17" CRT to 19" CRT is it worth it?

shuki

only 2" but is it worth like $400 (cost in Israel)? I've a new 19" samsung LCD that is absolutely beautiful for surfing and most apps but its been about 3 weeks now and I just can't adjust to the ghosting in MOHAA. Unreal 2 looks stunning but I think its like 35 fps or something. And since MOHAA series is my all time favorite game and the one I play the most of (when I play) I just can't use the LCD

So... I have a 17" flat CRT now that does really well. I'm just thinking about buying a 19" flat CRT to replace it but don't know if an additional 2" really makes that much difference. Though in retrospect, coming up to a 17" from a 15" was a really nice improvement.... anyhow, should I replace the 17" with a new 19"?

or maybe at 2 feet away (less than a meter), 19" is too big!!??!?!

edit - and should I get a 19" if the max resolution on it is 1600x1200 at 68Hz??

shai

do you need that 19 lcd ill take it off your hands for you
and 19 is realy cheap now so the answer is yes

NaumoJR

Yeah, go for it.

I think it's worth it. As I recently did the same thing. I talked about this is one of your other recent threads. Went from 17" Flat Panel Trinitron (sweet ) to a 19" crt. I think it was worth it. I get higher refresh rates, and a bigger picture.

BTW - That 17" was not a LCD, it was a flat panel CRT.

DriveEuro

I told ya not to buy the LCD.... Well. I'd try to find a buyer for the LCD then try to get a CRT 19"

Necrosis

Telling him that isn't going to do much good now, besides he didn't have MOHAA to try on the panel at the time.

Shuki..I'm sure you can find a great deal on a refurbished monitor. I had a link for some 19" black Dell's but I'll have to look for it again. It would be nice for you to get a black CRT to match the panel.

shuki

yeah necro but shipping to Israel would KILL me

and Euro, I am glad I bought the LCD in spite of not being able to play MOHAA on it. Don't get me wrong, it IS playable, just not as nice as CRT.

Shai - Paid $900 in the US for this 19" Samsung monitor... may be a bit pricey for ya

shai

shuki im in your contry so i can buy it but however the max i can pay is 1000 sheks

DriveEuro

Bling bling you. Cash money. Shit, that's mucho deniro.

shuki

yep. mucho deniro alright.... Those $$ came from uncle sam though this year

Shai - thats about $200 US and there's just no way I could sell it for that Maybe 3500 sheks...

in all reality, since I've got a dual monitor r9700 pro, I'll probably run both LCD and CRT at same time

shuki

edit - and should I get a 19" if the max resolution on it is 1600x1200 at 68Hz??

DriveEuro

I would go to 1600x1200 without a doubt. expescially cuz you have the R9700Pro... And that monitor only goes to 68 hz? That would hurt my eyes, i know that. Um, I'd try the sony monitors. They have great dot pitch and great refresh rates. If you want value with all those other features, then try out AOC. They have 19" monitors that are nice.

shuki

I think I can get a samsung 19" here that goes higher but it costs more.... LIke $460 vs. $330. Also have NEC brand and MAG which are cheaper in price (dunno about quality) and of course Sony but it would be big $$$$ just for name alone.... hmmmm.

shai

only prob is theres no market for such high cost screens in israel
no body buys screens like that
btw on a 19 screen run it at a 1280x1024 not 1600x1200 thats too small
and youll need a good 3d card

shuki

got me a 9700 pro (soon to be 9800 pro I think) and desktop will be 1280x1024 but games will probably be 1600x1200

eyeguy616

Well, isn't there a way to set the max frames per second in MOHAA? Unreal 2 looks so good because it doesn't run at 60+ fps, so maybe lowering the fps to 45-50 will help reduce ghosting. I did it with UT2k3 to help out my 17" LCD and it seems to pay off, even online. Although nothing can really beat a CRT in the clearity in games, just hook up a TV to your video card and use it for games if the LCD is bothering you. I used to play Morrowind that way (had the game on a big 27" (normal) TV at 1024x768 while having a walkthrough on the panel ) Any TV will do, though HDTV's and EDTV's with S-Video/DVI are best. My bro has a 30-something inch Sony Wega that has a DVI port on the back! Cost a few grand, but it's so sharp and crisp and .

