Thinking for getting a new montior: are CRTs no longer a serious option?
 

I've been toying with the idea of getting a new montior. My current one is 6+ years old, and its probably on its last legs.

Perusing the internet a bit, I get the impression that CRTs are no longer a viable option. Not for technological reasons, but for marketing reasons. Fewer and fewer retailers and manufacturers are offering a decent selection of CRTs.

And at this point, I think I still prefer a CRT. Maybe people here can convince me otherwise, but the two main factors for me are price and the ability to switch resolutions.

The resolution at which I'll play games is going to be significantly different from what I'll want my desktop at. And my experience with LCDs is that I'm able to notice a sinigicant degredation in quality when running at a non-native resolution.

LCD refresh rates are getting better, so that's not so much a factor any more. But still CRTs are generally better in that department.

I don't really care about the footprint/size of the of the monitor, so I'm okay with the bulkiness of CRTs.

So I guess I'm just looking for people to either give some suggestions of retailers and/or manufacturers of decent to high-end CRTs, or convince me that I should just stop my bitching and get an LCD. Thoughts?

NEC, Samsung, and viewsonic are still good brands. how big are you looking?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824002248
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824116229

If you are not worried about the bulkiness, then I would go with a CRT.

I love my CRT. To hell with saving desk space! At work I have a Dell flat screen, and the look of it is so gritty, even when properly set up. The response time is slow and my eyes catch it being slow a lot. If you want to change, spend some time with a flat screen to make sure that's what you want. I'm sure there are some good ones out there... I just like the smooth look and "feel" of crt.

CRT hurts my eyes

If you have the space, CRT's still have the best image for the buck - near twice the buck - but as you noticed, they're falling out of favor with resellers and the product chain. LCD's have much higher profit, take less space, cost less to move around, don't damage as easily during shipment, cost less to ship, less parts stocking, etc. Selling nice CRT's just canibalizes LCD sales. It's common to find stores using multiple splitters or sub-optimal settings on their CRTs and salespeople who use the terrible images to point customers to the LCD's. :) If they mark up the CRTs to become dust-gatherers they actually sell more LCD's. :shrug: Notice the nice pro CRT's sitting in a corner unconnected and the crappy consumer level models with pincushioned ghosted images from hell with a $179 price. "For another $50 you could have this beautiful LCD."

I've found some great deals on awesome pro Viewsonics & NECs on craigslist, but it takes more effort.
Eye of the beholder, but it's likely maladjusted, super-cheap, or just defective. Take the $300 for a fair 19" LCD and you can get a CRT with twice the pixels with a wonderful refresh, and with higher possible brightness. (if you can find them without paying shipping)

um... make sure your not running at 60 herzt, that will hurt your eyes for sure.

well, i switched to lcd instead...mucho better

ok, glad to see i'm not going crazy.

why is there such a dramatic price increase from 19" to 20"/21"? I could see spending between $200 and $300, but going over $400 might be a bit much.

I'm leaning towards that NEC monitor that Dilbert linked. mmm....looks sexy.

I’ve had some experience with returning NEC before for repairs (we own about 1000 NEC monitors at the place I work, some do go bad before the 3 year warranty) and they have great customer service.

i would prefer crt's coz u can get bigger screen, higher refresh rates for half the price
which is very important if ur into gaming

I agree with almost everyone crts are great as long as you dont have to worry about saving desk space. three years ago i bought my MAG innovation 19inch crt and i have still never seen anything that looks as good. sure it weighs 750lbs or so and it takes up alot of space but... its not like i plan on taking it for a walk or anything and it just makes it that much harder to steal if anyone breaks in.

Personaly all but the best lcd screens start to bug my eyes after a while of playing games on them. i would still wait a few more years before moving to a lcd screen or whatever comes out next unless you really need the space on the desk or want to do lan parties and need to move your moniter around alot. or have some strange urge to take your moniter for a walk.

The only reason the bigger sizes cost more really is because thats what people want. just like you wont see people going and looking for a 15 inch moniter anymore 19 is now the standard and most people would rather have a 21. because they know people want a 20 or 21 inch they can charge more for it. im sure it dosnt really cost all that much more for them to make it over the 19 inch but they know performance users will pay the extra amount for the biggest and the best while most ebay shoppers will be perfectly happy with the 19 inch and they dont want to spend anything more then they have to on it.

Because 17-19" are 1280x1024 and 20"+ are at least 1600x1200

CRTs are the best choice for color correction when printing important prints using a program like Qimage. LCDs can give "false" whites since they are naturaly brighter. This is why (my) printed photos look better when I use the desktop w/19" Sony CRT, then when I use my laptop w/15.4 LCD. Same photo file and printer.