I am always seeing things about having large resolutions on CRT monitors. I really can't figure out how this works.
This explains pretty much nothing at the technical level or discusses the resolutions that CRT monitors support and how things like 1080p were achieved back when Doom was being developed, but I remember seeing this a while back on tv and thinking that it was pretty interesting. Worth a watch.
Glad we got away from those, it was a real pain in the ass moving large TVs with most the weight on one side. Was helping a friend take the TV up stairs once and we got about 1/3 the way up the stairs and for some reason we just started laugh and I found myself pinned to the stairs under a huge TV and we just couldn't stop laughing.
Dot pitch is what defines resolution.
That was a very simple CRT (think it was only black and white), but it gets the main points across. RGB CRTs tend to have 3 electron guns.
They didn't mention that the glass is leaded because of the production of x-rays by the interaction between the phosphor and the electrons at the high energy levels.
The glass is leaded to strengthen the tube, not to reduce emissions. X-ray protection is a side effect of the lead. Using a CRT for a month produces as much radiation as eating one banana.
A CRT works by boiling electrons off of wires, sucking them into beams with strong magnets, then smashing them into phosphors on the face of the screen.
The CRT is better than any other display technology because of the overall quality. A CRT can easily handle extremely high resolutions and refresh rates, such as 2560x1920i@120Hz. But resolution and refresh rate is not all there is to a display. CRTs also have virtually infinite contrast (above 150,000:1), true black, perfect color, zero motion blur, the ability to use any resolution without scaling, no matte coat, no backlight bleed, DRM freedom (no HDCP), no processing lag, no input lag, better display connectors, and the ability to use light pens and light guns.
2560x1920i is a scaled resolution (of 2560x1600) on mine along with some others. I blame this on LCD orientated drivers.
This makes me want a CRT monitor
lol
They made that seem a lot simpler than I thought it would be.
No you don't
Why?
Does it hurt your eyes more?
Cons:
Heavy/Very Large
Drinks power / Get really warm
convex screen, It's not flat and not even curved towards you.
Glass is reflective (you may or may not want this) matte does blur things slightly but prevents blur
Typically not as sharp per pixel, but can display many resolutions where LCDs are only sharp at native
Inherent Flicker, not/hardly noticable at their high refresh rates
And slightly more radiation emitted, (still less then what? a banana a day?) basically 0 anyways
Why do you say that?
Your points about the size, sharpness, power consumption are true. The rest: not so much.
- You can get flat CRTs. My 2560x1920i@120Hz CRT is 100% flat.
- Glossy vs matte is personal preference, the fact that CRTs are glossy should not be seen as a definite con. I cannot stand matte coats.
- Using a CRT for an entire month exposes you to a level of radiation equal to eating one banana.
Because weight is what everyone should look for in a display. /sarcasm
CRT's while having a number of benefits (I have one sitting on my floor just to have one available) Have a huge number is flaws. Weight and size is an issue for many, The small profile and low weight nature of LCD's. The vast majority of CRT's are limited by VGA, S video or RCA. Very few received a digital imput like DVI or HDMI.
Then theres this idea that you can run 2560x1920. Seeing as the vast majority of GPU's (I havent found one that does higher) have a max VGA output of 2048x1536 and most CRT's dont have HDMI so outputting higher than that is basically impossible. Now even if you did have a CRT that supports digital input, The highest resolution is dependent on the controller on the CRT. My CRT can only support up to 1280x1024 at 60Hz. Like many other CRT's, Most other CRT's also have a similar limitation excluding wide screen CRT's which tend to be limited to 1080p, 75Hz.
With my CRT, I can not use it for long periods of time because the whine caused by CRT's leads to headaces plus the low frequency for a CRT leaves a flicker which also strains my eyes. Not I run all my monitors overclocked to atleast 75Hz as I have an issue with anything below about 70.
Then theres the claim about colour reproduction and image reproductioon. NJM has already mentioned sharpness but there is also the issue of Moire patterns, distortion is almost impossible to remove entirely. They do produce good blacks but CRT's do not match the brightness of LCD's. CRT's are capable of good colour reproduction though most are poorly calibrated and you would have to find a CRT specificly designed for colour reproduction, calibrated from factory and then the issues of that calibration being off after use for years as the colours begin to fade.
The fact of the matter is, CRT's are outside of a few select cases, a dead technology. They for a time were superior to LCD's outside of size but in todays situation, There is no real reason to get a CRT seeing as LCD panels can do almost everything CRT's can. If you need fast responce, go TN, Colour reproduction? IPS. Colour reproduction? get a calibrated professional panel. Why someone would go for a CRT outside of needing the lowest possible latency possible, I dont know.
I used CRTs right up until 2008 when I eventually switched to a 30" Apple Cinema Display.
Whilst bigger (in terms of screen size and resolution) than a 21" monitor I'd still miss the colour accuracy. Later on swapped to a Dell U3014 was much better but now I've got a NEC PA322UHD I can happily say I no longer miss CRTs.
Saying that, the NEC shares the weight issues coming in at, 20kg / 45lbs. The wasted heat from CRTs was good in Winter and in Summer you could always open a window.
Never go back to using one now though, VGA connections really did hinder the available resolutions and 2048x1536 @ 60Hz was an eye killer! I think I ran mine at 1600x1200 @ 85Hz which seems low by todays standards.
Also CRTs are Analouge. Because of this they technically have infinate resolution/bandwidth. The problem though is that you are limited by the processor on both ends. Video cards these days are all digital, they then have to put the information into an analogue form after it's already be processed. I think it's safe to say that most GPUs these days don't offer high quality DACs anymore because VGA is a fading technology.
The signal also degrades with the cable Length and quality. These are Big limiters. though the ones attached to the CRTs are usually pretty good to compete with this.
CRTs also can suffer from burn in, Not as bad as plasma but they still do.