My point: CRT aren't your only option if you're only really going to use it for gaming. A nice TV does just fine. I recommend this cable to use with a normal TV/VCR. SVideo.com has lots of different cables and converters for the most common video/audio jacks.
~eyeguy616

edit: I have an ATI 9000 Pro, so your card should fair a whole heck of a lot better than mine in this. Hopefully larger size TV's are cheap in Israel... or if you just so happen to have an extra or eight (like I do ) laying around... The worst case, you're out about $20 American (don't know about shipping though) on this, so give it a try.

shuki

OK really off topic here but how would I get the sound from my audigy to L and R RCA jacks too? I already have the s-vid to RCA adapter and a spare 19" color TV in storage hmmmm...

Asuka

Originally posted by shuki
only 2" but is it worth like $400 (cost in Israel)? I've a new 19" samsung LCD that is absolutely beautiful for surfing and most apps but its been about 3 weeks now and I just can't adjust to the ghosting in MOHAA. Unreal 2 looks stunning but I think its like 35 fps or something. And since MOHAA series is my all time favorite game and the one I play the most of (when I play) I just can't use the LCD

So... I have a 17" flat CRT now that does really well. I'm just thinking about buying a 19" flat CRT to replace it but don't know if an additional 2" really makes that much difference. Though in retrospect, coming up to a 17" from a 15" was a really nice improvement.... anyhow, should I replace the 17" with a new 19"?

No. I'd say that's absolutely superfluent, as long as you don't want to run 1600x1200 all the time. Better save your money for something more important.

or maybe at 2 feet away (less than a meter), 19" is too big!!??!?!

Probably. I'm sitting in fromt of my 17" at the same distance (if not even less), and sometimes this already seems big to me. A 19" would look definitely way too big there.

edit - and should I get a 19" if the max resolution on it is 1600x1200 at 68Hz??

HELL NO!!!
Don't buy this piece of crap! 68Hz is *way* to low for 1600x1200! You'll *at least* need 85Hz there. Don't buy any crap that has less than 85Hz at 1600x1200! Also, you should see to it that it has a dot pitch as small as possible - should be 0.25 or even smaller. Don't get any 0.28 or 0.27 crap!

eyeguy616

If you use your audigy for it's surround sound, don't bother hooking up the audio to the TV. You'll be better off making some room on your desk for the TV and have a dual moniter system this way. But, if you, like me, like to record things to video tape using a VCR *cough*moviez*cough* , then hooking up stereo audio is the best you can do. Edit: below has some things to check for.

If you, like me, just use a two speaker stereo configuration, you might have the connection required to hook it up to the TV. I have an oldie (but goodie) dual-cassette cd stereo sitting on my desk to give me a decent sound. When I got my audio card a few years ago (SB Live! Value), it came with a cable to connect the card to my stereo. One end has a small headphone jack (don't know what it's called) and the other end has two male RCA jacks - one red the other white. Even though the card is capable of 4-point surround sound, I never got around to getting the other two speakers, so the stereo sound I have now is good enough. You should have one, if not hopefully you live near an electronics store as nearly every electronics store should carry them. They're quite convenient in some situations. Otherwise you'll have to make one, which really isn't too hard. Ask if you want some cheap@$$ instructions from yours truly .

