CRT or LCD for RO?

[REZ]

A flatscreen TV has actually little in common with a LC display for a PC.
Were these TVs even TFTs or plasma?

From an article about the new Sony BRAVIA line of LCD High Def TVs written by HDGuru - 'Sony will be announcing 120 hz flat LCD panel today. The 120hz rate will greatly reduce the motion blur that occurs with all 60hz LCD panels.'

http://www.hdguru.com/ scroll down to Feb 27th if you wanna read the whole article.

At the showroom floor I was looking at different models. Samsung has a high Hz model as well. High speed visuals look perfectly crisp throughout. No motion blur whatsoever. It's very telling when you watch them side by side.

 

[Zetsumei]

this is beast! i am afraid that this can be haaardly beaten by any LCD if I compare price/performance/size...

The shielding and heat of it is awfull. My room is nicely isolated in the winter i dont have to put on the heater its that bad. It consumes more power than my entire pc. The image is fabulous, but its kinda annoying for lanparties

 

[breadtruck]

I just recently upgraded my 17" crt to a 22" lcd. And after the short period of "dang, this thing is too big" Its by far the best purchase I have made in some time.

Even have a second 15" lcd for use in dual screen applications

 

[-MM!!-Lazarus]

Till then i'll keep using my good old 24" widescreen Sony FW900

Thats what I run too, I have yet to find a LCD that will beat it with out it having a totally rediculous price tag.

 

[Helmi]

From an article about the new Sony BRAVIA line of LCD High Def TVs written by HDGuru - 'Sony will be announcing 120 hz flat LCD panel today. The 120hz rate will greatly reduce the motion blur that occurs with all 60hz LCD panels.'

http://www.hdguru.com/ scroll down to Feb 27th if you wanna read the whole article.

At the showroom floor I was looking at different models. Samsung has a high Hz model as well. High speed visuals look perfectly crisp throughout. No motion blur whatsoever. It's very telling when you watch them side by side.

Hm, interesting.

However, again, this is about TVs.
Also, since the input signal is 60fps at best (!!!), those 120Hz mean it has to repeat every image twice.
It will then do some other post-processing to enhance (at least that's what it is supposed to...) image quality.
All this does not happen on a regular PC LCD.

Plus, the high resolution means you will hit the limits of the DVI connection so unless you run at 1024*768 or a similar lower res, you will not be able to set the refresh rate above 60Hz.

Hence, for PC LCDs, it is more important they feature a short response time (ususally ~8ms, anything less is pure marketing BS!) than a rediculously high refresh rate (that your GFX card cannot deliver anyway) for a non-ghosted image.

Speaking of response times, there's different values you need to look at.
Firstly, it is composed of rise and fall times (eg how long it takes a pixel to get from black to white and then back to black).
These should be about even because if not, the short time of the one will be spoilt by the long time of the other.
Also, it's important to look at the grey-to-grey switch times. These should not be too far away from the white-black-white times.
A display with overdrive can help a lot here, but it may output the image a bit postponed due to the necessarily post-processing (yes, this is similar to the LCD TV and also another reason why those aren't really suited for any action-related gaming!).

All in all, it's never really simple and the specs listed at the shop probabaly only tell half the truth.
Best is to take a close look at the manufacturer specs on their website, however, you need to know what each means in order to read them "properly".

 

[MILK]

... but its kinda annoying for lanparties

hehe i belive this one )

 

[Mike_Nomad]

the LCD Monitor I recommend:

OPTIQUEST Q20WB​

Read Here​

 

[Nimsky]

Here's where I'm ordering my widescreen (hopefully) from:

http://norrod.nl/ws_a_index.asp?hoofdgroep_id=5&add=1&sel=1

Can't choose Which ones of these are good?

 

[Brimstone]

I'm running a Hanns-G HW192D 19 inch widescreen at 1440X900, 5ms response time. Picked it up from Newegg, delivered to my house for 199.99 USD on a EVGA 7600GS with 512mb and just absolutely LOVE it.

