I can't bring myself to change to a TFT monitor Geoff. I see my friends using them and think the graphics look terrible on them. I guess if you're a die-hard graphics person, you will put up with the large size of a CRT monitor just to wallow in the luxury of quality graphics. Just my opinion of course, but the only advantage I can see with a TFT is the saving on desk space, and that is not an issue for me.

BoXXi strokes his huge CRT............

Same here. Samsung 21" - wouldn't swap it for any TFT. Apart from graphics looking 'odd', they lag too much for playing games.

BoXXi strokes his huge CRT

Would you two like to be alone...?

My wife has an LCD flat panel monitor, and you couldn't force me to use one........... I can't believe I spent that much money on something that looks so bad... bleh!
What I've looking at are the flat screen CRT's......... anyone know of problems with those?

Randy....mine is a Diamond View 19" 'flat' CRT....works a treat....main thing is there are no distracting reflections....

Gef, LCD's do not have the ability to match a true flat Graphics CRT. The popularity of the LCD has driven the price of the really expensive CRT's down, but they are slowly rebounding.

NEC, Mitsubishi, Sony, LG, Lacie and others all have 19 inch Professional grade true flat, super bright .18 - .20 dot pitch CRT's between $250.00 - $400.00 which used to cost up wards to $700 - $900.

Font's on LCD's tend to get fuzzy and also looking at an LCD for long periods of time causes more eye strain.

I am now running dual 19 inch CRT's, a ViewSonic a90f+ $229.00 and a Lacie Electron 19 Blue IV $379.00 (with hood). So for the price of a single higher end Graphics Design 17 - 18 inch LCD, I have two extreamly fantastic CRT's and twice the display area.

ViewSonic has some really good pricing right now, though I have had to return two of the a90f+ 's so far because of convergence (screen bowed in starting in the center of the display and running out to the top and bottom). But I have finally picked one up that doesn't have any problem. Thinking about it ViewSonic also has Graphic Display line that is sold starting around $230.00 for a 19 inch true flat CRT the g90. Peak resolution on the 19 viewsonic for me has been 1600x1200 which still stays crystal clear. The Lacie goes much higher but I can't see what I am doing much high and nose tracks on the screen distort it

SamSung has one hitting even high clear undistorted resolutions in a 19 inch, and the 21 inch is like the others ( a monster and a beauty )...

Matter of fact I am checking out the Lacie for 30 days and if in that time I find I do not care for it I can swap it out for the NEC or Samsung I was looking at.

mmm, I'm with BoXXi and Fuzzy for sure on this .

*dimondtron true flat crt panels are SWEET!*

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Good to know Paul.  Hopefully business will pick up soon and I can replace my tired old Dell 17'..... 5 years old, and will not let me increase the refresh rate, or go past 1280x1024.
John(IP) and I have been discussing this very thing lately. I haven't heard anything bad about flat screen CRT......





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Tome Hardware
: Displays
Articles In Chronological Overview Displays Chronological Overview
2003 - 2004, 2002, 2001 - 1999
Tom's Low Price Finder

Articles And Reviews Released In 2003 And 2004
http://www4.tomshardware.com/display/index.html

"Sales of LCD flat panels have gone through the roof and their prices go down by the day, but there still remains a point that is not exactly emphasized in the specifications: how many dead pixels does it take before the manufacturers agree to replace a monitor We asked 36 manufacturers this question. The answers came back in dribs and drabs. Looks like there are some things they are not too proud of. "

Gef, something you and others might like to read before investing in any display to better understand the mechanics and such behind them with unbiased testing results....


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I agree 100%!! TFT's are just not as crisp as a good CRT.. I've had my Sony GDM-FW900 for around 2 years now and even though I'm guaranteed a hernia should I need to move it again, I'll still never give it up. The fact that it supports resolutions of 2148X???? @ 70 Hz is another reason I'll never give it up. I currently run 1920X1200 @ 85Hz, let's see a TFT try that!! Most of them can't even do 1600X1200!! Gef, as with anything in life, it is your call but I think you will be most pleased if you go with a good quality monitor.

i have the viewsonic 19 inch flat crt with the antiglare.. its great . prolly the best monitor ive had ..itd be better if not for this lil chip in the screen..

I about died when I found that the really nice Graphics CRT's in the 22 - 20 inch size had dropped to around $450.00 - $900.00 when looking for my second 19. I actually could have picked up a 20 inch Lacie factory referb with the colorblue correction addons (color spectrum analyser attachment, software and such) 4 usb hub, dual dvi jacks and vga db 15 for $300.00 shipped to my house. ANother referb was a 22 inch p220b ViewSonic, they both came with 90 day and you could pay $20.00 to have an extended year warrenty applied to the monitors.

The thing is, with a solid CRT, they will last well past any warrenty if it is fine coming out of the box pretty much.

But my wife demanded I buy new ( blahhh ).... druther the freaking extra inch on the screen

Having used a TFT for a short while, I see that I am not alone in my views that CRT is best.
Anyone want to buy a second-hand TFT??

The main thing about any LCD is that there is a "Native" resolution. Any other resolution is going to look terrible. The native resolution for most 15" LCD's is 1024x768, while the native resolution for most 17" LCD's is 1280x1024.

If the LCD is set to its "native" resolution, it looks pretty good, if set to ANYTHING else, it will look terrible.

I have a 21" Flat Screen CRT and also have a Flat Panel LCD. Both look great IMHO. But again, I have the LCD set to its native resolution. The thing I prefer about the CRT is that I can change the resolution to any of the supported resolutions, and it still looks great.

looking at an LCD for long periods of time causes more eye strain.

I would have to take the opposite view here. CRT's have a refresh rate that can cause eye strain. The tube is refreshed from top to bottom so many times per second. The rate is fast enough that you don't notice it, but it can cause eye strain. With LCD monitors, only the pixels that change are refreshed, not the entire display.

I have a lot less eye strain with my LCD than I do with my CRT.

i'll join the chouras. definitly CRT. the brightness and color is unmatched.. i'm on a sony trinitron (which sadly is blurring out) and there is no equal to the color. better definition. i don't know about the refresh rates but the crt can take a lot more pressure then an lcd. plus, its just so much cheaper.