trinitron tube and I love it, except for the first 30 minutes it takes to warm up its red beam and give me a greenish tint meanwhile. It's apparently a known problems on Trinitron PC monitors. I've had several Trinitron TVs but none had this behaviour, though none had the running time of a PC monitor obviously.

The picture is extremely sharp when using it for super low resolution, to the point that the black lines are so thick I feel they are detrimental to the picture. I know people love their visible scanlines, but to me it's simply too much. I would say it's acceptable when using a ton of anti-aliasing, without it polygonal edges can be offensive with their comb effect. I'm playing No one lives forever at 640x480 and 8xAA now and the picture is lovely.

I decided to use my old 17" Dell monitor that was sleeping in the attic on my DOS/Glide PC. The shadow mask look is definitely different, but this along with thicker scan lines allow for a very interesting look at these resolutions. The 1280x1024 maximum desktop resolution is way too small and blurry to be usable, but for anything DOS it's just great.

jarreboum wrote:

It has a Trinitron tube and I love it, except for the first 30 minutes it takes to warm up its red beam and give me a greenish tint meanwhile.

I had a 17" Dell Trinitron that did this and I ended up getting rid of it. I am a fan of the Trinitron though - I love the picture. I use a Sony CPD-G220R at my retro desk and, knock on wood, it has been problem free. It gets used with a 386DX40 all the way up to a recent Tualatin build.

Personally my favourite for DOS games is a shadow mask (non Trinitron) in 15" or 17". You don't want it too sharp for those 320x200 DOS games. The trick is finding one with a reasonably fresh tube.

For lores DOS games I'd look for good 15" or max 17" size. Games look terrible with larger monitors (19, 21") - pixels are just too big. I like trinitrons and have 15", 17" and 21" - don't use any as I don't have the space (yet) 🙁

Some pictures from my NEC Multisync XP17 http://imgur.com/a/o3sel

A while ago I posted a few pictures here:
Re: Post pics of your CRT monitors

From my experience, NEC Multisyncs are, in general, outstanding monitors. I had a few of them over the years, and we had tons of them at work until they got replaced with LCDs, and I was never anything but favorably impressed.

I had this weird 14" AT&T that came with my old 486DX4 machine that was pretty good too, at least at <800x600. It could do 1152x864, but you wouldn't want to. But in games at 320x200 or 640x480, it looked great. I'll be pickled if I can remember the model number, though.

zomp wrote:

Which age of the monitor would you prefer ?
Or should i take one from the early 90s and one from circa 97 ?

I wold take a 15" or 17" from early 2000's, even if that would be "non-retro enough".

I'd say take what you can get. I much prefer older monitors with a warmer color temp (this Dell I'm using lets you adjust the temp), but there's no real way of knowing without taking it for a test drive.

Like everyone else said, a lot of older monitors, you'll get a blurrier picture at higher resolutions and higher refresh rates.

Scanlines in DOS games, though, I think that depends more on your video card than your monitor. I've read that most VGA cards run low-res stuff in double scanline mode, but you'd have to research that yourself. I know I have certain video cards that won't do 320x200 mode, and run games in 320x240 mode with black bars instead.

LaCie electron 19 blue. Beautiful monitors

Nice, Thanks for the responses.
I hope these monitors will be available for a very long time.

What i dislike most about LCDs is that they are optimised to one resolution.
Switch to an other and it gets very bad in the overall quality.

zomp wrote:

And besides I am very interested in photos with good old games on CRT monitors, how do they look on your screens. really close up so that you can see the Scanlines.

I posted some of Ultima VII: Serpent Isle, here:
List the PC games that you have beaten
Ultima Underworld II:
List the PC games that you have beaten
Ultima Underworld I:
List the PC games that you have beaten
Lands of Lore:
List the PC games that you have beaten
download/file.php?id=26533&mode=view

zomp wrote:

What i dislike most about LCDs is that they are optimised to one resolution.
Switch to an other and it gets very bad in the overall quality.

That, and you've gotta get a pretty nice LCD screen if you want a decent contrast ratio. Try playing dark first-person games from pre-2004 and all of those lovely dark shades start turning into gray inverted colors.

Two photos of my 17" CRT can be found here:
Dune II HD port at last!