~eyeguy616
--A big CRT is not necessary for games if you have an equally big TV.

shuki

I think this 19" TV is gonna work out perfectly!! I can now use the 19" LCD for everything but gaming and movies then use the TV for that stuff. BRILLIANT idea eyeguy! I have no idea what I was thinking about the sound anyhow. My sound from pc is hooked up to me z-640's and plays 5.1 perfectly. I also tried out some smaller avi files I had (like 120mb eps of smallville). On the monitor they have to be in this tiny window but look fine full screen on the TV... Man I LOVE this place Gonna give this a go for a few days and probably won't end up spending a dime thanks again eye!

eyeguy616

No problem. TV's are everywhere, so why not use 'em (with VCR's ) The max screen size I got out of my vid card on a TV is 1024x768. Text is damn near unreadable since it's already pretty small on the panel (1280x1024), but movies and tv episodes of stuff look perfect on it, in some cases better than on my panel!
Have fun!
~eyeguy616

The_Neon_Cowboy

dude ... YES !!! it will look huge when you play games .....I am lucky I can pic up 19" flat (used or for about a year by a library) for about $99 to $150... they look like new and are still under mfg warranty

Vampyromaniac

One thing, though.

If you're playing MOHAA on the TV, how far are you going to sit from it? If you sit too close, your eyes will hurt, man
I've never seen the game, so I don't know how far away you can sit, and still see everything you need to.
And be prepared that playing games on the TV will not look as pretty as they do on a monitor (because of the lower resolution and coarser dot pitch )
and I'd think you'd want them to, since you bought a 9700pro

BWX

I think it is a sin to put a PC game on a TV when you could be playing it on a nice high-res monitor at 1600x1200 or even 1280x1024 @85hz.

TV's are big, but LOW RES- Eeewww- I hade to stop playing consoles because of this0 drove me nuts.

I would get the 19" CRT or even a bigger Monitor, just make sure the highest resolution supports at least an 85hz refresh rate.

I am stuck at 1024x768 @85hz now, which is OK w/ 4xAA. My monitor tops out at 1280x1024 @ 60hz, which I tried out for games and it looks sweet, just not high enough refresh rate. My next monitor will be at least a 21" that easily displays 1600x1200 at 85hz- then I won't need another monitor for 5 years.

I would by the biggest (flat crt) monitor with the highest resolution/refresh rate you can afford and you will be the happiest playing your games. I guarantee it.

eyeguy616

Pretty much the use of the TV is one when money and maybe your eyes are the deciding factors. If you had read the entire post, it costs shuki $460 for a 19" CRT. A TV may be worse in pixle depth, but he already has everything needed to hook up a TV to his comp (including TV) AND it'll mostly be used for games and movies. I'd say it's a temp solution at best as not everyone can cough up that kind of money all the time.

big rant/
To me, I can't seem to notice any difference in detail above 1024x768 with 16xAF, 6xSmoothvision, 616xPoS-Vision, etc enabled, so I play most games at 800x600 with most of that stuff turned off (on my ati9000Pro on either 17" LCD or 27" TV... hell, I even have an old 17" CRT and I never saw differences there either!). I guess I'm still used to how games like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom 1/2, and Quake looked in DOS (320x240! The enemy is a pixle far away, but if I shoot the pixle, enemy dies! No lining up shots here.). Plus, are you really looking at the textures when you're playing an online game? Aren't you supposed to try to kill the other guy or capture the other flag or invade the other base? No offense to all you people that like playing at 1600x1200 with all your 16x, 6x, 616x stuff, but doesn't all that just hurt your performance in game? I usually turn everything to low so the game flows better online. Just show me the walls and weapons and I'm fine. I know what the enemy is: either it's everyone else or the other team color. Anyone else like that? I can't be the only one that doesn't seem to care about the online environment I play in that much. The Only games that really want the detail are offline ones like Morrowind or Unreal 2, but I can see everything just fine on the big tube. Makes me think I'm watching a movie sometimes, but then I realise I'm getting shot at! at myself....
/big rant

~eyeguy616
--please don't flame me to death

Vampyromaniac

Yes, I read everything, I just wanted to inform Shuki of the drawbacks, in case he did not think of them yet.

I understand everything in your rant there.
Having a Radeon 7200, I play CS with everything off or low, except the res, so I can get more fps than a movie
But, yes I do notice that the game is not very pretty, even though I'm running and shooting. But hey, it's like 4 years old