Age :43
Group: Administrator
Location: Portugal
Started playing Quakeworld in 1997. Always been active in the community. With strong opinions about the game and the path it should follow, always fought the conservative qw ideals. Lately has been involved in bringing new players into the game, making their life easier and promoting different game modes and maps.

know more @ http://wiki.quakeworld.nu/Mushi
Hardware  /  13 Oct 2017, 14:00
CRT madness in 2017!
As most of the readers, i'm near my forties. And i've played games all my life. Lately nostalgia knocked in, and while chatting with my mate Matrix on Whatsapp, he told me he was looking for a CRT monitor in local ads.
I understood what he was aiming for.

He finally got one. And I got one too. In 2017.

This is our story
The chase
Browsing the ads on the area, there are some crt monitors. 95% are not good enough. 3% are too expensive. and 2% might be what you're looking for.

I was looking for a 19'' crt monitor, because I owned a 19'' Sony E430 before and that was about right. 17'' screen (16'' viewable) is too small for today's standards, and 21'' are monsters, too big for my desk and back.
About the monitor specs: I've learned that the single most important spec is horizontal frequency. Not vertical. There is a formula that tells you what is the maximum vertical refresh rate on a given resolution. The formula is:
VrHz = ((MaxHrkHz*1000)/HorizLines) * 0.95


So, if I wanted to know what is the theoretical vertical frequency limit of my old Sony E430 at 1024*768 (which has a max horizontal frequency of 96Khz):
((96*1000)/768)* 0.95 = 118hz


pretty neat, huh? from my 30 years using CRTs, I didn't knew that one.
so we've searched dozens of monitors. c|net has the specs for nearly any monitor. Our google searches were
<monitor brand and model> specs

And most of the times the first result was from c|net. To get the most reliable specs, google the monitor's manual instead. c|net is a good start though.

Matrix ended up getting a NEC 95F for 15€, and me a LG F900P for 25€.
Great!
https://i.imgur.com/fwAIrv2.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/pnH0zZi.jpg


The setup
Plug and play. Just use an DVI -> VGA adapter or HDMI -> VGA.
To set the custom resolutions/vertical frequency there's a very nice little program for windows called CRU - Custom Resolution Utility. There you can set all kind of combinations of resolutions and refresh rates. There are many Youtube tutorials explaining how to set it up. And there's some wicked possibilities too - how about running Interlaced 1600*1200 @ 160hz ??

I had some issues though. Since my monitor supports a pretty high 111kHz horizontal frequency, I can get for example 1024*768 @130hz or 1280*960 @100hz. And when using those high-demanding combinations, there was some blur, the image was not focused. Our own Ciscon argued that the VGA cable I used might be causing it. VGA cables (like all cables) have limited bandwidth. And advised me to use my monitors BNC connectors. Not all monitors have BNC. They are only present in high end crt monitors and tvs. BNC cables shield and isolate the signals much better than a normal VGA cable. So I got one BNC (5 connectors) -> VGA cable. And its beautiful.
https://i.imgur.com/k2UBtAbg.jpg


The result
For all Quakes, the result is amazing. The benefits of using a CRT over my LG LCD 120hz are quite visible. It's smoother, there's no input lag, no ghosting... nothing. Just smooth as butter.
For browsing and most other games the LCD is better. But for the Quakes?.. CRT all the way. I can hit some rockets on Quake Champions now.


MOAR PICS!! CLICK HERE

sources
https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/
https://www.reddit.com/r/GloriousCRTMasterRace/
http://www.testufo.com/
http://www.csgnetwork.com/videosignalcalc.html
http://monitorinsider.com/cable_bandwidth.html
Comments
2017-10-16, 06:55
Agreed! Running my games on a Sony G420 with 1152x864@118 Hz, could go to 800x600@168 I think (110 kHz refresh rate)
2017-10-17, 16:48
Hey:] how did u get the cru custum resolution thing?
I bought an eizo crt from eBay since my crts all got killed in the basement from Water broken pipe. And i might get my old comp fired up who knows ;}
2017-10-17, 21:23
Download it here:
https://www.monitortests.com/forum/Thread-Custom-Resolution-Utility-CRU
2017-10-17, 22:31
Thnx :}
2017-10-18, 12:07
Ahhhh good "old" days
I was rocking Iiyama Vision master 454 from 2009 until it died around 2012 or something.
Switching to 120Hz LCD Benq was so painful after playing QW on 640x480@200hz for few years
Good for you guys :>
2017-10-19, 09:57
hey adre cru is linked on the text
er, i think i saw a Iiyama Vision master on a polish olx or something last month.

have fun guys
2017-10-22, 16:50
Damn you mushi! Now i must bring home my old CRT
2017-10-27, 19:41
When my last CRT monitor broke (I think 4-5 years ago), QW died for me. Previously I had also bought it second hand very cheapljust as you did. Unfortunately, I will never get another second hand large monitor approved - the women acceptance factor for those monsters is just terrible.

I've always wondered why it wasn't possible to make QW "smooth" on a standard LCD monitor running on 60hz.

