Bullmecha wrote:

I have an old Gateway EV910 19" I wish I could repair. Think it's a cap or something but not sure. It has a beautiful picture but it hourglasses the sides. I would use it for all my older rigs, but I use a 20" HP LCD for now on them.

Use a 32" LCD TV or a 24" HP on my main rig though.

I had a similar problem on a Sansui CRT tv of mine. It was a problem with something internal, I forget what it was, but IMO it wasn't worth repairing as it was just a BPC TV from 2007. I now have a RCA XL100 Stereo commercial skip I got free off craigslist- and it works great.

I really like that monitor but not sure if anyone repairs them around here. Need to get busy and look.

My Samsung SyncMaster 959NF 19" CRT can do stuff my LCDs cant, like run any resolution natively up to 1920x1440 at 74Hz.

With my retro rigs I mostly use old 1280*1024 17"/19" LCDs, the reason beeing lazyness as I really hate to move around heavy CRTs. Most of my hoard of 1280*1024 LCDs do scale the image perfetctly fine at all resolutions and some even seems to pixel map 1280*960 by turning off 64 lines and also 640*480 with pixle doubling. Another nice thing with these old 1280*1024 panels is that they all seem to support 75Hz at any resolution.

I prefer to use crts for several reasons:

1. many of the modern lcd and led screens are too bright for my eyes, even at lowest settings
2. no stuck pixels/pressure damage that flatscreens have with age.
3. generally better picture quality and sharpness at different resolutions - though LCD/LED HDTVs DO tempt me.
4. Although CRTs are rarer now, they can be bought for dirt cheap or free regardless of their condition.
5. can't imagine playing on retro computers without a crt!
6. long, long, lifespan on crts when compared to lcd/leds
7. good looking. todays big screen tvs generally look plain (You can have any color as long as it's black. - Henry Ford)
8. not too heavy to lift if you put effort - Well,,, except for those monster sized ones that barely fit in your SUV...

Well, (2) may be true, but aging CRTs come with its own problems, (6) is not true, (7), well, you have some strange taste 😜, and (8) wow, talking about an oxymoron. 😁

computergeek92 wrote:

1. many of the modern lcd and led screens are too bright for my eyes, even at lowest settings

I don't understand why the manufacturers do this. I have my LED LCD monitor at ZERO brightness and it is barely tolerable.
However, I find the old LCDs with CCFLs can dim to reasonable levels. I don't understand why the manufacturers now don't realize that some people don't like there monitor to be like staring at the sun.

3. generally better picture quality and sharpness at different resolutions - though LCD/LED HDTVs DO tempt me.

But the sharpness of LCD is unmatched at their native resolution. Especially with a digital interface.

6. long, long, lifespan on crts when compared to lcd/leds

That depends. I have seen 10 year old CRTs fail and 13 year old LCDs in working condition.

7. good looking. todays big screen tvs generally look plain (You can have any color as long as it's black. - Henry Ford)

That goes along with pretty much everything now.

8. not too heavy to lift if you put effort - Well,,, except for those monster sized ones that barely fit in your SUV...

Not a good comparison with LCDs because LCDs of a given size will always be smaller and lighter.

smeezekitty wrote:

I don't understand why the manufacturers do this. I have my LED LCD monitor at ZERO brightness and it is barely tolerable.
However, I find the old LCDs with CCFLs can dim to reasonable levels. I don't understand why the manufacturers now don't realize that some people don't like there monitor to be like staring at the sun.

FWIW, you can always reduce the brightness further by playing with the individual RGB levels, or by invoking the brightness control features of the video card.

Quick CRT question guys, does anyone happen to know the phosphor layout of an IBM 8512 tube?

dr_st wrote:

smeezekitty wrote:

I don't understand why the manufacturers do this. I have my LED LCD monitor at ZERO brightness and it is barely tolerable.
However, I find the old LCDs with CCFLs can dim to reasonable levels. I don't understand why the manufacturers now don't realize that some people don't like there monitor to be like staring at the sun.

FWIW, you can always reduce the brightness further by playing with the individual RGB levels, or by invoking the brightness control features of the video card.

The latter would reduce the colour depth, may not be ideal.

dr_st wrote:

smeezekitty wrote:

I don't understand why the manufacturers do this. I have my LED LCD monitor at ZERO brightness and it is barely tolerable.
However, I find the old LCDs with CCFLs can dim to reasonable levels. I don't understand why the manufacturers now don't realize that some people don't like there monitor to be like staring at the sun.

FWIW, you can always reduce the brightness further by playing with the individual RGB levels, or by invoking the brightness control features of the video card.

That makes the backlight bleed worse though.