CRTs tend to get dimmer as they age. I have a 19" Samsung from 2000 and it is definitely not as bright as it used to be. I'm on it right now 🤣. But it also never was as bright as even my 5 year old Dell LCDs.

Do not get an old LCD whatever you do. 😉 The response times were far slower once you get to the early '00s. Games with any significant motion will get blurry.

If I needed to get a monitor for a retro box right now, I'd grab a LCD that can handle 4:3 resolutions well. Something with a 1920x1200 native resolution probably is best. Don't go too cheap though because some LCDs don't have scalers and you'll get a shitty super jagged pixel stretch instead. Some video cards can be set up to scale for the monitor, but not old VGA-only ones.

the best in the mid 90s were always the sony or NEC... viewsonic didn't even come into the picture until the late 90s... no pun intended

NECs have always been top notch. Sony's Trinitron and Mitsubishi's Diamondtron were highly regarded...dont care for the Trinitron lines though.

Thanks, Ill probably try to get a nice Dell, NEC, Samsung LCD from 2005ish in 4:3 aspect ratio. And keep my eyes peeled for a good deal on a Viewsonic, Mag, or NEC 15" to 19" CRT, new or in real good shape with low hours.

Gateways had good monitors, too, i'd even say i'd prefer them over the NEC Viewbrownic

oh forget about the 80s monitors, you dont want them, they suck. they are what screensavers are made for and a 99% chance you're trapped to a max res of 640x480, even on the huge 21" color monitors from the 80s

I use a 22" (20" viewable) NEC MultiSync FE2111SB that has a Diamontron tube. Screen still looks good and in "Super Bright" mode it will burn your retinas, so I run it in normal mode. Will do 1600 x 1200 at 85hz.

The final Production models of Diamontron monitors had DVI and did 1600 x 1200 at 100hz. I had a brand new one a couple years ago, then after 3 months of use it just blew a fuse (in a stinky flash) and died forever. 😢

Oh, the Diamonton has the aperture grill held up by 2 visible wires like the Sony's Trinitron, but it never bothered me. They are faint and very very thin.

I always liked the Sonys, though they usually displayed black as dark blue. It was still a million times better than some pile of shit CTX though. At least you could adjust the image to fill the entire visible area of the screen. It also had an excellent .25 dot pitch, and was sharp at 1024x768 (this was a 14" model). I could live with the grille lines. I also highly recommend the NEC Multisync series.

I found this review of high end CRT monitors on Tom's Hardware, date 2002.

Comparison: Seven 21" and 22" CRT Monitors

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/comparison,497.html

There is also a round up of 19" CRT monitors, which is linked in the above article. It also contains nice descriptions of the Shadow Mask vs Aperture Grill vs Slot/Elliptical Mask hybrid .

Comparison: Twelve 19" CRT Monitors

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/comparison,440.html

The Viewsonic P95f and P225f look like winners, as well as the G220F. And I can get a Viewsonic for sentimental reasons, while basically owning one of the best last generation CRTs.

The NEC FE1250+ and NEC FE9** series are winners, as well as the Mitsubishi Diamondtrons. NEC would have more era authenticity though as they were very well known for their CRT monitors throughout the 90s.

I guess the Aperture Grilles like Trinitron are brighter than Shadow Mask "common" monitors.

Im going for a beige monitor case, for sentimental reason and era apropriateness. Though Im not going for small 14" to 15" screens.

Dell, Gateway, & Compaq branded monitors are considerably cheaper, in general. I found some Diamondtron Gateways, that may fit the bill.

Love my Compaq CRT 21" monitor, its a P1210. It is flat screen Aperture grille, 2 VGA inputs, even a USB 4 Port hub (never used mine though).

Picked mine up a few years ago for like $100 or 150 and it was worth every penny to me. My other monitor is a KDS 17", good monitor also but would say stick with anything 19" or better.

The bigger the better, it seems.

Also happy with a Compaq, it is a V720 17" from 2001. The only CRT I have left at home, even though it is now in storage. It was not my idea to put it in storage, If I had my way it would still be on the desk...

Back then I used a 17" LG Flatron too. It got good reviews, but gave audible high pitch noise at certain resolutions, very annoying.

At work I have a 19" Philips CRT. Mine behaves pretty good so far, but I have seen another one fail.

I later had a Viewsonic PF790 19" CRT. It had a really nice picture when it was new, but I found it deteriorated pretty quickly compared to my old 14" displays.

I got a Diamond Mitsubishi Pro SB 22" when they were first released for a small fortune. It was even bigger than I imagined when it finally arrived. But it let me play Quake III arena in 1024x768 at 100Hz (or was it 120?) which was soooo sexy. 😎

Totally improved my aim.

The color reproduction was amazing and the display in windows was flawless. There wasn't really a better monitor for years. I also bought the 17" version (also superbright) for my second PC.

I regret selling the 22", but my friend bought it and used for a few years until he finally sold it to another friend of mine who is still using it today. Almost 9 years after. And yes ... it still looks better than my viewsonic LED 22" 1080p wide.

I also hear good things about LACIE electrons, but I never took the plunge and tried one. All nice big CRTS seem ultra rare on EBAY now.

Sony made a widescreen CRT trinitron (I saw some on ebay a while back) which were probably the best monitors around, though originally priced over £1000. I think the ones on ebay rated A condition were going for around £200. Postage would be £100000 though. 😁

CRT > LCD (even with your fancy 200Hz fake refresh)

Oh I also had a lovely little Samsung Dynaflat DFX 17" for a while, which had a really small dot pitch (I think it was .20 or something). The image reproduction was so crisp. Better even than my Diamond Mitsubishi SB's. And it was a true flat screen.

Great screens.

No wonder I never had enough money to buy a motorbike back then. I had 100's of expensive monitors passing though my house.

Don't go to ebay to look for big CRT monitors. There is usually no way to test them before buying (testing old CRTs is important if you want to get a good one), and the shipping costs will be astronomical. If the seller doesn't know how to safely package a 35+ kg monitor (most of them don't), it is almost certain it will get damaged during transport.

On the other hand, many people are practically giving away their high-spec CRTs now, provided you pick them up yourself. For example, there are at least half a dozen Sony G500s (21" Trinitron, 1600x1200@85Hz) ready to picked up for a few euros here in Vienna.

5u3 wrote:

On the other hand, many people are practically giving away their high-spec CRTs now, provided you pick them up yourself. For example, there are at least half a dozen Sony G500s (21" Trinitron, 1600x1200@85Hz) ready to picked up for a few euros here in Vienna.

This is also correct for Germany. Also try the universities (computer graphics section) - they have very high quality CAD/CAM CRTs. I got my Sun microsystems (Sony trinitron tube, 1600x1200@85Hz) like that.