Thanks for your manual, I'm sure it will help someone - it's well worth it!
2017-11-01, 02:21
I would love to see how my new 27" 240hz monitor stacks up against these CRT's inputlag and smoothness wise... all i know is that over my 144hz monitor of the same size (and same 1ms input rating) the difference is huge
2017-11-17, 19:55
I actually have and eizo crt set up now but dirtbox i wonder how ur TFT 240hz compares to a crt with input lag smoothness etc...i tried an 144hz benq long time ago and it was horrible....there is an eizo foris 144hz 0.05input lag and IPS panel i also wonder how good that is but its over 1k that moni
Greeets
2017-12-07, 08:21
I played 756x567x160hz (LG F700P) two days ago..)
if monitor supports 160 or 200hz at 640x480 that usually means you can encrease resolution a little still getting 160hz..

offtop: How do you think.. would switching to win9x decrese lag between ps2 keyboard pressing, and seeing result on the screen due to old and simple interrupt handling?
2017-12-14, 12:10
After ~10yrs of LCD total domination - LCD is still behind CRT in many ways.

Current gfx cards lack analog output. There are analog-digital converters, but i don't know how well they work.
2017-12-16, 11:53
I've gotten so used to 16:9 that 4:3 feels weird

How are CRTs in terms of power consumption?
2017-12-17, 04:25
After using 16:9 for so long, 4:3 feels weird

What's the power consumption like compared to LCD?
2018-01-12, 00:47
power consumption is high...
2018-01-18, 09:20
the one I have here eats 140 W compared to a 1920x1080x144 using 35-40 W iirc.

But at least it will decrease heating costs:>
2018-01-22, 16:57
The power consumption of a 19" or 21" CRT should be around 120W - 140W while 24"-27" TFTs take 20-40 watts depending on their calibration brightness.

Unfortunately I do remember how it felt like playing with a Viewsonic P227fb:

https://www.viewsonic.com/eu/products/archive/P227fb.php

It could easily do any resolution with a height of 768 pixels at 155Hz (like 1360*768 @ 155Hz) so syncing it to 154Hz and 308fps or more was pure bliss. Not a single TFT I have ever owned, not even my current PG279Q at 165Hz comes close to that feeling I had with CRT. The fluidity can almost be reached with lightboost but it's still not quite the same.

Unfortunately everything else CRT has to offer just sucks, like power consumption and image quality and image sharpness and even colors.
2018-06-25, 23:37
bullshit you humans
2018-06-29, 20:00
Found some information about lack of analog output in DVI on modern videocards.
The last card that have no issues on transfer dvi->vga was nvidia 980, and amd 280x. 290 would not work. Not tested it myself, just found info on youtube.

By the way my brother got me IIyama Vision Master Pro 514 in St. Petersberg, Mordor so now i'm eagerly awaiting it to arive with relatives to my homeland of potato.. 142kHz!!!!
2018-07-12, 16:42
wasn't aware of that. but there's a solution apparently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyMZMxJckiw


woooo 142kHz.. lucky boy
2018-07-31, 15:25
just an update on some monitors that are very good (180/200hz vertical refresh rate limit)

180hz: nokia 445PRO, ViewSonic G220fb, G 220f, A95f, GS771; iiyama Vision Master 505, 514, 454; Panasync PL70i Pro
200hz: NEC AccuSync 120, LG 221U, 912U, 795SC

and some other nice ones:
Samsung SyncMaster 900NF, 1100DF 1200df
sony e430 g500 g520, GDM-FW900 ;
LG 915FT
viewsonic P95f+b ; Viewsonic P227fb; PF 790 , ViewSonic PS790
17'->> NEC FE700, samsung 700p Plus; PS775, Diamond Plus 71,



GL finding any of these on classifieds
2018-08-08, 21:55
CRT of wet dreams arrived guys - iiyama vision master pro 514, 142khz, 200hz vertical. Perfect but has small issues at maximum refresh, but playable at max.
200hz isn't 480 that required for flight simulators like quake, but it's perfect. thanks for imformation posted here. Monitor of my dreams.
By sitting infront of it you understand that quake is only quake.. but quake is perfect.
Cannot find high refresh lcd, so cannot compare. VNT in mogilev has one 144hz lcd. Cannot find them in clubs of minsk, so cannot tell the difference between crt 200hz and lcd 240,165,144..
2018-09-03, 09:12
VESA 2.0 videocards works better with iiyama.. and winxpsp2, sempron 2500+ socket a works perfrect with ezquake 1.9.3
2018-09-07, 17:53
Update, guys: iiyama 514 handles 240hz, not 200. jFYI
2019-03-13, 17:23
This is a cheap way to be competitive but now i can afford a gaming lcd and moved on.
It has extremely low input lag, so there are no drawbacks.
2019-08-15, 20:32
Some update about high refresh rates. Found this image http://i.imgur.com/hcQrKZH.jpg.
Guy somehow achived 288hz at 512x384, hope it's not interlaced.
My iiyama 514 handles 240hz flawlessly on old Ti4200, 215hz on GTX 980 with little artifacts visible at 200hz too. Progress is so progress.

Heard rumors from old gamer who repairs electronics about 480hz high quality asus black ips which can do 550hz.
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