This is my first LCD and I'll never go back. IMO crt is dead.

 

[Nimsky]

Hey, everybody - letting you guys know I am now the proud owner of a 22" widescreen!

****in' hell, from 17" to 22". What a huge difference. I am extremely happy with it, and I have only plugged it in for 20 minutes! I think I already know I'll never go back to square screens. Watching a DVD on this is... orgastic.

Fujitsu L22W-3

I'll try RO later this evening, will edit this post later.

EDIT: it's great

 

[MILK]

...I'll try RO later this evening, will edit this post later.

so? I am very curious...

 

[redbull2580]

Playing it at a dell 22inch @ 1680x1050x90fps

Wonderfull!

 

[IncredibleGeek]

Ok, so it looks like a good amount of people here have had experience with WS LCDs, so this would be a good place to ask...

I currently use a KDS Xflat 17" CRT, and despite it's age, I love this screen. However, it is getting old, and I've been keeping my eyes open for a new monitor. Now what I'd really like is a new 19" flat screen CRT, but I have yet to find one for a reasonable price. Any ideas?

Secondly, if or when I do make the switch to LCD, I would definitely go WS, but I don't know how this will affect my gaming. I play a ton of older games, (Arx Fatalis at the moment. Saw it on Steam and dug out my old copy), and I don't want them to be screwed up by unsupported resolutions. My current idea is that I go ahead and buy an LCD, and keep my current CRT as a secondary, but I'd still like a new CRT any way.

So... Any ideas?

 

[blkmgc]

Ok, so it looks like a good amount of people here have had experience with WS LCDs, so this would be a good place to ask...

I currently use a KDS Xflat 17" CRT, and despite it's age, I love this screen. However, it is getting old, and I've been keeping my eyes open for a new monitor. Now what I'd really like is a new 19" flat screen CRT, but I have yet to find one for a reasonable price. Any ideas?

Secondly, if or when I do make the switch to LCD, I would definitely go WS, but I don't know how this will affect my gaming. I play a ton of older games, (Arx Fatalis at the moment. Saw it on Steam and dug out my old copy), and I don't want them to be screwed up by unsupported resolutions. My current idea is that I go ahead and buy an LCD, and keep my current CRT as a secondary, but I'd still like a new CRT any way.

So... Any ideas?

Depends on your system specs. If your current system /graphics card cannot support 1680x1050, a widescreen LCD would be a waste. You may however be able to run a normal width LCD. Here again, it depends on your specs. The prices now on LCD's have dropped enough to make buying a CRT obsolete imho, since they clearly outcalss CRT's in just about every category.

Another thing to consider.When ordering an LCD online, there is a certain requirement to RMA them for dead pixels. Newegg says (in the fine print) to be elidgable for RMA, an LCD must have 8 or more dead pixels. Mwave says 7 or more. So if on the >outside chance <you do recieve one with 4 dead pixels in the center of the screen...your screwed. I dont generally like buying from Walmart or Best Buy type of places as most of thier stuff is grossly overpriced lowgrade consumer crap. But I have to admit that the 20 inch wide ACER LCD I bought at walmart for my wife having a 30 day return policy, and the 22" wide screen Viewsonic LCD I bought at Circuit city also having a 30 day return policy added a bit of comfort knowing that I could bring it back for an exchange/ refund or whatever. They were also right in the money range as the online vendors. Best thing to do is shop it out, and consider what your system is capable of. But personally if I was looking for a new monitor, I wouldnt even consider a CRT anymore.This after using a 21 " Sony Trinitron for the last 6 odd years.

 

[Nestor Makhno]

Redbull2580 - you should check the forum rules about offensive material, particularly number 5.

