CRT Gaming?

[Pitou]

So i hate to be the guy that recommends a video idea, and im sure im not the first to talk about this; but i just learned of this subreddit today. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/GloriousCRTMasterRace/wiki/guide 

Basically what it claims is that crts provide many benefits over new modern day monitors. Basically it would be very interesting to be able to see someone with the actual time, money, and know how to break down these claims. Other people have done it but not with the resources that Linus and group have available to them. 

Has anyone here played with a modern system on a CRT setup and how did it work for you?

[SolarNova]

LTT isnt well known to having great VDU video's (dont get me wrong, the ones they have done are entertaining, but not very in depth), the last thing i would want to see is a new half arsed video regarding CRT's.

 

To do a proper CRT video I would expect them to find a range of CRT's from bottom of the barrel trash tier, to the king FW900. That isn't going to happen. Thats just 1 thing i would expect.

[Princess Luna]

As much as CRTs do have a couple of advantages and sounds like a cool vintage topic this is 2019 and CRTs are dead, it's over, nobody is going to try finding old used ones that weights a ton and occupies an entire desk only for diminishing benefits over current day IPS LED displays.

[Pitou]

1 minute ago, Princess Luna said:

As much as CRTs do have a couple of advantages and sounds like a cool vintage topic this is 2019 and CRTs are dead, it's over, nobody is going to try finding old used ones that weights a ton and occupies an entire desk only for diminishing benefits over current day IPS LED displays.

a lot of people still use them, mostly for retro games like smash melee and speed running older titles, due to display lag when converting. So there's a market for them.

[SolarNova]

6 minutes ago, Princess Luna said:

As much as CRTs do have a couple of advantages and sounds like a cool vintage topic this is 2019 and CRTs are dead, it's over, nobody is going to try finding old used ones that weights a ton and occupies an entire desk only for diminishing benefits over current day IPS LED displays.

Only half true.

 

*CRT;s have a range of significant advantages that will never diminish over LCD's due to their inherent technological flaws.

That said they are very long in the tooth now and finding good ones in good working order is 'near' impossible.

 

*LCD's have always,do now, and likely will continue to suffer from.... terrible black levels, and/or poor pixel response, and/or poor viewing angles, and/or poor uniformity, to name just 4 significant things that CRTs obliterate LCDs at.

[Pitou]

Just now, SolarNova said:

Only half true.

 

*CRT;s have a range of significant advanatges that will never dimish over LCD's due to their inherant technological flaws.

That said they are veyr long in the tooth now and finding good ones in good workign order is 'near' impossible.

 

*LCD's have always,do now, and likely will continue to suffer from.... terrible black levels, and/or poor pixel response, and/or poor viewing angles, and/or poor uniformity, to name just 4 significant things that CRTs obliterate LCDs at.

i mean as long as you find one that isnt completely trashed you can repair them with a little know how. God knows theres enough parts out there, might have to Frankenstein them but it works

[porina]

I still have a 17" Sony Trinitron somewhere with the aim of reproducing retro gaming from... I dunno, 15+ years ago? I've owned it from new. Looking it up, it can do 1024x768 at 76Hz, and 1280x1024 60Hz. I'll need to find an old enough GPU that outputs VGA.

[Kris3456]

Still using CRT monitors as main screens. Have some of them like Sony 24' FW 900 and Dell P1230 21' with Mitsubishi tube or P1130 20' with Trinitron one. Working res are 1920x1200 95 Hz with Sony 24, and 1600x1200 100 Hz with Dell-s.

 

I use fresnel lens exactly like on this photo for gaming (i am not retro gamer). It makes screen visually like 32' with additional real depth effect. Looks like soft 3D. You can of course use it with LCD too.

 

With CRT you don't need ex. vertical sync becouse there is absolutly no tearing like on digital devices. So CRT is still alive and kickin in and with fresnel lens to make it bigger, there are not worse then other technologies. Just bulkier, heavy and taking 120 Watt.

 

Why I am still am using them ? Becouse my eyes can't stand staring into both CCFL and LED lights. With CRT or lamp projection with LCD (ex. Sony rear projection SXRD TV) I can watch 24 hours/day while after using "modern" techs my eyes are in pain, red and feel like sun burned. Even when using them with zero brightness ...

 

 

[Pitou]

19 hours ago, Kris3456 said:

 

 

do you just convert to an older input type or do you have a card with a vga out?

[Kris3456]

1 hour ago, thaginger said:

do you just convert to an older input type or do you have a card with a vga out?

I am using gtx 970 with DVI-I. Converting from digital ports is no so simple, becouse there is only a few ones which works with high refresh rates. In fact there is only the best with more then 500 pixel clock - Sunix DPU 3000 working on displayport (not avaiable from long time in EU/NA), rest  much cheaper but weaker (up to 1920x1200 85 HZ) are on USB-C.  And you will see nothing until full Windows load, when using converter. Some report flicker or other problems too on hi res.

[Kris3456]

4 minutes ago, Mr. horse said:

I agree, Converting to VGA sucks and is a pain even with the best Converters.

But the 9xx line does not have a good VGA output, and once you hit 1600x1200@60 you really start to degrade the image. 

I didn't saw such behaviour on 960 and 970 GTX. At least when using 1600x1200 100 Hz image looks perfect for me. But my 960 started after some time of using it, flickering horizontally only on analog output, when card was loaded more then 30%.

[wolfmcbeard]

I would be interested in seeing an LTT crt video, that said modern flat panels aren't that bad but I'm also using a cheap lcd tv as a monitor.
I still have my crt but I think it has a bad or leaky capacitor since it can't seem to display an image for more than a few minutes.

[Kris3456]

14 minutes ago, Mr. horse said:

Both my 970 and both 980ti's I had got fuzzy at 1600x1200@65. it was not much but once you jump up to 1600x1200@75 or 2048×1536 it was rather fuzzy.

This is looks like on Dell P1230 with Mitsubishi tube with 970 GTX in 1600x1200 100 Hz res. Picture done by phone is not perfect, but in reality I do not see any distortion. Cable used is rather cheap, but good quality and done for CRT, not like those very thin which comes with LCD.

 

[wolfmcbeard]

3 minutes ago, Mr. horse said:

What does it look and do when it losses the image?

It looks fine, I can't remember the res...768 I think, but it works fine for about 2 to five minutes then the picture fades to black.
If I turn it off for a few minutes and turn it back on, it will work for several minutes before going out again.

[wolfmcbeard]

1 minute ago, Mr. horse said:

bad heater cricket? Sounds like the tube is losing power or on its way out.

Man......I liked it too.
I hope it's not the tube, I was hoping that a cap just went bad, I'll have to look into it in the near future.

[wolfmcbeard]

2 minutes ago, Mr. horse said:

If your ok with oping watch the tube. When the screen goes dark dose the tube go dark.

If that is the case then its something in the heater circuit

Your know were to start then with the repairs.

Ok, cool, need to check the heater circuit when I have the time to take a crack at fixing it, I opened it up initially when the issue cropped up but I had nothing to test voltages or replace components at the time, now I do, I just need the time.

[wolfmcbeard]

3 hours ago, Mr. horse said:

If you live closer by Id give you a hand. I fixed a lot of CRT's and wile I'm all self taught, finding anyone that still left that really knows what there doing is rare.

When I get ready to work on it, is it alright if I shoot you a pm?
Any knowledge I have about CRT work is second hand besides a 40ish y/o old Sears portable tv I still haven't been able to get working.