 

[MILK]

Secondly, if or when I do make the switch to LCD, I would definitely go WS, but I don't know how this will affect my gaming. I play a ton of older games, (Arx Fatalis at the moment. Saw it on Steam and dug out my old copy), and I don't want them to be screwed up by unsupported resolutions. My current idea is that I go ahead and buy an LCD, and keep my current CRT as a secondary, but I'd still like a new CRT any way.

So... Any ideas?

today LCDs are so good that you do not need to be worry about buying one. I use 20" Asus PW201 and it just rox. Since usual native resolution is 1680*1050 you should be sure that your system can make it (I personaly play RO with 1440*900 (not native) and do not have problems with sharpnes of image -> image is stretched to fit whole screen and I have no noticable blured edges

If you use some GeForce GC than you have few choices - you can play with any resolution and you can choose or 1:1 so you do not have image on whole screen but just pixels are used 1:1) or you can stretch to fit whole screen and than you will see blured edges (resolutions 1280*800, 960*600 and below....) I played some games like Oblivion where I had to use 960*600 to have reasonable frame rate... it is not the ideal situation... but I rather play with blured edges instead of smaller image on screen (1:1)

... but final decision is always up to you in the end

Redbull2580 - you should check the forum rules about offensive material, particularly number 5.

+1

 

[Helmi]

Now what I'd really like is a new 19" flat screen CRT, but I have yet to find one for a reasonable price. Any ideas?

No, because you didn
't state what "reasonable price" means for you...
In any case, CRTs are dirt-cheap by now (unless you really opt for a professional CAD model).

Secondly, if or when I do make the switch to LCD, I would definitely go WS, but I don't know how this will affect my gaming. I play a ton of older games, (Arx Fatalis at the moment. Saw it on Steam and dug out my old copy), and I don't want them to be screwed up by unsupported resolutions.

It does not depend so much on the game but rather the LCD.
Good models have the ability to either scale the image to full view while maintaining the aspect ratio (meaning you will have black bars left and right on non-16:10 resolutions and it will get a bit blurry, however, good LCDs do a nifty job on upscaling) as well as using a centered timing image, in which it only uses as many pixels on the screen as set in the game config (resulting in a black border all around the image but absolutely sharp as no upscaling involved).

Cheap models usually just stretch the image to the max, resoltuing in a blurry and non-aspec ration conform PoS.

It definately pays out making absolutely sure the model you intend to buy can perform these tasks properly, and by that I mean testing it in a live environment and not just believing what the specs tell you.

 

[MILK]

... Cheap models usually just stretch the image to the max, resoltuing in a blurry and non-aspec ration conform PoS.....

not only cheap models... my does not support that either BUT if graphic card supports than there is no problem...

 

[redbull2580]

Redbull2580 - you should check the forum rules about offensive material, particularly number 5.

What do you mean with offensive materials?
Number 5?...

If I did something wrong, sorry for it.

 

[Helmi]

not only cheap models... my does not support that either

Quite possible, however, ususally, cheap models do not support it at all.
That does not mean the reverse is always true, though (expensive models always supporting it).

However, I'm a die-hard fan for Eizo LCDs, and their models are certainly of the best you can get and, to my knowledge, all support this feature.
Also, if you use Eizo as a standard, you have to consider a lot of LCDs as "cheap" even though they may be medium-priced in general

BUT if graphic card supports than there is no problem...

True, but firstly, if you want to rely on the upscaling, the display ususally does a better job on that (centered timings are no difference whether done by display of GFX, since it's just per-pixel) and secondly, you are at the grace of your GFX card and also its drivers!
That means, this function can break (and I've heared from users experiencing this) as opposed to the built-in function of the display that always works regardless.
Besides, you will be using the display much longer than a specific GFX card/driver I figure.
For me, it's a one-time purchase for the display - ususally you keep it until it breaks.

Also, if you connect an external source to the display (i.e. non-PC), this feature will also work, where on an LCD that does not natively support it, it won't (as the signal does not flow through your GFX).